The Thread Killer

Especially since it turns out she had so many health challenges in that area, she had an ovary removed, and polyps in her uterus. Apparently they thought they weren’t going to be able to have children, so it’s hard not to be happy for them.

I never ever thought I’d see the day that a WWE wrestler would pay tribute to New Jack on RAW, including dressing like him and pushing a shopping cart full of weapons…but there you go. And that bump Breakker took over the top rope into the shopping cart was sick.

Thanks for the info. Aside from Bob Barnett’s AAA collection and the original Worlds Collide, Lucha is a real blind spot for me. We don’t have any TV channels or even streamers in Canada that broadcast current Lucha, so I’ve never been able to follow the product. I don’t even know a reliable way of seeing it by less than legal means. I’m not going to lie, I have actually enjoyed both WWE/AAA shows so far, so I hope WWE gets AAA a TV or streaming deal.

I guess that depends on your perspective. I am not a regular Lucha viewer, not because I don't care for Lucha, but more because I really don't know where/how to watch the weekly AAA and CMLL TV shows, or the PPV's. I used to have Bob Barnett's awesome Best of AAA DVD set from the early 90's (actually, I guess I still do have it somewhere) but obviously the scene has changed massively since those days. I have two friends online who are both quite into Lucha. One of them actually only watches Lucha Libre and he doesn't watch any American stuff at all. The other is one of those guys who somehow finds the time to watch pretty much everything, (don't ask me how...I'm retired and I don't even watch all 3 WWE shows and 2 AEW shows plus TNA, and NJPW, MLW and NWA and then Lucha on top of that. There aren't enough hours in the day, especially when you follow others sports and TV shows.) The friend who watches everything, saw the show yesterday, and was instantly bemoaning how WWE ruined AAA, how this isn't "real" Lucha, WWE is Americanizing Lucha, bringing a bunch of their castoff workers to AAA and are diluting it, and it's basically another example of how WWE ruins everything, up to and including the world. My other buddy who only watches Lucha pointed out that fair enough...WWE has changed AAA since buying in. But he counter-argued that the increased production values are great, there are way more fans into AAA since WWE bought a stake in the company and (and this this was the important thing to him) he claims (and I have no way of knowing if this is true or not) that AAA has basically been hot garbage for years now, so no matter what WWE does to AAA it's going to be a lateral move, at worst. I watched the show this afternoon. I didn't see it live because I watched UFC 319 last night (and I thought WWE choosing to run AAA's supposed biggest show of the year against one of UFC's most anticipated shows of the year was an odd choice. I know they love to counter-program AEW but now TKO is basically counter-programming themselves.) I actually liked this show. Then again, I liked the new "Worlds Collide" show a couple of months ago. Let me be clear, there were no "great" matches on this show (unlike Gable/Vikingo from Worlds Collide) but I still thought it was fun. Firstly, the crowd was super hot, and very into the event, which definitely helped. Plus, the thing about Lucha (at least the AAA/WWE brand of Lucha) is that even if it's goofy, or sloppy, or even phony and fake looking...it's too fast paced to be boring. I have read that previous years Triplemania went on far too long, but this was a fast paced, easy to watch show that clocked in at around 3 hours. So even if it wasn't great, at least it wasn't padded out and needlessly dramatic and boring. It's Lucha, so I kind of go into it expecting plenty of botches. It didn't bother me. -> The "Copa Bardahl" match was first, and it was fun. I got to see La Parka (not the real, chair swinging, middle aged, psychotic L.A. Park, sadly.) Abismo Negro and Taurus are both built like bulldozers, are did some nice power stuff. I really liked seeing Mecha Wolf and Cibernetico. I guess they treat these matches like The Royal Rumble, where pretty much anybody can show up. Speaking of which, Otis made his return in this match. In WWE the guy was basically a midcard comedy act going nowhere, but I'll say this much...he was crazy popular with these AAA fans. Like, they were chanting his name and were so enthusiastic that the announcers even mentioned it. There was plenty of comedy with Pimpenela and Otis working together. And of course what everybody is talking about is the return of Omos, and his "confrontation" with Microman. That certainly was an amazing visual. My friend told me later that AAA did the same thing last year with Microman and Satnam Singh from AEW, but I never saw it. Anyhow, this was harmless fun. -> El Mesias vs. El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. was fine. The crowd was very hot for this match, and it was decent. Pretty much like a TV match. It only went 10 minutes. There certainly was lots of backstory behind this, because the announcers kept talking about the history between Mesias and Wagner's father, who was at ringside and ended up getting involved. This was a nice contrast to the comedy aspects of the opener. -> The Judgement Day vs. Lola Vice, Nino Hamburguesa and Mr. Iguana was basically a comedy match. Nino did the face-in-peril routine, until he finally made the hot tag to Iguana, and the crowd went nuts. Iguana did his comeback, and then Finn pulled out his own Demon puppet, who got into it with the stuffed Iguana, but they both got distracted when Hamburguesa gave them both hamburgers. This was what it was. Obviously, I don't know how this kind of stuff would go over with a normal WWE crowd, but I got the impression that the AAA fans in Mexico City are used to this kind of thing and enjoy it, based on the crowd