DMJ

Is there a way we can put this post in some sort of PWO Hall of Fame? Thank you for this glorious summary. It really is incredible how badly they handled Cena's last year. It was so bad that there's actually enough blame to spread around beyond just one or two people. HHH booked this terribly, WWE/TKO stupidly believed that Cena's final run needed additional window dressing in the form of an untrained 125-lb. hip-hop star, and Cena overthought things during the heel phase, wrestling a style that seemed to be a misguided attempt to be a "meta" heel by purposefully leaning into his worst in-ring tendencies to draw heat. He didn't need to do that. Switching back to babyface mode helped, but by that point, the long-term storyline potential of his run had been shot. There was zero emotional gravity to the SummerSlam match with Cody once Cena turned back face the night before so they opted instead to just do everything. Ditto for the "movez"-fest match with Logan Paul. I guess it was cool to see that Cena could still do all that stuff but it also felt hollow. I'll at least give him credit for spotlighting Dom, Liv, Perez, and Raquel and, last night, Gunther.

Haven't you heard? Chris Jericho is coming back. I haven't watched WWE in a few months now, though I've kept up online via reddit and here. I think the real test for whether I'm officially "done" with WWE will be the Rumble. It is very, very easy for me to skip B-level PPVs, to not watch any of the TV, and to even miss a show like tonight's. I've seen enough John Cena matches in my life to never see another one no matter the stakes or opponent. His matches with Cody were dogshit and, though I thought the Paul match was a fun "movez-fest" and I really like GUNTHER, I'm still just not motivated at all to watch. But the Rumble? The Rumble is maybe the one WWE event that I think might be harder for me to skip, especially as it is consistently the only show that I can get my wife and friends - none of whom are into wrestling - to get drunk and watch with me. PLUS, the show being in Riyadh (yuck) also means that I can actually play it in the background with the audio off and turn on some records without missing anything interesting. In the past, when the Rumble has been somewhere like Philly or NY or Chicago, it's sometimes been fun hearing the "hardcore" fans boo this person or cheer that person or shit on the outcome. To go "off script," in a sense. Now that the shows are in Saudi Arabia, though, that sort of audience interaction is all but guaranteed not to happen. It's not a knock against those fans, it's just the nature of putting big shows in front of audiences that aren't made-up of a huge contingent of loud, often critical "smart" fans.

You're right in...theory (yuck), but I think his value, even as a yes-man, is diminished by the fact that there are dozens and dozens of other guys who are just as willing to do whatever the company wants.

I would have to think somebody at the top is wise enough to know that Theory would be an unforced error in booking, but who knows, at this point, I don't think there's anyone even trying to produce quality programming from a critical standpoint. And, even if the most likely scenario is that they essentially "burn" Theory - making him a lifetime midcarder at best - they have a pipeline of better, younger talent anyway. They can throw him out there, let him flop, forget it ever happened, and the only career they've ruined is his. But if they were going to have it be him, why not just do the reveal at War Games? The longer they build the angle, the more of a letdown it will be. Everyone predicting it is Theory (so, there's no "shock") and Theory isn't remotely over enough to make it work as a "Its cool that he's getting this push" thing. Say what one will about Ken Anderson/Kennedy, but there was at least a little groundswell of fans who thought him being Vince's illegitimate son would've made for good TV. I'm not a mega-fan of his, but even I thought it had potential just based on the promos/charisma factor (and, let's be real, that era of WWE wasn't at all about great in-ring product anyway). So...if Theory is made to be the guy, is this just essentially a sacrifice fly so that they can add another "henchman" to The Vision while they put all the real eggs in the Bron basket?

I totally agree with so much of your response and thank you for it. Just to make clear, Warrior won't make my list (either will Goldberg), though I do know this may read like a defense or argument for him. By my own criteria, Goldberg would probably even "score" higher in all but 1-2 categories. I think you got the gist of what I was saying: Warrior could make someone's list, but it would likely come from someone who just loves Warrior - the larger-than-life character, the unhinged promos - and is making their list at least partially based on personal favorites/preferences, which I then extended by saying maybe this hypothetical voter sees Warrior as "the best version" of a certain archetype (raging psychopath with super physique and limited moveset who is booked as totally/nearly unstoppable for a prolonged time). You argue he is not that "best version" - if we're being honest, maybe its actually The Road Warriors? - but I can see the other side, even if its misguided or still really comes down to inventing as many reasons as possible to just say "He's the best version because he's my favorite version!" Like you said, its not a great argument. It's an emotional/sentimental appeal. Full disclosure, though: Warrior made my list in 2016. He was #85. But...in 2016, I was a WWE/WCW-centric voter who built my list based on my childhood memories, growing up as a wrestling fan during the 90s, and then being an on-again/off-again WWE fan during the 00s and 2010s. My list had guys like Buff Bagwell and Ron Simmons on it. I had DDP at #27 on a list of the Greatest Wrestlers Ever. Mine was not the most educated ballot. But, even then, I think Warrior was defensible just based on him being a personal favorite with a ton of charisma, a great look, and a handful of ultra memorable matches and angles that I and many other fans have emotional connection to (the Papa Shango stuff is practically a core memory for me and I still get a little pissed thinking about how he lost the title to Slaughter at Royal Rumble 91'). It might be blasphemous to some but there's still a part of me that thinks, warts-and-all Warrior is a Greater Wrestler than Brad Armstrong or Tom Zenk (my #97 and #98 10 years ago). I don't necessarily think so now, but in 2016, I was pretty confident with that assessment. So there could be a voter in 2026 who puts together their own list - I'm actually thinking of sending info on how to participate to some friends and encouraging one to have his son make a list (he's a die-hard fan and is 13 years old) - and their list could be formed on the same knowledge/ignorance that mine was in 2016. I know we don't want to necessarily open up voting to every person whose ever caught a single episode of Raw, but I'd also hope we would want to include at least some voters who are like me 10 years ago: more knowledgeable than 99% of average folks who can only name 10 wrestlers, but considerably less knowledgeable than many people here at PWO. I also just want to add - I actually think its more fun to argue that someone like Warrior can be #99 than it is to squabble over where Terry Funk or Misawa lands in the top #5, so, please excuse the long-winded answer but this is the kind of discourse I appreciate so much about PWO.

