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!

A Royal Rumble primer and Weekend Recap: It's The Too Cold to Think of a Name Monday Blog!

Good Morning!

It’s been a hell of a weekend so far, with some debuts, some big pay-per-views from a couple of promotions we don’t normally cover here, and INCREDIBLY COLD temperatures for a lot of the country. 

Andy Reid’s mustache froze solid during Saturday night’s Chiefs game, and the announcers reminded us of the temperatures roughly seven thousand times during the broadcast. Another game, originally scheduled to take place on Sunday, has been moved because Buffalo appears to have transformed into Hoth over the last few days. Not ideal playing conditions, but apparently an extra day and some really invested hoping and/or praying will be enough to make Monday a more appropriate day for Bills/Steelers. I’m normally not a big football guy – being a Chicago guy might have something to do with that – but I do always tune in for the playoffs.

And speaking of playoffs, we’re in the WWE’s equivalent of a postseason. The “Road to WrestleMania,” that chunk of the year between the Royal Rumble and the biggest show on the wrestling calendar, is fast approaching, with the Rumble only a couple weeks out. So, since this new Monday blog still needs a bit of a template – I didn’t want to just copy and paste the Friday format, that’s it’s own thing – I figured I’ll lay down a bit of a beginner’s guide to this season, as well as pointing out who to watch out for if you’re checking out the Royal Rumble on Peacock for the first time. And it’s an excellent first bit of business to check out if you wanted to give professional wrestling a try – a show featuring two 30-person battle royales, as well as a handful of matches as well. But before we get to that, let’s run down the Friday and Saturday shows!

Weekend Watchlist

…a recap of what we watched over the weekend

Friday brought us another installment in the long running Bloodline saga on SmackDown!, as Roman Reigns' family had to deal with the consequences from their attack that ended last week’s show with a disqualification and the reveal that Roman would face Randy Orton, LA Knight, and AJ Styles in a Fatal Four Way match for Roman’s (deep breath) Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at the Royal Rumble. Roman couldn’t be bothered to show up for SmackDown, so a lot of the show followed Wise Man Paul Heyman as he tried to find a replacement that would be willing to work with Solo Sikoa and Jimmy Uso in a trios tag match against Roman’s challengers. Failing that, the Bloodline did what they do best and just jumped Randy Orton before the match began, evening things out until Randy made his way to the ring to get revenge before the show went off the air. Good guys win, but tension between the three showed that Roman still has a chance to hang on to his title in two weeks.

Some new groups emerged, as Carrion Cross joined forces with the Authors of Pain to establish a rivalry with Bobby Lashley and the Street Profits, who have looked decent but haven’t really gotten over as bad guys. But that’s okay, because they just…aren’t bad now. They also are called The Pride, which makes me want to sing like the beginning of the Lion King. Oh, and the AoP/Carrion group is now The Last Testament, which works in the way something would when I complain that these random pairings never get official names. Oh, and the continued gentle ostracizing of Bayley from her Damage CTRL buddies went on, as the group decided not to help their founder in her losing effort against longtime rival Bianca Belair. That split is coming, probably sooner than later. I would assume, based on post-match assurances that Bayley needs to win the Royal Rumble on her own, that the others will turn on her in that match. Maybe that leads to a full-on return to a good guy role for Bayley against Women’s Champ IYO SKY at WrestleMania?

Lumping Rampage, Collision, and Battle of the Belts IX all in one five-hour chunk of viewing was probably an unhealthy choice, but it was one I made for you, my loyal reader base. *checks view counter* All ten of you. Regardless, there was a good amount of action over the AEW weekend, as well as some pawn-moving as we head into Revolution season for the second-biggest North American pro wrestling promotion. 

Rampage gave us some good, short matches featuring Hikaru Shida and Swerve Strickland, and a really fun and hard hitting match between sentient-pack-of-Newports Eddie Kingston and perpetually-needs-his-face-slapped Wheeler Yuta. The Dark Order won the main event to finish the week of Brodie Lee tribute matches, and while the outcome of literally none of the matches on Rampage was ever in doubt, it was a fun show anyways. We also saw Angelo Parker, current love interest of Ruby Soho, almost smooch Harley, the new addition to the Ruby/Saraya team, on a video Saraya showed to Soho as we watched. Parker, conveniently, arrived afterward to get a Ruby Soho birthday cake he brought smushed in his face as he vehemently denied what happened. 

