Let's talk wrasslin'

[DE4life]

Scary moment for Hangman last night, knocked out cold from a Moxley clothesline. Seems like one of those freak accidents, nothing especially dangerous, but well done to the ref and doctor for getting on it straight away and calling off the match. Absolutely the right move. Sounds like Hangman has a concussion, but will hopefully be alright.

I have to say I'm very much enjoying Raw and Smackdown lately. Never thought I'd say that about Raw. I like the direction Triple H has taken it, and it's so nice for all of Vince's stupid BS to just be gone. Sad in a way for all of the talent that has been held down and limited by his nonsense over the past 15 years or so, but at least some of them will get a second chance now under Triple H to show what they can do.

I'm still watching through 2016/17 Smackdown at the moment as well, currently up to mid-June 2017. I figured the quality would drop off a cliff after WM and the superstar shakeup, as that is the general opinion nowadays, but I'm actually still enjoying the show a lot. Jinder Mahal as champion is obviously weird but it hasn't gotten tiresome yet (I know it will, I remember it becoming annoying at the time). There's a lot of good stuff outside of Jinder. The women are having solid programs, the Fashion Files have started up and are really funny, the Usos/New Day are starting their big feud as well. Plenty of good still going on with SD at the moment.



Say what you will about Jinder but he had a sick entrance. He had the look and carried himself like a champion, but unfortunately his promo and in-ring skills weren't even close to being up to par. He always sounds like he's on the verge of losing his voice, which is irritating to listen to, and his finisher sucks as well.

 

[The Grayfox]

I still find it hard to believe that Jinder was champion. I know it was probably because of WWE's expansion in India, but still. It wasn't believable to me. I know there's more to the wrestling business than just the wrestling, but I've always been the guy who enjoys watching a great match. Jinder did not have great matches. He didn't even have good matches. And his finish did indeed suck.

Hangman got lucky its a concussion honestly. The way he landed on that spin-out looked like he could have broken his neck. I'm assuming it was the clothesline that did it because Mox hit him right in the jaw instead of across the chest. But the landing afterwards seemed to be what people were talking about. So, did Mox knock him out with the clothesline and that's why he landed cocked on his neck/head or was it the clothesline itself that did it? I can't tell.

 

[DE4life]

Jinder definitely had a huge credibility problem. He quite literally went from being a jobber to world champion in the space of 2-3 weeks. And we aren't talking a fluke champion who loses the title a week later, but a legit main eventer. It was bizarre and I don't think anything like that has happened before or since in WWE. It was indeed supposed to help expand their reach in India, which is funny because Jinder is Canadian and in his promos would speak in Punjabi - despite most Indians speaking Hindi. Indians also typically prefer the actual WWE stars, they weren't going to see Jinder as more legit than Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, AJ Styles, etc. Not to mention, if you're pushing Jinder to appeal to the Indian market, why make him a heel? We know that in Vince's mind foreign = evil and/or comedic, but why would you expect the Indian audience to cheer for a wrestler who is a blatant heel? Just because he's (not) Indian like them? Just shows how simple-minded Vince believes foreigners are. From memory the Indian tour they did ended up getting postponed, then shortened, and didn't even sell well. Jinder was beaten by Triple H in the main event of that show, and Triple H was far more over than Jinder. Go figure. An absolutely pointless endeavour in the end.

As for the Hangman injury, it didn't really look any different to the typical clotheslines you see where the opponent is turned inside-out, but obviously something went wrong. I think it must have been the point-of-impact, otherwise Hangman would have better protected himself during the fall. Just glad he's alright. The MJF/Regal segment from Dynamite this week was fantastic. MJF spitting fire at Regal and getting the crowd behind him, only for Regal to totally wreck MJF with a few sentences. Masterful stuff.

 

[The Grayfox]

I never thought of the Jinder situation that way. I guess it goes to show how badly Vince felt the need to use the Iron Sheik formula whenever he could. I respect what he's done, but Vince being out of the picture creatively is proving to be a good thing. He was very much stuck in the past and his formulas stopped working a long time ago.

