It’s a busy sports weekend, with the next round of the NCAA tournament already running and baseball’s first weekend of the regular season. We’ve also got WrestleMania week coming up, with all the go-home madness that comes with that, plus AEW’s continuing build to its Dynasty PPV.
But what I wanna talk about today is expectations. They’re related to all of those things, really. Whether it’s your March Madness brackets or your hopes for the Cubbies, people put a lot of stake in the things they love – or the things they’ve decided to identify with. And wrestling is no different. The problem comes when someone’s expectations are unrealistic, or they put too much stake in an opinion or a hope that may be less than plausible. Take the latest trend in Twitter takes – the stopwatch guys. These are people who time things on wrestling shows – stuff like match length, or the amount of actual wrestling on a show, or the amount of time women’s matches are allotted. They are rarely unbiased or presented in good faith – more often than not, it’s fans of “the other side” pointing out their perceived shortcomings with the product they’re analyzing.
But why do that at all? If you don’t enjoy WWE’s focus on storytelling, or presentation, what good are you doing by timing the amount of time matches are taking up on their programming? Preaching to the choir? Upping your follower count? Yelling at another fanbase who values different parts of pro wrestling? I just find it exhausting.
There is SO MUCH wrestling out there, there’s literally no reason to get mad at others for liking what they like. I mainly watch Raw, NXT, SmackDown, Dynamite, and Collision. I enjoy them for very different reasons. WWE for its larger than life image, storytelling, presentation, and stars. AEW for its incredible matches and smaller feel. And NXT because it’s just kinda silly, and I like seeing younger talent find their abilities. I’m fully aware of a bunch of other stuff, and when I’m in the mood I’ll watch some New Japan, or TNA, or just find matches on YouTube that folks recommend. And I feel like I’m on the low end of wrestling consumption – you go on BlueSky or Twitter and there are people live-tweeting shows at all hours.
My point is, maybe we need to enjoy what we enjoy. I like liking things – and yeah, I’ll complain a little when the thing I like doesn’t go how I’d hope, because I’m invested. But I’m not going on social media to argue about that because a) nobody has ever won an internet argument and b) I simply don’t want to. Everything in life seems so polarizing – I don’t need my entertainment to fall into that as well.
“It’s A Soap Opera With More Suplexes and Less Violence”
…in which I discuss the storylines that keep us watching week to week
It’s the week before WrestleMania and all eyes were on Raw this week, emanating from my beloved hometown WWE arena of the Allstate Arena (or the Rosemont Horizon for the real ones – the real old ones, that is). For a show that had minimal wrestling – a thing that we accept in WWE programming, especially this close to ‘Mania – this might have been one of the best booked Raws in years! The Cody speech that opened the show was great. The little teases that nodded towards the chaos that would ensue during the main event were so good. And that post-main event beatdown of Rhodes by The Rock, outside, in the rain, with the ghosts of Stone Cold and Cena looking on from a semi trailer? Cinematic feels like it’s too strong a word, but I got nothing else. Rock versus Cody has to be coming if Rocky’s schedule allows for it, but we’re also expecting Rock to take on Roman Reigns at some point. We’re spoiled, is what it comes down to.
AEW has been putting on shows that are basically the opposite of WWE, keeping the focus in the ring and signing some of the best talent in the world. Hopefully the attendance starts to reflect the in-ring product, because I feel like it really puts a damper on the shows when they take place in these mostly empty arenas. I see people saying it’s a bad crowd, but even a good crowd can only make so much noise in a barn. Khan has said that they book the larger arenas because of their ability to market the shows better, but we’re not seeing that marketing pay off in full stadiums. I’d like more small venues, personally. Sell out! Get people mad that they can’t get in, and next time around maybe you book that larger option.
Dynamite gave us some amazing matches in the opener and main, with Shibata fighting Will Ospreay and Takeshita taking on Swerve Strickland. Both were great matches, if not the best they could pull off, and they just made me look forward to more battles between these four.
