Category: Wrestling Musings

Just to remind people…

This is Sami Zayn’s big challenge for the IC title… the guy who couldn’t even beat the guy who beat GUNTHER.

Yeah, I’m looking forward to the Thursday RAW Musings.

I didn’t watch RAW last Monday – had better things to do… but I did catch the Cody Rhodes promo… specifically, I caught the Cody Rhodes promo that other people uploaded because WWE’s own upload is cut down and censored, which is silly if you’re going to allow that shit on TV.

Personally, I thought it was a good promo and honestly, the fact that Cody dropped a couple colorful metaphors here and there showed that WWE is more than willing to let their talent push things a little depending on the situation. Is there a double standard present when the big stars are allowed to cuss while everyone has to adhere to PG standards? Of course, there is… and honestly, I don’t mind the PG limitations; it just means you have to be more thoughtful in regards to how to cut your promos. God forbid we need more horrible women promos where every other line is calling each other a “bitch” or something.

Let’s be real here: the story here is less about Cody vs. Roman for the title so much as it’s Cody vs. The Rock. And regardless of how you feel about the way things turned out with the whole Rock/Roman/Cody deal, when it comes to cutting promos, there is no one better than the Rock. That dude is on a whole other level compared to everyone else. Hell, he was on a whole other level two decades prior when the WWE roster was full of great talkers. Now try to find someone who can match Rock’s charisma and wit today. Good luck with that because you’re not going to find any.

After Rock’s colorful promos on Twitter and also on Smackdown, Cody needed to up the ante with his comeback. He might not be able to get to Rock’s level in terms of promos and comebacks, but he had to at least try. And for what it’s worth, I thought Cody did great. It wasn’t the emotional bit that he did last week; he actually showed some intensity here and he needed to do that without restraint. Otherwise, if you weren’t going to let Cody rip on Rock the way he did, then you may as well open the show with Cody eating a bowl of cereal backstage like a total loon.

The sad truth is that as much as I’m enjoying the back-and-forth between Rock and Cody, it seems like Roman is becoming a bit of an afterthought. That’s not something you want to see out of your reigning Undisputed champion of three years and counting. It’ll be interesting to see how this interaction between Cody and Roman turns out this Friday on Smackdown, because at the moment, Roman is in danger of being put in the same position as The Miz was when he was WWE Champion over a decade ago. Sure, he main-evented a Wrestlemania, but nobody gave a shit because it was all about Rock vs. John Cena.

And if I’m going to be honest, this highlights another reason why I feel a Rock vs. Roman feud would’ve been the drizzling shits. Roman might’ve improved a bit as a promo guy, but even Dwayne would’ve destroyed him in promos. Imagine what a fully-motivated Rock would’ve been like against this guy… and then Roman would kick his ass at Mania and we move on with our lives.

Listen, I still believe Cody should’ve finished his story last year – then none of this would’ve happened… but at least I can say that I’m enjoying the ride so far that’s mostly the result of dumb luck than anything. We’ll see what happens next.

Source: https://www.f4wonline.com/news/impact-wrestling/tna-wrestling-fires-scott-damore-names-new-president

Anthem shitcans Scott D’Amore – a guy who’s been with TNA since the dawn of time – and replaces him with some other dude. And shortly after they rebranded back to TNA…

So how long before they bring back the owl?

Also, can we somehow blame DWAYNE for this?

So, tomorrow’s the Wrestlemania Live Presser, right? They need to find a way to announce that DWAYNE bought his way into a main event with Roman while carjacking Cody’s title shot that he won at the Rumble. The whole thing seems to be a bit of a pickle.

So you know what this thing needs?

More Armed Anderson.

Armed Anderson refers to a promo that Arn Anderson cut on Cody a couple years ago on AEW, where he talked about the differences between Arn and Cody in handling a carjacking. Whereas Cody would just step aside and let the carjacking happen, Arn would pull out his Glock, point it at the carjacker’s head, and spill his brains all over the concrete… and then this became a meme.

Cody got carjacked by DWAYNE. And now Armed Anderson’s gotta fix it.

Mind you, you can replace the Glock with a Tranquilizer Gun if you want to keep it family friendly, but at this press event on Thursday, Arn could come in and shoot all three to put them all out of their misery – just say they all suffered minor flesh wounds and they can be back on TV in a couple weeks.

Then Damien Priest can come in, cash in his briefcase, and pin the unconscious Roman to become the new Undisputed Universal champion.

That way, DWAYNE and Roman can have their little main event match while Cody can go ahead and finish his little story. And Arn gets more memes.

Obviously something like that isn’t going to happen… it’s just a stray thought I had… but fuck me, that’d be more interesting and newsworthy than all this white noise going on.

WWE Raw moving to Netflix as part of new 10-year, $5 billion TV rights deal
https://www.f4wonline.com/news/wwe/wwe-raw-moving-to-netflix-as-part-of-new-tv-rights-deal

The Rock joins board of directors of WWE parent company TKO Group Holdings
https://www.f4wonline.com/news/wwe/the-rock-joins-board-of-directors-of-wwe-parent-company-tko-group-holdings

Happy 40th anniversary, Hulkamania. Now fuck off because Dwayne is part of the TKO Board Of Directors and Netflix secured the rights to RAW for the next ten years starting in 2025. Not only that, but the deal also means that Netflix gets all the WWE Network archive content and PPVs outside the United States… and apparently, that means Canada, as the Rogers deal is supposedly up. And if that ends up being the case, then there might be a reason to stick with Netflix for the long haul… because right now, I can’t think of any at the moment.

But in all seriousness… this is a pretty big deal. And I can’t imagine this deal happening under the previous management or ownership because “what’s a netflix, pal?” But hey, you know what? Good on them. They’re going to be making a shitload of money and they don’t even have to worry about petty things like quarter-hour ratings, key demos, or any of that old-fashioned tripe associated with the traditional TV. You might still have to do that for Smackdown (which is moving from FOX to USA Network) and NXT (which is moving from USA Network to the CW… while Billy Corgan’s NWA is relegated to the CW App Mines), but as far as RAW is concerned, the only barrier of entry is a Netflix subscription and that’s all there is to it. Now Vince Russo will have to find something else to complain about on his podcast.

As for where that leaves AEW?

Well… how long since the last Tony Khan Twitter blow-up?