The first part covers Jeff Jarrett’s background, talking about his father, growing up as a 3rd generation wrestler (or someone involved in pro-wrestling). We see how he’s groomed slowly to enter into wrestling, forsaking college because he smells the money from his father’s territory. For myself, I recall Jeff Jarrett back in the USWA days and even teaming with Jerry Lawler. I can’t recall whom he feuded with but remember how Jerry cut a promo about Jeff “teaming with the devil himself,” which was a standard Lawler type of promo.

Eventually, Jeff joins the WWF where he gets an infamous gimmick as a wannabe country singer with the song “Ain’t I Great” matching his catch phrase of spelling his name outloud like some used cars salesman. He has a solid run for a few years there but never breaks through the main event, despite having very good matches with people like Shawn Michaels. In turn, he bails and shows up in WCW for a year or two as part of the Horsemen (or tried to be) for a short stint (and no one wanted him in that role). I don’t think the Dark Side covered that portion. However, they did show him returning and dealing with Owen Hart’s tragic demise, the whole “the show must go on” and how Jeff managed to compartmentalize the situation at the time since his match would be next. Another funny bit was an infamous story of Vince wanting Jeff to job for Chyna with the IC title on the way out so supposedly Jeff held up Vince for 200k.

After leaving WWF for a 2nd time, he returns to WCW with the guitar gimmick, uses the horrible “slapnuts” catch phrase and would one day win the main title. Part of that was due to Vince Russo showing up and convincing the (mis-)management he was responsible for the WWF’s success via the Attitude Era. But Jeff’s run would eventually come to an end later on when Vince McMahon would purchase the pennystock-like assets of WCW and fire Jeff on live TV to embarrass him, which is thought to be from the grudge of holding Vince for that 200k.

Having nowhere else to go, Jeff with his father Jerry Jarrett, spin up TNA (actually it was a version of the NWA and later adapted the name TNA). Jeff talks about his vision for the show being a hodgepodge of styles as well as pushing what would become the modern style in North America, particularly through the X-Division. They did try to be different in having the 6-sided ring and the special X-Division matches that would highlight lighter, more agile guys (except Samoa Joe) effectively do an advanced cruiserweight style. That was in addition to the tag division, the heavyweight division and the Knocksout division (which came a little later).

The one crucial missing person during this period from the show was AJ Styles. While there were other important people, AJ Styles pretty much would be the real homegrown star here in becoming synonymous with the moniker “Non-Stop Action”. As the company quickly grew, the problem was going to be money. Even though the seed money was from Jeff and Jerry, they wouldn’t be able to make payroll at one stage. Their main backer at this point had a problem with their CFO and effectively pulled the plug.

In turn, they went hunting for a new source and came across Dixie Carter, whose family was connected to a company called Panda Energy. After hooking up, Panda Energy (via Dixie’s father) through them a lifeline but at the cost of forcing Dixie to be close. Things weren’t going well behind the scenes as Dixie started to take control. Some key office people like Jim Cornette, Dutch Mantell and Scott D’Amore would be gone at different stages as Dixie would slowly gain power behind the scenes.

Now, let me pause and mention that there was a small period between say 2005-2006 where TNA was really good. I think Russo got the boot for a period (there’s a famous “shoot” with Piper blaming Russo for Owen Hart’s death in the before era) and the book had been under Scott D’Amore. I remember that the wrestling itself wasn’t bad but the booking felt incredibly stale. At some point, Scott D’Amore got pushed aside and Dutch, etc. took over. Also, they acquired Christian Cage and Kurt Angle. I thought Christian did his best singles work during this period both with his promos and in ring. Unfortunately, he didn’t enough time to establish himself since Kurt Angle would make his entrance and that was a HUGE deal for TNA. There were a lot of eager, hungry talent who wanted to work with Kurt and we got to see stuff like that tremendous Kurt Angle vs Samoa Joe meeting.

Along that period, they started to establish their tag team division with Beer Money and their Knockouts division. Awesome Kong and Gail Kim would have one of the best female pro-wrestling matches on North American soil with a great basic storyline that hooked people and drew. More Knockouts would come in and there seemed to be some hope that a serious female division could receive more TV time.

However, things wouldn’t stay great as Russo came back to work and it became evident that things were going to be stupid. I don’t remember the exact match but I recall something involving either the Dudley Boys or Abyss and the crowd vehemently chanting, “Fire Russo!” because they knew anything stupid would involve him.

I think incidents like that allowed Dixie to get more sway and bring in Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan. But many people online at the time knew the minute Hulk entered he would bring his friends. Sure enough, the Nasty Boys and Hall/Nash appeared. The Nasty Boys in particular looked awful because Knobbs was in horrible shape (really fat) while Hall was dealing with his own demons. For myself as a fan of what I had hoped would become an alternative, I knew this promotion was dead in the water. Bad vignettes or backstage promos would happen like the Main Event Mafia, which was another Russo idea of the Young Boiz vs the Old Fart Gang would happen. I know a few people have accused some of those people that TNA acquired of using this opportunity as a “rest and vest” strategy. Considering Hulk lasted 4 years, you can tell he was just trying to suck this promotion dry until the next thing appeared for him.

The show mentioned the abysmal failure of the re-ignited “Monday Night Wars” when Bischoff convinced Dixie to move their TV to Mondays to compete against Raw. The various talking heads admitted that the idea was bad because TNA didn’t have the production value of Raw. And it’s true because TNA had mostly broadcast from the Impact Zone, which looked small. Even for PPVs, they used that tiny Universal Studios set to conduct everything. At least with Nitro, you’d get different arenas around the country with better pyro and crowds. But no one wanted that Monday Night Wars competition. It wasn’t the same condition where the WWF had become horribly stagnant and needed a major kick in the pants via a worthy competitor with deep pockets and big names.

They did cover the Karen Angle/Jarrett love affair, which in all honesty I don’t remember happening on TV. At that stage, I might’ve just zoned out and had been watching more WWF or returned to Japan. But seeing the small clips of it play out on the Dark Side, I imagine I would’ve just found something else to do given the choice to watch that kind of crap. Heck, I really hated the whole Elizabeth – Macho Man wedding at that one Summerslam because it was bad. At least, the Uncle Elmer ceremony got one good line from Jesse Ventura.

Also, they covered Jeff’s first wife’s passing. That probably was the most emotional part of the show because no one said anything bad about her. Even Scott Steiner had a moment where he needed to leave the room. But you could tell the emotional toll it took on Jeff where he still had to run the company and take care of his children.

This later episode moved into Dixie Carter the bitch. There’s no other way to put it. The one person that they tried to get to show up simply decided she wanted no part to at least defend herself. So in all likelihood she moved on. But I think wrestling fans of TNA and many of the people involved with the promotion would universally say she really had no business being there. The minute she started showing up on TV as a character was the official beginning of the end for her. The only positive one could say about her is that she’s a MILF type but it’s hard to say why anyone would want someone of that nature. But everyone involved practically buried her here and rightfully so.

Panda Energy/Dixie’s father would put their foot down and pull the plug, the company would be sold to Anthem where it’s basically a zombie promotion at this stage used as a kind of rehabilitation and training center for ex-WWE wrestlers or potential new signees (which they might not get in the future). They did talk about Jeff forming Global Wrestling and how he got tricked into merging it with TNA that led to him breaking down completely and becoming an alcoholic.

The redemption part was him hitting rock bottom and his wife (apparently) being responsible for getting him back on track via rehab. They used the WWE Wellness group (or whatever it’s called) and he committed to becoming sober. The one thing here he admits that I think is interesting was admitting what made him an addict. Effectively, it’s the various heavy burdens he’s been carrying for a while from his distant father growing up, Owen’s passing, his wife’s cancer, his creation of TNA (and Global) getting ripped away from him. So the addiction was more of a way of coping to try and forget those issues or bury them deeper.

Of course, they talk about his WWE Hall of Fame induction and where he is now with AEW and what he’s doing behind the scenes as a trainer, working with younger talent, his entry into the Owen Hart Cup tournament, etc. So there was a light at the end of the tunnel for this show for him. They also mentioned how TNA still has Jeff’s DNA inside of it, even though TNA in its current stage of undeath is a far cry from where it was at its peak.

Either way, pretty good start of the latest Dark Side of the Ring season. Can’t wait for the others!

The post Dark Side of the Ring: Jeff Jarrett & the Battle for TNA Review appeared first on Kontroversial Keith.

I am going to come off bias about the wrestling back then because the modern stuff has evolved into this unwatchable entity for me. I think after seeing various people in person get injured and some tragedies, I mostly have been turned off by what we’re seeing now. Back then, it was still pretty harsh for the wrestlers but I think the style had a little more credence and was less dangerous than what is presented these days.

JWP 11/29/1999 Korakuen Hall

I mentioned this was the first show I attended out there. The attendance was reported to be around 1100 but I have my doubts. At this stage, JWP was barely on a lifeline and both Devil Masami and Dynamite Kansai were about to jump ship to GAEA. The one star that they were going to transition to in Hikari Fukuoka had retired and the next batch of four weren’t really ready to take the spotlight. I think Mayumi Ozaki had gone freelance and mostly worked in GAEA as one of the chief antagonist to Chigusa Nagayo while focusing on her part time Oz Academy promotion, which did occasionally feature Carlos Amano from JWP. By this point for Ozaki, I think she probably had gotten fed up with JWP’s management and distraught a while back over Plum Mariko’s passing.

From my memory, the show was not remarkable at all except for the one incident of poor Kana Mizaki getting injured. A run down of the card:

The post My First Trip to Japan and Joshi Puroresu appeared first on Kontroversial Keith.

The main point with the NWO split was to finish up with Hogan and Sting, which to me was probably the best thing WCW had ever produced business-wise. From there, he wanted to use the situation to move forward towards another major conflict between two wrestlers (possibly Sting or Hogan and someone else) or two groups. Ignoring the unremarkable title run and match Sting had (both times with Hogan), it’s obvious that the direction would eventually point to Bill Goldberg and Hogan. I think Sting wasn’t the same guy we saw back in ’89 – ’92 where he was energetic, exciting, loud and could rally the fans. However, Goldberg was and he had the explosiveness that could’ve carried WCW for a few more years if the stupid shock stick incident never happened.

As for the split, Bischoff apparently did not want the separate NWO faction to happen originally. I think most people who were watching could agree that at a certain point the NWO got flooded by lesser talent that diluted the group’s star power. And once the Red & Black NWO faction formed, the group had played its course much like a series digging for anything to keep relevant but continuing to use the brand because it sold well. For myself, I think I lost a lot of interest around that point in the American products until The Radicalz jumped ship to the WWF and WCW tanked but part of the issue was the repetitiveness of WCW. This was even before Vince Russo got the book so it wasn’t just his issue.

