ROBERT DUVALL!!!
Long-time viewers of Family Guy will already get the reference in the title of this column, as well as the name drop of the late, great Robert Duvall to kick things off. Even if you aren’t a fan of Family Guy, there’s a chance you understand the reference, anyway, as “I Did Not Care For The Godfather” has been a meme and social media engagement template for a while.
For everyone else, the line is from an episode of Family Guy that saw the entire Griffin family on the verge of death. In a situation like that, what better time for Peter Griffin to reveal to his family that he has been carrying a secret… he has never been a fan of the 1972 film, “The Godfather.” The revelation stuns everyone, as the movie is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influential pieces of cinema ever created.
I’ve been writing pro wrestling columns for about 18-and-a-half years now. At various points in that 18-and-a-half year span, I’ve revealed some of my own “I Did Not Care For The Godfather” unpopular opinions, and frankly, I think it’s time to do so once again.
It’s time to get my unpopular opinion on. As always, these are in no particular order. Let’s have some fun, shall we?
Stephanie McMahon’s Podcast Is Entertaining: While I wouldn’t say that “What’s Your Story?” is one of the best podcasts I’ve ever listened to, I will gladly admit that I find myself being entertained far more often than not when I catch episodes (largely dependent on who the guests are). It hasn’t been “cool” to say anything positive about Stephanie (or anyone involved with the McMahon family in any way) in a long time.
Steph and her friend/co-host, Elyse Dudzinski, come across as very warm, genuine, and motherly with their guests. That helps them to stand out, especially in the largely testosterone-driven landscape that is pro wrestling podcasts. One example I really like is the recent episode that saw Oba Femi as their guest. Oba made multiple mentions of the close relationship he has always had with his mother, and you could hear how much that meant to both Steph and Elyse, who are mothers themselves.
Like I said, the show stands out in a land of podcasts hosted by people like Cody Rhodes, Jim Cornette, Eric Bischoff, Dutch Mantell, Bruce Prichard, Jeff Jarrett, Kevin Nash, and on and on and on and on and on.
Logan Paul Should Win A World Title Before Bron Breakker, Oba Femi, Kyle Fletcher, or Anyone Else People Feel Is “Up Next”: Now, this doesn’t mean that I feel Logan is “better” than any of the other names I mentioned there. I just feel that Logan Paul has positioned himself in such a way that he would make for quite the story if he reaches the top of the WWE mountain.
From the time he started wrestling, I made my thoughts very clear… he was a future World Champion if he ever decided to dedicate himself to wrestling and become a full-time performer. Slowly, but surely, he started working more and more, and now, he is absolutely, positively a full-time performer. He continues getting better and better in the ring, and he remains a heat magnet. He’s ready.
This isn’t a knock on Oba Femi. I’m just waiting to see how he does on a huge stage against a marquee name before I truly call for him to be THE guy. In a couple weeks, I could be standing outside of Paul Levesque’s house with a Fathead of Oba’s face in one hand and a boombox blasting “The Man” by Aloe Blacc in the other hand. For now, though, I’m in full “wait and see” mode.
This isn’t a knock on Bron Breakker. My past columns are littered with instances of me saying that he’s going to be a World Champion and a WrestleMania main event player moving forward. I just don’t see him as a complete package like Logan Paul is. As physically gifted and as intense as Bron is, he continues to have problems harnessing his energy properly at times. He’ll still have moments where he’s moving at 100 miles per hour when perhaps 92 miles per hour would do, and he’ll slip up somewhere because of it. If he can rein that in, and know when going full speed is necessary, the sky continues to be the limit for him.
This isn’t a knock on Kyle Fletcher. I just think it’s more of a commentary on the long line of people in AEW that appear to be “next up” for the World Title. It happens when MJF is seemingly feuding with half the AEW roster, and of course, everyone is now penciling in Will Ospreay for a World Title victory at All In(nit) at Wembley Stadium in August. I have no doubt that Fletcher, barring some unforeseen circumstance like a serious injury, AEW going out of business, or him jumping ship to WWE, is going to be a World Champion for Tony Khan. Eventually. I just don’t think it will, or should, happen before the likes of the others I mentioned here. (Writer’s Note: Welp. This paragraph was written before official word came out that Fletcher suffered a meniscus injury and undisclosed “additional injuries” that are set to keep him out of action for quite some time.)
At No Point Was Owen Hart Ever A Better Performer Than Bret Hart: Let’s be completely honest with each other, folks… if Owen Hart was still alive today, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. Like almost every celebrity that passes away at an early age, Owen started to get rated higher by people in the aftermath of his death. That’s not to say Owen sucked when he was alive, but people have definitely inflated his portfolio, so to speak, since Over The Edge 1999.