Yeah, that MJF/Regal segment was amazing. MJF goes on a 10 minute long tirade, which was incredible on it's own. Then everyone is left thinking "well, he just buried Regal" and Regal comes back with that. William Regal is absolutely an unsung hero in the world of wrestling. He does get credit, but I don't think as much as he deserves. If you give that man a mic, he will hit it out of the park every single time. And on top of that, he seems like an incredibly nice human being. When he's "out of character", people would never guess he's a villain. He's so soft spoken and eloquent and his humor and wit are top notch. I love hearing him tell stories.

 

[DE4life]

Okay, so, the honeymoon period with Triple H appears to be wearing off. For me, at least. There are things happening on Raw that are beginning to irritate me now.

- Gallows and Anderson returning does nothing for me. I don't think they're particularly interesting or very good in the ring. I get the history between AJ, Finn, Gallows and Anderson, but it's been done before.

- Johnny Gargano is coming across as a fucking annoying little dweeb in pretty much all of his segments. WWE have pretty much always sucked at creating likeable, genuinely funny babyfaces, and this is just another example. I think Gargano is supposed to come across as being amusing and cool, but he's just annoying to me.

- Chad Gable is still being hugely underutilised. It's nice that he's gotten himself over with the Alpha Academy stuff, but he's worth so much more than just being a comedy jobber.

- I don't get Mustafa Ali's character, and I'm not sure why as an audience we're supposed to just forget the whole Retribution debacle that he was the on-screen leader of. He hasn't given any explanaton about why his mindset has changed, nor what his actual mindset is now.

- Riddle seemed to have found a more serious edge during his feud with Rollins, but now he's back to just being a goofy stoner. Frustrating character regression after a very solid rivalry.

- Why does Corbin of all people need JBL as a mouthpiece? This isn't somebody who really needs a manager to talk for him, Corbin has always been a solid hand on the mic. It's also strange that we're supposed to take him seriously, but he's still got a big dose of the stupid Happy Corbin character in his presentation. Bring back Lone Wolf Corbin with the awesome 'I Bring the Darkness' theme. That would help.

- I've said it before but they really need to push Belair beyond the 'happy smiley babyface' character that she's been stuck with for months. There's no depth to her character at all. She comes out, dances, swings her braid around and spouts the 'est' catchphrases. That's about it.

Anyhow, overall Raw was pretty lacklustre this week and the crowd was quite flat for a lot of it. That initial spark of change is aleady beginning to fade out.

 

[The Grayfox]

I'm kind of cutting them a little bit of slack right now, but I hear you. I'm very interested to see how they handle the Royal Rumble-Wrestlemania time frame. I think we can expect many surprise entrants in the Rumble if they don't run out by then. Seems like every week somebody is coming back.

 

[DE4life]

For what it's worth Smackdown is still pretty good. The Bloodline and Sami Zayn stuff is fantastic storytelling. This week's segment is already cemented as an all time classic simply due to everybody involved being unable to stay in character!

 

[DE4life]

I'm going to go in on AEW now, as they're annoying me even more than WWE. I have low expectations for WWE generally, so I tend to go easy on them in terms of being impressed. AEW I expect better from, and I now consider Dynamite less entertaining than Raw or Smackdown.

Firstly, should we just rename the show to ROH Dynamite? Why has this failed, niche company completely taken over AEW programming? Nothing against ROH but I never watched it because the product simply didn't interest me, and presumably that was the case for most fans as the company went out of business and generally drew poorly. So why it's now become such a prominent part of the AEW product is beyond me. Where the hell are the likes of Miro and Eddie Kingston? Is it more important to put Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutt on TV? Makes no sense to me.

As far as this week's Dynamite, hooo boy, let's go through this in order.

