This is the time of year when WWE fans are looking ahead.
By the time Survivor Series comes to an end in November, you probably have a pretty good idea who will be winning the upcoming Royal Rumble matches, or at least know who the top candidates are. Those winners, of course, go on to WrestleMania for a title match of their choosing, and those matches at Mania are already being discussed and rumored for a while. When the Royal Rumble is over, and when there’s a much clearer picture of what direction WWE wants to head in on the Road To WrestleMania, those predictions and assumptions start flying in from all directions.
I wanted to do that, to an extent, for AEW. This is the time of year when WWE gets even more attention, from both in and out of the wrestling world. This is the biggest time of the year for them, while AEW will take their turn in that kind of spotlight shortly thereafter, as Double Or Nothing (always held in late-May) is largely viewed as their biggest show of the year. With the Revolution pay-per-view now three weeks away, I wanted to look at that “Royal Rumble to WrestleMania” period that AEW has, starting with Revolution and ending with Double Or Nothing. I’m not going to be making predictions. Instead, I’m going to be looking at things that I would like to see (or not like to see) from All Elite Wrestling during that special time frame, and perhaps beyond.
If you’ve been reading my columns for more than a week or two, you know how this is going to go… these things will be listed in no particular order. Let’s get on with the show.
Swerve Strickland Doesn’t Need Mogul Affiliates At All: I have been very clear about how much I disliked the debut segment for this group. That was one of the worst overall segments that pro wrestling has seen in a long, long time. In the weeks since, things haven’t exactly gotten a lot better. Swerve Strickland himself is one of the most talented overall performers on the AEW roster, and he can get it done in the ring and on the microphone. All by his lonesome, he could easily be in a main event spot without any issues. Unfortunately, he isn’t all by his lonesome. AEW has paired him with two lackeys that simply aren’t adding anything to Swerve’s character or presentation. Take a look anywhere on H.E.R.’s internet and you’re going to find columns, posts, tweets, blogs, and comments that are universally making fun of Parker Boudreaux and Granden “Trench” Goetzman. Boudreaux continues to care infinitely more about what rappers are in his DM’s than making any sort of improvements in wrestling. Goetzman… has some baseball cards from his time in the minor league farm systems for the Tampa Bay Rays, St. Louis Cardinals, and the Houston Astros. Oh, and he looks like “rapper” Tom MacDonald, so… there’s that. Boudreaux and Trench are the albatrosses that are going to do nothing but drag Swerve further and further down, and the sooner he gets away from them, the better.
Don’t Drop The Ball Any Further With Action Andretti: You all remember the night of December 14th, 2022, don’t you? On that night, a mostly unknown talent by the name of Action Andretti stunned the wrestling world by pinning Chris Jericho on an episode of AEW Dynamite. Immediately, people began to compare the win to when The 1-2-3 Kid defeated Razor Ramon on the May 17th, 1993 episode of Monday Night Raw. The comparisons between the two match results ended there. If you go back to 1993, the WWF were able to capitalize on Kid’s momentum, and he wouldn’t be on the losing end of a match for the next three-and-a-half months, only losing three total televised matches (two singles and one tag) for the rest of the year. Razor Ramon, on the other hand, recovered from the loss quite well, only losing one more match in 1993, and that was to one of the top names in the company, Bret Hart. Razor getting back to his winning ways made his loss to The Kid stand out even more.
Now look at Jericho and Andretti. What happened three weeks after Jericho’s loss? In the next match he had… he lost again, this time to Ricky Starks. How about Andretti himself? A month later, in his second match after beating Jericho, he was on the losing end of a tag match that saw him eat the pin from Sammy Guevara. So, what was the point of having Andretti beat Jericho in the first place? I completely understand the “anything can happen” aspect, where you want to make sure people watch your show because they just never know what they’ll witness. That’s a great idea, but in doing so on December 14th, AEW created an opening to make a brand new superstar in Action Andretti. Listen to the crowd reaction for Andretti as that match went on, and then listen to the crowd reaction when he won the match. If AEW would’ve put Andretti in a match against MJF later that night for the World Title, fans would’ve bought in right away.
