Well I’m back from my two weeks off - did I miss anything?
...oh.
Well this is a bit sucky isn’t it.
Yes we’re still talking about the WWE releases because hot damn, what a mess it all seems
to be.
WWE decided once again to release a whole bunch of wrestlers from their company, including
the likes of Nia Jax, Karrion Kross, and Keith Lee - and it’s the two latter people that
have commented on their repackaged gimmicks they had on the main roster prior to their
release.
Keith Lee recently returned after being off for recovery from a very serious health condition,
which he has explained in full on his YouTube channel, and was repackaged as Keith “Bearcat”
Lee.
Why are you tinkering with stuff that really doesn’t need to be tinkered with WWE, we
all said.
I’m sure there were some well-meaning fans that said that it was probably Lee’s idea
all along.
Well, turns out it wasn’t, as Lee confirmed on Instagram saying “No.
It wasn’t.
Lol.”
Meanwhile Karrion Kross, who was repackaged as a gimp, taken away from Scarlett and lost
to Jeff Hardy on his debut, somehow wasn’t getting over.
Can’t imagine why.
He was slightly less coy about his response, as he replied to someone on Twitter wondering
if Kross would give him the helmet he wore to the ring.
You know, this one.
Kross instead said “Nobody wants that piece of s*** brother.
CRYING WITH LAUGHTER EMOJI” I agree.
It is a piece of s*** isn’t it.
Funnily enough, a report has emerged from the Wrestling Observer that for some reason,
Karrion Kross was about to repackaged, again, prior to being released.
Vince McMahon reportedly thought that his new gimmick - or gimpick, you’re welcome
for that one - “didn’t click”.
Wonder why that is.
Isn’t it crazy that after you take away everything that makes them exciting they’re
suddenly much less exciting?
And you want to change that again, after you realised that you screwed up by doing the
initial repackage.
It’s almost as if you shouldn’t have repackaged him to start with.
But it wasn’t just the wrestlers who were let go from this round of releases, there
were some high-up corporate people who are now gone too.
Laura Petrucelli, the former Vice President of Branding, John Stamatis, the former Senior
Vice President of Global Marketing and Sales Strategy, Laura Todd, the former Vice President
of Partnership Marketing, and Mike Giacco a former member of the Talent Sales & Global
Partnerships department and former 24/7 champion, were all also let go.
The combined tenure of these four people in WWE was over 37 years.
This is on top of the former Senior Vice President of Creative Services Stan Stanski and former
Chief Financial Officer Kristina Salen, who were also released this week.
But that’s not quite enough for WWE, as it’s also been reported via the Wrestling
Observer Newsletter that WWE were considering even more cuts: “Virtually all the veteran
wrestlers that aren’t being used on either WWE or NXT television right now were discussed
as potentially being cut over the past week.”
One of the reported reasons for talent being released on top of John Laurinaitis’ favourite
“budget cuts” reason, was that some of them were openly unvaccinated, including Nia
Jax.
She has now responded to this report, taking to Instagram to say:
“...I recently took a short leave of absence from WWE for a mental health break...Earlier
this week, after WWE sent me my schedule to return to the ring for the November 15 show,
I asked for an extension to my mental health break, feeling that I needed more time, and
hoping I would have the ongoing support of the company I have given my all to for the
past 7 years.
I did not receive a response.
The next I heard, I was being released.
My vaccination status was never mentioned.
I wasn’t given any choices or options.”
What a lovely company.
There is a ton more news, so head over to wrestletalk.com to find out more about a completely
new hiring and talent review process in NXT, why Charlotte probably won’t be punished
for going off script recently, and a load more.
Now it’s time for my review of last night’s episode of SmackDown which definitely wasn’t
soured by any releases happening at all.
This show started with Roman Reigns making his entrance, and Michael Cole reminded us
that he’s been champion for 432 days.
He then made that 433 days by taking another day to make his entrance.
Reigns runs down Jimmy Uso for losing last week to the New Day, and after Woods & Kingston
come out and issue another challenge to Jimmy, Reigns accepts it on his behalf.
But now it’s a challenge of who bends the knee - Jimmy or Woods?
I don’t have the time, and I also really can’t be bothered - but I’d really love
someone to go through the entire episode of SmackDown and count up how many times the
commentary team mentioned the phrase “bend the knee” because I bet it’d be pushing
100 times.
My god this was the commentary at its worst, parroting a years old reference to Game of
Thrones.
And yknow, when Woods was issuing his challenge to Jimmy, I would’ve thought that he was
going to say “and if I win, we get a chance at the tag team titles”, but instead it
was about bending knees, because that’s obviously more important.