Darby Allin Vs Jay Lethal - the match was fine, but Darby could be doing much more than feuding with TNA's 2010 roster. Speaking of TNA, I was getting major Impact nostalgia when Jeff Jarrett of all people showed up. For the record that's not a good type of nostalgia, either - this is something that should be left in the past. I have no interest in seeing JJ in AEW. That segment - with a fake Sting, Jeff Jarrett, Jay Lethal, Sonjay Dutt, a copycat of a WWE 'big South Asian wrestler' and the fake Sting being revealed as a nobody (seriously I had no idea who he was) just reeked of the worst of the TNA years. Meanwhile a talented young performer was laid out in the ring, which was even more TNA-like.

I don't even know where the actual Sting was. He's just vanished after being Darby's father-figure for the past year plus. The only positive is that they didn't do a WCW and act like the fake Sting was unquestionably the real Sting. It was always ridiculous when the likes of Kevin f'n Nash would dress up as Sting and WCW's commentators would fail to spot the obvious differences. Schiavone was going in that direction here which was triggering me, but then thankfully Excaliber and Taz were like "yeah that's obviously not Sting", mercifully averting that old WCW trope.

Jon Moxley Vs Lee Moriarty - What has Moriarty done to earn a shot in a world title eliminator tournament? Maybe he's been impressing on Dark or Elevation, but like most AEW fans I don't watch those shows so I wouldn't know. And like at least 50% of the AEW fanbase I don't watch Rampage either, because it's become 1999 WCW Thunder in record time, so again I wouldn't know if Moriarty has been impressing there or not. Regardless it felt like a pointless match, a total mismatch and waste of time. With that said I'm not going to be too critical as WCW often had the likes of Ice Train, Scott Norton and Greg Valentine challenging for the world title in 1996, so there is precedent.

Still couldn't care less about Paige/Saraya being in AEW. Britt Baker went stale about a year ago but is still right at the top of the card. I really hope they actually give Jamie Hayter some character development soon as the fans are ready to get behind her. Toni Storm I simply don't get. Her promos are poor and she's just okay in the ring. Not sold at all and don't understand the hype surrounding her.

The Acclaimed are one of the few bright spots on Dynamite at the moment, but feuding with the DOA "The Firm" stable isn't a great use of their time. Can't really remember why FTR and The Firm have beef, because storylines in AEW fade in and out depending on how much ROH they're pushing that week, but FTR Vs Acclaimed sounds good on paper.

Jericho Vs Cabana - It was nice to see Colt get a good reception, and you could see it meant a lot to him. With that said, the "former ROH champ" hook for this match actually made me less excited to see it, as I don't care about nor even know a great deal about ROH. Colt as a "former ROH tag champ" was a bit of a bait and switch without technically being a bait and switch, but it's fine. Match was OK, winner never in doubt.

Are the JAS and BCC feuding again? I thought they had a blowoff match already? Better question - why did the BCC come out individually as opposed to, you know, a group?

Orange Cassidy Vs Luchasaurus Vs Rey Fenix - fun match for the time they had. Three AEW OGs which is nice. Of course we get another company coming into the fray with Shibata and NJPW, because apparently Tony cannot pick anyone from the 1000 wrestlers he's signed for AEW to be in this spot.

Cargill Vs Shafir - Yawn, Jade's literally been squashing people for something like a year now with essentially no real, genuine challengers. It's boring now.

Samoa Joe Vs Bryan Cage - for real, you're going to main event AEW Dynamite with an ROH TV title match? OK then. Not a particularly interesting match. Joe is some way past his prime now. Bryan Cage hasn't been built up at all, just randomly showing up essentially. I don't even know what this "Embassy" faction that he's supposedly a part of is. Pretty sure they've barely if ever been spotlighted on Dynamite, and as aforementioned, I don't watch the AEW supplementary shows.