I’m not saying Andretti should’ve gone from “nobody” to “he beat Chris Jericho” to “new World Champion” in the span of a week or two. All you have to do is go back to The 1-2-3 Kid and Razor Ramon once again. Kid beat Razor and would go on to become a really big star, but it was something that built gradually and carefully, but also quite nicely. He was made out to be a bigger deal, as someone who was capable of beating the biggest and the baddest that the WWF had to offer. It’s not like he won the WWF Title, though. By January 1994, he was one-half of the WWF Tag Team Champions, and he did have a WWF Title shot in July 1994, having a Match Of The Year classic against Bret Hart in a losing effort. Like I said, though, he was built up. When he goes on an undefeated streak that stretches for nearly four months, people take notice. How would things have turned out if Kid lost almost right away after beating Razor? Also, how much less of a big deal would Razor’s loss have been if he lost his next match, as well? To take it a step further, Jericho’s loss to Ricky Starks was actually his third consecutive loss, as he dropped the RoH World title to Claudio Castagnoli four days before losing to Andretti.
AEW has (had?) a chance to create a new star in Action Andretti, and while it doesn’t have to be their top priority, it should be something that was a bigger priority than it has been so far, nearly two months later.
Find A Top Spot For Miro: Not all that long ago, you could make the argument that the best overall performer (matches, promos, and character work combined) in all of AEW was Miro. He was absolutely on fire, week in and week out, and it looked like it was going to lead to some really good things. He won the TNT Title, had a really entertaining reign, and was really delivering with his “God’s Favorite Champion” character. Even when he dropped the title, things still looked good, as he switched it up a bit with his character, now questioning “his” God, eventually challenging “his” God to fights. He would go on to replace Jon Moxley in AEW’s World Championship Eliminator Tournament when Moxley would head off to rehab, and we would see Miro make it to the tournament final against Bryan Danielson, where he would end up losing.
That’s when everything unraveled, though. He would suffer a hamstring injury, and would end up missing six months due to it, as well as some acting gigs that he took. When he finally returned to the ring, he was placed in the All-Atlantic Title match at Forbidden Door, but he was unsuccessful in being crowned the inaugural champion. After Forbidden Door, it would be five weeks until he had another match, but hey, it was a high-profile six-man tag that saw him team up with Sting and Darby Allin to take on The House Of Black. Good stuff, right?
Well, that was over five months ago, and we haven’t seen him since. All in all, he has wrestled a total of 29 matches for AEW. We’re coming up on 29 months since his debut match for the company. You can do the math. The reports have stated the man is completely healthy, but has been given the dreaded “creative has nothing for you” excuse, putting him on the sideline. That is unacceptable. If Tony Khan can find time to put dumpster juice like Mogul Affiliates on television, then he can damn sure find a way to get Miro on television. Not only should he be there, but he should be there in a prime position on the card. If MJF successfully retains the AEW World Title against Bryan Danielson at Revolution, Miro would be a very intriguing choice to be his next feud.
Speaking of MJF…
If MJF Retains At Revolution, Drop The Gauntlet Stuff: Enough. For the love of Joe Pesci… enough. It seems like AEW falls into this bullshit trap every few months or so. “Oh, you want a match with me, do you? Well, I’m not going to face you unless you can overcome these hurdles I place before you. Bwahahahaha!”
Please do something different. It has been such a trope that MJF even had to mention it in a promo a while back, saying that it has kind of become his thing. If MJF is still the World Champion when Revolution comes to an end, it would behoove AEW to do something new for him as he potentially moves on to a new feud. Shit, that part doesn’t even really matter. Even if he continues feuding with Bryan Danielson, a new way to get Danielson another title shot needs to be found. It’s tiring.
If Bryan Danielson Wins At Revolution, Get The Record Books Ready: First and foremost, I have to say that I think it’s too early for MJF to lose the title. That would give him a three-month reign as champion, with only one successful title defense, and he would drop the belt to the first person he feuded with after winning it. After everything that went down to get MJF the belt in the first place? That would be a major disappointment.
However, if AEW decides to make the switch and crown Bryan Danielson as their new World Champion, I think it should be the start of a great title reign. For one, Danielson deserves it. This is a man who has been in the discussion for Wrestler Of The Year damn near every year that he has been an active competitor, and continues to put out tremendous work on a weekly basis. He has seemingly taken it upon himself recently to show that he might be, at nearly 42 years old, better than he’s ever been. He has wrestled seven matches so far in 2023, and all seven matches are among the best matches anywhere in the world during the early part of the calendar year. Having these matches against opponents of all shapes, sizes, and in-ring styles only makes his accomplishments more amazing, but this is the Bryan Danielson that we’ve all known and loved for the last two-plus decades.