Yes, Owen was a much better aerial wrestler than Bret. Nobody would argue with that point. While Owen was also a great technical wrestler… you couldn’t come from the Hart Dungeon and not be… I don’t think he was on Bret’s level there. Not many people in the history of the business can say they were on Bret’s level there.
Bret was never going to be confused with the greatest talkers and the most charismatic men in the sport’s history, but he was easily ahead of Owen there, too.
Owen was a fantastic wrestler, folks. Please don’t get my words twisted and think that I’m speaking negatively about him. I just think that the combination of Owen’s tragic death and many fans growing tired of Bret’s complaining have created this false narrative years later.
Ryback Should’ve Been A World Champion: Recent years have seen Ryback become something of a living, breathing, walking punchline. Ryan Reeves was always something of a weird dude, with fans and coworkers alike making fun of him at every opportunity. Hell, Bryan Danielson famously bullied the man relentlessly during their time together with WWE.
However, what a lot of people are forgetting is that Ryback was, at one point, SUPER over with WWE crowds across the globe. He wasn’t putting on five-star classic matches on a weekly basis, but fans did not care. They wanted him to yell “feed me more” and destroy people. He was getting some of the loudest reactions of anyone on the WWE roster, no matter where the company was at any given time.
From mid-ish 2012 to mid-ish 2013, not only was the man super over, but it translated to on-screen success. Starting at Hell In A Cell 2012 on October 28th and ending at Payback 2013 on June 16th, Ryback wrestled for the WWE Championship on television or pay-per-view five times, first going after CM Punk and then after John Cena.
Now, to be fair, that’s the problem right there… CM Punk and John Cena.
Punk was in the middle of an epic title reign that would end up lasting 434 days, which was the longest reign in that title’s history since Hulk Hogan’s first reign that started in 1984. The company was building to a major showdown between Punk and The Rock at the 2013 Royal Rumble, so making a title switch to Ryback at the time would’ve been quite the monkey wrench.
In a similar fashion, 2013 John Cena was being built up for a showdown with Daniel Bryan, who was also becoming a “made man” due to crowd reactions across the world. Putting the title on Ryback would’ve been another big monkey wrench in those plans.
So what do you do? Do you put the title on Ryback for a very brief reign, before putting it back on Punk for the Rock match or Cena for the Daniel Bryan match? Well, that’s what WWE writers were being paid a lot of money to figure out, and that’s what Vince McMahon was making even more money to figure out. That’s their job to figure it out, but they couldn’t, or wouldn’t, do it at the time.
Money In The Bank 2011 Isn’t The Best John Cena vs CM Punk Match: While their match at Money In The Bank 2011 is almost certainly the first one that most fans will think of when the Cena vs Punk feud is brought up, that isn’t the duo’s BEST match together.
I think that crown goes to their match on the February 25th, 2013 episode of Monday Night Raw. If your memory is a bit foggy about which match that is, allow me to remind you with a single word…
Piledriver.
Yes, I’m referring to the match where Punk hit Cena with a Piledriver out of nowhere, delivering a move that was publicized to be on a list of banned maneuvers that weren’t allowed in WWE. It was also the match where Cena hit Punk with a Hurricanrana, which was one of the first real instances of Cena busting out “indy” moves in his matches. Both surprise moves really showed off how badly Cena and Punk needed to win this match, as they knew they had to do something outside of their usual bags of tricks to put the other one away.
They were given nearly 30 minutes from bell-to-bell, and the crowd in Dallas (almost always a super hot crowd for WWE) was incredibly appreciative of their work. A great, great match that I would rate slightly ahead of Money In The Bank 2011.
Brock Lesnar Is One Of The Best Sellers In The History Of Pro Wrestling: He hasn’t exactly been booked to sell a ton during his career, and that’s why some people may not realize it, but Brock is a fantastic seller in the ring. He busts his ass and puts his all into bumping around the ring, over the top rope, on the ringside floor, through announce tables, and so on.
When Brock bumps, he makes his opponents look tremendous. Oh, so-and-so is big and bad enough to put Brock down? He’s gotta be somebody worth paying more attention to.
By the way, it isn’t just people of larger physical stature or guys who are elite level powerhouses that Brock bumps for. Seth Rollins, Daniel Bryan, Cody Rhodes, Rey Mysterio, AJ Styles, and much more are all opponents of Brock that he did great things with. Brock gets a lot of credit for a lot of things, but he doesn’t get anywhere near the credit that he deserves for putting his all into the bumps he takes when the moment calls for it.
