Tag: wwe

You’ve got to fucking be kidding me

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Ever since the WWEShop re-released the John Cena US Spinner blet, I’ve had this tab open on my laptop.  WWEShop’s prices fluctuate on a dime, and it’s always just a waiting game before any and every blet ends up going on sale at some point.

During the Royal Rumble, the blet went down to $379, and I was very tempted to pull the trigger, but then I thought that it might be even better by the time Wrestlemania rolls around.  But then Wrestlemania comes and goes, and I check the site judiciously the whole weekend, and it doesn’t dip beneath $399, much to my disappointment.

It just fucking figures that the Monday after the biggest show of the year, is just some random sale, where the Cena US Spinner not only drops to a lowest-ever $359, but by the time I check it and see it at that cost, it’s already completely sold out.

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one with the tab open checking on a daily basis.

So now, I get no blet, I have no idea if and when these will ever come back again, and if and when they do, it’ll be starting all over from scratch playing the waiting game all over again.  I’m quite agitated by this.  I also feel like the WWEShop’s association with a buy now, pay in installments company like Klarna really doesn’t help financially capable people like myself, because they’ll sell to anyone willing to pay in installments like a layaway schlub, but they’re able to hoover up inventory before me, in spite of the fact that I am willing and capable of paying for things outright.

Either way, I’m just mega salty that I missed out.  I literally check this shit every single day, and the one day in which I’m too busy to check until the evening, just so happens to be the day when the price drop bottoms out, and every single person who wanted this blet has beaten me to the punch.  Fuckin’ pissed.

Wrestlemania weekend, and such a thing as too much wrestling

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

A few months ago, I got an email from Ring of Honor wrestling, advertising a show that would be their return show after a four-month hiatus.  It was set to take place in Dallas, and my eyes lit up at the thought of going to visit my brother, and going to a show that was likely going to be a banger of an event.

But then, it was brought to my attention that this was going to be taking place the same weekend of Wrestlemania, which was also in Dallas, and suddenly the idea of going to a show that was more than likely going to be attended by other mouthbreathing marks from all over who were on their way to watching Wrestlemania really took the wind out of my sails, and the idea was dead in the water just like that.

Over the last few years prior to coronavirus, a thing that been happening was that whatever city was hosting Wrestlemania, promotions and events that weren’t even WWE, would start booking shit in the same city, around Wrestlemania’s dates, all with the obvious intent to try and leech off of the droves of people who would already be coming into town to watch Wrestlemania, and entice them into these giant weekends of wrestle-everything.

One notable example was when Wrestlemania was in Brooklyn, New York, New Japan Pro Wrestling booked Madison Square Garden two nights prior.  Over the last few years, there’ve been what’s been dubbed WrestleCon, which is exactly what it sounds like, something of a convention for wrestling fans, with the primary thing being all sorts of meet and greets with current and former wrestlers.

However, this year’s Wrestlemania weekend in Dallas, would turn into this week-long affair, where numerous events and promotions started staking claim to times and venues all around the Dallas area, and I thought to myself, man, there really can be such a thing as too much wrestling.

There was one year where Wrestlemania ended up being like five hours long, and I was completely toast by the end of it.  They’ve since moved to the two-night model which I greatly prefer, and I’m sure all involved parties do too, since there’s two nights worth of gate, merch, parking and revenues to be made instead of one.

But Wrestlemania being two nights, on the Saturday and Sunday meant that even their own in-house Saturday show, the usually outstanding NXT TakeOver, got relegated to Saturday afternoon status.  In addition to the WWE’s presence in Dallas, there was the aforementioned ROH show that took place on Friday night, and earlier in the week were events booked by GCW, and even one venue that had MLW and the upstart Control Your Narrative promotion at the same time.

And of course, WrestleCon took place too, to help fill in the time in between actual wrestling shows.  Except that WrestleCon had their own mini-show at it too, with Impact Wrestling running an interesting event with a multiverse theme, which flexed just how many companies Impact had working relationships with.