NXT, also building to a big WrestleMania weekend show with their always-good Stand and Deliver on next Saturday afternoon, had some great stuff too! A fantastic main event featuring main-roster guys Otis and Tozawa of Alpha Academy taking on the NXT tag champs, the Wolf Dogs, stood out as the best thing on the show. But we also got Dijak beating Shawn Spears with a little help from former foe Joe Gacy, and Natalya showed up to answer an open challenge from well-regarded new-ish wrestler Lola Vice…and beat her, because we need to keep Nattie strong for, um, reasons.
I just…I don’t like Natalya. I don’t like that she’s always around, I don’t think she’s as good as WWE seems to think she is, and I think she’s kinda turning into Chris Jericho in a way, just always around the younger talent. No thank you.
We Watched Some Wrestling!
…in which I recommend some of the best matches I saw last week
AEW gave us Swerve Strickland versus Konosuke Takeshita, and as a fan of both, that’s an easy recommendation:
And, as I mentioned a little while ago, that NXT main event between Alpha Academy and the Wolf Dogs was a lot of fun!
But rather than a match, the WWE offering is going to be the last bit of Raw. The CM Punk/Seth Rollins/Drew McIntyre segment was crazy in an unhinged, unscripted, almost reactionary kind of way, though, and since I already linked the Rock’s assault on Cody, I’ll link that promo here:
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. Next week is the biggest week of the wrestling year, and I’m sure we’ll have a lot to talk about after this weekend, so I’m looking forward to catching up with you on Monday, dear reader.
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!
Not only was this week one of the most eventful, it was also the week the paying gig kept me from my Untitled Monday Thing. Then yesterday, a bit of helping a pal post-surgery ended up knocking me out, leading to a later than expected morning! Woof. So today’s Casual Friday is gonna be a little more freeform rant and a little less structured. Let’s talk a bit about what we missed, dear reader.
Catching Up On The Week That Was
Obviously, the big news was that Vince McMahon resigned from TKO Sports, the group that now owns UFC and WWE, after a lawsuit was brought against him for a number of … well, just the worst stuff you can think of. And while the more cynical among us don’t expect this resignation to stick for a number of reasons – one, he’s come back from a forced resignation in disgrace before, and two, bad people never seem to get their comeuppance – it’s the opinion of “Let’s Watch Some Wrestling” that if we stay positive on all the other stuff in wrestling, we ought to stay positive about this as well.
Vince leaving won’t fix the entire company. Years of rot and awful people putting other awful people in positions of power need to be cleaned and cleared before a better reputation can even be hoped for. But it’s a start, and it shows that with the right pressure from the right places, this new company might be less resistant to change, even if it’s just to appease shareholders who don’t want their stock prices to fall because Mr. PeepeePoopoo Mustache Creeper has asked to stay on the board as a consultant or something. Baby steps, you know?
Regardless, I don’t want to harp on this stuff too much. If you care about it, the whole lawsuit has been picked apart by smarter (or at least timelier) people than me. At the end of the day, it’s a gross thing that a lot of people are happy has happened. Most of them are happy for good reasons, like justice and a woman’s right to be believed. Others are just happy that the company they don’t watch has had a bad time, and that feels kinda shitty. After the maybe-nothing-maybe-not thing with Jericho a few weeks back, it’s probably best that we lean into the good parts of this thing we all enjoy, rather than hope a company that employs a bunch of people fails because someone prefers a different set of initials. But I digress…
[EDIT] After I knocked this out, I learned about the whole John Laurinitis, a former McMahon employee and co-defendant in that lawsuit claiming to be a victim of the whole thing. And about the federal government starting an investigation into McMahon based on that lawsuit. There’s definitely going to be a lot of information coming out and I’ll try my best to keep up with it all for you, dear reader. There’s a lot, and most of it is disgusting, and I’m not going to be reading the actual lawsuit or anything, but there’s several actual wrestling journalists who are trying to keep up with everything, so I’ll stay on top of their work, at the very least.
The Royal Rumble
What else…oh, the Royal Rumble happened! And it was largely…fine! I enjoyed the matches, thought the women’s match was a bit better than the men’s but both were okay. Winners were predictable (although not by yours truly…I had Becky Lynch and CM Punk) and the other two title matches went about how I’m sure many of us expected. Roman wins with interference again, Logan Paul wins by DQ . I will say I liked the ending of the US Championship match way more, and thought it was a creative way to keep KO looking strong while also leaving the belt with Logan Paul for now.