I don't think its that crazy to have Warrior somewhere in those 90-100 spots. I think the argument for him would be (a) there's plenty of sentimental favorites that people have so why not? and (b) as the "perfect version" of a wrestling trope. We've seen lots of guys whose entire act is basically coming in, squashing dudes, cutting borderline incoherent (but I'd argue highly entertaining) promos, and occasionally getting carried to good-to-great matches. Obviously Goldberg comes to mind. But what about Sid? What about Ryback or someone like Braun Strowman? Hell, Ludvig Borga or The Great Khali would probably fall under that category. Then there was The Renegade, the most obvious clone. Now, if you loathe that trope - if you absolutely hate the cartoonish aspect of pro-wrestling and want competitive matches, impassioned-but-realistic promos, etc. - there's no amount of Warrior praise that will convince you he deserves to be on a list of greats. But if you're like me and you actually enjoy some of that absurdity, the Ultimate Warrior is, to many of us, the archetype. His squashes were the most ludicrous (partially because he could execute the fewest moves). His promos were the most unhinged. His look and mannerisms were the most insane. And then, as others have said, you can actually look at the resume and he has 3-4 great matches (carry jobs or not). That's more than anyone else of his ilk.

I loved the way this started with Nakano getting the quick pin on Hasegawa after a devastating powerbomb and then Hokuto evening the score by pinning Yoshinaga a few minutes later. This basically turned the match - which was 2-out-of-3 falls - into a single pinfall match, basically negating the stipulation entirely and just letting these two teams do battle. I also liked how having Hokuto and Nakano get quick, rather decisive pins really made it clear who the bosses of the respective teams were. Lots of cool highlights - Nakano's powerbombs and suplexes are nasty, Hokuto's front-flip splash off the top was awesome, Hasegawa's crossbody to the floor was cool...yeah, this is just great stuff. I could see the argument that the amount of head drops and the reckless-looking splashes would be considered unsafe and even poorly executed by today's standards, but I was plenty entertained from beginning to end. I'm not sure what the post-match "4th fall" was all about because I don't speak Japanese, but whatever it was, it came across to me - an admittedly ignorant viewer who doesn't know the full context of this match - that Hasegawa was almost a danger to herself with how much punishment she was willing to take to prove herself (which makes the post-match moment between her Nakano and Bat even cooler because they do end up showing her respect). As others have written, I'm not sure this falls into "must see"/"classic" territory, but its a match that is very easy to enjoy even if you don't know much about the competitors.

I'm likely to be the high voter on all of the "Horsewomen" as I'm fairly sure all of them will make my list except maybe not Bayley (who is hovering the 80s/90s range but will likely be knocked out as I add more workers that haven't "qualified" yet due to my self-imposed rules for eligibility*). I'm very much a US-centric, mainstream wrestling voter that has only really started expanding my viewership in the past 2 years, so it's not like I have 20 women from Japan that I'm going to rank above her. It'll probably be more like 4-6. To me, the AEW work has been a bit hit-or-miss. I don't think she's able to "carry" lesser workers to great matches (see the semi-recent PPV matches against Britt Baker and Julia Hart and the 4-way from Forbidden Door). Now, I don't think those matches were outright awful (I actually thought the Baker match, while not good, also became a "pile on" with lots of folks just shitting on it to shit on it), but they're blemishes during a run that also featured some very, very good matches against Storm, Vacquer, Hayter, and Statlander. And, if we're going back into her WWE/NXT years, her resume also includes matches against Bayley, Asuka, Charlotte, and Becky that are pretty great too. Of any US woman, I'm not sure anyone has the resume she does and the variety of opponents aside from Asuka, who is also a lock for my list. * Not that anyone cares, but one of my self-imposed rules for eligibility is that I need to have watched and reviewed a minimum of 20 of their matches in order for them to get a spot. I chronicle all this on my *cheap plug* blog, Kwang The Blog. So, that means I'm actively working through more joshi - focusing on Nakano, Aja Kong, Hokuto, Chigusa Nagayo, Manami Toyota for now, but hopefully will also get to watch more Inoue, Ozaki, Masami and Meiko because they're also awesome - as well as a good dozen male workers who I have yet to make eligible (Kawada, Kobashi, Jumbo, Taue, Yoshinari Ogawa, Ospreay, Darby, Takeshita, Sabre Jr, Stan Hansen, Bockwinkel....the list goes on and on.) My GWE Watchlist Playlist on YouTube is 150+ matches and my goal is about 10-12 matches a week on top of watching all the old AEW PPVs I haven't seen and also working my way through the full TNA PPVs that are on YouTube (why? I don't know). Basically, I have alot of wrestling to watch and none of it is current WWE!

