Microstatistics

Wrestlemania XL Night 2: A cautionary tale against obsessive hate 1) McIntyre's insistence on rubbing the win in Punk's face undid the moment he so desperately craved 2) Roman choosing to hit Seth instead of his active opponent because of a corrosive ten-year long grudge ended up costing him everything. So Cody vs. Gunther in Berlin? Or at WM41?

The actual wrestling so far is miles ahead of last year's main event.

Wrestling logic/continuity is so unique. The guy who lost to Johnny Knoxville is the one to end the two-year title reign of a wrestling juggernaut. The best match on paper was indeed the MOTN but requires a rewatch to really assess the quality since the finishing stretch and surprise title change threw me off. The main event took a while to get going (typical of the Tribal Chief era), but picked up big time after they started attacking Seth's knee. I thought everyone played their part well, particularly the Rock with the heel act. The stereo pedigrees after the off-target spear got me for a second. The final shots echoing the ending of Wrestlemania 39 were neat and set things up nicely for the big finale tomorrow.

Man, the griping about the weather from commentary is getting annoying. Wear more layers. The actual wrestlers who are most affected are dealing with it.

Not the most heated grudge match but the fitting 50:50 nature and melodrama were pretty well done.

The crowd is surprisingly dead, even Dom is getting relatively little heat.

Did a lot of people get worked? Or did they shoot themselves into a work (brother)? They seem to be retconning last Friday so I'm not sure if this was actually the original intention but, nevertheless, the pivot was pretty solid. Cody back in the main event to "finish the story", corporate heel Rock, seeds for a Rock vs. Roman match with an actually compelling character dynamic: Things seem to have fallen into place (by design or not).

I would be really surprised if the dirtsheets don't backtrack on Roman's schedule, like they did last year (initially, it was reported he was not scheduled to work Elimination Chamber and a bunch of other PPVs as well). Hard to imagine Reigns not having a match at the big Perth stadium, leading into Wrestlemania no less. It's not gonna be the Rock (they aren't gonna sacrifice the US market that would result from the Western Australia time difference) but it'll be someone. I hope they don't bump Cody for the Rock at WM, that sounds extremely unappealing. A triple threat (Reigns. Rock vs. Cody) sounds like a solid compromise and seems like a win-win: You get the Rock in for the eyeballs and cash grab and you put the title on Cody as the big payoff. Moreover, it would be in keeping with the main event trend of WM20 and 30.

A few rough thoughts on the return: Yeah, the Rollins reaction was definitely a work. I doubt the WWE talent care, they are PR machines and can easily separate professional from personal. I didn't really comment during the whole AEW debacle, where I thought there was blame on both sides (Punk's nature being incompatible with AEW's "The inmates run the asylum" approach). Of course the WWE stans on r/scjerk have done a complete 180 on Punk in anticipation of this return (after trashing him for two years before the termination) and lay the blame solely on TK for the fallout. I'm guessing Punk will be on a much tighter leash in WWE and will probably fare better under a more structured and regimented administration. The hypocrisy of the return is hard to ignore, especially after the wellness and Saudi Arabia comments, but the temptation to spite (plus the financial incentive) was probably too great. I thought he looked really good in-ring wise during his AEW run so am interested in seeing how he pushes on in a more controlled environment. Finally, I sort of admire the "no permanent exiles or enmities" sentiment of WWE. If they can bring back Bret and hire Bischoff, this one is rather tame.

The best ace in WWE history (not counting Austin whose tenure was too short). The Shield is one of the great modern factions and so he already had an enviable tag match/trios resume early into his career. Late 2014-Early 2018 was his athletic peak as a singles wrestler and he was a Top 10 worker in the world in that period in spite of the noxious crowd engagement. Perhaps the Tribal Chief era matches have been less than the sum of their parts due to the dawdling starts and monotonous interference-laden finishes but I appreciate the overarching storytelling elements. The quality of his offense and in-ring attention to detail put him miles ahead of someone like Cena. He possesses generational charisma as well and you can understand why he was the chosen one from pretty much Day 1, even if the process of consolidating that was an ugly and sometimes misguided one. Still, taken cumulatively, he is Top 50 contender.

Potentially the best "joshi for people who don't like joshi" wrestler, alongside maybe Kana/Asuka. A wonderful technician, on par with the BattlARTs guys, as well as a selfless seller. She is also one of the ultimate peak candidates, with the bulk of her case residing in the 1998-2001 period, even if there was good stuff in 2003-2004 as well. Her 1999 is stuff of folklore even if it falls short of a GOAT-level year for me. The Yagi 2/18/1999 match is her magnum opus but nothing else really reached that level, making a bottom half inclusion much more likely than a top half one.

Omega is a tricky one. I agree with the predictions above regarding the polarized placements. He seems to embody many of the faults of modern pro wrestling, particularly the flagrant emphasis on generating "bangers", further unconcealed by his "best bout machine" moniker. Having said that, I would counter by saying his fundamentals are far stronger than a lot of his peers, on both the offense and selling fronts. That, alongside his admirably ambitious match layouts, makes him more likely to actually meet that objective. The three matches below are amongst the best of the past 10 years. vs. Tetsuya Naito (NJPW, 8/13/2016) vs. Kazuchika Okada (NJPW, 8/12/2017) vs. Will Ospreay (NJPW, 1/4/2023) The facial expressions don't bother me and are no different than those of William Regal and Devil Masami. My issue lies in the wild inconsistency. No wrestler nails every big match but the drop-off for when he misses the mark is remarkable, even if it's not exclusively his fault. The Tanahashi 1/2019, Ishii 8/2018, and Takeshita 8/2023 matches, for instance, are genuinely poor to mediocre. His best output is probably enough to secure a Top 50 spot, with a shot at the Top 25, but the hit-or-miss nature of his work likely keeps him below the top tier of past greats.

WALTER/Gunther seems like one of the major contenders from the grouping of wrestlers who debuted this century. He sticks out since he didn't follow the conventional major US promotion/Japan route during the initial phase of his career but instead wrestled across comparatively smaller promotions in Germany, England, and the US . This indie run could suffer from a slight lack of focus, with matches often being less than sum of their parts. On the other hand, while his ceiling might have been near ***3/4 (though the Thatcher 1/28/2018 match broke through), he rarely delivered a sub-par match and that too against a wide assortment of opponents. I feel he matured once he joined WWE/NXT and has started to hit higher highs more consistently, without sacrificing his basal level. For instance, the McIntyre match from Summerslam this month was the most generic Gunther match possible and was still quite serviceable. The shift to Smackdown/Raw also demonstrated his ability to construct effective television matches against essentially anyone. I am also a big fan of his character's philosophy: A no-nonsense approach to pro wrestling where it is like a respectable sport built around winning and defending championships, ensured by brutalization of opponents. It's a breath of fresh air, particularly in the contemporary era where wrestler priorities can be blatantly telegraphed (i.e., garner "critical acclaim"). His commanding aura is also something no one aside from Brock Lesnar can match. He does have signature stuff he incorporates into virtually every match but so did Santo & Misawa & Flair to some extent. Furthermore, most of the offense looks good so you can't knock him too much for it. So you have a great big-match wrestler AND a great TV worker, a very high floor, high-end output (particularly in the last 5-6 years), strong fundamentals, an atypical career trajectory and a refreshing outlook and style. Top 25 is ambitious but doesn't seem too outlandish.

He carries himself well and has become quite the star but the fact that he wasn't even nominated till very recently is telling. His actual in-ring work isn't something to write home about.

An undeniable legend. RIP.