The next part is where things get muddy but is quite interesting in terms of the politics inside of the company and the upcoming AOL-Time Warner merger:

Somewhere along the line, I got a phone call from Harvey Schiller, who said he’d just gotten off the phone with Ted Turner, and Ted wanted Thursday night TBS to have its own show, just like TNT did. So I was told I had to come up with another two-hour program in prime time at the same level as Nitro. At the time, it’s like, what do I do? Oh, I know — I’ll give the NWO the Nitro show, I’ll give WCW the Thursday-night show, and we’ll have our own intercompany rivalries, no different than Raw and SmackDown. It’s the brand-extension idea, really. The crossover, the drafts, all that nonsense makes a little internet chatter, but there’s no real money in it. That was the original plan, which was partially the reason the NWO started to get bigger without it making a ton of sense, because we were building up to whenever Thunder debuted — it must have been ’98 somewhere in there — partially so we could eventually do the split.

My first instinct about hearing this talk between Harvey Schiller and Ted Turner is that possibly Harvey was not acting in the best interest of WCW here and could have been lying. It just stinks of someone trying to manipulate someone else then later getting credit if their idea takes off. Obviously, I wasn’t there and I don’t know Harvey but I think Eric should’ve gone directly to Ted Turner to affirm this part himself because it’s a pretty big deal to come up with a totally new show and I don’t know if he was prepared. If that isn’t the case, then I’d have to think Eric was lying and trying to blame Harvey for the show. Either way, this isn’t something trivial one just pulls out of a hat.

That said, I never understood why Thunder needed to exist. WCW already had at least three other shows, three of which were on Saturdays with one on TBS. Why couldn’t they have just improve WCW Saturday Night or moved the time slot rather than add another show with less emphasis (i.e. the B-Team show)? I think having yet another show simply spread themselves out even more.

As for the NWO increasing in size “without it making a ton of sense,” too much of the situation seemed ill planned or not planned at all. A few key moments that happened that were poorly conceived to me were:

• Roddy Piper revealing Eric Bischoff as the “insider” – I know Bischoff admits that he mostly did this move to get off announcing duties. But the biggest hole in the logic here was that Kevin Nash and Scott Hall bullied him up until The Great American Bash ’96 incident where it culminated in Nash powerbombing Eric Bischoff through a table. Why would anyone take a powerbomb through a table from their “enemy” then suddenly side with them? Why would Eric Bischoff turn heel and become this insider? I think if they spent some time explaining how he actually was a weasel and had been trying to kill off the dead weight of the NWA by getting the WWF’s tossed out talent, then this entire plan would make a lot of sense. But you needed that part to connect the two moments together in giving Eric Bischoff a motivation for any of this. Not to mention, how would Roddy Piper have known Bischoff’s actual intentions? Just too much missing logic.
• The NWO Nitro TV Takeover Incident – One of the worst moments in pro-wrestling TV because the NWO had finally done what they said they were going to do: take over WCW (well their TV at least). However, whoever came up with this idea of a live re-construction of a set probably never understood how it would be executed and appear on live TV. Watching the audience just sit around bored was just as painful for being at home while this abysmal mistake went on. Then they had these “matches” where it was just the NWO messing around with some jobbers or talent that they could ridicule to sound cool. Who wants to see that? I think this situation was “encouraged” to happen because of the positive response whenever Nash and Hall showed up to do commentary as well as leading up to the original Souled Out PPV, which was supposed to be for the NWO. But this single night was so bad I think they had to re-think everything while the first Souled Out ’97 was mostly a disaster except for that Syxx vs Eddie Guerrero which was decent.
• The NWO “We’re taking over!” slogan. Take over what? I never understood the need for the NWO taking over. This is where pro-wrestling logic needs to exist because once you start going into a fictitious realm where almost anything can happen that no longer resembles a sport, the facade dies horribly and why you see what we’re watching today. When Scott Hall and Kevin Nash initially appeared, it was very exciting because fans believed that the WWF was going to have a real invasion, an idea Bischoff admits he stole from stuff in Japan (e.g. NJPW vs the UWF). The problem is that the WWF was never going to let him get away with this and a lawsuit pretty much killed the kayfabe identities of Hall/Nash (as Razor/Diesel). So they pivoted. Luckily, in getting Hogan to agree to turn heel, which was something many fans who hated Hogan in WCW wanted, the situation worked. There were two particular Nitros that got major ratings because of a full force NWO attack that was exciting and made for great TV.

  The problem in the “We’re taking over” idea is that it’s still just pro-wrestling at some point. You have a match, try to settle differences, move up the ranks and win titles. Once you move beyond those boundaries too radically, it becomes impossible to take the idea of pro-wrestling seriously. So if the NWO successfully had taken over (which they did at one point), what can they do? You have a main title and you need to compete for that. You need to fill up an arena so you have to put on compelling matches that entice people to watch. But if you take over and it’s just your people in endless squash matches for no good reason, then you get WWF weekend TV that had been mostly bland since the 80s (except for the promos and occasional angle) Why would anyone want to watch that crap? If you’re taking over because you’re airing your grievances for being pushed aside or considered too old so that you can challenge for the top titles and get the top matches, then it makes more sense because you then can demand things in a more explicit, on-air type of creative control contract agreement that adds more logic to this.

• NWO Souled Out ’97 – Before I bash this PPV, let me say that the ’98 PPV was miles better and even did a decent buyrate from what I can recall. But Souled Out ’97 was a new PPV that had a different concept where the NWO were going to call the shots. The NWO were trying to have the star power and get most of Hogan’s buddies into the faction. Maybe Syxx was the best worker at that time in the entire faction, which is why he won the cruiserweight belt from Dean Malenko. But the matches here made it obvious that the NWO faction did not have the actual talent depth, especially as the cruiserweight division was kicking it up a notch and driving the more modern style up while the WCW main event scene had been faltering with Hogan and other older people maintaining their spots but not delivering on great matches.

  The other major issue here was that having a PPV like this made no sense still because people on the NWO side lost. It sounds odd but if you’re booking your own PPV and you want some sort of logic, why would you have any credible opponents? Why not fill out the PPV with job people?  Again, this is where the whole “we’re taking over” statement makes zero sense in the scheme of things. Again, I have to emphasize that a PPV could only work if the motivation of the NWO was to ensure that the people involved would be constantly given top talent and the most money. Otherwise, why take over a company in the first place? Why not just grab the titles and hold them hostage?

But as you can see just some simple ideas here with logic added demonstrates the fallacy for the NWO, regardless of their popularity.

The last key part of the interview has Eric Bischoff talking about what went wrong:

Things started getting ugly during the merger. Ted says, ‘Eric, go do this.’ I say, ‘We don’t have it in the budget.’ My boss says, ‘Doesn’t matter, find a way.’ Okay, that’s my job, go find a way. I found a way to produce the show, but the biggest challenge was that I had to bring in new talent — I had to bring in Bret Hart — otherwise I’d be looting my talent pool, filling four hours of prime-time wrestling with the same basically eight guys who drive things. So I started hiring more talent at the same time Turner corporate was slashing my budgets — pre-approved budgets, budgets that had been approved a year in advance — even though I was creating more revenue than I was projected to. They kept cutting production budgets, travel budgets, advertising, marketing — all being crushed because they were trying to manage their EBITDA, their earnings before interest, depreciation, and amortization, which was a big formula during the merger for executives who owned stock options to cash out big. So my company was being gutted while I was being asked to produce a new prime-time show with the same level of production as TNT. It was a crossroads of bad traffic.

The biggest red flag to me from this quote is where Eric Bischoff talks about bringing in “new talent” like Bret Hart. He goes on to justify these additions because of how he would otherwise “be looting” his own talent pool and filling in four hours of prime-time wrestling.  Before I talk about the budget aspect, the big problem I have here is that Bischoff had a HUGE pool of talent at WCW’s height. Even if the main event people weren’t at the level of say HBK or Steve Austin in comparison, many were huge names like Luger, Sting, Flair, etc. And they still had a few people that were coming up the ranks like DDP and Bill Goldberg. From what I recall, I heard that at some point WCW might’ve had 200+ people on their roster. How can you say you didn’t have enough talent?

The problem to me was lacking focus and relying on certain people. Outside of DDP and Bill Goldberg, WCW really hadn’t created any new stars in the mid to late 90s. The cruiserweight division as a whole managed to get over and guys like Chris Jericho, Benoit, Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero were on their way up, but they had a ceiling (which is partly why they went to the WWF) Then there was a reasonable middle card that could do well like Jeff Jarrett, Curt Hennig, Steve Regal, Raven, etc. that weren’t cruiserweights but could have been built up towards main event status. If there was one major complaint about WCW in general under Bischoff at that time, it was that there were almost no new stars and he used Turner’s deep pockets to poach the WWF’s big talent rather than developing programs that could get their internal people over.

The last point Bischoff makes is a red herring to me about why things failed under him. He mostly blames the Time Warner-AOL Merger with their budget slashing as the key failure. If that were the case, why not cut a huge chunk of that 200 person or so roster? It was common knowledge back then that certain people were making huge money but not really pulling their weight. Worse yet others had special contracts, allowing them to sit home and collect a massive paycheck. You can’t tell me that you needed to go out and find talent when you already had existing talent that could’ve been used for another 2 hour show.

Also, even if WCW didn’t have great booking nor storylines outside of the NWO, they could’ve easily filled up part of the time slots with longer matches. Like it or not, that’s the WWE’s current strategy where they focus on a few talent having longer matches to minimize injuries while their main event people handle lengthy promos. If Thunder didn’t use the NWO at all and became a pure WCW talent spot, they still would’ve had great top end people like Ric Flair, DDP, Arn Anderson, etc. to handle the promo/star duty while the undercard could be filled in. I don’t see what the real complaint was here.

At any rate, obviously I wasn’t working at WCW at the time and can only see things as an outsider (not The Outsiders) so I don’t understand the complexities of the internal politics at WCW and AOL-Time Warner at the time. However, it is frustrating to see how things evolved in retrospective. I do think most people watching around that time shared similar viewpoints at least in terms of the sheer depth of the talent roster, the lack of usage of many people and the excessive expenditure of money on numerous wrestlers for no gain. And I think many people who were fans at the time, probably could’ve booked a reasonable show and would’ve advised against some of these bad moves pulled with the NWO.

The post Eric Bischoff Reveals Original Plan for Splitting NWO from WCW and My Response appeared first on Kontroversial Keith.

While I haven’t kept up much with AEW, there have been a few key moves: Tommaso Ciampa and Andrade. When it was rumored that Ciampa wasn’t renewing his contract, it didn’t take long for him to show up in AEW. And Andrade supposedly had a wellness violation that caused him issues with his contract. He did make one initial showing but had a dispute with the WWE over a non-compete clause. Nonetheless, it was odd seeing him return after having an incident with Sammy Guevara. But I think part of the issue was trying to get back to Charlotte, despite their eventual divorce.

