When Real Life Gets You Down ... it's Casual Friday!

 

Good Morning!

 I could not be happier with this photo:

Because it means kayfabe is alive and well! Kayfabe, for those readers who aren’t aware (and thank you for reading, because that implies you aren’t a big old wrestling nerd like the rest of us) is basically the willing suspension of disbelief. Kayfabe is the world in which our favorite wrestlers live, the world where the Undertaker isn’t Mark Callaway, real estate salesman and motorcycle/doo-rag enthusiast, but a real undead cowboy mortician. 

It’s also where the story bleeds into real life. Using that ‘Taker example again, it’s been said that when WWF/E flexed its muscle and insisted wrestlers wear suits when they travel, the Undertaker was exempt because it didn’t “fit with his character,” despite other characters at the time like Goldust and Doink the Clown still suiting up. 

But I digress! That guy in the photo up there is Tony Khan. For wrestling fans, he’s the money behind All Elite Wrestling, the CEO and the guy who puts the wrestling matches together. For NFL fans, he’s an executive for the Jacksonville Jaguars, the football team his dad (the handsomely mustachioed man on our left) owns. Tony is in a neck brace because at the end of Wednesday’s Dynamite, he fell victim to his former employee and current executive vice-presidents’ collusion. Tony reinstated the suspended Jack Perry only to have Perry immediately punch him in the stomach, after which point EVPs Matthew and Nicholas Jackson hit Tony Khan with the recently-renamed TK Driver.

Tony isn’t really hurt – the move was done carefully, as always. But in the world of wrestling, he’s been destroyed by a move that can take out pro wrestlers, a thing that Tony decidedly is not. The neck brace was a move wrestling fans were begging for on social media, a deranged hope that a guy who happens to work with two very different companies would force a crossover. And Tony Khan did it! And it worked! NFL commentators made a point to mention the brace, and you could see Tony and his dad were genuinely enjoying the moment.

I watched some of the draft because I’m always morbidly curious what my Chicago Bears are up to. But when I saw that Khan actually did the damn thing, showing up on camera in the Jaguars’ draft room in a silly-looking foam neck brace, I was more than rewarded for my time. (To be fair, the Bears getting a pair of players that might be the future of the franchise wasn’t too bad either.)

Kayfabe is great because, when you’re willing to allow it to, it can really enhance the magic of professional wrestling. Sure, it’s cool that current fans know that Batista is really a big softie who rescues pit bulls, or that Val Venis has devolved into an internet troll. But there’s something to be said for not knowing as well – for buying into the stories we’re told, for fantasy booking the next big rivalry, for just forgetting real life for a while and enjoying a couple hours where guys beat each other up because nobody wants to go to therapy. 

It’s a world where an undead person like Abadon can choose to pursue a career in wrestling while also having the time to get face piercings, where a guy in Crow makeup can defy age and beat up some snotty kids young enough to be his grandchildren, and where Cody Rhodes can evolve from a nepo-baby to a narcissist to a space child to the World Champion. It’s an incredible escape from life, and I don’t think the real world holds a candle to it.

“It’s A Soap Opera With More Suplexes and Less Violence”

…in which I discuss the storylines that keep us watching week to week

So, aside from the insanity that was the Young Bucks/New Elite treachery, Dynamite was … interesting. The order of things felt off, and I personally don’t like the way they set up the LED board at Daly’s Place. That venue is great for pro wrestling, but it’s also small, and things like putting a moving rainbow directly above the ring ropes on TV are terribly distracting. 

I was also chuffed that Swerve Strickland, our new AEW champ, didn’t get much of a championship celebration. However, it seems that AEW knew it could get more viewers on their live Saturday episode of Collision, when it’ll be airing right after an NBA playoff game, and they scheduled a better reception for Swerve then. We’re also getting a new tag team debut and some really decent matches, including:

These four are great for a Saturday show with a solid lead-in. The Bang Bang Gang are good heels, and Top Flight and Action Andretti are incredibly talented high flyers – plus Andretti might do his “inject a full water bottle into his head in one go” spot on the way to the ring. Toni Storm is a crazy fun character, and she and Anna Jay have a story they’re developing. Thunder Rosa and Storm just had a fantastic, hard-hitting match on Sunday’s PPV, which we talked about on Tuesday, and she and Deonna Purrazzo should be able to put on a solid follow-up to that. And Trent and Chuck Taylor, former tag team partners separated by Trent’s betrayal of former pal Orange Cassidy. Parking Lot Fights involving the Best Friends have kind of a storied history in AEW, as they’re often combinations of brutal violence and amazing creativity. In short, it should be a good show for folks willing to stay up to watch.

