DMJ

Haven't watched the whole show, but a few thoughts... - Loved the opener. To me, you give Swerve the title by having him pin Hangman. I'm not sure where you go with Hangman from there, but...I don't care? The fact is, a truly great worker will survive and strive and I'm ready to see if Hangman is that truly great worker. Right now, he seems like it and I think he'll be just fine as one of AEW's top heels. Plus, in the scenario I'm pitching, we still get Joe/Swerve down-the-line as Joe can say he never got pinned or submitted. Swerve is OVER. Prince Nana is OVER. This company needs to not be so hesitant and just pull the trigger, unlike, y'know, that other company that has fans losing their shit because they don't trust that their guy is going to finish his story. As Bischoff once said, you have to differentiate if you want to be Pepsi to the WWE's Coke. - Oh...and another thing that giving Swerve the W does is that it allows MJF to return and just get through the Undisputed Kingdom shit as quickly as possible. MJF coming back, kicking the shit out of Cole & Co., is what his storyline should be. But then, he should be right back in the title mix. Swerve vs. MJF is a really cool dynamic and a bit hard to predict as both guys can work heel or face and you still have the lingering "Is MJF going to WWE?" question in the background. I think the crowd's would be very hot for that match. - Toni Storm and Red Velvet had a doozy of a match, IMO. Toni is fantastic, I like that she started off the match with some old-school wrestling, and, overall, slowly-but-surely, I see more and more of the women's division getting to that next level (not top-tier, best-in-the-world, but you're being overly negative if you haven't seen some improvements in Skye Blue, Julia Hart, and Velvet over the past year). - I haven't seen the final match so I'll reserve judgment a bit, but I do wonder about Ricky Starks' future. He's been pretty open about viewing Cody and Punk as mentors and I'm curious if that has him on the outs with some of the other boys backstage. That's fair if its true. I'm a Ricky Starks fan, but if AEW is going to regain some of that momentum of yesteryear, I do think the narrative has to be 1000% of the roster wanting to be there. Maybe I'm just a weirdo whose gone hippy-dippy over time, but the energy of a show matters almost as much as the actual content. Say what one may about Jon Moxley, for example, but you never get the feeling like he doesn't fully believe in AEW and it comes across. While, even in his best matches, I think you could always kinda tell that Andrade's performances were a bit like auditions for an eventual return to the company he really wanted to be in. - Mercedes in the company? Let her cook.

He'd have to start as Governor, I reckon, to have any chance at some sort of national office. Trump is different than just being an entrepreneur/celebrity who ran for President and won based on "good feeling" popularity. He's not just Schwarzenegger on the national stage or Reagan or Bill Bradley (a former NBA player who became a US Senator). As others have pointed out, aside from Arnold, others ex-Hollywood stars or former athletes usually have some background in political organizations, activism, or unions. Trump's MAGA campaign was built on pretty blatant racist, anti-woman, conspiracy theory-ridden rhetoric that, at its onset, many people thought was so ridiculously far right and wacky that he wouldn't even win the Republican nomination (let alone the Presidency). But Trump doubled-down on his gimmick. He didn't just take the low road, he took the gutter. He joke about John McCain's military service and being a POW. He made fun of Ted Cruz's wife's looks because he couldn't actually debate him on policy. He crowed about not paying his taxes or ever making a single sacrifice for others. And his base grew because of it! Trump had no background in real politics or activism or even charity work. He's a mud-slinging brute and his base loves him for it. He ran on nihilism and cynicism masquerading as "Making America Great Again." Obama was all about optimism and hope, Trump was the boomerang effect. The Rock, like Arnold, is more of a centrist and I highly doubt he'd be willing to spew the kind of garbage that Trump does to cater to the Q crowd and white supremacists that have made Trump their god. The Rock may be greedy, may have a massive ego, may be not a great person - but I'm not sure he's as morally bankrupt and PROUD of it as Trump. So, if The Rock were to enter politics, I do think it'd be in a scenario very similar to Arnold where he'd be elected Governor of California. And, like ol' Arnie, it wouldn't surprise me if it were as a Republican.

It will be interesting to see how they try to spin Cody blatantly saying that he would not challenge Roman at Mania and then adding himself back into the match. Every idea I've seen is worse than him just coming out and saying, "On second thought, no, I want the match after all," which doesn't make a lick of sense but at least will allow them to just pretend last Friday's segment didn't happen. People have been making jokes about "what inning we're in" in reference to the clusterfuck booking going on, but if I were Nick Khan, Triple H, and The Rock, I'd be much more concerned about the fact that the last two weeks are just the beginning of a whole new game involving the FBI, the courts, sex trafficking, and the single most important figure in their company's history. Congratulations to them for changing the headlines, but this Vince story is not going to go away and, ultimately, if the stories that emerge are as extreme and wild as the ones that came out, no amount of controversial booking is going to beat out people learning more about Vince's debauched sexcapades.

"I'm also a victim" is an interesting defense, but a wolf will chew its own leg off to get out of a trap. Vince's only move is to deny. There's no bigger fish to fry than him, no on else to push blame onto (unless he somehow can turn this into all being his buddy Donny's fault). ....but John Laurenaitis can absolutely try to make it seem like Vince was the puppetmaster forcing everyone around him to engage in wild orgies. And it's not that far-fetched. Naming his dildos after wrestlers, the texts, and roleplaying as Brock Lesnar to engage in rough sex tells me that he is turned on by power dynamics and humiliation and group sex. I just don't think Laurenaitis can successfully convince anyone that he was forced to engage in a forced threesome under duress.