Yet AJ Styles did retire at the Royal Rumble, something I did not expect to come this early into the year. AJ Styles is someone who has been around for a while and still is a solid wrestler. He has numerous peers who respect him. But he was injured during a small comeback last year or so were I think he was trying for a major return. Yet his style simply might’ve caught up to him. He has said that he intended to listen to his body and that his wife/family were a huge factor in wanting to retire. At the same time, HHH mentioned he sees great value in using AJ Styles behind the scenes at the WWE.

Despite all that, one might think that there’s still a remote chance he could show up in AEW for a final run. With Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels and a few others there from the old TNA as well as an admirer in Tony Khan, it’s fathomable he might try to have a year run for his actual wrestling retirement. I’m not saying that’s for certain but the issue with the WWE has been that once they see a wrestler is past their prime, they start shoving them under the rug until they’re meaningless or worthless. A few still believe they have value like Edge so having a 2nd major option is great for them.

Then today, I read that both Johnny Gargano and his wife Candice LaRae may have decided to not renew their contracts. During the pandemic, both stayed low for a short period, mostly because Candice was having a child. But it was around that period where numerous WWE stars left for AEW. Over time though, the excitement for some of these ex-WWE wrestlers dimmed especially those that didn’t have a big name. Part of the problem is the booking in AEW in how people often lose at the start. So fans of these wrestlers have been taught not to expect much unless those people are close with those at the top or have a huge name (like Edge)

But this got me thinking about the current situation in the WWE and how the stagnation partly is due to how limited people are used compared to the past. Maybe 15-20 years ago, the TV events were still roughly the same time but we would get more matches, albeit shorter. The positive though in those days was being able to see more matches and stars. These days the matches are longer, usually energiless and with plenty of long winded promos and extended entrances that if cut down probably could contribute to 2 more matches per show. Either way, the idea that you have this group of people in their late 30s up to their 40s that still have something they might feel they can contribute being passed up especially as younger talent from NXT make their way to the main roster and get better pushes and more screen time than others who might’ve stayed loyal.

With that idea, I wanted to pose a list of people who might make a reasonable impact in AEW if they decided to switch at this stage.

• AJ Styles – The top of my list. He might not be able to do the same crazy stuff from TNA, but he’s still one of the best wrestlers in the world, maybe even better than his TNA days based on psychology. He would freshen up AEW’s main event scene immediately.
• Finn Balor – It looks like he might be getting a small push but at 44 years of age, the WWE might not put as much stock into him for being a top guy. He’ll be in the upper echelon mix once in a while but you won’t see him get one of the big titles unless a horrible disaster happens. But he would fit in well with AEW.
• Charlotte – Charlotte is moving into the Natalya territory. While he’s still seen as valuable, she’s not going to be the top woman anymore. The only major match she can have that’s meaningful in the WWE is against Jade Cargill but I feel the time might’ve passed where we might get to see it in the way both initially had desired. But having Charlotte in AEW would be a huge get for their women’s division.
• Kevin Owens – I know Kevin had an opportunity to switch and was speculated to be going to AEW at one point a few years ago. However, he said something to the effect of sticking with the WWE for his family. Right now, he’s been out for sometime as a result of a neck surgery. No one has heard when or if he’s coming back. And while he might still get a top spot in the WWE, he’s in his early 40s so that top spot is going to shrink especially with him off TV. While AEW probably would be worse for his health, it does suit his “style” better.
• Sami Zayn – Another guy who is in his early 40s. Top guy, great promo, managed to get over in the WWE. However, he’s hit his ceiling. I think when Jey Uso dropped the title back to Gunther, it removed a small window for Sami to get into a major feud for the title where he could’ve won. Now, he’s in limbo unless they decide to let him and Drew face off at WM rather than Cody and/or Jacob Fatu vs Drew. But if Kevin departs WWE for AEW, I wouldn’t doubt seeing Sami far behind.
• Xavier Woods – I was immensely disappointed when the New New Day’s heel turn went nowhere. At this point, I suspect that the segment with Big E was more to explain why he’d never wrestle again and give the New New Day some heat. Now, both guys are in purgatory. Xavier is 39 but I don’t think he’ll go much further in the WWE. He won’t make a huge difference in AEW but there’s still others that like him over there.

Conversely, here’s a list of people that I think should move to the WWE from AEW:

• Austin/Colton Gunn – Good young tag team. Their ripe for the WWE in terms of age and what they look for.
• Hook – He had a great debut and a few weeks where he showed promise. Then he got over enough to where Tony over eagerly pushed him rather than develop him. He doesn’t show much personality but could be developed in NXT.
• Kyle Fletcher – A lot of people sound high on this guy. He’s young, got size and some talent. But he needs to be produced.
• MJF – Of the AEW four pillars, MJF has the most potential to succeed as his own self in the WWE. He wouldn’t be a big fish in a moderate sized pond anymore but I think he could arrive on the main roster and start earning titles immediately. But his time is ticking and if he wants larger recognition, there’s only one spot he can go.
• Wardlow – Might not be a great choice but he probably hit his ceiling in AEW. Like Hook, he needs to develop but he’ll probably end up being like a more athletic Batista.
• Anna Jay – There’s a rumor that she might not renew her contract which seems surprising to me considering she seems good with the in crowd in AEW. But she does need to be produced to grow.
• Kris Statlander – Maybe a top female acquisition for WWE. Her major issues are lingering injuries. She worked a physical style but doesn’t have good mentors in AEW.
• Jamie Hayter – I’ve mentioned her before because she’s got talent and experience. I think she might prefer the Japanese style but she might want to challenge herself by moving to the WWE. I think she’s an underrated promo that would benefit greatly if she were produced.

The post WWE Wrestlers Retiring/Quitting Thoughts appeared first on Kontroversial Keith.

What If Magnum TA Was not Involved in An Accident

This issue is probably one of the biggest ones because the incident happened at a crucial time in NWA’s history in late 1986. Arguably, the NWA was at its height around this time with Magnum being at the forefront as the next major superstar to push into the future. In comparison to Hogan (who would’ve been his contemporary), Magnum was the James Dean at that time; an anti-hero, but highly relatable and popular with the women and still having that hard edge character that made him likeable with guys. Dusty was still hot but probably near the tail end of his career but the main other person at the top in holding the major angles for the babyface side. At that time though, Magnum was still only 27 with 5 years as a pro. The motorcycle accident forced him to retire and completely alter the booking where Nikita Koloff (Magnum major rival in ’86) was turned babyface. While Magnum still did some stuff for the promotion and was occasionally involved with angles, for the most part his pro-wrestling career was done.

While the motorcycle accident was devastating, I don’t know how much of an impact Magnum alone would have had in the NWA if the injury did not occur. The bigger issues for the NWA seemed to stem from their back office problems with (over)spending and trying to compete with the WWF. Also, one has to ask how much longer Magnum would have stuck around the NWA regardless. I think the eventually Turner buyout of the NWA was inevitable and the way it was mismanaged would have caused numerous departures. I wouldn’t doubt that Magnum would have at least had one major reign with the title (than compared to say Ronnie Garvin) by ’87 but that probably would not have delayed the inevitable.

For Magnum himself, I would think that by ’90-’92 at the latest, he would’ve eventually gone to the WWF. Whether he could have survived in that environment is questionable though because in all likelihood by that stage, he would have been repackaged and given a bad gimmick unless he was on the level of Ric Flair. In my estimation, I think the WWF would’ve tried acquiring him mostly to hurt the NWA/WCW rather than make money with Magnum at that point. If he had gained a major title run from Flair in ’87, maybe the WWF would’ve tried making him an offer and he could’ve survived the gimmick change. But he would’ve still been a midcarder at best since Vince wouldn’t relinquish Hogan’s top spot until ’93.

What If David Von Erich Survived and Kerry Von Erich Did Not Get into An Accident

I put these two situations together because of how intertwined and relevant both guys’ fates were with WCCW. I think David probably had the best all around talent of the Von Erich boys and probably would’ve played a more prominent role in the company. But it feels that his demise started the chain reaction that progressed with Mike and later Kerry and Chris. I don’t include Mike in this list because I don’t think he would have made a major impact in the wrestling business outside of how his death influenced Kerry and Chris’ own situations. But David living would have implied that there probably would have been far less pressure in Mike and possibly Chris.

In Kerry’s case, the accident severely impaired him. He wasn’t the same caliber of a pure athlete that Kevin was but from other accounts, he was the one Vince sought out (and got eventually) because he had the look. By the time, Kerry made it to the WWF though he wasn’t the same guy obviously and could not have the matches that could propel him to the top compared to Bret Hart and to a lesser extent Curt Henning. He was still popular and well known but never achieved the level of stardom in the WWF that he possibly could have if he were whole.

Yet there were other issues with the Von Erich boys that lead me to believe that some ill fated situation still would have occurred down the line. It was more about when rather than if. That said, the other question is whether WCCW would have had more longevity if David survived and Kerry wasn’t in that accident. My guess is that eventually they would’ve gotten bought out because their business strategy wasn’t great and the booking wasn’t anything remarkable. Their main strength was in their popularity with their home state but even by ’86, things didn’t look great for them especially when the WWF was making monstrous strides and the other only real competition was the NWA.

What If Bret Hart Was not Screwed Over and HBK Left for WCW?

This is more of a role reversal scenario. Bret recently mentioned that HBK and Vincent were lovers behind the scenes, which possibly is the best reason how HBK wasn’t the one fired or demoted in that situation. Whether or not that is true will probably remain a mystery. But the real question is what would’ve happened if their roles had been reversed or more appropriately where Vince decided to choose Bret Hart and HBK ended up joining his friends in WCW with the NWO?

This is a fascinating scenario because arguably the real key in all of this was Vince eventually embracing the Mr. McMahon character. That single situation is what really put Steve Austin over the top after he acquired the title. And for that one scenario to happen, it required Bret Hart getting screwed over because of how blatant that situation was. I posit that the massive success of the WWF in the late 90s (’98-’99) was due to the Austin – Vince story because of how it reflected the coming of age situation where many Gen Xers were entering the workplace who grew up with the WWF and saw a parallel in Austin vs Vince in the corporate anti-hero vs the big bad mega corps.

If Bret had stayed with the WWF, I think the stories would have been more sanitized, DX never would’ve been a thing, HHH would not have been able to gain power, Bret would not have been concussed and heavily active for another 5 years or so, Owen Hart would still be around and the shift would’ve been still Bret vs Austin but where Bret puts Austin over at WM14 rather than HBK. Austin still would’ve gone on to become the top babyface around the globe and the Rock probably would have not been too far behind but the rest of the Attitude Era would not have evolved in the same manner. But again the key is the missing Mr. McMahon piece. You can’t deny how much of an impact the Mr. McMahon character was for the WWF in the mainstream success. Vince effectively had become the equivalent of Roddy Piper vs Hulk Hogan during the Rock-n-Wrestling connection era. No one else could have replaced him. So with that being said, I don’t think the WWF would have seen the level of success that lead to their eventual IPO.

