This column will be posted for the world to read on the eve of Dark Side Of The Ring’s 38th overall episode, spread over four seasons. This week’s episode is on the “Beast From The East” himself, Bam Bam Bigelow, and as usual, it looks like it will be an entertaining watch.
I have been a loyal viewer of the show from the start, and while some episodes (Von Erichs, Chris Benoit, Jimmy Snuka, Herb Abrams, Collision In Korea, Grizzly Smith, Luna Vachon, Doink The Clown) have been better than others (David Schultz, Johnny K-9, Adrian Adonis), they’ve all been something I have watched and enjoyed to some extent.
With the current DSOTR season coming to an end on August 8th, I wanted to take a look at potential future seasons of the show. A fifth season hasn’t been announced as of yet, but this is something I’ve done in the past. Three years ago, right as the show’s second season was coming to a close, I wrote a similar column at the previous site that featured my work. In that column, I listed ten topics I wanted to see covered in future episodes of the show, and so far, six of those topics have been covered over the last two seasons. Now, I’m going to do it again.
When it comes to picking future topics, DSOTR has to walk a very fine line. There are topics that will capture your attention right away and can fill an hour’s worth of television easily, but they feature a subject that most people haven’t heard of. Sure, the hardcore fans of wrestling and the show would probably tune in, but just like actual wrestling on television, you’re trying to find ways to pull those casual viewers in, too. You can make a topic look as wild and crazy as possible, but if it isn’t something that was WWF, WCW, or ECW-related, it probably isn’t going to make those casual viewers tune in. On the other hand, a lot of those casual viewers have already heard the “big” stories like Chris Benoit’s final weekend, Eddie Guerrero’s passing, Owen Hart’s passing, and so on. A good season will feature some of those “big” stories, but also find ways to find “new” stories that haven’t been told over and over and over again through the years. That’s my goal here with these topics.
As usual, they will be listed in no particular order.
Darren Drozdov: Obviously, this is more timely than ever, with his recent passing. As a former professional football player (albeit, not exactly a star in the sport), “Droz” joined the sport of pro wrestling with a decent amount of fanfare, especially with his ability to essentially vomit on command, which was famously covered in the Beyond The Mat documentary. He had a unique look to him, and had great size (billed at 6’4″ and 270 pounds), so he was able to stand out whenever he was on television. Say what you want about the quality of the storylines he was involved in, but you knew Droz was around.
Then came October 5th, 1999. At a taping of Smackdown, Droz had a match with D’Lo Brown that featured Brown attempting to perform one of his signature moves, a running powerbomb, only for it to go wrong, leaving Droz a quadriplegic after fracturing two vertebrae in his neck. While he would eventually regain movement in his arms and upper body, he would be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
This would be quite a roller coaster of an episode. You’d have the athletic background and the promise and potential he had as a wrestler, only to see his career finished in an instant, but instead of letting his injury and circumstances become who he is, he remained a beacon of positive light and hope, motivating many around the world. He got married shortly after the injury, although he and his wife would get divorced six years later. His family, friends, former football teammates, and the WWF all formed a great team for him, helping him with the 24-hour care that he required, but also helping him to keep that positivity that he maintained for the last 23-and-a-half years of his life.
D’Lo has done interviews about the incident in the past, but having him in an in-depth feature like this would be fascinating. People like Tom Prichard (who trained Droz), his ex-wife (ex-spouses are pretty regular contributors on DSOTR), his family, and his friends would also need to be featured, if at all possible.
Hulk Hogan: If you’re a wrestling fan in any way, shape, or form, you probably know just about all there is to know about Hulk’s in-ring career. Of course, it would need to be discussed in a show like this, but I’d keep it to a minimum and focus more on everything that has happened in the years since.
There is a ton to discuss with his life outside of the ring. You can go all the way back to 1985 when he appeared on Richard Belzer’s talk show and locked Belzer in a choke, causing Belzer to pass out and hit his head on the floor. That led to a lawsuit that ended up being settled out of court.
In 2007, Hulk’s wife filed for divorce after finding out about an affair he had with a woman who had worked on Brooke Hogan’s debut album. The divorce would be very public, but also very ugly, leading to Hulk losing the majority of his assets, nearly bankrupting him, and forcing him to contemplate suicide.