WWE’s draft begins tonight as well, and earnest buildup for next week’s Backlash premium live event in France will continue too. The draft is always a good refresh for the roster after WrestleMania, signaling an end to rivalries by splitting people apart and allowing fans a chance to fantasy book some new matchups. Things are a little different this year, as NXT is being treated like a real third brand and, I think, actually participating in the draft as opposed to most years when it’s more of a farm team from which Raw and SmackDown draw new talent.

With Rampage and Collision doing another live back-to-back on Saturday, Friday will be for SmackDown … and Walpurgisnacht on The Last Drive in with Joe Bob Briggs on Shudder. In all honesty, I’ll probably catch up with SmackDown on Saturday morning, since Joe Bob is mandatory live entertainment ‘round these parts (we live-tweet along @elosopequeno).

Closing Up Shop

…in which I say goodbye for now

And that’s it! I’ll see you next week for the usual Casual Friday and Untitled 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!

The offramp from the Road to WrestleMania, plus Collision and Rampage thoughts: It's the Untitled Monday Blog!

 

Good Morning!

I love a Saturday in Suburbia. The sun is shining, the lawn care machines are running, the kids are shooting hoops in the cul-de-sac. My wife and her buddy are watching something in the other room and laughing maniacally, but that’s why they made headphones. The wife and I spent the better part of this morning on lawn care duty, picking up after my two pups, laying down clover and grass seed, and burning the weeds and brush we cleared out earlier this week. I watched SmackDown this morning while grocery shopping, a surprisingly easy task when the store is mostly empty. And now we’re here, ready to recap SmackDown and add to it once Collision airs. It’s almost WrestleMania week! SUPER EXCITING TIMES!

Weekend Rasslin'!

With the weekend having been pretty busy, let’s jump right in with some thoughts on the penultimate SmackDown before WrestleMania, an episode of WWE TV that surprisingly didn’t focus on the Bloodline’s story. We got four matches, none of them great but all serviceable, and they were there to move their respective plot lines along anyways. We saw A-Town Down Under defeat a distracted Street Profits, and the New Catch Republic take out the previously-assaulted Humberto and Angel of the Legado del Fantasma. Those two winners will get to fight for the tag belts at WrestleMania, along with DIY, Awesome Truth, the New Day, and current champions Judgment Day. I would love to see R-Truth get a title win at WrestleMania, even if that means Miz gets another one as well. Truth is a ray of sunshine, and deserves the reward of even just a short title reign. The guy is just universally beloved, like Paul Rudd or Kermit the Frog.

We got a couple more matches announced during the show, too! Jade Cargill signed her SmackDown contract, and after the main event arrived to help Naomi and Bianca Belair as they were getting assaulted by Damage CTRL. She’ll be teaming up with Naomi and Belair against the Kabuki Warriors and Dakota Kai, just like we predicted last week! I think it’s a great way to showcase Jade in the ring next to and against a bunch of veteran performers who can help make her look good in the ring, and I envy Kairi Sane, who I imagine will be getting tossed around the ring by Jade.

The Ligado del Fantasma and Latino World Order had a big promo-off that led to Rey Mysterio and the newest member of the LWO, Dragon Lee, challenging Dominic Mysterio and Santos Escobar to a tag match at WrestleMania that will undoubtedly feature both of these groups in an all-out brawl by the end. I was hoping for a big old street fight, but this should be fun as Lee is fantastic and the other folks have all proven their chops in the ring.