WrestleMania sells itself, so there's no real reason to worry about the gat or the viewership, but there's the card they wanted to give us and the card we're going to get now and one is clearly "bigger" than the other. Especially on the RAW side. Losing Rollins was a big hit, but I think the plan was always to build Rollins/Punk with mostly mic work and maybe a pull-apart segment down the line. I think Rollins would've toughed it out to wrestle and drop the title at Mania. Even if he were healthy, I believe we would've seen him in limited action and they probably would've gone the usual route with Punk and Rollins teaming together on various episodes of RAW. But now with Punk out...that match and the entire build is out the window. It was clearly going to be the anchor of the show for the next 9 weeks. I still think Rollins will wrestle at Mania, but as much as I really like McIntyre's work over the past month (and believe he should beat Seth for the title at Mania), that's just not a program that is at the same level as Punk vs. Rollins. Meanwhile, it seems the B-storyline on RAW was going to be Lesnar stalking the Judgment Day, most likely leading to some sort of Lesnar vs. Dom (w/Judgment Day) match not dissimilar to the Brock vs. Wyatt Family match years ago. Lesnar squashes the heels, Dom gets his butt kicked, the crowd goes home happy. I don't think it was going to be some revolutionary or awesome storyline, but Dirty Dom constantly escaping Brock only to get his comeuppance at Mania would've been good. Plus, there was potential with Lesnar and R-Truth getting screen time together over the next few months. That storyline is also out the window. To make matters worse, they didn't do shit with Becky Lynch at the Rumble, which was just bad booking. They can heat her up at the Chamber, but hindsight being 20/20, they needed her to be involved with an intriguing drama ASAP, not 3 weeks from now. They really should've had Rhea screw Becky out of the Rumble towards the end to make it clear that Rhea is "ducking" Becky. I know that Rhea isn't a cowardly heel, but she's also a villain and a villain should be doing villainous things to the hero. The rest of the RAW roster has some really terrific and over performers - Jey Uso, Sami Zayn, Drew has been doing career work, obviously GUNTHER - but most of these acts have been spinning their wheels a little for the past few months, playing side characters in the bigger storylines involving Cody, Seth, and CM Punk.

I'm hopeful that Danielson, like most everyone else on the roster - Rollins, Becky, Bayley, Heyman, Sami - thinks that Vince is a disgusting human being and will no longer try to defend him. But unless they knew the extent of Vince's behaviors, specifically gaslighting his victims, psychologically torturing them, forcing his victims to engage in extreme sex, then their defenses of Vince over the years have always been based on the willing naivete that Vince is a womanizer and a tyrannical boss and that he engaged in shady business dealings and could be cruel, but that he wasn't a criminal. That he wasn't as deplorable, as inhumane, as horrible as he seemed on TV. And, in this profession, unless you wanted to devote the majority of your career to working overseas, they knew that, for the past 30 years, you essentially needed to work for him to "make it." And that means you also have to develop some cognitive dissonance. This is also why, one point I haven't seen brought up much is that despite guys like Bret Hart, CM Punk, and countless others leaving the company with what seemed like vehement disgust with Vince, we still never got these tales. Which either means that, for all their hatred for Vince, they viewed sharing these details as one step too far or that, maybe more realistically, they simply didn't know. I mean, Bret's book is a pretty scathing indictment of Vince...and it doesn't contain a single word about him cheating on his wife (eventhough Vince himself was open years earlier in the Playboy interview about sleeping with other women).

I'm not going to stop watching current WWE or anything - I rarely watch the TV anyway, never go to live events, don't buy any of the merch, I just keep up through forums like this and watching the PLEs - but watching the Rumble, as the show began, I caught myself thinking, "Hey, Michael Cole has always come off a little bit like a creep to me." There's no evidence - at least that I know of - that Cole is at all a creep. But, right now, there's a "guilt by association" cloud over the show at times, at least for me. Cole, happily married but traveling constantly, looks like the exact guy that Vince would send unsolicited nudes to as a laugh (and to stroke his own ego). And so my mind is made up that Cole at least knew that Vince was using his power and privilege to fuck women in exchange for fake jobs and that he'd probably done it countless times before. Based on what I read about Vince's collection of sex toys and his names for them, I have almost no doubt that his fascination with Shawn Michaels in the 1990s, which raised questions even at the time, was the basis of some sort of bedroom fantasy. Its ridiculously unfair because I have no reason to believe Michael Cole or Shawn Michaels were involved in his debauchery, but certain characters and personalities are now striking me as either enablers, cowards, or potential accomplices. I felt the same thing when I saw Nattie come out at #1. She's often been presented as this "den mother" of the WWE's women's roster, but just like the Undertaker being the "respected" "locker room leader" during a stretch that was filled with scandals and bad behavior, its hard to believe she hasn't been privy to a whole bunch of gossip that the company would rather stay secret. Oh, and if Vince was sharing shit with Brock to curry loyalty and form a bond based on mutual secrets, I'm thinking the Deadman was hip to at least some of Vince's escapades (most likely the ones that Vince wanted these people to know about and wanted to brag about, but potentially not the most sickening and damning ones).* * I don't think Vince McMahon wanted it to be known that he's into scat and that he's turned on by racist tropes involving black men or that he likes to roleplay as Brock Lesnar to engage in rough sex. Even if his partner was an enthusiastic participant (which, I don't think this woman was), these are the kind of kinks you don't usually promote to casual friends or your son-in-law. But just like grooming these women, I'm guessing Vince groomed a tight circle of fellow sickos (seemingly Laurenaitis and his physical trainer) to engage in these acts with him, a slightly larger circle of people who knew what was going on and were willing to look away (even as Vince most likely shared pics and vids with them), and then a continuous amount of circles of various degrees of real knowledge and participation going further and further out. That's how predators like this operate.