reaction. It only went 12 minutes, and it wasn't boring, so I have no complaints. -> Los Garza vs. Pagano & Psycho Clown was okay. Quite honestly, it was like any other garbage match you would expect to see in AEW or WWE these days, except it was a lot shorter at around 13 minutes. Once again, they did a decent job alternating between comedy in the previous match, and the more serious stuff like this. Los Garza dropped the titles, but I don't think it will hurt them any. If anything, it will probably help their credibility if they go back to the main WWE roster. -> Rey Mysterio inducted Konnan into the AAA Hall of Fame. I fast forwarded through most of this, although I did catch the part where Konnan chewed out somebody in the crowd for heckling him and not letting him talk. -> I have to be honest, I skipped most of the Women's Title Match. Nattie has always been average at best, and when I saw that she was fighting a pudgy woman in a native headdress, I figured I'd skip to the last few minutes. This went around 10 minutes and based on what I did see, I didn't miss much. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think so. -> So the Main Event... Here's the thing. When I saw Worlds Collide, the AAA fans seemed perfectly happy with Vikingo. Well let me tell you, they aren't now. They booed the SHIT out of this dude. You could tell AAA knew it was coming, and tried to head it off by having Rey Mysterio and Vikingo's Dad embrace him backstage before he went to the ring...but it didn't help, not one little bit. These people do NOT like this dude anymore. So I texted my buddy to ask him why, and what he told me is kind of creepy, if it's true. As we all know, Alberto Del Rio is pretty much on everybody's blacklist because in addition to being a general pain in the ass to deal with backstage, he has a well documented drug problem, plus there have been serious allegations made against him of domestic abuse, assault, and even kidnapping, and rape. Despite that, AAA didn't seem to have a problem with him working there. When WWE took over, they got the belt off ADR right away, and transitioned it onto Vikingo. Then, they recently had ADR lose a "loser-leaves-town" match. (How legitimate that match was is apparently up for debate.) Even though he's a heel, apparently a large (and apparently very vocal) segment of the AAA fanbase still love Alberto Del Rio, and they're pissed off that he lost the belt, and that Vikingo has usurped him. So they have decided to show their displeasure by booing the shit out of Vikingo. Supposedly it's not because Vikingo isn't a good wrestler, it's just that a large segment of the AAA fans want Alberto Del Rio. I suppose you could compare this situation to the pop that Brock Lesnar got when he returned at SummerSlam, although what Lesnar has been accused of is pretty much a drop in the bucket compared to Del Rio. The upshot was...El Grande Americano came to the ring, and received a surprisingly positive reaction. I assume his gimmick was/is intended to insult or offend Lucha fans, but considering the fact that they sang along with his theme song, and cheered him louder than Vikingo, that plan doesn't seem to be working. Dragon Lee got a decent reaction, and Dom Mysterio was received like the second coming of El Santo. Okay, I'm exaggerating a bit, but I'm not lying when I say that Dom was by far and away the most popular guy in this match, and Vikingo was definitely the least popular, and you could tell that was not the reaction they had been hoping for, even if they knew it might be coming. Vikingo is still carrying himself as a babyface and these fans are not buying what he's selling. The match was what it was. All four guys were in there at the same time doing Lucha stuff, so it was pretty much total chaos. There were some good spots, one of the highlights was when Dom and Americano put Vikingo through the English announcers table so hard it looked like they almost killed him. Highlights included Corey Graves pointing out that the English announcers were the ones who had to look out on this show, because they were on the other side of the border, and the sound clearly picking up Konnan saying about Vikingo: "He's okay. He's working." As you would expect, there were a bunch of run-ins, The Judgement Day, the LWO, and the two fake El Grande Americanos (who some people speculate are Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate.) The end came when AJ Styles interfered, and even though the crowd wanted Dom to win, they were so excited to see AJ Styles that they blew the roof off the place anyhow. Except when Vikingo got the pin...because they were not happy about that. But overall, in my opinion, this was the best match on the show, which as the Main Event, it should have been. Today, I have seen a bunch of people on Twitter claiming that the way the fans reacted to this match, and all the run-ins proved that WWE is ruining AAA. The only problem with that theory is, they were in Mexico City, and it was sold out, and I saw plenty of crowd shots, and I didn't see a whole lot of American fans there. If the AAA fans really did turn on Vikingo over Alberto Del Rio, I think that's a AAA thing, I don't think you can blame WWE. And from what I am told, multiple run-ins were hardly a rarity in AAA before WWE showed up. But obviously I can't speak to that either way, because I didn't watch AAA before this. So in answer to your original question @WingedEagle, the show was okay. Let's be honest...it was a free show on YouTube. If I had been expected to pay for it or if I was a die hard Lucha fan, I might feel differently, but like I said earlier, it was fast paced, and goofy fun. From what I have been told, business in Mexico is red hot all around right now, but apparently if you want "serious" Lucha Libre you need to watch CMLL because the WWE version of AAA is certainly not serious, but in my opinion that doesn't necessarily make it bad.

