DMJ

- Cargill doesn't need to be part of BCC. I know her work isn't great (yet?), but she carries herself like a star and I love how "alpha" she comes across, treating Smart Mark Sterling as basically her underling. I don't think she's ready for extended promos or big storylines, but she's really maximized the 1-2 minute backstage segments she's been given. No need to bungle that up by putting her in a stable where she'd probably be simultaneously showcased less but also exposed as not being up-to-snuff or "fitting in." Even Yuta still has quite a bit to prove as, sure, he's coming off a great match with Mox, but looking ahead, he now has to keep up with with arguably two of the top 4-5 most over, most experienced wrestlers in AEW (hell, of the past decade in any US promotion). - Guevara and Tay are definitely turning heel. I think what we're seeing now is Tony wanting to finish a storyline before moving on and, as we just saw with Wheeler Yuta, I do think Tony likes to map things out and "run his offense" rather than just switch things up the minute something doesn't work. Obviously the live crowds and social media are not into Sammy and Tay as babyfaces, but they're also locked in a feud with the company's most despicable heel group (a group that is also a really bad candidate for a "double turn" angle). So, I expect that we'll get Sammy vs. Sky on TV within the next few weeks (Sammy promised to have some sort of big surprise for next week that will make Lambert's group agree to the match) and that's where really good news comes in for Tony Khan. The fans turning on Sammy is actually a huge benefit as, if Sammy was over as a babyface, the amount of shit he's talked would necessitate him winning the match because he'd otherwise be totally castrated...But because the audience dislikes Sammy so much right now, the heels can outsmart him, Sky can retain, PVZ can prevent Tay Conti from making the save, and it won't hurt Sammy nearly as bad because Sammy's future doesn't really hinder on credibility anymore as it does heat. A week later, Sammy can blame his loss not just on Lambert's crew and their treachery but also on the fans who are jealous of him and Tay Conti. As for Sky, keeping him and All Ego and Lambert heel isn't too hard when you have guys like Samoa Joe and Keith Lee around to challenge for the title. There's just no real reason to rush through this storyline when, no matter what you do, the audience is not going to be cheering for Sammy Guevara in his current persona and it may take awhile for them to ever cheer him again.