More importantly, though, is the fact that the AEW World Title is in dire need of some added prestige right now. Things started off very well with the title’s history. Chris Jericho was a great choice as the very first champion, adding star power to a brand new promotion, allowing him to be the “face” of the company in its infancy. The next champion, Jon Moxley, put the company on his back through very trying times in the world, and he elevated the title to huge levels. Kenny Omega would follow Moxley as the champion, going on to have the longest reign in the title’s almost four-year history. “Hangman” Adam Page was up next, the culmination of one of the best wrestling storylines in recent years, and he would go on to have a really good run, as well.
As soon as the title became the property of CM Punk on May 29th of last year, everything fell apart. A mixture of bad luck, poor booking decisions, injuries, and stupid ideas have weighed the title down for the last eight-plus months. Punk’s reign was cut short due to an injury. Moxley was given the dreaded “interim champion” tag after winning a tournament in Punk’s absence. Mox would defeat the returning Punk to become the undisputed champion. Punk would take the title back from Moxley less than two weeks later. Three days after Punk won the title, he would be stripped of it and suspended after his post-show media scrum that would become a physical altercation with members of The Elite. Moxley would win the title… again… in a tournament… again… but this would be another short one. Now, here we are with MJF’s reign.
If you’re going to give Danielson the title, have it be a reign that makes the AEW World Title look like it once did. That doesn’t necessarily mean Danielson’s reign needs to top Omega’s 346-day stint as champion, although that certainly would help. He does have to continue being a wrestler that isn’t afraid to step into the ring with anyone, though. Aerial artist? Bet. Technical wizard? Bet. Brawler? Bet. Top of the card? Bet? Bottom of the card? Outsiders coming in for a one-shot? Bet. That would be a great way to build the title up, especially as AEW heads to their biggest show of the year.
The Women’s Division Could Really Use Mercedes Moné… But Not Right Now: AEW could use one of the biggest stars in all of women’s wrestling? Shocker, I know. She is one of the few names out there that could potentially be a needle-mover for AEW (or WWE, or any other company she wants to work with), simply based on the large, highly devoted fan base she has. Don’t believe me? Go ahead and say something negative about her on Twitter, and then wait. Before long, you’re going to find yourself on the receiving end of some hateful tweets from users that almost always have “Sasha” or “Mercedes” somewhere in their names.
While the division could really use the shot in the arm that Mercedes could bring, I think there’s a lot of good stuff going on right now, and adding her at this point is going to complicate a lot of things. Would she be a great option to beat Jade Cargill and take the TBS Title from her? Yes. However, I’ve been very vocal (you know what I mean) about someone else being an even better choice for that role, and I’ll have more on that again later. Would she be a great option to beat Jamie Hayter and take the Women’s Title from her? Yes. However, right now, Jamie Hayter is putting on some of the best matches you’re going to see anywhere, man or woman. She is on such a roll right now, and isn’t even three months into her title reign yet.
Mercedes is someone who can’t come in and lose right off the bat. It seems like we’ve seen that a million times in AEW. You’ll see a big name free agent signing come in with a lot of fanfare, only to lose their first match, or at least their first feud, and things are never quite the same. She can’t continue that pattern. In my opinion, it would be better for her to come in further down the road. Once Hayter’s reign has reached a certain point, it would be much better if she lost to AEW’s newest signing. If Jade Cargill’s immediate future goes the way I think it might (and certainly should) go, go ahead and have the next TBS Champion eventually drop the title to Mercedes. Either way, I certainly think AEW should throw a good amount of money in Mercedes’ direction to bring her on board, but let’s go ahead and let her do her thing in Japan for a while first.
Less America Kenny Omega, More Japan Kenny Omega: This one is pretty simple. There is a big difference in the Kenny Omega we see in AEW and the one that we’ve seen in New Japan. You can see it in the way he acts and cuts promos, but you see it the most in the way he wrestles. While he wasn’t Lance Storm levels of SUPER CEREAL in Japan, he is able to harness a lot more of the goofiness and melodramatic acting there, while he tends to lean on more of it while in AEW.