Collision featured a really good main event in FTR and Daniel Garcia teaming up against the House of Black. Every member of both teams had a great showing, and the continued parallel stories of the House recruiting FTR and Brody King and Daniel Garcia’s rivalry from the Continental Classic tournament met to give us some great spots in this battle, even though the bad guys won. The end of Collision segued nicely into Battle of the Belts, as announcer Tony Schiavone let us know that there was some brawling going on outside the arena as the Tag Title Street Fight began.

Battle of the Belts featured no title changes, as per usual. Fun fact: Sammy Guevara holds the only two victories by a non-champion on “Battle of the Belts” shows. He won the vacant TNT Championship over Dustin Rhodes on the first event back in January of 2022, and he won the same title from Scorpio Sky on Battle of the Belts II, in April of that same year. There have been 26 successful title defenses of nine championships: the AEW International/All-Atlantic, TBS, AEW Tag, AEW Trios, ROH World, TNT, AEW Women’s, ROH Tag, and the FTW Championship. 

The show had some good action, though, with the slightly-overlong AEW Tag Team Championship street fight being a highlight. It had some fun spots, as most Jericho-based brawls do, and the inclusion of both Konosuke Takeshita and Powerhouse Hobbs will dovetail into some progression in that story. Orange Cassidy and Julia Hart successfully defended their titles in matches that were good, but didn’t stand out for me. 

Oh, and former WWE wrestlers Dolph Ziggler and Dana Brooke, now going as Nic Nemeth and Ash by Elegance, respectively, debuted on the TNA Hard to Kill show this weekend! I think they’re both really good gets for TNA, solid workers and respected, well known names. I don’t know if I'd consider them “needle movers” but they’re gonna have some really good matches over there. Mustafa Ali also appeared via a video on New Japan Pro Wrestling’s big Battle in the Valley show, teasing an appearance when that company heads to Chicago (his home and mine) later this year.

The Monday Thing of the Week!

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

For our first edition of the Thing of the Week, I wanted to talk about the Royal Rumble, specifically the RAW side of it. I’ll follow up next week with the SmackDown entries. But first, a little background. 

The Royal Rumble is the first big WWE show of the year; well, most years, anyway. There have been a few New Year’s-based shows before. It’s also the starting point of the WrestleMania season, as the results of this show directly affect the SuperBowl of wrestling that takes place in April. The show is based around the Royal Rumble matches. They’re big matches, too! Two people start in the ring, and after a set amount of time – usually around two minutes – another person is allowed to head down the entryway and into the ring. Eliminations occur when somebody is tossed over the top rope and both their feet hit the ground below. That bit is important, as in the past we’ve seen lots of folks flip over the rope but land on the apron, or land on a pancake or office chair, preventing them from technically touching ground and being eliminated. 

The Royal Rumble winner, historically, gets a shot at the champion of their choice at that year’s WrestleMania. In 2018, a women’s Rumble was added, and now we usually get a Rumble to begin and end the show, although that wasn’t the case last year; the Undisputed Championship match between Roman Reigns and Sami Zayn main-evented the night. The match features a mix of RAW and SmackDown wrestlers, and often we’ll see some performers return from injury, or some debuts from other companies, or the occasional NXT call up as well. It’s a blast, and a great way to catch up or get introduced to a lot of the talent that will be the focus of the next few months of programming as we ramp up to ‘Mania. 

We always get a handful of folks who announce their participation in the Rumble matches, to balance out the surprise entrants. Entry numbers are sometimes announced in advance, too – sometimes the story will focus on a guy entering at number one, having to fight the odds to get the win and the guaranteed WrestleMania main event. So far this year, RAW has had Cody Rhodes, CM Punk, Shinsuke Nakamura, Drew McIntyre, Nia Jax, and Becky Lynch throw their hats into the ring. SmackDown has just three confirmed entrants so far, with Bobby Lashley, Bianca Belair, and Bayley announcing their participation. 

Punk and Rhodes are both interesting, as they’ve made their opponents known already. Cody wants to “finish the story” against Roman Reigns, the guy who beat him to end last year’s WrestleMania. Punk returned to the WWE after getting canned from AEW, and he and Seth Rollins, the WWE Heavyweight champ, had some real-life exchanges that have been turned into a storyline. I could see either of them winning, and frankly it’s pretty cool that we have so many entrants who could realistically main event WrestleMania already. If either of those guys don’t win, the next big show features another match that generally gets the winner a ‘Mania match – the Elimination Chamber. So don’t be heartbroken if your pick doesn’t win the Royal Rumble! There’s always another way in.

WWE typically produces a “by the numbers” video every year, giving stats and facts about the event. We haven’t gotten one for this year yet, but I’ll include it into next week’s blog if we get one then. The show is on January 26th, so I’d expect it this week or the next. Here’s last year’s, though!

