After nailing his gimmick’s mix of legit MMA offence with comedy stonerisms in NXT
as part of the fantastic Broserweights tag team with Pete Dunne, Matt Riddle was called
up to the main roster in June where his whole character quickly became: you’re the guy
who wrestles without shoes.
He entered the compulsory first feud with Baron Corbin, and then became a bit lost on
SmackDown’s midcard.
Because where there’s smoke, there tends to be fire.
That’s a cannabis joke.
Riddle keeps seemingly rubbing people backstage the wrong way - you want to go clockwise,
not counterclockwise, it goes against the grain of Braun Strowman’s beard - getting
himself heat from such big names as Brock Lesnar, Goldberg, Seth Rollins, and even Vince
McMahon himself.
Riddle has dismissed this as “just high school, catty, ‘He said this’, people
who just can’t take a joke or work.”
Whatever he was doing backstage, it wasn’t working.
Until now.
After being drafted to Raw in October and being booked to lose on back-to-back weeks,
Riddle reportedly turned the locker room’s opinion of him around, by giving Sheamus a
great Survivor Series qualifying match despite people thinking he’d sulk because the was
booked to lose again.
This might be the reason WWE officials eventually decided to add him to the men’s Survivor
Series team.
He’s been featured prominently in the weeks since, not just being booked in high profile
matches - like the Sudden Death No. 1 Contenders Triple Threat, and now currently feuding with
Bobby Lashley over the United States title - but also in multiple backstage segments
where he’s getting over his gimmick.
And this is apparently because Vince McMahon finally understands him.
He’s the stoner guy who can wrestle really well.
Which is kind of what we all already knew from the indies, and NXT, but by Vince’s
standards, he figured this out in 6 months, so this is actually amazing.
According to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, while Vince might not understand Riddles
‘bro’ gimmick, he “likes the guy” and thinks he’s “funny, in his own weird
way…
‘We got to keep him on TV.’”
Unfortunately, in that same report, Meltzer did admit he doesn’t know if McMahon “would
want to push him to a main event,” as when Vince sees you as a comedy figure, it historically
limits you to the midcard.
Riddle to 24/7 championship confirmed.
But who knows what Vince actually thinks in 2020, as Lars Sullivan, the 6 foot 3, 330lb
freak, has gone missing from WWE again.
Lars hasn’t been seen on SmackDown for a month now, with reports having him not used
in the Survivor Series pre-show battle royal because they wanted to keep him special, not
to waste him in a throwaway match.
But according to Ringside News, unlike other wrestlers not currently being used, Sullivan
isn’t even showing up backstage for tapings.
Apparently his absences isn’t injury related.
Perhaps he’s one of the several big guys McMahon reportedly threw a fit over last week,
where he apparently sent Otis, Keith Lee, Dabba-Kato, Mace and that huge guy Omos back
to the Performance Center for twice a week classes run by Drew Gulak and Adam Pearce
so they can improve their in-ring work.
Hopefully this is just to finesse their big guy WWE style ahead of some big 2021 pushes.
Because if Vince genuinely thinks Keith Lee can’t work, we’re doomed.
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Leon Ruff only officially signed with NXT in October, after losing all four of the matches
he’d had in the promotion in 2020.
Which made it rather surprising, when he beat Johnny Gargano to win the NXT North American
Championship on the 11th November.
Ruff was booked as a pretty weak champion in the month since, only retaining the following
week because of DQ, and losing the title back to Gargano at last week’s TakeOver War Games
at a 25 day reign.
Now, according to Dave Meltzer discussing the not-so-memorable championship run on the
Wrestling Observer Forum, where he’s revealed the real reason Ruff was given the belt was
because “Somebody in creative thought it was funny.”
It’s nice to see that NXT books their championships with the same reasoning I use to draw penises
on my girlfriend’s notebooks.
But it seems you can only push NXT wrestlers so far before they begin to push back.
A lot of WWE’s controversial business practices this year have disproportionately affected
the main roster.
Raw suffered the bulk of April’s TV wrestler cuts, and the new rule where WWE controls
their talent’s Twitch and 3rd party platform accounts currently only applies to the main
roster.
It’s likely a matter of time before this trickles down to NXT, though, and now news
has come out that several wrestlers are resisting WWE’s attempts to own their very souls.
Heel By Nature have found that WWE filed to trademark the names of Drew Gulak, Pete Dunne,
Tony Nese, Justus and Mia Yim earlier this year.
They have now submitted additional applications for Mercedes Martinez, Malcolm Bivens and
Raquel Gonzalez.
But they’ve reportedly all suffered the same setback - a “lack of written consent
from talent who perform under the character names.”
In the case of Mercedez and Yim, both have actually filed for their own name trademarks
- as they’ve wrestled outside WWE under them for years.
It’s easy to think that all the animosity in wrestling only occurs in WWE.