I recently decided to give another watch to Omega vs Will Ospreay from last month’s Wrestle Kingdom event, and THAT is the Kenny Omega I want to see in AEW. The straight-up killer that put on classic after classic, breaking Dave Meltzer’s match rating scale and earning the top spot on the PWI 500 twice. I can do without the “Carry On Wayward Son” Kenny Omega teaming up with the Young Bucks, involving basketball in their promos and matches, even though none of them look like they’ve ever played a real game of basketball in their lives.
I’m not saying Omega needs to ditch the Bucks altogether. I have no problem with them staying together and continuing to defend their Trios Titles. I’m just looking for some more edge from the guy, no Adam Copeland.
Get Kris Statlander In Position To Dethrone Jade Cargill: I’ve already discussed this one multiple times in previous columns, so I don’t need to get too in-depth here. If you ask me, and you did by clicking on a link to read my column, Statlander is the PERFECT choice to be the one who finally defeats Jade Cargill. Jade always seems to have the size and strength advantage over her opponents, leading to some serious mismatches, but she won’t have that here. Kris Statlander is almost the same size, and if there’s a woman in AEW stronger than Jade, it’s Ms. Statlander.
Of course, the only problem here is that we don’t know when Statlander will be returning to the ring. When she tore her ACL in 2020, she would be out of action for about ten months. After another torn ACL, this time in her other knee, that she suffered last year, she has now been out for six months. So much is up in the air here. On one hand, we’ve seen wrestlers return to the ring in about six months after tearing their ACL. Seth Rollins, for example, missed a little over six months after tearing his ACL in late-2015, and he was dealing with a torn MCL and medial meniscus, as well. Statlander’s latest injury saw her tear her lateral meniscus to go with the ACL tear. On the other hand, though, this is, at least from what we’ve seen, a bigger injury than her previous one, and as I mentioned, she missed about ten months for that. Now, maybe she was ready sooner, but AEW simply wanted to wait for the right time to bring her back. Who knows? My point is just that there are some major question marks.
For the sake of argument, let’s say she’s going to miss about the same amount of time as she did the first time. That would put her return to the ring at some point in June or July. I’m not 100% sure that AEW can keep doing the same things with Jade Cargill for the next four or five months. While Jade has improved in all areas of her game since she debuted, I don’t know if those improvements are going to justify that much longer of a title reign, especially if AEW continues to put her in the ring with women that don’t look like they belong in there with her. If that’s the case, I take back what I said earlier about when would be the best time for AEW to bring Mercedes Moné in. Otherwise, Kris Statlander has absolutely, positively, undeniably got to be the one to hand Jade Cargill her first loss. It’s science.
Less Blood: Look… I’m as big an advocate of blood in wrestling as you’re going to see outside of the major fans of “death match” style work. I just feel it needs to mean something to be as effective as possible. When it comes to WWE, I wouldn’t mind seeing blood in matches like Hell In A Cell or the Elimination Chamber. That makes a ton of sense. Major feuds between people who “hate” each other. Stuff like that. When used properly, it is one of the best storytelling devices that you’re ever going to see in the sport.
When it happens all the time, and sometimes more than once in a week, that tends to cheapen the whole thing. By a lot. Jon Moxley bleeds in every match he does, and he might be the worst “blader” in the business today, blatantly getting caught on-camera cutting himself on multiple occasions. It doesn’t mean anything when he bleeds in a match anymore.
This is a promotion that has proven time and time again that it can tell tremendous stories without having to resort to that kind of thing. Why not save it for times and instances when it means the most?
Bring CM Punk Back: Ooh, spicy!
Like many of you, I have been back-and-forth more than Aaliyah when it comes to whether or not Punk should be a member of the AEW roster moving forward. There are multiple good points to be made on both sides of the argument, but no matter what I thought about, I kept coming back to one thing.
Money.
There is still money to be made with CM Punk on their team. Even more so than that, there’s plenty of money that can be made with CM Punk on “their” team.
Punk needs to be able to sit down with the likes of Colt Cabana, The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, and anyone else who he has had problems with. They also need to be able to sit down with him. If any “beef” can be squashed, that’s fantastic. We’re talking about grown men in their 30’s and 40’s here. At the very least, all parties need to be able to exist in the same locker room(s) without Tony Khan needing to have security on speed dial in an instant because another brawl could break out at any time.
With the public perception of Punk changing, you could almost run a variation of Attitude Era Bret Hart that the WWF did, when Bret was a heel in America and a face everywhere else in the world. I could see a scenario where Punk continues to be cheered as a God in Chicago, only to be booed everywhere else. That could be A LOT of fun to watch play out.