Some good promo work tonight, as well, headed up by IYO SKY getting to talk smack to Bayley in Japanese! I love me a good native language promo, because it feels more natural and even though I’m reading subtitles I can sense the annunciation and passion that sometimes doesn’t come across when folks are using a second language. Bayley was polite enough to let IYO say what she had to say before absolutely jacking her on the set of that video, tossing lighting setups and beating her down before the crew realized their equipment was at risk and stepped in. 

Naomi and Bianca had a really sweet friendly chat a little later, and AJ Styles got to talk in the ring before getting assaulted (again) by LA Knight. Oh, and we got a glimpse of a non-goth Isla Dawn trying to chat up GM Nick Aldis. All good stuff, everybody got their point across in their own ways. 

AEW Collision opened up with Adam Copeland heading to the ring for an open challenge, just ten days removed from his incredibly brutal match for the TNT Championship against Christian Cage. Cope offered up a title shot, and beloved indie deathmatch king Matt Cardona accepted. The two had a really fun match, with commentary doing a great job of catching those of us not in the know about the long mentor/student relationship the two had. The outcome never really seemed in doubt, but it was a cool surprise and a good match with a creative finish. 

Oh, and speaking of cool surprises – post match, the lights went down and Malakai Black appeared in the ring when they came back. That was enough of a distraction to allow Black’s pal Buddy Matthews to attack Copeland from behind, but Mark Briscoe and Eddie Kingston arrived to even the odds. Briscoe and Kingston will be fighting at Friday’s Ring of Honor show, but we’d find out later that the pair will team with Cope at AEW Dynasty against the House of Black.

After some promos setting up Billy Gunn vs Jay White, with the two men’s factions staying in back, we got FTR versus The Infantry in the OTHER tag team tournament we’re keeping up with. Infantry looked great in this one, actually much better than the squeak-by victory they got over the House of Black to get here. FTR, as always, was solid, letting the younger men look faster before catching up by way of their veteran savvy. 

A squash for the recently-returned Kyle O’Reilly (or Kylo Reilly, as we call him ‘round these parts) was next, followed by a celebration by the Undisputed Kingdom with their old pal. Then we had the second tournament match, with Top Flight taking on Big Bill and Ricky Starks, the latter of whom we haven’t seen much of since they lost the tag titles to Sting and Darby. It was what you’d expect from the high-flying Martin brothers and Bill and Starks, although there was a scary moment when Ricky suffered what’s been called a “stinger,” which might have led to Top Flight getting the win as a precaution/call on the fly kind of thing. Thankfully, Starks has said on social media that he’s okay, and since it feels like this whole tournament was set up for us to get to another FTR/Young Bucks match anyway, I don’t think it’s that big a setback for the Big/Ricky team.

A good match between Thunder Rosa and Lady Frost followed, and I have been noticing that Rosa acts kinda mad for her matches lately. Like, not salty, per se, but definitely like she’s got a chip on her shoulder, or feels disrespected by booking. Regardless, it was a solid fight, and Lady Frost is really good in the role AEW has given her.

Speaking of, Storm and Mariah May were interviewed after that match, with Toni learning that a match next week will decide whether Thunder Rosa or Mariah May will face her at Dynasty. Storm immediately, charmingly, turns on May, asking if that was her plan all along before smooching her and calling her a genius. “I see myself in you and I love me” was just a great line, and Storm continues to do well with a gimmick some have turned on, but I was slow to warm to so it’s still working for me.

Our main event was Claudio Castignoli, Bryan Danielson, and Katsuyori Shibata challenging The Righteous and Lance Archer. This one was one of those matches that pits big guys who lose a lot against an AEW favorites group, which are always a good time even if the ending is rarely in doubt. There were some entertaining spots, including Castignoli and Shibata teaming up on a series of running uppercuts and shotgun dropkicks, and Shibata ended up getting the victory with his PK. Overall, a fine ending to a good episode of Collision!

Closing Up Shop

…in which I say goodbye for now

And that’s it! This week should be pretty stacked with WrestleMania and Stand and Deliver go-home shows, an already-loaded Dynamite card, and the Bray Wyatt documentary dropping tomorrow. I can’t say I’m in a rush to start bawling in front of my wife and my TV, but she really liked Bray too, and I would like to review the program, so be on the lookout for that whenever I get to watching it!

