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Good Morning!
It’s “another day, another dollar” mode here at “Let’s Watch Some Wrestling,” as we get ready for a wrestling-free weekend due to other commitments. I’ll have to catch up after, meaning we’ll just assume that the Untitled Monday Blog will be on a bit of a break. But no worries; it’s not like we haven’t got a metric ton of stuff to talk about from the past several days!
Headlines and Storylines
…in which I discuss the storylines that keep us watching week to week
#WeWantCody
So…what do you guys wanna talk about? Do we start with the internet going so #WeWantCody crazy that the WWE may have had to switch their (possible) plan of The Rock versus Roman Reigns at WrestleMania, replacing the assumed Cody Rhodes vs. Reigns main event? That seems like as good a place as any.
As I write this, we’re about a half hour away from the WWE WrestleMania press conference that’s promised … well, it hasn’t promised anything, actually. It’s hoped, or assumed, that we’ll get some kind of confirmation on Roman’s challenger at the Show of Shows, whether that’s Cody or Rocky. Rock spent the better part of this morning on the Pat McAffee show playing heel, running down Cody fans and potentially implying that that match is going to be … something not a one on one match. Special guest referee? Triple threat? Double match? I’ll take some notes and we’ll come back to this.
ONE HOUR PLUS LATER
After about 45 minutes of pandering and what felt like the longest promo train in RAW history, we got Seth Rollins. And then we got Roman Reigns, shushing Seth and reminding everyone within earshot that the World Heavyweight Championship that Seth holds is a second-tier title. Then Roman decided he could choose his own opponent, and he picked The Rock. Rock came out to a chorus of boos, led us through a history lesson on the Samoan Dynasty, and then accepted the match by threatening to force it down our collective throats. Cody Rhodes then made his presence known, calling the whole thing bullshit and demanding his match with Roman at WrestleMania.
We’ll pause here for effect. Cody essentially gave Rock his spot on Friday, right? Like, just because they didn’t address it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. But I digress.
Rock didn’t like Cody’s tone, I guess, because he went full heel on the American Nightmare. The Brahma Bull claimed that Cody, literally the most respectful guy in all of wrestling, was being insulting to Roman and Rock and their ancestors by bringing up Jey Uso, as well as how ashamed the ancestors would be of Reigns, despite Reigns running down Dusty moments before. Rock slapped Roman, CM Punk tried to antagonize everyone, and the official Roman Reigns versus Cody Rhodes graphic dropped. What is Rocky going to mean to this? Can Seth get his tarnished reputation rebuilt? Will the two night WrestleMania format mean two Roman matches? Two Rock matches? Two Cody matches? WHO’S TO SAY?
Oh, I should note that there was backstage footage after the conference with Rock basically "do you know who I am"-ing Triple H. So Rock's going full EVP and throwing his weight around? That does make it easy for him to get what he wants...and you just know WWE was waiting to do a heel authority figure angle...it's been a couple years!
So, what did we learn from the press conference? Well, first, we learned that wrestling stuff is really cringe, especially when it’s presented to the mainstream. Look, WE know how weird and poorly done a lot of the promo/acting stuff is, but THEY don’t. And cutting promos for an hour to the uninitiated just makes the whole thing look worse. Second, we learned that Cody and Roman are going to meet in some way at ‘Mania. Third, we learned that Big E and CM Punk should definitely star in a buddy cop show or something together, they were great on commentary.
And fourth, I think we learned where the Rock stands in modern WWE. I thought the company was sending a message with the booking of the Royal Rumble this year – legends are great, but there's a focus on current generation talent right now. We’ve got NXT talent to look forward to, and plenty of young talent on the main roster that we’re telling some interesting stories with. Forcing the Rock into things because you want a distraction from your former CEO’s alleged sex crimes isn’t the magical cure it once was.