Very solid first night. A few thoughts... - I found it interesting that the Corbin/McIntyre match, from the pre-match videos to the Moss interference that basically turned the tide from a dominating heel performance, really was all about Happy Corbin and not at all about Drew. You insert Ricochet or Damian Priest or whoever in that match and its the same match. Going forward, I'm not sure if its not Corbin who gets something resembling a bigger push than Drew but, based on who the match was "about," it was 80% Corbin and 20% McIntyre. - I disliked the Cody/Rollins match. It was 20 minutes of All Ego Wrestling to me. The best part was Cody's return, but from there, it just felt like any other Seth Rollins "Crossfit Jesus" showcase/self-conscious epic, needlessly long and didn't do anything for either guy. There's an old showbiz saying that you leave your audience wanting more, but they opted to give us everything and it was too much for me. This wasn't like Punk or Daniel Bryan's debut in AEW. Tony Khan wisely built - even if just for a week or two - towards Bryan/Omega and Punk's first match. With Cody, we didn't just get a return match, we got a long, back-and-forth match where his opponent, who, in kayfabe would've been completely unprepared for Cody Rhodes, was not only prepared for him and countered all of his signature moves, but initially laughed at him as he made his way down the aisle and then kicked out of his finisher. I get that Cody Rhodes is not the wrestler that's going to come in and steamroll someone like Lesnar or Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania XII, but this match could've been 10-12 minutes, Rollins could've sold being unprepared (which would warrant the continuation of the feud), and Rhodes could've got the big "welcome back" win and that would've told a story that would've left me wanting more. They did the opposite. Another example of why I just don't "get" Rollins. When he's a heel, he works like a babyface that has too much grit and toughness and doesn't act cowardly or cheat enough for me. When he's a babyface, he puts on too much of a showy, "flashy" performance for me to want to root for him. Biance and Becky went 20 minutes because the match warranted it, the "epicness" earned after months and months of build. This match went 20 minutes because they wanted to go 20 minutes to prove they could "go" despite it not serving any purpose. Obviously, it wasn't a "bad" match; Rollins and Rhodes and nearly everyone in the WWE these days are too good to have actively bad matches. But it was the wrong match to have (to me). - ...Which brings me to the crowd. They enjoyed it all. Watching from home, the amount of time between matches feels endless but I'm guessing that when you're there, that amount of time may actually work in favor of the show (especially one where each match goes 10+ minutes). As a guy who went to countless local indie/punk/rock shows from my teens through my 20s and well into my 30s, it was not uncommon to go to a show with 4 bands on the bill. You'd show up at 9 or 9:30 and the first band wouldn't even be on and you'd wait till 10:15 and that band would play for 20-30 minutes. Then you'd wait another 20 minutes, smoking cigarettes and drinking beer and doing whatever else, and the next band would come on and do another 20-30 minutes and so on. This WrestleMania was kinda like that, with a half-dozen segments that went 20-30 minutes. At home, the lack of variety was noticeable to me, but had I been there, I probably would've been much more into a match like Cody/Rollins going long. - Speaking of the crowd, can you imagine Flair/Rousey at a place like MSG? I liked the match more than most - though, I'm way less harsh on Charlotte than many - but this was the biggest genuine heel/heel match since WrestleMania XX and at least that match had Steve Austin in it to get some cheers. People hate Charlotte because she politicks and is sloppy in the ring and also because she trolls the audience with her moonsault and other moves (if you don't think she's fully aware that her moonsault has become a "thing," you should check out some interviews with her where it's quite obvious she's fully aware of her social media reputation). People hate Ronda Rousey because she called wrestling fans "ungrateful idiots," called pro-wrestling itself "fake" on multiple occasions, and we can go on...But this match had "big fight feel" and was worked physically and aggressively and, fuck it, I liked the goddamn professional wrestling finish. Is it enough to get Rousey over as a face? Of course not. But that's basically impossible anyway. I still liked Charlotte beating Rousey because Charlotte knows how to use a ref bump to get a W and Rousey, not being a "real wrestler," doesn't. Unlike Rollins/Rhodes, this match has me interested in seeing the next part of the story. I know I may be in the minority and I'm not surprised that this match has been called "the worst of the night" by nearly everyone, but those poor reviews are also unsurprisingly vague and void of any real criticisms. What about this match didn't work? Was it really 'boring"? Criticize the very idea of booking a heel/heel match as a WrestleMania bout and I'm not saying this was as good as Belair/Lynch, but, geez, if this is a "bad match" then a viewing WrestleMania IV should probably be considered the 7th circle of hell. - Is it just me or did anyone else like the SD Tag Title Match more before you knew that Boogz got hurt? Without that knowledge, what I saw was Rick Boogz attempting a Double Samoan Drop, an inherently risky move, having his knee buckle, and then the Usos capitalizing on his failure to go after Nak, deliver a sick combo of an awesome superkick (with one Uso holding Nak in place by his hair) and then hitting their finishing move. If there was more that was supposed to happen before that, sure, it kinda sucks they couldn't do the full match, but it didn't need anything more than we got. It was a damn good opener that, with Boogz "taken out" by his own inexperience/over-confidence on the big stage for the first time, made perfect narrative sense. On a show loaded with false finishes (most good, even), a straight forward tag match without too many needless false finishes stood out to me.

I actually found her speech a bit grating. I think it was "overwritten" as they say. Maybe she speaks that ornately in real life, but to me, it came across as unnatural, especially as, at tiimes, it seemed like she was over-enunciating. That being said, I did think it was cool when the fans chanted "You deserve it" for her as obviously the reaction to her being inducted was "mixed" at best on the internet/social media. And, having seen how deeply moved and appreciative Booker was to see his wife get that moment, I think turning the HoF into a participation trophy isn't really all that big of a deal. I mean, a guy like Tyson Kidd or Alicia Fox are not necessarily wrestlers/performers with Hall of Fame credentials, but its nice to think that one day they might get their moment too.

To be fair, being paired with Ziggler is the first step in no longer being paired with Ziggler and going on to better things years later (Zack Ryder, Big E, Drew McIntyre).