Just watched this as part of my GWE Playlist, which I've compiled semi-randomly just by searching YouTube.* This match rules. Like, no notes, its pure awesome. There's so much to love here, everyone is on their game, I love that the match really does ramp up in terms of escalation of offense and false finishes (a criticism I sometimes have as I've tried to watch more joshi wrestling is that sometimes they throw so much at you in the first 5 minutes with crowd-brawling or weapons or head drops or, in Aja's case, Uranakes that its unsustainable and a bit deflating when they settle into the more traditional mat work). I think you could also analyze this match in terms of "basic structure" and it works - the first fall is an extended babyface "shine" with the faces winning a clean victory using teamwork and speed, then in the second round the heels counter that by getting a bit nastier (Moreno's crimson mask is a great visual), and then, in the third round, you just have a great back-and-forth with heightened action (Kong going to the top rope, the missed Uranake leading to a Toyota suplex), the faces landing some awesome tandom moves and getting some nearfalls that make it 1000% believable that they'll be winning, and then a credible, believable end that feels "big enough." Does a masterpiece need to re-write the book? Does it need to usurp tradition? Does it need to "color outside the lines" to be considered an all-time great match? I don't think so. I think the perfect hamburger can be just the perfect bun and the perfect burger with the right condiments in the right proportion. This is like that perfect hamburger. It doesn't reinvent the wheel, but I can't really find fault or critique anyone's performance as anything less than excellent. Toyota is awesome. Moreno is amazing. Jungle Jack play their roles perfectly. 5/5. * I have a self-imposed rule that nobody will make my list unless I have reviewed at least 20 of their matches. As I'm new to watching non-mainstream US wrestling, having only really started watching Japanese wrestling over the past 2 years, I decided to compile a GWE Playlist so that I could see more of the performers I've come to enjoy - Kong, Toyota, Hokuto, Hashimoto, Kawada, Misawa, Kobashi, Nakano, Crush Gals, Yoshinari Ogawa, etc. - and, lucky for me, there's quite a bit up on YouTube with many of them having matches against each other, which has helped me "qualify" them much faster. It does skew things a bit because it feels like I'm watching lots of "dream matches," but oh well, I'm not complaining when it leads to me watching a match like this because it featured Kong and Toyota and I'm still about 8-10 matches shy from either being "eligible" for my list.

Full review will be on my blog at some point this week but some thoughts... - Young Bucks and Omega are almost victims of their own success when the match they had is considered just good. There were some really nifty sequences and I liked Omega's selling of the knee from beginning to end. The Bucks also have great chemistry with Jack Perry and it was on full display here. But, yeah, felt kinda "mid" for them just because they have these sorts of matches so consistently. - I'm probably in the minority but I liked PAC beating Darby and I disliked O'Reilly beating Mox. I'm a bigger Darby fan than PAC fan, but PAC needed the win to maintain even a semblance of relevancy and "realism" to the daredevil Darby character. Darby came into this match having, in kayfabe, suffered third degree burns a week earlier. He then wrestled a grueling match in which he took two nasty falls to the floor and PAC still had to use a baseball bat (with interference from Yuta). "Overcoming the odds" doesn't work as a storytelling device if every single time the hero is faced with odds, he overcomes them. I don't want SuperDarby. I want super tough-but-still human Darby. He was protected plenty. - I like O'Reilly just fine, but, to me, this "Mox on a cold streak" is going a bit too far. With Page and Darby, you at least had guys who the fans were 1000% behind and craving to see beat the Death Riders. With Kyle...it's a little, "Oh, he gets to beat Mox too?" I think they should've let O'Reilly submit him at Blood and Guts or at Full Gear but not necessarily both. And then Mox just attacked him after the bell anyway. I don't think they need to be as hyper-literal with the Death Riders turning on Mox because he keeps losing - he lost the title, he lost to Darby, he lost at Blood and Guts. Who beats him next? Action Andretti? Losing to KOR twice was "hat on a hat" to me. - Loved the main event. I read some criticisms of the Blood and Guts matches (and most modern cage matches) that pointed out how, back in the day, the cage itself was the weapon and the wrestlers didn't need thumbtacks, chairs, ladders, tables, etc. to make the matches brutal and violent. The main event was a classic cage match where the danger of the environment was highlighted (and the only other "foreign object" used was Page's cowboy boot, which also felt very "classic cage match 'rasslin" to me). I'm not sure if Joe intended on cutting himself so deeply but, man, on a show featuring plenty of gore in the Mox/KOR and Briscoe/Fletcher match, Joe's crimson mask was the most uncomfortable to see. I like that the match didn't go too long and I don't think it needed to. I even liked the finish despite it being very "sports entertainment" (it reminded me a good deal of the kind of finishes we saw in the Attitude Era but it works in AEW because, aside from the opener, it was the only really screwy finish on the whole 4 hour show). And then the post-match with Swerve's return was great and the show ending the way it did reminded me of Nitro circa 97. So, the last 30 minutes of the show featured a classic, simple-but-effective NWA-style cage match, a suspenseful, unexpected finish ala peak-Austin Era WWE, and then a huge babyface return moment that ends with the heroes staring down the heel champion and his cronies like one might've seen with Sting, Savage, and Hollywood Hogan to end a WCW show 28 years ago. For a fan like me, it hit.

I'm about halfway through Full Gear 2025 so I was inspired to come here and add Kyle Fletcher to the list of "Not Yets." Now, I'm sure there are some people here who could probably point out some great Aussie Open tags and maybe that means he's already worthy of consideration, but I only know him from AEW and, for a guy who is 26 and is on a roster with some very, very good wrestlers, Fletcher has become one of my "must watch" guys over the past year or so. Still, I don't think he has the resume for a top 100 spot yet. What sets him apart, to me, is that while there's the obvious athleticism, agility, and quickness that draws comparisons to Omega, Ospreay, and Styles, he's also really good at the facial expressions, anguished screams, and full-body selling/bumping that you'd get from peak Flair or Rick Rude. From what I understand, he's seemingly only been a real singles guy for a couple years, but he's already working head-and-shoulders above so many of his peers and has probably already surpassed most of the guys that, 3 or 4 years ago, many of us would've expected to be bigger deals by now (see pretty much the entire 2022 NXT roster).* And I don't think it's as easy as just saying, "Well, look who he's worked with, of course he looks great." Fletcher is not being carried by anyone. His offense looks great. His running boots are nasty. He's always a highlight in the multi-mans and Don Callis Family tags that he's in. Give him another few years and if he keeps putting on matches like he's done recently, I think he's undeniable. *Granted, much of that has to do with booking. Fletcher had high profile matches against Ospreay, Hangman, and Briscoe in 24' and 25' while guys like The Creeds, Carmelo Hayes, Dragunov, and Oba Femi, despite their talents, remain "TV only" (and, in the case of Femi, still in NXT).