Let's talk about the oversaturation of champions, too. On this show we had the following wrestlers in matches:

Darby Allin (c)
Jay Lethal
Jon Moxley (c)
Lee Moriarty
Chris Jericho (c)
Colt Cabana
Orange Cassidy (c)
Luchasaurus
Rey Fenix (c)
Jade Cargill (c)
Marina Shafir
Samoa Joe (c)
Brian Cage

Technically more champions than challengers in this line up, and that's not including segments that had the likes of The Acclaimed (c), FTR (c), Toni Storm (c), Penta (c) and PAC (c). In AEW it's becoming weird to see a wrestler that doesn't have a championship slung over their shoulder, ultimately rendering the majority of titles pointless.

 

[The Grayfox]

The thing about AEW is that I'm starting to get major TNA vibes from it. And not good TNA vibes. Like... today's TNA. I really want AEW to succeed but the fact that a fan who happens to be rich is in charge of it isn't doing it any favors at this point. That charming, honeymoon period is over. It's stale. I had hoped more for a WCW feeling out of this. Instead, it's an ROH feeling. As you said, most fans don't give a shit about ROH. It's a niche audience. If you want people to think that you're actual competition, you need to act like it. My biggest complaint about AEW is still it's overall atmosphere. It feels like a fucking house show. The thing that drew me to WCW as a kid was that it was bright, larger than life. For a guy who has millions upon millions, it doesn't seem like he's putting a lot of that into presentation. He just keeps bringing over ROH and NJPW talent.

I mean, I know fuck all about running a wrestling business. So this is just my opinion, but WWE succeeded because it wasn't trying to be JUST a wrestling company. Same for WCW in the late 90s. There was more going on. And part of that was trying to draw in people who didn't already watch the product. Bringing in New Japan guys isn't bringing new eyes to the company. It's just stroking off your current audience. I find myself now hoping that some of the AEW roster leaves and goes back to WWE because they're stagnant where they're at. AEW is doing ZERO that interests me right now. Chris Jericho is your biggest star there and hey, just my opinion, but I don't think he's nearly the star that he or Tony Khan thinks he is. You've got Bryan Danielson on your roster what do you do with him? Absolutely nothing. Tony Khan snatches all of this talent up, locked them into contracts and then just does nothing with them. As a fan, it's frustrating.

 

[DE4life]

Vince is back, lmao

 

[The Grayfox]

Of course he is, the fucking prick. Dude just can't stay away. He's an ego-maniacal control freak. I love how all the reports are saying that he isn't taking back creative, the day-to-day management will stay the same, etc. How long do people realistically expect that to last? Let's analyze for a second...

Vince McMahon is pushing 80 years old. He is already a billionaire. He claims he is coming back to push the sale of the company and nothing more. What the fuck does an almost 80 year old billionaire get out of selling WWE for billions more? He can already do anything he wants (clearly). He basically told the board that he will bankrupt the company when it comes to TV deal negotiations (which are coming up soon) if he wasn't let back on the board. Does someone who just wants to "sit on the board" threaten to do that? They don't. He is going to regain full control of the company in every aspect because he can't handle the thought of that company running without him. One of his first moves in ONE DAY was getting rid of the board member who was in charge of the internal investigation into the sexual assault allegations. Anyone who doesn't realize that he will take back all control of WWE is delusional, imo.

This is how shit starts. Any time there's a company sale, or a big shift in management, what do they do? They come in and say 'nothing is going to change, don't worry.' It's usually only a matter of weeks before the shitstorm hits.

I feel bad for all the guys Trips brought back. Hell, I feel bad for every single person who works for that company. Can you imagine getting a 6 month reprieve from the nightmare that would be working for Vince McMahon, only to have him come back and pull the rug out from everyone? What a disaster. Selfishly I was really looking forward to a Rumble and Mania with someone else at the helm.

