Coming up on today’s news, Lesnar & Reigns might be feuding until next year’s WrestleMania,
WWE has high hopes for NXT call-ups, Tony Khan calls out SmackDown, and my review of
SmackDown, in about 5 minutes. On paper, the biggest match WWE can currently
put on with people on their roster is Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns. This match is currently
slated to headline WWE’s upcoming Crown Jewel show but that may not be the only time
we see it in the near future.
Dave Meltzer reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WWE has plans in place to
extend this feud until WrestleMania. He wrote:
“From what we understand, and what makes sense, is this is not a one-and-done program.
For one, unless Dwayne Johnson is wrestling Reigns at next year’s WrestleMania, this
would appear to be the biggest possible ‘Mania match. So the idea here is to build to a return,
whether that means Lesnar wins to build to a rematch or some disputed decision takes
place. There is also Paul Heyman in play as the storyline is written to tease that Heyman
is a double agent and you don’t know who he will side with when all the chips are down.”
Of course, plans are known to change fast and often in WWE so the plans for WrestleMania
could change completely by the time you watch this video.
However, should another match between Reigns and Lesnar take place at WrestleMania 38,
it would mark the third time they would face off on WWE’s biggest stage. If the match
goes on last it would be only the first time that the same match would main event WrestleMania
three times. Because remember, the main event is the last match and only the last match.
No matter what WWE tells you.
Some days it feels like NXT stars have a better shot at winning the powerball than having
success on the main roster. However, learning that WWE has high hopes for you is probably
a good sign.
Such is reportedly the case for a number of newly drafted NXT stars. Dave Meltzer reported
in the wrestling observer newsletter that folks in WWE have been looking at new Raw
star Austin Theory and new SmackDown star Ridge Holland very highly.
Meltzer’s report states that those within WWE think Theory has a very good look. Theory
already spent a short stint on the main roster in 2020, working alongside Andrade and Angel
Garza, and later Seth Rollins and Murphy before being sent back to NXT.
WWE’s thoughts on Ridge Holland are even more noteworthy, however, as Meltzer reports
that those within the company see him as a future WWE Champion. He is big after all.
Holland has yet to appear on SmackDown after being drafted on Monday’s Draft. He has
been working alongside Pete Dunne in recent months but you can expect him to be wrapping
up his time in NXT in the near future.
If there is anything that makes wrestling fans act rationally it is competition between
WWE and AEW.
After AEW Rampage aired on Friday night, AEW President Tony Khan took to Twitter to call
out WWE and SmackDown. Next week’s “Supersized” SmackDown is being advertised as a two and
a half hour show. If this is WWE flirting with making SmackDown longer so help me god-
But the change means the last half hour of the show will air head to head with AEW Rampage.
Khan tweeted
“I saw you’re doing a half hour head-to-head with us. I can’t wait to finally beat your
main show head-to-head. It’s been a long time coming. See you next Friday for #AEWRampage
on @AEWonTNT”
While Rampage has never come close to topping SmackDown in the ratings to this point, next
week’s SmackDown will air on FS1 due to the MLB playoffs. When the show has aired
on FS1 in the past their ratings have been considerably lower so you never know. But
you can rest assured that WWE and AEW fans will have a calm rational response no matter
what the outcome is. And now it’s time for my review of last
night’s episode of SmackDown, in about 5 minutes.
I hope you’re all ready for Positive Pete - because I’m absolutely positive that this
episode was not very good. It’s the Season Premiere of SmackDown, so
we open up with some of the worst staging I’ve ever seen for a segment. Bianca Belair
is in the ring, Becky Lynch is sitting on the ramp and has a table for some reason,
and Sasha Banks is standing on the commentary table. It’s just one of those things that
pulls you out of the continuity of the WWE world and makes you go ‘oh yeah, this is
all just part of the script’, this all feels so unnatural and forced.
After we get two back to back recap video packages, Bianca tells the two of them to
get into the ring, and then like a dumb babyface, turns her back on Banks and gets attacked
from behind. Never could have seen that coming. Bianca stands tall in the segment, hitting
an awesome looking KOD on Becky onto Banks through a table. Just turn the brain off Pete,
just don’t think about it. Look - cool looking move. Don’t think anything past that.
Rey Mysterio vs Sami Zayn came next in the first match of the King of the Ring tournament,
with WWE revealing Shinsuke Nakamura has officially given up his crown ahead of the matches starting.
But he was the one true king of WWE according to Rick Boogs, what will he do now?
This was a pretty fun match, because both Rey and Sami are awesome, and the finish came
when Sami took off the turnbuckle pad, so Dominik tried to put it back on, which distracted
Rey, who got bonked into Dominik and Sami rolled him up for the win. How will Rey and
Dom co-exist? Hit Row are coming soon.
Seth backstage says he did nothing wrong by breaking into Edge’s house.