 I’ll also be doing the usual previews for ‘Mania and Stand and Deliver, with the latter probably coming Wednesday or Thursday after we’ve watched the last episode of NXT, and the former going up as part of the Casual Friday blog – most of SmackDown looks to be devoted to Hall of Fame stuff, promo packages for WrestleMania, and the Andre the Giant Battle Royale. 

My "plan," dear reader, is to knock out the article I’m working on for SlashGear after I've published this, and write the previews as kind of a primer, perfect for lapsed fans or people who just want to watch the biggest show of the year with a little background. I’m hoping to break the preview into two parts, but that kinda depends on tonight’s Raw and whether they announce what matches will be on what nights. Regardless, if you’ve got plans to watch, or you’ve got Peacock and a free weekend, this will be perfect for you -- or perfect to share with a buddy before the biggest weekend on the pro wrestling calendar!

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 we’ll see you back here Fridays and Mondays. Until then, Let’s Watch Some Wrestling!

It's Rumble Weekend on the Casual Friday blog!

 

Good Morning!

So Netflix is getting into the rasslin’ business, with the Tuesday announcement that RAW is headed to the streaming service in January of 2025. It’s gonna be weird to not see Monday Night RAW on USA, although us olds remember the brief flirtation with Spike TV / The Nashville Network. Regardless, there’s also been talk that the tentpole of wrestling television may not even stay on Mondays. That’s kinda sad! 

I get it - there’s football, and college sports championships fall on Mondays too – but it’s always been MONDAY NIGHT RAW to me, with the Monday Night part being just as important as the show’s name! I remember hanging out in my friend Benny’s basement, taping Raw while watching Nitro live (or the other way around once WCW declined) just to crash on his couch, waking up at 5 the next day to walk off the hangover in brisk Illinois weather on my way to the animal hospital to feed the dogs n cats. Those memories won’t change because of that, but it’s kind of an institution, you know?

The other issue I have is that it’s Netflix, a service many of us have backed off of after frequent rate hikes, the addition of ads, and a crackdown on password sharing. It’s still the most popular streamer by a longshot, but here’s the thing: at this point, to keep up with the stuff I watch from WWE as of next year, I’ll need Netflix for RAW, USA (cable or a TV streamer like YouTube TV) for SmackDown, the CW (network TV via antenna or, more likely, a streamer) for NXT, and Peacock for PLEs. That’s … exhausting. Our buddies in other, distant lands will have Netflix as their provider for all of this stuff, which is pretty cool for them…at least it’s one, central deal. 

I find it a little frustrating, myself, but I’m sure smarter people than me already have plans in place for how to work around this stuff. I mean, if Netflix assumes you’re in the UK, doesn’t that mean you’d have access to all the UK-specific stuff too? That’s what the NordVPN ads I see on literally every YouTube video I streamed last month told me.

“It’s A Soap Opera With More Suplexes and Less Violence”

…in which I discuss the storylines that keep us watching week to week

RAW

Monday Night RAW started off hot and just kept going this week. As it was the go-home show before this weekend’s Royal Rumble, the show was bound to have more storyline developments than in-ring action – that’s just kind of the way it is before a big show. You don’t want anybody getting hurt, and you want to build anticipation for the matches at the show so you’ll get more eyes on the product (and buys of the show.) We watched Seth Rollins, the rumored injury-haver from the prior week’s match against Jinder Mahal, start a teary-eyed promo that had many fans believing he might be relinquishing his World Heavyweight Championship prior to the Rumble. After an interruption by Intercontinental Champ GUNTHER and his pals in Imperium, it was pretty clear that this was all a cunning ruse, and while the injury was real enough, Seth intends to defend his championship at WrestleMania!