In 2012, he was featured in a sex tape that leaked online, where his “co-star” with the wife of Bubba The Love Sponge, a radio personality that was well-known for being one of Hulk’s best friends. It would turn out that BTLS and his wife were involved in the tape going public, leading to multiple lawsuits with BTLS, as well as with blog site Gawker, who published the initial leak of the tape. It would later come out that Hulk used racial and homophobic slurs on the tape, which would lead to him losing his job with WWE at the time, and even more racist language in a recorded phone call with his son, Nick, who was in jail at the time.
Why was Nick Hogan in jail? Well, he was involved in a car crash where he was under the influence of alcohol and the passenger of his car ended up with eye and brain injuries that will require him to need full-time medical care for the rest of his life. Nick was barely 17 years old at the time, and fresh off of four other speeding tickets over the previous year.
On top of everything else, Hulk has spent much of the last decade-plus in crippling pain because of back injuries after all those years of delivering leg drops to his opponents. It has been one thing after another, meaning that there’s no shortage of topics to discuss in an episode about him. His name value will probably help to bring in some of those casual viewers we talked about earlier, too.
Hardbody Harrison: His in-ring career was best known for his time spent as an enhancement talent in WCW, doing jobs on WCW Saturday Night and Monday Nitro to the likes of Glacier, Kevin Sullivan, Disco Inferno, Rick Martel, Yuji Nagata, and Meng.
He has some interesting stories in his pre-wrestling (he’s a United States Army veteran who saw action during the Gulf War) and outside-the-ring (he’s a Toughman champion) life, but if that was it for him, he wouldn’t be listed here, would he?
Now, the man born Harrison Norris Jr. is best known for the legal issues he faced in the mid-2000’s. Multiple counts of false imprisonment in 2004, more false imprisonment charges in 2005, as well as charges of sex trafficking involving sex slaves living at his home. He was pimping them out in multiple states, forcing them to participate in large orgies, and having them pay him whenever they would break any of his “rules.” After several convictions, he would be sentenced to life in prison in 2008.
While he was never a major star in pro wrestling, his story is certainly one that can, and should, be told on Dark Side Of The Ring.
Scott Hall: With this entry, and the next entry on the list, I don’t need to go in-depth on anything. You’ve heard it all before, and besides, we would be here for a while if I had to list all of the issues that Scott Hall (and the next entrant) have dealt with.
Scott’s demons made for an already sad story, but the fact that he passed away last year makes for an even bigger gut punch.
Jeff Hardy: I’ve said this before, and it still sounds messed up, but with everything Jeff has put himself through, in and out of the ring, I’m still somewhat surprised he is still alive today.
Again, we don’t have time to list everything that his demons and personal decisions have led to, but his episode of DSOTR would be must-see if they don’t pull any punches when it comes to who they interview.
WWF’s Ring Boy Scandal: If you let WWE tell the story and you believe what they say, Pat Patterson is one of the most beloved and respected names in company history. Then, there’s the other side of the coin. If you let some of the cast of characters in the Ring Boy Scandal tell the story, and you believe what they say, Pat Patterson is, at best, a creepy bastard, but at worst, a sexual predator and a pedophile.
This particular scandal involved teenagers that were hired by the WWF to handle things like setting up the ring before a show, taking the ring down after a show, and basically being errand boys for some of the higher ups in the company. A different set of boys would be hired in each city, and they’d be given a bit of cash for their troubles. On the surface, that sounds like it could be a lot of fun, with some viewing it as their way to get their foot in the door in the wrestling business.
Mel Phillips, who was a ring announcer for the WWF at the time, was also the head of the company’s ring crew, and was responsible for the hiring of these boys. Like a true predator, he knew the specific types of kids to target, generally going after boys from “broken homes” and had single-parent households, drug or alcohol addicted parents, and other issues that might make them vulnerable. Phillips seemed to have a bit of a foot fetish, as multiple boys came forward to say that he liked playing with their feet or taking their feet and rubbing them against his crotch.
It wasn’t just Phillips, though, as the man he answered to was Terry Garvin, a former wrestler from Canada who was working backstage for the WWF. Garvin would be accused of molesting multiple ring boys, but also firing the boys who turned his advances down.
Garvin and Patterson were good friends, and they had a lot in common. Both men were from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They were both openly gay former pro wrestlers. Both men were also accused of a lot of things here, with Patterson being accused of things like grabbing and squeezing the backsides of some of the ring boys, as well as things like staring at their crotches and licking his lips while they were having conversations.
