RIP Scott Hall.

Watching a little bit of RAW tonight. They keep spamming the MSG Reigns/Lesnar moment. This sort of thing suggests that Lesnar is going to win at Mania. Not guaranteed, of course, but more likely than not. I like this current run Lesnar is on (well, his character, anyway), but please no...

No cody...

I hate wwe lol.


RIP to the bad guy.

I'm mostly indifferent to Cody coming back to WWE. It seems more likely than not, maybe, but I'm not much interested. He's just... unlikable to me. His aura screams "ego problem" these days.

Also, what the fuck is going on with this Veer Mahaan is Coming to RAW shit? It has been nearly HALF A YEAR (5.5 months or so) of them running these announcements every week. And the tweet from WWE of it tonight chose the worst pic they could of the man (looks like he's literally coming...). They're playing everyone, right? Right?! Is this a 6-month April Fools joke Vince is cackling about backstage every week?

Cody in AEW -

Cody in WWE -



Veer wrestled in a Dark Match at the Cleveland Raw.

I don't mind Cody in AEW. I'm fine with him. I think it would be a horrible decision to sign with WWE. He's not getting the creative control he wants. And what benefit is there for them? He's not going to be a main-event guy. Outside of the initial return, interest will wane. He should go back to AEW and take what deal they offer.

Glad Thunder Rosa won the title last night. And great match too!

Yeah it was a brilliant decision to delay the title swap. The Revolution crowd was so dead for that match, but Rosa's hometown made her feel like a big deal who was ready for this moment.

Yeah, it was a good moment for her.

Enjoying the new Wardlow. Over with the crowd, entertaining in the ring (plenty of time to improve too), and good on the mic.

Darby Allin singles match tomorrow!

It's so nice when a wrestling company treats the hometown hero with a win. WWE's standard is to make them lose there always (I can only think of Punk winning in Chicago to go against that general rule). Thunder Rosa's win was terrific.

Wardlow is over huge. If he were in WWE (yeah yeah I know, I can't stop thinking about WWE), he would be getting booed by now, now that he's a face. He's got tremendous chemistry with the audience, good talker, I'll be curious to see him in more longer matches than the standard squashes.

I will criticize AEW now though.

I am not into The Jericho Appreciation Society. I'm glad for the three young guys, especially Daniel Garcia, and Jericho desperately needed a change, but this ain't it. Inner Circle 2.0. I'm actually disappointed because I have tremendous respect for Jericho's ability to evolve as a character every few years. So not sure where this goes.

And worse it traps Eddie Kingston, Santana & Ortiz and potentially Sammy Guevara in a months-long feud (at least until Double or Nothing in May). It's just a rehash now of Inner Circle vs. Pinnacle.

Is the "sports entertainer" thing suppose to draw heat from the crowd since WWE is the "sports entertainment" company. Or did I miss what this meant?

I'll be interested to see where it goes, but yeah, seems like a rehash idea. But if that happens, I'm not going to get too critical if it results in some good matches.

That's how I took it. Everyone says AEW is professional wrestling, whereas WWE is sports entertainment. I can take or leave that, but if it's done right and done smart, it could be fine. But I don't see where they go with that to go true sports entertainer. I don't think it really means anything, outside of Vince McMahon's desire to run a wrestling company without using any of the traditional wrestling terminology (no "belts", no "wrestlers", etc.).

I'm OK with shots at WWE, but just not sure how I feel about a gimmick or stable based on it.

Regal called his guys pro wrestlers several times during their tag match so I assume we're heading for


WAR GAMES

Blood n Guts.

Rhea and Liv become a random tag team a 2 months ago (or something).
Sasha and Naomi become a random tag team about a month ago.
Shayna and Natalya become a random tag team tonight.

And I guess Doudrop and Nikki are a tag team now too? Guess I missed that.

I guess they're just trying to get all of them on the Mania card by having this huge multi-tag team match, but just...ugh. The fact none of the women aside from Becky/Charlotte/Bianca/Rhonda are involved in any feuds or storylines to get a singles match and just have to be thrown together randomly like this going into Mania is kind of ridiculous.

Forgot Rampage is on at 11:30(!) tonight! I'll still watch though. NCAA Wrestling is on until then, so that'll do.

EDIT: And... it *appears* that Cody has signed with WWE if the reports are true. I'll believe it when I see it, but seems to have moved beyond the speculation stage now.

Sasha, the best wrestler in the whole company, being in the schmozzy tag match is so sad. Should have just built a quick and easy program about getting her first Wrestlemania win. The reverse-Taker.

They're so hellbent on combining NXT and WWE (Dolph, Miz, Roode, Mysterios all on NXT this week), they should just have the women tag teams from NXT combine with the WWE women tag teams.

I can't wait until the summer when Cody and WWE both realize this was a huge mistake. If he's built like AEW Cody, it'll work. In what bizarre alternate reality will Cody leapfrog past Rollins, Owens, Big E (before his accident), or anyone else on the roster into the title picture?

