On today’s news - there’s a toxic backstage power struggle in WWE resulting in the major
changes for NXT, the next King of the Ring has been confirmed, a review of SmackDown,
a review of the debut episode of Rampage, and more!
I can’t believe Oli would dirty himself and stoop to the levels of dancing for you
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After the shocking batch of releases from NXT recently, and with news that the show
will be undergoing changes, the collective reaction from wrestling fans was whaaaatttttt?
Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has shed some light on the situation, and
boy it sure does sound horrible backstage in WWE right now.
Meltzer noted that Triple H and Shawn Michaels, who lead the NXT division, reportedly didn’t
even know about the NXT cuts taking place before they happened. Instead it was reportedly
Vince McMahon, Nick Khan and John Laurinaitis who made the cuts, with Triple H and Michaels
having no say at all. On top of this, there is reportedly “toxicity”
backstage in WWE, shocking I know, and that Triple H’s detractors who don’t want him
to take over from Vince now have ammunition to convince him that Triple H isn’t fit
for the role after NXT lost to AEW in the Wednesday Night Wars.
This toxicity is reportedly what led to Karrion Kross losing twice on Raw since his debut
despite being portrayed as an unstoppable monster in NXT, and why Dakota Kai, who is
challenging for the NXT Women’s Title at TakeOver 36, lost to Aliyah on Main Event
this week. This backstage bust up could go any number
of directions, but it seems that with NXT coming up short against AEW, Triple H’s
backstage influence might be dwindling. What do you think is next for Triple H? Will he
stay the course, will he take over from Vince, or will Vince hand the reigns to someone else?
To Bruce Prichard, Nick Khan, or John Laurinaitis? Let me know in the comments because I’ll
be replying to people FROM OUTTA NOWHERE for the first 30 minutes after this video goes
live. It might have been this toxicity backstage
and resentment towards NXT that resulted in Bronson Reed’s release, as it was noted
in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that after Reed had several dark tryout matches,
McMahon “decided against” calling up Reed to the main roster, and at that point, McMahon’s
reported thought process was: “If he’s not going to be on the main roster, what’s
the point of keeping him”, and so he was let go.
Bonkers, the whole company. From top to bottom. Speaking of bonkers, the last King of the
Ring tournament has given us such memorable moments as King Corbin pouring dog food on
Roman Reigns, Corbin bullying Chad Gable for being short, and Pat McAfee calling Shinsuke
Nakamura “Kingsuke”. Some great stories spilling out of that.
With that in mind let us prepare for another King of the Ring tournament and more memories
to be treasured as Andrew Zarian of the Mat Men podcast reported on Twitter that a King
of the Ring tournament is slated to take place in October with the finals taking place in
Saudi Arabia. This coincides with the finals of the reported Queen of the Ring tournament,
which are also set to take place in Saudi Arabia.
Xavier Woods, who has been pushing to be the next King of the Ring in recent months, took
to Twitter to tweet out a gif of a crown shortly after the news broke. He then tweeted, “All
I need is a qualifying match. Just need a qualifying match…”
And now it’s time for a review of last night’s episode of SmackDown, in about
5 minutes. This show was opened up by John Cena, who
began burying Roman Reigns because of the ‘numbers’ and that ‘he’s been pushed
time and time again and he keeps failing’ and I really, don’t like this style of promo
at all from Cena. The promo battle between Cena and Reigns before
No Mercy 2017 where they broke the fourth wall on each other and Cena said he was back
because Reigns couldn’t do his job, and Reigns said Cena just likes to bury people
was kinda fun, because there were nuggets of truth in there. This though? Reigns is
pretty much universally acknowledged as the best thing going in WWE, and has been since
last summer, so for Cena to come back and say hey Roman, you suck and everyone knows
you suck and your gimmick is bad, and they keep pushing you and you keep failing just
simply isn’t true anymore. He said that Reigns ‘still isn’t working’
and he absolutely categorically is. Sure some of the shine might have rubbed off in recent
months as some of the stories haven’t been as good, but this Reigns character is undeniably
the best version of Reigns we’ve seen in WWE, which just makes Cena look foolish. He
also said he ran Dean Ambrose out of WWE and nearly ruined Seth Rollins and I’m just…???
Huh??? That’s just...not true. At all. He also kept repeating 1, 2, 3, like he was
going round in circles and improvising his promo but struggling. He also referenced CM
Punk, saying he was going to take the title and blow him a kiss on his way out the arena,
which again felt awkward, I just...didn’t really like this promo segment at all. I thought
both of them delivered their promos well enough, but the content just wasn’t for me chief.