All in all though, this is a good example of how there really could be such a thing as too much wrestling.  Now obviously, I love the business, and I’d definitely love to have been able to go to the ROH show, and maybe the NXT show.  But as I’ve said numerous times, I don’t really have that much desire to go to a Wrestlemania again, seeing as how I’ve been to two.  They’re just too large, and frankly, the quality of them aren’t really as good as they used to be when they’d have cards full of actual wrestling matches and not these spectacle/moment-maker matches where Johnny Knoxville and Logan Paul get on the show while the current US and Intercontinental champions don’t.

And because I don’t have the time, nor desire to pay to watch any special events, the only thing I ended up watching was Wrestlemania, which I have to say was pretty below average as a whole.  The matches that I was expecting to be good weren’t necessarily terrible, but they could’ve been better.  I had high hopes for Edge vs. AJ Styles, but it was average at best.  I had hoped the Roman vs. Brock match would’ve been as hard hitting and Japanese strong style as some of their earlier matches have been, but a supposed injury to Roman seemed to take the steam out of it, and make it seem very abrupt.

The best match of the show was probably Seth Rollins vs. the mystery opponent who turned out to be the return of Cody Rhodes which I called within the first month of AEW’s launch.  And it’s not like it was a Macho Man vs. Steamboat-caliber classic, it’s just it was the best match on a widely mediocre card otherwise.

Regardless, I was pleased to see Roman Reigns end the show with the double belts, because I still do believe Roman is still the best thing going in the WWE now, and he’s not just cutting promos about being in god mode, because he really is performing like he is.

All things considered though, I caught much of the ROH show’s primary matches after the fact, and to no surprise, everything they did was leaps and bounds better than Wrestlemania, as far as actual wrestling talent is concerned.  But frankly, actual wrestling is hardly what Wrestlemania’s been about over the last few years, and they’ve gotten content at just being an entertainment spectacle above all else.  But 150,000 attendees over two days doesn’t necessarily mean that that’s not the wrong call either.

Say goodbye, to the bad guy

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Impetus: former wrestling legend Scott Hall passes away after complications from hip surgery, resulting in a blood clot getting loose, triggering numerous heart attacks, being and being put on life support before being let go by his family

I’m not going to pretend like Scott Hall was ever one of my favorite wrestlers.  I’ve been a wrestling fan way too long, watched, read and listened to all sorts of shoot interviews, backstage stories and insider knowledge throughout the years to have a picture of Scott Hall in my own head, that is pretty jumbled up, but definitely not as quickly clear that he was among my favorite wrestlers.

As a performer, Scott Hall really was in a class of few; technically proficient, rock solid on the mic, and had charisma oozed machismo all over the place.  I still remember most of the original Razor Ramon vignettes back in the day and then eventually seeing him debut on an episode of Superstars.  He did moves like back suplexes off of the second turnbuckle, chokeslams, and seeing the Razor’s Edge for the very first time blew my mind.

He was as good a performer from my early memories of Razor, to when I picked wrestling back up in 1998 and watched now Scott Hall in WCW as a founding member of the nWo.  He definitely wrestled a lot less, but was still often on television and still entertaining, leaning more on being more of a mouthpiece and agitator, and making it more special when he actually did wrestle.

But then by the end of this period, the personal demons that Hall became synonymous with the phrase were too much, and he was more or less unceremoniously removed from television before WCW eventually went under.  In years following, Scott Hall kind of became a shell of himself, occasionally being mentioned on the internet, usually for something related to his rampant alcoholism.

Eventually, Hall cleaned himself up, and he and Kevin Nash and Hulk Hogan were brought back to the WWE to reform the nWo for story purposes, and he had a fairly mediocre feud with Stone Cold Steve Austin leading up to that year’s Wrestlemania.  Afterward, he would relapse and succumb to the personal demons again.