Outside McMahon’s hyper competitive workplace, wrestlers skip and dance and talk about all
the cool flips they’re going to do.
Incorrect, because FTR are hard bastards.
On a recent episode of his podcast, Jim Ross said the high-spot “evolution of the business
is bulls***” - arguing that superkicks and DDTs should be finishers.
But most of his fury was reserved for that ever present feature in modern wrestling,
the ...dive.
“I told a kid the other day at AEW that everybody does the same f****** spot.
All you guys go outside.
You cluster up like coils.
You stand there in a huddle, friends and foes together, side by side so you can catch some
leaping idiot going over the top who never wins with this move.
They are looking for the ‘holy s***’ chant.
They love to hear ‘this is awesome’.
It’s a spot folks.
It’s a trapeze act.
I don’t buy into that.”
WrestlingNews.co reached out to several AEW wrestlers to get their thoughts on JR’s
podcast comments, where, unsurprisingly, they didn’t much like “the guy who is supposed
to help put us over is going out there and publicly burying us” - in contrast to Jerry
Lynn, who gives feedback with constructive criticism.
And the divide has flared up in the tag division…
Leaning into the ...dive meme, Brandon Cutler promoted his big 7 vs 7 match (which isn’t
just Dustin Rhodes vs Dustin Rhodes) of him, the Best Friends, Top Flight, Varsity Blondes
vs the Inner Circle, tweeting: “We’re gonna go outside, cluster up like
coils, stand there in a huddle, friends and foes together, side-by-side to catch some
leaping idiot going over the top.
Can’t wait 8pm TnT Hopefully for 1M viewers let’s fn go”
Which prompted the all fists, no flips former AEW tag team champion Dax Harwood to tweet
seemingly in response: “Imagine not listening to criticism from
the men & women who’ve shaped our profession, and paved a road that allows you to make a
living today; all because they hurt your feelings.”
What do you think about the highspot focused modern style of wrestling?
Let me know in the comments down below, where I’ll be replying to people FROM OUTTA NOWHERE
WITH A CANADIAN DESTROYER ON THE RING APRON FOR A NEAR FALL IN THE 2ND MATCH ON THE CARD!
My answer is - whatever Kenny Omega’s doing.
Just 10 days after winning the AEW Championship on Dynamite, and the same week as showing
up on IMPACT Wrestling TV, Omega defeated Laredo Kid at AAA’s TripleMania 28 show
on Saturday thanks to interference from Michael Nakazawa, retaining the AAA Mega Championship
he’s now held for 421 days - interestingly now breaking his fellow AEW star Fenix’s
420 day reign before him.
Please give me a Dynamite match between them.
Before that, though, it’s been announced Omega will face Joey Janela on this Wednesday’s
episode in a No DQ / Anything Goes Match.
Pulling a Rick Rude, Omega appeared on IMPACT’s Final Resolution pay-per-view that same night
in a pretaped segment with Don Callis and Karl Anderson.
The Wrestling Observer has added Omega will appear on this Tuesday’s episode of IMPACT
too, where he’s expected to announce a match against an IMPACT star.
Who do you want to see him face?
Let me know in the comments!
Anderson is apparently looking forward to seeing his former Bullet Club buddy again,
tweeting: “See you Tuesday on @IMPACTWRESTLING , brother
@KennyOmegamanX With love, #TheMachineGun” While New Japan’s Tama Tonga has contradicted
the old Bullet Club 4 4 4 4 lyfe membership duration, tweeting:
“If you’re not in #BulletClub 2020, you’re not #BulletClub.”
This is as New Japan is preparing itself for their biggest show of the year on January
4th and 5th, WrestleKingdom 15 - where it’s speculated we’ll get appearances from AEW
stars Jon Moxley, who’s also the promotion’s current IWGP United States Champion, Brodie
Lee, who’s been missing from AEW for two months now, potentially quarantining ahead
of a New Japan debut, and even, maybe, Kenny Omega if the forbidden door really is open.
New Japan has now confirmed the big matches for the show, including Horseshoe Tanahashi
vs Great-O-Khan, Takahashi vs Super J Cup winner El Phantasmo and Zack Sabre Jr & Taichi
vs Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa for the heavyweight tag team titles on Night 1.
And on Night 2, Sanada vs EVIL, Shingo Takagi vs Jeff Cobb, and whoever wins out of Takahashi
and Phantasmo on Night One, will face IWGP Junior Heavyweight champion Taiji Ishimori.
What are the 10 worst, most hilarious gimmicks WWE wrestlers ever had?
Click the video on the right for Adam Blampied’s latest list!
And find more about McMahon’s backstage tantrum over Keith Lee by clicking the WrestleTalk
News video below that.
I’ve been Mr Davis, I will be your Jam that Jampion for the rest of the year, I’m sure
Laurie will step aside for TLC…
Jam that Jam.