 

[DE4life]

It's a weird one in terms of how Vince will worm his way back into being in total control. We know he will, at some point, but at the moment it would be legally very difficult for him to formally put himself back in charge of creative. My guess is that he brokers a sale with his favoured interested party (potentially the Saudis) with a clause in the agreement that allows him to continue on as chairman for a certain amount of time, if not indefinitely. You have to imagine the Saudis, for example, would be perfectly happy to agree to something like that. The company then goes private, meaning Vince no longer has to answer to shareholders, and no matter what happens in court going forward his position in WWE is safe and secure. At that point he's basically back in total control.

So, mostly likely, right now nothing major will change - so you may get to see at least one RR / WM cycle devoid of any serious Vince influence - but once a sale is formally concluded there's a good chance, imo, that Vinnie Mac will be back in power. Ultimately he has the final say in the sales process thanks to his share allotment. His return was somewhat inevitable all things considered, although I didn't think it'd happen quite this quickly.

 

[DE4life]

So, Stephanie resigns completely and there are big rumours now that WWE has indeed been sold to the Saudis. Sad to think that so much of wrestling history could now be owned by Saudi Arabia. You have to assume if the deal does go ahead that Sami Zayn will be finished with WWE, which would be a massive shame considering he's at his professional peak right now. Kevin Owens could be gone as well, seeing as he's been a very vocal critic of the Saudi regime in the past.

I don't think there would be a mass exodus as for most wrestlers it's all about the payday - hence why almost everybody on the roster attends the Saudi shows - but there would likely be a few big names stepping away. Interestingly John Cena has refused to do the Saudi shows in the past, so he could also be done with the company.

Meanwhile WWE would go back to being private, Vince likely becomes the emperor once more, and ultimately gets the last laugh on everybody. The darkest timeline as far as WWE is concerned.

 

[DE4life]

CNBC meanwhile seem to think this is all bullshit and there's no truth to the rumours that a Saudi sale is agreed or even being explored.

 

[The Grayfox]

I still think it’s going to happen. What’s the one thing you don’t have if you sell to the Saudis? A female CEO. Multiple reports that the Saudis are the most likely to let Vince stay in control and go private again. If Comcast or Disney or Fox buys WWE, the company would probably stay public and then Vince can’t control everything like he clearly wants to. I think, just as a fan/outsider with 30 years of fandom, that Vince wants what Vince wants and he won’t compromise. If there are shareholders, the spotlight stays on him as far as sexual misconduct allegations and the like. No doubt that he wants that shit swept under a rug. The Saudis seem like the logical choice for all of this to happen.

I don’t think there will be a mass exodus either, but I do think some will leave out of protest, namely Zayn and Owens. Somebody (probably SRS or Alvarez) reported that WWE may have leaked the news to gauge the reaction of it. I’m not sure I buy that because I truly don’t think Vince gives a shit what the reaction is. He’s not going to pass up a deal worth billions because fans don’t like it. He may also use that to entice talent to stay. Pay raises and such.

Either way, I’m sure Tony Khan is pissing himself with excitement. This is nothing but good for him and AEW.

 

[DE4life]

I think Steph's resignation is linked more to Vince coming back than the Saudi deal. The Saudi PIF actually own a football team here, Newcastle United, who have a female CEO. The thing with sportswashing is that they can't just come in and impose their own values upon the team they're taking over. Doing so would basically achieve the opposite of what they're trying to do, which is hoodwinking people into seeing their country/culture in a better light. So they tend to allow these entities to continue operating essentially as normal, and just take the kudos for using their money to bring success to that team/brand.

It does seem like the Saudis are the best option for Vince, but there is one major stumbling block and that is the TV rights. The Saudis haven't been able to get any decent TV deals for their golf sportswashing endeavour, and WWE without broadcast rights is basically worthless. So I think the entire deal would hinge on Vince providing some kind of guarantee that USA/FOX would still be onboard, or he could get a better TV deal elsewhere. It could be that there is a deal agreed in principle, but it depends on that aspect which is yet to be confirmed. I also doubt anything was leaked to gauge reaction - as you say, Vince doesn't remotely care about public opinion and the company would go private anyway, so the only thing that would matter would be the impact on the television deals.