AEW haters can't have it both ways. On one hand, they like to say that AEW has a bloated roster and take all the "WWE rejects." Then they'll come back and complain that they didn't re-sign Marko Stunt or Joey Janela? To me, AEW has fat to trim. Big Show, for example, is a guy who, at the time, seemed like a questionable-but-understandable signing, but as Tony Khan admitted in a recent interview, the influx of talent from WWE releases has changed what AEW is/could be. Tony said something along the lines of "I thought we'd be competing against Adam Cole for years" rather than having him on their roster. I think the same is probably true of Andrade and Keith Lee and Malachi Black and Kyle O'Reilly. These guys were all seemingly "the future of the WWE." Even Swerve Scott might fall under that category. Then you've got Bryan and Jeff Hardy (and Regal too). Daniel Bryan main evented last year's WrestleMania! I don't think Tony thought he would be "in play" for AEW a year ago. Things change. If you're trying to build the best wrestling company you can, at a certain point Marko Stunt becomes expendable so you can hire a legit star like Jeff Hardy or even a producer/coach guru like Regal, widely acknowledged as one of the best wrestling minds around. If I'm really putting on my Nick Khan hat, I could probably name 5-10 guys or gals who are signed to AEW that should be cut. At least Tony is just not re-signing them (rather than releasing them early) and, from what I can gather, still allowing them to work for other companies (mostly), promote themselves independently and not taking a cut from their Pro Wrestling Tees stores, etc. Its not perfect and we're still talking about the shady pro-wrestling business which will always benefit the promoter over the wrestler, but, yeah, I'm not quite ready to jump on the "Tony Is As Bad As Vince" bandwagon yet. I'm sure we'll get there sooner or later, but not re-signing a lower midcard act is not going to be my final straw.

I think its less the vax thing and more that Sasha walked out in 2019? I don't remember all the details of that story, but getting "burned out" might have something to do with where she is on the pecking order. Though, to be fair, its not like she's been buried. She's still up there in the Top 5-6 and her and Bayley were very prominently featured during the Thunderdome year. Its just that everyone took a step back down the ladder when Ronda returned, Charlotte is at the top, Bianca and Becky are the top heel and face on RAW, and Sasha is then right below those 4.