It’ll be interesting to see where they go from here, though. Seth’s injury means that his title won’t be defended for the months leading up to the Show of Shows, and with Roman Reigns also (presumably) not defending after Saturday the closest we’ll come to a championship match is setting up contenders for the main titles at the Rumble and Elimination Chamber. Now, realistically, that might be what we were gonna do anyway – have CM Punk win the Rumble, challenge Seth, build the rivalry with interviews and promos. Let Cody Rhodes win his way into ‘Mania at Elimination Chamber. Neither of those requires Rollins or Reigns’ presence. 

Anyways, we also saw what might be the promo of the year when Cody Rhodes and CM Punk faced off to, um, discuss their Royal Rumble plans. I’m just gonna put it here for you to check out:

GOOD LORD MAN these two…they didn’t need to sell me on the Royal Rumble but if I hadn’t already been in, this work would have put me all the way in. Bringing up each other’s pasts while still dancing around the AEW stuff is the best way to have this conversation, and the intensity and tension built while also keeping things relatively calm until the end. This is how you perform a promo that silences a crowd, commands respect, and sells a show all at once.

Sorry, I’m just excitable. We also saw more aggression from the New Day as they continued to build a rivalry with Imperium, and R-Truth’s lovable shenanigans led to a main event loss for his pal Damien Priest against Drew McIntyre, which I’m sure will come into play during the Rumble too. 

NXT 

The build to Vengeance Day, which is not this coming Sunday but the next, continued as we saw Bronn Breakker and Baron Corbin take down Axiom and Nathan Frazier to lock in their spot in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Tournament final, where they’ll likely be meeting Trick Williams and Carmelo Hayes. Melo interfered in Trick’s main event match, adding to the already tense relationship between the two superstars, and we’ll see if things escalate after (maybe) we see Hayes participate in the Royal Rumble. Hayes has made appearances on SmackDown lately, and it would be good storytelling to have him be completely hypocritical towards Williams by taking part in the Rumble the week before their finals match.

AEW Dynamite

A dead crowd that wasn’t that big to begin with kinda hurt this show, which had some good action on it and the lovely tones of our champion, Samoa Joe, on commentary. Page/Penta, Swerve/Hardy, Rosa/Velvet, and the main event were all good matches, but the highlight of the show for me was the half monochrome/half color interview between Deonna Purrazzo and Toni Storm. They gave a little bit of backstory and showed off some matching tattoos, just enough to get us on the hook for their backstory. There’s a great looking card for Collision this weekend as well, although most of us are probably DVRing that action for after the Rumble.

We Watched Some Wrestling!

…in which I recommend some of the best matches I saw last week

Some decent stuff in a week I wasn’t expecting much! Between the Raw go-home show, NXT building for their PLE, and AEW having an off week with Dynamite, there wasn’t much of a reason to expect great matches. But seeing Adam Copeland and Minoru Suzuki share a ring was incredible as a longtime fan of the former Edge and a supporter of our Murder Grandpa Suzuki. Some highlights:

Just a couple cool older performers with amazing legacies having some fun while they still can, and putting on a show at the same time. Suzuki responding to Copeland’s offer for a post match handshake with a roar was everything it could be to put a lid on that bout, and I loved it.

NXT opened with a really fun tag team match between the team of Baron Corbin and Bronn Breakker and Nathan Frazier and Axiom. The littler guys were incredible, flying around all over the place, but the bigger lads really picked their spots perfectly, often snatching their opponents out of the air and slamming them into the mat. 

It’s The Let’s Watch Some Wrestling Royal Rumble 2024 Preview!

We’ll be pre-empting the often pre-empted “Let’s Remember A Guy” and “Mailbox” sections for this weekend’s pape, as per usual. There’s only four matches announced, and two of those are Royal Rumble matches, so we’ll have a little fun with our predictions this time around. But before we get into it: it’s my beloved By The Numbers Video!

With that out of the way, let’s crack in!