* No clue why TK decided to add another title to the mix. Unifying the Continental and International Championships was one of the best decisions he made this year (along with putting it on Okada). To me, those two decisions made it very clear what the pecking order was - AEW World Champion, then Unified Champion, then TNT Champion. And, right now, the stature of the talents makes that especially clear as Page is a tried-and-true AEW main eventer, Okada is kinda right below that (but is likely the bigger international star), and Kyle Fletcher is that perfect IC/TV title-level guy. What exactly does this new championship do? How does it slot in? I just see absolutely no reason for its existence, especially after how long AEW got criticized for having too many championships even by its biggest supporters (it definitely helped that WWE seemingly saw this criticism, said "Hold my beer," and proceeded to invent 2 more Women's Championships that nobody asked for). * The drama around Newell and Alize is...just...*groan.* It's the epitome of "wrestling bubble" psuedo-scandal. You would have had to be a super-duper NXT 2018-2020 era fan to even know who Newell was/is because she had few spotlight moments or matches on the main roster. If Newell is barely a "name," Alize is a rung or two beneath that. They simply don't have the resume or name value to warrant much beyond being enhancement talent. However...I don't hate any wrestler standing up for themselves if they believe they are worthy of more screen time. I also doubt it was as simple as them seeing "3 minutes" on the rundown sheet and ghosting. I might have read it wrong, but wasn't there a segment with them and TayJay prior to Collision? I didn't see the segment, but I can understand Newell and Alize feeling like, "Hey, we had a segment to build to the TayJay match, the match should probably be at least 5-6 minutes and competitive, especially after we lost last week too." And, if you're Newell and Alize, you might also be thinking, "Hey, isn't this the place where TK is kinda known to let wrestlers take risks with their characters and sink-or-swim? Well, we'd like a chance to swim as the first openly dating/lesbian women's tag team*." The only reason this story became a story is because its kinda been a slow news week, the power of Twitter/X, and the fact that the 24 hour news cycle exists in the pro-wrestling bubble just as much as any other sport. It is also a story that, in and of it itself means very, very little (as noted above, Newell hasn't been relevant for at least 4-5 years now) but does make for a fun diving board into more abstract topics like what the value of NXT is now compared to years ago for young talent. In hindsight, I also feel bad for Newell and Alize a little. They made a bad long-term decision based on what I presumed was short-term optimism. I think they believed that they would come into AEW, do their thing, and land contracts in short order based on Newell's minor "name" and the fact that Alize had put in plenty of work in ROH not long ago. I think they believed that was enough. I mean, why wouldn't it be? Doesn't AEW just sign anybody and everybody? Well, once upon a time, sure, but AEW's women's division is no longer desperate for bodies. It still can't touch the WWE's division in star power or experience level, but AEW also doesn't have to just settle for WWE's hand-me-downs (and their girlfriends/boyfriends). I can understand Newell and Alize wanting to come into AEW at the first opportunity, but their best move would've been to "barnstorm" a bit more, to get over on the indies and on the internet and to possibly test the waters internationally. I don't know if it's a super trustworthy site but Cagematch lists only about a dozen matches over the course of a little over a year between Newell leaving the WWE and coming into AEW. And none of those matches saw her tagging with Alize. If there were something worth developing with the two working as a tag team, utilizing their real-life relationship to inform their work to generate buzz...well, if it gets over, there's your ticket to an immediate push in AEW. But that didn't happen. It didn't even come close to happening. What about Nixon Newell in October 2025 made her more deserving of being more than enhancement talent than she was in July 2024? If you're going to stand up for yourself, you need more than "I had potential 5 years ago." Any talk of Nox coming into AEW, even in the nerdiest corners of the IWC, dried up probably by September 2024. Anyway...I've written way too much about a topic that I actually find incredibly, incredibly unimportant. * I'm not saying that "gimmick," even if it is based on reality, is a good idea or a bad idea or a corny idea or a novel idea. That's for others to judge, to love or to hate. I just bring it up because, if that is the "gimmick," if the fact that they are a real-life couple and also a tag team is going to be their "thing," well, you can see why they might want more than 3 minutes and being used as enhancement talent to get over with what would undeniably be - for better or worse - a big swing of a concept.

^ Me too. I loved the chaos. I loved the electric crowd. I loved the emotion at the end. Nakano's powerbombs were nasty. The chain stuff was great. Some great suplexes throughout. I like when high risk maneuvers don't look perfect and its clear why they are considered "high risk." I don't even mind when Kong doesn't quite connect with the Uraken because, well, a boxer doesn't always connect with their best jab either. What keeps me from really loving this, though, is actually the backwards layout. I'm not the most well-versed guy in Japanese wrestling so maybe I'm just not familiar or appreciative enough of what they were doing, but this match starts as an absolutely WILD brawl, eventually turns into something resembling an actual tag match, goes back to being complete CHAOS with giant bamboo sticks and chains and scissors and then...turns into just a really good, if not great, tag team match. Instead of their being an escalation of violence, the match goes from incredibly violent to, for lack of a better description, fairly "tame." Again, maybe its ignorance of joshi coming into play, but its a bit jarring to see a match that is so wild and crazy settle into a more traditional format for its 4th quarter.

I was happy to see Andrade back...until they immediately put him in the ever-expanding Callis Family. Him re-debuting by attacking Omega was an immediate "big impact" move. And then, an hour later, he's off to the side, standing there next to Okada and Fletcher and a bunch of other dudes and, just like that, he's back to being just another guy. One step forward, two steps back. Also - how come every single wrestling fan who comments on Reddit, X, Facebook, a forum like this, etc. recognizes that Andrade's best presentation was with a female manager and without the gimp mask but wrestling promoters don't? Its not like Zelina Vega was the female Paul Heyman or the 2nd coming of Sensational Sherri. Surely there's some beautiful bilingual woman somewhere that can be his manager (and maybe help him update the look).

