Let’s play everyone’s new favourite end of year game - I Can’t Believe This Happened
in 2020.
Charlotte Flair won the Royal Rumble.
And was NXT Women’s Champion.
And never put anyone over when she dropped it.
This was never the original plan either, with reports at the time having Shayna Baszler
to win the Rumble match, who would then beat Becky Lynch at WrestleMania for the Raw Women’s
Championship.
Flair was chosen instead because, reportedly, she’d been promised a lot of big things
in the past but had “the rug pulled out on her”.
So WWE went for Project Flair beat NXT Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley
at WrestleMania 36, and then dropped the belt to Io Shirai in a triple threat at NXT TakeOver:
In Your House, where she didn’t take the pin.
The perception was, Flair went to NXT, and didn’t put anyone over.
And she drew a lot of heat from fans as she was being overexposed on Raw and Smackdown
at the same time.
Triple H promised in one interview, though, that it would all eventually make sense.
He’s since admitted it won’t, though, confessing in the TakeOver: War Games media
call that the pandemic put a halt to NXT crossover plans with the main roster.
But now a new report from Sean Ross Sapp over at Fightful Select claims it was much worse
backstage.
Apparently NXT had a lot of plans for Flair - but had to run them all past Raw’s creative
team, who shot down every idea they were presented - including Ripley retaining against Flair
at WrestleMania.
The other plan they pitched was to add Bianca Belair to the match, which was sort of set-up
on NXT TV in the leadup to WrestleMania but never followed up on.
The idea would have been for Ripley to pin Belair, so she could retain her title, and
Charlotte would be protected in the loss.
Instead, Flair was chosen to win the singles match, and Ripley’s starpower on NXT still
hasn’t fully recovered - admitting in a recent interview with Lilian Garcia: “It
did feel like [the wind was taken out of my sails].
I felt like I went through a stage where I was losing confidence in myself because I
wasn't portrayed the same way…
I just got a little bit lost after that [loss].”
What did you make of Charlotte Flair’s NXT Women’s Championship run?
Let me know in the comments because I’ll be replying to people FROM OUTTA NOWHERE.
Impact Wrestling had its biggest episode in quite a few years this past Tuesday, when
AEW World Champion Kenny Omega appeared on the show to explain his relationship with
Don Callis.
It not only saw great gains on their Twitch feed of 55,000 viewers - doubling their previous
all-time viewership record and making them a Top 5 channel on the platform - it also
saw an increase in viewership on AXS TV, with the show drawing 221,000 viewers - 55,000
more than the previous week.
And Wade Keller of PWTorch is reporting, even more interestingly, that Impact drew a better
rating in the 18-34 male demographic than last week’s NXT.
NXT did however beat them in the all-important 18-49 demo.
But what was Kenny’s follow-up big announcement on last night’s episode of AEW Dynamite?
Dynamite kicked off right away with The Young Bucks vs Hybrid2.
Which, as you’d expect given the athleticism of both teams, had all the flips and superkicks.
Matt Jackson powerbombed Jack Evans off the apron into the Acclaimed in the crowd.
There was a brutal Doomsday Device on Evans on the ramp.
And the Bucks hit a Meltzer Driver off the top rope outside too.
All on the first match of the show.
I give this 4 Jim Cornette implosions out of 5
It was a really fun match.
The Bucks won with a BTE Trigger, and then SCU helped them scare off the Acclaimed.
In a nice continuity touch, Matt and Nick Jackson said they haven’t spoken to Kenny
Omega since his title win last week too.
In Darby Allin’s latest black and white GSCE media studies project, a psychiatrist
took him through a Rorschach test showing my father’s penis, which ended in him sniggering
at a picture of Sting.
Who came out to interrupt Cody’s interview next - where both Arn Anderson and Tony Schiavone
excused themselves from the ring, but not before Sting hugged Tony and got him to do
the classic ‘It’s Sting’ call again.
Which confirmed two things to me.
I love Tony Schiavone.
And Sting is going to turn heel.
He was too buddy-buddy with everyone, saying he’s here for a long time, that it feels
very familiar round here - referencing emo Darby Allin watching in the stands - and then
negged Cody by saying ‘see you around kid’.
Likely building a feud for them down the line.
Not to be forgotten in all this, Team Taz then cut a promo on the babyfaces, now with
extra Taz’s son Hook.