Tom Cole, the main whistleblower in the scandal, was let go after reportedly turning down sexual advances, only to be hired by Garvin again two years later, only to be fired again before officially being hired after… you guessed it… turning down sexual advances by Garvin. In late-1991 and early-1992, Cole would go public with his accusations, and this would bring numerous people forward with similar accusations against the likes of Garvin and Patterson. The heat was so strong that Phillips, Garvin, and Patterson would all resign within a couple months of Cole going public. In interviews, Vince McMahon would say that Patterson was innocent, throwing Phillips and Garvin under the bus without directly saying they did what they were being accused of.
Obviously, Patterson would be brought back to the company and would work on and off-screen for the company until the day he died, but Phillips and Garvin never worked for the WWF again. To this day, there is a ridiculous amount of speculation about whether or not Vince McMahon knew what was happening, whether or not he helped to cover any of it up, and just how deep the issues ran. Cole would go on to commit suicide in 2021, and his brother blamed Vince and Linda McMahon for allowing “child molesters” in their company and covering up their wrongdoings. Tom Cole didn’t quite view Linda in that same light, going so far as to write a check to her political campaign in 2010 when she was running for a spot on the United States Senate, saying that he was “thankful” for how Linda (specifically Linda, not Linda and Vince) “handled” his situation.
Honestly, this could be a two-part episode, joining Chris Benoit and Brian Pillman as the only DSOTR subjects to get more than one episode. There is just so much dirt to sift through, and the potential of interviewing some of the accusers would stretch the content out a ton.
Daffney: This could very easily be an entry for Hana Kimura, a wrestler who killed herself back in 2020 after dealing with cyberbullying following an appearance on a Japanese reality television show. I’m going with Daffney strictly because she achieved bigger success due to her time in WCW and TNA. If we’re being honest, an episode about Daffney would probably make mention about Kimura (and former WWE Diva Ashley Massaro, who took her own life in 2019), and vice versa.
Where Daffney’s story differs is the affects that concussions played in her death. She claimed that concussions forced her to end her in-ring career and suffered from the side effects of those concussions for the rest of her life. In the Instagram live video she streamed before taking her life, she requested that her brain be donated for CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) testing and research. Brain injuries have become such a major talking point in sports over the last decade or so, and rightfully so. “Old school” mentalities in sports such as pro football and wrestling, where something like a concussion was probably not even diagnosed (and if it was, it was brushed off immediately), has led to countless tragedies that perhaps could’ve, and should’ve, been prevented. It’s an important topic to talk about openly and honestly, and this type of show would be a good place for some of that discourse.
Buck Zumhofe: If you’re old enough to remember Verne Gagne’s American Wrestling Association or World Class Championship Wrestling (aka the “Dallas territory” that Fritz Von Erich made famous), you probably saw Buck Zumhofe achieve a decent amount of success, both in singles competition and as a tag wrestler.
Like I said earlier, though, we wouldn’t be talking about him right now if this was just about matches and titles won or lost.
In 1986, while he was the AWA Light Heavyweight Champion, he would be sent to prison for sexual misconduct involving a minor. 1989 would see him receive another prison sentence for fourth degree sexual conduct with a minor.
Of course, that is more than enough to be considered for something like Dark Side Of The Ring, but it was Zumhofe’s arrest in 2013 that, in my opinion, guarantees him a future spot on the show. He was charged with 12 felony counts of criminal sexual misconduct, and eventually convicted on all counts, sentenced to 25 years in prison.
The victim in those charges? His own daughter, who he had been raping and sexually assaulting over the span of 12 years, starting when she was only 15 years old.
There have been a lot of despicable acts committed by professional wrestlers throughout the years, but what Zumhofe did ranks right up there near the top.
Mitsuharu Misawa: Misawa wasn’t the first wrestler to die during a match, and he hasn’t been the last wrestler to die during a match. However, there is a very strong argument to be made that Misawa is the “best” and most accomplished wrestler to die during a match.
