The Thread Killer

Having to watch Jon Moxley is like measuring the age of a dog. They say one year for a human is like seven “dog years.” Seeing Jon Moxley promos and matches are similar. Moxley might have returned a year ago, but it feels like it’s been seven years. So in order to balance this out, he should take a seven year hiatus.

I can’t believe they are booking The Hardys vs The Dudleys in 2025. Matt Hardy can barely walk, and D-Von hasn’t wrestled in years, because he had a stroke, ffs. Apparently D-Von has been doing DDP Yoga, lost almost 100 lbs, and is doing much better…but still. Does anybody honestly want to see these two teams face off at this point?

I was thinking the same thing when I looked at the card last night. On paper, that looks like a show worth seeing. But I also have faith in TNA’s ability to screw that up somehow. I think one of the main problems with the NXT/TNA relationship (aside from the obvious fact that it is not an equal partnership and is clearly designed to be to WWE’s advantage) is the shitty creative that has come along with it. Let’s face it. Hunter “Delirious” Johnson is a terrible booker, and despite the fact that he may very well have been one of the all-time greats as a performer, NXT creative has sucked since Shawn Michaels took over. He might be a decent coach, but NXT has done nothing since Michaels has been in charge that would lead me to believe he is capable of booking a compelling product. Doing an interpromotional storyline would be hard enough with a good creative in place, but with Johnson and Michaels, combined with TKO’s mission statement of screwing over every company they work with…yikes.

On top of everything else, it probably doesn’t help them that the Bash card was not one little bit compelling. When you are advertising a TNA contract signing on your PLE, can you really be surprised when people opted to watch the competition instead? I’ve heard good things about the Page vs. Saints Falls-Count-Anywhere match and I have been meaning to check it out. At the time, I opted to watch All In live as it happened, a decision I have mixed feelings about. The NXT show might not have been as good but it also wasn’t 6 hours, plus pre-show. The whole stupid concept of “running against” the competition really needs to go away now. It’s not 1988 anymore. Thanks to streaming, you can easily watch one show live, and then go back and watch the competing show whenever you want. You’re really not missing anything. The whole thing just comes across as being extremely petty and dumb on the part of WWE. And then Tony Khan apparently admitted that one of the reasons they ran so long with the AEW PPV was to cut into Saturday Night’s Main Event. TKO needs to accept that AEW is a thing, and isn’t going away. And although I don’t generally prefer their style of professional wrestling, there’s no way anybody with a brain can say that the industry isn’t better off because of AEW’s existence.

Evolution wasn’t a bad show, but the end to that Main Event was ridiculous. Sky and Ripley pretty much killed themselves, putting on an excellent Main Event, only to have it pretty spoiled by Naomi’s involvement.

I had assumed she was either injured or in the doghouse after she disappeared following Money in the Bank weekend. She worked both major shows that weekend, and then pretty much dropped off the face of the earth. I guess she must be in the good books still if she won that Battle Royal and is getting the shot at Clash in Paris.

I am about half-an-hour behind, but based on the fan reaction Charlotte is getting, a lot of these fans must have read that article she wrote this past week for the Players Tribune.

Yeah, WWE feeling the need to compulsively counter-program AEW is just plain stupid. All they are really accomplishing is pissing off the hardcore fans, and contributing to the stupid tribalism by the online neckbeards.

Becky Lynch clearly raided Seth’s wardrobe for that ring robe.

I’d say. How many other Pro Wrestling “legends” would be okay with getting choked out, flat on their back, in their final match ever? Especially when their whole gimmick their entire career was practically never losing?

Goldberg sold more during that match than he did the rest of his career combined. And full credit to him for going out on his back. I honestly didn’t think he would do that. To be honest, that was about the best you could expect from that match, considering the circumstances.

I can’t believe the Main Event is starting now, when there’s almost 20 minutes left in the show.

Yeah I was going to say the same thing. If that wasn’t a shoot injury, it was just plain weird.

But then we might have missed out on that song from JoJo Offerman and I enjoyed that almost as much as I enjoyed the performance by Jelly Roll on Smackdown last night.

Apparently they got quite the late rush for tickets and are up around 27,000 which is great for AEW. And the place looks great, but you’re right…either they didn’t do a great job getting mics placed in the crowd, or they’re kind of lukewarm.