I couldn’t figure out why they would even do that, but I just watched Triplemania and now I get it.

Last night's episode of SmackDown was shockingly good. They seem to have decided to focus a lot more attention of their Tag Team division lately. I don't know why they're doing it...but I'm all in favor. The SD Tag division is ridiculously stacked, especially in comparison to the RAW Tag Division. Fraxiom vs. The Miz and Carmelo Hayes was a lot of fun, although it's obvious where they're going with the Miz/Melo deal. DIY vs. The Street Profits was also fun. And now it looks like "MFT" is going to be throwing their hats into the ring as well, although considering the overall talent level in that stable, I'm a lot less excited about that idea. I also hope they don't drop the Andrade & Fenix team, because those guys are great.

I do not require professional athletes to undergo an intelligence or a moral purity test before I allow myself to watch sports. Call me cynical, but I suspect most pro athletes would fail such tests. Have you ever heard of William Hayes? He was a player in the NFL who was quite vocal about the fact that he didn't believe that dinosaurs ever existed, and that fossils had been planted by archeologists. Then consider the case of NBA superstar Kyrie Irving, who was one of many pro athletes who believe the earth is flat. I'd go on with other examples of famous athletes from all sorts of other professional sports, because there are countless examples to cite, but my main point is... Professional athletes are, for the most part, morons. I could not possibly care less that Dricus du Plessis is Afrikaner, or is a Trump supporter. This is the UFC, pretty much everybody that works there is a Trump guy. I don't care. I don't care that Khamzat Chimaev is Chechen and is buddies with the Chechen leader. That has absolutely zero to do with why I will be watching them fight tonight. I know next to nothing about their personal beliefs, and I don't want to know, because once again...I don't care. These are two guys who are going to be locked inside a cage, and are going to beat on each other until one them is knocked unconscious, or quits. Lets just assume they both already have brain damage and take it from there. Chimaev is a Freestyle Wrestler, and has never lost a fight in the UFC. Du Plessis is a Kickboxer, who is also undefeated in the UFC, and he is also the UFC Middleweight Champion. As a fan of combat sports, I want to see who is the better fighter, how the two opposing styles match up against each other, and who is going to be the Middleweight Champion after tonight. I'm not going to lie, I was seriously considering unplugging my TV, and sitting alone in the dark with only a single candle burning, while I listened to folk music and wept about the state of the planet and the rise of fascism everywhere, while I rocked back and forth, terrified about how any minute now, Donald Trump is going to come crashing through my door and deport me to Florida with tariffs. But on second thought, I'll just watch the fight instead.

You said it. Tomorrow night is UFC 319 which has a kickass lineup. The Main Event is for the Middleweight Championship, between two guys who are undefeated in the UFC. All of the undercard fights are between ranked contenders, so the results of those fights will have definite ramifications on the rankings, and who might get title shots next. On top of all that the prelims feature the finals of this past season of The Ultimate Fighter. But it’s $70.00 and I don’t want to pay $70.00. If this card was taking place in 2026, I would get it as part of my Paramount+ subscription. A lot of the well-informed MMA press are reporting that this deal is basically Dana White and TKO throwing in the towel and waving the white flag against illegal streaming, because they know there are a ton of people out there who love the UFC product, but either can’t or won’t pay for the monthly numbered PPV’s. I for one will not miss pay-per-view.

Welp…so much for my “TKO isn’t going to get what they want in their next rights deal” theory. As of 2026, all UFC content moves to Paramount+ including their ridiculously priced monthly PPV’s. That means instead of having to shell out $70 - $80 for monthly PPV events, UFC fans will now get the big “numbered” shows as part of the $12.00 monthly subscription to Paramount+, probably around the time UFC 325 happens. Not to mention, as part of this deal, UFC will be airing select events on CBS Network television, which is crazy. A lot of the MMA press are speculating that this might spell the end for PPV events in general, because even Boxing is moving to streaming now. Between WWE moving their American PLE’s to ESPN for a huge bump up from the Peacock deal, and now UFC moving to Paramount for 7 years at 7.7 Billion, it looks like TKO is literally too big to fail at this point. This company is a monster.