- I know they've been hyping the 40 Years of Hulkamania stuff recently, but seemed weird that they continued to promote it on this show. Most people have probably forgotten (or just don't care) that Hogan is a racist, but its definitely what comes to mind when I see him now and, considering how his last few on-screen appearances have gone, its not like he adds much value to the product anyway. Have similar thoughts about Flair in AEW. Just don't see the value in wheeling out these particular dinosaurs. - Found both Rumbles to be in the below-average range and for some of the same reasons. Both matches were boring at times and definitely could've used a bit more "risk-taking" in the booking department and more truly dominant performances. Jade Cargill and Bron Breakker shined in their big moments, but if you actually look at the stats, neither truly dominated the match by cleaning house. Same for powerhouse vets like Nia Jax and Bobby Lashley. There was alot of "8-man stand around" in both Rumbles. There were also an overabundance of outright lazy elimination attempts where a guy would "toss" someone over the top rope and then immediately turn around, not even pretending to check and see if the person they tossed over had actually touched the ground. Also, I know Kofi can't do his gimmicky near-elimination spots every year because that would be "too predictable"...but I don't care, this match needed that sort of silliness. There were some particularly sloppy exchanges in the women's match, but that's to be expected when you consider how often some of these performers have worked together. Becky seemed like a non-factor, which is a shame because she was once the biggest act in the company (male or female). Bianca/Cargill has money all over it, but the WWE would have to be crazy to put that match on considering that Bianca isn't always super smooth in the ring/often depends on a great dance partner and Cargill is still relatively green. - Never doubted Cody Rhodes winning the Rumble and challenging Roman at Mania. There are multiple ways to get to Punk/Rollins, but they'll probably have Punk win the Chamber to do it. I'm not sure where that leaves Drew McIntyre, which is a little sad because I think he's been terrific on Raw over the past few weeks, cutting great promos that actually make me want to root for him at times. He's got issues with Jey Uso, Damien Priest, and Sami Zayn, so the groundwork is there, but I'm just not sure how it leads to a Mania program... - Are we thinking Cena & Orton vs. Solo and Jimmy at Mania now? - Triple H saying he hasn't read the lawsuit is so silly and stupid.

Oops. I'll take solace in knowing that it did happen, which means that it was/is a good idea.

Card looks good tonight. - HOOK/Joe is the kind of match where it doesn't matter that you know who wins, it's just fun to see a title match between a top star and a likable underdog. Makes me wish WWE would've found a way to do something like Roman vs. Montez Ford some time in the past 3 years on a random episode of SmackDown. - Cage vs. Dustin? Didn't these guys have matches against each other in WWECW? I don't care. I'm here for it. Cage is one of my faves and so is Dustin. Yeah, I turn 40 next month. - Purrazzo vs. Anna Jay should be fine, but the selling point to me is Toni Storm on commentary. I'm a fan of the gimmick still. - Bullet Club Gold vs. Cage & Gates of Whatever should be fine as long as its a way to get the titles on Bullet Club Gold and then *please for the love of god* merge those titles with the AEW 6-Man Titles. No company - and, let's be honest, ROH and AEW are the same company - need two separate 6-man Championships. They need to merge the titles and then right the ship. For a company with so many good 6-man/stables, the fact that TK has bungled that division is just ridiculous. Honestly, between House of Black, The Elite (any version), Dark Order, BCC, FTR & (Insert Babyface), Best Friends, Death Triangle, Gunn & The Acclaimed, the remnants of the JAS, and now The Undisputed...I don't see how these titles could feel so meaningless.

If I had the book, it's pretty simple, really. - If you have Cena and The Rock, you put them against Solo and Jimmy at Mania. - Cody wins the Rumble. Challenges Roman. Beats him at Mania. Like he should've last year. The story here is that Solo and Jimmy, having lost earlier in the night, are too zapped and arguably upset that Roman didn't help them win. They've been "humbled" by the Rock. - Punk wins a shot at Seth at Elimination Chamber. - Then, you build towards SummerSlam, which is, according to rumor, happening in Cleveland. They don't need Roman/Rock to sell out the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse (capacity 20,000), but if they elect to try to run Browns Stadium (capacity closer to 60,000), that is the match you want there. - To be honest, I think they have a number of good challengers lined up for Cody. The past two weeks, Drew McIntyre has been absolutely killing it on the mic. The losses to Seth and Roman really hurt him over the past 12 months, but this new character is working for me and Drew/Cody is fresh. You also have Punk/Cody. And then there's potentially GUNTHER/Cody. Oh, and Orton/Cody. And eventually a Roman/Cody rematch. And I think you could have Cody lose the title to just about any one of those guys, win it back a month later, and not devalue the Championship. - PLUS...if Roman really is going to become even more of a part-timer, making Cody the face of SmackDown makes 100% sense when they jump to USA in the fall.