On the other hand, what would HBK mean to WCW? His arrival would’ve seemed like a tout de gras for WCW because WCW would have the main Clique members (except HHH). But I think HBK would’ve been handled as a high performing midcarder at best. I could see him having great midcard matches against guys like DDP, Booker T, Ric Flair and the various cruiserweights (namely Benoit, Guerrero, Malenko, Mysterio and Jericho). But we wouldn’t have seen him in the world title picture because Hogan was extremely controlling about that environment. Whatever headaches HBK was causing for the WWF in the mid 90s would’ve been transferred to WCW except for Bischoff to handle. Maybe the only other potential scenario as a “big play” would’ve been the eventual return of HHH because of his loss of backstage influence without HBK by his side. But without the major power plays HHH conducted (* cough * marrying Stephanie * cough *), HHH would’ve been nothing bigger than a TV title holder in WCW at that point.

What If Vince Russo Wasn’t Given WCW’s Book?

This is another huge thing to me. I would argue that even as stale as WCW had become in the late 90s, it was still salvageable. What utterly killed WCW that triggered the major downturn (outside of mismanagement) visually to me was the day Vince Russo arrived. The minute Russo arrived, the flavor of the TV instantly changed. I recall reading one recap and it was clear that he took over the formatting of the show. It was so drastic that I immediately had zero desire to continue watching, knowing all the bad stuff in the WWF in the late 90s originated from this guy. At least up until that point, there was enough of a difference in a format and quality where I could enjoy parts of WCW.

I think the main difference without Russo would’ve been prolonging the eventual sale of WCW. I think no matter what the AOL – Time Warner merger turned WCW into a freak show for the TV/internet executives who had no idea what to do with the program. So at some point, there would’ve been more mismanagement that would’ve bungled the right person to get AOL – Time Warner to sell WCW to the WWF. The difference would’ve been speed and cost. I don’t know if Eric Bischoff could’ve been able to buy it back nor if him buying it back would’ve made that much of a difference given what we’ve seen from him joining TNA with Hogan. So much damage had been done by that point that the brand suffered and alienated a huge chunk of the audience. Made a combination of Russo never getting the book and Bischoff salvaging WCW if he could’ve returned to ’96 in terms of where they gained a huge amount of momentum could have turned WCW into what TNA was trying to do around 2005-2006 or so (with a better audience). That’s still a massive what if.

What If Dixie Carter Was Kept to the Background and Bischoff/Hogan Never Joined TNA?

It’s hard to talk about the WCW scenario without taking a glance at TNA’s own situation. I think around 2006, TNA had built up a pretty good alternate brand where they were getting some great major names like Christian and Kurt Angle while developing new stars like AJ Styles, Samoa Joe and to a lesser extent Christopher Daniels along with the X-Division. Russo did some damage to the brand but it wasn’t as drastic as WCW. But I think where it hurt fandom the most was bringing in Bischoff and Hogan while Dixie Carter started to become part of the foreground. Even if Dixie Carter was a lot easier on the eyes than Tony Khan, Dixie Carter simply had no business running that company nor being a public figure on a TV show.

But Bischoff/Hogan joining felt like the beginning of the end for what TNA had been building towards. People half jokingly mentioned that Hogan would eventually start bringing in his buddies like the Nasty Boys. Then one week later, they arrived. People perceived that Hogan by that point was merely a leech and that all the harder workers especially the originals were getting the shaft compared to the other stars that were being pulled in. More importantly, neither Bischoff nor Hogan really added anything to TNA. There was the brief “ratings war” that was an embarrassment. I think people thought that the strategies Bischoff believed worked for him in WCW would translate equally in TNA.

I think by that point, people were already sick of Hogan and no one was excited to see a so-called ratings war. The people tuning into TNA at that stage were going to be what’s evolved into the modern era wrestling fans. They weren’t as interested in personalities nor so-called legends as much at that point. People like Christian or Kurt Angle were hot because they still could go and I think people saw them have a new life in TNA when they first arrived. So a big part of the problem was the mixed metaphors going on.

Now, TNA was somewhat stagnant bookwise though at least under the Scott D’more scheme from what I read and had seen. It did feel the booking remained the same week in and week out. Jeff Jarrett for a while was the top guy and people weren’t being moved around a lot. Christian and Kurt Angle did feel like a much welcome relief in terms of freshness but the product overall was stale, did not seem to grow (especially having the show in the same small Impact arena location). The X-Division itself I think became a culprit in developing what we see now as the ridiculous modern wrestling stunt matches. So in general, I think the promotion could have survived but not grown that much without some sort of drastic internal change. But that change wasn’t going to be Hogan and Bischoff.

What If Nikita Koloff Feuded with Hogan in the 80s?

Despite what I think of later Hulk Hogan, no one could deny the force he was during the mid 80s. To show the difference in mentality of the mid 80s, you have to wonder what would’ve happened if Nikita managed to negotiate a way into the WWF at his height in ’86 to face Hogan while maintaining his Russian gimmick. I mean, if Nikita could’ve retained his name and gimmick right after beating Magnum and just before the accident to enter the WWF, how would have things changed for the WWF and Hogan?

The key would have been the ongoing Cold War era, which didn’t end until ’91. Rocky IV (which would’ve been a distant link between Hogan to the Rocky series and the Cold War in general) was only made in ’85 but the USSR/anti communist vibe and propaganda were still huge pieces of American pop culture. Kayfabe was still alive which meant no one would have realized Nikita Koloff’s actual identity. I think at that stage, Vince would’ve been a fool to repackage Nikita given how hot he was in the NWA and Nikita probably would’ve had a major bargaining chip given that he was about to play a major role in changing babyface.

Given that Hogan was in a red hot feud with Paul Orndorff for most of ’86 (and ending in late ’86 around December), Nikita coming in around that time would’ve been a huge game changer for Hogan in having another major feud. Of course, Hogan would go on to have his most memorable match against Andre the Giant in ’87 at the Silverdome but Nikita could’ve been in the background being built up since the Silverdome match really was Andre’s last major hurrah. Hogan’s act was getting stale and Hogan would’ve faced Andre at WM4 but they could’ve easily substituted a super hot Nikita in that spot. I think Nikita’s gimmick vs Hogan’s patriotic gimmick would’ve played out a lot better than when they tried something similar with Sgt Slaughter in ’91.

The one issue in this is Nikita’s actual wife getting sick at the time in ’88. Given that WM4 would’ve been in March of ’88, Nikita would’ve not had the same personal issues I’m gathering since the diagnosis I believe came out in the fall of ’88. So he could’ve going in for a quick major feud then left quietly. The main thing would’ve been giving Hogan another major player to take on where Nikita checks off all the major things for a main event scenario with Hogan. But outside of having a big match with Hogan, I don’t think Nikita would’ve won the WWF world title. And I doubt that the Sgt Slaughter match would’ve been cancelled.

What If Roddy Piper Stayed with Mid Atlantic/NWA in ’84?

This is another huge what if scenario where we take the other half of the big Rock-n-Wrestling connection pieces and see what would’ve happened in an alternate reality. When you look at the lead up to “the War to Settle the Score” match/show, it’s almost impossible to see anyone else besides Piper being in that role. Piper was so notorious and crazy by that stage that almost all the other major heels could not compare. I’ve thought about scenarios like Bobby Heenan replacing Piper. Heenan had the wit and the wrestling knowledge to handle the parts but I can’t imagine him being the one to power slam David Wolfe, breaking the record over Albano’s head and kicking Cyndi Lauper. The only other two remotely capable of landing a similar position would’ve been Gino Hernandez and Ric Flair. But Gino was never at the threat level of a Piper. Flair possibly could’ve pulled it off but he was still being billed as the ultimate star heel athlete. So the tone would’ve been a lot different than the hysterical Piper. Along with that missing component, we would be forced to leave out the infamous Piper’s Pit segments and certainly would not have received the coconut smash on Jimmy Snuka’s head. Even if we had the Body Shop with Jesse Ventura, Jesse wasn’t able to compete much longer and did not have the same wild side that Roddy did at that point. That’s just how irreplaceable Roddy was in wrestling history.

On the other hand, Roddy sticking with Mid Atlantic/NWA is a scenario in itself. I think the biggest contention would’ve been his place vs Dusty Rhodes. Dusty still needed to be on top but his counterpart needed to be able to work with him. Ric Flair was good enough in that role on all fronts, which is how Dusty continued to be hot even though his in ring career was slowly fading because of age and his physique. If Piper had stayed around, there’s no doubt that he would’ve been part of the Four Horsemen. The real question then becomes what would the Four Horsemen have looked like with Piper included?

I imagine Piper would’ve been US title champion, playing a support role to Flair. Flair needed to be world champion to feud with Dusty. Tully would’ve been TV champion and stayed at that level longer since Piper was so incredibly strong and already had a relationship with Flair. Ole and Arn are the interesting pieces because Ole didn’t seem like a good fit with Piper around (don’t forget the feud they had in Georgia Championship Wrestling). Either the Four Horsemen would’ve been a five piece (with JJ Dillon) or the tag champions would’ve been Arn and Tully. I could see Piper and Magnum having the same level of a feud as Tully vs Magnum but I don’t think we would’ve got the same classic bloodbath I Quit cage match as Magnum vs Tully because Piper would never say he’d quit.

And again, the real issue would have to manifest at some point where Piper needed to confront Dusty. The problem I see is that Piper was so good and headstrong that I don’t think he’d ever make Dusty look good. Just a clash of styles and personalities. And would Piper have stayed a heel for his run there? We eventually got to see Piper as a face in WWF when he returned in late ’86. But I can only see Piper as a face if Dusty stepped away from in ring and Magnum still had his accident.

What If Wendi Richter Wasn’t Screwed Over?

Wendi Richter was another critical component of the Rock-n-Wrestling connection in the mid 80s. But her stint was relatively short because of a pay argument that ultimately lead to the “original WWF screw job.” While I don’t think Wendi could’ve been described as the best female wrestler ever, she had such a huge impact with her relationship with Cyndi Lauper and her popularity status rivaling Hulk Hogan at that time. Eventually, Wendy would resurface in the AWA in ’87 to challenge/win the title from Madusa but I don’t think it meant as much in the scheme of things.