The Men’s Royal Rumble Match

As of Thursday afternoon, the Men’s Rumble will include Cody Rhodes, CM Punk, Shinsuke Nakamura, Bobby Lashley, Drew McIntyre, GUNTHER, Kofi Kingston, and Damian Priest. Priest still holds the Money in the Bank briefcase, meaning he could have taken Seth out on Monday and taken his title, but who am I to judge? I still believe this is a two-horse race between Punk and Rhodes, with the winner maybe getting a feud with Drew McIntyre to pass the time between now and WrestleMania. The loser would likely enter the Elimination Chamber match to challenge their chosen opponent – Seth Rollins for the Punker (assuming that match is still happening at all), and Roman Reigns for Cody. I’ll go with my gut here, ignoring my heart, and pick Cody Rhodes to repeat as the Royal Rumble winner, with a Final Four of Rhodes, Punk, McIntyre, and GUNTHER.

I still have no idea how The Rock fits into all of this. Does he face Reigns in Australia at the Elimination Chamber show? Is he involved in the Royal Rumble match? Does he take one of the main events at WrestleMania? Is he actually not involved at all, and simply teased a match for SummerSlam or somewhere else way down the road? WHO’S TO SAY?

Oh, and since it’s the Rumble, I like to pick a surprise entrant. This year’s will be, oh, let’s say Tyler Breeze. The wife and I love Breezy on UpUpDownDown and it would be great to see Prince Pretty make a grand return, maybe alongside his co-owner in a real life wrestling school Shawn Spears, aka Tye Dillinger.

The Women’s Royal Rumble Match

Significantly fewer announced entries for the Women’s Rumble match: Bayley, Nia Jax, Becky Lynch, and Bianca Belair are the only ones so far. But there are enough storylines floating around to keep things interesting. 

Asuka and Kairi Sane of Damage CTRL have a tag team championship match against Kayden Carter and Katana Chance, which they may just win for fun, but I think they are both going to be involved in the Rumble as well. This might be when the team decides they’ve had enough of Bayley, either because Bayley loses on her own or because they’re tired of her and toss her from the match. Either way, I believe we’re headed for Bayley versus IYO SKY and Becky Lynch versus Rhea Ripley at WrestleMania, both great matches that they’ve been slowly building for a while now. Because of that, my choice for Rumble winner is Becky Lynch. Final Four will be Lynch, Nia Jax, Bayley, and Belair.

And since she’s been on the roster for quite a while now, I’m gonna say we’re getting Jade Cargill as a surprise entrant. NXT has a lot of talent that’s ready to move up to the main roster, though – I wouldn’t be surprised to see the likes of Tiffany Stratton, Gigi Dolan, or Roxanne Perez make an appearance.

Logan Paul © versus Kevin Owens for the United States Championship

KO won his way into this match via a really good tournament in which he defeated Austin Theory, Carmelo Hayes, and Santos Escobar. The story of the match, though, is KO’s cast, which Paul argued was a weapon that gave Owens an advantage. Owens agreed to remove the cast for the match, and I imagine that will be his downfall. Paul remains a special attraction that people seem to be tuning in for, so he should probably retain his title until ‘Mania, where maybe he has a full match with rival Ricochet? I’m not sure about that, but I am sure that Logan Paul retains in this one.

Roman Reigns © versus AJ Styles versus Randy Orton versus LA Knight for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship

This should be fun even though that outcome is not at all in doubt. What’s more important is the interactions between everyone before Roman gets the victory, as we might see some of these guys in the Elimination Chamber next month or even building rivalries that end up at WrestleMania. Styles and Knight look to be headed in that direction, and I’m not mad at it. There’s also nothing that says these three can’t participate in the Rumble as well, so maybe Randy pulls double duty there. 

The Bloodline and possibly even The Rock may show up here, although I feel like there may be a ringside ban revealed on tonight’s SmackDown. That would eliminate Jimmy Uso and Solo Sikoa, but Rocky could mess things up for his cousin as he challenges for the title of Head of the Table. I feel like we’re going to see this as the main event, as we did last year for the Kevin Owens/ Roman Reigns match that saw Sami Zayn turn on his new pals in one of the best segments of 2023.  

Closing Up Shop

…in which I say goodbye for now

And that’s it! Thanks for coming with me on that journey. We’ve got the go-home SmackDown tonight, as well as both the Royal Rumble and a stacked AEW Collision on Saturday, so our Monday weekend in review should be pretty packed!

