If there’s one thing you need to know about me, folks, it’s that I get very excited when any sort of sport is having a Draft.
Those of you who know me, or have been following me for a while, know that the NFL Draft is my favorite sporting event of the year, unless one of my teams is playing for their sport’s championship. I always have my eyes and ears on the future, and wrestling is no different. I’m the person who introduced this site (through columns, not necessarily through the forums, etc.) to people like Bryan Danielson, Nigel McGuinness, Tyler Black, Uhaa Nation (Apollo Crews), Jessicka Havok, Samoa Joe, The Briscoes, AJ Lee, The Usos, Kazuchika Okada, Jack Swagger, and the list goes on and on. I take great pride in being able to “predict the future” in wrestling, and looking at people who are going to be big stars at some point down the road.
Of course, the WWE Draft is a different type of beast, as you’re “drafting” people who are already established. That’s where things start to unravel for Vince McMahon and his company, as a matter of fact.
Someone, somewhere, wants to make the WWE Draft as close to a “real” sport’s Draft as they can. We know it isn’t Vince himself, as he doesn’t watch anything other than WWE, so he would have no idea how the NFL or NBA Drafts run. They want their Draft to be very similar, and that’s an easy thing to accomplish if you think about it.
- Raw and Smackdown are competing against each other, and their selections should show that.
- The more unpredictability, the better.
- The more change, the better.
- Have it take place during an “offseason” or something similar. Since we don’t get those in WWE, the Draft should be taking place on the show(s) immediately after a pay-per-view, preferably where the matches ended feuds and don’t leave rematches on the table.
- You’re going to have a “Big Board” in the Draft, where you rank every available pick, regardless of position, etc. That’s how you make your picks. If a top player is available, you’re not going to go after the 50th best player when it’s your turn unless you’re truly incompetent.
I could make that list a lot longer, but you get the point.
How did WWE do to make things as “real” as possible? Before I get into that, let’s take a look at the rundown of all the picks and moves that were made, shall we?
- Night 1, Round 1, Pick 1: WWE Champion Drew McIntyre to Raw (doesn’t change brands)
- Night 1, Round 1, Pick 2: Universal Champion Roman Reigns to Smackdown (doesn’t change brands)
- Night 1, Round 1, Pick 3: Raw Women’s Champion Asuka to Raw (doesn’t change brands)
- Night 1, Round 1, Pick 4: Seth Rollins to Smackdown (changes brands)
- Night 1, Round 1, Pick 5: The Hurt Business (United States Champion Bobby Lashley, MVP, Shelton Benjamin, and Cedric Alexander) to Raw (don’t change brands)
- Night 1, Round 2, Pick 6: AJ Styles to Raw (changes brands)
- Night 1, Round 2, Pick 7: Sasha Banks to Smackdown (doesn’t change brands)
- Night 1, Round 2, Pick 8: Naomi to Raw (changes brands)
- Night 1, Round 2, Pick 9: Bianca Belair to Smackdown (changes brands)
- Night 1, Round 2, Pick 10: Women’s Tag Team Champions Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler to Raw (don’t change brands)
- Night 1, Round 3, Pick 11: Ricochet to Raw (doesn’t change brands)
- Night 1, Round 3, Pick 12: Jey Uso to Smackdown (doesn’t change brands)
- Night 1, Round 3, Pick 13: Mandy Rose to Raw (doesn’t change brands)
- Night 1, Round 3, Pick 14: Rey Mysterio & Dominik Mysterio to Smackdown (change brands)
- Night 1, Round 3, Pick 15: The Miz & John Morrison to Raw (change brands)
- Night 1, Round 4, Pick 16: Smackdown Tag Team Champions Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods to Raw (change brands)
- Night 1, Round 4, Pick 17: Big E to Smackdown (doesn’t change brands)
- Night 1, Round 4, Pick 18: Dana Brooke to Raw (doesn’t change brands)