Having Punk in a match of any sort against Omega or the Bucks? That becomes appointment television, as the old saying goes. Hell, go ahead and announce Punk will be facing Cabana, one-on-one, and watch as you get more people tuning in to watch that episode of Dynamite or Rampage than previous weeks have seen.
To me, that makes way too much sense, and if it is at all possible, it should be one of AEW’s top priorities. While Double Or Nothing looks to be held in Las Vegas again next year, and not Chicago, having a star on the level of CM Punk be involved in the storylines heading up to the event is something that needs to happen. WWE pulls out all the stops for WrestleMania, so AEW should do the same for their version of WrestleMania. Again, it just makes too much sense.
What say you? As we move closer to Revolution, and we’re beginning to turn the pages to Double Or Nothing, what are some of the things you want to see from AEW? As always, hit me up in the comments section below, or on Twitter (@HustleTheSavage), and let me know what’s on your mind.
Weekly Power Rankings
Bryan Danielson vs Rush: Did you read what I said about Bryan Danielson earlier? In what is already one of the best in-ring careers in the history of professional wrestling, he is putting on some of his best work right now. Might as well call him Mabel, Oscar, or Mo, because he is a man on a mission. This was another great match in a long string of them for the guy.
Cody Rhodes & Paul Heyman: Paul Heyman continues to show that he is one of the smartest minds in the business, on or off-screen. More on that later. For now, know that this was an extremely (no pun intended) effective back-and-forth promo between two of the best talkers today. Really nice usage of the real-life history between Heyman and the Rhodes family, and just how much both sides mean to each other. This was some much-needed fuel to the fire that is Cody’s match with Roman Reigns. SamiMania is threatening to run wild right now, and even though Cody’s story is an excellent one, as well, he needed a boost like this to basically remind the world that it isn’t just about Sami Zayn right now.
MJF vs Konosuke Takeshita: Well, Takeshita’s one-match winning streak was fun while it lasted. You know… this isn’t rocket science, brain surgery, or the Turbo Tunnel in Battletoads. It’s a really simple thing. In Takeshita, AEW has an incredible in-ring talent who has become one of the most popular talents on their roster in a short period of time. With that type of situation, you have two choices. Either strap the rocket to him and push him to the moon, or you let him build up a bunch of wins on television and let his stature grow until the time is right to finally… strap the rocket to him and push him to the moon. Clearly, Tony Khan doesn’t think now is the time to make Takeshita the AEW World Champion. That’s fine. To have the man losing 99% of his televised matches is just asinine, though. Put him in matches against any of the 5,971 members of the roster that aren’t currently in the main event scene! Let him build up some momentum with victories over some really talented wrestlers! Come on!
Carmelo Hayes vs JD McDonagh: When Vengeance Day was done, I tweeted that I had a sneaking suspicion we would see Carmelo Hayes get more cheers than Bron Breakker at Stand & Deliver. That’s really going to be the case if Melo starts acting face-ish like he did during his promo and match last week. He has always been a “popular heel” during his NXT run, but he definitely has what it takes to be a full-fledged face if Shawn Michaels deems it to be necessary. We’ll have to see what happens, but if he keeps having matches like this, fans are going to continue cheering for the guy, anyway.
The Elite vs Top Flight & AR Fox: When The Elite are involved in a trios match, you can probably go ahead and pencil them in for an appearance in my Power Rankings at this point. That seems to be a pretty safe bet. Just a ton of action here, with your usual bell-to-bell action that I’m glad I just get to watch instead of do play-by-play for.
Paul Heyman’s Smackdown Logic: I want you to think about something very carefully. In all your years of watching wrestling, how often have you seen a television segment that involved a wrestler looking like a complete and utter moron because they seemed to forget there was an ENTIRE CAMERAMAN standing in front of them? Maybe it was a heel who casually confessed his evil plan in front of the camera, only to be shocked when the face he was feuding with knew about the plan. Perhaps it was a wrestler looking around to make sure nobody could see them before they did something they wanted to be kept a secret. We got the latter on Smackdown, with Jey Uso making sure that nobody could see him return some dap to Sami Zayn, who found him in a backstage area. You know, nobody other than the fans in the arena who were watching it happen live, and the millions of fans watching at home. It’s an infuriatingly stupid thing that we’ve seen in pro wrestling for as long as the sport has been on television. This would come a little while after both Usos were talking backstage, only for Jey to leave and Jimmy lie to Paul Heyman about what the brothers did, and didn’t, talk about. Later in the show, though, Paul Heyman would find Jimmy Uso backstage and tell him that, per orders from the Tribal Chief himself, The Usos should stay home next week and watch Smackdown from there to offer an “on-television perspective” because “sometimes you see things on TV that you don’t see when you’re here live.” Yes, it was done to write Jimmy (and perhaps Jey, even though he is able to travel there) off of television for the shows in Canada because of DUI history, but it was done in a way that made Paul Heyman and Roman Reigns look great. It’s those little touches that make this the best-written storyline in wrestling history. We saw what Jey said to Jimmy. We saw Jimmy lie to Heyman. We saw Jey and Sami have a moment. We saw it, but that means Roman saw it, too.