So apparently, this past week's episode of RAW was the lowest rated of the "Netflix Era." Call me crazy, but as somebody who watches the show every week, I can't help but notice the direct correlation between the fact that the episodes which heavily feature Seth Rollins (especially Seth Rollins promos and segments) tend to be less exciting to watch, and inevitably they are much more poorly received. RAW had been on a bit of a roll, the last couple of episodes prior to this week were actually really good TV. And then? More Rollins, less good. I think a good rule of thumb is that if you are forced to listen to that stupid Seth Rollins theme and the fans singing along with it more than once an episode, you're in for a bad show. It doesn't help that Rollins is starting to get a bit of a Triple H vibe going. The guys who are just underneath to him in the pecking order are basically being fed to him, and it kind of sucks. He beat Penta in the Main Event of RAW this past week, and I really don't see LA Knight beating him on Saturday. Both guys are very popular with the fans, but we all know what the result is going to be when they get fed to Rollins. You can dress this dude up however you want, and put him with Heyman, and the hotter young talent as his henchmen, but I still don't think it makes Seth Rollins work.

I guess as with most things, it comes down to a matter of personal preference. Some people like multi-person matches, and that's certainly their prerogative. Personally, as a Pro Wrestling fan...I don't like multi-person matches, and in some cases, I have come to hate them. I probably wouldn't feel this way if not for the fact that I think they are terribly overdone. You can basically go back to the mid-nineties when the Triple Threat/"Three Way Dance" was first popularized and chart from then until now, and the number of multi-person matches in every promotion, year to year, just starts increasing at a ridiculous rate. When they happened once in a while, these kinds of matches were a novelty, but now you'd be hard pressed to find a Pro Wrestling TV show or PPV that doesn't feature multi-person matches. It's too much, in my opinion. My main argument with them is twofold. Firstly, quite honestly I think multi-person matches quite frequently indicate a lack of imaginative booking. Like it basically boils down to: "We've got a bunch of people with nothing to do on this show, so I'll throw them into this big clusterfuck match." It's great that these kind of matches ensure that everybody on the card gets some sort of match and a payday and nobody gets left out...but just like modern "hardcore" matches, these matches tend to be very "samey" and forgettable. My second and biggest complaint with multi-person matches is that they inevitably end up turning into a stunt show and any form of Pro Wrestling psychology ends up going out the window. If I never ever saw another match where a big crowd of competitors ended up standing around outside the ring, waiting for somebody to crisscross the ring and jump over the top rope so they could be caught, I could die a happy man. I freely admit, I am much more of an old school traditional Pro Wrestling fan. I much prefer a slower, more deliberate pace that gives the match time to breathe. Traditional selling usually goes out the window during these matches because everybody has to "get their shit in." I find the aspect of Pro Wrestling which has suffered the most because of multi-person matches is traditional Tag Team wrestling, so-called "Southern Style." I hate multi-team matches. As soon as you introduce a third team, you can pretty much forget about the traditional "face in peril/hot tag" aspect of the tag match, because it just becomes another example of everybody running around, trying to get their moves in. Of course, multi-person matches sometimes try and portray some semblance of psychology, but that inevitably leads to the same thing, every damn time. One of the odd numbered participants or teams ends up taking a maneuver or bump that in a normal match would be just a simple spot...but because it's a multi-person match, they basically need to get out of the way...so the competitor takes the bump, rolls out of the ring, and disappears from sight for five minutes, so the match can return to a traditional structure for a while. And none of that is even getting into the political aspect of those matches, like @sek69 mentioned...when you pretty much know going into the match who is going to take the fall. Having said all that, I'm not saying that all multi-person matches are inherently bad, or anything like that. Hell, Drew McIntyre vs. Sheamus vs. Gunther at Wrestlemania 39 is one of the best matches in Wrestlemania history, in my opinion. Similarly, the Rhea vs. Iyo vs. Bianca match from this past year was probably the best match from this year's Wrestlemania...either night. And I get that in places like Mexico, Trios matches are just as traditional and important as singles matches, if not more so. I'm not saying multi-person matches don't have their place, I just think they are grossly overdone and have had an overall detrimental effect on booking patterns and Pro Wrestling psychology in general. But time marches on, I guess. There's probably no putting that genie back in the bottle at this point.

Damn that was a really good episode of Raw. Lot of great stuff in there.

I have a question...has anybody here heard anything about the contract status of the following talents? - Private Party - The Gunns - The Kingdom (Mike Bennett & Matt Taven) - Keith Lee - Jack Perry - RUSH - Britt Baker If online chatter is to be believed, all of those talents are 100% healthy and ready to work, but for reasons only known to Tony Khan, they are being kept off TV. If they are coming up on their contract renewal dates and are refusing to sign new deals, then I totally get it. Why give free publicity to somebody who will be going to work for your competition? In the case of Keith Lee, I even get it because the guy apparently can't walk from Point A to Point B without seriously injuring himself. Plus he's 40 years old and weighs around 400 pounds, so I would totally understand if Khan has buyer's remorse and is just going to let him run out his contract at home. There are also the rumors about Jack Perry being a massive jackass and a huge pain to deal with, so if he's just being kept off TV because he's hard to work with, I get that. Same with Britt Baker. RUSH too. Although in their cases, why not just release them then? I find it most difficult to understand when it comes to The Kingdom, Private Party and The Gunns. All are outstanding Tag Teams. If you don't have anything for them on Dynamite or Collision, why not stick them in ROH or give them something to do? It just doesn't make any sense to me. Lord knows the AEW Tag Team division could use some shaking up.