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 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.

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!

Bomb Cyclones and Floods, Dogs and Cats living together, MASS HYSTERIA! It's the Casual Friday blog!

 

Good Morning!

…and happy Friday! A bitterly cold weekend awaits us Coloradans, and I know a lot of the rest of the country has their own fun weather to deal with including floods, bomb cyclones, and other intimidating ways our planet has decided to use to mess with us. Fortunately, I’m sure if you’re reading this you’re probably tucked into your cozy home. Maybe your place is like mine, and your bathroom is conveniently located in the center of your home, making it the warmest room in the whole house! If that’s the case, well, I’ll try to make this a longer post so you have a chance to warm up while you’re in there.

It’s been a strange few weeks for me. Things have just felt a bit off without my little pug sidekick, and my first real experience with American health care over the last month has also thrown me off my normal game. Nothing is wrong, that I’m aware of…it’s just weird to have such a disconnect between several different doctors who are all, in theory, supposed to work together to make me less likely to die. But they got me a machine that makes me not swallow my uvula (the thing that hangs in the back of your throat) so that’s swell.

Anyway, enough about me. We got a lot of stuff to talk about, so let’s crack in!

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

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

The Road to WrestleMania is already full of twists, turns, and some great-looking potential matches. Punk versus McIntyre, Lynch versus Ripley, Bayley versus SKY, KO versus Waller…I think I could list about twenty singles bouts just off the top of my head! The thing is, we’ve also got around twelve weeks of WWE programming to fill, including my favorite Premium Live Event of the year (Royal Rumble) and an international show in Australia (Elimination Chamber). But with SmackDown’s addition of a Fatal Four Way match at the Rumble between Roman Reigns, Randy Orton, AJ Styles, and LA Knight – a match made because Roman couldn’t just let one of those other guys win the match clean – fantasy bookers have already started to wonder if Roman couldn’t just drop the title two months earlier than many of us originally thought. 

I don’t buy that one. I’m sure Roman will hang on to the belts until ‘Mania, and I’m still one of the believers in Cody Rhodes “finishing the story” at the Granddaddy of them all, beating Reigns for the belts in the main event. Rock/Roman is a cool story, but I think nostalgia might be giving some folks rose-tinted glasses; after all, The Rock isn’t getting any younger, and while he looks great he’s also not been in a real singles match since 2013. 

I would lean into the rumors of Rock vs Roman in Australia, personally. The Rock could even win! The Head of the Table isn’t a title that needs to be defended (not that we’ve seen a lot of Roman’s actual titles getting defended, either) and a Rock win would push a story of Reigns losing everything before he loses his titles. Rock could even make a WrestleMania appearance, calling off Roman’s family as the new leader of the Bloodline after Reigns summons them to attack Cody.

AEW’s hard reset continued, but it also felt like it was paused for the big homecoming show at Daily’s Place. The home of the promotion during the pandemic, Daily’s was also where Brody Lee made his debut, which is why we got a pair of eight-person tag matches in honor of the late, great big man. More importantly, new champ Samoa Joe met a trio of would-be challengers to his title as Swerve Strickland, “Hangman” Adam Page, and HOOK (all caps required by law) all met him in the ring to declare themselves contenders. I like the idea of Swerve and Hanger just maintaining their rivalry for the rest of time, picking it back up whenever they cross paths. HOOK looks to be the first up, with that match against Joe coming next week.

We also got the implication of who will be the opponent for Sting’s final match at Revolution – the returning Young Bucks! The Bucks, sporting some incredibly douchey looking mustaches, headed towards the ring after Sting and Darby won their match against Powerhouse Hobbs and my sweet Cinnabon son, Konosuke Takeshita. I would love for the Bucks to bully their way into championship gold before then, so Sting and Darby can win the title and allow Sting to retire as an AEW champion. I don’t think going out on your back is as big a deal as it was in the old days, and the Stinger has probably done more than any veteran (aside from maybe Dustin Rhodes) in putting over young talent. So let the guy, a hero to so many fans of both my generation and the current kids watching, ride off into the sunset with some gold.

And on NXT, we saw Oba Femi, a very large rookie, cash in his (not)Money in the Bank contract to win the North American title from Dragon Lee, immediately after Lee defended that title against Lexis King. The big guy has all the natural tools to be a great WWE Superstar, and I guess Shawn Michaels believes that too because the kid is already strapped up! 

We Watched Some Wrestling!