Ugh, didn’t we already beat this topic to death in the Cornette Podcast thread, and the “Cancellation of Jim Cornette” thread, and the NWA Power thread?

Don’t know if it’s true, but the prevailing rumor right now regarding why Naomi was pulled from her match with Iyo last night is because she’s pregnant.

I love Steiner math. “You’re 47! And you’re 40! You’re like 100 years old combined!”

I wouldn't necessarily say that Endeavor ruined MMA as a watchable product. A lot of the issues MMA fans have with the UFC were in place when Zuffa still owned the company. The problem is, TKO are using the same blueprint now with WWE, and I don't think a lot of those things translate over from MMA to Pro Wrestling as well as some of the suits in TKO (namely Mark Shapiro) think they do. MMA fans were already used to the canvas in the Octagon (and the Octagon itself) being plastered with ads. They were used to the fight clock and replays being "brought to you by" different sponsors. MMA fans were used to huge delays between the fights, because of prolonged entrances and backstage interviews and promo packages for different fighters, not to mention movie ads and stuff like that. A lot of these traditions carried over from Boxing to MMA, to be honest. I think one of the reasons I haven't found the adjustment to the TKO takeover as jarring, is because I watch a lot of UFC shows and I was already used to all that stuff. I'm not saying I like it (I don't) but I'm used to it. Having said that, I think TKO assumes that there is a lot more crossover between the UFC and WWE fanbase than there actually is. Hardcore MMA fans tend to be men, aged 18-49 (every advertiser's wet dream demographic) and they are pretty much bloodthirsty jock goons. Look at your average WWE crowd. There are a ton of families and kids there. Not to mention, hardcore MMA fans tend to look down their noses at Pro Wrestling and Pro Wrestling fans. MMA fans are nowhere near as emotionally invested in the fighters, either. Sure, some fighters are more popular than others, but if a guy gets cut from UFC, then he's cut. UFC is much more of a heartless, cutthroat environment than WWE traditionally has been. The fans don't relate to the athletes the same way at all. I think TKO is going to have to realize at some point (if they want this to work) that the fanbases need to be treated differently...but Mark Shapiro is a total moron, so that may very well not happen.

Not that anybody here at PWO will care, but apparently this deal will only affect customers in the United States. Here in Canada, we never got Peacock to begin with, and I don’t think we’ll be getting this new ESPN stuff either. For International viewers, everything WWE is all bundled on Netflix: RAW, NXT, SmackDown, all PLE’s and the PLE/PPV archives. So I suppose, in theory if you wanted to see a PLE you could just use a VPN to log into Netflix. Apparently a lot of people have been doing that already because there are fewer ads as opposed to Peacock.

I was surprised somebody didn't end up bleeding in that match as well. They proved the night before with Gunther that they're not squeamish about blood anymore, although maybe they didn't want to do it two nights in a row, in both Main Event matches. Plus, Cena has a legitimate acting career, he probably doesn't need to be cutting up his forehead at this point, especially with only 9 appearances left.

Yeah that was rough, didn't she land right on her knees? And imagine what Michael Cole would have said if she'd been injured: "Oh my God, something has happened to Candice Michelle!"

There really is no distinction between any of those types of matches anymore, especially in WWE. I agree that back in the day, guys used to wear Street Clothes for a Street Fight, but these types of matches were rare at one point, and they sure aren't now. Last night alone, there were a bunch of different matches with no rules, which all had different names or different stipulations, but it amounted to the same thing. The opening match was a Triple Threat Match, which WWE has now decided are No Countout and No Disqualification, and if you didn't remember that, Michael Cole was happy to remind you every 30 seconds. The match after that was a "Tables, Ladders and Chairs" match...which is No Countout and No Disqualification. The only difference with those matches is that they go ahead and set the Tables and Ladders up for the participants before the match, and even leave some chairs laying around...but it's essentially the same thing. The next match after that was billed as a "No Countout, No Disqualification" match, which made it like the first two matches. The match after that was a Steel Cage match, which is No Disqualification, but you can actually win the match by escaping the cage, (which Solo did) so I guess in theory that match had slightly different rules. Dom Mysterio vs. AJ Styles was the only match on the card which was contested under "normal" Pro Wrestling rules. The Main Event was a "Street Fight" which is now essentially just a No Countout/No Disqualification match. I assume the only reason they billed the Main Event as a "Street Fight" is because they were already billing the Women's Intercontinental Championship match as No Countout and No Disqualification and they didn't want to book two matches with identical stipulations on the same show, so they changed the name. But these types of garbage/plunder matches are done so frequently now, there is literally no distinction between any of them. They just slap a violent sounding name on the match to try and distinguish it and hype it up, but it always amounts to the same thing. The only discernible differences in WWE is when they do the occasional "Last Man Standing" match which can only be won by a standing 10 count, or when they very rarely do a Falls Count Anywhere match.