This was a good question and a good idea for a thread, and I agree with a lot of the points made here already. From my perspective, I really don't think Pro Wrestling is in a "boom" period again, and I honestly don't think it ever will be. Both major companies have perfected the ability to maximize their revenue, but like others have mentioned, I don't think Pro Wrestling is anywhere near as popular as it was during the Hulkamania or Attitude Era. Both companies have managed to turn huge profits because they have taken advantage of the decline of traditional television and the fact that there are so many different ways to consume entertainment now. The TV networks and streaming services are desperate for cheap content that will provide a guaranteed audience on a consistent basis. So of course, WWE and AEW used that to their advantage and leveraged themselves into TV and streaming deals which if we are being honest, they're probably being overpaid for. For now. Personally, I think this bubble is going to burst eventually, but for now both companies are cashing in. Between the NBC/Universal deal, managing to get their developmental territory a paying TV deal (even if it’s The CW) the massive Netflix deal, Saudi Arabia, ridiculous amounts of advertising, merchandising, and jacking up live event ticket prices, WWE have definitely managed to make themselves pretty much financially bulletproof. They have monetized pretty much everything they can. But I don't think they have delivered the kind of numbers Netflix was hoping they were going to, and I'm betting once the Netflix deal is over TKO is not going to get anywhere near that kind of money again...but that's just my opinion. It's interesting to note that the UFC's rights deal is coming up, and if you believe what is being reported, they are having a very hard time finding the kind of deal they want or were hoping for. Apparently they were hoping to move their entire deal over to Netflix, lock, stock and barrel, just like WWE has internationally, but Netflix has no interest in that, partially because they aren't thrilled with how the WWE deal is working out for them, considering how much it cost them. UFC still uses traditional PPV (at insanely exorbitant prices) for their big marquee shows, and then has a TV deal with ESPN/ABC for their TV shows. Their library is housed on their own service "UFC Fight Pass" which is a total waste of time because you can't see the big shows on that service live, so what's the point? Dana White has already said that he thinks they are going to have to "splinter" their rights among various providers when they get a new deal...like they stay on PPV, plus sign separate deals for their TV shows and keep their library on Fight Pass. I would not be terribly surprised if that is what ends up happening with WWE as well once their deal with Netflix is up. The problem is, UFC and WWE are now conjoined, so if UFC gets a crappy deal, that effects WWE's bottom line. As far as creatively, that's a whole other story. I had quit watching WWE years ago for two reasons. Partially because I hated Vince McMahon and didn't want any of my money going into his pocket, but mostly because the product was total shit. I tried on several occasions to sit through all 3 hours of RAW, and I just couldn't do it. It was SO BORING. Their TV was awful, for a very long time. They would have the same guys fighting every week, there were never any stakes, the matches weren't good, and the presentation was bland and generic. I remember my personal breaking point was that PPV where Seth Rollins fought The Fiend in the Hell in the Cell. The entire arena was lit with this stupid red light, making it so you could barely see anything, and if I remember correctly, a giant clown hammer came into play during the match. That was enough for me to finally throw in the towel. And that was pretty much down to Vince McMahon. Lets leave aside the fact that he was a creepy sex pervert, because the horrific details about that weren't publicly known at the time, or at least the worst details weren't yet public. But there were so many stories from people who had worked there, about how Vince McMahon ruled creative with an iron fist, how he would tear up shows at the last minute, how he would write horrible promos for wrestlers, or change them at the last minute. I stopped watching WWE because it sucked. It was beyond boring and stale. My main issues were that Vince had clearly changed his creative philosophy over the years, in a number of key areas: - He fully embraced the whole "the WWE brand is the star, not the individual talents" philosophy. - He totally lost the ability to create and book believable babyface characters. - Worst of all, he developed that ridiculously stubborn and myopic attitude of "the fans don't tell me what they like, I tell them what they like." He was bad enough with Cena, but he really went into overdrive with trying to turn Roman Reigns into a generic white meat babyface. Vince McMahon stopped listening to the crowd for some bizarre reason I will never understand. One of the most egregious examples of that I can think of was "Rusev Day." It got over, hugely. But Vince didn't think it up, so aside from printing up some TV shirts, McMahon practically buried Rusev for the unpardonable crime of becoming popular on his own. When Vince got run out of town the first time, I didn't immediately go running back, because I knew it would probably take a few months to get the Vince stink off the creative, and plus his lackeys were still there, like Kevin Dunn. I decided to wait 3 months, and then check it out, but then Vince came back. I remember shortly after his return, he apparently rewrote the RAW after Wrestlemania 39 at the last minute. I tried to watch that show, and as expected it was terrible, just boring and repetitive. So I stayed away. When they finally got rid of Vince the last time in January 2024, I did the same thing...I decided to wait for a couple months, and then I checked WWE out again. For me, I would say from around the time of the Royal Rumble 2024 onward, the creative direction in WWE definitely started to improve. There were some signs of improvement