You're not missing much. And I say that as someone who is still going out of his way to see every CM Punk appearance. But we've seemingly already heard all the heavy artillery there is between him and Seth - "You left for 9 years!" "I'm back to main event WrestleMania!" "But the locker room hates you!" "No, everyone in the locker room loves me except you!" "But the fans sing my theme song!" "Your wife is The Man in the family!" - and that's basically all they've got and Punk making that Becky line was a huge red flag to me that the well was already running dry less than a month in. Hey, I thought a lengthy Rollins/Punk feud would result in some potentially great promo battles too...until I remembered that Rollins has never once been anything more than maybe a B/B- promo and CM Punk's return run is going to have to go through some awkward phases before it even makes sense. They really couldn't just have him return as a heel, even though Wrestling's Biggest Hypocrite is the best possible gimmick for him, but they also clearly don't want to turn Rollins. So, we're getting a hollow, "I was just kidding when I said this place made me sick!"-version of CM Punk until hopefully the T-shirt sales dip and they do something interesting with the character. Also, say what one may about where the MJF character landed, but part of the reason that the feud with Punk worked was because MJF was able to pull from an actual character - the bullied kid turned "future of the business," which also played on Punk's own backstory - in a way that Seth Rollins can't because Rollins character is one part "raided wife's closet," one part "do Asuka's dances," and one part "conduct the crowd to sing along to a song incredibly similar to Nakamura's."

I'm not 100% sure it will catch The Wrestler, though, it's possible if the international market is big and if they continue to make 2-3 million every weekend for the next several weeks. The domestic gross for The Wrestler was $26m according to Box Office Mojo, so they're still about $8 million shy of that in the states. The Wrestler also existed in a world where movies weren't available for streaming within a few months of their theatrical release. Per A24's deal with HBO Max, Iron Claw already has a streaming home but no date yet, though it could be as soon as 5-6 weeks from now. While not an A24 production, The Holdovers, a movie with even more Oscar buzz and, for cinephiles, the pull of being an Alexander Payne movie starring Paul Giamatti, is already streaming on Peacock. That movie saw wide release in early November, meaning that it was only really in theaters for 7-8 weeks, and topped out at $20m. Though Iron Claw could hang around in theaters longer, if it is on a similar timetable, it will be streaming by mid-February and the closer we get to that date, the more the remaining marketing for the film will skew towards advertising it as an HBO MAX "watch from home" exclusive. I know, personally, the window for me to see it in theaters was during winter break and I didn't find a time to do it. As an HBO MAX subscriber, though, I'm excited to watch it around my approaching 40th birthday.

Aside from "allegedly" having an affair with Kelly Kelly in 2009 - there's a pic online of them kissing on the lips in a way that no married man could really answer for - I think it comes down to knowing that nothing Chris Jericho has ever done, not a single one of his books, not a single interview he's ever given, not a single episode of his long-running podcast would make one believe he's not a pretty self-centered, ego-driven guy that fully believes he is wrestling's version of a hedonist "rock god." He's also revealed himself, countless times, to not to be a very smart, thoughtful, or clear-headed guy. He's undoubtedly talented, a great showman, a fine huckster...but his ego is massive and I'm sure he's fairly accustomed to picking up "rats" (most likely his words, not mine) when he's touring with Fozzy or on the party cruise he created for himself. And so, him coming onto a considerably younger female talent isn't exactly surprising and him not thinking, "Hey, there's a dozen ways this can backfire," is believable too. Especially if alcohol was involved, which it most definitely was (Jericho likes getting drunk, so do I, no judgment, but it does lead to dumb thoughts and poor decisions). I'm sure Chris Jericho has been shot down plenty of times in his life. What he probably didn't think about was that this wasn't some random, "disposable" groupie and that not only has the industry changed a bit in the 12 years since he used his clout to help him fool a model-turned-wrestler into thinking he was hot stuff, but that he's also 50 years old and she was in her 20s and he might not be the irresistible sex magnet he believes he is. But Jericho has "stroke" (pun not intended, but, yeah, I guess it is) and I can see why a woman wouldn't want to get into a "he said/she said" with a guy at his level. From the outside (and often male perspective), we might say he has more to lose and that this could "ruin him," but that's really not how things work. She has her whole career ahead of her and this will cast a shadow over it much more than it will tarnish Jericho's nearly 30 years of being a major TV wrestling star. He's made his money and will continue to make more. He's got his fans. They'll be singing "Judas" tonight as loud as ever. This story ain't gonna prevent him from an eventual WWE Hall of Fame induction or from charging top dollar on the autograph circuit. TLDR: Historically egocentric Chris Jericho stepping out on his marriage (again), attempting to use his clout to sleep with a younger woman, and then said younger woman leaving the company because she recognized the disgustingness of the workplace all seems 100% credible to me.