 

[The Grayfox]

Good points. Wasn't Vince's entire threat (reported to be, anyway...) that if he wasn't let back on the board, he would sabotage their TV deals? If that is the case, why go with the Saudis if he won't be able to get a good TV deal? Stupid question, since when does Vince do anything logical? The entire situation really seems like he's tanking the company. The ol' 'if I can't have it, no one can' mentality.

All I can say is that, as a father, I cannot even fathom somebody fucking their own children over like this man has. He would rather sell the company off for billions of dollars (when he's already a billionaire) than leave it to his kids. What an ego maniacal piece of shit. If this was a situation where Vince was broke, I could understand it. But he isn't. He has more money than he knows what to do with, especially at 77 years old. Man's need for power and control and greed never ceases to amaze me. It's just never enough.

 

[DE4life]

Supposedly he did indeed threaten to sabotage future TV rights negotiations if he wasn't reinstated, yeah. I think part of it does come down to the "if I can't have it, nobody can" mindset, but it may be also that his ego genuinely leads him to believe he can negotiate a TV deal for the Saudis where others have failed. He obviously has a good relationship with USA Network, and presumably a decent one with FOX as well, so maybe he can get something sorted. USA and FOX were happy to let WWE air their gross Saudi propaganda events on their networks, so you could argue there would be some hypocrisy involved at balking because the company is owned by the Saudis. Especially if Vince remains in charge. That may be another key piece of the deal - the networks will only talk TV terms if Vince and/or his team remain in charge of the US operation, and there is no permanent Saudi influence.

After seeing how Vince has treated Shane over the years, as well as many of his most loyal employees, nothing surprises me anymore when it comes to his decisions. As you say, total egomaniac, zero moral compass and only cares about himself. Little wonder he gets on so well with Trump.

 

[DE4life]

I watched the Royal Rumble yesterday. 4+ hours is a bit of a slog, but when you are watching the next day and can skip through boring bits/commercials it does help somewhat. Overall I thought it was a decent show with a phenomenal ending which will go down as one of the greatest endings to a PPV in wrestling history, by my estimation.

McAfee's return and Cole's genuine excitement over this was a great way to start the show. Cole has been a completely different person since Vince stopped producing him, and it's all been for the better. Commentary as a whole during the show was superb, the three-man booth of Graves/Cole/McAfee worked really well together. Quite a few non-PG comments as well which got a chuckle out of me.

Men's Rumble - It was alright, but it was kind of obvious that Cody was going to win, which always takes a little of the fun out of the match. No real surprise entrants this year, except Booker T, who looked in amazing shape. The match was generally laid out well, much better than last year's attempt, and they utilised the likes of Gunther, Dominic Mysterio, Logan Paul, Edge and Braun Strowman well. As aforementioned, though, the winner was obvious and that's a big negative in a match like this.

Wyatt Vs. LA Knight - Just a whole lot of fail here. Wyatt's entrance was pretty much the only positive of this trainwreck. The ring visual looked stupid, especially with the mountain dew logo in the middle of the ring, the match itself sucked and then the ending with Uncle Howdy randomly jumping off a ledge and missing LA Knight... sigh. It's a shame Bray can't scale back on the hocus pocus nonsense and revert to something more realistic. When he debuted he wasn't some mystical character, just a creepy cult leader. Over time his character has just become ridiculous. I was hoping this iteration would be a reset, but no, same old stuff.

Bianca Belair Vs. Alexa Bliss - Basically a Raw match. Pretty boring.

Women's Rumble - I always tend to enjoy the women's rumbles, and this one was good too. Cool to see some of the NXT girls. Asuka's new look (in WWE anyway, it was her Kana look previously) was a welcome refresher for her character. Piper Niven is, thankfully, no longer Doudrop. Nia Jax returning did nothing for me as she's unsafe and a total conspiracy loon, but it was a moment and at least she was eliminated fairly quickly. Rhea Ripley winning makes sense, and she put in a solid performance.