However, I think when Wendi got screwed over, it put a massive dent in women’s pro-wrestling especially in the WWF for a few years. Even if Moolah got the belt, the situation hurt the women’s division severely because it seemed like a sign of the old guard maintaining the status quo rather than progressing the values that Wendi was bringing culturally along with Cyndi Lauper. Now, the missing connection to me is where Sherri Martel comes into the picture. Even if Sherri was the one to beat Moolah in ’87, without the screwjob, I think Wendi would’ve held onto the belt for a while until Martel came around. I don’t think Martel beating Moolah was a significant passing of the torch compared to what Sherri beating Wendi could have meant for Martel’s career and the women’s division. Also, I would have to wonder if Madusa made an earlier appearance in the WWF to face Sherri if that could’ve made a major difference before the title was phased out for a while.

What If the AWA Could Have Survived?

In the 80s, when you think of the Big Three promotions, the AWA was the third you’d have to name. Obviously, a lot of mismanagement caused the promotion to collapse with possibly the severest blunder being the mishandling of Hogan and the title. But that was merely the outcome or symptoms of other major problems. From what I’ve heard/read, some of the issues were sticking with the older guard like Bockwinkle or Verne continuing to shoehorn his son into anything major. So for the promotion to have survived, Verne would’ve needed to step back completely. Because in the mid 80s, they had good talent for certain and the best upcoming tag team in the Road Warriors. But people seemed to just pass through and nothing was sticking. So even if the AWA could have “survived” one must wonder for how much longer and in what form?

What If McMahon Had Gone to Jail from the Steroid Scandal?

This is one of the most interesting scenarios in pro-wrestling. From what it seems, McMahon had prepared Jerry Jarrett to take over if Vince had gone to jail. Also, from various accounts, the government itself just were not prepared against Jerry McDevitt, who had his shit completely together. If Vince’s defense failed though and he went to jail, it’s really hard to say just how much the wrestling landscape would’ve changed.

Even without Vince going to jail, the WWF did change peripherally after the trial. The whole Ico Pro and WBF stuff failed massively. There wasn’t as much emphasis on the big bodies with a switch to Bret Hart being the guy leading the charge for the “New Generation” of post-Hogan stars. Hogan would be gone and eventually go to the competitor of WCW by ’94. So those changes by themselves were major for the wrestling industry as a whole.

I suppose the real question is how long Vince would’ve been in jail for, which effects the outcome here. At least for Dr. George Zahorian, he was given three years of prison. So it’s hard to say how much worse/better it would have been for Vince. But if he were given at least that amount of time or more, I think not much would’ve changed about the WWF that we had seen except possibly less silliness if Jerry were in charge of the creative. The problem was that on the other side of the fence, WCW was already doing tons of damage to itself once Hogan supposedly got “creative control” and the silliness started up up until mid ’96 or so. Maybe the only two things that could’ve changed were Diesel and HBK’s positions in the WWF. I don’t think Diesel would’ve been pushed as hard and HBK probably would’ve been fired for his backstage antics. Possibly, the clique would’ve been disbanded or discouraged sooner, which meant HHH would’ve remained a midcarder at best.

However, I don’t think we would’ve seen the Ultimate Warrior return which would’ve meant HHH’s push was more solid as a result of not having the curtain call. Bret Hart probably would’ve been continued to be used as the top guy since he was reliable and still the biggest name in the company. I think Austin would’ve had a major feud regardless with Bret but it’s hard to say if we would’ve got the inaugural Austin 3:16 line that changed wrestling in a single night. If Diesel hadn’t gotten his push as the title holder, then the NWO would’ve never been as huge as it was. Scott Hall probably still would’ve gone to WCW for the money and better working schedule along with Kevin Nash, but I don’t know if they would’ve had the same impact without their industry cachet that was prominent from ’94-’96 in the WWF. Also, depending on how long of a sentence McMahon was given, we probably would never had seen Mr McMahon. I think a lot of the eventual drivers for the tremendous growth in the early 2000s of the WWF/E were necessitated from McMahon’s unending ambition.

What If Hogan Stayed with the AWA?

This is another really interesting what if because of the level of impact Hogan had on the industry. Part of this situation begs the question what it would’ve taken for Hogan to stick around in the AWA. I think obviously him keeping the title. But again even if Verne was mentally clear on that part, it’s impossible to say how long Hogan would’ve stayed and how much more the AWA could’ve grown with Hogan under Verne rather than Vince. Because the comparable situation for Verne later on is when he had the Road Warriors. The Road Warriors in ’85 – ’86 to me were the tag team equivalent of Hogan except not on the same scale. But that’s the key: scale. Verne could not plot out scale whereas Vince was looking to conquer the world.

On the opposite side of the street, if we ask who could’ve replaced Piper in that ’84-’85 period of the height of the Rock-n-Wrestling connection, could there have been another person to replace Hogan? There’s only a few candidates that might’ve come close:

• Sgt Slaughter – Of everyone on this list, Slaughter would be my number one choice to replace Hogan. Slaughter had the size, the look, the mainstream popularity (GI Joe), the gimmick and promo to rival Hogan. In fact, I think that’s why he eventually was programmed against Hogan in ’91 for WrestleMania (since Slaughter’s in ring career was winding down). The only thing really missing from Slaughter was the Greek body. However, it’s hard to see Slaughter represent the RnR side when he’s depicted as a military figure (which generally are more conservative)
• Junkyard Dog – Perhaps, the #2 most popular wrestler in the WWF around this time was JYD. JYD had a lot of the same qualities as Slaughter, not as mainstream (but would become bigger in the WWF), maybe a slightly better body at this point. However, JYD’s main weakness was reliability. A well documented drug habit along with poor matches would make him a poor person to place on top. Hogan wasn’t a great wrestler but he could still work a match enough with the people Vince needed to be at that level. JYD was on a downhill slope.
• Jimmy Snuka – Like JYD, a very popular guy. More athletic than Slaughter and Dog except for a few well documented issues. Also, never could cut a coherent promo. Obviously, one infamous issue practically killed his remaining career and he was quickly factored out of the RnW connection.
• Dusty Rhodes – Not a WWF guy for a while, but I read that Dusty was another major choice to be in the top spot. But by the mid 80s, Dusty’s career was dwindling in the ring and his body was not what Vince would ultimately want to sell. And for Dusty, his own ego and desire to be the booker/in control would’ve conflicted with Vince.

So like Piper, Hogan is almost an irreplaceable component of that era in the WWF. I think the WWF still could’ve pulled off the general vision but not to the degree without Hogan.

What If CM Punk Had Stayed with AEW and the Bucks/Omega Were Fired?

In a more “modern” topic, I think this is one of the more interesting what if scenario discussions. Arguably, CM Punk’s “firing” in conjunction with the video camera footage from the Wembly show had done a tremendous amount of damage to AEW where you can practically say that was the moment that AEW really started to plummet. I think a lot of the goodwill that AEW managed to build up especially during the pandemic was demolished in those moves. It was already bad when the first fight broke out that inexplicably (on TV at least) caused Punk to lose his title and be taken off TV for a while. Clearly though, this situation was the last straw for him and many fans as they saw that the footage was precisely what Punk had described while Tony’s version made him look like an utter fool. I think that added to the fire where the Bucks had been losing ground with the fans and might be described as the main source of failure within the company that needed to be corrected.

Instead, AEW had ended up doubling down on the indy type of wrestling. Collision, which was being used as a vehicle for Punk to have a separate show and attempt to differentiate themselves from Dynamite, ended up becoming another version of Rampage, which was mostly B-listers and indy people (i.e. Tony doesn’t really care as much). That in itself has been reflected in the gradual decrease of ratings to the point where now the most recent Dynamite has fallen below 500k. Even if Max and the alteration to the way Nielsen calculates their numbers, the bottom line is that the overall impact on their ratings has been a steady drop since Punk left. I estimate that he brought and took with him at least 200k views.

But what would’ve happened if Tony ended up siding with Punk and getting rid of the actual cancer in AEW like the Bucks, (to a lesser extent) Omega and by extension of those three, Dave Meltzer? I think judging from the direction of Collision, AEW would’ve had a more focused brand trying to cater more towards what Smackdown was back in 2002-2005. The first few shows were generally really good and seemed posed to remove AEW from the indy drek and re-creating some of the better periods of pro-wrestling during its modern height. Certain key people like Andrade, Buddy Matthews, FTR, Juice Robinson/Jay White and Ricky Starks looked to be posed to become key players in this new version of AEW.

At the same time, I think some of the indy people would’ve been pruned like Jack Perry or the Dark Order. The wrestling would’ve been cleaned up and less gimmicky while there would’ve been more wrestling oriented stories and less goofiness. I think Punk partnered with a more receptive Tony Khan could’ve produced a highly competitive wrestling program against the stagnating WWE around that time. AEW was getting a lot of really good key players but issues like injuries, bad stories/creative and a tendency to do too much etc. I think burned out their core audience that they were starting to cultivate as well as preserving the long term health of their wrestlers. Like even a 2006 version of TNA before Hogan/Bischoff/Dixie and Russo really ruined it for AEW as a mode would give me more hope about the current 2025 landscape of pro-wrestling.

Final Thoughts

While there’s certainly other major what ifs in pro-wrestling, I think these are some of the biggest that come to mind. If I think of more, I’ll do a future follow up.

The post The Biggest What Ifs in Pro-Wrestling appeared first on Kontroversial Keith.

Cody Rhodes vs Drew McIntyre

After the red hot feud with CM Punk and once Cody won WM, I thought this could’ve been the big program. Drew is great as a heel. He’s doing the “real American Dream” and should keep that going for a while regardless of the opponent just because it’s a great little thing for him to focus on in his promos. Cody as the supposed main champion feels like a side character. I’ve stated that Cody pretty much is over because he’s got a great entrance and song. Once that music ends, it’s done for him. Match was forgettable to me. Nothing offensive nor truly memorable for both these guys. Drew not winning makes him look more like a chump because of the stipulation. Quite frankly, they should’ve let Drew win because Cody is really bland right now. Either way, the stipulation was pointless.

Tiffany Stratton vs Jade Cargill

This was the match I was most (morbidly) curious about since these two have some chemistry and probably gave each other their best matches. That said, this match was practically a squash match for Jade. They did some stupid backstage skit where Tiffany begged to continue (or bitched) and she’s just horribly unconvincing when she talks because she’s been placed in the role as a babyface but is awful at it. She’s far better off as a snooty athletic Barbie Doll type that pouts and lifts her nose haughtily at everyone.

At any rate, Jade dominated the bulk of this match. Tiffany sold and made Jade look great here. Tiffany works like a babyface but can’t coalesce her promos with her presentation. At least with Jade turning “heel”, she can bring together what she always should have been from the start: a domineering monster heel. She certainly doesn’t talk like a babyface and she can’t work like one. But Jade is best when she’s just tossing smaller opponents around. I’ve stated before that Jade is the female equivalent of Sid Vicious/Justice. Sid was awful as a babyface in the WWE (even if the crowd loved him) because he couldn’t cut a good babyface promo. And his best matches were all the squashes against jobbers.