Re: How "cold" the WWE seems right now: * Here's what I wrote on February 13th: "Ronda's return isn't quite as out of touch as bringing Goldberg out for the umpteenth time, but it certainly lacks the same oomph that her initial debut had...The die-hard wrestling fans who went gaga over Punk's return, Danielson's arrival in AEW, and now Keith Lee's debut collectively shrugged and moved on from Rousey's return within a week." Ronda just isn't the same level of star as she was 5 years ago and though her first run had great matches in it, it ended on a sour note at Mania and then an extended hiatus where she came across as quite bitter about her experience, specifically the fan response to her. Whether its the reality or not, its hard not to view Ronda's decision to return as being a business-first decision after her Hollywood career fizzled and it became clear that save for a very unlikely UFC return, a big WWE contract is her last best option. In 2018, Ronda was the badass MMA star who seemed genuinely excited to be in WWE, a longtime fan coming in sporting Roddy Piper leather and a contagious grin. In 2022, Ronda has none of that infectious energy. Who could blame her if she is, in fact, jaded about what being a WWE Superstar is? The problem is, its just not very fun to watch her or Charlotte these days (another performer who is clearly a little bit "over" the business, whatever fun she once had performing now only coming through a handful of times a year if at all). * Steve Austin coming back would be the biggest story of the year...if he hadn't come back and done these same sort of angles/segments once a year for the past decade and it was actually leading to a match. I rank it up there with CM Punk coming back a few years ago and co-hosting that WWE talk show. The initial buzz was there, but as it became clear that Austin was (a) not actually coming back to wrestle a real match and (b) was, as of press time, not going to be appearing on Raw to do any sort of real build, that buzz wore off. When CM Punk co-hosted Backstage, the question of whether this could lead to an in-ring return garnered real hype, but it didn't take long for Punk to nip that discussion in the bud and, unsurprisingly, the buzz of having him in a semi-commentary role on FOX wore off too. Seeing Austin again is going to make for a great segment and the Dallas crowd is in for that treat, but what really makes this segment different than the ones we've got on various RAW anniversary shows over the years? Nothing. * Lesnar and Reigns are arguably doing the best work of their careers, but it doesn't change the fact that this is the 3rd time they've headlined a WrestleMania against each other and while the first battle was excellent, their subsequent matches have not been able to recapture that magic and, in some cases (like their last Mania encounter), been outright bad. There's also that pesky subset of fans, even if they're a small percentage, that are sick of the "same ol' shit" booking that has essentially turned the WWE's main event into a 2-horse race for the past 3 years with guys like Lashley, Big E, and McIntyre (not to mention a guy like Bray Wyatt, who had considerable fan support) getting squashed left and right just so that Lesnar and Reigns can go into their sixth PPV match looking as unbeatable as possible. And don't get us long-time fans started on whether or not Vince really has the guts to piss off USA and/or FOX by keeping the WWE and Universal Championships unified for more than a couple weeks... * The Undertaker spent most of his career hidden by his gimmick, comfortable letting his work speak for him. Then he retired and started doing interviews and letting the WWE produce a documentary about him and, lo and behold, some of us are no longer as quick to idolize him. That toxic locker room culture that guys like Mox and Jericho and others wrote about in their books? That toxic locker room culture that's been exposed a bit in a whole bunch of documentaries and TV shows about 90s wrestling? Undertaker was the leader of it. And now every other week he seems to be on a radio show spouting nonsense about how "the new generation" doesn't know how to get over, or isn't tough enough, or isn't "masculine" enough or whatever. They say don't meet your heroes and we've now met the Undertaker and he's, well, not great. But even if he was awesome on Twitter or wasn't sporting Blue Lives Matter shit, Taker also tarnished some of his legacy with one needless "last ride" after another over the past 5 years. This induction feels like just another send-off after his last big send-off (Survivor Series 2020) after his last big send off (the Last Ride documentary) after his last big send off (against Reigns at WrestleMania 33). Oh, but also he tagged with Reigns in 2019 and had a whole slew of "non-cannon" matches in Saudi Arabia in the past 5 years. But this time he's really saying goodbye...At a certain point, the WWE's hype machine went so far into making The Undertaker seem like this mythical hero that its become sillier and sillier to view him this way with a straight face and appreciate what he accomplished. At this point, I and probably many other fans are kinda over the Undertaker worship. * The rest of the card is just kinda there because the company has made it clear over the past few years that nothing really matters aside from Reigns, Lesnar, and whatever legend is returning next. Even the celebrities involved this year seem to be miscast. Like, wouldn't it have been better for Knoxville to be feuding with some monster - like Omos or Lashley - who would theoretically launch him effortlessly around the ring? Like, this is a guy who took a punch from Butterbean. This is a guy whose been gored by a bull. This is a guy whose taken all sorts of painful shots to his private parts. I'm not sure I get why wrestling a match with a very well-trained, very professional worker like Sami Zayn would even rank in the top 100 riskiest things Johnny Knoxville has ever done or be particularly suspenseful. If you're gonna bring a stuntman in, he should do a fucking stunt. But Johnny Knoxville having to eat a whole bunch of powerbombs or release germans or table bumps from Lashley? That would've been more interesting, if actually less fun, to me. Fortunately, Zayn is so great I think the comedy aspect of their pairing has been good enough so far to make for a decent segment at Mania, but y'know, again, as far as being a "spectacle," there's none of that.

Well, there's your Hall of Fame headliner for next year. I'm not much of a HHH fan, but I'm sure he still thought he might have a match or two left in the tank before this all went down.

In my blog review (Kwang The Blog), I noted the same thing and why it bothers me even more with Diesel/Nash than other heels. As a face, Nash was cool and cocky, but he was also quite often presented as being smart, or at least smarter, than monsters from the past. Even compared to fellow "monster" babyfaces like Hogan and Warrior, Nash wasn't this over-the-top id-gone-wild who was so emotionally-charged that he'd get lost in the heat of battle (see Hogan at WrestleMania IV for a great example). Diesel was well-established as not just being a 7-foot brawler, but also of having learned a few things in his matches with Bret Hart and his love/hate relationship with HBK. By this point, Diesel was Diesel in name only as he was 99% transformed into the Kevin Nash character in WCW (note, even in his pre-match interview, he basically spoils the finish of the main event by challenging Shawn for the Championship and not "the winner"). And because Nash was no idiot, him not taking the win and then celebrating comes off as not just stupid, but not in line with his character. For Sid or Kama or whoever, sure, because they're dolts...but for Nash, it just doesn't quite work. What I would've liked to have seen is for Nash to only hit one Jacknife and then maybe go after Bearer or the urn instead of just gloating.

