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.

Women’s Elimination Chamber Match

Naomi and Liv Morgan would start this match out. Oddly, the best thing that happened in this match happened first where a returning Jade Cargill came out before the cage door was shut and confronted her assailant. Liv pleaded with Jade that she was innocent as Jade initially made a bee line straight to Liv then assaulted Naomi. The crowd popped huge for Jade’s return and she actually did a pretty damn good beat down. The cherry on top was seeing Jade crush Naomi’s larynx in the cage the door. All this happened while Bianca went nuts in seeing her partner get decimated by her other partner while Liv laughed her ass off.

From there, this match took a dramatic downturn as the match was pretty bland. The positive though was not having Naomi to fuck things up in a multi-woman match and there was no Nia Jax nor Candice LaRae since they were next. But that left 5 reasonably capable workers. Bianca would enter and was in a distraught state which let Liv get some offense in. I have to admit that Liv looked pretty good in this match. Normally, I don’t care for her but she didn’t look out of place and works well as a chickenshit type of heel that can sell or bump. She took a nasty braid shot from Bianca on the top of one of the pods that left nasty marks on her back. Roxanne wasn’t bad here but I’ve lost interest in Bayley because it’s obvious she’s the new Natalya of the women’s division, which means she’s going to eat a loss. Alexa is pretty and that’s the best thing I can say about her. With Liv, she’s thicker than Alexa and has developed herself whereas Alexa should be on a different program. She competes with Liv in terms of looks and appearance but Liv at this stage is far better.

Bianca won this match in pinning Liv which was the most logical thing to do because it’ll give Rhea a capable foe. But the booking in general is a mess right now. Rhea came out to have a face off with Bianca, followed by Io Sky, who is there just because she has a match with Rhea in the near future and they needed to maintain the “mystery” of whom Bianca will fight with at Wrestlemania. That said, I wasn’t surprised that Jade made her return and that Liv nor Raquel were the culprits. But Naomi? The only positive by having her be “the one” was that we weren’t forced to endure watching her wrestle. Bianca would’ve been my choice just because I don’t want to see Naomi vs Jade at all. But Bianca vs Jade actually is interesting because they match up well in terms of strength and height. I still hope for a Bianca heel turn which can still happen en route to Wrestlemania. Otherwise, the match with Rhea (because let’s be honest and say that Io as the main event for the women’s side ain’t happening at WM) needs heat. I don’t want to see a bland babyface vs babyface match between Rhea and Bianca.

Tiffany Stratton & Trish Stratus vs. Nia Jax & Candice LeRae

Trish was great here. Tiffany continues to take risks that make me believe she’s not going to have a long career. Candice remains a bland accessory for Nia and the less we say about Nia the better. Someone said that Trish did some move that messed up Nia’s face and I looked for it but couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Regardless, Trish and Tiffany won but this was filler so that Trish could show up as a Canadian.

Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens

I described Kevin Owens as the WWE’s version of Jon Moxley except that she tries to be Mick Foley in terms of character. I’ve grown t0 like Sami Zayn but I hated that he’s involved in a street fight that was a garbage match of these two guys enacting out their fantasies of being in the ECW arena. Because it was a nonsensical unsanctioned match, I couldn’t be bothered to pay much attention to this crap. Someone on reddit commented that Kevin Owens only does street fights because he can’t wrestle. See my Jon Moxley comment. Kevin Owens won and I didn’t pay attention. Then in a small night of returns Randy Orton returned to give Kevin an RKO and nearly kneed him in the head when a bunch of useless security entered simultaneously which deflated the crowd. I’m guessing Randy is going to have a street fight with Kevin Owens at Wrestlemania but whatever.

Men’s Elimination Chamber Match

There was some intrigue with this match for me because obviously you have a lot of top players here, each vying for a spot against Cody. Certain people were obviously not going to win. And there were rumors for potential matches that will happen for Wrestlemania. Then there was the talk of the Cody answering the Rock at the PLE. Since that didn’t happen up to this point, it was obvious that they would save the major angle for the end of the show.