I thought Night Two was okay. I didn't enjoy it as much as Night One. -> Women's World Championship: I thought this was pretty good, I guess. It was okay. If I was a star rating type of guy, I'd go *** 1/2. It was certainly nowhere near as good as Rhea/Iyo/Bianca from Wrestlemania this year, or as good as Iyo/Rhea from Evolution. Let's be honest...if you put Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky in the ring, you're going to get a good match. And Naomi wasn't terrible. I appreciated her attempts at heeling, as cartoonish and over-the-top as she can be. They announced after the show that it's going to be Naomi vs. Stephanie Vaquer at the big show in Paris at the end of this month, so I hope they get busy heating Vaquer up before then, because she's pretty cold now. I still don't get the idea of having Naomi as your World Champion where there is such an insane amount of talent on the roster. Curious where they go with Rhea and Iyo from here. -> TLC for the SmackDown Tag Titles: This was pretty crazy. The standout spot to me was Fenix doing the Spanish Fly on Dawkins from the top, outside through the two tables. That was nuts. The spot with Ciampa hanging upside down above the ring was also nuts. Only problem was, there were too many damn people in this match. 6 teams in one TLC match is too many. And then on top of that, they had people running in. I barely saw Andrade during this whole match. (Except that sunset flip spot from the ladder onto the folded ladder, which looked like it almost killed him.) I'm not going to lie, if I'm being honest I preferred the TLC match they did on SmackDown right after Wrestlemania. In fact, that might be my favorite TLC match that I could remember. But this certainly wasn't boring so I can't say it was bad. -> Lynch vs. Valkyria for the Women's I/C Title: I'm pretty much over Becky Lynch at this point, I haven't enjoyed anything she's done since her return at Wrestlemania. And while Lyra Valkyria is competent, I find her to be a bland and unconvincing promo, and this whole feud between these two has done nothing for me. Plus. this match was "anything goes" (and did it really need to be?) so when they announced that this match was next, I decided to walk my dog and make something to eat. So I did. And when I got back the damn match was STILL GOING. I literally walked my dog, prepared food, and when I sat down the stupid match was still happening. This match did not need 25 fucking minutes, I'll tell you that much. But I have no comment on how good it was, because I didn't watch it. I texted a buddy of my mine and asked him how the match was, and he texted me back: "Long." -> Fatu vs. Solo for the U.S. Title: I have come to the conclusion that Solo really isn't all that great. He might be okay, but he certainly isn't good enough to justify the kind of push he's been given since last year's Wrestlemania. And they have surrounded him with stiffs, which really doesn't help. This whole angle is really cooling off Jacob Fatu so I hope this was the end of it, and they get him away from Solo and the "MFT's" as soon as possible. This really wasn't all that different from their match at Night of Champions. Sure, there was a cage, but this match was still unremarkable. -> Dom Mysterio vs. AJ for the I/C Title: This match was also the definition of "just okay." It wasn't really bad, but it wasn't really good. It just was. At least it was shorter than Becky vs. Lyra. The fans seem to really want to cheer Dom, so they probably either need to turn him, or have him do something to make sure the fans know they're supposed to be booing him. You can really tell AJ Styles is nearing the end, as well. -> Cody vs. Cena for the WWE Championship: This was definitely the best match Cena has been involved with on his retirement tour. It was better than his match with Punk last month, it was better than his match with Orton, and it was miles better than his first match with Cody at Wrestlemania. I guess part of that was due to it being a "Street Fight" which probably helped mask Cena's limitations, but he also looked a lot more motivated during this match. I still can't get over how much he overuses the "Attitude Adjustment." I swear, half of every one of his matches are made up of him either trying to set up that move and not hitting it, or he hits it and it doesn't work. It's comical. I could see an argument that this match went too long. And there were a ton of false finishes. But I appreciate the effort that went into it, and I enjoyed the match, so I'm not going to quibble. I'm very glad to see Cody with the Championship again. I think even WWE realizes that the Cena heel turn and title reign just wasn't working, so they finally gave in and killed it. The fans just don't want to boo Cena during his retirement tour, and he certainly hasn't been performing well enough to justify having him as your #1 guy...especially when you consider that he only has 9 or 10 dates left on his retirement tour. -> Brock Lesnar Returns: Quite honestly, I was not entirely shocked to see Brock Lesnar return. I have browsed some of the online reaction to his return, and it has ranged from mild disgust, to shock, to horrified outrage. One of the common refrains is: "How could they bring Brock Lesnar back? He's named in Janel Grant's lawsuit?" Yes he is, he's "named." But it's not a criminal complaint, and he's not a defendant in the lawsuit. Janel Grant is suing Vince McMahon and WWE. When the Justice Department asked Grant to pause her lawsuit back in May 2024, I thought maybe there was a chance McMahon might face some criminal charges (although I figured he'd either skate on the charges, or get a pardon even if he was convicted.) They opted not to seek an indictment (or they sought one and didn't get it, who knows.) But the minute it became clear that McMahon wasn't going to face criminal charges, I figured it was only a matter of time before Brock Lesnar came back. From what I understand (and I could be wrong) Brock Lesnar's contract with WWE was actually up, so if they brought him back now, that means they probably re-signed him. There was no legal reason they couldn't bring him back. They just waited for enough time to pass and for the outrage to die down a bit, and then they did what I always figured they were going to do. Bottom line is this...the allegation is that Vince McMahon was either asking or coercing or forcing Janel Grant to send sexually explict videos of herself to people, and two of the people named were Michael Hayes and Brock Lesnar. Apparently, this was part of McMahon's effort to entice Lesnar to re-sign the last time his contract was up. Lesnar allegedly responded with some sexually explicit and verbally abusive texts. That's it. Not even Janel Grant or her lawyers are alleging that anything more than that happened. So basically, Lesnar got emailed some explicit pictures texted to him, and responded with explicit texts. That doesn't classify as criminal behavior and it didn't even warrant him being a co-defendant in the civil lawsuit. Is it morally acceptable behavior? No. Is it bad PR for TKO? Maybe. But anybody who thought this was going to be enough to keep Lesnar from returning to WWE when he decided he wanted to, are clearly just fooling themselves. Do I care about Lesnar vs. Cena? Meh. The thing about Lesnar is, he never sticks around long enough to have any serious impact on the product one way or the other. He comes in, he does a couple of TV appearances to build up to his PPV/PLE match, and then he disappears again. I never really liked Lesnar, from the get go. I didn't like him during his first run in WWE, I especially didn't like him in UFC, and I haven't cared much about him during his WWE returns. His endless feud with Roman Reigns bored me. From everything I have heard about him behind the scenes, he's basically your typical jock bully and he treats people like shit. Color me surprised. I'm sure there will be a ton of shrieking and pearl clutching about Brock Lesnar returning, but I never figured this would end any other way. If you look at the larger issue with the Janel Grant lawsuit, the worst possible outcome for Vince McMahon is that he's going to have to write a big check. He's an 80 year old Billionaire who can easily afford it, and considering his history of drug use, he might very well be dead before that day ever comes. So if people are upset about Lesnar coming back...just wait until the Janel Grant lawsuit is "resolved." Nobody is really going to be called to account for this situation, and they never were. Especially Brock Lesnar. -> Overall Night One of Summerslam 2025 was definitely better than Night Two. There was really no need for a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match, a No Countout/No Disqualification match, a Cage Match and a Street Fight all on the same show. Aside from the Main Event, I found this show to be bland and average. I quite enjoyed the Main Event, although I am sure the return of Brock Lesnar will have ruined it for a lot of people. Looking at the two shows as a combined event overall, I liked SummerSlam quite a bit, especially in comparison to Night of Champions. I'm curious to see where they're going from here, and I am looking forward to big show in Paris at the end of the month, since those crowds are usually insane. I just hope WWE gives them a card worth going nuts over...but we'll see.