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

Dynamite gave us Sting and Darby Allin versus Hobbs and Takeshita, and that was a blast. Sting – a 67-year old man – performed a Scorpion Death Drop off of Daley Center’s unique architecture, Darby jumped off a thing, and Darby himself was yeeted across the ring by his two massive opponents. It was really fun. The opening contest between Hangman Page and Claudio Castignoli was a hard hitting blast, as well! And going back to Saturday, Collision’s highlights included a great tag match between FTR and the House of Black, and a good, violent slugfest between Trent Baretta and Eddie Kingston. 

 RAW’s main event between Cody Rhodes and Shinsuke Nakamura was fine, but if you’re only looking to watch one good WWE match this week, go back to last Friday (I know, it’s already Friday again!) and check out that Triple Threat between AJ Styles, LA Knight, and Randy Orton from SmackDown! It was a great time, even if you know the outcome. Raw did feature some strong promo work from CM Punk and Drew McIntyre and well as Becky Lynch. 

Let’s Remember A Guy

…in which we reminisce about a lesser-known wrestler or gimmick from the past

It’s crazy how often a guy saddled with a weird gimmick will get stuck with a few more. It makes sense – a promoter might see that there’s a talented worker under that sparkly Stormtrooper mask or Christmas tree getup, and just keeps throwing ideas at them until something sticks. Today’s Guy is one such performer, a guy named Barry Darsow. While he worked as a few characters, my personal favorite of his was Repo Man.

Repo Man was fantastic, full stop. An over-the-top wrestling Hamburglar with gear that implied he’d been run over by a car, Repo Man’s whole thing was repossessing your stuff. Whether you were late on payments for your car or your hat (yes, he once repossessed Macho Man Randy Savage’s hat) Repo was always there to take what was no longer legally yours. And he didn’t wait, either – he’d frequently tell lovable interviewer “Mean” Gene Okerlund that some kids were mere minutes late on their ten-speeds’ payments, which he’d ride to the ring. “

From his debut in November of 1991, Repo Man was consistently portrayed as a heel, feuding with Virgil on behalf of the Million Dollar Man for the first year of his WWF run. He’d go on to have rivalries with Big Boss Man, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, and the British Bulldog. All the while, he’d have some great promos where he was reminiscent of The Riddler in the Adam West Batman series. He always had his handy tow hook and rope, and wore a Zorro-style mask and a trench coat outfitted with shoulder and elbow pads made from old car tires, and license plates (or tire treads) fitted to the back spelled out REPO. 

It was a great, goofy character, but Darsow wanted more from it. He said he loved doing Make-A-Wish stuff for kids, but it didn’t really work for a bad guy. He asked Vince McMahon to let him finish his WWF run as a face, giving kids bikes instead of repossessing theirs. Unfortunately, McMahon declined, and the Repo Man ended his WWF TV career in a tag match with Damien DeMento against the Bushwhackers on March 22, 1993. He signed with WCW shortly afterward, but aside from a few appearances in matches like the WrestleMania X7 gimmick battle royale, the Repo Man was finished. 

Why hasn't WWE done another one of those gimmick battle royales? It feels like we’re due!

The Mailbox

…in which I answer your questions

No mail this week...hopefully I find a question for next time! I love digging for answers to your questions, wrestling related or otherwise.

Closing Up Shop

…in which I say goodbye for now

And that’s it! Thanks for coming with me on that journey. No pay-per-views or premium live events this weekend, so it’s “just” the five hours of WWE SmackDown, AEW Rampage, and AEW Collision to keep up with. 

For real though, I really want to put the effort into adding more than one post a week. I think it’s weird to try and cover a week’s worth of shows on Friday, especially when three of the 12+ hours of regular TV I keep up with takes place on Friday, with another two on Saturday – and that’s not even counting the four hours of additional stuff we get on pay-per-view/premium live event weekends. So I’m working on kind of a template – not repeating the Casual Friday thing, but maybe a shorter recap paired with a list of some kind – like the stuff I used to write over at Wrestling, Inc. 

We’ll see you next week for the usual Casual Friday blog. 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 next Friday. Until then, Let’s Watch Some Wrestling!

Late Night Saturday Catch Up Blog, 8/20/2022

 

What a strange week. I finished up my second feature for the wrestling site I am now employed by, and did the research for my third, and got paid (!) for the first one. They aren't publishing anything just yet so I'll let you know We're also still working on our basement, and the contractor installed the doors and stuff so all that's left on their end is some electrical. For us there is one room of floor, some baseboards,  and the bathroom tile which hopefully arrives later today (spoiler - it did not arrive).