That said, the bulk of this match felt flat to me given the participants. Drew McIntyre and Seth Rollins started off the match. Whenever either guy bashed it other near Punk’s pod, Punk would egg the other guy on. Punk was great in terms of his reactions and trying to sell his personal distaste for either guy. Damian Priest came in next and poor Drew ate the pin. They teased a Damian vs Drew feud starting with the Rumble but supposedly that got messed up due to miscommunication when LA Knight messed a spot up. But Drew pounded Damian’s head in right after since he could see his WM dreams fade. They’re trying to do a Bret Hart type of story with Drew but the clear difference is that Bret was a real hero around the world. Drew hasn’t achieved what Bret did in the past so Drew’s story just makes him more like a crybaby, which sucks because personality-wise, he’s the WWE’s top heel (there’s Logan Paul but he’s actually hated)

Logan Paul came in next and objectively I think this guy is a real mixed bag. The announcers try to put him over as a natural given how many matches he has under his belt. But they never mentioned Kurt Angle who was by far the most natural athlete to transition over to pro-wrestling. Yes, Kurt had his amateur background and was an Olympic Gold Medalist, but I’m talking about the other aspects that made him perfect for pro-wrestling. As far as Logan Paul goes, he’s just a spot monkey but he doesn’t come across as truly special nor unique. More overhyped based on his reputation.

Anyway, Drew levels Priest and I think Paul covers Priest. But Punk finally comes out (Cena also had entered but I skipped that part). Punk does hit the G2S on Paul so that it’s down to Cena, Punk and Seth. Seth has to face both Punk and Cena. Once they get rid of Seth, Punk and Cena have a moment. All the stuff with Punk and Cena was really good and you can tell both guys enjoy working with one another. At one point, Cena offers Punk a handshake but Punk gives Cena a hug which is a nice moment as they decide it’s time to battle. The best wrestling on the show was between Cena and Punk. They did some really good sequences too where it wasn’t just reversing things to get a spot in, it’s more reversing moves because they had excellent chemistry. They even got a Hart Attack a la the Hart Foundation double team move on Seth, which was a nice nod to Bret Hart.

Eventually, they both hit a combo of the F-U and G2S on Rollins where Punk got the pin. Punk would get into Cena’s STF and make it to the ropes but Seth was still in the ring to deliver a double stomp to knock Punk out. Cena took advantage of the situation with the announcers explicitly mentioning how Cena was desperate and locked in the submission once again for Punk to pass out. So Cena goes onto Wrestlemania and ties HHH as having the most wins in the Elimination Chamber.

The “Soul” Aftermath

With Cena winning, he gets a nice celebration as he will main event Wrestlemania against Cody. Thus, Cody comes out to congratulate Cena. After Cody gets his entrance, we get a SUPER FUCKING LONG entrance of the Rock with Scott Travis (whom I think is a piece of shit but considering the WWE is aligning more with garbage go figure…). At this point, the Rock effectively asks whether Cody will sell his soul to the Rock (which is the dumbest fucking thing) and Cody literally tells the Rock to go fuck himself. Obviously, the Rock ain’t too happy and as Cena goes to hug Cody, the Rock gives Cena a signal so that Cena can kick poor Cody in the nut sack to set himself up as a mega heel going into Wrestlemania. A long ass beat down goes on and admittedly it was a good beat down except that Cody gets absolutely no help from the back. At least, I would’ve expected someone like Punk to come out to save his supposed friend. Instead, Cody looks like a total chode smoker once again like Sting back in the day because he’s outsmarted.

I can’t say that I’m surprised about what happened but the other thing is that it also doesn’t make a lot of sense. I wouldn’t say that I’m unhappy because quite frankly I don’t really care about wrestling as much as I used to. I’ll watch wrestling and wait for something to impress me like Jade Cargill coming back and beating the shit out of Naomi or CM Punk and Cena having an amazing set of wrestling sequences that actually look good. But I’m so jaded at this point because wrestling is for the most part either bland or extremely stupid where the good stuff happens as an exception and once in a while a blind squirrel will find a nut. Otherwise, I’m mostly desensitized based on how long I’ve been watching it.

So you knew something would happen as the Rock would be there and they needed a big thing to occur before Wrestlemania to set the stage. The Rock has been in this weird “is he heel or face?” type of flaky character recently and most people guessed he wouldn’t wrestle at this year’s coming WM. Everything regarding the Bloodline is pretty much dead at this stage except for whatever Jacob Fatu is involved in. But he’s becoming the breakout star of the group. So the only real story going into Wrestlemania with any importance is whom Cody would face.