- Night 1, Round 4, Pick 19: Money In The Bank Contract Holder Otis to Smackdown (doesn’t change brands)
- Night 1, Round 4, Pick 20: Angel Garza to Raw (doesn’t change brands)
- Night 1, Supplemental Round, Pick 21: Humberto Carrillo to Raw (doesn’t change brands)
- Night 1, Supplemental Round, Pick 22: Murphy to Smackdown (changes brands)
- Night 1, Supplemental Round, Pick 23: Drew Gulak to Raw (changes brands)
- Night 1, Supplemental Round, Pick 24: Kalisto to Smackdown (doesn’t change brands)
- Night 1, Supplemental Round, Pick 25: Tucker to Raw (changes brands)
- Night 2, Round 1, Pick 1: Bray Wyatt to Raw (changes brands)
- Night 2, Round 1, Pick 2: Smackdown Women’s Champion Bayley to Smackdown (doesn’t change brands)
- Night 2, Round 1, Pick 3: Randy Orton to Raw (doesn’t change brands)
- Night 2, Round 1, Pick 4: Raw Tag Team Champions The Street Profits to Smackdown (change brands)
- Night 2, Round 1, Pick 5: Charlotte Flair to Raw (doesn’t change brands)
- Night 2, Round 2, Pick 6: Braun Strowman to Raw (changes brands)
- Night 2, Round 2, Pick 7: Daniel Bryan to Smackdown (doesn’t change brands)
- Night 2, Round 2, Pick 8: Matt Riddle to Raw (changes brands)
- Night 2, Round 2, Pick 9: Kevin Owens to Smackdown (changes brands)
- Night 2, Round 2, Pick 10: Jeff Hardy to Raw (changes brands)
- Night 2, Round 3, Pick 11: Retribution (Mustafa Ali, T-Bar, Mace, Slapjack, and Reckoning) to Raw (don’t change brands)
- Night 2, Round 3, Pick 12: Lars Sullivan to Smackdown (doesn’t change brands)
- Night 2, Round 3, Pick 13: Keith Lee to Raw (doesn’t change brands)
- Night 2, Round 3, Pick 14: King Corbin to Smackdown (doesn’t change brands)
- Night 2, Round 3, Pick 15: Alexa Bliss to Raw (changes brands)
- Night 2, Round 4, Pick 16: Elias to Raw (changes brands)
- Night 2, Round 4, Pick 17: Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn to Smackdown (doesn’t change brands)
- Night 2, Round 4, Pick 18: Lacey Evans to Raw (changes brands)
- Night 2, Round 4, Pick 19: Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura to Smackdown (don’t change brands)
- Night 2, Round 4, Pick 20: Sheamus to Raw (changes brands)
- Night 2, Round 5, Pick 21: Nikki Cross to Raw (changes brands)
- Night 2, Round 5, Pick 22: Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode to Smackdown (change brands)
- Night 2, Round 5, Pick 23: 24/7 Champion R-Truth to Raw (doesn’t change brands)
- Night 2, Round 5, Pick 24: Apollo Crews to Smackdown (changes brands)
- Night 2, Round 5, Pick 25: Dabba-Kato to Raw (changes brands, I guess, kinda sorta)
- Night 2, Round 6, Pick 26: Titus O’Neil to Raw (doesn’t change brands)
- Night 2, Round 6, Pick 27: Carmella to Smackdown (doesn’t change brands)
- Night 2, Round 6, Pick 28: Peyton Royce to Raw (doesn’t change brands)
- Night 2, Round 6, Pick 29: Aleister Black to Smackdown (changes brands)
- Night 2, Round 6, Pick 30: Akira Tozawa to Raw (doesn’t change brands)
- Night 2, Supplemental Round, Pick 31: Lana to Raw (doesn’t change brands)
- Night 2, Supplemental Round, Pick 32: Natalya to Smackdown (changes brands)
- Night 2, Supplemental Round, Pick 33: Riddick Moss to Raw (doesn’t change brands)
- Night 2, Supplemental Round, Pick 34: Ruby Riott and Liv Morgan to Smackdown (change brands)
- Night 2, Supplemental Round, Pick 35: Arturo Ruas to Raw (changes brands, I guess, kinda sorta)
- Free Agent Signing: Chad Gable to Smackdown (doesn’t change brands)
- Free Agent Signing: Gran Metalik and Lince Dorado to Raw (change brands)
- Free Agent Signing: Billie Kay to Smackdown (changes brands)
- Free Agent Signing: Erik (of The Viking Raiders) to Raw (doesn’t change brands)
- Free Agent Signing: Tamina to Smackdown (doesn’t change brands)
- Free Agent Signing: Zelina Vega to Smackdown (doesn’t change brands)
Got all that? Good. There’s a lot to unpack there.