After a recap of Sonya Deville screwing over Naomi some more, glad I didn’t miss much
then, Naomi faced Shayna Baszler, won with a rollup from a Kirafuda clutch, but then
Sonya came out and reversed the decision because Naomi made it to the ropes on the Kirafuda
so the hold should have been broken, which makes the rollup not count for some reason.
Baszler then made Naomi pass out in the Kirafuda right after.
Michael Cole summed this feud up with: “The thing with Deville is - she hasn’t explained
her issue with Naomi”.
You’d think that would be a crucial part of this rivalry wouldn’t you.
But it’s fine, don’t worry about anything, because Xia Li is coming soon.
At what point do we start to worry?
After a recap of Shotzi beating up Sasha Banks, we then got a backstage interview with Ridge
Holland, who said he really likes Sheamus, and then Shotzi did a backstage promo and
wait Shotzi turned heel on Sasha, who was also a heel?
Maybe I did miss something of substance while I was off.
When did Sasha turn face?
For context: I have not watched any wrestling at all since before Crown Jewel.
The team of Los Lotharios, being Angel Garza & Humberto Carrillo then beat the team of
Cesaro & Mansoor next in quite a fun match, and I honestly really like their tag team
finish, it looks kinda brutal when done right.
I also love Cesaro.
This was good stuff, but Cesaro took the pin and I don’t like that because I love Cesaro.
He’s great.
Jeff Hardy and Aliyah were backstage next - someone tell me if this was Aliyah’s SmackDown
debut - and Sami Zayn said some stuff to them.
Drew McIntyre then did an open challenge next which was answered by Ricochet and this was
probably the best thing on the show.
Ricochet’s promo was decent, saying one of these days someone was going to come down
and slap the taste out of his mouth, before then slapping Drew, and Drew got angry, yeeting
Ric round the ring for a few minutes.
The finish was awesome too - with McIntyre hitting a Claymore on an upside down Ricochet
as he tried a moonsault out of the corner.
Ric, mate, stop trying moonsaults, they clearly don’t work for you.
The Viking Raiders were on Happy Talk next, and it was proper rubbish.
They’re not here to be their guests, they’re here to raid, they say as they stand there
not doing anything.
That’s the politest raid I’ve ever seen.
And then as they start to do some actual set destruction, it cuts to an ad break, and then
it’s a tag match afterwards.
Checks out.
Corbin and Madcap Moss ran away after a bit of the match and took a countout loss.
Ok.
Sami Zayn is backstage with Hit Row - minus B-Fab of course after she was released this
week.
He says Hit Row need to learn how to make an entrance, so he goes out and does an entrance
which was hilarious, I love Sami.
And then Hit Row did their entrance, and it’s time for my condensed 30-second rant.
[SHOOT 30-SECOND RANT] They didn’t even beat up Sami either, they
just let him go.
If you didn’t know, now you know...that we’re a really watered down and unexciting
version of our NXT characters.
Pat McAfee on commentary then went Hiiiitttt Rowwww and they don’t even have that in
their theme anymore.
For god’s sake.
WHO WILL BEND THE KNEE IN THE MAIN EVENT.
Turns out it’s no-one.
Woods won after a bit of an awkward finish, where there was a thumb to the eye from Jimmy,
and then Jey got involved and tried the assisted rollup pin, but the referee saw it, so then
Woods rolled up Jimmy, but used the tights?
I think?
And got the win.
So oh no Jimmy has to bend the knee to Woods, but of course he didn’t because Reigns came
out and they beat everyone up.
The interesting bit of this was them attacking Kingston’s knee, and Reigns saying to Woods
that if he turns up next week, he’ll show him what a real king looks like.
I’d be very into a Woods vs Reigns Universal Title match, and it would actually make King
of the Ring mean something, and it stops a pure repeat of the New Day/Usos feud once
again, so thumbs up from me for all of that potential.
The match itself was good.
So that was the show, let me know what you thought in the comments and by voting in our
POLL ON A POLE MATCH where 61% of you voted for They’ve butchered the Hit Row Music.
Unforgivable.
Personally, I found it very difficult to get into this show, mainly due to the releases.
Even taking that away though, I thought this was a pretty average show, with some potential
for good stuff down the line, but this wasn’t that good stuff yet.
And they took out B-Fab’s bit of the music and I can’t forgive them for that.
This SmackDown is a 2/5.
Who will bend the knee?
Now let’s head over to Tempest
for his
review
of AEW Rampage.