Jonathan Felix Anthony Cena hasn’t been seen on WWE TV since the Firefly Funhouse
match at WrestleMania 36 against Bray Wyatt, where presumably in WWE canon he...died?
But like The Undertaker, he might be about to walk off that death and make a grand return
to WWE. It was announced yesterday that WWE will begin having fans in attendance again
for their live shows as of July 16th, the go-home episode of SmackDown before Money
in the Bank, and according to the Wrestling Observer, there’s a chance we may be seeing
Big Match John on that first show with fans back, as his return is reportedly still being
discussed within WWE. Cena has recently said in interviews that
he would want a WWE return, and when the primary appeal of Johnny C is his crowd reaction and
how he interacts with them, it would make sense to bring him back alongside the fans.
There’s no word on what he would do if and when he did return, though if he returned
directly before Money in the Bank, it may make sense for him to enter that match itself,
adding a level of starpower to that match, and maybe even winning the thing to set up
his 17th World Title win, who knows. Would you want to see Big JC back in WWE?
Let me know in the comments below because I’ll be replying to people FROM OUTTA HIS
SPINNY BELT WEEEEEE In the wake of the recent release of the Velveteen
Dream, more details have continued to come to light regarding the end of his time in
NXT. After WWE artist Rob Schamberger called Dream
“the most unprofessional person he’s encountered in this business”, it seems there were other
behavioural issues behind the scenes as well, but according to Bryan Alvarez on Wrestling
Observer Live: “He had friends very, very high up, obviously.
So, there were issues that some people didn’t feel comfortable going to management about
because he was close with management. I heard about behavioral issues when he went to NXT.
I heard issues when he went other places, whether it be EVOLVE, or whatever. There was
a lot going on with Velveteen Dream.” Velveteen Dream had not wrestled in 2021 and
was used sporadically in 2020 with his push coming to an abrupt end after allegations
of inappropriate messages being sent to underage fans surfaced midway through the year.
We will continue to keep you updated on Velveteen Dream as more details become available.
While the overall reception of WrestleMania Backlash was positive, the most talked about
segment has definitely been the Zombie Lumberjack match between Damian Priest and The Miz. The
segment was panned by critics and fans alike with the New York Post calling it the Saddest
Moment in WWE History, and Dave Meltzer rating the match -3 stars.
However Ringside News is now reporting that WWE made seven figures for the advertisement,
which for those bad at math, is at least ONE MILLION DOLLARS. Whether or not that amount
of money is worth the embarrassment of The Miz being eaten by zombies is up to you.
Personally, I would be embarrassed like that for $1million. I mean hell, I was in the Olithority
for 9 months, got made fun of more times than I can count, and didn’t even get any compensation
for it. What a joke. And now it’s time for a review of last night’s
episode of SmackDown, in about 5 minutes. This week’s episode kicked off with a Parade
of Champions hosted by “WWE Official” Sonya Deville, where each champion showed
off their title, including a promo from Apollo Crews saying he was going to retain his title
in the Fatal 4-Way later in the night. Sonya then introduced Roman Reigns, but in accordance
with Reigns’ character, Paul Heyman instead came out, and said all the champions on stage
right now aren’t champions, they’re title holders. There’s only one champion, and
it’s Reigns. After this, Bayley comes out and says that
Sonya was acknowledging all the champions for the work they’ve done during the ThunderDome
era, but she held the title for 380 days and was a double champion during the ThunderDome
era, where’s her recognition? And you know what, she’s right. Bianca Belair comes down
to the ring and then tells Bayley to take it off her. And then...Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler
attack Bianca, for some reason. And then Natalya & Tamina come down to make the save, and then
they get beaten up as well. Why were Nia & Shayna on the show? They’re
from Raw. And they’re not the champions anymore. They can’t float like the titles
do. And why did they attack Bianca? Am I missing something there?
This set up a six-woman tag after an ad break, and while the match was certainly ‘chaotic’,
it just kinda felt a bit messy and confusing more than an exciting mayhem. And at the end
of it all, Shayna Baszler taps out Natalya. Because this feud can NEVER END. You can’t
even give the new champions a week to maintain their feel good moment. You’ve got to have
them tap out the week after, to the people they beat for the titles. Meaning it really
looks like their title win was a fluke considering Nia & Shayna beat Natalya & Tamina several
times over before they managed to win the titles. God, please just take this feud to
Raw so I don’t have to watch it. Aleister Black had his next vignette video
promo next, which was still pretty good. I’m still enjoying it and I’m liking this character.
Is it a bit of spooky nonsense where he’s not really saying anything of value? Maybe
a little bit, but I like it anyway. King Corbin faced Shinsuke Nakamura next,
after Nakamura stole the crown last week, but this time Shinsuke was played down to
the ring by Rick Boogs, who came out and played the guitar to Shinsuke’s theme. It sounded
pretty cool, and I guess Boogs is just, with Shinsuke now. Ok.