The Lethal Lottery Should Be Brought Back: This is one that I KNOW is an unpopular opinion, simply based on the reactions when I’ve mentioned it in the past. That doesn’t stop me, though, and I will continue to bang this drum.
In 1991, WCW decided to change things up for their annual Starrcade pay-per-view event by debuting the “Lethal Lottery” and the “Battlebowl” Battle Royal. The Lethal Lottery was a concept where WCW took 40 wrestlers and put their names in a bingo roller, before drawing names two at a time, creating 20 different tag teams. Those 20 teams would square off against each other in ten matches, and the winners of those ten tag matches would move on to compete in the Battlebowl (as singles competitors), with the winner of Battlebowl earning a WCW World Heavyweight Title shot at the company’s next pay-per-view, SuperBrawl. The company would change the rules for future editions of the gimmick, but that was the initial plan, at least.
I loved the idea then, and I love the idea now.
The only issue I have with the idea is that WCW wasn’t exactly setting the world on fire with their characters and in-ring work. Of the ten Lethal Lottery matches at Starrcade 1991, the only one that even remotely resembles a good match is Arn Anderson and Lex Luger teaming up to defeat Terrance Taylor and Tom Zenk, and even that is a match I’d say was just a bit above average.
However, with the current WWE and AEW rosters, I think something like a Lethal Lottery could be an entertaining watch. Much better characters and much better wrestlers are everywhere you look. The idea of the “random” pairings would be fun. Imagine something like Dominik Mysterio & El Grande Americano vs Drew McIntyre & Johnny Gargano, or Shelton Benjamin & Kazuchika Okada vs Bobby Lashley & Konosuke Takeshita. You’re going to have partners and allies facing each other, or even blood rivals teaming up together, all in the pursuit of the biggest prize imaginable.
It’s something you could do on pay-per-view or television, and I really wish one of the companies would bring the idea back, even with some tweaks here and there.
I Don’t Mind WWE’s Prices: There has been a ton of discourse online about WWE’s ticket prices and the amount that they’re charging fans, especially as we approach WrestleMania, which is obviously the biggest show that the company puts on.
While I won’t sit here and say that the prices are family-friendly or anything along those lines, they don’t bother me. First and foremost, we’re talking about a business. Your objective in running a business should be to make money, whether you’re the largest pro wrestling organization on the planet or running a tiny smoothie shop in your hometown. I’m not going to fault them for trying to make as much money as they can.
Second of all, they ARE making money. No matter what prices they’re charging for tickets and fan experiences, people are paying for them, and the company is making more money than they’ve ever made before. If you’re going to charge $1,000 for a ticket, and people are more than willing to pay $1,000 for a ticket, why in the world would you decide to make that a $200 ticket instead?
Before anyone chimes in… yes, I am fully aware that WrestleMania tickets aren’t selling as quickly as they were last year. I’ve seen the reports that there’s a chance neither night ends up selling out, but I think those reports are completely overblown. On April 1st, there were 4,172 tickets remaining for night one and 2,550 tickets remaining for night two. We’re not talking about WrestleMania 7 here, where there were still something around 85,000 tickets remaining six weeks before the show, forcing the company to create a story that tensions surrounding the on-screen heel turn of Sgt. Slaughter had created security issues, forcing the move from an outdoor stadium to an indoor arena. This year’s WrestleMania is going to sell out on both nights.
Let’s say, just for the sake of argument, that they don’t sell out, though. Is WWE going to go out of business because of it? Of course not. They’ll still make tens of millions at the gate in a single weekend, and then, when you throw in merchandise sales and everything else going on surrounding the show, everyone involved can wipe their tears with $100 bills.
As an added bonus, WWE’s prices are a benefit to AEW, who automatically get viewed in a better light simply because their prices are cheaper. If you don’t want to, or can’t, swing for tickets to a WWE show, AEW makes for a great… wait for it… family-friendly alternative.
Eddie Guerrero’s Death Is As Responsible For Chris Benoit’s Final Weekend As CTE Is: I’ve said this in my columns before, but the one major takeaway I have from the Eddie Guerrero tribute episode of Raw after his tragic passing in 2005 is the reaction of Chris Benoit.
On a stage full of people who just lost their friend, coworker, and family member, it was Benoit’s reaction that really stood out. To say that he appeared to be a broken human being would be a major understatement. The level of pure pain and heartbreak on his face is noticeable immediately, and if you were watching it live, you were hurting for him. Less than two years later, Benoit’s life would also come to an end after he took the lives of his wife and his seven-year-old son.