The Rotten Tomatoes score is terrific and with a budget of a little under $16m from what I found on the internet, Iron Claw will most likely turn a profit within a couple of weeks. Another few million this week from the post-Christmas attendees and another couple million next week plus streaming rights should do the trick. Not getting any recognition from the Golden Globes is a bit troublesome as a movie like this, though, as its downer premise and the fact that its about wrestling does make it seem like a "niche" movie. People forget that the success of The Wrestler had a *ton* to do with the incredible critical buzz it had, the kind of buzz that very few get in any given year. Aronofosky was/is an auteur whose movies were/are "must see" and, up till that point, universally revered by critics. Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei especially were getting Oscar buzz. The content, about the gritty world of indie wrestling, had not been captured in a major film yet (compared to now when one could argue that the gritty stories of the territories and small-time wrestling promotions have been captured by multiple series, including Heels, GLOW, and Dark Side of the Ring). But who knows? Some movies get snubbed by the Globes and manage to land a nomination from the Academy. If that happens and word-of-mouth continues to be generally positive, the movie could end up being a bitter hit than it might seem based on first-week numbers.

The less you know about the Ridge thing the better. I totally agree - an angry, unrepentant bully who wants to injure people is a classic heel gimmick. A perfectly fine monster for a babyface to beat and for audiences to want to see get beat. An accident-prone klutz who *mistakenly* injures people and then cries about in the corner of the ring as his opponent is taken out on a stretcher is not that. It's like some hybrid of post-stumble Shockmaster (god I love that his theme was someone misplaying "Day Tripper"), Evad Sullivan, and Lennie from Of Mice and Men. There's just no way I can figure anyone, let alone Ridge Holland (seems like a nice enough guy, but c'mon, he's about as special as sand on a beach), making such a terrible gimmick work. Played for comedy? Icky because dude did legitimately nearly paralyze Big E. Play it as him eventually "giving in" to his "curse" similar to Ken Shamrock's "snapping" gimmick? Fine...except now you've burdened him with having to play a nutjob who feels remorse and wants sympathy one minute and then goes berserk the next. My Snitsky Sense is tingling! I'm as big a mark as anyone for cornball gimmicks, but their place is not in the main event and the talents that can pull them off are few and far between.

Yea, was coming on here just to see if anyone else thought the Jericho/Starks segment was as much a disaster as I thought. To me, the first reference to Enzo (the line using the word "soft") was okay. I mean, it wasn't good, but it wasn't egregious. It got a pop and that was Big Bill's claim to fame in the WWE and always got a big response. But then, later on, Jericho just calling Starks a "poor version of Enzo Amore" was absolute dogshit. Every single time someone does "you're just a rip-off of ____," it does nothing for Starks at all (whether its a main eventer like The Rock or an undercard guy like Amore) and TK needs to call that shit out. This is a guy you had main-eventing a PPV not too long ago. There should be a concerted effort to make him "the first Ricky Starks" and not "the next Rock," a unique character. Yes, the onus is on Starks to deliver that character, but it doesn't help when experienced vets who need to give him "the rub" are simultaneously cutting him off at the knees for a cheap pop. And for TK, its just minor league to have promos where the most memorable lines are about the WWE. If you're going to reference characters or angles, make the references to your own brand! Remember, Starks and Jericho had a months-long feud last winter. Jericho could've said, "9 months ago, I made you a star" or "You're just a poor imitation of me! I got the Jericho Appreciation Society and you found the only idiot who could appreciate you!" but instead, he name-dropped Enzo Amore, a guy who only anybody knows because of the WWE. I'm not sure what's worse - if that line was something Jericho thought of beforehand or if Jericho felt the segment was dying and grabbed the lowest hanging fruit he could reach. Either way, in a segment that felt like it hit a couple of dead-ends and was constantly needing to be rerouted, that line really stuck out to me as being especially bad.

Question: With USA now going to be the home of SmackDown and no longer airing Raw, does anyone see a scenario where Raw goes back to 2 hours? I only ask because - from a quality control perspective - it would be a great thing. Also, in terms of viewership/ratings, one would think it would boost the number because averaging the number of viewers of 2 hours of TV would almost always be better than averaging the number of viewers of 3 hours of TV (especially as IIRC Raw ratings tend to drop as they go into hour 3 unless there's a major match or angle being promoted). But - at the same time - I'm guessing that most any cable network that would want Raw is probably going to prefer to just give them the whole 8-11 block. We've seen that with TBS/TNT and AEW as Warner Bros. Discovery seems 100% comfortable airing AEW shows back-to-back even when the ratings don't seem all that great. The same is probably true for Amazon and Netflix, as their whole thing is about "engagement" and subscriptions, and not traditional ratings - so they don't care if its 2 hours or 3 hours or 9 hours as long as your subscription stays renewed. (For example, Netflix still wins if you subscribe for Raw, learn that you hate it after 5 minutes, never watch it again, but find that you love Bridgerton and Stranger Things and stay subscribed for those shows.) The only scenario I could see is if Raw somehow does end up on a genuine network and the network wants to pair it with another program. For example, CBS doing something like Big Brother at 8 PM as a lead-in to Raw from 9-11.