We’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 us 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 we’ll see you back here Monday afternoon and next Friday. Until then, Let’s Watch Some Wrestling!

Some WWE 2K24 Info, and a Weekend Wrap-up: It's the Untitled Monday Blog!

Good Morning!

You know what really grinds my gears? Subjective statements. Full disclosure, I was like 80% sure that’s what I was thinking of when I had one in my head, but I had to look up the definition. So, yeah, subjective statements given as facts. You see them all the time on Twitter, or any social media, really. YouTube videos. And even more so in wrestling discussions. Takes like, “Everybody hates WWE” or “AEW is awful and nobody watches it except to bitch about it.” These things frustrate me, dear reader, and I’ll tell you why.

I don’t want to ever be the kind of person who pushes an opinion on somebody else. Part of that is because my takes, especially those involving wrestling, are often pretty unpopular or outright bad! I have been a fan of X-Pac since the days when the phrase “X-Pac Heat” was just getting over. I think CM Punk is a good wrestler but a great performer. And I love predicting the dumbest outcomes of feuds just for the chaos and entertainment value. But another part of that is that I love how varied wrestling fans’ ideas can be! A lot of us olds have watched for years, and the part of our brains that are constantly fantasy booking can often come up with some pretty wild stuff. That’s why Universe Mode in 2K sticks around; we’ve got ideas and we’d love to see them play out.

But inundating people with these statements that make them feel like their opinions are “less than” because they aren’t the writer’s opinion, whether or not they are popular, seems like it would just make people more willing to accept what they’re told. That’s no fun! Give me more well thought out wrestling opinions, more wild cards, more crazy fantasy WrestleManias. Share your opinions, sure, but don’t poop on somebody else’s dream of Sasha Banks coming out at #30 in the Royal Rumble this weekend, man. Let people have hope that their weird fantasy booking might come true!

Weekend Watchlist

…a recap of what we watched over the weekend

SmackDown

Some fun stuff on this week’s blue program, as we saw Pete Dunne get his old name back after being “Butch” – a Vince McMahon decision if I’ve ever heard one – for the past year or so. Logan Paul and Kevin Owens had a chat on KO’s talkshow, which was solid promo work followed by Logan insisting KO not wear his cast for their match. KO agreed, taking the cast off right then and there, but the distraction allowed Paul to attack Owens and, after a brief comeback, thwack Owens’s hand against the steel ring steps and stand tall.

The women’s tag team scene continues to be built up, as a short championship match between Kayden Carter and Katana Chance and the spooky duo of Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn – who I guess are going by the “Unholy Union” now – was followed up by new challengers (and old champs) Asuka and Kairi Sane. I’m all for building the whole women’s tag division, I just would prefer tag team championship matches to go more than three minutes, you know?

The main story of the night was the Bloodline, and how they are dealing with Roman Reigns’s upcoming title defense at the Royal Rumble. While AJ Styles and LA Knight have been at each other’s throats, and Orton has looked like a viable title contender while also taking down Solo Sikoa in a short main event match. Roman ended up signing the fatal four way contract after his opponents were all laid out, only to eat an RKO from a revived Randy to close out the program. The way Orton checked the contract before dropping it next to a downed Roman was a nice touch – either he was just checking the signature, or there was something Roman and his many lawyers missed that Orton was pointing out. I guess we have one last week to find out!

Rampage and Collision

Rampage had a few really decent matches this week! Jericho vs Sydal and Amidala vs Statlander were both fun, competitive, good, short bouts, and Darby Allen taking on Jeff Hardy in the main event was a really good ten-minute fight!

On Collision, we saw the official formation of the Acclaimed/Bing Bing Ging supergroup, which I’m kinda hoping ends with the Ring of Honor and AEW Trios Championships getting merged in the inevitable breakup. Thunder Rosa returned to singles action for the first time in over a year, and she had a good match with Queen Aminata, who herself has been on a streak of respectable losses as she’s just getting in the door at AEW. Adam Copeland and Dante Martin had a really fun “Cope Open” match where it looked like Martin figured out how to slow his own gravity to allow the elder grappler to keep up. Mox returned with a solid match against the much larger Shane Taylor, Toni Storm acknowledged her new rival Deonna Purrazzo, and Buddy Matthews and Daniel Garcia had an absolute banger to semi-main event. 