First and foremost, I absolutely hated the idea to split up the available talent to pick up on each night. I get the point of it, at its very core. The first night of the Draft was on Smackdown, and if Smackdown saw the 25 best selections, then the people selected on Raw weren’t exactly going to be marquee names, blah blah blah. It’s still a crutch of lazy writing. If the “top” names are selected on Smackdown, then the picks selected on Raw should carry more intrigue. Introduce trades on Raw. Hell, make it so that there are less than 25 picks on Smackdown, so that Raw still gets its share of “stars” to be taken. Something. Anything.
The biggest problem I have goes back to the first point I made earlier about how a WWE Draft should be handled if it wants to be similar to the “real” sports. You have two shows competing against each other. Even though the people making the picks were never announced, we’re to assume that some sort of “General Manager” made them for each show. Follow me in kayfabe here for a moment. In this instance, not only are you working to make your show as good as it can be, but you’re also working to make the other show worse. You want to “steal” the best talent for your show, just like teams in the NBA/NFL/MLB/NHL Draft try to get the best players on their team while also keeping their rivals from obtaining players that could really help them. If the Dallas Cowboys need a Cornerback in the worst way, and the Philadelphia Eagles are picking ahead of them, don’t you think the Eagles are at least going to look at the available Cornerbacks so that they can make their team better and strike a blow to their biggest rivals at the same time? Of course they are, unless they’re completely loaded at Cornerback or if there’s a huge glaring hole at another position. Look no further than the first night of the Draft. Once Asuka was taken by Raw, and with Bayley unavailable to be taken on that particular night, should Raw have also tried to hedge their bets by taking Sasha Banks? The whole world knows that Bayley and Sasha Banks are feuding over the Smackdown Women’s Title right now. What if Raw took Sasha, and then Sasha wins the title from Bayley? Boom. Now Raw has both Women’s Champions, and Smackdown is going to have to pay the price in a future trade to try and get one of the titles back on Friday nights. Even if Sasha doesn’t win the title, she’d still be one of the biggest stars in the business and would be on your show. The same could be said about Jey Uso. Again, in kayfabe, why wouldn’t Raw try to bring in the possible future Universal Champion, giving their show both the WWE Title and the Universal Title? The price Smackdown would be forced to pay to get one of those titles would be astronomical. You could even extend that logic to Otis. Statistically speaking, Otis has very good odds of being the WWE or Universal Champion. We’ve seen 20 men’s Money In The Bank cash-ins through the years, and 16 of those were successful title changes. If you’re Raw, why wouldn’t you want to have those odds on your show? The only part about Otis that doesn’t fit this criteria is that Raw could’ve drafted him, but he could still choose to cash in on Smackdown’s title holder. Of course, in the aforementioned scenario about Jey Uso going to Raw as the Universal Champion, that would mean Raw Superstar Otis could cash in on Raw Superstar Drew McIntyre (or Raw Superstar Randy Orton) or Raw Superstar Jey Uso. Like I said, it’s about building your show up and hurting the other show. Smackdown would be forced into making a lopsided trade to get titles on their show, and Raw would benefit greatly from any of those trades.