Continue reading “Say goodbye, to the bad guy” →

NXT Champion Dolph Ziggler makes me happy as a fan

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I don’t know why, but I love crossovers.  In comics, shows, video games, and of course, wresting.  I casually learned that Dolph Ziggler had been appearing in NXT(2.0), and thinking hmmmm now that’s interesting; contrary to my general lack of impression from the whole branding and breaking of Triple H’s baby promotion.

Considering the circumstances of his cameos, I figured Ziggler would go down to make a talented but green horn like Bron Breakker look good and give him some instant credibility working and inevitably succeeding against a reputable name like Dolph Ziggler.  And Ziggler, being the consummate company guy would do his job, and march on raking in fan empathy that he should be a bigger star than he is, to which I agree.

Which is why I’m of course surprised, but also pleased and happy with the company’s decision to actually have Ziggler go over Steiner Jr, and win the NXT Championship.  Now I’m pretty out of touch and I can’t really predict or fathom the long game booking like I used to, and Ziggler may very well be used as a transitional guy to move the belt to someone else.

But much like the Miz’s short world championship reign a year ago, I’m still pleased to see a known company guy who has a lot of respect from fans and peers, actually be publicly rewarded and have a major title put on them. 

Ziggler is and has always been a fantastic worker, company guy and regardless of his endless heel status, a pretty chill personality that I have a lot of respect for as an entertainer, so I’m very happy to see him get a little bit of a championship run, with the NXT Championship.

Who knows if this reign will last a month or go as long as Mandy Rose’s title reign, but I like the general idea of slapping the main NXT titles on underutilized main roster talents, and let them be the ones to pass some torches onto the future stars that 2.0 is trying to usher in. 

If anything at all, we’ll have the memory of Dolph Ziggler getting to celebrate a major title win, that wasn’t practically a decade ago.

Tony Khan buying Ring of Honor seems pretty notable

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

There’s a part in the WWE documentary, the Monday Night Wars, where Eric Bischoff talks about how when WCW was on top of the ratings game, they generally felt invincible. They didn’t really care much to what the WWF was doing and didn’t really see a lot of what they were doing as threatening.

Until the WWF got a hold of Mike Tyson to make some appearances and get into a storyline with D-Generation X and Stone Cold Steve Austin.  Bischoff is seen describing finding out about that news as a moment of, oooh, now that is something.

This would embark the WWF into the attitude era, where they would eventually catch and reclaim the ratings war back from WCW and never look back until WCW was dead and bought for pennies on the dollar by Vince McMahon himself.

That’s kind of the feeling I got when I heard that AEW owner/president/rich man child Tony Khan had bought Ring of Honor.  Oooh, now that is something substantial.

Obviously, I don’t think the WWE is ever going to die like WCW did, but in the general war of two between the companies, I do think AEW’s acquisition of ROH is a pretty notable instance that has a lot of potential to swing some momentum.

Aside from the general facts of AEW got something WWE wanted and the forbidden doors that an AEW/ROH association opens up, most people know that the tapes library alone was the primary prize in this whole thing.  WWE ultimately wants every living piece of professional wrestling media to do whatever they want with, but was denied by AEW. 

And with all that back catalog in tow, AEW now has some fuel to open the doors to their own streaming service, much like WWE sold to NBC’s Peacock.  Even prior to the news of the acquisition, news of AEW potentially broadcasting on HBO, as being a Turner product they fall under the same umbrella, was picking up steam.  And with a legitimate back catalog to bolster their own growing library, AEW stands to make some legitimate coin if and when they launch a streaming package.

Because when the day is over, money seems to be the biggest pissing contest between the companies.  Now the WWE isn’t at any risk of losing the dollars game, primarily because of the Saudi blood money they Hoover up every year now, but at least on the domestic front, AEW picking up ROH definitely is denying the E a lot of money in which they won’t be getting, which is a pretty symbolic win against an entity that seems pretty unbeatable.

Otherwise, I don’t think Khan’s purchase of ROH is going to make nearly the splash as wrestling fans might be rubbing themselves over. To me, the smart play is to let ROH operate as-is as long as they can while making small and subtle changes or integration plans.  When it’s not nearly as fresh on people’s minds is when to start firing shots, but that’s just my opinions.