from 2022 onwards, but once McMahon came back you could tell he was still sticking his fingers in there, even though he supposedly wasn't directly involved in creative. I know there are some hardcore WWE fans on Twitter and Reddit and whatnot, who apparently like to praise Triple H as some sort of booking genius and the savior of WWE. I am not one of those people. Firstly, it's not like Triple H writes everything himself...he has a huge creative staff, I would seriously doubt he's directly involved in creating anything, he just oversees it. Secondly, just because WWE creative has improved significantly since Vince got forced out, I don't think it's perfect by any stretch. I think what Triple H has done, is create a more relaxed atmosphere backstage and allowed the talent to develop naturally. I do believe the talent are also being given more input into their own creative. I believe this simply because I have heard a large number of WWE talent say it. Countless wrestlers have basically admitted that Vince McMahon thrived on tension and paranoia and he actually liked having an uncomfortable atmosphere backstage. I don't believe Triple H does that. What I can say, is that the product has changed in a variety of ways. Firstly, in my opinion the long overdue removal of Kevin Dunn definitely brought a change to the look of WWE TV and major events. Secondly, WWE actually appears to be listening to fans now. Guys like LA Knight and Jacob Fatu get big reactions, so they get pushed. Remember how before he left, Vince had decided Austin Theory...sorry, I mean "Theory" (you can't have more than one Austin) was the next big thing and was ramming him down everybody's throat, going so far as to appear on TV with him a bunch of times? I am a lot more confident now that if I like a particular wrestler and he gets popular, he's not going to get buried for no reason. WWE also seems to be embracing long term storytelling (sometimes too much) and lengthy title reigns. The championships actually feel like they mean something now. There is still a lot about WWE I don't like. I hate the way they book the Tag Team division, on both shows. Quite honestly, I hate most of the fans, who just want to chant and sing along, and don't seem to care what is going on in the ring, unless it involves a table. I hate the fact that WWE doesn't run house shows anymore, because it doesn't give the less experienced talent a chance to improve. You shouldn't be getting your reps in on live TV. Obviously, the incessant advertising is annoying. I talked about this in the Night of Champions thread, but it bears repeating. In order to enjoy the WWE product, you generally have to divorce yourself from your opinion of TKO as a company. Vince McMahon is gone, and I don't necessarily think most of the stuff that was going on while he was in charge is still going on. That doesn't mean that there aren't people in WWE who did know what Vince was doing, but at this point, that's neither here nor there. Also, TKO clearly has their own separate brand of scuzzy behavior that they engage in, that has nothing to do with what Vince was doing, but is no way to run a business. Maybe I'm just used to TKO and their particular cutthroat brand of corporate behavior because I am just as big of a UFC fan as I am WWE. Actually I probably prefer UFC, when it comes down to it. And at the end of the day, as a UFC fan I had to make the decision...am I going to stop watching UFC just because I think TKO are a bunch of jerks? And the answer was no...I'm not. I'm not saying the day won't come where TKO does something so unethical that I don't stop supporting the company and watching the product, but that day has not come. Yet. And that's the thing, in a lot of cases it comes down to what it means to "support" a company. For international fans like myself, the only way I can watch WWE in on Netflix. All three of their weekly TV shows are on Netflix. Their major Premium Live Events are on Netflix. Their PLE archive is on Netflix. I was already paying for Netflix before WWE showed up there, and I imagine I will continue to pay for Netflix when/if WWE is no longer available on Netflix. So it's not like I am going out of my way to financially support WWE. I would never purchase WWE merchandise and you wouldn't catch me dead at a WWE live event. So at worst, I'm just wasting my time watching WWE, and it's my time to waste...so who cares? I actually do have a couple of old friends, who I've known since childhood, who used to be WWE fans during the Hulkamania era but drifted away. One of them stopped watching because he hated the Attitude Era. The other one tapped out during the "Ruthless Aggression/Cena" era. Both of them have started watching again, since WWE has come to Netflix. They are the guys I usually hang out with and watch the PLE's with. It's kind of interesting, because I am watching them rediscover Pro Wrestling again through their eyes. They were both extremely impressed with how Women's wrestling has evolved since they watched. WWE talent are definitely a lot more athletic than they were back during the Hulkamania era, that's for sure. In some ways, WWE is still what is always was (when it was being presented well), goofy fun. Stupid stories which result in fake fights. Once you have divorced yourself from caring about how TKO does business, it comes down to a pretty simple question. You either enjoy the kind of Pro Wrestling that WWE is presenting right now, or you don't. I certainly prefer what they are doing now over the Attitude Era, and this stuff is miles better than the crap that came afterwards, during the continued mental and moral decline of Vince McMahon. I can easily sit down and watch RAW or Smackdown now, and not be bored to death. Generally speaking, the major events have delivered. Bottom line is, I think since Vince left, the product has definitely improved. I don't think Triple H deserves to be lionized for that, nor is that an endorsement of TKO and how they do business. I just think the product is more enjoyable. I haven't missed an episode of RAW or Smackdown, or a PLE since the Netflix debut, and I have been generally entertained. That's pretty much all I can ask.

