Category: Wrestling Musings

All posts related to pro rasslin’ that isn’t covering specific shows or events.

WWE Attempts To Sell Fanmade Friendship Bracelet – Gets Blowback

File this under WTF if you have one, but WWE tried to turn the fan-made CM Punk friendship bracelet that has been the central plot point of his feud with Drew McIntyre into a piece of merchandise for sale on WWEShop.com. This naturally prompted the fan who made said bracelet to comment about it, which led to other fans to comment about whether said fan is getting a cut from this deal.

Well, turns out WWE is not going to be selling fan-made friendship bracelets after all. Common sense prevails, I suppose. Isn’t the point of a friendship bracelet is that you give it to your friends as a symbol of your enduring friendship with those individuals? Why would I want to purchase a friendship bracelet for myself, baring the names of other people’s friends, let alone those of their family?

How sad is it that on the day after news broke of the passing of James Earl Jones, THIS is the topic that’s worth discussing on the blog at six in the morning. Dang.

Gotta run, kids. Review should be up on schedule later today. Bye.

I Am Not Watching All In

For the three people wondering if I will be watching All In… the answer is no. Besides the fact that I’m just not feeling the build up to this point as well as not having any desire to watch a sequel show that isn’t as packed as last year’s show, I’m actually busy with some other stuff at the moment and won’t have time to give the show a proper watch.

Not sold on the replay, but I’ll tell you what… if they can somehow manage to get this man to appear on the show…

Then I will buy the replay and do the appropriate musings… hell, I’ll even buy All Out.

I think my wallet is safe in that regard. Don’t worry; we’ve got plenty of other fun stuff to do PPV Musings on next month.

As for the rest of you who don’t care for this otherwise insignificant piece of business… regular operations (such as it is) will resume in September.

20 Years Ago… A Record That May Never Be Broken

So… to sort of segueway to something that has nothing to do with me… on this day, 20 years ago, WWE Summerslam 2004, emanating from the then-Air Canada Center in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, saw Randy Orton defeat then-World Heavyweight Champion Chris Benoit to win his first World championship at the age of 24 years old, making him the youngest World Heavyweight Champion in WWE history. He beat out Brock Lesnar, who, two years previous, defeated the Rock at Summerslam 2002 to win the then-undisputed WWE Championship at the age of 25. Before that, it was a three-way tie between Rock, Yokozuna, and the Undertaker, whom each won their first WWF titles at the age of 26. Lesnar remains the youngest superstar to hold the original WWE Championship dating back to 1963, which comprises 1/2 of the current Undisputed WWE Championship, currently held by Cody Rhodes.

Continue reading “20 Years Ago… A Record That May Never Be Broken”

Tony Khan Considers A Stupid Idea

Source: https://itrwrestling.com/news/tony-khan-admits-hes-open-to-divisive-ring-of-honor-rebranding/

At a recent ROH PPV Media thing, Tony Khan considered the idea of rebranding the ROH brand that he bought in 2022 and is generally considered an afterthought by anyone but the most hardcore of AEW fans to rebrand the show as AEW Ring Of Honor. The idea being to bring the two promotions closer together… which is what most people who stopped watching AEW DO NOT WANT.

Tony Khan bought Ring of Honor in 2022… and to say that he has done a great job with the promotion would be a bit of a fib. It exists, it provides a platform for wrestlers to work and earn a payday, and there’s occasionally good stuff happening on that show – Athena, I’m told, is a highlight and I’m happy for her that she’s getting the limelight on a show nobody watches. In fact, it’s quite sad that the most ROH stuff I’ve seen was on AEW television and that’s usually so that they can lose to the bigger AEW stars, even the champions.

One of my reasons for no longer watching AEW – and there are plenty of reasons, let me tell you – is that there’s more than a bit too much focus on ROH that could’ve been used to spotlight some of the other AEW talent that got signed, showed up on TV for a few weeks, and are now sitting on the sidelines. In fact, I could tell you that AEW really started falling off the rails the instant they started interjecting more ROH stuff on the program and the ROH stuff is often the worst part of the show. It certainly doesn’t help matters that ROH brings about another set of belts on top of AEW’s already inflated collection of championships that nobody could possibly care about… compared to when the promotion first started when they only had a handful of titles that were treated with some reverence.

On top of all of that, however, the idea to rebrand Ring Of Honor as AEW Ring Of Honor in hopes of getting more people interested? Does anyone remember when WWE revived ECW in 2006, where they teased you with a couple ECW tribute shows on PPV and then when the weekly series came along, they tried to turn it into a lesser third brand for developing talent? Because the last time I checked, that went over like a full-blown orgy at church. And also last time I checked, WWECW eventually died after a few years so that they can make way for NXT, and even that took a few years before it became what it is today. I would think that Tony Khan, who supposedly has an encyclopedic knowledge of wrestling history that almost comes across as a detriment in his booking, of all people, would know how rebranding a dead brand by associating it with your bigger brand would turn out.

I know some people like ROH. I know some people are happy to see ROH out there. I know some people want to see ROH succeed. I certainly don’t want ROH to fail. I just don’t want it on AEW television. This isn’t a spur of the moment thing that came out of the blue. I’ve been saying this for years now. The association would’ve been fine if it helped ROH in the slightest, but it really hasn’t. If Tony Khan wants people to care about ROH enough to get it on proper TV, then a simple rebrand isn’t going to cut it.

Tony Khan Uses Black Magic To Ban Joe Hendry From Ever Appearing In AEW

They say that if you say his name, Joe Hendry will appear.

Already making waves in his current home promotion of TNA Wrestling, the Scottish sensation and former Local Hero recently made waves by appearing on WWE’s NXT television show on Tuesday nights, much to the delight of the crowd. Not only that, but it seems that Hendry’s appearances have had effect on the ratings and overall television product.

Hearing about this and fearful that Joe Hendry’s magic might effect his own promotions, AEW president and ROH owner Tony Khan had administered some black magic hocus pocus to prevent Joe Hendry from ever appearing on AEW television for the foreseeable future. Not even saying his name would cause the former WCPW Champion to appear at either AEW or ROH events for the foreseeable future. While Khan considers Hendry to be a great wrestler, he’s nowhere near the greatness of his many big wrestling stars like Jumpin’ Jack Perry or the Warhorsemen. Hendry’s appearing in AEW could invoke some much needed energy and enthusiasm into the show, something Khan clearly doesn’t want to detracted from the main event angle of the Elite running roughshod in AEW ever since they attacked the AEW head… even though he’s back in the office.

Morale in the AEW locker room is said to be at an all-time low, but Tony Khan promise that they have all the talent they need right here… before announcing the signing of ten more free agents from some obscure Japanese wrestling promotion that nobody outside of the hardcoriest of hardcore fans could honestly give two fucks about.

Also in other news, Drew McIntyre played a game of Pong against a vacuum cleaner. He was on the verge of winning until that fucking asshole Phil came along and distracted Drew, allowing the vacuum clean to mount an incredible comeback for the win.

Michael Cole Explains VHS To Da Kids

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9dLZWft-UU

So let me just say that I am fairly vocal in my dislike for the Bray Wyatt stuff. Creative guy, sure, but the execution was largely bad. And so when it comes to the Bray Wyatt Tribute Band, my hopes aren’t particularly high in this regard.

That having been said, should this start to fall apart, the only good thing I can take out of this is at the 2:28 mark, where Michael Cole, who’s hip with the youngsters, explain to said kids what a “V.H.S. tape” is. Next week, he should explain stuff like Betamax and 8-Tracks.