He made my list last time and I expect he'll make it again. I have rated 44 matches in my database and his average is a fairly strong 3.04-out-of-5, which, for context, would put him above guys like DDP, Sean Waltman, Dean Malenko, and Rob Van Dam. And that's just his matches and not taking into account his promos or character/storylines or just personal preference for what they do. The highest rated Pillman match I have from his WWE run, aside from the Canadian Stampede match, is against Dustin at IYH: Ground Zero. I wrote this on my blog about it way back in 2016: "Unlike their match at the previous month's SummerSlam, this one has good heat and a number of well-received high spots, including a huge suplex on the steel ramp. Pillman eventually gets the upper hand and Goldie puts just as much energy into his bumping and selling as his opponent had. Goldust gets the upperhand back and launches Pillman into the guardrail from the top rope and, minutes later, lands his Curtain Call finish but is unable to capitalize due to a ref bump. Marlena tries to make the save, but one can guess how that ends up. Solid opener that the crowd enjoyed and improved on their previous match considerably."

^ Mostly same feelings. * I didn't mind the opener as much as you, El-P. I'm not a big Edge fan, but I liked the bells-and-whistles here and almost always have time for FTR and Christian. Plus, the pre-match stuff with Wendel Clark and Bubbles from Trailer Park Boys popped me. I agree that I don't need to see Beth Phoenix compete in AEW when there's not a storyline reason for her to...but I wouldn't shit on it immediately if they did come up with a good reason for her to get back in the ring. I just don't see what the story would be when she has no history in AEW or any unfinished business with any of the AEW women. Maybe Stokely recruits someone like Megan Bayne? A Bayne/Phoenix match on a random episode of Dynamite is not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but I wouldn't hate it outright. What else is Bayne doing? * The Kingston match was the worst match of the show. One of several puzzling TK decisions. Even on paper, I'm not sure Kingston/Big Bill is a pairing that was ever going to work, especially with both guys coming in cold. HOOK's return was a head-scratcher too. Like...this was what all the videos were leading up to? The same guy coming out with the same look to go right back into a "hamster wheel" storyline vaguely associated to The Learning Tree? Speaking of bad returns, the Jack Perry/Luchasaurus reunion was probably the worst return angle in recent wrestling history. Just super dumb. It was like watching an NBA All-Star missing a fast break lay-up on a 5-foot Fisher Price hoop. I'll break it down because it deserves to be shit on piece-by-piece: the Bucks lose, good call, but kinda got some face pops throughout the match because they did cool stuff and let everyone else shine (which has always been their saving grace even when their characters are at their most despicable). Jack Perry shows up to get revenge on a team that has just been through a 20-minute ladder match, which is a heel thing to do, and eats a superkick because its a 2-on-1 situation. He gets no sympathy because he was aggressor. The lights go out and a video plays of Jack Perry "revitalizing" Luchasaurus...who actually returned a month ago at Forbidden Door to replace Nick Wayne. I'll admit, I missed whether he fully turned on Wayne and Sabian on TV or was taken out by them (which would explain why he needed to be revitalized) after teasing a face turn at Forbidden Door but they didn't mention it on commentary so I don't know. ANYWAY...the lights come back on and the Bucks, one of the most meta teams ever, have their backs turned to Killswitch because they've never seen a wrestling show before or had this happen to them before (even though I would swear its happened to them multiple times and they've actually pulled the same ruse themselves). Luchasaurus takes out the Bucks with a double chokeslam and then him and Perry embrace, reforming Jurassic Express. So...Perry's plan was to come out and get beaten up and that was the cue for the lights to go out and the video to play?? Great strategy, moron. This would've been so, so, so much better if they had followed the ol' K.I.S.S rule (Keep it Simple, Stupid) and saved the return for Dynamite with the Bucks doing something heelish and nefarious, beating up someone the fans have sympathy for and drawing heat, and then Perry and Luchasaurus coming out to make the save. Or, hey, don't even have it be the Bucks. Have it be Hechicero and Alexander and Don Callis because, y'know, they're full-blown heels and not the Bucks, who have spent most of the past three months eating shit because they're no longer EVPs and basically working as a comedy act. * As terrible as that angle was, though, there was still so much to love on this show. The main event was AWESOME. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but like I've said about Ospreay's work, if you're going to give me a "fireworks" match, give me the best "fireworks" imaginable. And, to be honest, I actually thought, considering the style of the match, they did let things "breathe" quite well and the high-impact stuff was sold sufficiently (ignoring that, yeah, we got close to 40 minutes of Fletcher taking some of the nastiest head drops ever). Kyle Fletcher is either going to be paralyzed 5 years from now or considered the best in-ring worker of his generation, its one or the other, no in-between. His execution on everything from the running boots to the powerbombs was NASTY. * The hardcore matches - MJF/Briscoe and Allin/Mox delivered - and I liked both women's matches, especially the shock ending to the 4-way. On a show where practically every outcome was predictable, Statlander winning the belt was unexpected but also felt earned and like it is leading somewhere interesting with the quasi-mentorship from Wheeler Yuta. One of the best PPVs I've ever seen, warts and all. Oh, and Takeshita/Okada/Dorado was great too. Takeshita is one of my favorites of the past few years and, like Fletcher, I just want to see him constantly in the mix from now on.