Agreed. Two things I have learned about Polynesian culture from the "New Bloodline." Firstly, if you are from any Polynesian island, that automatically means you're related. Secondly, if you are a Polynesian person, your wardrobe must include black sweat pants and a black hoodie, which you must put on before you sneak up on somebody...because apparently pretty much everybody does that.

Good question. I really don't know if Jade Cargill is getting worse, or if we are finally being exposed to the "real" Jade Cargill. My theory is that she had trainers/agents/producers in AEW like Billy Gunn, Dean Malenko, Jerry Lynn and especially Dustin Rhodes (who apparently does a lot of work with the Women's division in AEW) giving her actual good advice and pointers, regarding how to play to her strengths and hide her weaknesses. But I can't remember seeing a match she was involved in during her time in AEW that was more than just power moves. Then she jumps to WWE, where we know they pretty much expect you to work their style, not your own...and they put a lot more restrictions on you regarding what kind of high impact moves you can and can't do. I won't even get into the debate regarding which way of producing the talent is better, but suffice it to say, I don't think the jump to WWE and being shoe-horned into WWE style did Jade Cargill any favors at all. There is an argument to be made that letting her basically be a female version of Goldberg was the best scenario for her as a talent, however in my opinion there is an equally valid argument to be made that WWE had every right to expect more out of Jade than quick, power squash matches, especially if they are paying her a bunch of money and are giving her a big push. It was logical of them to expect her to improve at some point, but like you said...not only has she not improved, she actually seems to be getting worse! Her whole WWE run has been kind of bizarre and a bit surreal. They make a big brouhaha about signing her, but then they obviously ran her through some drills and figured out she wasn't as good as they were hoping she was...so they delay debuting her for ages. I assume they put her through some sort of emergency training boot camp at the WWE PC, but basically when she finally does debut, they hide her in that team with Bianca Belair. They finally end that deal, and give her a big match at Wrestlemania which was...yeah. I have a ton of respect for Roxanne Perez, so when I saw that gawd awful match Jade Cargill had with Perez in the Queen of the Ring Semifinals, I was almost amazed at how bad Cargill looked. And poor Asuka did her best, but...damn. If you can't have good matches with Perez and Asuka, then I don't care how impressive your ab muscles are or how ripped you are. Add to all that the rumors and rumblings about her having a bad attitude backstage, like the argument with Shayna Bazler you alluded to...it all adds up to bad news. Cargill is now in the spotlight on her own, and blaming botches or bad matches on her opponents is only going to get her so far. It's one thing to be boring or not get good reactions from the fans. But with Cargill, she just looks totally lost in there...uncoordinated and frequently out of position. You have to wonder how long they are going to allow that kind of stuff to happen. But based on the results on Saturday, it seems they are full steam ahead with her push. Maybe they are taking the "sink or swim" attitude with her. But if I was Jade Cargill, I'd be worried. TKO is the least sentimental company I know...if they decide that she can't deliver a decent return on the time and money they have invested in her, we all know they won't hesitate to show her the door.