Either way, Jade won in convincing fashion and got the title. Now, I am willing to bet that at some point Bianca will face her. Possibly Wrestlemania if they planned it all out for a major comeback. I think Charlotte could still have a singles match with Jade but at this stage, the main match will be Jade vs Bianca in singles. Bianca is better suited in a babyface role and they still need to resolve the story with Jade, Bianca and Naomi. At least, with Jade turning heel, Bianca can eventually return and admit that she was wrong and Naomi was right. So there’s a natural story there. Charlotte would be the interesting match to see if Charlotte can get something out of Jade but Charlotte has gone in a completely different direction in partnering with Alexis Bliss. The other match I couldn’t mind seeing is Becky vs Jade because I can buy a heel Jade beating a babyface Becky (not the other way around). At least, that would give Becky something to work with that’s different rather than trying to put over Lyra or that goof girl.

Dominik Mysterio vs Penta vs Rusev

This was the match of the night for me. I hate three ways of multi-person matches but Dominik is great. The stuff he and Rusev have been doing is fun. I’m still not convinced of Penta as he can still show some sloppiness. But there was only one moment that didn’t look great here. What I enjoy about Dominik matches is that they’re different. He’s adopted Eddie Guerrero’s Cheat, Steal and Lie tactics but it’s not the same thing each time. They did a clever spot where Dominik tried to get DQ’d by handing Rusev the chair to Rusev but since this was a three way, there was no DQ. In turn, Rusev got a sadistic look indicating “you fucked up!” So this is a case where the lack of rules in a three way actually made a LOT of sense for once. Also, when Rusev went to pin Penta at one point, Dominik rang the bell which caused confusion on Rusev’s part. I mean, this stuff is fun for me because they can get creative in terms of how Dominik plays this sneaky bastard and it really works. This is almost Wile E Coyote vs the Road Runner or Elmer Fudd vs Bugs Bunny but it’s different each time and makes you pay attention because you have something different to see each time. Lastly, it paints Dominik as this guy who’s been growing on his own (without Liv Morgan and the Judgment Day).

CM Punk vs Jey Uso

This was a guaranteed title change so that made this match have intrigue. I think it wouldn’t have mattered who would win here but in seeing the bigger picture, it made sense for Punk to get the victory. That said, this match wasn’t bad just no heat until the final moments for me. Jey isn’t an interesting wrestler to me so Punk doesn’t have a lot to work with here. Jey is the modern equivalent of the Junkyard Dog. Great entrance, over personality, talent ain’t there in the ring. And being compared to JYD isn’t a bad thing since he pretty much was the #2 most popular guy in the WWF behind Hogan back in the day. But JYD was limited (and had his vices) so you didn’t see him with a title. He was more around for the kids just like Jey and that’s fine.

Punk winning though gives Punk a final title run (assuming that’s what this will be) and he’s either going to put over Gunther or Bron Brekker for Wrestlemania. I think if they rush to have Bron challenge Punk, it’ll be too soon. That said, having Punk as the world title holder makes a lot of sense because whoever beats him is going to get a lot of credibility (and Punk should hold this at least until Wrestlemania).

Final Thoughts

The WWE is in a really odd position when it comes to the card because a lot of their plans seemed to have evaporated especially with Seth Rollins’ injury. Apparently, he’s going to be out for around 6 months which puts him after Wrestlemania in terms of making a comeback. I don’t know if Tiffany is really injured or just going to take a break/vacation soon. But the way that match against Jade looked made it seem as though she’s going to be off TV for a while and regroup. Cody continues to be the muted token champion but the real main event is now CM Punk. They did mention having a battle royal to choose John Cena’s final opponent. Given the way things work, I’m guessing either Gunther makes his return there to beat Cena and really push Gunther to the stratosphere, leading to either a CM Punk or Cody Rhodes Wrestlemania main event title match or Bron Brekker gets that spot. Gunther is the most logical choice if I were a betting person since he’s been off TV and could get mega heat for squashing Cena.

Dominik is quickly becoming the guy to watch. I’ve said the four next big people to be in the main event by next year are Gunther, Bron Brekker, Jacob Fatu and Dominik. Jacob apparently is out with an injury or sidelined so he’s going to wait another year to catch up. Bron could be that person but I think it’s too soon. That leaves Gunther and Dominik. Even if Dominik might not be the guy taken seriously at this stage, he might be more like the Rock where he suddenly becomes super over. The only thing is that Dominik doesn’t have size so he’s going to struggle at the top. But he has the psychology as seen with how he dealt with Rusev.

That said, if I were planning this out, I’d have Bron and Bronson Reed go after the tag titles and just squash everyone until Wrestlemania. With Seth gone, that does leave the door open for Brock Lesner to fill in the main leader role. But Brock doesn’t show up enough where it really is worth much. Gunther could be the guy that takes over for Seth but Gunther probably is best off on his own. I read the other day that Austin Theory was supposed to be another member but they’d have to change his character fast because he’s been too goofy and used as a jobber for a while. I could see Heyman rehabilitating Theory’s character in the group because he would fit in with this kind of young lions concept.

Not sure where they’re going with Jey Uso though. More than likely, we’ll see more of him and Roman with Jimmy getting alienated. Either that or Jimmy gets back with the OG Bloodline. However, is that just going to be the case of the sitcom that where the main characters never get out of their constant issue? Like the Bundy’s from Married with Children never finding money and happiness? If Roman were around more consistently, this could kind of work but Roman barely is around so there’s no real point of reforming the Bloodline if their day has passed. More than likely though, he’ll turn heel or go berserk and possibly blame Jimmy for not interfering (and he was there getting a cameo apparently).

Then what to do about Drew McIntyre? Poor guy is going to bounced between Cody and Punk. At least with Jacob, there could’ve been something different. But Cody doesn’t really bring out the best from people nor are they letting him for a person in that position. So he might be in limbo again unless suddenly he turns his attention to someone like Dominik.

At any rate, kinda meh overall. Not really feeling any of this.

The post WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event 11/01/2025 Review appeared first on Kontroversial Keith.

Roman Reigns vs Bronson Reed

I like Roman Reigns more and more these days but I feel bad for the guy. I read how he mentioned his body feels terrible. And even if you make as much as he does, there’s nothing that can pure raw pain on a constant basis. The match was a nonsensical ECW crapfest type of street brawl, which meant whatever goes and allowed Heyman to help (over)book this thing. Typical brawling in the stands, followed by a literal garbage can and whatever junk was inside. I lost interest quickly especially when Bron Brekker came in for the aid for his partner. Then the Usos came in and it was a typical Bloodline clusterfuck except with Roman being a pseudo-face. I say pseudo-face because he behaves like a heel just like Bron Brekker is a pseudo-face. The only actual babyface in this thing was poor Jimmy, who’s effectively a 5th wheel.

At any rate, the ref was mostly paralyzed in this match to be anything except a gratuitous three count once Jey accidentally speared Roman which allowed him to be momentarily distracted for Bron to spear Jey. Then Bron pulled Roman so Bronson could Tsunami Roman for the big upset. I think this would have meant a lot more if there was zero outside interference. The important people remain those in the Bloodline and no matter how much they want to prop up Bronson, a win where there’s no rules means nothing because nothing makes sense and diminishes his effort. Also, the fact that the camera stayed on Roman and the Usos post-match demonstrated the actual important aspect in the story with Roman telling the Usos he didn’t want to see them until Christmas. So I guess Roman goes back home for a few months?

Stephanie Vaquer vs Tiffany Stratton

Ugh this was a mess. Tiffany isn’t a good wrestler/worker. I think she got nervous at the beginning and they were trying to go too fast. I’m guessing Stephanie tried to slow Tiffany down a little to recuperate. But there were some small things that looked awful because of the speed they were trying to maintain. I know people are super hyped on Stephanie Vaquer but I don’t see anything really special. The only move she does that’s special to me is the Devil’s Kiss because the people recognize what it is. The rest of her work is bleh to me because there’s no flow. This ended up being a spotfest which does nothing for me these days except bores me to tears. Stephanie won the women’s side of the Crown Jewel but I really don’t care.

John Cena vs AJ Styles

This was a last minute type of match with no build outside of Cena and Styles wanting to do it. Sadly, that was better than everything else in terms of hype for this PLE as a build. Obviously, this was the match of the night. It’s now acknowledged that Styles will retire next year so it was important for these two to get one final match together. Cena handed the announcer a nice note to really put Styles over. The first minute or so of the match was the only “real” wrestling we got to see on this entire PPV. It’s going to be a completely lost art once Cena, Styles, Punk etc. retire and leave the landscape of wrestling to the modern style of meaningless, story-less spotfests.

The match really was nothing more than an exhibition match between two legends doing their homage to people who helped their career. The early part (outside of the lock ups) was a little slow with AJ taking control. But once they started paying their homage, it woked the crowd up big time. I won’t go over every single move that was done but probably one of my favorite spots in the match was when the crowd called out 619, AJ got strung up on the 2nd ropes and Cena teased actually doing the 619 only to have AJ foil it with a simple clothesline. The crowd booed and Cena didn’t try it again but I like stuff like that. I mean Cena has been pulling out a lot of surprises, which now that they’ve got him going in the right direction is really what this retirement “tour” should have been from the beginning. Eventually, Cena paid two tributes to the Undertaker a goozle chokeslam and a Tombstone Piledriver with an FU/AA follow up for the pin. Both shook hands and raised each others’ arms out of respect.

One side note: I used to joke that AJ Styles only had finishers as his move set. This match almost was like that. But in this situation it actually worked. It’s a rare case where doing just finishers as the story made the match and the crowd worked with them. Very fun match.

Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky vs Kabuki Warriors

I had been completely turned off by the god awful, cringe build. I haven’t enjoyed Asuka for a very long time. She was at her height when she first arrived in NXT and was different and had an aura. Kairi is too tiny and her only positive attribute is that she’s cute. Otherwise, she’s an accessory and adds nothing. I tried giving this a chance but got bored really fast.

Cody Rhodes vs Seth Rollins

Heyman actually ordered Bronson and Bron to stay out of this match and he too didn’t accompany Seth. But it was good in the sense that at least you knew it wouldn’t be overbooked like the first match. At this stage for Cody, the only positive thing I can say about him is his entrance. That’s all he really has anyone to me. I can’t stand his matches and don’t think he’s a good worker to be honest. There was a funny spot where Seth was being setup for some suplex thing then got dropped and rolled into the ref. I think he meant to roll to the outside but got really pissed at the ref and went to the turnbuckle to cool off. Eventually, he dropped back out to the outside to delay but I think that’s when he cooled off. Seth seems to be really strung up in these matches. Maybe he’s becoming a contemporary Macho Man Randy Savage.