Having The New Day split up is one thing (more on that in a bit), but placing their split where it happened on Smackdown was dumb. It needed to happen there because we got to see the roller coaster of Kofi and Woods winning the Smackdown Tag Team Titles, only to see their brother, E, stay on Smackdown moments later. That’s fine and all, but you’re telling me that the people drafting for both shows felt that selecting Bianca Belair, Mandy Rose, Naomi, Ricochet, The Miz, and John Morrison were all more important than The New Day? Belair is a future STAR, but she’s only wrestled in three televised singles matches since being called up from NXT. Naomi has won titles, sure, but she hasn’t been pushed as anything serious by the company in a long, long time. Ricochet is one of the most talented aerial artists in the wrestling business, but he had lost approximately 582 consecutive matches to members of The Hurt Business coming into the week. Miz and Morrison have been fucking atrocious in this lame storyline involving Mandy Rose, Otis, and Tucker. All that is more important than The New Day? Word? Let’s get to the actual New Day split, though.
The first thing I noticed when it all happened is that Big E didn’t look anywhere near as distraught as Kofi and Woods did. I tweeted that he almost looked guilty, as if he went behind the backs of Kofi and Woods to talk to the people in charge of making the picks and telling them that he would be a separate selection. That would indicate a heel turn, no? Instead, all the rumors and reports have said everything about New Day will remain the same, from their ring gear to their entrance music and how their characters are portrayed, even though they’re on different brands. THEN WHAT WAS THE FUCKING POINT OF SPLITTING THEM UP?!? You can’t even say that the point is to allow E to have a main event singles push, because we’ve already seen the group stay together while Kofi had his main event singles push. Big E and Xavier Woods being there did nothing to take away from Kofi’s big WrestleMania moment. In fact, them being there made the moment ten times better. The same would’ve happened with any potential Big E push. He gets the singles push while Kofi and Woods compete as a tag team and support him every step of the way. It’s not rocket science.
Speaking of things that aren’t rocket science… did you know Dominik Mysterio has now wrestled in nine matches for WWE, and that all nine matches have been against Seth Rollins and/or Murphy? That’s nine matches in six weeks. Naturally, the Draft would be the time to split them all up, right? No, dummy. Of course not! We still have to find out if Murphy is dating Aalyah Mysterio, so the story must go on! Rey Mysterio… Smackdown. Dominik Mysterio… Smackdown. Seth Rollins… Smackdown. Murphy… Smackdown. We’re going to keep seeing Dom face the same people every week for the rest of eternity. Hey, at least Apollo Crews gets to move away from feuding with The Hurt Business, so he’s got that going for him, which is nice.
Another complaint I have… Sami Zayn, the current Intercontinental Champion, was the 17th pick on the second night of the Draft?? The Intercontinental Champion is generally looked at as the de facto #2 guy on the show he’s on. Smackdown made six picks on Monday before taking Sami. Now we revisit my earlier gripe… why in the red hell wouldn’t Raw swoop in and take him? That would’ve given Raw both midcard titles. If Smackdown is just going to let their de facto #2 guy sit there, Raw taking him would’ve been the perfect “fuck you” move. It’s how things would’ve worked in ANY mock draft that you would’ve seen on the internet. Know why? Because it’s how things would go if we’re drafting for realsies. WWE would know that if they had a competent writing team and a competent person in charge.