Just when I started feeling like FTR should just have squashed the Varsity Blondes in
the next match, FTR entered fury mode, winning with a sick brainbuster from Dax on Griff,
then a Shatter Machine.
John Silver and Alex Reynolds popped up from behind Hangman Page’s bar wearing cowboy
hats to offer to team with him against Matt Hardy and Private Party next week.
John Silver in a cowboy hat is now all of our spirit animals.
In a weird part of the show, Dustin Rhodes easily beat the Dark Order’s 10 with a Bulldog,
after some inexplicable interference from Aaron Solo at ringside.
Which never played into anything.
Evil Uno then asked Dustin to become 7 in the Dark Order - a reference to Dustin’s
short-lived WCW gimmick - but Rhodes turned him down with a punch.
While I like everyone in the Dark Order, they’re really starting to miss the serious direction
provided by Brodie Lee.
Brandi Rhodes came off a little too heelish for her interview segment with Shaq to work,
especially if it’s building to her vs Jade Cargill.
Brandi threw a glass of water over Shaq, and then had a brawl with the heels backstage
later.
Lance Archer started off his six man tag with the Lucha Bros against the Family in a way
only he could - wiping out all his opponents with a massive crossbody dive from his entrance.
Pentagon was helped off early on after being put through table, making the numbers disadvantage
too much for Fenix and Archer.
Even if Archer does count as his own six man tag.
This was an interesting step in Archer’s new babyface leaning portrayal, with commentary
putting over how this was his first tag match in AEW, starting to transition him away from
the Lone Wolf heel, maybe into a badass hero to go against Omega down
the line.
Abadon squashed Tesha Price, and continued to beat her down afterwards.
So out came Shida to make the save with a great kendo shot to the head, but then Abadon
sat right back up Undertaker style.
This was a good angle, and I am genuinely scared by Abadon’s face.
Looking like they’d just walked out of me playing Grand Theft Auto Vice City, Kenny
Omega and Don Callis landed in a helicopter while wearing 80s suits for their interview
segment with Tony Schiavone.
Tony immediately called them out, saying he’s never been more disgusted in his entire career.
Dude, you watched Vince Russo book WCW.
Leading to Callis putting over the Invisible Hand narrative - that he’s been planning
this for decades while guiding Kenny’s career - and then Omega was back to his Cleaner promo
best.
Teasing we haven’t seen anything yet, for Don to stop him, saying we can’t handle
what’s next.
It was a great segment, let down by the way it was promoted.
They teased on the previous night’s IMPACT that they’d make a huge announcement on
Dynamite, but they actually said nothing new.
AEW announced a two week New Year’s Smash Dynamite special to kick off 2021, with Snoop
Dog.
Aside from Jaker Hager and Wardlow’s two month long staring contest, the main issue
was with Sammy and MJF, but the standout in the Inner Circle Ultimatum was Ortiz, who
cut a great promo calling Guvernare the better man, and you know it, so show it to him.
And that you don’t choose the hand you’re dealt.
But them all together is the winning hand.
Sammy said if anything else happens, he’ll quit the Inner Circle.
Which means something else is definitely not happening.
Wink - Evolution thumbs down - wink.
This played into the main event of MJF vs Orange Cassidy for the Diamond Ring - with
the full Inner Circle and Best Friends units at ringside.
You forget how good MJF is at in-ring wrestling, because he’s always so heel tactic focused.
But I loved the drama and psychology of this match, with Cassidy accidentally Superman
Punching the ring post, and MJF working over the hand.
Everyone eventually started brawling at ringside, letting Miro sneak in to clobber Cassidy behind
the referee’s back, and MJF to retain his Diamond Ring.
Again, showing what a deep roster AEW has, Dynamite ended on relative lower midcarder
Miro standing tall like he was a main eventer.
What did you think of AEW Dynamite?
Let me know in the comments!
This was a brilliantly solid episode by AEW’s standards, only slightly let down by a few
weak midcard segments, and no new material from Omega and Callis.
This week’s Dynamite is 2.5 out of 4.
What’s going on with the Tony Khan buying IMPACT Wrestling rumours and Kenny’s new
belt collector gimmick?
Click the video on the right to find out!
And what are 10 board games to play at Christmas that aren’t Monopoly?
Click Adam Blampied’s video beneath that, and please subscribe to our Phenomanerds board
game channel, as we’re close to hitting 40k there!
I’ve been Mr Davis, Jam that Jam.