Anyway, this was another boring spotfest. I just can’t get into either of these guys unless they’re wrestling someone better. Like Seth does great with Punk but he can’t carry a match on his own. I hated that Cody hit a top rope Crossroads but only got a 2. However, Seth did have a watch that he gave Cody, which apparently was placed on some table out in the open for no good reason and ended up using the watch on Cody when the ref took a bump from a jab in the belly. That allowed Seth to finish Cody off and win the men’s crown jewel. HHH would come out to gift Seth the crown jewel belt and ring after which Seth gave a brief, unremarkable speech and got to stand in front the crowd with Stephanie Vaquer by his side.

Final Thoughts

The only match worth catching was AJ vs Cena. The rest of the card felt like dribble. Seth winning was okay and made sense to a degree but I’m just convinced more and more that Cody is not the man. He’s a token prop for the WWE but his 2025 has been completely unremarkable. After beating Reigns, Cody had nothing. It was stupid showing him with the Rock drinking tequilla, having his balls kicked in by Cena, getting bitch slapped by that stupid rapper, then continuously getting embarrassed and having bland promos. Seth seems like the person they really want to position on top but he’s too hit and miss for me. Neither are really exciting nor great promos. They can execute a promo on a perfunctory basis but they don’t convince me to want to see them wrestle unless a better opponent is standing opposite of them.

The only potentially interesting thing to come out of this PLE was Stephanie and Seth standing side by side. The reason I mention this is because Seth seemed to treat Stephanie with respect in the ring. Since Becky is the real top female star in the WWE, I can see such a symbolic act causing consternation in her and that might lead down the line for a Becky vs Stephanie match. Truthfully, I don’t want to see that match because Stephanie simply can’t cut a promo to save her life. Becky is just leagues above virtually the entire women’s division when it comes to the promo and character (and being flat out interesting department).

What really sucks for me is the fact that they just went from AJ/Punk to Cody to that stupid bimbo Maxine Dupri is just maddening. I get that the WWE’s goal is to constantly make stars but there’s really no one for Becky to challenge her. The only person that has created any significant interest was Punk because they’re on the same level when it comes to promo work. You could see that both Punk and especially Becky were doing great stuff with Becky finally having someone that she could dig into and sink her teeth into something.

At any rate, wrestling ain’t that great right now. There’s a few rare bright spots here and there so I’ll take what I can get. But I’m also not wasting my time for things I don’t care about.

The post WWE Crown Jewel 2025 Review appeared first on Kontroversial Keith.

Brock Lesnar vs John Cena

The John Cena retirement tour for the most part has been a disaster outside of the initial turn on Cody Rhodes. While the fans forgave him, I pretty much lost interest early on just because the whole thing should’ve been bigger than it was and a lot of it ended up falling really flat since his schedule has been spotty to really promote the angles and tour. Also, he barely has done much on this run as he’s heading towards the finish line. Maybe two or three matches were decent (such as the surprising Logan Paul match) but I just haven’t been feeling it.

As far as Brock’s return here, this match was almost a pure squash match. I get that they want to portray Brock as THE monster especially since he’s rejoining Heyman apparently. But this match was an embarrassment for Cena. There was almost no build and the only worthy thing of note was Brock apparently ripping his pants and laughing on TV. I figured this was just Cena having fun with his friends on the way out but given this was one of the last matches for Cena on a major PLE/PPV setting, you’d think he would’ve been given more. Some people believe that they’re going to setup Survivor Series for Team Vision + Brock + possibly LA Knight vs Cody, Seth, Punk, Reigns and Cena or something like that. Maybe but the real problem is that the connections for the stories are so half assed in the WWE right now that it’s lukewarm at best and there’s not a lot of good stuff going on.

The Usos vs Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed

Paul Heyman came out with his team while LA Knight was announced as a special guest referee to give him a PLE payday. The Bron(s) team (maybe they should call them the Bronz Team) are excellent. I keep saying that they should go and destroy the entire WWE tag team division right now. Just squash them flat out and have a long reign as tag team champions (at least a year) There just isn’t anyone on their level right now especially any team that is even remotely interesting. The Usos were teamed here as a special one night thing to put over the Brons since the Usos were the last truly meaningful tag team with the belts. And LA Knight is in this weird position where you don’t know if he’s going to go heel or Jey. But he did count a three on Jey so that should continue them feuding in the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, Jimmy is the odd man out here but at least he didn’t get pinned.

Iyo Sky vs Stephanie Vaquer

I have to be honest. I got bored really quick with this match and just sped to the next match. I want to like Stephanie Vaquer but she’s got no personality and they practically just gave her the belt here. I can’t get into Iyo Sky no matter what and the crowd just died down at one point because they went into a spot fest and there’s no heat. At least when Naomi held the belt, she got my attention because her character started to resonate with me (despite how I don’t care for her in ring work). Here, it’s just the opposite. But I’d prefer more personality and something I care about rather than workrate matches these days.

CM Punk and AJ Lee vs Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch

This is the match I really wanted to see. I never had a chance to see AJ Lee work prior to this match and only knew her from clips. But the stuff that really got me invested in this match has been the interactions between CM Punk and Becky Lynch. There isn’t any question in my mind that Becky Lynch is by far the best performer in the WWE at this time. She is the best female promo person bar none and having CM Punk be the real foil to her gave both wrestlers new life. Becky Lynch has that Sensational Sherri energy to me where she’s outrageous but within her character. She’s been looking to become a mega heel and finally she’s been able to get real heat because of CM Punk. Luckily, the crowd has really wanted AJ Lee in all of this which has made Becky’s heel work even better.

The main story in this match, as I had written elsewhere, was CM Punk getting the hot tag. They had intergender rules which meant that only the men could fight men and women could only fight the women. So if Punk and Seth were in the ring and Punk tagged out to AJ, Seth would have to tag to Becky. As a result, it was in the heels’ best interest to keep Punk in their corner and prevent the hot tag since Becky hasn’t really had an answer to AJ Lee just yet.

What I loved about this match was classic tag team wrestling. The heels wore out Punk and would distract the referee or get AJ hot to force the referee to force her back in the corner, which allowed the heels to double team Punk. They set up a very long heat spot (maybe my only complaint about this match) but at one point it was up to Becky to hold Punk back from getting the hot tag. However, unlike normal tag team matches, Punk is a pretty big guy compared to Becky so when she was trying to hold him back, Punk just looked down, smiled, blew a kiss at Becky and reached out to tag his wife. AJ got a great reaction but it honestly was Becky’s facials that sold everything because she sold fear and AJ got the pounce on Becky for a bit.

The match continued with various interesting spots like Punk paying homage to Bret Hart with the sharpshooter while AJ had Becky in the Black Widow. Or Seth and Becky doing the double Pedigree to Punk and AJ. But the big moment was when Seth and Becky had Punk and AJ on the announcers’ desks. Becky tossed AJ at Punk where she redirected herself into a clothesline that caused the table to collapse and take out Punk and Seth for the remainder of the match. Sensing impending victory, Becky grabbed the down AJ to toss her back into the ring. As Becky was going to deliver her finisher, AJ turned it around to the Black Widow in the middle of the ring which got Becky to tap out.

Man, this was a really fun match. The reason it was so good was that they got to tell a good story and everyone had a role to play. AJ needed to be the hero and win the match here on her return while Becky would lose to the Black Widow to show that AJ is still dangerous and could not anticipate the submission. The fact that Becky tapped quickly to get out rather than going into a hundred different finishers made me happy because it immediately signaled that AJ’s submission is dangerous if it could get The Man to tap.

I doubt this is going to be the last of this feud but it was a great start. Honestly, they’ve got something extremely special here and I hope the WWE realize just how good this thing is right now. I don’t want Becky and AJ to just go back to the women’s division because AJ isn’t as good as CM Punk on the mic when it comes to counter promos to Becky. They need to keep this mini couples feud going at least for another month or two because this really has freshened up everyone here. They don’t need to have matches every week against each other but I’d love to see Becky egging Seth on to have him harm AJ with a Curb Stomp and have him go ballistic and scream at Punk where, “You made me do this! You made me get to your level!”

Beyond any of that, I hope the WWE recognizes that story driven matches are far superior to spot matches. I know not every match can be a story driven match but they really need more like this. This is the kind of wrestling I enjoy the most.

Cody Rhodes vs Drew McIntyre

This is a match I wanted after Drew finished up his feud with Punk. Unfortunately, he got side tracked with Priest while Cody dealt with Cena. Neither situation helped anyone on either side. I still like Drew but Cody hasn’t been interesting since winning the title and “finishing his story.” Literally, he finished his story and is just lingering at this stage. Someone on Reddit commented that Drew should win the title just to make things interesting. I really wish he did win the title here because he’s one of the best heels in the WWE right now but he feels muted at this moment. And Cody is better just like his dad when he’s chasing a title and fighting from underneath. At least if Drew won here, they could’ve kept a mini feud alive for a few months. So with Drew defeated on a PLE, I feel his situation is flat. This is one case where I’d argue changing the title would’ve been better just to stir things up a little.

That said, I didn’t really pay attention to this match either. I’m not a fan of Cody, although I am a fan of Drew’s. There was no post match afterbirth so outside of the Vaquer win and AJ’s return, this whole PLE felt bland.

Final Thoughts

Most of the stuff here looked better on paper than it was executed. I know the women’s title match got high praise but I didn’t really care for it. The return of AJ Lee was okay but the match did feel long. The story idea was right but at some point the crowd did die so they probably could’ve cut it down by 5-10 minutes. The Cody match was another bland Cody match. He represents the current WWE right now more than anything: bland, almost no personality, let’s be competitive, do whatever they tell me, etc. That match did not feel like a main event.

But I’m guessing that they’ll eventually build to Brock vs Cody. There’s not a lot of people Cody can face right now that mean much. Brock is the only obvious person since he demolished Cena and Cena effectively passed the Corporate Champion torch to Cody. And Cody mostly fares better when he’s fighting from underneath as I mentioned. But even if Cody beats Brock, so what? Quite honestly, Brock should squash Cody so Cody can chase Brock. Then at least they’d have a meaningful feud while Heyman can be the main person managing the interview segments.

Either way, I honestly only am interested in seeing more Punk vs Becky. That’s the best stuff right there. To me the real key player in all of this is Becky. She’s been the MVP of that feud because she really turned it up having someone where she can be a super bitch to and get away with it. It’s kinda sad thinking just how wasted of a feud she had with Valkyria or whatever her name was and that horrible match against the Bella girl. I mean the matches might not themselves be great but I’m more interested in the way these people are reacting, selling and doing all the drama. That’s the real fun stuff and the secret sauce that’s been missing in modern wrestling. Yes, sir, give me a whole lot more of that.

The post WWE Wrestlepalooza 2025 Review appeared first on Kontroversial Keith.