I’ve seen, heard, and read interviews with multiple people who knew both Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit, where they said that Chris was never quite the same person after Eddie died. If you’ve ever suffered a deep, indescribable personal loss, or if you know someone who has, you understand how something like that happens. I suffered a personal loss in May 2001, and here I am, almost 25 whole years later, still trying to recover from it.
Yes, Benoit’s brain was becoming mush because of the years of trauma that he put it through in the ring. However, I think that the death of Eddie Guerrero was one of the real catalysts that caused Chris to “break” and accelerate his ultimate demise.
No, I am not making excuses for Chris Benoit, nor am I trying to paint him in any sort of sympathetic light. Just sharing an opinion that I don’t believe it’s quite as cut-and-dried as “Chris Benoit had CTE, CTE made Chris Benoit kill two people before taking his own life.” Nothing more, nothing less.
Superkicks Receive All The Hate That Spears Should Get: Recent years have seen a real rise in how often we see Superkicks delivered in wrestling matches. The Young Bucks, of course, have their “Superkick Parties” that they host on a regular basis, and then you have acts like The Usos, who have been known to throw one or two or a few dozen during their matches. No matter what level of wrestling you’re watching, chances are pretty high that you’re going to see a Superkick in multiple matches. This has led to a lot of online hate for the move.
I don’t get it.
We are seeing the move a lot more these days, but FAR more often than not, the move still looks great, and it still earns a pop from whatever crowd it’s happening in front of.
You know what other move we’re seeing a ton of these days? The Spear.
You know what move looks terrible FAR more often than not? The Spear.
That’s the move that deserves everyone’s vitriol. Goldberg, Rhino, and Bron Breakker are the top three givers of the Spear/Gore, and you could argue that nobody else needs to be doing them. It looks like a running torso hug when almost anyone else does it. Yuck.
Am I crazy for having these opinions? As always, feel free to hit me up in the comments section below, on Twitter (@HustleTheSavage), or on Bluesky (@aaronhyden.bsky.social), and let me know what’s on your mind.
Now, let’s switch things over to my Weekly Power Rankings before closing it out with the list of songs I was listening to as I put this column together.
Weekly Power Rankings
Will Ospreay vs Pac: Ospreay is back, and he really looks like he hasn’t missed a beat. AEW fans are holding out hopes that he can stay healthy for the next five or so months, which would allow him to perform at Wembley Stadium for the company’s 2026 edition of All In(nit). The story of him finally winning the AEW World Title, and doing it in front of his hometown crowd, pretty much writes itself.
MJF vs “Speedball” Mike Bailey: Another one of those matches that was super good, even though the outcome was never, ever in doubt. Would it surprise me to see Speedball winning the AEW World Title one day in the future? No, not really, but it damn sure wasn’t going to happen on a random episode of Dynamite in April. The aforementioned march to MJF vs Will Ospreay at Wembley continues on.
Myles Borne vs Johnny Gargano: It’s been a while since we’ve seen this version of Johnny Gargano, but it was a blast. I enjoyed the throwback to the NXT Takeover days, where you knew you were going to get major quality when you saw Gargano on the card. More of this, please.
Brad Baylor & Ricky Smokes vs Rayo & Bravo: The new school energy of the NXT Tag Team Champions and the hybrid Lucha Libre and British style of the challengers combined for a great mixture. This was a lot more fun than I was expecting it to be. Even though they didn’t win the titles, kudos to both Rayo and Bravo, who seem like they’re wrestling on every WWE and AAA show these days, and doing a very good job while they’re at it.
Mistico, Kevin Knight, Orange Cassidy & Roderick Strong vs Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler Yuta, David Finlay & Clark Connors: It wasn’t labeled as the “All-Star” eight-man tag like we’ve seen countless times in AEW, but it performed like one. Multiple storylines, numerous in-ring styles, and more spots than a leopard orgy.
Cody Rhodes: His second appearance on this episode of Smackdown went a lot better for him than the first appearance did. It was reported that his promo here was a complete shoot, with it being put together at the last minute based on the internet’s reaction to the Pat McAfee heel turn, and it ended up being one of Cody’s best promos in a long time. There’s the potential for things to get very, very interesting here.
Jacy Jayne vs Lola Vice vs Kendal Grey: All three women worked really hard to deliver a fast paced match that got the crowd going to start Stand & Deliver off right. It was beyond time for a title change, and either challenger would’ve been a good choice. Lola has improved a ton, and it’s good to see her get rewarded for that improvement.