I enjoyed the women’s match more because they gave us more of the Royal Rumble surprises we’ve had for so long. Jordynne Grace, Tiffany Stratton, Roxanne Perez, a returning Naomi, and a debuting Jade MF’in Cargill all appeared and made statements. Stratton and Perez have been main roster ready for some time, and I think their showings in the Rumble solidified that. Naomi got all she deserved and more, with that St. Pete crowd giving her the nicest return chant possible. And Jade got to look great, single handedly tossing Nia Jax from the match and also matching strength with fellow powerhouse Bianca Belair.
The guys, well, they had a match. And I’m sure we’ll see stuff grow from that in the coming weeks. But with no returns, legends, or debuts (I won’t count Carmelo Hayes because he’s been on SmackDown for weeks now) it was just a little underwhelming. That said, the ending was really good, especially when it got down to CM Punk and Cody Rhodes. And yeah, Rhodes won again, and yeah, Punk is out for like six months…but sometimes just because they do the thing you expect isn’t bad. It just means they’re telling a good story to its logical conclusion. Nothing wrong with that.
CM Punk Is Out Of WrestleMania XL
Oof, that Punk injury though. That frickin sucks, man. And look, I get that he rubs a lot of people the wrong way. I have been a fan for years, but as a native Chicago suburbs kid, I’m kinda predisposed to liking the guy. And seeing him come back, only to have to wait another year –at minimum – to get back to a WrestleMania just bites.
However, if there’s a positive, it’s that he seems adamant that he’ll be back. And in the meantime, we’ve got a lot of moving parts to settle in place before WrestleMania, or even Elimination Chamber. Drew McIntyre, Gunther, Seth Rollins, possibly even the Rock will need to be sorted out. Becky Lynch versus Rhea Ripley and Bayley taking on IYO SKY seem like locks, but there still need to be matches made and alliances broken before those can happen. It’s an exciting time to be a fan, especially if you’re like me [and I know I am] and enjoy a bit of fantasy booking.
All Elite Wrestling
AEW existed as well! The other guys have had a couple of, if we’re being honest, weak Dynamites the last couple weeks. Collision was good, though, especially when the company must have known their numbers would be crap going against the Rumble. However, a little controversy came from the main event cage match, as rumors said that the rules for the match were changed so Malakai Black didn’t have to eat a pinfall. I don’t like these rumors! Black is cool and has a great gimmick, but he’s not the guy to tell his boss whether he loses from time to time. Everybody loses! It’s part of the sport! He’s also vehemently denied these rumors, so like everything in wrestling, it looks like we’re gonna have to pick a side between the performers (whose whole job is to work us fans) and the reporters (whose job is to generate clicks for revenue). It’s fun! Wrestling journalism is so fun to follow…
Swerve Strickland and Hangman Page look to be colliding again next week, which should be amazing. Actually, next week’s whole Dynamite card already looks like a world-beater, with the Tag Team Championships on the line between Sting and Darby Allen and Big Bill and Ricky Starks. And a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT from Tony Khan! Maybe he’ll tell us about Will Ospreay’s first match, or Kazuchika Okada debuting, or even Mercedes Moné. WHO’S TO SAY?
NXT is in full go-home mode, as the Vengeance Day PPV is coming up this weekend. Swerve and Trick did as we expected, defeating the LWO to get into the finals of the Dusty Cup. And Carmelo and Trick’s tense relationship continues to stay the course, as the pair had a stern conversation about Dragunov’s mind games -- a phrase used no less than five times in one segment. Lyra Valkyria, the bird person herself, has a stalker/follower in Tatum Paxley, who again attacked Roxanne Perez before the champ faces off against the contender. Valkyria, for her part, claims she has no knowledge of Paxley’s reasons for the ongoing attacks, but I’m not so sure. I hate to be on the same side as Booker T in most cases, but it does seem like she’s been pretty lax in allowing Paxley to keep on going after Perez.
