Timbo Slice

I wasn’t saying Newman/Ospreay at Wembley; it’s widely believed that Ospreay will main event Wembley against whoever is champ (my money is on an Omega rubber match where Ospreay goes over; don’t see MJF losing twice on Wembley shows to him like that). It was that if that was the plan, I’m curious as to what the eventual turn timeline looks like. Is it before Dominion? Is it at Forbidden Door? Is it post-Wembley? Is this a setup for WK21? There’s parallel booking that means more trade-offs than you’d expect at the top of the card like that. Again, Gedo going this route when the idea with Tsuji winning was about returning the company to a more homegrown focus and short term thinking himself into a Top English Guy succession angle because he feels like it has to be now given Ospreay’s health and AEW focus going forward is really telling. He has no patience; you wonder if Tana might be looking to hand it over to someone else much sooner than later.

They’re own goals; Gedo specialties. You go with Newman because Tsuji hasn’t had the juice post-WK. Wolf is still far from ready to be the guy. They do not have a native in-house guy to go with that leads them on a true post-Tana track. I don’t get why they think now is the time with Ospreay to build something up with Newman, though. If the goal is he’s the challenger at Wembley, then you’re gonna have him go down to Newman probably at Dominion? When he’d be just about ready to ramp up for All In? I also believe Newman is now the youngest IWGP Champ in history? There’s a ton here to unravel. Between TKO’s meddling and nobody meddling with Gedo, AEW doing the absolute bare minimum is making them look WAY better than either company by comparison.

It was a 4.6 and Campbell is a few miles from his spot on the same fault line where the big 89 quake happened that stopped the World Series. Also love he was podcasting at 2 am. Imagine if he had done it during the big one.

So with flailing sales and folks being disinterested in a vast majority of the card, the juice they think would help push Orton/Rhodes over the top is…Pat McAfee. The post-WM cuts when they lose millions on this is gonna be something else.

Cody reverting to end stage AEW run status because he can’t be booked as a convincing heel would be hilarious. This show is gonna be a misfire on several levels. And this is with All In not looking promising for Wembley III, too. Folks are strapped for cash, man.

Oba Femi eviscerating Brock is satisfying on multiple levels.

Or, you know, that charisma only worked because of Toni.

I couldn’t actually believe the match I was seeing. They hit their usual notes and callbacks, but the ending, where Okada realized if he was going to bring the Old Man down he HAD to become the Rainmaker in the Dome if not for just a moment, was poignant as all hell. Everyone is gonna compare this to Cena/Gunther and it obviously blew it away, but it’s wild they had THAT match, and it’s the bigger story to me. The sneaky comparison is Okada/Kenny from All In last year, as it was clunky and felt like they wanted to do something different from what they usually do with the story/character beats (which was the wrong call). That was not an issue here. It was a marvel to watch and the last stretch, from when Tana locks in the sleeper to the finish, will be rewatched endlessly. The political reasons behind Nak not being there, but then Naito doing what Naito did, is hilarious to me. Especially with him being the last one to pay tribute (Tana tapping his nonexistent watch seemed more like a shoot than one would think); kinda took the wind out of my sails a bit, but the trip around the Dome was a nice touch, and they were sure to show Wolf being one of the Young Lions who was there pushing the cart. The fact the Boston Crab won a World Heavyweight Title match in 2026 fucking rules, and Okada trying to make Tana tap out to it was a fantastic touch. And yeah, they do have something with Wolf. Enjoyed the selling immensely, had stream issues so I missed the finish, but happy he won. You wonder if he gets a Supernova push given Tsuji is so clearly above his peers and they proved they weren’t on his level, but at the very least, NJPW is interesting in 2026.

It’s obvious that via the reports out there, interviews from Cena, etc, that Cena wanted this to be a true retirement tour. He wanted to essentially work a full schedule knowing he could essentially do it and give his all, and leave it in the ring. Empty the cup, so to speak. He was then told by management that they did not want to do that, they wanted him to be a special attraction, and that the stories weren’t EXACTLY what Cena was looking to do. People in power positions (Paul, Dwayne) pulled the rug out from under him basically throughout, either because Dwayne didn’t want to do it or Paul didn’t want to do it at the expense of his guys. Both of them did that KNOWING how Cena would respond the vast majority of the time; that he would either take it in stride, work within the system, or in some cases not even raise a stink about it. The most symbolic thing about this entire run was the AJ Styles intro that was done spur of the moment at Crown Jewel. He wanted it to be a surprise, and it was authentic, touching, and unlike anything else he did this year. And it was for someone the crowd would appreciate it happening with! Afterwards? He went back and apologized for going into business for himself to production because in his mind their input may have made it come off better than it did and “that’s not how things worked.” Cena had the instincts to make this entire retirement tour distinct and meaningful, but at the end of the day, he was beholden to the idea of the team he worked with putting both the team and him on equal footing, when there was literally several months of hard evidence where that wasn’t the case.

Jericho isn’t a free agent until 2026, so he’ll be a Rumble surprise. Cena’s fine in ring; he was taught a shit style and up-kept it because of who told him to make it look a certain way, and his best attribute was that when in there with someone who knew how to work, he could at least hang. He wasn’t great, but he wasn’t made to look like a fool and was smart enough to play up the difference. He’s beholden to the company even when the storyline was shit, and the majority of his final year was shit. The interviews lately have been trying to rewrite things and gloss over terrible decisions, but the fact that Cena isn’t having his last match on a stadium show and that WWE couldn’t make an event around it is telling about how the company sees even the folks who helped prop it up for the terrible management there is now. He was the fucking lead draw on top for a decade-plus and his career ends on a Saturday Night Main Event. Literally leaving money on the table. Cena WAS a fucking singular talent. Making him like one of the UFC fighters that gets exploited at every turn is rich. Tanahashi was a draw, but was not a Cena-level draw, and the decision was made to make sure his final match was at the Dome. And it’s the biggest crowd the company has had since BEFORE Tanahashi even started. The fact the company couldn’t even show Cena the same respect and he just went along with what the story was while he was undercut and shortchanged left and right, and THEN he did the media rounds biting his tongue while waxing poetic is as Cena as it gets.

The Dome is sold out to max capacity. The largest ever Wrestle Kingdom crowd and the largest in the Dome in at least a quarter century. An absolutely amazing thing to happen for New Japan.

Theory is a dude who will do whatever the company wants and that has value to them. The Cena stuff is wild; absolutely looks like he wanted to have more input, then told the Crown Jewel story I assume as a way to piggyback the “not gonna stir up any drama” angle, but it really seems like they missed the boat with this from top to bottom.

It’s gonna be Austin Theory and it’s going to flop miserably. Jey doesn’t really fit at the top right now given what they’re trying to do with Bron since they already feuded after the IC belt. So they gotta keep him hot somehow. This company is just a random number generator at this point. UFC fighters have become faceless and replaceable; that same mindset has become as grating in WWE as it has there.

No, you can run Okada/Tanahashi semi main. If you put Tsuji over, you have to do it at the end.

Tana/Okada is official after he showed up in Anjo last night to challenge him at WK20. Id put money on it getting to 40k + walk up. Good for them.