Becky Lynch vs Bayley: I could be wrong, but I think a lot of people thought this would be the end of the feud between Becky and Bayley. The Steel Cage stipulation, as well as the main event slot on Raw, led people to believe it would be a lengthy match, but would lead to a decisive winner. We all should’ve known better. WrestleMania is just around the corner, after all, and it certainly doesn’t appear as though either of these women are going to be involved in either the Raw or Smackdown Women’s Title matches that weekend, so keeping their feud going makes sense. The addition of Lita (and the rumored addition of Trish Stratus) makes a bit less sense in the wonderful world of kayfabe, but there’s no denying a six-woman tag featuring Becky, Lita, and Trish taking on Bayley, Iyo Sky, and Dakota Kai at WrestleMania would be a crowd-pleaser and would get some really good reactions. Works for me.
Pretty Deadly: The most entertaining that Baron Corbin has ever been in his entire life was when he was Bum Ass Corbin and was playing the down-on-his-luck fellow who had lost everything and was as unlucky as they came. That seems to be the direction we’re going in with Pretty Deadly, who are growing more and more despondent after losing their NXT Tag Team Titles, failing to earn a rematch for said titles, finally earning a rematch for said titles, and then failing to win said titles in said rematch. These two are REALLY good at their character work, and this latest twist looks like it could be a lot of fun. As an added bonus, they aren’t just dressing differently and going the woe-is-us route, but they’re also incorporating it in their ring work. I look forward to their next stop on the struggle bus.
Angelo Dawkins vs Damian Priest: When both members of The Street Profits were announced for Elimination Chamber qualifying matches, you could hear the fantasy booking wheels spinning everywhere. Clearly, THIS was going to be how the duo’s split would happen, right? Either one of them would qualify and the other would get jealous and turn heel, or they’d both qualify and one of them would turn heel during the match in an attempt to chase glory. Something along those lines. Well, we got a good match here, but ultimately, it was Priest who would pick up the victory, leaving Dawkins dejected. Since he’s the one who most people feel is going to turn heel, anyway, that only made the speculation grow larger.
The Usos vs Braun Strowman & Ricochet: We knew that The Usos weren’t going to lose the titles here. We just weren’t quite sure how they were going to retain the titles with all the drama surrounding Jey’s possible defection from The Bloodline. The match was good, and things were pretty straightforward with Jey. He showed up and remained loyal to his twin, allowing them to win and most likely go to WrestleMania as the champions. Now, it would be really nice if we can get Ricochet away from Braun. Ricochet could potentially be a breakout star for the company this year. As I said in a previous column, don’t be surprised if he ends up as a favorite to win Money In The Bank this year. The show is in London this year, and Ricochet has a ton of experience wrestling in the United Kingdom, so he’s definitely going to be one of the crowd favorites if he’s involved in the match. We’ll see.
Montez Ford vs Elias: Did anybody think Elias was going to win? Probably not. Once Dawkins lost his match, you could pretty much guarantee that Ford was winning here. Whether or not it ends up in a heel turn and a Street Profits split, having Montez Ford inside the Elimination Chamber is probably going to assure us of at least one spectacular highlight reel moment from him.
Kota Ibushi & Jay White Having Options: Ibushi became a free agent on the first day of this month. Ten days later, White lost a “Loser Leaves Japan” match to Hikuleo at New Japan’s New Beginning In Osaka show, and reportedly has a contract that is set to expire imminently. He has one more scheduled match for New Japan, but that is at their Battle In The Valley show in California this weekend (the same show that Mercedes Moné makes her New Japan debut on), so he still leaves Japan, as per the rules. Both men have connections in AEW and WWE, with both companies reportedly looking to bring them in. New Japan is also hoping to re-sign White and use him as one of the key pieces in their further expansion into the United States in 2023 and beyond. Both White and Ibushi are in very prime positions here, able to listen to the offers that will come their way, pick the one they feel suits them best, and move forward from there.