I said before that Cody is a shit babyface unless he’s fighting the odds. So having Cena turn before the PPV was one of the few logical things to do just because of what Cody needs to make the main event feel like anything. However, there’s a horrible problem in all of this: this is something people wanted a long time ago. I’ve read comparisons between Cena’s turn to Hogan becoming a heel. However, when Hogan did it, it was because people hated his old ass and were already booing him. Turning him heel breathed new life into Hogan for a good 2 years and pretty much was a huge turning point for making WCW a must watch program. Hall and Nash were important too but everything came together at that stage.

Cena turning heel in his twilight years as an “active” wrestler to me is 10 years too late. Whenever Cena showed up, the audience would explode because they knew Cena’s appearances were going to be on a limited time. Even now, Cena supposedly won’t be around for another 2 weeks. 2 fucking weeks as the WWE builds towards Wrestlemania. He barely was around to do anything for the Elimination Chamber which he won. On top of that why the hell would Cena need to align with the Rock when he won on his own? And why turn heel in his last year after all the other work he did?

The only explanation for this that was offered was HHH saying, “It wasn’t expected.” Ugh, I hate that shit. It feels more like Russo bad writing with a gratuitous turn that offers no logic. When Hogan turned, it made tons of sense. On top of that, Hogan gave one of the best promos after his turn to explain his motivations which left a great visual of the crowd tossing crap into the ring. You can hate what Hogan has done since then but that’s one of the few times where the industry changed because of this guy. And you can say that Hogan has affected the change in the industry at least twice in his career.

In addition, Cena and the Rock had been rivals for a while. Let’s not forget the pot shot the Rock took against Cena at his HoF speech on the Marine. More importantly, Cena feels second fiddle to the Rock in all of this. The previous year Cena helped Cody out to win the belt. So why would he want to kick the guy in the nuts this year?

At the end of the day, it feels really cheap to me. This wasn’t like Terry Funk asking Ric Flair for a title shot and being told to get in line to justify Terry’s sudden outburst. There was no explanation offered. And with the supposed 2 weeks of Cena being gone, that means we won’t hear Cena’s motivations unless he does some prerecording. But when you have that big of a turn, you need an immediate explanation. Otherwise, it’s just turning someone to defy expectations.

I did say that I would’ve been more in favor of Cody turning heel and selling his soul. Heck, he even admitted that he sold his soul to the ring and the fans. And they got lucky in getting the crowd reaction from Cody because Cody used expletives. But all of that just is bad writing to me. There’s too many questions that need holes to be filled where you facepalm.

Final Thoughts

There wasn’t much worth watching on this show. I really enjoyed Jade’s return. I loved the reaction from the crowd and the beating she gave Naomi. I just didn’t care for the culprit being Naomi because Naomi sucks. Bianca would’ve been more logical because of jealousy. Also, I think the match between Jade and Bianca would be far better than anything Naomi does. Also, the stuff Punk and Cena did was cool. Unfortunately, it looks like Punk is going to be embroiled with Seth and according to rumor with Roman Reigns. But Roman Reigns was absent here so I’m hoping that it’s just Punk and Seth rather than another stupid three way.

Finally, there’s Cody, the Rock and Cena. First, most of the show felt like a goddamn infomercial. I hated when the WWF was like this by ’95, which is why I think WCW got hot in ’96 once they removed the crap like the Dungeon of Doom and bad Hogan childish skits. However, there’s just long stretches in this show where nothing happened except recaps or mini commercials. There was one part dedicated to the Rock where I needed to shove my finger down my throat to puke out all the wretchedness that I sucked in from witnessing that act of self-felating. I think Cody is the dumbest wrestler around by the end of the show because he was left mute outside of the “fuck off” Rock moment. But at this stage, I don’t care for the overrated Rock.

I’m sure there’s people who will say “just wait and watch.” I am waiting but I don’t know if I want to watch much longer. I’ve got tons of stuff to do and the WWE hasn’t been hot since the Bloodline story finished back at the Survivor Series. The Cena/Rock story with Cody is another version of McMahon vs Austin blended with the Hogan turn. However, it’s not original and shows that perhaps the WWE are creatively bankrupt or just using past ideas to sell something without really understanding the mechanics of why something worked so well.

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