Firstly, @Dav'oh I hope your toothache gets better soon, brother. I hate nagging pain. I'd rather deal with severe pain that will at least go away at some point, rather than a dull, continuous, incessant pain that just won't go away...especially if it keeps you awake at night. I was recently diagnosed with a really weird condition called "CPPD" which is basically a form of rheumatoid arthritis, but it mimics the symptoms of gout (but it isn't gout.) It's caused by this heart condition that I have been dealing with...basically my heart isn't working well enough to circulate blood throughout my extremities. The upshot is that I can pretty much ignore the discomfort during the day...but at night when I lie down and try to sleep, my knees and especially ankles and feet start throbbing with a dull, continuous pain. It's not agonizing, but it's just enough to keep me awake and it NEVER STOPS. It's extremely uncomfortable and I definitely am very empathetic towards anybody who is dealing with any medical condition that won't stop hurting and is preventing you from sleeping. It's not my teeth that are hurting, but I still feel your pain. I hope you can get the problem fixed soon. Secondly, those of you like @El-P and @C.S. who have been dealing with severe heat recently also have my heartfelt sympathy, as well. People always think that it's cold here in Canada, but believe you me, it has been hotter than hell here recently. Last week, we had 4-5 days where (once you factored in the severe humidity) it was actually well over 40 degrees Celsius/100 degrees Fahrenheit. It was insane. It was so hot and humid you could barely breathe when you went outside, and it felt like it was never going to end. Thank goodness I live in an air conditioned basement apartment. I hope you guys can find a way to remain cool. As far as those of you arguing the Metric/Imperial system...I am old enough that I was actually taught both in school. But all I have to say, is that the Metric system is the tool of the devil, my car gets 40 rods to the hogshead, and that's the way I likes it. (Simpsons joke.) Anyhow...I ended up watching Night of Champions with a couple of friends yesterday. I didn't care for it, for a variety of reasons. I have actually enjoyed the WWE product more than pretty much everybody around here lately, but crap is crap...and there was a lot of crap on this show. I'm going to say up front...I just don't care about the whole Saudi Arabia thing, and I couldn't really care less about the political opinions of any of the people in TKO/WWE, whether they be executives or the "talent" themselves. Feel free to think that my apathy makes me a bad person. It is what it is. Those of you who know me, know that I worked for most of my career in Social Services. From the start of my career, I cared a lot, about a lot of things. I went to protests. I marched. I gave money to causes. I voted for the most left of the left wing politicians of the day. But 20+ years of working in Social Services slowly but surely drained me of pretty much all of my activism. Having to deal with the government and government agencies, corruption and outright incompetence on a daily basis did an excellent job of turning me from a weepy lefty into a bitter, jaded Libertarian. I own that. I totally get that people love to get all outraged about politics nowadays, and talk about fascism, and everybody is Hitler, and the fall of democracy, and World War III (the war, not the WCW PPV) is going to happen next week, and we're all going to die, etc. I just don't have the energy for that kind of outrage in me anymore. I have to be honest, whenever I see somebody raging about that kind of stuff, I'm always mildly surprised. Like: "Wow, that person cares a LOT." I used to care a lot. But sadly...now? Not so much. At this point, I am pretty much of the opinion that all celebrities are morons, for the most part. I really don't care what they think about anything, and I don't need them telling me what they think, or trying to tell me what I should think. And of all celebrities, professional athletes generally seem to be dumber than even actors and musicians. And lets be honest...the majority of them just want money and fame, probably in that order. I wasn't one little bit surprised that CM Punk went to Saudi Arabia. It's an established fact that WWE talent makes more money for going to Saudi on top of their guaranteed contracts. I remember LA Knight saying in a recent interview that he made more money for his match with Roman Reigns at Crown Jewel a couple years ago, than he ever had for any other match in his entire career. Shawn Michaels similarly said that when the Saudis coaxed him out of retirement for that truly awful match with he and Triple H against Kane and The Undertaker, they basically offered him more money for that one match than he had made in an entire year. So yeah...news flash, Pro Wrestlers are greedy, and have no scruples, and will do anything for money. I guess that's disappointing, but it's hardly surprising. I am of the firm belief that you only consumed entertainment that was created by morally pure people, you'd probably have a whole lot of spare time on your hands with nothing to do. I understand why some people might feel passionate hatred about WWE running shows in Saudi Arabia, but I'm personally just past all that. I still have causes I get quite riled up about, but they tend to be things that hit closer to home, or that I can actually do something about. I guess I used up most of my rage in the late 80's/early 90's. So with that caveat, here's what I thought of Night of Champions 2025: -> I wasn't expecting a whole lot from Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton and that's pretty much what I got. I get that Orton is older and has physical limitations now (and if