That’s pretty much a perfect description of Kross. I am legitimately baffled at who thought this was a good feud and that it deserved to be featured on not one, but two PLE’s?

I watched the show with a bunch of friends and their wives and kids, at a large social gathering. It was an interesting way to watch a WWE event, as opposed to the way I do it usually, watching either by myself or with another hardcore fan, and looking at it with a more critical eye, almost like I am looking for things to complain about. Maybe it was the festive atmosphere or something, but I went into Night One of SummerSlam 2025 with very low expectations, assuming I would not enjoy the show at all, (especially after Night of Champions) but I have to admit I really enjoyed it and I felt the show really over-delivered, especially considering the quality of the card. Maybe if I rewatched it looking for flaws I might find some and be less impressed, but as of last night, I thought it was a lot of fun. -> Reigns & Uso vs. Breakker & Reed: I loved that opener. They gave them plenty of time, and they worked the traditional Tag Team style for the most part, which made me very happy. There will be plenty of time tonight for matches with everybody in the ring all at once, doing whatever they want. But they actually did an extended face-in-peril/hot tag sequence during this match, and it made me very happy. Roman looks awesome, and that dive of his was insane. Like @sek69 said, he pretty much almost accidentally cleared the crowd, although he wisely grabbed Bronson Reed at the very last second and kind of dragged him down with him. Reed played his role great, and if Bron Breakker isn't ready for a Main Event push right now, he's certainly not far off. I've said it before and I'll say it again (and it's hardly a controversial take) but that kid is money. I know a lot of people online were clamoring for Breakker to pin Roman during this match to make it official and really establish himself, but I'm not sure a Tag Match was the platform to do that. Eventually, he needs to get a big singles win that really puts him over the top. Unfortunately, he apparently injured his knee during this match, so I just hope it's not too bad. -> Women's Tag Team Championship: Minor quibble, I don't know why they ran the Women's Tag Team Title match right after a Men's Tag Team match, but whatever. This whole angle continues to subvert my expectations. I totally expected Charlotte to turn on Alexa, and I certainly did not expect them to win the titles. I figured Rodriguez and Perez would hang on to those belts until Liv Morgan returns, especially since I figured Charlotte for betraying Alexa. Maybe they called an audible because the Flair/Bliss team seems to be getting so popular. There's no doubt that Charlotte seems to really want to be a babyface right now, so more power to her, I guess. This match was pretty good. It wasn't as good as the opener, but it certainly wasn't a bad match, so I have no complaints. -> Zayn vs. Kross: Ugh. I am so over this ridiculous Zayn/Kross angle. Please let this be the end of it. It was never good, it was never compelling, and the fact that this match ended up on SummerSlam while Penta, LA Knight, Sheamus, Rusev, Damien Priest, Aleistar Black and the entire RAW Tag Team division couldn't get on the show? To quote Gorilla Monsoon, "give me a break." I'm not as enamored with Sami Zayn as most people around here are, and Kross is just okay at best. This whole deal needs to go away now. -> Women's Championship: I never would have figured that Roxanne Perez and Asuka wouldn't be able to pull a watchable match out of Jade Cargill, but that Tiffany Stratton would be able do it. I fully agree with @NintendoLogic in that was definitely the best singles match Cargill has had in WWE. It wasn't exactly Flair/Steamboat (or Flair/Ripley I guess) but I'll take it. Maybe the agent/producer did a really good job of laying it out. Mind you, Cargill's power based style and Stratton's flashy gymnastic style seem to mesh really well together. It was hardly a great match, and as per usual there were a couple of moments where Jade looked totally lost in there, but it was miles better than I expected, or it had any right to be. And thank goodness, the right person won. The Women's division is not ready to have Jade Cargill and Naomi holding the respective World Championships, because neither of them are really good workers, in my humble opinion. My final observation is that, in addition to being less than impressive when she wrestles, I don't "get" Jade Cargill as a character. After Naomi turned on her, I assumed that she was meant to be a babyface. But she sure doesn't act like one. I remember that weird promo she caught after winning Queen of the Ring, which sure sounded like a heel promo. And I swear, it looked like while she was on her way to the ring last night she was arguing with the fans. IF she's supposed to be a babyface, she does a terrible job at coming across, and if she isn't, that's just weird booking. -> Orton & Jelly Roll vs. McIntyre & Paul: One of the main reasons I wasn't really all that enthused about this show is because of this