The match was a match, until the scripting told them it was time for the match to end,
so Boogs started the guitar again on the outside which distracted Corbin allowing Shinsuke
to get the rollup win. I hate that that’s a staple in WWE, where distractions happen
not for any logical reason, but because the scripting tells them it’s time for the end
of the match. Jimmy Uso backstage gets Sonya Deville to
give The Usos their big reunion match against The Street Profits next week, but Jimmy didn’t
speak to Jey first. After this, Roman Reigns, Paul Heyman & Jey
Uso made their way to the ring, doing their full entrance. And then there was an ad break.
And then we cut back to the ring to see them there. And then we cut to a Kevin Owens backstage
promo about the Intercontinental title later. And then we cut back to the ring. And then
we get a video recap of Reigns vs Cesaro at WrestleBack ManiaLash. I hate this. Do one
segment at a time WWE. There’s an order to things.
This promo was pretty good, but lacked a bit of substance. Reigns says he wants Heyman
to celebrate him today, so Heyman lists off his achievements since he’s come back, and
then Reigns asks for Jimmy Uso, but instead Cesaro comes out. And Cesaro, unfortunately,
sounded a bit lame. Because he asked Reigns for another title shot. But dude, you lost
clean. There’s no reason for you to have another one. You just sound a bit whiny.
But Seth Rollins attacks Cesaro, repeatedly stomping him into the ground, and Cesaro is
stretchered out, with Rollins screaming at Cesaro and looking like he’s losing it a
little bit. The promo was fine, Cesaro’s promo was delivered very well, but he should
have instead said he’s not making any excuses, he lost fair and square, but he’s going
to work harder and earn another title shot before being attacked.
We got a recap of Dominik & Rey Mysterio winning the tag titles at Backlash, before Dominik
faced Robert Roode in another never ending feud. Before they won the titles, Roode and
Ziggler were telling Dominik that he doesn’t belong. So now, after they’ve won the titles,
Roode is telling Dominik, that he doesn’t belong. Surely, the whole point of Dominik
and Rey winning the tag titles is so Dom can say that he does belong, because they proved
it. They pinned them. Clean. But they did that, and the dynamic of the feud is exactly
the same. Which begs the question: what was the point of them winning, if it’s not going
to affect the story in any tangible way at all? All you’re doing is just reinforcing
that wins and losses don’t matter. Dominik wins clean against Roode, and I swear
to god if Roode comes out next week and says “that was just a fluke, you still don’t
belong” I’m gonna be so mad. Jimmy Uso backstage tells Jey they have a
tag match next week, and Jey says well I’ve got to tell Roman about this. And tell Roman
he did. And Roman essentially said the two Usos are not a ‘we’, the only ‘we’
is Roman and Jey. And Jey looks very conflicted. The Street Profits cut a pretty good promo
ahead of next week, and the main event was a Fatal 4-Way for the Intercontinental Championship
between Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, Big E and Apollo Crews. The first half of this match
was a little slow, with it being primarily a 1-on-1 match that cycled through the various
people. But the second half, really picked up into a very fun, super fast paced, exciting
match. At various points it looked like all 4 of
them had the victory locked in, but were stopped by various things, most notably after Big
E hit the Big Ending on Crews, but was dragged out of the ring by Commander Azeez. After
dealing with Azeez, E made his way back into the ring, but was distracted by the light
changing and a bunch of smoke appearing on the ramp. Out came Aleister Black, making
his grand return, who promptly hit a Black Mass on Big E, allowing Crews to pin him to
retain the title. I’m not a huge fan of the light change being
the distraction, however I’m into this new Aleister Black, and I’m very glad he came
back and did something of substance, as WWE has been known to have character reworks go
through several weeks of squash matches and the like before getting anything of note to
do. This sets up a Black/Big E feud which I’m all for.
So that was the show, let me know what you thought in the comments below and by voting
on our POLL ON A POLE MATCH on our Community Tab here on YouTube, where 80% of you voted
for Aleister Black is back! I missed the Black Mass.
In recent weeks and months on SmackDown, there’s been things I’ve not liked about the shows,
but it’s almost always been dwarfed by something overwhelmingly positive, normally involving
Roman Reigns. This show, didn’t really have that. There were still things I didn’t like,
such as all of the women’s stuff and the Dominik/Roode feud, but this week the Reigns
stuff felt fine, rather than amazing, and the main event was very good. But there wasn’t
that knocked out of the park, amazing, shining light that there normally is on SmackDown.
So I’d give this show a low ⅗ I think. It was fine.