It does mean I've been lax on the blog again, which sucks. I assure you, that primer I threatened to write is still on the back burner, it’s just that between the paid gigs and the work in the basement I’m a little overwhelmed. I'm literally writing this on my phone while the pug naps on my lap, but I really wanted to say hi to you guys! 

Anyways, some cool stuff has happened in the ever expanding telenovela that is pro wrestling! Let's get into it!

On Dynamite, Kenny Omega returned from months of surgery, rehab, and recovery to join the Young Bucks in the AEW Trios tournament. CM Punk said some very mean things about several people in Dynamite, including Jon Moxley, Eddie Kingston, and Hangman Adam Page. Things the internet says maybe weren't all just tv talk. Like maybe Punk has already soured on AEW?! I'll believe it when I see it though.

Bryan Danielson and Daniel Garcia had a Two out of Three Falls match with some of the best technical wrestling I've seen in some time - I actually watched that one twice!

Rampage was mostly predictable, but still fun! The FTW and tag titles were defended by HOOK and Swerve in our Glory, the Best Friends moved on in the trios tournament, and Athena picked up a win and a beating from rival Jade and her baddies..

What about in the land of Triple H and pals? Monday Night Raw started off with The Judgment Day talkin smack and beating up a vengeful Rey Mysterio. Asuka and Alexa Bliss moved on in the women’s tag team tournament, beating the team of Doudrop and Nikki A.S.H. 

Theory and possible mentor/current rival Dolph Ziggler had an extended fight backstage, starting with an argument and a nasty headbutt by Ziggler. Miz and Ciampa picked up a win over the new teamup of Mustafa Ali and Cedric Alexander, a fun team that I hope sticks together a while and gets some wins. The Owens vs Ezekiel/Elias feud seems to continue, as we were treated to a photo of Elias’s extended family surrounding his bed and promising vengeance. 

Drew McIntyre showed up on his day off to talk about Roman Reigns, a guy who doesn’t show up much at all these days. Drew was confronted by Kevin Owens and, surprisingly, they just decided it was a good time for a match. And they had one! And it was good! Great, even! I mean, yeah, the Usos showed up and made it a DQ finish but still. The match itself was awesome and the fact that they just talked a bit and decided they’re, as Drew said, “...wrestlers in a wrestling ring - let’s freakin’ wrestle!”.

A Veer Squash and a Dakota Kai squash sandwiched a really good US Title Match between AJ Styles and Bobby Lashley. Ciampa interfered but it didn’t matter in the end, as Bob continues to be a dominant babyface on a show where those are few and far between!

This may be a HAWT TAEK, but i thought the main event wasn’t super great but was very good, and I really don’t like Theory. But! Theory and Ziggler had a fine match fueled by their earlier fight. 

Smackdown featured the debut of the longtime  NXT women's tag team Toxic Attraction, replacing injured Zoe Stark and Nikkita Lyons in the WWE women's tag tourney. They (somewhat surprisingly) won over notorious gatekeeper Natalya and Sonya Deville. Sheamus won a really good four way over Ricochet, Moss, and Sami Zayn for the right to face Gunther for the Intercontinental title, and we had a whole lot of good storytelling as well, with Roman Reigns giving Zayn a little approval and, later, facing of with Drew McIntyre before their clash at the castle at the upcoming UK pay per premium live event.

To sum up, all the wrestling this week that I watched was pretty dang good! I hope you got a chance to watch some of this stuff, or some other stuff like the New Japan G1 Tournament or some Impact or GCW. If you look around, you’re bound to find something in line with your tastes. Heck, one of the best live shows I’ve ever attended featured wrestlers in kaiju costumes fighting in a ring full of little cardboard buildings. Kaiju Big Battel is BONKERS, y'all.

Again, I’ll work on that primer. I hope to at least get something out before Raw but, again, real life and the paid work comes first. I’ll let you know when my stuff starts getting published, but I guess I can tell you that I’m officially a Features Writer over at Wrestling Inc. It’s a pretty established and well known wrestling news site, and they’re just launching a features section so there’s a lot of sending things in and waiting to see what happens next. Still, I’ve only been doing this a few months and we’re already to the point where somebody thinks I'm good enough at it to pay me for my stuff! That’s pretty dope, and I appreciate you all for supporting me on my lil journey. It’s all pretty exciting, right?

We’ll see you soon, and I’ll keep you up on further developments as they come up via the Tweets and Facebook. Be good, have a great weekend, and I super promise I’ll work on that primer tomorrow morning. Writing a lot is shockingly bad on the eyes, I had no idea!