The actual main, teaming Ortiz with Eddie Kingston against Brian Danielson and Claudio Castignoli, was a good-not-great battle. Ortiz ate the loss as Danielson kicked the crap outta him while Claudio held Eddie back, and while the match got a lot of time, it just didn’t quite click for me. I’m sure it’s there to build a foundation for a BCC/Eddie and pals program, so I won’t act like I’m disappointed in match one of five being a little less than spectacular. We’ll see!

Thing of the Week!

…our list, guide, or little blurb for this week’s as-yet-untitled Monday blog

So this morning I woke up to A TON of news about WWE 2K24. Our lovely cover stars were announced for all three versions, which I used up top as our header. Cody Rhodes on Regular, Bianca Belair and Rhea Ripley on Medium, and a whole group for the Extra Crispy WrestleMania 40 super expensive version. The differences in those versions are about thirty bucks per tier and some extra outfits and cards for MyFaction. But the upgrades in gameplay that were announced already are what I’m most excited for!

Looks good, weird Stone Cold de-aged/AI head notwithstanding…

So, per the 2K website, they’re adding Special Guest Referees, Casket Matches, Ambulance Matches, and Gauntlets. The ability to have four wrestlers participate in Backstage Brawls has also been highlighted, which is pretty cool and will probably be a blast in multiplayer matchups. The roster boasts over 200(!) Superstars and Legends, and while I’m betting that many of them are the year-based variations we’ve seen in past editions (Cena ‘98, Cena ‘02, etc.) that’s still a hefty lineup.

New MyRise storylines for female and male wrestlers were expected, and MyFaction has some tweaks. Universe Mode will have new rivalry actions, new cutscenes, and double title matches, which are all great for those of us who love messing around with that mode. I made a Universe back in 2k22 using my wife’s animal hospital buddies, and while they’ve mostly gone their separate ways I’d love to bring back something like that, if only for an excuse to make a bunch of create-a-wrestlers and mess around with this Universe mode.

MyGM is what I put most of my time in 2K22 into, and it looks like they’ve included a bunch of improvements to that mode. More match types, brands, and GMs are all promised, as are trades, contract decisions, and “drama.” I assume that means stuff like the texts you’d get each week telling you so-and-so is pissed that they haven’t been on TV, or that they don’t like losing every week and would rather jump ship to NXT.

Oh, and pre-ordering gets you a pretty good set of wrestlers, too! Superstar Billy Graham, Stardust, "Un-Dashing" Cody Rhodes (when he wrestled with a face mask after a broken nose), and Dusty Rhodes are included, as well as MyFaction cards for a 1976 version of Dusty, a "Mattel" version of Cody with bruised pec, and a manager card of Pharoah, Cody's beloved husky dog!

Overall it looks like a ton of improvements to a game that’s been solid ever since the 2K22 reboot, after the shameful debacle that was 2K20. Maybe we’ll be like the cool kids and stream the game once I get my hands on a copy? WHO’S TO SAY?

Closing Up Shop

…in which I say goodbye for now

And that’s it! I’ll be using Mondays for catching up on the weekend action from here on out, although I might post these a little later than the Casual Friday blog. Look for Untitled Monday Wrestling Blog around the crack of noon to sometime before RAW on Mondays.

As per usual, this week we’ll be watching RAW on Monday night, NXT on Tuesday night, and AEW Dynamite on Wednesday night. Thursdays are for putting all that stuff into a nice, convenient blog for you to check out on Fridays – we call it the Casual Friday blog, and it’s up at 9am Mountain time on Friday, appropriately. We’ll be previewing the Royal Rumble this Friday on top of the usual blog stuff, so get ready for a big feature for your weekend reading pleasure!

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 we’ll see you back here Fridays and Mondays. Until then, Let’s Watch Some Wrestling!