Here's more wrestling news for December 20th 2021
And your headlines for Afternoon include
WWE’s treatment Of Finn Balor & Shayna Baszler!
Wrestling Legend Says Hook’s Debut Wasn’t As Good As Ronda Rousey’s WrestleMania 34 Match!
A BIG Name Gets Removed From WWE Production Meetings With Kevin Dunn!
“I Had Bigger Plans”- Bret Hart Reveals Major Plan He Had In Mind Before Pro Wrestling!
"Kid’s Got B***S, I Like It" - Vince McMahon’s Reaction To Ex-WWE Star's New Gimmick!
Paul Heyman Nearly Got In Fight With A Writer Backstage In WWE!
Georgia Smith Is Helping Write An Owen Hart Movie Or TV Series! And More!
We’re kicking off today with WWE, as plenty of Superstars found new homes in the recent draft.
The annual Superstar shakeup is meant to give wrestlers an opportunity to start anew, but not everyone is enjoying their new brands so far.
Look at Finn Balor for example, who was moved to RAW in the draft, and despite hints of a feud with U.S. Champion Damian Priest, has achieved very little on the red brand.
Priest may not have lost much on WWE TV at all this year, but this means the company is struggling to find credible opponents for his United States Title.
Dolph Ziggler has been beaten down into the ground so many times throughout his long career that it’s hard to believe he is a serious threat to Priest,
but he’s probably next in line. In an attempt to elevate Ziggler into the U.S. title picture, Finn Balor has been cast as the sidekick to
Priest, who is there to take the fall instead of the Champ. On RAW, Balor and Priest teamed against the Dirty
Dawgz, but Balor ate the pin after a Zig Zag, but only after Finn, a veteran of the ring, foolishly allowed himself to be distracted by Austin Theory.
With this booking decision, Priest remains protected in defeat, Ziggler looks like a stronger contender for the United States title, and Balor is the sacrificial
lamb who’s there to put over the career mid-carder. When Balor returned to the main roster, fans were hopeful for the best, but after losing to Universal
Champion Roman Reigns on SmackDown and now coming up short against Ziggler, the Prince continues to fall further away from the main-event picture.
Shayna Baszler is also someone who had a ton of hype earlier this year, taking out the likes of Eva Marie and Nia Jax.
With these attacks, Basler proved that she was nobody to mess with, but her momentum stalled when she didn’t win the Queen’s Crown Tournament.
Now, her push earlier this year seems like a lifetime ago, as she’s settled into the role of Sonya Deville’s generic henchwoman on SmackDown, and the failures
have been piling up over the last month. Losing the last four matches on TV and Pay Per View, Deville’s most recent defeat was a
a 30-second loss to Naomi, which came AFTER she ambushed Naomi before the match began.
If WWE doesn’t want to make a former MMA fighter who could realistically crush most women in the promotion seem like a credible threat, then surely
giving her an unfair advantage should’ve allowed her the win, but that wasn’t the case.
Baszler is struggling right now, and nobody on the SmackDown roster should fear her, as all you need to do is roll her up and you will likely win.
This is eerily similar to earlier in the year, when she was constantly losing quick singles matches on Raw, a terrible way to treat one of the most
dominant NXT Women’s Champions of all time
On last week’s edition of AEW Rampage, Hook, the son of Taz, made his in-ring debut, making short work of Fuego Del Sol.
Hook’s impressive victory has seen the young wrestler blow up on social media, which his debut racking up more views than Bron Breakker’s did in NXT 2.0.
Hook also dethroned CM Punk as the number one t-shirt on PW Tees, breaking the former World Champion’s four month stint on top.
On his Drive-Thru, Jim Cornette discussed Hook’s debut, saying that it was a solid start, but not as good as a certain debut from back in 2018:
“I am not necessarily saying this was the greatest debut in pro wrestling history or as good as Ronda Rousey at WrestleMania 34, which had a lot more
high-price talent involved and had a lot more rehearsal. However, I said on the show a few months ago, you never get to see anybody anymore
that when you first see them you’re like, “oh wow”, like you would, before everything was put on the internet.
You could always find a wrestler who can surprise you but in this case they managed to do it because if anything, from the way he was just hanging around
a couple of months ago he got physical and threw a few kicks but it didn’t do much for him. You lowered expectations for him. All of a sudden he
is better than expected and people are getting into it so it was a combination of a really good debut and he has got a lot of talent and a lot of oomph
to him, to his personality and people are just surprised because it was better than they thought it was going to be. I really enjoyed it.”
The AEW roster, and fans, have been ecstatic with Hook’s debut, with many already calling him a future AEW World Champion, but for now, fans are eagerly _3
awaiting the second-generation wrestler’s next match.
Jim Cornette had plenty of praise for Hook, but one person he’s not a fan of is Kevin Dunn.