But if I’m Vince McMahon, whether he’ll admit to it or not, seeing ROH dell to Tony Khan, probably is a noteworthy disappointment, and should make him go hmmmm.

I’m surprised anyone is surprised about Cody Rhodes

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

The wrestling internet is abuzz right now with the news that Cody Rhodes has left AEW, just a few years after he basically helped launch the entire promotion from the ground up.  And not just leaving AEW, but also tons of reports about how he’s on the track to returning to the WWE, the promotion that AEW’s cult-minded fans basically think is the antichrist.

Initially, I thought that this could be the start of some elaborate work, but as the last few days have progressed, it’s seemingly like it really is legitimate; unless this too is some Uber-meta working going on, designed to swerve all wrestling fans into oblivion, but as scuttlebutt keeps trickling, this is seemingly not likely.

But when it really comes down to it, I have to say that I’m more surprised that today’s average wrestling fans are actually surprised by this at all.  This is where I’d like to think that I’m wiser and smarter than today’s wrestling fans which isn’t saying that much but I did used to call myself The Oracle among my friends, based on how good I was at predicting wrestling bullshit, but the reality is that I’ve just watched and witnessed a lot of professional wrestling in my lifetime, and there just seemed to be a lot of common patterns and scenarios, and on a long enough timeline, nothing is original or unique and history repeats itself all the time.

When AEW started taking off, I actually made some predictions on which former WWE guys on the roster would eventually make their way back to WWE after some time in AEW.  Chris Jericho, for sure will be in a WWE ring again at some point in his career, as will guys like Shawn Spears, Mark Henry, Big Show, to name a few.  But one guy I didn’t hesitate one bit with was Cody Rhodes, regardless of his standing, position and contributions towards the creation of AEW.

All it took was two episodes of Dynamite, and I stated to varying friends that I could 100% see Cody Rhodes going back to the WWE.  It was just a feeling I had, and maybe it was all the times I’d seen Chris Jericho return to the WWE that fed this hunch, but I just knew that Cody would probably end up back in the WWE himself at some point, no matter how much he meant or accomplished with AEW.

The initial thought process was that in spite of the fact that Cody was a VP of the company, along with Kenny Omega, and Nick and Matt Jackson, the four of those wrestlers were very different personalities.  Whereas Cody clearly had a mind, hungry for the business side of the industry, Omega and Bucks were still too busy circle-jerking over inside jokes and spending way too much time trying to create YouTube content instead of running a company.  Eventually, these approaches to running AEW would clash and when it comes down to it, it’s three versus one.  

There’s been plenty of speculation about rifts and disagreements between the VPs of the company, as well as Tony Khan’s stripping of power from all of them, and I basically said that a time would eventually come where Cody would get tired of all the bullshit of running a company, and would probably prefer to just be a performer, focus on wrestling and make WWE money in the process.

And here we are, just a few years removed from the birth of AEW, and Cody Rhodes has walked away, and appears to be on the fast track back to the WWE.

The thing about the WWE is that there is a 100% never-say-never attitude when it comes to talent returning to the fold.  It doesn’t matter how much anti-WWE shit a guy spews in another promotion, or if they say racist shit (Hulk Hogan), or even admitting to incest and murder (Marty Janetty), if a guy can bring interest, eyes, fans and money to the company, the WWE will open their arms.

Cody Rhodes helping launch the WWE’s most prominent rival since WCW has little bearing on the WWE’s decision to bring him in, because Cody still won titles in the NWA, Ring of Honor, New Japan and AEW since his last departure from the company, so in the spirit of raising one’s own stock and value, Cody has accomplished that.

Sure, I think his ceiling back in the WWE will be no higher than Christian after he came back from TNA, no matter how much creative ideas and influence he’s promised to get him to sign back up, but Cody Rhodes returning to the WWE is a big deal, big name, and a guy with an impressive resume and not just Dusty Rhodes’ kid anymore.