we're being honest, he wasn't exactly a mat technician to begin with) but I was kind of hoping Cody would be able to drag something approaching a good match out of him. Orton seemed game enough, and he seems engaged during this latest run...but this match just seemed plodding and unexciting to me. It struck me that in a weird way, this match kind of reminded me of the Main Event from Wrestlemania this year. Cody was dealing with another physically limited veteran in that match as well, and the match was similarly underwhelming. I'm not saying Cody isn't good, because he is...but I am saying I am not sure he has the ability to work around a limited opponent. Hell, if we're doing the whole comparison thing, I enjoyed the Backlash match between Orton and Cena more than I enjoyed this, and that certainly shouldn't be the case. Also, I thought it was a creative misstep to have both Cody and Orton announcing before this match even happened that if they won, they would be challenging Cena (or Punk) at Summerslam. To me, it looked like a foregone conclusion that we were getting a Wrestlemania rematch at Summerslam, and that's not a good thing. Does anybody honestly want to see that? -> I think Rhea Ripley is one of the Top 5 talents in all of Pro Wrestling right now. Not just of Women's talent either, I'm talking overall. She's awesome, but quite frankly, this match seemed somewhat beneath her. Did anybody honestly think she was going to lose a match to Raquel Rodriguez? I know the announcers made a big deal about how the two of them have traded wins and loses throughout their careers, and rehashed their rivalry in NXT and all that, but lets be honest, Rhea has so surpassed Rodriguez at this point. Rhea is the best Women's Wrestler in WWE, and Rodriguez is basically Liv Morgan's bodyguard. Adding a Street Fight stipulation was probably an attempt to make the match more interesting, but WWE plunder matches are so formulaic at this point, who honestly cares. One of my friends was joking with me before the match started: "Hey, do you think there might be some Kendo Sticks under the ring for no reason?" The other thing is...I assume that the reason the Saudis insist on the Women wearing bodysuits from the neck down, is to minimize their sexuality? Maybe I'm a pervert or a bad person, but doesn't having women come out and have a street fight in what looks like BDSM inspired, skin tight bodysuits kind of mitigate the whole point of covering them up to begin with? The whole thing is just weird, to me. Anyhow, this whole thing was just...there. Pretty much a waste of time. Oh yeah...and poor Roxanne Perez had to go to all of the trouble of putting on one of those stupid bodysuits...just to do a run-in! -> I could not have possibly cared less about the Sami Zayn vs. Karrion Kross match. Kross is a pretty good promo and a passable ring worker at his best. I guess this match was about as good as you're going to get out of him, but that's really not saying much. The whole stupid angle with Zayn and Kross feels like it's been going on forever. it doesn't seem to be going anywhere, and it's honestly beneath Sami Zayn. He's a solid, upper/mid card guy. Kross isn't. Just like the previous match, this felt technically passable, but otherwise pointless, and worse, the result was a foregone conclusion. -> I was disappointed by the Solo vs. Jacob Fatu match. I don't really care that Fatu lost the United States Championship. That's probably the least prestigious men's championship in WWE, and it tends to bounce around a lot. Unless WWE creative have totally lost the plot, they have to have bigger and better things planned for Jacob Fatu, because that dude is money. I assume that Tama Tonga is on his way back at some point, which gives Solo a stable consisting of himself, JC Mateo, Tama Tonga, Tonga Loa, and Tala Tonga. That's a whole lot of mediocre in one stable. Anyhow, maybe it was just me, but there seemed to be a whole lot of standing around in this match. What action there was, seemed (I know I said this earlier) slow, plodding, and not particularly compelling. Maybe it was because of the heat? And I really, really hate the whole "dialogue" thing WWE has been doing more and more over the past few years. It started with "I'm sorry...I love you" and it just keeps getting more melodramatic. I could have lived a long, happy life without having to see Solo slap on a rear chinlock and then explain to Fatu that this was all because Jacob didn't love him enough. And it's not like he did it just once, either. That dude was reciting Shakespearean soliloquies in there. So stupid. -> I'm with @sek69 when it comes to Jade Cargill. The time has come to accept the fact that this woman is just...not good. She had her entire AEW run. She had all the time training at the WWE performance center. She's had a fair amount of ring time on the main WWE roster, and it seems she just doesn't get it. She looked bad at Wrestlemania, but I was willing to lay some of that on Naomi. But during the Queen of the Ring qualifiers, she also looked lost in the ring...uncoordinated, flat-footed, and generally inept when she had to execute anything other than the most basic power moves. It doesn't help that WWE has a ridiculously talented Women's roster right now, and it just keeps getting better and better. I really question the decision to give Cargill a Women's Title shot at Summerslam, because it's pretty much guaranteed that she's going to screw it up. We could have had Asuka vs. Iyo Sky (or Tiffany, I guess) but instead we're going to have to watch Jade stumble around in there, looking lost. And I don't even get what the point of that promo after the match was, either. I assumed (especially coming out of the Naomi feud) that Cargill is supposed to be a babyface, but that sure sounded like a heel