match. I hate celebrity matches. I hated them when the WWF did them in the 80's, I hated them when WCW did them in the 90's and I hate them now. I was especially crusty about this match because I had literally never heard of "Jelly Roll" before she showed up on WWE TV. When I saw him, I thought he looked like some dumpy looking meth addict. But apparently TKO has made it clear that they love celebrities, cross promotion, and the media attention which comes with it, so here we are, I guess. As I mentioned, I was at a pretty big social gathering last night, and I'll be damned if all of the people there came into the room to watch this match...including the non-WWE fans, and especially the kids. I guess people have heard of "Jelly Roll" and I'm the one who is out of touch. (I can live with that.) All of the non-fans in the room absolutely loved this match, so what do I know. People kept talking about how much weight Jelly Roll has lost, so I assume he used to be a big fat guy? As far as the match? It was what it was. Like the Women's Title match, this was WAY better than I had expected it to be. I'll give Jelly Roll credit where it's due, he seems like a legit fan of Pro Wrestling, he did his best and he didn't treat this like a joke. Unsurprisingly, the MVP of this match was Logan Paul. I know a lot of people hate the guy for stuff he has done before signing with WWE, but much like with Jelly Roll, I had the luxury of not knowing anything about him before he showed up to wrestle. I know who his brother is, and I heard about that stunt he pulled in Japan a few years ago, but that was it. But I'm sorry, even if you hate Logan Paul...the dude is just a natural. He plays a great heel, his promos and facial expressions are outstanding and he's a freakish athlete. That spot with him leaping off the ring post, onto Jelly Roll on the announcer's table was done to perfection. Bottom line is, I actually found myself enjoying this nonsense, despite the fact that I went into it determined not to...so there you go. -> World Heavyweight Championship: This and the opening Tag Team match were the main reasons I wanted to see this show. What can you say? I loved the way they laid out this match. Gunther got to be Gunther at his all time Guntheriest. He basically beat the ever-loving crap out of Punk, using every move in his not unsubstantial arsenal, for what felt like about 27 of the 30 minutes of this match. He pretty much dominated Punk, and Punk did an awesome job of selling it. These guys were great together, it was a very intelligently worked match, and I definitely want to see more of these guys together. As far as the finish, I have no complaints. Firstly, love him or hate him, Punk is one of their top guys so there is no shame in him winning the World Championship. And as sek mentioned earlier, word has leaked that Gunther needs some sort of surgery on his nose (which they appeared to set up in this match with the spot on the announcers table) so this probably had to happen. Great damn match. I haven't perused the review sites or Twitter or Reddit today, and I'm guessing there are a lot of people who have complaints about this match, but I really enjoyed it. -> Seth Rollins Returns: If I was Triple H and Nick Khan, I would find out who leaked this angle to John Pollock and fire their ass. This could have been a real shocking moment, except Pollock broke the story around the time of Saturday Night's Main Event and pretty much spoiled it. Pollock is a known and respected name in Pro Wrestling journalism, so when he broke the story a lot of people believed him, and so as soon as Punk won the title I was waiting for Seth's music to start playing...and there it was. As far as the angle itself? I think it's a bad idea. I don't like Rollins as a Main Event guy. I find him annoying sure, but even worse I find him to be boring. I have joked about this here at PWO, but I swear, when Rollins is heavily featured on RAW, the shows always seem more boring and seem to drag. The thing is, the Netflix views and rankings seem to bear that out as well. The numbers are not as good when he is featured in the opening segment. But for whatever reason, Triple H seems to love this guy, so I guess we're getting a lot more of him...and for my money that's not a good thing. I am very curious to see where this goes from here, does Punk continue his feud with Rollins and go after the title, or does Gunther go after Punk for injuring his nose? And if that's the case, who ends up challenging Rollins next? There were rumors of a program between LA Knight and Rollins, but who knows what the status of that is. I'm interested to see...but since it involves Seth Rollins, my interest is kind of muted. Overall: This was a fun show, I'd say it was very good and really over-delivered. The only real stinker was the Zayn/Kross match, and the fact that yet another fun Main Event ended up being kind of spoiled by a "cash in." Thankfully, both Rollins and Naomi have cashed in their contracts, so we don't have to worry about that again until after next June. On paper, the show tonight looked like the better card (in theory) so we'll see how this pans out for Night Two.