Frankly, anyone who didn’t see this coming at some point is either just too young, hasn’t watched enough wrestling in their lives, or maybe I really am just that more insightful and observant to the industry than other people are.  But Cody going back to the WWE was about as much of a layup as Wilt Chamberlain playing hoops in his own era.

I hope Rousey gets owned by the fans again

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

As good as Ronda Rousey was in the Octagon, I’ve never really been sold on Ronda Rousey the professional wrestler.  I don’t think I’m the only wrestling fan that kind of thinks that she’s more or less a wrestling tourist cashing in on her name value, and using professional wrestling to pad her bank account, because for some reason they’re so willing to give her tons of money.  And as good of a MMA fighter she might have been, even to this day she’s still putrid inside the ring.

After reading this story about how WWE heads needed to give her a talking to about cutting promos, most notably the part where she’s the face in this feud with Charlotte Flair, and she needs to act like a heel, especially to the fans, because the formula of wrestling is the timeless tale of good guy versus bad guy, and it doesn’t really work out when a Wrestlemania match is going to be two assholes against each other, it was just another reminder of how much she doesn’t get the wrestling industry from the storytelling perspective either.

Back in 2018, Rousey and Charlotte had a match at Survivor Series, which was pretty decent because Charlotte is basically the greatest female wrestler ever, and Rousey was smart enough to let herself get carried.  But the most memorable part of the match was when Charlotte got herself disqualified by abruptly attacking Rousey with a weapon; but despite the fact that at the time, Rousey was built as a heroic face, while Charlotte was toeing the line as a heel, the dastardly actions by Charlotte were met with explosive cheers from the crowd.  Throughout the match, Rousey was getting somewhat of a lukewarm reception, but when Charlotte went ballistic on her, the line in the sand was pretty drawn – the fans had turned on Rousey.

The thing is, Rousey being so green to the wrestling industry, had no earthly idea how to handle it.  After the match was over, Rousey looked at the crowd with a shocked and appalled look on her face as boos rained down on her.  There was actually a moment where the cameras caught her jawing with a fan, claiming that he was no man, and the whole televised walk to the back was awkward and kind of painful to watch.

Today’s wrestling fans don’t like to be told what to do, which is why they’re so apt to turn on wrestlers in such dynamic manners from time to time.  And the fans at a Survivor Series, which is a tier-1 event for the WWE, tends to draw more hardcore fans, and these are the ones that tend to understand their power as a collective, and know they can fuck with the talent if they work together, and that’s basically what happened with when they turned on Rousey.  And once it’s seen on television, it becomes the truth to all casual fans and before you know it, Rousey is hated by all fans from then on, and next thing you know, she’s jobbing out to Becky Lynch at Wrestlemania to the delight of the fans and then vanishing from the WWE for like, three years.

Well, Rousey is back, and the WWE machine is once again trying to push her as a face.  But the aforementioned promo she cut, mostly on the fans, clearly indicates that she hasn’t forgotten how she was treated by the fans three years ago, and combined with all her shoot-not-shoot remarks about how much she hates wrestling fans, it clear her relationship status with the industry is probably best described as, it’s complicated.

What I’m really hoping for is that come Wrestlemania, when Rousey faces Charlotte for the blue Women’s Championship, I hope that the fans turn on her again.  Not before, not after, but during the match against Charlotte.  Charlotte has been trying to nurture the arrogant heel persona over the last two years and frankly, getting paired against Rousey could be the worst thing to happen to her character, if the smarky fans that show up at Wrestlemania decide to deploy another heel turn on Rousey again.

But I’m all for it, and hope that it happens again.  I’m not sold on Rousey the professional wrestler, and I would be over the moon to see the fans go complete dark side on her again, and see how she reacts to it happening at Wrestlemania of all places.  It doesn’t change the fact that she’s probably going to win the blet because a big name like Rousey isn’t brought in to job, but I just hope the fans definitely let her know that they recognize someone who respects the business, and they’ll definitely let anyone else know what they think about them.