We all knew it was going to happen some day, so why not this year? As far as on-screen performance, I don't think anyone would confuse Stephanie McMahon with Meryl Streep and, in terms of charisma, she pales beside her old man and her brother. That being said, as a tool for WWE's creative team, she was incredibly valuable and, in pro-wrestling, what sometimes matters more than acting chops, inherent magnetism, or the "It" factor is believability. Stephanie played the role she was born to play - Vince's naive, innocent daughter who ends up being every bit as cruel, vindictive, and egomaniacal as her father. She was believable in the role because the most important part - whether we could believe she was Vince's actual daughter - required no suspension of disbelief. Over time, another key element - her marriage to Triple H - also took shape requiring no suspension of disbelief. We believed in The Authority Angle against Bryan Danielson and Big Show and Dusty Rhodes because we knew the on-screen characters' hatred for the WWE Universe's chosen heroes was an extension of the real life power that Stephanie and Paul Levesque held (even if the debate on how much real pettiness/animus leaked into the storyline is debatable). I do think its a bit odd that she's getting her flowers when, at 48 years old, she's relatively young to have her career celebrated. Typically, when people say they are eager to do less work and spend more time with their family, they do it when their kids are relatively young, not a few years away from college. Then again, Triple H's semi-recent health scare may have changed things. I also think, with each passing month, the company is less and less the "family business" it once was and more and more a completely corporate entity with its most powerful executives not having the McMahon surname. Steph and Triple H will always be there, but at this point, the "content" of the WWE has never mattered less. Delivering quality storytelling is like 12th or 13th priority now. Its also a bit surprising because one would imagine that John Cena, retiring in December, would be due for a big Hall of Fame induction this year as so much of 2025 has been about his farewell tour. There's also The Rock. And then there's Brock Lesnar and also some scuttlebutt about Chris Jericho possibly returning to the WWE. Obviously any of these other people could join her in the Class of 2026, but these are all names that are arguably "headline" inductions independently.

Whether the Saudi government ever outright owns the WWE is sort of a moot point if the company's number one benefactor/backer/sponsor is the Saudi government. In a book I can't recall the name of, the author makes a similar point about the stars of the NBA. Sure, to most sports fans, we'd consider the Lakers franchise to be LeBron's boss. But they're not. His contract with Nike is way more lucrative. He makes more from Pepsi than he does from the Lakers. These are the companies Lebron actually works for. The more money the Saudis invest into the company, to put on shows there, to make Saudi Arabia the "global capital" of the WWE brand, to use it as a PR tool, the more the WWE's number one boss becomes Saudi Arabia. And I do think, in time, we're going to see even more noticeable effects from it beyond just the major shows being held there.

I'm far from an AJ Lee or CM Punk stan, but the full segment of her return has like 4.5+ million views on YouTube. Meanwhile, various return vids of Nikki Bella maxed out around 700k. Within 2 days, AJ Lee's return also surpassed Brock Lesnar's (which happened a month ago) in terms of views. It might not interest you, but "hard to imagine a less exciting return" is just bad hyperbole. To be honest, I think the real appeal here and the reason this story has resonated is because the Rollins/Punk feud has been a big deal for over a year (even if many of us are sick of it here), CM Punk remains super over with the WWE audience, and Becky Lynch has done a great job as a heel and the audience wants to see her get her comeuppance. It's just classic pro-wrestling. As Jim Ross used to put it, there are alot of "personal issues" being played out in a "wrestling drama" and, though we've seen it a hundred times, its not really super common for the WWE to do a major mixed tag storylines that is treated seriously as a top-of-the-card attraction (I mean, didn't the last one involve Snooki?).

Haven't watched the main event yet, but I did think Cena/Paul was good for what it was. I disliked the Cody match for a number of reasons and I could see the argument that this match was more of the same with them going overboard on the "movez" and finisher kickouts. But this match worked more than that one because it didn't have also be a No DQ grudge match, wasn't coming off a "let's just pretend the past 5 months didn't happen" face turn, and didn't go 35 minutes. This match went long, sure, and I certainly wouldn't call it a masterclass in psychology or storytelling or pay-offs. It was Cena and Paul doing every single move in their repertoire and some that were in other people's. If that doesn't sound like a good time to you, steer clear. I theorized that Cena was washed based on his work from the Rumble up till last month and that this was the real reason he was choosing to lean-in to bad tendencies (as a way to get heat in a meta sense by working at half-speed, calling his spots even more, only doing finishers, etc.). It now seems those decisions were less about his physical drawbacks and more just a risky decision to change his in-ring style as a heel and it was just a bad call. Oh well. What is more interesting is that this is the first match - unless I'm mistaken - in which Logan Paul didn't do any real heel tactics or take any shortcuts. There were no brass knucks and no run-ins. Michael Cole was putting him over big on commentary. Are we heading for a Logan Paul face turn? Would the audience accept it? I'm not sure how effectively they can position him as a babyface...but I don't think its impossible. I'm curious what would happen, for example, if they ran Logan Paul vs. Brock Lesnar. They're both pretty polarizing figures and its unclear how the audiences will react to Lesnar once he is on TV more and more. The initial pop may have been one of genuine surprise from his appearance and not necessarily a "Welcome Back" reaction. Meanwhile, the more Logan Paul appears on TV, the less he's a "non-wrestler" and the more they can build him up on commentary as a guy who is brash, arrogant, maybe too self-possessed...but also fully-invested in wrestling and no longer taking shortcuts to be the best. And, toe-to-toe, Logan Paul is going to go in as the underdog from a visual standpoint.