Rey Mysterio vs Karrion Kross vs Madcap Moss vs Santos Escobar: Four men, vying to be the next challenger for Gunther and his Intercontinental Title. Rey Mysterio is one of pro wrestling’s all-time greats, but Gunther already defended the title against Rey three-ish months ago. Santos Escobar is an insanely talented, as well as insanely underrated, performer, but the WWE Universe hasn’t quite warmed up to him enough, making a title shot somewhat out of the question right now. A match between Gunther and Karrion Kross could be A LOT of fun, but again, Kross simply hasn’t had any real connection with live crowds. Obviously, that meant the super over Madcap Fucking Moss was going to get the win here, and that’s exactly what happened. Moss hasn’t been on the winning side of a televised match since Clash At The Castle, which was five whole months ago, and that was in a six-man tag. You have to go back six weeks further to find his last televised singles win… and that was by disqualification. If you go back two more weeks… all the way to July 1st… you’ll find the last time he was by himself and picked up a victory via pin. Naturally, if you’re going to look for the four top contenders for the Intercontinental Title, Moss would be right there at the top. This was a good match, sure, but definitely a strange booking decision.
Ilja Dragunov: He made his return to NXT for the first time in months, and he went right back after the man who put him out of action, JD McDonagh. Poor McDonagh just can’t seem to get away from Dragunov, no matter how hard he tries. “Unbesiegbar” is back, and that immediately makes the NXT roster better.
Cody Rhodes: During an interview with Alex McCarthy of Inside The Ropes, Cody made mention of how special a moment it would be if he were to win the Undisputed WWE Universal Title at WrestleMania with his brother, Dustin, in attendance. I want you to take a moment and think about that. Cody just defeated Roman Reigns to become the brand new Undisputed WWE Universal Champion, and he is openly weeping in the middle of the ring. Suddenly, he is joined in the ring by his brother, who is also openly weeping. They embrace, and the crowd e-x-p-l-o-d-e-s. It would be a new twist on the ending of WrestleMania 20, when Eddie Guerrero joined Chris Benoit in the ring and they celebrated together. As Cody said in the interview, it’s obviously going to take some people in high places to be able to get along and make some major agreements for this to happen, but I would love it. It shouldn’t be difficult. We’ve seen Mickie James appear on WWE programming as the Impact Knockouts Champion, with the promotion and the title being mentioned on commentary. You could do the same thing for Dustin Rhodes here. Michael Cole could mention Dustin’s previous years in WWE, but also mention that he’s currently employed by All Elite Wrestling. Throw in a mention of Dynamite/Rampage, and there you have it. Everyone wins. WWE gets a magical moment that will be replayed for decades. AEW gets promoted on a show that will be seen by a bigger audience than anything they put on. Let’s do it.
This Week’s Playlist: “Special” by Lizzo & SZA… “Love You Anyway” by Luke Combs… “Let Me Go” by Daniel Caesar… “Death Of An Executioner” by Pierce The Veil… “Pass The Nirvana” by Pierce The Veil… “Walmart” by Sam Hunt… “Lost” by Linkin Park… “Paradise II” by Logic & Norah Jones… “Action” by G Perico… “Heritage” by Distant & Will Ramos… “Careful” by Lucky Daye… “Left Behind” by The Plot In You… “Terrible Lie” by Static-X… “Hivemind” by Acacia Ridge… “A.N.X.I.E.T.Y.” by Of Virtue… “Born To Lose” by Carcosa… “Enemies” by Shinedown… “Burn It To The Ground” by Nickleback… “Thorn In Your Eye” by Slam Jam… “…To Be Loved” by Papa Roach… “Across The Nation” by The Union Underground… “Whatever” by Our Lady Peace… “I Walk Alone” by Saliva… “Burn In My Light” by Mercy Drive… “Slow Chemical” by Finger Eleven… “This Fire” by Killswitch Engage… “Kingdom” by Downstait… “Say It To My Face” by Downstait… “Broken Dreams” by Shaman’s Harvest… “The Rising Sun” by CFO$