FIghts go as long as they have "too." Bruhs, first of all, you meant "to." Second, ending a sentence with a preposition is okay, but not great. For guys trying to control their narrative, they should probably brush up on their elementary school Language Arts.

So, in January, MLW filed an antitrust lawsuit against WWE. I'm not super knowledgeable about all of this, but based on what I've read, it seems like WWE is using AEW's success to basically say, "Hey, we can't possibly have a monopoly if there's another wrestling company that's doing comparable TV numbers on a major network, etc." I wouldn't necessarily call this a brilliant, bulletproof defense, but damn, to my ears, its pretty f'n good.

I'm a medium-sized Cody fan but him jumping ship was never going to be a game-changer and his wisest play was to get a nice big deal with a nice big signing bonus as quickly as possible. It wasn't going to take long before Vince and most others recognized that when it's all said and done, we're still talking about Cody Rhodes here, not some wildly popular underappreciated talent who fans saw as being "held down" (like Jericho in 99') or some international main event star finally coming to WWE (like AJ Styles) or guys like Lashley and Drew who were both McMahon pet projects when they left, had tremendous looks that Cody doesn't, and had really shut up many of their detractors with their work in Impact (Lashley's respectable MMA run didn't hurt either). Compare that to Cody and there's just not that much to get excited about after the knee-jerk reaction of "The AEW Guy Is Back in WWE." What are the big Cody "dream matches" that people are salivating for? Even the rumored WrestleMania plan vs. Rollins reads on paper like two guys thrown together because they both need matches, not because there's some sort of "dream match" scenario going on.

Didn't mean to double post but, hey, maybe it needed to be double posted? Sorry.

Fuck this shit with a capital F. I joked earlier about how stupid the name Butch was and I stand by that joke because it is stupid, but fuck this sucks if Big E is hurt. They did him dirty on that bullshit title run and have been doing him dirty for at least 3 years. This guy had everything in being a top babyface. Charisma, over as shit, legit athletics...yeah, stick this guy back into his hamster wheel tag to bump for lower midcarders in nothing matches on hamster wheel Smackdown. Fuck off, WWE.

Fuck this shit with a capital F. I joked earlier about how stupid the name Butch was and I stand by that joke because it is stupid, but fuck this sucks if Big E is hurt. They did him dirty on that bullshit title run and have been doing him dirty for at least 3 years. This guy had everything in being a top babyface. Charisma, over as shit, legit athletics...yeah, stick this guy back into his hamster wheel tag to bump for lower midcarders in nothing matches on hamster wheel Smackdown. Fuck off, WWE.

Came here also to say...Butch? Makes me curious what Adam Cole's new name was going to be when he was put into a similar role. It feels like forever ago, but I remember seeing Dunne/Bate at NXT Chicago and being unfamiliar with both guys but thinking Dunne was the more charismatic, memorable, intense performer and that even if his size would've prevented him from being a main eventer, he had enough to be in that midcard mix against Kofi and Ziggler and Zayn, etc. (remember, this was 2017) as a regular in the midcard, a perennial IC/US Title guy that would put on great matches to fill TV time. Like, sure, Dunne isn't going to main event a WrestleMania, but Dunne vs. Sin Cara on Superstars? Yeah, that'll work for me. Now he's going to be Spike Dudley dressed as a Newsie? Eeeeesh. Not a good start for a main roster run, Pete.

Yea, I'm sure there are more than a few that people would also call great. Maybe an idea for a new thread ("Great Midcard Title Feuds Post-2000") as its completely unrelated to AEW. I personally despised the Ironman match they had and have never really been a huge Rollins fan, but Ziggler/Rollins was a well-received feud in other corners of the internet that weren't here.