Having just watched the Donnybrook match against Rusev from Clash in Paris, I had to go back and look at my list and was a little surprised that Sheamus wasn't on it. Now, in 2016, I was, admittedly, not a big fan of him but I've definitely come around and am thinking he's almost guaranteed to make my list somewhere in the 70-90 range. I think what changed/clicked for me with him was that, for awhile, I thought he was a guy who needed a great dance partner to be impressive, whether it was Danielson or Dustin Rhodes, but then he just amassed such a great catalog of matches with so many other wrestlers that it became undeniable that he wasn't just a big, meaty broomstick. Some post-2016 faves: - vs. Ludwig Kaiser vs. Bron Breaker (Survivor Series 2024) - vs. GUNTHER (Clash at the Castle 2022) - w/ Cesaro vs. The Usos (Survivor Series 2017) - vs. Jeff Hardy (Backlash 2020) - vs. Drew McIntyre (Fastlane 2021) - vs. Matt Riddle (WrestleMania XXXVII)

Most certainly on my list and I may even be the high voter on him. One of my favorite Foley matches that I think is a bit "slept on" is the 2-on-1 tag team match he has against the New Age Outlaws at SummerSlam 98'. Here's my blog write-up for a few years ago when I re-watched it for the first time since it probably aired: Mankind defends both WWE Tag Team Championship belts against the New Age Outlaws in the next match. This is another unexpected treat and unique match. Mankind's tag team partner was Kane, but as the Undertaker had said on Heat, Kane was not going to be appearing. After his legendary fall from the top of the cell at King of the Ring a few months prior, Mankind was basically a "tweener" - popular with the fans, sympathetic for his naivete and trusting nature, but clearly being manipulated by Vince McMahon into doing heel things. People talk about the Bloodline storyline being one of the best the WWE ever produced, but I'd nominate Mankind's work in 98' to be right there with what Roman and the Usos (and Zayn) have been doing. Anyway...the Outlaws come out to a big pop, but you can tell the audience is fully behind Foley too as they cheer for every one of his offensive maneuvers. I like how this was booked as Foley, the King of Hardcore, is able to hold his own at times but never really seems like he's going to win because, at almost every turn, the numbers game cuts him down. There are also some legit great spots in here - a proto-Conchairto by the Outlaws with cookie sheets, a great-looking swingin' neckbreaker on the concrete from Mick to Billy Gunn, an absolutely vicious Russian Leg Sweep from the Outlaws that sends the back of Mankind's skull into a steel dumpster, and a two-man powerbomb through a pair of chairs. This match works because the Outlaws get to look like serious ass-kickers (there's absolutely none of that lame Road Dogg dancing shtick here) that will do what it takes to win the championships and Mankind gets to prove how tough he is. The only thing that doesn't quite work for me is the post-match, though, again, to the WWE's credit, they didn't do what I expected by having the Outlaws praise Mankind for his toughness. Instead, after getting the pin, the Outlaws actually berate Mankind a bit and throw him into the dumpster (a very heelish move, but, again, DX weren't supposed to be lovable babyfaces, so it actually makes sense that they would gloat a bit and be obnoxious). Once Foley is in the dumpster, we get a surprise appearance from Kane, who emerges from within it and then strikes down Foley with a sledgehammer (we don't actually see Foley get struck by the way it is filmed). Its a cool visual and cleverly puts the heat onto Kane and off of the Outlaws. I'm on the fence over whether or not this is must-see, but, then again, this might be the most entertaining match the Outlaws were ever involved in from beginning to end. (4/5) With Foley, I feel like, sprinkled throughout his career are these little matches that shouldn't work or be memorable and then, fuck, did he just get a good match out of Van Hammer? And, maybe most impressively in 2025, while he does take ridiculous bumps, its not like he's eating up 20 minutes to make every match an epic. The match described above goes under 6 minutes. Sure, its loaded with crazy shit, but, to be fair, unlike so many modern guys who might do the same level of violence (or more) and spread it out over the course of 20 minutes, Foley's hardcore matches get incredible sympathy from the crowd and he consistently sells these big spots and, if you're going to do this sorta thing, wouldn't it be more realistic if the fight ended after 10 minutes? I know there are plenty of times Foley went long too, but if you're getting your head smashed into metal things repeatedly, and its 2-on-1, it makes sense that you're put down quickly. This same match today would needlessly go twice as long, feature twice as many unrealistic hope spots, and probably feature at least one overly-choreographed sequence instead of just being the best version of what it should be, a one-sided massacre with maybe a few glimmers of hope.

Here's the thing I don't get about the Karrion Kross work/shoot stuff: What's the endgame here? When they did a similar thing with Punk in 2011 with the Pipebomb Promo and him "leaving the company" with the WWE Championship after Money in the Bank, it was awesome because, well, CM Punk was awesome in 2011 (and John Cena also played his role really well as the reluctant "Corporate" guy who didn't want any favors from John Laurenaitis [an avatar for Vince]). It was a great storyline that they, unfortunately, bungled within a few weeks...but the point still stands, for a brief moment, it was very compelling TV and CM Punk solidified his place in the main event that summer. Then, a couple years later, they do the whole Danielson story with him being "held back" by the Authority. Again, it was a flawed storyline in many ways and I'm not even going to get into the fact that the WWE went kicking-and-screaming into even running in as the main event of Mania that year. The point is, it worked because Danielson was mega-over and was consistently backing it up with the best match on the card for months and months - tags, singles, gauntlets, whatever. But Kross...Kross is not as charismatic as Punk or as good a storyteller in the ring. He's obviously not on the level of Danielson. He's not a beloved comedy character like R-Truth (who people didn't want to see released but didn't necessarily want to see pushed either*). Kross is maybe a C+ worker on his best day and probably wouldn't even rank in the top 20 on the roster for charisma (and that's without including women, which would probably push him into the upper 30s). They've given him PLE matches and none have been anything above good. At least LA Knight has had a handful of matches where you can see why he got over. Kross' online support seems to be entirely based on the idea that he was "held down" more than any real argument of his merits as a worker. And, often times, when you do hear someone make the case for him, its a wrestling-version of whataboutism (such as, "But Jey Uso also sucks and he got to win the Rumble!" or "Solo Sikoa has been pushed even more and even longer and also has boring matches"). But at the end of the day, you can't really argue that Kross deserves more just because there are other guys who are boring, or "all entrance," or overexposed. So what's the endgame? Karrion Kross returns as some sort of unsigned vigilante to attack whoever? And it will lead to an eventual match where he will, if history means anything, once again put on a dull, forgettable 15-minute performance? I mean, if you're going to run this sort of angle, do it with someone whose actually good at wrestling. * The sentiment with Truth felt more like people saw the WWE boasting about all this revenue and record-breaking attendance but then got cheap when it was time to re-sign a guy that was really well-liked.