You know what else isn’t exactly a strength right now? The tag division on Smackdown. The Street Profits head over there with only two other active tag teams on the brand (Cesaro/Nakamura & Roode/Ziggler). That’s it, and we’ve already seen Ford and Dawkins in matches against both of those teams in the last month. I would say The Mysterios, since they were drafted as a package deal, but they’ll be too busy facing Seth Rollins and/or Murphy every week to bother with the titles. The Forgotten Sons are, well, forgotten. Jimmy Uso is still on the sidelines with a knee injury. Every other team is going to have to be two singles guys randomly thrown together. Just to spite me, King Corbin and Lars Sullivan are going to form a team and win the titles. Then, they’re going to hold those titles for 500+ days, feuding with Bo Dallas and Mojo Rawley for months. By that point, I will have been arrested for kicking an old lady down an elevator shaft. My point here is that Smackdown’s tag scene is weak. If we want to be fair, Raw is better, but the tag scene there isn’t exactly a strong suit, either. The brand’s current active teams are New Day, technically some combination of The Hurt Business, technically some combination of Retribution, Lince Dorado & Gran Metalik, The Miz & John Morrison (at least for now, with the way it appears), and The Viking Raiders (once they’re both healthy). You can add Angel Garza and Andrade to the list when they inevitably start teaming again, only to split up again, only to start teaming again, only to split up again, and so on. Like I said, not great, but better than Smackdown. None of this should surprise us. We’ve all heard Vince McMahon’s opinion on tag team wrestling and how much money he feels it can draw, so it’s to be expected that his company is overall pretty shitty when it comes to putting teams together and keeping them together.
I can’t help but continue going back to my earlier point about just wanting the WWE Draft to be like the NFL or NBA Drafts. It shouldn’t be looked at as asking for too much if all we want is for things to make sense. Pro wrestling doesn’t need to have the deep, multi-layered storytelling of, say, Breaking Bad or The Wire, but it should have better storytelling than fucking Jersey Shore. Am I crazy for thinking that way? With each and every paragraph I’ve typed here so far, I keep going back to the total lack of strategy in the selections for both Raw and Smackdown. It’s just Raw picking people for the sake of picking people, and Smackdown doing the same. No logic. No reasoning. With each and every one of these WWE Drafts, it becomes more and more clear that Vince McMahon has never seen a single second of another sport’s Draft on television. He has no fucking idea how those things work, why they work, or how they can translate to wrestling. He probably had someone tell him about it one day, and then he asked about what kind of ratings those Drafts get. “Millions of viewers, you say? That’s such good shit, pal! Let’s do it.” WWE couldn’t even get the terminology right. MULTIPLE TIMES OVER THE SPAN OF THE DRAFT, “free agent” signings were referred to as people being “drafted” to one brand. No. That’s not how it works. That’s not how any of this works. If free agents are being “drafted” to the shows, then what is even the point of having the actual Draft itself when you’ve told us that those not selected are free to sign wherever they choose? It’s the laziest wrestling company on the planet continuing to be the laziest wrestling company on the planet. One solid example of the difference between the NFL Draft, for one, and the WWE Draft is how everyone reacts to the picks. If the Miami Dolphins make a selection that is viewed as poor, you can bet that the announcers… whether it’s ESPN, NFL Network, or some local affiliates… are going to talk about it. They won’t understand why the Dolphins “reached” for a player that shouldn’t have been taken that high. They’ll talk about how the Dolphins had much bigger needs elsewhere on the roster than the position that player plays. What happens during the WWE Draft? Roman Reigns is drafted? It’s a major move. Titus O’Neil is drafted? It’s a major move. Naomi is drafted? It’s a major move. Lacey Evans is drafted? It’s a major move. Not every fucking move is going to be a big deal, nor should they all be treated as such. It’s so phony and disingenuous to hear every single time. Please don’t insult my intelligence by telling me how big a move it was for Raw to grab Dana Brooke.
Just for shits and giggles, let’s talk about something I did like about the Draft. In my column about moves I’d like to see made, I had AJ Styles going to Raw with the thinking that Drew McIntyre could use some more top-tier heels to work with if he retains the WWE Title against Randy Orton. Well, not only did Styles go to Raw, but Braun Strowman and Sheamus did, too. John Morrison could be a good opponent for McIntyre, albeit one where you know the outcome of the match is never in question. Bray Wyatt is always going to be hanging around. That’s also not counting the fact that Mustafa Ali could be a main event guy if they wrote it correctly, which they won’t. Either way, Drew has his fair share of potential opponents to work with for the rest of 2020, and right on into WrestleMania Season at the start of 2021.