And then it was Zelina Vega vs Toni Storm in the first round of the Queen’s Crown
Tournament. This match lasted two minutes but in that time it managed to rack up an
ungodly amount of negatives for me, so here we go:
Before the match, both of them had pre-recorded promos that once again felt so unnatural and
scripted and entirely not believable. I’m just going to read them out for you now. Zelina
Vega said that when she becomes Queen, she’s going to rule with the divine heartlessness
of Cleopatra, the strategic genius of Alexander The Great, and best of all I will make each
and every one of you kiss my ring. Meanwhile, Toni Storm’s was somehow worse,
with her saying if she wins she’s going to rule with the boldness of Joan Jett, the
tenacity of Bruce Springsteen and the epicness of Madonna. Who talks like that? Nobody. Nobody
talks like that. The commentary then put over that Toni Storm really likes 80s music. That’s
it, that’s her character now. She likes 80s music, so let’s shoehorn in those references
because we don’t know how to write actual characters with any semblance of depth whatsoever.
So aside from the character assassination of Toni Storm, she then lost clean to Vega
in two minutes, marking Zelina Vega’s first clean win since her return to WWE. She then
went on in the tournament, spoilers, to face Carmella in the next round, who beat Liv Morgan
later in the show in one minute. How do you f*** up this badly? The matches were too short,
the wrong people won, the promos were catastrophically bad, and everyone came out looking worse than
when they went in, with the exception of maybe Zelina Vega. That’s it. Carmella didn’t
look better - have you seen her mask? And just to hammer home how poorly this was
booked, the time of both women’s matches combined was 3 minutes and 46 seconds. Roman
Reigns then entered, and excluding the ad break, the time it took between his music
hitting and his music fading for his promo was 3 minutes and 55 seconds. Roman’s entrance
was longer than both women’s matches combined, for this supposedly “historic” Queen’s
Crown Tournament. WWE do not give a s***, and it’s so blatantly obvious that they
don’t, but people somehow still defend them, and I do not understand it.
And of course before Roman’s entrance we also got a recap package of Reigns and Lesnar
that went 2 minutes and 15 seconds, because that’s what we needed.
Roman tells San Jose to acknowledge him, and says they should acknowledge Heyman too because
he got The Usos on SmackDown. Glad that story got resolved. He then says Heyman should come
clean about how Brock Lesnar became a free agent, so Heyman does a long winded promo
and doesn’t answer the question. Roman seems satisfied with that and they walk off.
Seth Rollins is backstage with Sonya Deville and Adam Pearce and says that at the end of
the night he’s going to go out to the ring and he wants an answer from Edge for his challenge.
Carmella vs Liv Morgan came next, went a minute, Morgan lost, what was the point of having
her win at Extreme Rules, and it’s Carmella vs Vega in the next round, instead of what
could have been the quite interesting match of Storm vs Morgan.
Mace backstage cuts another terribly scripted promo - I’m not here to compete, I’m here
to annihilate. Ugh. Happy Talk came next in an exact repeat of
last week’s segment, just without the match. It was so much of a repeat, that they played
the same video promo introducing who Madcap Moss is. Kevin Owens interrupted the show,
and got beaten up. And that was it. It was advertised as Happy Talk with guests being
The Street Profits, so were The Profits just chilling in the back, watching Owens get beaten
up? They weren’t on the rest of this show anywhere, did they just go home then? This
show makes my head hurt. Naomi will be facing Sonya Deville next week!
That’s cool! In-ring return of Sonya. I do worry that Sonya will win. Don’t do that
WWE. Finn Balor faced Cesaro next in another King
of the Ring first round match, and it was great. These two are great. They had a great
match. Balor won in the end, and it was all...great. Just do more of this.
Next week is a Supersized SmackDown, going an extra half hour, eating into the first
half hour of AEW Rampage. Amazing, that’s what we need. More SmackDown.
And finally, Seth Rollins came out and demanded an answer from Edge, who eventually came out,
went to do the crossface with the chair leg on him, but Seth escaped, and then Edge announced
it will be a Hell in a Cell match between the two at Crown Jewel. But Edge...Hell in
a Cell has already happened this year? You can’t have Hell in a Cell matches not at
Hell in a Cell! In all seriousness, this feud feels worthy of Hell in a Cell, and this is
probably how they should be used more. Not because it’s that time of the year.
This show, was not great. The King of the Ring matches were great, the Queen’s Crown
Tournament matches were dreadful. Horribly booked, damaging, too short, and this is supposed
to be their first big historic one. The whole show felt unnatural and forced, the promos
were terribly scripted, but Bianca did a cool looking KOD! Focus on that and not any of
our other flaws! That makes up for it right? No, it doesn’t. This is a 2/5 show. Sort
your treatment of women who aren’t the four horsewomen out WWE.
And now over to Tempest with a review of last night’s AEW Rampage.