Joe Hendry vs Ricky Saints vs “All Ego” Ethan Page vs Tony D’Angelo: It wasn’t quite where a Stand & Deliver main event should be, but it was an entertaining match nonetheless. Approximately 97% of the match was dedicated to watching the working relationship between Saints and Page fall apart, and there were large chunks where it seemed like Tony D was the forgotten man, but everything came together nicely. A lot of people were fans of the “Mob Boss” Tony D’Angelo, and while he was becoming a good wrestler, I’ve always said that he had a big ceiling over his head with that one-dimensional character. It’s not a coincidence that he drops that character and almost immediately becomes the NXT Champion.
Sol Ruca vs Zaria: Technically, this was the only Stand & Deliver match that deserved to be on Stand & Deliver. We’ve watched their story for months and months, and seeing them battle really belonged on NXT’s biggest show of the year. Kudos to both women for busting their asses in a fun clash of styles.
Kenny Omega, Brody King & Jack Perry vs Ricochet, Bishop Kaun & Toa Liona: Let’s go through the usual checklist, shall we? AEW match? Check. Trios? Check. You know you’re going to get something fun with that, and this match was no different.
Gunther: I don’t think a single person predicted Gunther vs Seth Rollins at WrestleMania, but I really like the pairing. The match is going to be a banger. Now, we wait to see the storyline reasoning behind it, because TECHNICALLY, it doesn’t really make sense.
Mike Santana & Out Tha Mud vs Dion Lennox, Osiris Griffin & Saquon Shugars: It wasn’t quite the same as the AEW Trios matches, but it was pretty similar in style. Lots of moving pieces, and every one of them working hard to keep up a rapid-fire pace for the entire duration. Fun stuff.
Sami Zayn vs Carmelo Hayes: This was probably the “worst” match these two have had together, but it was still good. The focus here was more on Sami leaning in and playing to the growing heel reactions that he’s getting. He was so desperate to retain the title and keep his spot on the WrestleMania card that he was more than willing to do a little bit of shady work to get the win.
Kendal Grey vs Lola Vice: A fun match with a creative finish that kept both women strong, giving them both the NXT Women’s Title shot at Stand & Deliver. Hard to complain much.
Conspiracy Theorists: Last April, I wrote a column that looked at a possible behind-the-scenes power struggle between Paul “Triple H” Levesque and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson that seemed to be boiling over and affecting WWE’s on-screen product with The Rock becoming involved in the WrestleMania story for Cody Rhodes once again, only to disappear out of nowhere, leaving both Cody and the newly heel John Cena stranded to fend for themselves. If you fast forward to today, you have Ari Emanuel… the CEO and Executive Chairman of the TKO Group, who are the owners of WWE… pulling a power play to insert Pat McAfee in the current storyline between Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton. Ari, who just so happens to be one of Dwayne Johnson’s best friends, has apparently pissed everyone in WWE off, and that led to Cody being told to go back out in front of the audience and cut a shoot promo about everything that happened. Now we’re right back to wondering if there’s some wild shit happening behind the scenes, with Ari, Dwayne, and TKO constantly stepping in to interfere with what Paul and WWE are doing during WrestleMania season when it isn’t necessary. This is something that every wrestling fan needs to keep a close eye on.
Logan Paul & Austin Theory: Oh, hey, congratulations to the brand new World Tag Team Champions. It’s an interesting choice. With word that Bron Breakker has been medically cleared to return to the ring, albeit not soon enough to get the match with Seth Rollins at WrestleMania, it will be interesting to see how everything with The Vision is handled.
This Week’s Playlist: “G.O.D. And The Broken Ribs” by Jack White… “Need Your Love” by OneRepublic… “Beyond The Dream” by Sepultura… “I Wanna Be The One” by Stevie B… “Scandalous Hoes” by Mike Jones & Lil’ Bran… “Here I Go” by Mystikal… “Dangerous Lover” by Sekou… “I Love You Out Loud” by Larissa Lambert… “Lemon” by N.E.R.D. & Rihanna… “The Motto” by Drake & Lil Wayne… “Bother” by Stone Sour… “30/30-150” by Stone Sour… “Made Of Scars” by Stone Sour… “Through Glass” by Stone Sour… “Zzyzx Rd.” by Stone Sour… “Say You’ll Haunt Me” by Stone Sour… “(sic)” by Slipknot… “Wait and Bleed” by Slipknot… “Spit It Out” by Slipknot… “My Plague” by Slipknot… “Left Behind” by Slipknot… “Duality” by Slipknot… “Before I Forget” by Slipknot… “Vermilion, Pt. 2” by Slipknot… “Gematria (The Killing Name)” by Slipknot… “Sulfur” by Slipknot… “Psychosocial” by Slipknot… “Dead Memories” by Slipknot… “Snuff” by Slipknot… “Bodies” by Drowning Pool