I'm looking at the Mania card and I don't know if I've ever been less excited for a Wrestlemania.

Night 1:
-Charlotte vs. Ronda: Honestly they had a chance to redeem adding Charlotte to the Mania match three years ago and have Becky and Ronda, and they gave it to Charlotte. Again. Not really excited for it, but I hope Ronda sticks around and works full-time like she did her first run. It was a good run until the nonsensical heel turn she had.

-Becky vs. Bianca: Good for Bianca, but... we had this match already. And Becky squashed Bianca at Summerslam. It was a bad choice then and it's especially bad now that this is the Mania match.

-The Mysterios vs. Logan Paul and The Miz: Is it bad that the least revolting part of this match is Logan Paul? The Miz getting Paul as a tag partner, when he had a perfectly good partner this time last year. Plus I don't know what they're going to do with Dominik when Rey isn't there. He cannot carry himself, he has zero charisma.

-Drew vs. Corbin: Poor Drew. 2020 - Brock. 2021 - Lashley. 2022 - a neverending feud with Corbin and Moss.

-The Usos vs. Shinsuke and Boogs: OK, I guess. But just makes me feel bad for Shinsuke that he's never getting a main event run ever.

Night 2:
-Brock vs. Roman: This would be fine if we hadn't had this match at Wrestlemania already. Not to mention we've had it already in the last six months. Brock can come out as a lumberjack cowboy all he wants, I've seen this match a lot and it never fails to disappoint.

-Women's Tag Team: No interest because WWE has no interest in building this division.

-Johnny Knoxville vs. Sami: I will force some positives. Sami has been a very strong focal point on WWE TV for a while now. He deserves a lot better, but he does do well with what he's given. And Knoxville has made a lot of appearances to build the match. Yet this is not going to be a good, fun match.

-Pat vs. Theory: Really don't know what to expect her. I've never seen Pat McAfee wrestle. Also does this mean he won't be on commentary for Mania? Because that'll suck.

-Edge vs. Styles: Good in theory but the Dark Edge promos aren't doing a thing for me.

I just did a quick check on last year's Mania. 11 of the people on the card are no longer with WWE.

I'm not going to watch Mania. I signed up for Peacock again for the Rumble (after going months and months without it), which ended up being an absolute mess of a PPV.

I'm not looking forward to a single match on the Mania card. Reigns/Lesnar... sort of. But like you said, Ecks, we've had this already, plus they've had several matches over the past few (several?) years. Rhona/Charlotte... no. Rhonda/Becky could have been something, but they ignored it. Edge/Styles... like you also said, good in theory, but the build up has been rushed and blah. Could have been something special if effort went into the feud.

As weird as it is, I think Zayne/Knoxville has had the best build, I think. It, or possibly Theory/Pat, could be one of those surprise hits (or rather, one of those "better than expected" matches).

Charlotte v Ronda is so tone deaf that I was originally thinking Becky would come out and challenge Ronny to a unification match on night two.

But 2022 WWE just isn't gonna do that. Ronny will get her clean victory, the fans will cheer and nothing will distract from the TITLE V TITLE GREATEST WRESTLEMANIA MATCH OF ALL TIME. STUPENDOUS!

How is it the Greatest WrestleMania Match of All Time when The Best In the World, Shane McMahon, isn't one of the competitors?

Lol Vince subtitling this "the most stupendous two-night event" is hilarious. Who the fuck has used the word stupendous in the last fifty years?

I will be mildly positive again about WWE. I am happy that Brock Lesnar is actually showing up. Like... every week. And putting in effort. Looking back, it's crazy they got away with "Paul and Brock come out, Paul cuts the
promo, Brock looks mildly annoyed, rinse repeat" for so many years.

That said, no way at this point in his life is he winning both titles. That would require him to show up on two shows a week and I don't see it. And they'd be silly to have him drop a title within a month after Mania. And I don't want them giving him ANOTHER huge streak-ender.

Rumor is that after Roman wins they're just gonna immediately debut a new Raw title.

I'm pretty sure this Bianca "injury" is a work, but being pulled from the Meet & Greet ahead of RAW tomorrow is... suspicious. Being this close to Mania to do an injury work is a little weird to, isn't it?

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if WWE's run out of ideas for her and Becky's feud though, and have just written Bianca off until Mania so they don't have to deal with it anymore...

But if this happens to be a legit injury, it'd be a shame if she doesn't make it to Mania. Maybe Asuka or Bayley (both seem good now, just waiting on their returns) could take her spot if it's actually true. I'd also consider Alexa, as she seems to be on standby status, but I just don't think WWE knows what to do with her anymore (unless she has a long contract, WWE's letting her go when they can, right?).

Good on WWE for making everyone watch and wait for Cody on RAW. Obviously he isn't showing up now until Mania. I can't believe their entire Wrestlemania hinges on whether the AEW guy is there or not. Cody Rhodes of all people. Man, casual fans are going to be so confused why Cody Rhodes is suddenly a big deal in WWE.