He reached tremendous heights in Japan, wrestling for All Japan Pro Wrestling before going on to start the Pro Wrestling NOAH promotion. He won AJPW’s Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship (their top title) five times, to go with eight total Tag Team Title (six World Tag and two All Asia Tag) reigns. In his time with AJPW, he also won the NWA International Junior Heavyweight Title once and had a reign as one-half of the Pacific Wrestling Federation Tag Team Champions. His NOAH stint saw him win the Global Honored Crown Heavyweight Title (NOAH’s top championship) three times and the GHC Tag Team Titles twice. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Pro Wrestling Illustrated, and Tokyo Sports (a daily sports newspaper in Japan) have given him just about every award and achievement they have. If you’re someone who cares about this type of thing, Misawa has participated in a whopping 26 matches that Dave Meltzer has given a five-star rating to.
On June 13th, 2019, Misawa would take a back suplex during a GHC Tag Team Title match in Hiroshima, Japan. Upon hitting the mat, he would remain motionless, and the match would be stopped. CPR to revive him was unsuccessful, as were attempts using a defibrillator, and he would be pronounced dead after being rushed to the hospital. The cause of death would be mentioned by local police as “cervical cord transection.”
While Misawa wasn’t a known drug abuser and/or all-around terrible human being like some of the subjects of DSOTR episodes, his inclusion here is because his death is almost literally a definition of the dark side of the wrestling ring, where men and women put their lives on the line and do unthinkable damage to their bodies and well-being. This is exactly the type of thing people bring up when defending pro wrestling to others who refer to the sport as “fake.” Yes, the match outcomes are scripted ahead of time, but the results of what can, and does, happen to the bodies of these wrestlers can be catastrophic.
Terry Gordy: The original lineup of The Fabulous Freebirds… Michael P.S. Hayes, Terry “Bam Bam” Gordy, and Buddy “Jack” Roberts… will go down in wrestling history as one of the most effective heel acts ever. Their work in World Class Championship Wrestling, feuding with the Von Erichs, is the stuff of legend, with riots and culture wars happening whenever they were in the building.
Although Hayes was the front man of the group, Gordy was always the one to capture your attention. At 6’4″ and nearly 300 pounds, he was the one who really put the “bad” in “Badstreet.” He would be successful just about everywhere he went, winning nearly 20 Tag Team Title reigns throughout the country with his Freebird partners, but also outside of the Freebird umbrella. His pairing with “Dr. Death” Steve Williams not only gave us one of the best team names of all-time (The Miracle Violence Connection), but seven total Tag Team Title reigns combined in All Japan Pro Wrestling and in WCW. He saw plenty of singles success, as well, winning titles in several places, the biggest of which was All Japan, where he won their Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship twice.
Gordy’s life and career would be forever changed on August 18th, 1993. On a flight to Japan for an overseas tour, Gordy overdosed on pain medication and would slip into a coma that lasted five days. The coma would lead him to suffer permanent brain damage, and he would need to learn how to talk and walk (and obviously wrestle) all over again. He would never be the same again, becoming a shell of his former self. Eventually, he would pass away in 2001, at the age of 40, due to a heart attack brought on by a blood clot.
When you look at the biggest “what if” scenarios in wrestling, Terry Gordy is one of the more intriguing ones. There really is no telling how big his career could’ve been if he didn’t go through that overdose in 1993.
Jerry Lawler: His time in the ring puts him on a very short list of the most successful, entertaining, and influential careers that pro wrestling has ever seen. The man’s time as a color commentator puts him on an even shorter list of the most successful, entertaining, and influential careers that pro wrestling has ever seen.
That hasn’t prevented his personal and professional life from seeing its fair share of dark times. In 1993, he had charges of statutory rape and sodomy against him, with the victim being a 15-year-old girl, but all of the charges were eventually dropped when the victim recanted her story. He would leave the WWF in 2001 after the company released his then-wife, Stacy “The Kat” Carter, only for them to separate mere months later, with Lawler going back to the WWF soon thereafter, probably with his tail tucked between his legs. 2012 saw him nearly die on an episode of Monday Night Raw, when he suffered a heart attack at the announce table in one of the scariest moments in live wrestling television history. His son, Brian (aka Brian Christopher aka Grandmaster Sexay), would deal with a bunch of legal issues involving alcohol, and would go on to take his own life in jail after one of his arrests. A few months before his son died, Jerry suffered a stroke, and earlier this year, he had another stroke, leading to some major rehabilitation just so he can regain regular functionality again.