Welp...there goes the record viewership. Tripling the price of the PLEs will effectively price me out of watching them and I'm sure I'm not the only one*. I also think, as much as there are certainly people who watch a ton of major sports and also follow the WWE, there are probably lots of people like myself who really don't follow sports enough to subscribe to a sports-centric platform like ESPN. At least with Peacock, you got the Dick Wolf-iverse, some good movie releases (still need to watch Phoenician Scheme), and the occasional great original series (AP Bio, Killing It, Paul T. Goldman, Mr. Throwback, Laid). At $10.99/month, it was basically the same as the Network cost-wise too. Obviously, from a business standpoint, the WWE is making HUGE money with this deal, but personally, this will force me to pirate the PLEs and/or go back to being someone who really only follows WWE by reading results online (which is basically what my fandom amounted from 2006-2014, post-college [when my buddies and I watched the PPVs at BW3's] and pre-Network [when I couldn't afford to order more than maybe 1 show a year]). On the bright side, with the company continuing to dig deeper and deeper into its MAGA Era and recycling feuds and storylines that I don't care about, there has never been an easier time for me to fully call it quits on being a WWE viewer. I'll miss Rhea, IYO, and Gunther, but even among that group, IYO and Gunther are basically just padding their resumes at this point and there's probably dozens and dozens of matches of theirs I haven't seen that I can watch on YouTube from pre-WWE. And because Blehschmidt mentioned AEW, I'll say this: If I'm HBO/Tony Khan this morning, I'm getting on the phone this morning and hammering out a deal to put the AEW PPVs on HBO MAX. I do believe that the WWE Network/Peacock deal played a key role in the WWE's success over the past decade and some of it had to do with the sheer ease of becoming a fan that the Network (and later Peacock) afforded. Like I wrote above, pre-Network, I was not ordering PPVs (maybe 1 a year), watching the TV shows regularly, or going to live events. I followed mostly online. Then, they made it so I could get every PPV for $9.99/month and access their immense library. I still never became a regular TV viewer, but there's no question that it re-ignited my fandom and that, over the next decade, through just my subscriptions, they made over a thousand dollars from me (I know, I know, drop-in-the-bucket) where, pre-Network, they made closer to 0. They made it so simple and so affordable to follow the product. Following AEW is still a little cost prohibitive, requiring either cable or an HBO MAX subscription, and those only getting you the weekly TV and the library. The next step is the PPVs. You add those and, with the basic HBO MAX plan being $9.99 (ad-free being $16.99), and HBO MAX offering a shitload of other consumer-friendly and appealing programming that the ESPN platform can't and won't, there could be a mass migration of wrestling fans in 2026. I mean, when this transition happens, there are going to be a ton of wrestling fans who are going to be left high-and-dry and scared off by the $30/month price tag of an ESPN platform they can't justify subscribing to who might look at HBO MAX, with its lower cost and significantly broader content, and consider making the jump (or are already subscribed but don't follow AEW because the WWE is their "go to"). Throw in the PPVs, which are routinely stellar, and the pendulum swings where it will be easier and cheaper to be an AEW fan than a WWE fan. * Unless this new platform will be bundled with my Hulu? Like Disney+ is? As far as I know, I do not currently have ESPN+ as part of my bundle.

I haven't watched most of the shows yet, but...John Cena is back to being a face, right? Ignoring the optics of the Lesnar return, to me, the WWE Creative/HHH/The Rock/whoever only being able to get 6-7 months of content, which was, *at best,* forgettable but at times outright Wrestlecrap (Travis Scott, the R-Truth fiasco), out of JOHN CENA TURNING HEEL is about all one need's to know about the WWE's creative direction and storytelling in 2025. I mean, say what you will about an ethically bankrupt, racist, misogynist, sex trafficker like Vince McMahon but he at least knew a decade ago that Cena turning heel was a creative dead-end. I won't put too much blame on Cena himself - in fact, I wrote many times after Mania that Cena deserves some credit for taking a big swing and trying to work as a post-modern "meta" heel, even as he was actively striking out - but it does go to show, you can't really half-turn if your whole shtick, for 20 years, was being the ultimate babyface. Cena tried, unsuccessfully, to "play a heel" within the parameters of the show but then do absolutely none of the work to "live" that character outside of it and so the audience could only play their part at booing him up to a point. And maybe a smarter, more clever performer would've been able to find a tone that could made this dynamic fun and entertaining. He didn't. At least not for longer than the occasional promo. His "heel turn" simply didn't go far enough and it fizzled out around June or whenever Cody returned to unremarkable/nonexistent fanfare, "Main Event" Jey Uso (who does seem to open a lot of shows for being a "main eventer," right?) and Logan Paul were weirdly and unfittingly in Cena's orbit, and all anyone could talk about was how awful the company was for releasing a Cena-adjacent comedy midcarder. So Cena's big heel turn, a storyline that should've been epic, ended up being a total nothingburger. People Power. The Nexus Invasion. Cole vs. Lawler and the Anonymous GM. The Vince Paternity mystery. Y'know...stuff that people remember more for "What Could've Been..." rather than what happened. I don't think you needed this storyline to help "make" anyone or put a new star over either, but Cody Rhodes is less over than he was a year ago and Orton/Punk/Jey didn't really benefit longterm from their bit roles in this saga either. (And it is worth noting, if they did want to at least sorta get someone more over with this storyline, even in a loss, someone like LA Knight or Damien Priest standing up to Cena would've likely worked, but hey, at least we all got to see a recycled house show match as the main event of Backlash instead). So now we get the old babyface Cena back to finish his career...but who even cares? Who even "missed" the "old Cena"? How could anyone? Babyface Cena only left for 6 months, a forgettable blip in his career and likely to end up being the punchline of a joke in his eventual HOF Induction Speech one day, nothing more.