Up next was Shinsuke Nakamura vs Apollo Crews for the Intercontinental Championship and
I’d like to make an apology. Last week I said that the two faced off in a title match,
when it was actually a Championship Contender’s match. Silly me. So this week they had a title
match, because last week Commander Azeez DQ’d Crews, which meant Nakamura won, and got him
the title match this week. Which makes absolutely zero sense at all, but sure let’s go with
it. The referee ejected Rick Boogs when he tried
to distract Crews - finally, a referee actually getting rid of the menace at ringside who
constantly uses underhanded tactics to ensure Shinsuke wins - and also ejected Commander
Azeez. This left Apollo alone, and Shinsuke managed a fun comeback and pinned Apollo to
become the new Intercontinental Champion. I don’t really care.
The Street Profits faced The Alpha Academy next, which had a really confusing finish.
Otis was legal, so Gable slapped him on the back in appreciation, which then tagged in
Gable, making him legal. But he didn’t want to tag in, so he argued with the ref, before
Otis was knocked off the apron, Ford dived to the moon and back onto Otis, and then Dawkins
hit a neckbreaker on Gable and won? But the camera missed about 90% of what happened,
so I’m guessing here. This was very odd and confusing, and a weird way to try and
protect the Alpha Academy in defeat, because with their supposed wrestling pedigree, they
shouldn’t be getting confused about how tagging works.
Seth Rollins then cut a wonderful promo next - I seriously think this is the best Rollins
has been since maybe 2019, you know, before…*shudders* Rollins threw to a video package we saw him
demanding the production team to make beforehand, where it showed that everything Edge had done,
Rollins had done better, like his Money in the Bank cash-in, his Royal Rumble victory
actually resulting in a victory at WrestleMania, his time in his debuting faction actually
being dominant. It was a very fun way to show the comparison between them, while Rollins
naturally would omit all the stuff that makes them different. Seth then spoke on how everyone
should be thanking him because if he stomped Edge in 2014, then none of this would have
happened. He’s great. The Mysterios faced Ziggler & Roode next,
where The Usos attempted to distract The Mysterios on the tron, but that didn’t work and they
won anyway thanks to Rey’s experience guiding Dominik. I didn’t mention this earlier,
but I would have thought the point of adding Jimmy Uso to the Bloodline would be so the
three of them can rule SmackDown together, but the trio have barely been seen together
since that happened. The Usos don’t accompany Reigns anymore, they’re having their own
feuds, and Reigns is starting to just feel like another guy at this point. It’s a bit
disappointing. Baron Corbin came out for one last plea to
the crowd, asking for a minimum of $1000 from every person present, before he was interrupted
by Kevin Owens, who said he’d give him $1000 if he could beat him in a match, and then
gave him a Stunner. So of course, Owens beat him in a matter of seconds, wait no *checks
notes* Corbin took most of the match, and then Owens won via rollup. And then gave him
another Stunner afterwards. Why not just have him hit the Stunner in the match, and win?
We cut to backstage and Bianca Belair and Big E are playing with a whiteboard, where
Bianca starts writing out her name, and doesn’t write out Bianca Belair, instead she writes...Bianca
Bianca? I don’t know why this is so funny to me, it just is. It’s like she forgot
she’d already written Bianca on the top line and then panicked and just had to go
with it. Also, side note, what the f*** are they doing? Why is she writing out her name
on a whiteboard and why is Big E holding it? They’re just...doing things.
Anyway, it was all to set up the next segment where Corbin stole Big E’s briefcase. Pat
McAfee then said “can he cash it in” and Michael Cole exasperatedly says “No!”
Why not? If Cena can come out and sign a contract that isn’t his, why the hell can’t Corbin
cash in a contract that’s not his? Why is it obvious that Corbin can’t cash it in?
And if it’s so obvious that Corbin can’t cash it in, then why would he steal it? This
sounds like a nitpick, but this stuff matters when you’re telling a story.
And then it was the contract signing between Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair, and Banks then
says she needs...witnesses for the contract, and out come Carmella and Zelina Vega. Bearing
in mind, Banks and Belair faced these two in a tag match two weeks ago, and Zelina and
Banks were on opposing sides last week discussing who should get a title match. So they don’t
like each other. And yet they’re here. To back up Banks. She then says, you didn’t
see that coming, did you rookie? No, she didn’t. No one did. Do you know
why? Because it doesn’t make any F****** SENSE. And then they beat up Belair and start
helping Banks...WHY?! Explain these things, why do they like her now? There’s no reason
for any of this to happen, other than ‘Sasha is heel, and they are heel so they help heel’.
It’s dumb, derivative, dumb, stupid, dumb, nonsensical, dumb, and really f****** dumb.
Is this a new stable? Do I care? Not really. Let me know
what you thought of the show in the comments, and by voting in our poll on a pole match
on our community tab where 69% of you, nice, voted for Nakamura new IC Champ!
For people who say I complain all the time about WWE, you’re right, I do, it’s because
it’s bad, and even the good stuff has nuggets of bad thrown in. I didn’t overly enjoy
this show, it wasn’t as infuriating as last week, but it wasn’t great either. 3/5? Sure,
let’s go with that. But hold on, we’re not done here as I hand
it over to Tempest for a review of last night’s debut episode
of AEW Rampage, in a shorter amount
of time!