Lots of the highest highs and some of the lowest lows will make for an easy fill of one televised hour.
Trent Acid: Many of you probably don’t recognize the name, but at one point, Acid was viewed as one of the top “indy darlings” in the relatively early days of the internet. After making his pro debut at the age of 14, he would work his way up to a debut in Combat Zone Wrestling in 1999 at the age of 18.
His good mixture of hardcore wrestling and high-flying action helped him to stand out, especially at such a young age. He saw success in CZW, Ring Of Honor, Big Japan Pro Wrestling, Juggalo Championship Wrestling, and other independent promotions. Unfortunately, he had some personal demons that followed him every step of the way.
He was a known drug abuser, and it would begin to affect his body and the way he wrestled. If you watch his early stuff, he comes across as a vastly different performer than he was in the mid and late-2000’s. In 2010, he was arrested for heroin possession, and would be sentenced to jail time because of it. He had another trial set for later in the year because of some other charges, but that trial would never happen as Acid would pass away from a drug overdose on June 18th, 2010. He was five months shy of his 30th birthday when he died.
Acid is another one of those “what if” scenarios in wrestling, as he was definitely talented enough to become a bigger star, especially with companies like RoH growing exponentially in popularity in the mid-2000’s.
The “Speaking Out” Movement: This was such a crazy time to be a wrestling fan. For a while, it seemed like every man in the business was going to be accused of being an utter dirtbag.
It all started when independent wrestler David Starr was accused of sexual assault by an ex-girlfriend, and it completely snowballed from there. Ex-spouses, one night stands, fans, trainees, and so on… they were all coming out of the woodwork, and it seemed like nobody was safe. Wrestlers from WWE and AEW all the way down to the smallest independent promotions were being accused of some truly deplorable behavior. Some accusations came with proof, and some didn’t. There were accusations that were found to be true, and some that weren’t.
It wasn’t just the wrestlers, either. Owners, ring announcers, managers, journalists, and fans were all facing some disturbing claims. The British wrestling scene was hit so hard with claims that the British government actually launched a Parliamentary Group inquiry into the wrestling scene in the United Kingdom in an attempt to figure out what the hell was going on.
Careers were ended, or at least seriously hurt, because of the “Speaking Out” Movement. It was a very important time in the sport, though. The type of shit that was happening has no place anywhere, so if some clowns had to see their bookings dry up because they don’t know how to behave, that’s fine with me.
This would be another one of those episodes that makes you feel dirty when you’re done watching it.
Bob Sweetan: Jim Ross has been involved in the pro wrestling business for approximately 50 years now. He has been everywhere, and probably seen everything. So, when JR says that he didn’t care for Sweetan, saying that he wasn’t a good person… in fact, he was a “piece of shit” in the exact words of Ross… you take notice of that. Sweetan was a close associate of Grizzly Smith, and if you saw the DSOTR episode on Grizzly, you know the type of shit that comes along with that.
The best things that you’ll hear people say about Sweetan are about his abilities as a heel. He probably did so well as a heel because he was, as JR said, a real piece of shit out of the ring. The “small” accusations against Sweetan are that he was a notorious bully to people, and that he was a thief.
Then, that connection with Grizzly Smith comes back to the forefront for the bigger accusations against Sweetan. In 1990, he was convicted of the sexual assault of his daughter, who was 15 at the time of the assault. He also walked out on his family, leaving his wife and children behind so that he could date a notorious “ring rat” in the Mid-South area. When his wife divorced him, he would fail to pay her child support, and he would eventually be deported back to his birth country of Canada when he stopped checking in with police after his time behind bars.
Even though Sweetan is now deceased, there is probably no shortage of people that would be more than willing to be interviewed for a DSOTR episode about him. You’d probably be able to fill up an entire hour with nothing but quotes from people like Jim Ross, “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan, Colonel DeBeers, and even Sweetan’s ex-wife, who once called him a “waste of skin” and said that he abused all four of kids “emotionally, physically, sexually, mentally.”
Juana Barraza: La Mataviejitas.
That’s the nickname given to Barraza when she achieved infamy. What does the name translate to?
The Little Old Lady Killer.