And to those who argue that this is somehow proof that WWE was right in booking Cody to lose at last year’s mania? No. It proves that if he’d won, booking Rock versus Roman and Cody versus literally anybody else would have given you two great main events with no weird backtracking and heel turns done on the Pat McAffee show. There’s no way to know if Cody would have been as big now as he is just because he’d have held a title, or if this long string of wins has made the crowd fall in line and cheer Cody like the second coming of Cena. I’ve been supportive of the story they’re telling, but that doesn’t retroactively absolve them of not telling the story they should have, you know?
Stuff from NXT!
NXT had the big Carmelo heel turn at the end of Vengeance Day, and the reason for it was basically that he didn’t like Trick Williams going after the World title instead of a b-tier championship. It’ll be interesting to see if Melo’s turn affects his frequent SmackDown appearances – or if Trick follows him to Fridays to make this feud a main roster thing. Both guys have been super over when they showed up -- we'll see if that trend continues if Melo starts acting like a jerk!
Hangman/Swerve 3, CMLL Invasion, and Mercedes Moné
AEW has some good stuff going on too, with the Revolution PPV coming up in just a couple weeks. Sting’s final match looks to be beside Darby Allen, his young son, against the Young Bucks. Sting and Allen won the AEW Tag Team Championships after a good tag match against Big Bill and Ricky Starks, but the big moment was after the win, when the EVPs attacked the new champs. Dressed all in while, a quickly-opened up Darby bled all over the Jacksons, leaving a fantastic visual as the scorned and incredibly douchey Bucks stood over the victors.
Tony Khan’s BIG ANNOUNCEMENT, version 99, was that AEW will be doing a “First Dance” type event to welcome the former Sasha Banks into All Elite Wrestling. March 13 at the Fleet Center in Boston (typed “BO$$TON” on the show graphic) will be called Big Business, and while her name wasn’t mentioned, it was very heavily implied that the biggest free agent in wrestling will be showing up that night. I’m excited! Deonna Purrazzo felt like a big deal, and the AEW women’s division has a ton of talent right now. They just need TV time and maybe more than one storyline per week!
The Hangman/Swerve saga continued with a 30-minute draw that was a different flavor of violence than previous matchups between these two. Less bloody but still very…blunt? Stiff. It was rough! After the bell, which came as Swerve was about to get a pinfall victory, Strickland demanded five more minutes. Hangman turned him down – he was there not to win, but to deny Swerve what he wanted most. Fair! I like this Drew McIntyre style of booking justified heels, not necessarily bad but definitely angry and wronged. It looks like we’ll get a triple threat between Hangman, Swerve, and Samoa Joe for Joe’s AEW World Championship at Revolution. Should be fun!
And finally, last week's CMLL tour around the AEW shows led to a beatdown by the luchadores after their loss on Dynamite. But there are more matches coming up this weekend, and I’m assuming maybe even a match between the factions south of the border?
We Watched Some Wrestling!
…in which I recommend some of the best matches I saw last week
On Dynamite…just about everything? If I was FORCED to pick just one match, I’d go with the CMLL guys against the Blackpool Combat Club just because of the unique nature of the interpromotional matchup.
Closing Up Shop
…in which I say goodbye for now
And that’s it! Just a lot of chatter today, honestly. A lot to think about on both WWE main roster shows and AEW as well. Unfortunately I bit off a bit more than I could chew this week, so we're shutting down early and I'll be a busy bee over the weekend...
I’ll see you next week for the usual Casual Friday and Untitled Monday blog posts. If you have questions, concerns, or comments, drop 'em in the comments section below! And follow me on Twitter (X), Facebook, BlueSky and/or Instagram using the links on the right.
Thank you so much for reading. If you liked what you saw, consider telling your friends, mentioning Let’s Watch Some Wrestling on social media, or even buying me a hot cup of coffee using the Ko-Fi button. Have a great week, and I’ll see you back here next time, dear reader. Until then, Let’s Watch Some Wrestling!
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