All in all, just about everything was a mess, pretty much from beginning to end. Do you know what the worst part about it is? Not the lack of intrigue. Not the wrong terminology. Not having the same feuds carrying over from one show to the other. No, the worst part about the 2020 WWE Draft is the fact that I’m currently approaching the 3,600-word mark for this column, and not a single thing I said will matter soon. As always, Vince will panic when Raw and Smackdown aren’t bringing in five million viewers every week, and what does he do when he panics? Time for some Raw wrestlers to appear on Smackdown, and vice versa. Guess what pay-per-view is coming up after Hell In A Cell. Did you guess Survivor Series? You would be correct. Do you know what happens in the build to Survivor Series every year? Raw wrestlers appear on Smackdown. Smackdown wrestlers appear on Raw. They go back and forth and nothing will stop them. Then, once Survivor Series has come and gone, Vince will continue to panic, and you’ll continue to see cross-branded stuff under the guise of building to the Royal Rumble. Then, once the Rumble is over and done with, Vince will continue to panic, and you’ll continue to see cross-branded stuff under the guise of building to WrestleMania. By then, damn near six fucking months will have gone by, and we’ll have forgotten that so-and-so was drafted by Raw because he has been on Smackdown so often.
My head hurts. Vince McMahon gotta go.
Weekly Power Rankings
- Cody: I’m not sure that there’s anyone in the wrestling business today that knows how to connect the old school and new school together like Cody does. He has his father’s mind for the business, combining it with his own love and appreciation for the era when Dusty Rhodes was on top of the sport, sprinkled with an understanding of what today’s wrestling fan (at the very least, today’s AEW fan) wants to see. There’s no reason things like Dog Collar Matches should work in 2020, but it did here. Just a great, violent brawl from beginning to end. You have to give your flowers to Brodie Lee for his performance here, as well. Kudos to both men for delivering one of my favorite AEW Dynamite matches thus far.
- Chris Jericho: Take a minute and think about just how many wrestlers have had a 30-year in-ring career. Now think of how many of them are still working a regular schedule in the 30th year. Not only is Jericho still going, he’s still going strong. He has been able to reinvent himself and his character several times through the years to remain fresh, and largely staying injury-free through the years has helped his longevity tremendously. AEW owes him a ton for what he has done to help build the company and its wrestlers over the last year.
- Whoever Has Recently Placed A Curse On NXT: That is one powerful person. Karrion Kross gets the proverbial rocket strapped to his back, wins the NXT Title, but then has to vacate it days later due to a shoulder injury. Finn Balor wins the NXT Title, but then breaks his jaw in the first defense of the belt, forcing him to miss time. Ridge Holland appears to be moved up to a semi-main event spot, feuding with Undisputed Era, but then suffers some horrific leg injuries in the very next show, which will keep him out of action for a long, long time. It has been a pretty rough stretch for NXT.
- AJ Styles: If you look at every move of the 2020 WWE Draft, AJ moving to Raw might be the best move. He’s in line for a top spot on Monday nights, for a brand that really needed top heels before the Draft began. If Drew McIntyre retains the WWE Title at Hell In A Cell, Styles could easily be Drew’s next feud, and that would give us at least one really entertaining match. With Raw’s top midcard title being held by a heel in a faction, I don’t see Styles going from feuding over the Intercontinental Title to feuding over the United States Title. WWE Title and the main event it is!
- Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods: The New Day add another Tag Team Title reign to their long list of accomplishments, cementing their first-ballot Hall Of Fame status. It was their seventh time winning the Smackdown Tag Team Titles, and it has turned into their third reign as the Raw Tag Team Champions. Yes, it was really poor writing that got them the titles in the first place. Woods and Kofi make their returns and are just given a title shot because they said that was their goal, and then they win the belts… only so it could add extra drama to the fact that they’re going to Raw, while Big E is staying on Smackdown. So dumb. They can’t help that, though. It’s not their fault that WWE is producing some of the worst writing in the history of wrestling.