Juana Barraza is a former pro wrestler, but really, that is the only mention of her in-ring career you’re going to read here. She is infinitely more famous because, in 2008, she was sentenced to 759 years in prison for the murders of 16 elderly women in Mexico. One thing to keep in mind is that 16 is the number of victims that there were when her case was officially closed, and that the actual number of victims is probably around 48.
All of the victims were over the age of 60, and many of them lived alone. Barraza posed as a government official to visit the women and gain their trust, getting them to sign up for welfare programs, and would then bludgeon or strangle them to death before robbing them.
When Barraza was 12, her mother traded her to a man in exchange for three beers, and Barraza was repeatedly raped while in the man’s care, eventually becoming pregnant and giving birth to a son. The son would be murdered “as a young man” when he was the victim of a robbery. The criminologist working Barraza’s murder trial believes that she targeted elderly women as her victims because she identified them with her mother, who she carried hatred for after what had happened to her as a child. Just a sad story all around.
There are two things potentially keeping this from ever being a DSOTR episode. One, she was barely a wrestler. With everyone else you’ve ever seen on the show, they were either huge stars in the industry, or at least journeymen who had successful careers during the territory days. There isn’t exactly a ton of footage and stories of her in-ring career to talk about. Two, her story is about to be told in a documentary heading to Netflix mere days after this column goes live. Netflix documentaries are about as in-depth and as detailed as can be, so perhaps there won’t be a need for DSOTR to try and tell her story once Netflix handles it.
Did I miss anything? Who/what do you think deserves to be a future topic on an episode of Dark Side Of The Ring? 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
Athena vs Willow Nightingale: They surprised a lot of people by getting the main event spot at Ring Of Honor’s Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view, but they proved that they belonged with a high quality match. Super physical, with a lot on the line (in and out of kayfabe), and good storytelling with this being their third match against each other after both women won a previous match.
Blood & Guts: It was violent, bloody, and almost uncomfortable to watch at times. However, that’s exactly what it was supposed to be, and exactly what we wanted it to be.
Claudio Castagnoli vs Pac: Not bad for a match thrown together at just about the last moment. Really good stuff here, although the finish was a bit on the weak side, even though it did make sense.
Dragon Lee & Nathan Frazer vs Angel Garza & Humberto Carrillo: Garza and Carrillo were able to show what they’re capable of doing if they’re actually given a chance to do so. Amazing how that works.
MJF & Adam Cole vs Sammy Guevara & Daniel Garcia: The pairing of MJF and Cole is so wonderfully weird, and even though it has already gone on for longer than most of us thought, it has been a bunch of fun. I guess it would be difficult to ask for more.
Brock Lesnar: The man beat the shit out of Cody Rhodes in front of Cody’s mom, family, and friends. A super simple, yet very effective, segment.
CM Punk & Darby Allin vs Christian Cage & Ricky Starks: Your weekly 30-minute tag match on Collision. I do have to say, though, that I really don’t want to see heel Ricky Starks again. He performed so well to turn face in the first place, became one of the more over faces on the entire roster, then had the company do next to nothing with him. I would much rather see the company try to do something with him as a top face.
Katsuyori Shibata vs Daniel Garcia: It feels like we’ve seen these two face each other 50 times in the last year. I can’t explain why, but that’s just how I feel. Strangely enough, this was the first time they’ve had a singles match against each other. It did, however, come after they were both in a Four Way at Forbidden Door, and on opposite ends of a tag match a few days before that. Three matches in the span of a month is a lot, but it’s nothing more than we’ve seen a billion times with Vince McMahon-run WWE shows where you’d see matchups driven straight into the fucking ground, pulled back out of the dirt, and then driven into the ground again. Shibata and Garcia produce quality together, though, so I’m not really complaining here.
Setting Up “Tribal Combat”: Simple stuff, but it really did a good job of setting up the SummerSlam match between Roman Reigns and Jey Uso. I might need to write about this topic before SummerSlam rolls around.
Hook vs Jack Perry: Perry helped bring Hook to his best match yet, and has shown that he is more than capable of wrestling as a heel. His promos, on the other hand… let’s just have him wrestle, eh?
Lucha Brothers vs Aussie Open vs Best Friends vs The Kingdom: No offense to Best Friends or The Kingdom, but I would’ve been perfectly fine with this being a straight up tag match between the other two squads. Good match, obviously, but I think it could’ve been a more focused effort with a more minimal approach.
Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn vs Damian Priest & Dominik Mysterio: It was smart to make this a title match at the last-minute, because that added a ton of intrigue that wasn’t initially there. I don’t know if anyone was super sure that the titles were going to change hands, but it wouldn’t have shocked me, based on how everything is being written for The Judgment Day right now.
Cody Rhodes: It was announced that he is getting a documentary on Peacock, and early reviews say that it is one of the best WWE documentaries in a long, long time. I’ll be checking it out, for sure.
The Dark Order vs The Righteous: All six men put their bodies on the line here in a violent brawl that was actually hurt by taking place a couple days after Blood & Guts did. That match overshadowed this one, was a lot more high-profile, and featured a lot more sensical storytelling. Had this match taken place at another time, it would’ve been better received overall, and would’ve had a higher spot in my rankings.
Charlotte Flair vs Iyo Sky: If you were to poll people and ask them about the most underrated and overrated women WWE has featured over the last decade or so, I think Charlotte Flair would have a good chance of winning both polls. She catches a lot of shit for the way WWE books her, and how many title reigns she’s had in a short amount of time. However, she also catches too much shit for the stuff that is out of her control, and she continues to deliver quality performances, and remains one of the only women in the entire sport to look like and carry herself like a huge star from the moment she appears on your screen.
Rey Mysterio vs LA Knight vs Cameron Grimes vs Sheamus: Everyone was so caught up in wanting LA Knight to win this match that they completely overlooked the story already being told of Santos Escobar vs Rey Mysterio. It made perfect sense for Rey to win this and go on to face his LWO stablemate for a shot at the United States Title. WILL THEIR RELATIONSHIP SURVIVE THIS TENSION?!?
Matt Riddle vs Gunther: It continues to be wildly apparent that Matt Riddle’s character simply hasn’t been the same since Randy Orton’s injury. He doesn’t have much direction at all, and he’s kind of just… there. Shame, because he’s still having good matches.
Wes Lee vs Dominik Mysterio: I could FEEL the tension on social media when the three count was finalized here. While I’m not 100% sure that I would’ve gone with a title change here, I do think it makes a lot of sense that it happened. Dom gets so much heat, and giving him the NXT North American Title will not only get him even more heat, but it will also provide the chance for that heat to be on even more shows. Plus, think of the pop someone will get when they defeat him.
Santos Escobar vs Austin Theory: It is beyond time for Escobar to be a major singles player in WWE. Will he have that opportunity now? That remains to be seen, but he’s definitely getting closer.
Sonya Deville & Chelsea Green: New WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions. Oh, joy. This is the ninth reign those titles have seen in the last ten-and-a-half months, and the third reign in the last one-and-a-half months. Look for Sonya and Chelsea to drop the titles on the SummerSlam pre-show, and then for the new champions to drop the title four weeks later, and then for the new champions to have a super long reign of two months or so until they drop the titles at Survivor Series. We’ll just play hot potato for the rest of time.
This Week’s Playlist: “White Horse” by Chris Stapleton… “Abracadabra” by Nas… “Earvin Magic Johnson” by Nas… “Too Fast (Pull Over)” by Jay Rock, Anderson .Paak & Latto… “THE PURGE” by In This Moment… “Bad Friend” by Bad Wolves… “Letting Go” by Hollow Front & Dakota Alvarez… “Forgotten” by As The Structure Fails… “Never Ending” by Salem Trials… “Roses (Imanbek Remix)” SAINt JHN & Imanbek… “Heads High” by Mr. Vegas… “Luchini AKA This Is It” by Camp Lo… “Killin Em Softly” by Camp Lo… “Rockin It AKA Spanish Harlem” by Camp Lo… “Coolie High” by Camp Lo… “Def Squad Delite” by Def Squad… “They Want EFX” by Das EFX… “Money Showers” by Fat Joe, Remy Ma & Ty Dolly $ign… “Make It Rain” by Fat Joe & Lil Wayne… “All I Need” by Fat Joe, Armageddon & Tony Sunshine… “John Blaze” by Fat Joe, Nas, Big Pun, Jadakiss & Raekwon… “Bet Ya Man Can’t (Triz)” by Fat Joe, Big Pun, Cuban Link & Triple Seis… “Good Times” by Fat Joe, Krayzie Bone & Layzie Bone… “My World” by Big Pun… “Acknowledge” by Masta Ace