I thought Punk's promo was pretty bad last night. The brand split stuff feels beneath him and too gimmicky for his character. Punk's attitude should be "I show up wherever and whenever I want unlike at that other place that tried to control me," same as Lesnar and seemingly Orton, Logan Paul, and Cena and everyone else who has jumped between brands randomly based on who they're feuding with for that PLE cycle. I didn't like him "running down the roster" and talking about future opponents, praising the babyfaces and poo-pooing the heels. Felt very generic and aimless to me, lacked any good punchlines, felt more like he was promoting the WWE than promoting CM Punk. Cody and Cena make that stuff work because they're wholesome characters. CM Punk, not so much. Unlike his first promo, which was thin on content and short on time, this one went long without going anywhere until he said he was entering the Rumble. I think Punk believes he can go out and just "shoot" and it will be entertaining, but without a target, I wasn't hooked. I would've preferred him focusing on just Rollins or just Reigns/Heyman, for example, rather than name-dropping LA Knight and Solo Sikoa, who just aren't in the top-of-the-card mix. What's next week? CM Punk shares his thoughts on Ivar and Ricochet? The crowd was into him, but I think they would've been more into Cody and/or Cena. I hate to paint with a wide brush, but a Tribute To The Troops show is probably not the best venue for an anti-authority, self-centered loudmouth braggart to be cutting 15 minute promos. These fans want some jingoism. They want some solemn-faced salutes. They want some "I'm not the hero, YOU'RE the heroes!" praise from guys who either (a) at least played a Marine or (b) have an unironic stars-and-stripes tattoo on their neck. I really hope they don't have Punk win the Rumble and challenge Rollins. No matter how they spin it, coming in, calling yourself the The Best In The World, and then not shooting your shot at the Tribal Chief makes you look scared. It doesn't matter that Rollins' title is the "workhorse" title or whatever - that belt was a consolation prize and until Reigns drops his gold, it will not be seen as being equal to the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. Which makes sense considering the word "undisputed" is right there in the name of the title.

Yeah, that was a miss. But, to be fair to WWE, the fact that the show is 3 hours long means that an episode of Monday Night RAW is almost always going to be boring for 70%-80% of its runtime even when they stack the card. ...which they didn't do tonight. I liked the opening segment with Orton and Rhea, which went at least twice as long than the Punk promo (a remarkable 7 minutes based on my Hulu's timer), but then it led to a Tag Team Gauntlet that went 40 minutes. The action was good, but it still felt like filler. I wouldn't call it "inconsequential" because there were stakes involved, but its not like the teams involved have been on a collision course with Judgment Day. Just felt like the writing of this show was "How do we fill the 130 minutes that aren't the Orton Promo, the Rollins Promo, the Cody Promo, and the CM Punk promo?" And so they said, "Well, 40 of those can be 1 single tag match, 10 can be Bronson, 10 can be a women's match, 15 can be the main, 15 will be recaps and backstage bullshit, and the rest will be make-up ad time from the first hour being 'commercial free' (as long as you don't count our own commercials)." On the plus side, laying out the show like that made it super easy to fast-forward through this morning and just see the parts I was interested in. I think Rollins is defending his title at the Rumble, but not to Punk (I think that'll be Mania). I'm curious if they go with a 4-way involving Jey, Sami, and Drew, which would be a fun match...but you're also kinda burning a bunch of big names for the Rumble match itself (if those 3 weren't going to pull double-duty). I'd be down for it somehow being just Sami vs. Seth, personally. Sami has no shot of winning the Rumble and probably isn't going to beat Seth either, but I'm a mark for great World Championship matches at the Rumble where its kind of predictable who is going to win but the challenger gets to have a great showing. Seth's performance during the War Games match was incredible; his energy and charisma and facial expressions were perfect and the crowd reacted to him more than anyone else. His "3-minute spotlight" was the best 3 minutes of the whole thing until Orton came in, clear as day, by a couple country miles. But back to Punk...yeah, a snoozer of a promo and, for anyone sporting tin foil, I could see the argument that, in his first night back, he was given the old Roman Reigns "political hit job" (as was once proposed on this very board years ago). I mean, he still got a massive pop, but the last 10 minutes of a 3-hour RAW is not exactly the best spot on the show in terms of crowd enthusiasm. Then, you give the guy 7 minutes and the bullet points are basically just to say "I'm back" and tease a match with Rollins and not to pay any lip service to AEW. Cool. I expect that this show did pop a number, but I doubt they match it going forward. I know, personally, I won't be tuning in again (even with the convenience of being able to record it and fast forward). Its faster to just find the clips on YouTube. Say what one may about AEW, when they had CM Punk and promoted CM Punk, you got CM Punk. On RAW, the guy who I tuned in to see was given 7 minutes of 180 (I know, I know, its not 180 minutes with ads, but you get the point). That's 4% of the show. I don't need him on every minute or for 30 minutes a night, but it was disappointing before you even got to the nothingness of the promo itself.