Its all in the booking for me. To me, if your World Champion is a babyface, you gotta put the secondary title on a heel so I'm glad its on Scorpio. That being said, he seems colder than he should for a guy who just won a championship. I'm not sure who they should've went with instead or who I'd have preferred really aside from Miro getting it back upon his return. I'd also just add that I don't agree at all that secondary titles should've gone out once the territories died or World Champions started to appear weekly. The TV Title still felt like a big deal in the mid-to-late 90s in WCW and it made total sense that guys like Booker T, Benoit, and Alex Wright competed for it. It made less sense when Lex Luger had the title in 96'. Same for the Intercontinental Championship - though, things get a little spotty around 99' and then mostly worse from there (because, hey, WWE's booking, for the most part, gets spotty around 99' and mostly worse from there). On a side note, the last great IC Title feud that comes to mind immediately, for me at least, was probably HHH/The Rock in the summer of 97', but I could see the argument that, booked properly, we should've had even better feuds involving Jericho, Benoit, Guerrero, Angle, and others in 99' and 2000...only, IIRC, they had these constant title changes, things got muddied up with the European Championship still around, and you still had Chyna, D'Lo, Road Dogg and Val Venis regularly involved in the division, with none of them necessarily blending well with the Radicalz (or at least not as seamlessly as Angle did).

I'm sure it'll be a fun segment, but Austin's words make it clear that it is more of a "confrontation" than a "match." Austin is probably in my top 5 favorites ever - I think I had him at #1 on my GWE ballot even - but it really hasn't been 19 years since his last appearance. I guess this is special because there's a storyline involved as opposed to him just showing up and stunnering random heels like he did at WrestleMania 32 or the McMahons for the zillionth time (like he did at the Raw 25th Anniversary show), but a look at his wikipedia reveals he also gave stunners to AJ Styles, Byron Saxton, and the Street Profits all within the past couple years. In-person, these were all probably really fun to watch, but its hard to get excited about seeing Austin give someone a stunner on TV when, truthfully, its not really anything new.

Long overdue. I'm not sure if Vader gave a shit or not, but it would've been nice for him to go in when he was still alive just to get that pop in person at the ceremony. Does Foley do the induction?

...because only this company sees her get babyface cheers against Charlotte last year despite being "evil," sees her get babyface cheers in Saudi Arabia despite being "evil," sees her get babyface reactions every time she appears on-screen on RAW since returning, has sold a ton of merchandise with her likeness (so much so that I'm thinking Bliss' success made Wyatt more expendable), and still inexplicably believes their programming is better served by keeping her off TV until the fans learn to boo her.

We can (and should) probably open up a thread about how terrible Kane's views are, but because this is PWO, maybe we can just stick to how overrated and not good he is as a worker? Like, based just on the number of Good-to-Great matches under his belt, guys like Nash and even Braun Strowman blow Kane away. Kane's best matches were probably his tags with Danielson and maybe 1-2 matches in the 00s against Rey and Triple H (?) but aside from that, yeah, he's got like 20 years of filler on his resume. There's something to be said for consistency, but shit, at least Nash has genuinely awesome matches against Bret and Shawn and even some fun stuff in WCW and TNA (I know, I know). Just sayin', you put Kevin Nash in his prime as Danielson's teammate against the Shield and those matches probably go from 3-star to 4. Does Kane have even one singles match as good as Braun had against Roman? For a guy who was at it as long as Kane was, who was protected as long as Kane was, who had matches with all the bells and whistles as Kane had, his actual output of matches that are "must see" is what? 3? 5 tops? Yeah. Even for a guy who "wasn't supposed to have great matches," he's got less great matches than guys like Bossman who existed in a whole decade-long era of US wrestling where having "great matches" wasn't even really a thing for big men.

- Not sure who Sable's friends were in the WWE or if she even had any, but I think it'd be cool to have someone like Jacqueline Moore induct her. - I'm glad they're iinducting Taker. The longer they wait, the more his legacy is tarnished really, so, might as well do it now before its muddied up any further. Obviously, he took a heavy hit from wearing all that pro-police gear in the Last Ride documentary, but I think its also become clearer to more and more "smart" fans that Taker's reputation as being the lockeroom leader actually coincided with years of a really toxic, awful backstage environment. For a long time, it feels like people, myself included, didn't connect the dots but for all the talk of the Deadman's integrity and respect for the business and the stories of "Wrestler's Court," when you actually think about it, he was basically just King Shit in a kingdom of bullying, harassment, rampant drug abuse, politicking, and borderline sexual assault...I mean, when you hear about the veterans mocking the younger generation for only caring about video games and vegan food spots, it does make you think, like, what were vets saying a "real" wrestler should care about? Flashing your junk at stewardesses? Buying a case of Jack Daniels for the boys cuz you didn't shake a guy's hand the right way? Good riddance to that bullshit.