Reigns Vs. Owens - the match itself was a bit of a mundane affair with the result never in doubt, but the aftermath was, in my view, the best segment WWE have produced since the Attitude Era. The Bloodline storyline as a whole has been way above anything they've done in a very, very long time, and the inevitable excommunication of Sami Zayn here was executed absolutely perfectly. The beatdown on Owens was brutal enough on its own, then Reigns tries to bully Sami into hitting Owens with the chair, only for Sami to crack Roman in the back with it. The pop for that was unbelievable, so loud it actually distorted the sound on the feed. I can't remember the last time I heard a pop that huge in WWE, it was immense. Throughout this segment they had the crowd in the palms of their hands, reacting in exactly the way they wanted them to. Considering how often WWE has struggled to align audience reaction with their storyline intent, this is a massive testament to the writing prowess leading up to this point. A shout out to all of the wrestlers involved, too, playing their roles to perfection. Sami, Roman and Jey especially are on another level with their facial expressions. The crowd popped nearly as hard for Jey as they did for Sami when he chose to leave the ring rather than participate in beating down Sami.

Ultimately just an all-time great wrestling segment that is up there with the absolute best of any era - and I never thought I'd say that about anything WWE produced again. Kudos to all involved, that was wrestling at its best.

Also, what a career renaissance this has been for Roman. It was looking like he'd never go beyond being a bootleg John Cena, but the Bloodline storyline has revived him and will now put his time in WWE in a completely different, much more positive light.

 

[The Grayfox]

I'd say I agree with your take on the Rumble. It was off to a great start. McAfee's return and Cole's surprise was cool. Then starting with the men's Rumble was a surprise in itself. I didn't think they would do that. The rumble match itself was definitely better than last years. The lack of surprise entrants was a bit disappointing though. It was nice to see Booker out there.

The singles matches between the Rumble were just bad I thought. It felt like nobody cared. Wasting Bray's first match back on a lame gimmick match that nobody cared about felt like just that... a waste. Reports came out a few days later saying that WWE was paid a million dollars for the pitch black match, so I understand why it was done from a business perspective. Still, using Bray in this weird Mountain Dew match fell flat.

The women's rumble was much more entertaining than the men's, even if the winner was obvious, not unlike the men's match. Still, I like Rhea and Cody and the wins feel deserved. The collective groan felt across the arena and internet when Nia Jax came out was amusing.

Like you said, I don't think anyone expected KO to beat Roman. I think we were all looking forward to the payoff with Roman and Sami and it did not disappoint. I haven't been that invested in a wrestling segment in a long, long time. The whole thing was what I miss about watching wrestling as a kid. That genuine excitement, wondering what is going to happen. It feels like as an adult who constantly reads about everything that is going to happen (or rumored to, at least), you just don't get that feeling anymore. Excellent storytelling.

It does lead me to the point I made to a friend after the show. It's hard to get invested in the main event when you know what's going to happen. Or more specifically, what ISN'T going to happen. I know it'll be a big blow off when Roman does eventually lose the titles, but until then, I start feeling like "why am I watching this?" In this case, the segment after the match was why, but in general it feels like the main event is meaningless for now. Until we get back to a point where it's plausible that somebody could lose the world title on a show that isn't Wrestlemania, I just feel deflated about the whole thing. I'm not a big fan of the world title constantly changing hands, but at the same time, when you have no idea if it could happen at an event like Backlash or Raw/Smackdown, it helps you get a little more invested.

The rumors seem to be swirling that they're going to split the world titles again, which I think is the right move because right now Raw basically has no world champion. The question is, if they're going to do it, how? If you announce ahead of time that Roman's match is for only one of his belts, you tell the audience that he's losing. The way that makes the most sense is whoever beats him (probably Cody?) splits them the next night on Raw, but then you don't get the rumored two title matches at WM either. Who knows at this point?