During Cornette’s 12 years with WWE, from 1993- 2005, he worked in a variety of roles, ranging from an on-screen manager and commentator, to head
booker of WWE’s developmental system at the time, OVW. Gerald Brisco also had a lengthy run with WWE,
working there from 1984-2020, and in an interview with WSI’s James Romero, discussed arguments between Cornette and Dunn, who remains with
the company: “I’ve dragged Jimmy out of production meetings with high, high, high-level WWE officials so many
times, I can’t count the times… I’ve had to drag him out of the meetings because he was coming over the table after one of the higher [ups]. I’m not naming
names, but a guy with the initials KD, yeah!” Brisco added that WWE’s Executive Director Bruce Prichard had to remove Cornette from meetings
altogether, and ensure that the veteran manager got an elevator and stayed away from meeting
Over the years, Cornette’s view of Dunn is well\ known, claiming he’s a quote “suck-up sycophant” who only joined for the money, a brutal honesty
that Brisco isn’t opposed to: “I’m glad Jim Cornette hasn’t evolved because we need one guy in the business like a Jim Cornette. love him
to death. I laugh and laugh. Sometimes he makes a lot of sense if you read between his lines. What a historian and what a collection of history that he
has. I got nothing but big-time respect for Jim Cornette.” Dunn joined WWE in 1984, and has remained
with the company in several backstage production roles since, and while Jim Cornette may not be a fan, the veteran WWE employee must be doing
something right.
As a seven-time World Champion, two-time King of the Ring Winner, two-time WWE Hall of Famer and, Grand Slam Champion and Royal Rumble winner,
it’s hardly surprising why Bret Hart is considered one of the greatest wrestlers ever.
Trained by his father Stu, Bret’s career is the stuff of legend, but he never would’ve made it in the ring had he stayed true to his original goal.
In the Calgary Sun, Hart revealed that before wrestling, he wanted to be in the movie business, but clarified:
“I never saw myself as an actor. I always wanted to be a movie director, I had bigger plans.”
Bret went on to say that in a way, he achieved this dream, calling his matches “15-20 minute movies,” in which he worked as the stunt coordinator,
director and producer. Who knows what the Hitman could’ve done had he been a director and not a wrestler,
but ultimately, Bret followed his father’s footsteps, and went on to become the best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be.
One man who had significantly less success in WWE is Fandango, who was released earlier this year after a 15-year sting in the company.
It was in 2013 that the former Johnny Curtis debuted on the main roster as Fandango, an arrogant dancer who was often accompanied by a dancing partner.
In an interview with Chris Van Vliet, Fandango recalled the first time he danced in front of Vince McMahon, and the added pressure the performance
had: "I remember I did the dancing in a dark match. I can’t remember… and Hunter’s like, ‘Dude, you’ve
been going to dance school? Vince hasn’t seen you dance. He’s gonna watch your dark match. Pretty much, if you do good, you’re gonna make a l
lot — like you’re gonna have a run. If you don’t, sorry,’ So I’m like, well, f**k.” "So I just went out and completely just gave it
a hundred percent and just faked it as best as I could in terms of being able to dance and Vince said, ‘Kid’s got b***s. I like it.”
Fandango added that his dancing was so impressive, that plans to push him as a wrestler seriously stalled, noting:
He didn't want me to be a wrestler. That was the whole thing. He just wanted me to be a dancer
It was in June this year that Fandango, alongside his tag partner Tyler Breeze were cut from
WWE, and while the dancer has worked in various independent promotions since, he’s yet to strut his stuff into AEW or Impact Wrestling.
In WWE, Paul Heyman is known for being one of the most respected managers of all time, but the advocate of Brock Lesnar has had a handful of
of sanctioned matches.
Whenever Heyman does actually wrestle, he’s vastly outmatched by his opponent, but the ECW alum is far tougher than he looks.
On his podcast, Jim Cornette talked about Heyman, who once almost got into a fight with former WWE writer Brian Gewirtz:
“I guess he (The Rock) loves that Brian Gewirtz character, the comedy writer. Everybody has a flaw and The Rock likes the comedy writer. I still wish
could see video of the screaming fight that Gewirtz and Heyman got into, where everybody was like, ‘ Please let them fight, please let them fight. We got
to see this.’ It was about wrestling because Gewirtz is a comedy writer – whether you like him or not, everybody is on different sides
of that fence – Heyman is a wrestling personality. So, I could see that being enough.”
After leaving WWE, Gewirtz returned to The Rock’s side, and now works for the Brahma Bull’s company Seven Bucks Productions.
As for Heyman, he’s still with WWE, and was both fired and attacked by Roman Reigns on this week’s SmackDown, but we expect that Heyman will let
Brock Lesnar do his fighting for him in their feud with the Tribal Chief.
And we’re ending with Owen Hart, who’s legacy is being celebrated with two tournaments in AEW, but that’s not the only way the Rocket is being remembered.
In an interview about the Owen Hart Cup, Georgia Smith told the A2theK Wrestling Show that there have been talks of a movie or TV series being
made about her younger brother, and said a screenwriter from the UK, Sam Benjamin who’s previously worked with Wade Barrett
has been consulted. Georgia added that she has tried to get WWE on board, but said that she was told by their
Studio department that they don’t do biopics, so we’ll just have to see if this new Owen Hart project ever makes it to screens.