promo to me? Speaking of Naomi...she has the MITB briefcase. Cargill won Queen of the Ring. Whoever is booking the Women's Division right now is making some very weird decisions lately. -> Which brings us to "The Main Event." I guess technically, this was probably the best match on the show...but that's damning it with the faintest possible praise. Between the Main Event at Backlash this year, and now this match...I have to wonder if some of the guys who worked for TNA that are now WWE agents, like Abyss, Petey Williams and Bobby Roode are helping lay out Cena's matches. Because his title defenses are really starting to remind me of when Jeff Jarrett was the NWA World Heavyweight Champion, back in the day. The match will be slow, basic, and build to a certain point...and then let the inevitable run-ins begin! It's becoming pretty obvious to me that WWE knows Cena is so far past it, they have no choice but to compensate for his failings with a bunch of smoke and mirrors. This match was a lot like the Orton match, it that it was the very definition of "just okay." It wasn't actively bad, but it certainly wasn't good. It was just...there. And then there were a bunch of stupid, pointless run-ins (complete with theme music) designed to pop the crowd and distract from the fact the match wasn't exactly setting the world on fire. I was especially amused by the fact that ostensibly, Penta was coming to the ring to make a save...but that didn't stop him from doing his goofy little strut/dance down the ramp, which of course slowed him down to a comical degree. Also, why would you go to all of the trouble to fly Rollins, Breakker and Reed all the way to Saudi Arabia...only to have them perform an essentially pointless run-in? Look at it this way...Sami Zayn, Penta and LA Knight have all been feuding with Rollins and his guys. Are you telling me they couldn't have run a 6 Man Tag on this show of Zayn, Penta & Knight vs. Rollins, Breakker and Reed...instead of Zayn vs. Kross, or even that stupid Street Fight? The other major issue here for me as a fan, is that I hate this stupid story they are trying to tell with John Cena. His initial heel turn certainly was well done and was surprising, but it's been pretty much botched since that point. Firstly, it's pretty obvious that once the novelty wore off, the fans don't want to boo Cena (ironically.) They know he's leaving, he has what...15 appearances left, according to WWE? At worst, he's getting 50/50 reactions from the fans, and it some cases it's more positive than negative. I don't think the fans want to boo this guy on his way out. This company has been cramming the dude down the fans throats for years, it should be no surprise that they are finally cheering him when they know he's leaving and they aren't going to see him anymore. Especially since WWE keep going on about how he's the Greatest of all Time. On top of that, Cena was never what I considered a great worker, but he was somewhat smart, in that he worked within his limitations. But now? The guy is SO broken down. He's slow, he's stooped over, and his ridiculous over-reliance on the "Attitude Adjustment" is bordering on comical. I know people like to go on about his "5 Moves of Doom" but Cena is so limited now. I can't wait until they get the title off him, and as I said...I am definitely NOT looking forward to Rhodes/Cena II. Thanks to all the shenanigans, I don't think Punk necessarily comes out of this match looking any worse off (from a character standpoint, not a real life PR standpoint.) I guess they are reigniting the never ending feud between Punk and Rollins, so maybe they are going to cross paths again at Summerslam, based on this match? Or maybe Punk goes after Gunter finally? I don't know. -> Bottom line is. as I said earlier...you're not going to find anybody here at PWO who has been more willing to give WWE a chance (from a creative standpoint) than me. I liked Wrestlemania Night 2, I didn't hate Backlash, I enjoyed Money in the Bank for what it was. And I have actually been watching the TV since the move to Netflix (although getting through Smackdown has been a chore, so thank goodness they go to 2 hours this week.) But no matter how you slice it, even if like me, you choose to ignore all the Saudi stuff...this was objectively still not a good show, not at all. There was not one match I would recommend. The creative was questionable. I hope they have something good planned for Summerslam, not more of this kind of crap.

So apparently the Observer has released ticket sales updates on some upcoming AEW shows. Looking at the figures, it’s really sad at how badly AEW has pretty much killed the Chicago market. This is the place that was essentially the launching pad for their entire promotion, and they could always count on a sold out house packed with rabid fans. They have tickets on sale right now for an episode of Dynamite that is happening in Chicago in less than a month, and as of right now they have sold 971 tickets. They are taping Collision in Chicago the next night, and they have sold a grand total of 755 tickets for that event. I’m sure they are running the event in some sort of smaller venue than they used to. I’m sure they will move more tickets closer to the date of the show, and I’m sure they will paper the crowd with giveaways and free promo tickets if it comes to that, but when you consider how hot Chicago used to be for AEW, it’s pretty crazy when you look at how far they have fallen. I don’t know if it’s because of the whole CM Punk fiasco, or just because they oversaturated that market and kept going back to the well way too many times, but it’s really sad to see.

I would take a swift kick to the groin from a cantankerous mule over another Cena promo in Mandarin. He didn’t get nearly the backlash for that that he deserved.