- I'm definitely confused as to what Cody gains by going to the WWE. I think just saying "big payday" is a larger question mark than people think. Sure, Cody will likely have a larger contract in the WWE, but that also usually means more travel, working more dates, less of a take from merch sales, less freedom to outside opportunities (no way does Cody's relationship with TBS continue after this, though, I doubt he was making much from either show he was on)...I don't know, just seems more complicated than saying the WWE is offering him some massive deal when one has to imagine the folks in WWE are aware of what he was making in AEW and what his market value is. Cody Rhodes may have raised his value since leaving the WWE, but has he doubled his value? Tripled his value? I dunno... - I've been called a conspiracy theorist for believing that Stephanie McMahon may eventually dip a toe into politics (and actually do well), but didn't Cody say he wanted to run for a Georgia Senate seat? As Kane proved (and Jesse Ventura before him and, well, Trump too, I guess), these days, a memorable run in the WWE is a faster ticket to an elected position than military service or years of community activism or any of that nonsense, right? I can see a scenario where Cody is thinking short-term with pro-wrestling and long-term with the Cody Rhodes brand and platform. Having got all the bloody brawls and actual wrestling out of his system, why not go do the thing that could make you something close to a household name? - That being said, Cody will never be at a Brock/Roman level (not that he'd need to be to win a seat in state or even federal government). Still, when he left, he wasn't even at The Miz's level, let alone Rollins level. In terms of babyface reactions, the best he can probably hope for is a KofiMania type run and I don't think that's likely because he's not as likable as Kofi Kingston or Big E or even Kevin Owens. So, the big babyface run seems like wishful thinking even in a company that desperately needs babyfaces. Its unclear where Cody fits into the hierarchy but its definitely no higher than it was AEW. Below Reigns and Brock, obviously, but I'm thinking he's not going over Rollins either and if you compare the body types, I doubt Vince views Cody as having the same stature/credibility/marketability as a Lashley or McIntyre (both of whom have also been firmly positioned as lesser than Reigns and Brock this year too). So, if Cody was sixth or seventh on the call sheet in AEW, in the WWE, he'd be closer to eight or ninth...especially when you've got guys like Edge and Goldberg hanging around *AND* a much more developed women's division. In AEW, there's no woman that can really challenge Cody's star value. In the WWE, he's a lesser star than Ronda, Becky, Charlotte, and arguably Sasha too.

Ronda's return isn't quite as out of touch as bringing Goldberg out for the umpteenth time, but it certainly lacks the same oomph that her initial debut had. The landscape has changed significantly and Ronda Rousey is no longer the name she was 2018. A cursory glance at Wikipedia or IMDB is all you need to know about her star power in 2022 compared to 2018. Is she still a big star in the world of wrestling and combat sports? Sure, she always will be... But it should be noted that Keith Lee's debut in AEW has more views on YouTube than Rousey's most recent appearances on SmackDown and its not even remotely close (about 150k for the Rousey/Charlotte video posted by WWE to over 1.8 MILLION for AEW's Keith Lee video). Even if we just compare Rousey's return at the Rumble this year, with its respectable 2.3 million views, we're still talking a considerable drop compared to the views of her 2018 debut (6.9m views for the WWE-produced video and another 4 million views for the ESPN-posted video). We can debate whether these statistic means anything at all in terms of actual dollars and cents, but the one thing that can't be argued is that Rousey is the same level of superstar she was 4 years ago. The die-hard wrestling fans who went gaga over Punk's return, Danielson's arrival in AEW, and now Keith Lee's debut collectively shrugged and moved on from Rousey's return within a week, while the news of her return barely made a blip on the radar of mainstream sports fans and media. She still brings value, obviously, but that value can no longer come from just her name. If she can deliver great/remarkable matches, I think she can "heat up" again - much like Lesnar did after ending the Streak and ragdolling Cena around, two matches that weren't technically "great" but were undoubtedly controversial/remarkable - but its not going to happen via awkward promos and beating fans over the head with accolades from 6 years ago.