So what’s your take on that supposed Cena face turn? It’s got to be bogus, right?

Oh man, that’s sad. I remember he and the Cuban Assassin fighting Chris Benoit and Beef Wellington, and later, The British Bulldogs. And he was such a great promo. Great Stampede memories.

As is usually the case when he does an obituary segment, I thought Cornette’s coverage of Hogan’s death was historically accurate, insightful and remarkably even handed, especially considering the fact that Hogan became a Trump guy over the past couple of years, and we all know how much Cornette loves Trump. I usually assume that if anything comes up that involves Trump on even a peripheral level, Cornette is going to totally lose his shit and start screaming profanities. What I found especially humourous was the follow up piece. The response to Cornette’s podcast about Hogan pretty much encapsulates Pro Wrestling tribalism and overall online discourse in general nowadays. On one hand, he had people that were angry he wasn’t more complementary towards Hogan and wasn’t just blindly praising the guy, and on the other hand, he had people that were irate that he even mentioned Hogan at all because they think his name should be blotted from the history books. Cornette sounded legitimately flabbergasted at the two totally divergent responses he was getting to the exact same segment. I had to wonder if he doesn’t pay attention when he uses Twitter, and I had to laugh at the irony that he has been one of the people who has helped contribute to the almost toxic levels of tribalism that exist in Pro Wrestling fandom right now. You helped create the zombies, Jimbo. Don’t act surprised when they bite you.

Now somebody needs to talk to him about his ring gear. It looks like a bad spandex superhero outfit, or a leotard with a speedo covering it, with half a fringe vest stapled to his butt. It’s distractingly weird. EDIT: I just figured it out…he’s wearing part of Colton Gunn’s tights over top of his own, so his gear matches Austin Gunn. It still looks really odd.

It happened three times during the show, I don’t think it was a production error.