- Rock vs. Roman was definitely a longshot because of the scheduling, but it wasn't fan fic. The Head of the Table/Tribal Chief gimmick was very much designed to keep that potential match as a pay-off. I still think it can happen, just not this year. I mean, its wrestling. Never say never. Steve Austin wrestled 2 years ago. I don't see The Rock getting injured against Cena being enough to stop him from working with Roman, even if an injury could postpone filming Fast and Furious 12 or whatever. Just like Rock vs. Brock was "in the cards" for years but never happened, Rock vs. Roman is one of those matches that is so clearly on the wishlist every year. The window is closing, but its not closed yet. - As I wrote before, this Rollins stuff is definitely a work. The Drew thing, I'm not so sure. If McIntyre really is pissed about CM Punk coming back or about the company getting behind him...I hate to say it, but someone needs to pull him aside and just tell him, "Dude, the WWE is just not that into you." McIntyre wants to be at that top, top level, it seems, but its obvious that it will never happen. Instead of being content, like Kevin Owens is, like Finn Balor seems to be, like AJ Styles seems to be, like Lashley seems to be, like Sheamus seems to be, McIntyre seems frustrated with where he is on the pecking order. Or that's at least how it appears from the outside. I doubt the company is low-balling him money-wise. A motivated Drew McIntyre is still a valuable guy to have on your roster and the WWE has no real reason to low-ball him. I think its just the age-old story of a guy who still thinks he's got a Main Event Run in him, but a company that's saying, "We want you to be like the new Kane: a gatekeeper, putting over the next generation." - One guy who I don't think will be putting over the next generation is CM Punk. My prediction is that Punk is going to be kept in a bubble. In AEW, the guy got into it with Jack Perry and Hangman Page and eventually the Bucks and Tony Khan and, according to rumor, also seemingly had issue with Christopher Daniels, Regal, Matt Hardy, and Ryan Nemeth. I bring this up to highlight the somewhat wide swath of folks that Punk seemingly didn't get along with (not to mention Colt Cabana). Even if you agree with every choice CM Punk made as an AEW wrestler and believe him to be in the right in every conflict, I still think we're talking about a guy who maybe shouldn't really be put in a position where he's gonna be in close quarters with a bunch of hungry new main eventers and random midcard guys and unproven rookies and carny old timers. I don't expect to see CM Punk getting the invite to work with the NXT talent. I don't think CM Punk is going to take some new team under his wing like he did with FTR or Ricky Starks or even MJF. I think he's coming in to work 4-5 big shows a year against the opponents that are willing to work with him and that Triple H trusts he can work with. Rollins? A company guy, through-and-through, who is trusted by management and (I believe) would be comfortable losing to Punk if that's what Triple H wants (just like he did with Cody). I'd add the name Finn Balor to the list. Selfless opponent who is seemingly content putting over whoever they want him to, no ego. I think Shinsuke Nakamura would put over CM Punk in a heartbeat because he also seems to be fine putting over whoever the boss asks him to. Then you've got Cody Rhodes. I think Cody would work with Punk, but I guess the question is whether Punk would put Cody over. I think Punk would. I don't think Reigns has any interest in working with Punk. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't think AJ Styles has any interest in working with him. I'd be curious to know if Kevin Owens or Sami Zayn would want to, but I'd expect they'd be more likely to team with him than feud with him. I don't think Triple H wants to have Punk go over the guys that are being built up for the future like Solo Sikoa or GUNTHER or Jey Uso or Jimmy Uso. I don't think they'd trust Logan Paul to work with him, just because Paul is still green and Punk is injury-prone. And, while those might all be great matches, I think Triple H recognizes - unlike Tony Khan - that you don't bring in CM Punk for "great matches" or to get your next crop of main eventers over or to build your company around; you bring in CM Punk because of the name and the controversy and then you put him in the position to tell a story and draw. And that happens easiest, with the least amount of backstage trouble, by putting him in the ring with the guys you and he trust. And, backstage, you try to give him the same treatment as Brock Lesnar and you set it up so that he's not there to "produce" Johnny Gargano or help Ricochet get to the next level or become a mentor to Bronson Reed, but there to do his business and that's it.

The Seth thing is 100% a work. As is most of the BS about this all being some big company secret. As someone else said, when you have the production team ready to go and the marketing/merchandising team ready to go, that's just not something that happens minutes before the show starts. I think the top people knew, obviously, because you have to put pen-to-paper and that means the legal department and the finance department need to know too. And I think Triple H does have an "inner circle" of trusted top wrestlers that he gave a "head's up" to and that includes Seth Rollins and probably KO and Reigns and maybe Cody now and others. It'd be a professional courtesy that I believe Triple H understands. What I don't think is true is that this is some super-lucrative CM Punk payday or that the WWE were begging to bring him back and going to do whatever it took. Yes, he's going to get paid big money. He didn't sign to an NXT deal. But is he the highest-paid guy in the locker room? No way. This is a "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" dick-waving contest between Triple H and Tony Khan. Bringing Punk back is going to help sell tickets and merch and pop a rating for sure (his appearance on RAW is absolutely must-see), but this is a company that was already doing very well in 2023 without him. They were the only real option for Punk unless he wanted to take a massive paycut to wrestle for a 3rd-tier company like TNA or try to maneuver an international deal (which I'd never heard was even considered). If Triple H/Endeavor/Vince didn't understand their leverage, that'd be crazy to me. So, I'm guessing they offered Punk a good amount of money and, yes, they're going to keep this toy in its packaging for awhile. I'm about 70/30 on him competing at the Rumble (leaning towards him not wrestling on the show). I think, instead, they'll do some sort of phony "contract signing" at the Rumble and it'll get interrupted by Seth. Then, its Seth/Punk at Mania in Punk's first match back. But I don't think Triple H or Endeavor came groveling and begging for him. I don't think they see CM Punk as some long-term cornerstone of the next 5 years of the company. And rightly so. Maybe that's where AEW went wrong too. TK was counting on Punk to be healthy and professional enough to be a core cast member on his TV shows, while WWE might recognize that this is a guy who is so much more reliable as a Special Guest Star in 2024.