Bronson Reed vs Roman Reigns

Main story has been that Bronson has been taking Roman’s sneakers and collected two pairs. Not really a great story but this match was actually quite good. Outside of the fact that they took 15 minutes from the start of the show until a lock up occurred, the match was paced decently. Mostly, the idea here was to see Bronson Reed more on a main event level where he could go long in a meaningful singles match. This went reasonably long and Bronson got to really display himself here. For my money, this was the match of the night. The best part was that the afterbirth actually happened after the match so this match didn’t feel overbooked with a stupid Heyman-esque ending.

With the aftermath, Roman regained his stolen sneakers from Heyman who groveled then snapped on a neck vice to knock Heyman out for the remainder of the night. As Roman celebrated with his reclaimed sneakers, Bron Brekker snuck up on the other table to deliver a nasty spear to Roman (which might’ve hurt Bron a bit given the delay). Thereafter, they delivered a few more Tsunami’s onto the prone Roman with Jey Uso coming in for the save.

Some people thought that Bronson should have taken the win here but I disagree. The post match beat down was perfectly executed and well motivated. It sets up Bron down the line for a singles match against Roman while Bronson looks not only imposing as a threat but showed here that he can do a long, great singles match with minimal gimmicks. He didn’t need to win as long as the ending visual continued to keep him looking strong. So this whole thing was well executed.

Tag Team Match

I completely skipped this because I can’t stand either team. My only prayer for the WWE’s tag team division is for Bron and Bronson to just snatch up the tag titles and keep them for a long time. There isn’t anyone else in the tag team division that really deserve it because no one else is remotely interesting at the moment. Also, I’d love for Bron and Bronson just to squash everyone else in the tag team division. We need more old school squash matches.

Becky Lynch vs Nikki Bella

This match wasn’t great and started off really bad for Nikki Bella. She missed a few things including a terrible looking top rope kick that was far off the mark. I’m guessing that a ton of ring rust, poor stamina and bad nerves affected her. The match did improve but I’m still more impressed by Becky Lynch. Crowd couldn’t stand Nikki and treated Becky like the true star of the division. I mean let’s face it. Becky really is the actual top star in the women’s division over there but there’s no one on the female’s side she can face that can help elevate her any further or create an interesting situation that people want to see. As for Nikki, once things got going about half way into the match, she looked better. But she’s worse than Chelsea at this point so they need to put her in the middle and use her name to elevate someone like a Chelsea.

Sheamus vs Rusev

I like Rusev but this match wasn’t good. Crowd was very much into it towards the end. There were a few ridiculous bumps but I think Rusev is better as a more traditional wrestler.

John Cena vs Logan Paul

This match started off very slow and I think it was John trying to find his pace and warming up. They could’ve cut about 10 minutes from the match with too much posing and milking the crowd. However, once it started rolling the match ended up being quite good. Cena hit all types of stuff that I don’t believe I’ve ever seen, including a Styles Clash, a rana, Code Red (he did it before but this time he did a rana into a Code Red), etc. Besides the CM Punk match, this could’ve been Cena’s best match since announcing his retirement tour. It was definitely far better than the Cody match (which makes me think Cody is horribly overrated) and made Cena look “modern,” although it feels really late in the game for him to pull off those “new” moves. I suppose though him doing these things kinda shuts up the critics who chant “you can’t wrestle.”

Seth Rollins vs CM Punk vs Jey Uso vs LA Knight

This was a stack the odds up scenario against Seth Rollins but keeping Jey and LA Knight at the main event level. I hate multi person matches for the most part but they did have a few interesting spots such as their tribute to the Dudley Boys. However, I saw this match as a way to begin elevating LA Knight to the main event scene. He had a few long moments and got to showcase himself. Also, he got a chance to work with Punk and Jey. I’m guessing that the WWE wanted to see if LA Knight can pull off a main event spot (much like Bronson Reed earlier in his match against Roman Reigns).

The downside to this match was the typical cliches of multi person matches with two people going down and disappearing while two others do their thing. But here it makes even less sense to have people disappear off camera for long periods since you can always have two people battling in opposite corners. Outside of three ways, the WWE should really re-examine multi person when there’s more than three people in the ring. Like the 1997 Fatal Fourway with Vader, Bret Hart, Austin and the Undertaker was much better just because all four people would battle each other at the same time rather than making the match look overly choreographed. Also, the automatic no DQ stipulation is dumb. Might as well not even have a referee at some point.

Besides LA Knight getting a main event match, the other real story was Becky Lynch showing up in another overly done cliche with the ninja/black ops hoodie outfit and nut shotting Punk so that Seth could pick up the win. Believe it or not, outside of the stupid ninja manifestation, I did like that finally Becky Lynch and Seth (or Seth’s group) connected.. Heyman, Reed and Bron were all out which made Seth a loner seemingly. But with Becky showing up, I got kinda stoked because it’s something that just made a lot of sense. The other thing is that Becky Lynch is just miles above the rest of the women’s roster where she can’t honestly get more over than she is. I mean as an example, Nikki Bella, who was a “star”, got bad reactions from the heel Becky. That’s just because people still love Becky.

Part of the situation makes me think back to the suggestion that this group could be a new Dangerous Alliance. With Becky being part of this group, you have an interesting dynamic because the during Dangerous Alliance days, there wasn’t a real women’s division in WCW. More importantly, there wasn’t any intergender matches back then so Becky could take part on occasion with Seth. The other hint referenced after the show ended was Punk looking at a sign concerning his wife AJ Lee. Whether or not that was a plant is irrelevant but a return by AJ Lee where Punk teams up with her against Becky/Seth would be pretty big. I don’t know if AJ would come back full time, but I can see her doing the part time schedule like Trish Stratus. Right now, is as good a time as any for her to come back.

Final Thoughts

Nothing really special. I ended up being surprised by two of the matches and the angle with Becky joining Seth was really good. So I wanted to see everything except the tag team match. Bronson continues to develop towards the main event, Becky still is the top female in truth in the WWE and I’m not sure what they’ll do with LA Knight. All indications make me believe he is being moved into the main event scene but he’s in a real weird spot where he isn’t in a position to really beat anyone for a major title. But I think that window for him is closing fast. Originally, I thought he could’ve been someone to join Seth’s group. But the only thing he might hold is the IC title, which wouldn’t be a bad idea just so that he has something.

The post WWE Clash in Paris 2025 Review appeared first on Kontroversial Keith.

Naomi vs Rhea Ripley vs Iyo Sky

I can’t stand multi-person matches and there was nothing here that could change my mind. All these types of matches allow for is a cheap out so that someone won’t lose cleanly and people can’t predict an outcome. I suppose the positive is that Naomi retained so they’re going to keep pushing her on top of the women’s division. One thing I will say is that I think on Smackdown, Naomi delivered an old school type of promo that I actually enjoyed. It was short and sweet with her pulling out her tagline. People were with it and she stayed in her character, sold the basic issue and convinced me that the match might be worth watching. I wish more promos were handled in that manner.

The Wyatt Sicks vs Andrade & Rey Fenix vs #DIY vs Fraxiom vs Motor City Machine Guns vs The Street Profits

This is the I really don’t give a shit match. Everything that I currently hate about pro-wrestling seemed to be rolled up in one spot (minus Blob Blimp from last night). There was one extremely stupid spot where Candice Job Girl fell off the ladder and crashed into one on the outside. If Hogan died because of heart issues along with all the various surgeries, imagine what these morons are going to be like in 20 years? Honestly, I won’t care because I think these people are fucking stupid and if they died in one of these matches, maybe it’ll force the government (not the current one) to shut down this stupid shit because it’s idiotic. I don’t care who won this thing because the tag division stinks and no matter how much garbage they keep piling on, it’s awful and unimportant.

Becky Lynch vs Lyra Valkyria

Poor Becky had to follow the previous match. So this turned into another semi-garbage match. Becky’s stardom has been decimated because she’s chosen to try and put over the un-over Lyra. They did some stupid spot with a toolbox and zip ties to allow Lyra to “show off her athleticism” in doing hands free type of moves. People still didn’t care. Bayley interrupted, popped Lyra so Becky could capitalize and mercifully end this awful thing. I really like Becky but what the hell do they have her in the midcard like this? The IC women’s title isn’t suddenly more important because she has it.

Solo Sikoa vs Jacob Fatu

I have no idea what happened because the match cut out on me. That said, for whatever reason Solo retained. But for godsakes keep Jacob away from Solo’s group. Have Jacob join Seth already or do something to move up to the main event. Maybe he can join Roman and Jey to face Seth’s group.

Dominik Mysterio vs AJ Styles

I barely paid attention to this. And I really like AJ Styles especially in his later years. But it’s clear he’s on the way down and he put Dominik over after Dom cheated with the Eddy G. boot move.

John Cena vs Cody Rhodes

The only reason I bothered to watch this crap was to see if either Cena or Rhodes would turn again. Neither happened. So Cena’s whole heel turn was absolutely a waste of time and they decided to say fuck it because Cena had his fun. Rhodes got booed for pinning Cena because people knew this was Cena’s good bye. Rhodes is a fucking pussy. I hate his matches and he’s annoying as fuck. I suppose the one thing people will say is that Cena “worked” because he did some more moves like a Canadian Destroyer, which really is a shitty sunset flip or a top rope Cena FU. They went into the crowd a bit too so people could get a look at Cena for the last time up close. Rhodes kept kicking out of everything for no good reason (despite not being able to withstand a ball shot) and eventually pinned Cena with a bland Cross Rhodes. Fucking awful finish.

They hugged despite that at WM Cena’s face dropped and he humiliated Cody. I mean really what the fuck. This whole thing was a disaster. Oh wait, it gets better. So Cody disappears as Cena gets his last adulation in. Then Brock Lesnar’s music hits. Really? They’re bringing back someone with notoriety? Oh, of course, they already showed kiss ass HHH with Trump so none of this is surprising. All for a shitty one moment pop. For whatever reason Brock goes after Cena and does a beat down. Probably, some stupid class reunion thing but what a horrible way to end the PPV.

Final Thoughts

I honestly don’t know how much more pro-wrestling I can take. I barely watch the clips anymore. These PPVs last too long and they have fucking commercials in the fucking PPV. But at this stage, there’s so little to like. The only match that was any good this entire weekend was Punk vs Gunther. Everything else was dogshit because none of it makes sense, the booking is awful, I mean, a narcoleptic can do a better job. There’s really nothing that engages me about any matches except the one with Punk and Gunther. But once Punk is gone, how many other people are going to have those types of matches with stories? None of the NXT people coming up are interesting. It’s fucking really depressing.

On the bright side, I need the time for me. Maybe pro-wrestling going to absolute dogshit is just a way for me to put more time into my projects. All I figure is that somewhere Bret Hart is smirking going, “Man, I was right.”

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