- Alexa Bliss: I’ve always been a fan of the Bliss character, but I’d be more than willing to admit that she needed something to freshen her up a bit. It happens. Almost every wrestler goes through that phase when they’ve been doing something for a few years. The stuff she’s doing with Bray Wyatt now has been so much fun to watch. She is killing it in this role. Whether it’s her facial expressions, the promos she’s been cutting, or even down to the way she hits Sister Abigail on people… she’s doing quite the job making things watchable.
- My Ability To Write About People And Make Them Return To Television: If you’ve been following my work from the beginning, there have been more than a few instances when I would write about someone, or even mention someone, in a column, only for them to make a surprise return to television almost immediately. It isn’t just “this person is rumored to be returning this week” and then they’re back. It’ll be people who are either returning from injury far sooner than anticipated, or just people who were on the sidelines and not being used then coming back. Well, I’ve done it again. If you remember, I jokingly wrote about Lars Sullivan returning to television to “save” the Retribution story. Sure enough, what happened? WWE brought him back to television almost immediately after I wrote about him. So… you’re welcome? I’m sorry?
- Lana: Quite the roller coaster ride for her this week. She gets “dumped” as a tag partner by Natalya, gets put through yet another table, and then wins a Battle Royal to become the next contender for the Raw Women’s Title. Now, I’m pretty sure nobody in their right mind is expecting her to defeat Asuka and win the title, but hey, you’ve gotta start somewhere.
- Will Hobbs: I continue to be impressed by Hobbs and what he does in the ring. AEW is booking him very smartly, letting him look strong even in matches that he doesn’t win. He’s being allowed to look good against a variety of opponents, from the likes of Brian Cage to Darby Allin to Serpentico. Now, if I can make a request of AEW, I would like to see some of Hobbs’ personality on display. We know he’s a big, bad dude. We know what he can do in the ring. We even got to hear the heart-wrenching story of his brother being murdered giving his life to shield Will from a shooting. I want to hear from Hobbs himself now. Let’s see him cut a promo or two. Let’s see him develop his character. He’s got something special, and if he can get the chance to round that out with a personality, AEW might have a future player on their hands.
- Ricochet’s Dramatic Over-Selling: I loved the Eddie Guerrero tribute during Ricochet’s match against Cedric Alexander, first and foremost. In case you missed it, Ricochet pulled the old “hit the mat with a chair while the Referee isn’t looking, then toss the chair to your opponent when the Ref turns around so he thinks your opponent used the chair on you” gag. To make it even better, though, was his sell job after he tossed the chair to Cedric. He collapsed with all the panache of an 80-year-old black woman catching the Holy Ghost during church service, complete with the hand on his head as he fell. I haven’t laughed that hard at a sell since I was a little girl.
This Week’s Playlist: “Gorgeous” by SAINt JHN… “Ready and Willing” by Anuhea… “Shot In The Dark” by AC/DC… “FRANCHISE (Remix)” by Travis Scott, Future, M.I.A. & Young Thug… “G’d Up” by Tha Eastsidaz & Butch Cassidy… “X.O. Wit Me” by Above The Law & Jayo Felony… “Sumner Days” by Above The Law… “Straight Up Menace” by MC Eiht… “Only In California” by Mack 10, Ice Cube, & Snoop Dogg… “Foe Life” by Mack 10 & Ice Cube… “Backyard Boogie” by Mack 10… “Bang On” by Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. & Mack 10… “Just Clownin” by WC… “Cheddar” by WC, Mack 10, & Ice Cube… “Players Holiday” by T.W.D.Y., Too $hort, & Mac Mall… “Playaz Club” by Rappin 4-Tay… “I’ll Be Around” by Rappin 4-Tay… “Let’s Ride” by Richie Rich… “It’s Goin’ Down” by Celly Cel… “City 2 City” by B-Legit