- Having not seen the match, I'm not sure my criticisms really hold water but all across social media, many people are complaining about Jay White looking like a chump by losing the match after MJF had suffered a serious injury and had also already wrestled earlier in the night. One of my all-time favorite matches/endings to a supershow was when Sting got attacked early on an episode of Clash of the Champions, went to the hospital, made the big superhero comeback, but then lost his US Championship (I think) to Rick Rude, who got a lucky break by basically falling into/shoulder-tackling Sting's damaged knee. The loss was protected because Sting got to show he was super tough and willing to defend his title just hours after getting jumped and Rick Rude got the W and the title and, now that he was the champion, he was now the guy with the upperhand and champion's advantage (which made him more dangerous) in future matches even without winning the title cleanly. Why not book this similarly? Jay White gets the tainted W after MJF shows a ton of heart. Now you've got MJF chasing the title and you can put the title on him in a major episode of Dynamite or Collision or, hell, even one of those meaningless Battle of the Belts shows. Jay White has been doing a phenomenal job over the past 6 months and this just seems like such a big loss for him and with no clear future direction. - I was very glad to hear Swerve won. He's another guy, along with Prince Nana, who has had an incredible 6 months or so and needs a prolonged push as reward for it. Not sure where he goes from here, but he has plenty of momentum to carry him into his next feud. Not sure what they should do with Page going forward, but he's 32 and, IMO, he's been written off way too early.

Not gonna defend much of anything Adam Copeland has done since joining AEW as I think he's been fairly underwhelming and I think being in the WWE bubble is the main cause of that. I know in terms of money made and fame and Hall of Fame rings and etc. etc., Christian going to TNA made him look like less of a star for decades...but, boy oh boy, did Christian having to establish himself elsewhere and then re-establish himself on the ECW brand and then continue to toil in Edge's shadow lead to him not only being an all-around better worker and promo, but also a guy that simply knows how to get over as a top guy no matter where you put him. You could insert Christian into just about any wrestling promotion of the past 30 years and I'm convinced he would make it work and get to at least the upper-midcard level. Also, people are quick to point out that AEW has "failed" many top talents - but, let's be real here, the veterans/ex-WWE/ex-NXT guys who have gotten over aren't just getting handed better material. They're maximizing their minutes. Samoa Joe, CM Punk, Bryan, Mox, Jericho, Christian, Sting, Billy Gunn, Jarrett, Adam Cole since his comeback, Swerve since he's got his recent groove, FTR have all been successful...Its easy to say, "Well, TK dropped the ball on Aleister Black, Andrade, Miro, Keith Lee, Jeff Hardy, and so forth," but some of those guys have clearly been checked out at times (or, in Jeff's case, beyond checked out). We may bicker about the right or wrong way to use Danielson or whether or not Mox sucks or how tired Jericho's shtick is, but you can't argue the workers themselves been lazy. And, surprise surprise, they're all very over with the AEW crowds. They give a shit or at least fake it very well. But...bringing it back to Copeland, I think the reason he's had his back turned to the hard camera is because he's used to working in front of arenas that are all-the-way full. He has a natural inclination to want to speak to the fans in attendance and, when you're working RAW and SmackDown and WrestleMania, you're going to see lots of faces in every direction you look. Based on the pictures I've seen floating around the internet, that has not been the case recently for AEW so you have guys "playing" to an empty camera-side. Still, the jury is still out on him (for me). I think he's going to really, really have to step it up with his creativity - his in-ring work is actually the least of his issues and that was never even a real strength - and he's going to have to give a shit. On the plus side, I do think he is a legit wrestling fan and wants to do well. I don't think he's pulling a "Booker T-in-TNA" and just there for a check. But you can't come in and not tweak your act a bit. You've got to offer something somewhat new or fresh to make it work. Using lines from late 90s WCW and referencing The Rock is not that.

Yup, his kayfabe brother Kane. I don't consider Taker to be some all-time great worker, but he has at least 10 matches that I would consider very good-to-great against Foley, Michaels, Bret, Lesnar, Angle, Batista, Edge, etc. Throw in some good multi-man matches and Taker's resume is perfectly respectable. Not good enough to be in the GOAT discussion, but fine. Kane, on the other hand, only had good matches when they were multi-mans and his best singles matches aren't anywhere near as good as Taker's best matches. Even going through my own spreadsheet of reviews, the highest-rated singles matches I have for him were against Daniel Bryan (a match that many, many people completely shat on at the time but that I found to be pretty fun in a goofy way) and a 2002 match against Triple H that I still basically said was "above average but not must see." So, while I think we all could somewhat safely agree that Taker had at least 6 great singles matches, I don't think we'd ever reach a consensus on whether Kane has had even one great singles match.* His ceiling was just "good." I pretty much hate Kane, but he had perfectly fine matches against guys like Rey Mysterio over the years. I just don't think any of them were truly great. * I will readily admit that I haven't seen or reviewed every Kane match ever. Maybe one of the Austin matches during the title switcheroo in 98' was really good? I remember those being more "angles-presented-as-matches" than "real" matches, though.