Last Year’s “Let’s Watch Some Wrestling!” Prediction Stats
And that’s about it, right? All caught up? Cool. So, we went 2/4 for the first PPV/PLE of the year, calling the not Rumbles but not the Rumble matches. It happens. But with another PLE on the way this weekend, I’m thinking we dive right into the predictions for that one. This year, I’ll keep a running tally of my success rate in guessing matches. Last year, going off my published stuff from both the blog and The Wrestling Estate, I had a decent record! Here’s some stats on Let’s Watch Some Wrestling’s 2023:
WWE
Royal Rumble
Rhea
Cody
Roman
Bianca
Bray
Elimination Chamber
X
WrestleMania 39
X
Backlash
X
Night of Champions
X
Money in the Bank
Knight
SKY
Cody
Seth
Ronda+
Gunther
Usos
SummerSlam*
Knight
Cody
Baszler
Paul
Rollins
SKY
Reigns
Gunther
Payback
X
Fastlane
X
Crown Jewel
X
Survivor Series
Tm Cody
Tm Flair
Escobar
Gunther
Ripley
NXT Deadl1ne
Frazer
Dragunov
Mysterio
Perez
Hayes
Williams
Stratton
AEW
Revolution
X
Double or Nothing**
Hardys
Cole
Elite
Cassidy
Wardlow
FTR
Hayter
Statlander
Guevara
HoB
Forbidden Door***
Ospreay
Okada
All In****
Aussies
Tm Sting
Bullet Club
BCC
Ospreay
Acclaimed
Bucks
Shida
Punk
Cole
Hook
All Out
X
WrestleDream
X
Full Gear
Joe/MJF
Tm Sting
Hangman
Bucks
Cassidy
Statlander
Starks/Bill
Shida
MJF
Kingston
Claudio
Worlds End*****
Hangman
Hook
Tm Sting
Swerve
Miro
Tm Rush
Cage
Hart
Kingston
Storm
Joe
Nightingale
Hook
Totals
Matches with Predictions
68
Correct Predictions
47
Accuracy
69%
Some notes:
I obviously didn’t preview every PPV or PLE last year. The blog was in a tentative place, and I contributed to a few other wrestling sites last year as well, which took some of my focus. The X’s are shows I didn’t preview. Italicized results are matches I didn't preview on shows I otherwise did, often due to late or nonexistent announcements.
*SummerSlam featured the IYO SKY Money In The Bank Cash-In, so I’m counting that prediction as a win.
**Similar situation with Double or Nothing, where I predicted a returning Statlander challenging Jade Cargill after her win over Taya Valkyrie.
***I didn’t write a full preview for Forbidden Door, but did participate in a roundtable discussion at The Wrestling Estate (RIP)
****Worlds End saw Dustin Rhodes replace an injured Keith Lee, but I think contextually Swerve winning would have been the same call regardless of who his opponent was. Also, Christian Cage technically lost his title, but then immediately won it again due to shenanigans, so I’m calling that a retention.
Not too shabby, huh? Also…69% accuracy? Nice.
So with that, and our strong 50% start at the Royal Rumble this year, let’s get into…
The “Let’s Watch Some Wrestling!” Vengeance Day Preview
Baron Corbin and Bron Breakker versus Trick Williams and Carmelo Hayes in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Finals
Some recent developments have made this a little harder to call! Firstly, Bron had a great showing in the Royal Rumble. Rumor is, he was taking the spot of Brock Lesnar, who was all but directly named in that lawsuit we spoke about. But regardless of the reason why he was in there, Breakker made the most of the opportunity, spearing and yeeting guys like his life depended on it. Add that to the missed opportunity to bring him up while he was the most popular man in NXT, and maybe they’re looking to get him on the main roster while the getting’s good.
BUT the storyline almost demands that Williams and Hayes win. Dragunov basically set the pair at odds by offering Trick the title shot he was owed as Iron Survivor at the same show where the Dusty Cup finals are being held. And that hasn’t been lost on Carmelo, who continues to look like the shifty one in this partnership despite constant claims that he’s only got Trick’s best interests at heart. Since we need to pick a winner, I’ll go with the Trick Melo Gang, but I appreciate that it’s not as clear cut as it seemed to be a few weeks ago.
Tony D’Angelo, Stacks Lorenzo, and Adriana Rizzo versus Lucien Price, Bronco Nima, and Jaida Parker in a Six Person Mixed Tag Match
THIS is the NXT I tune in for week after week. Just the dumbest possible storylines imaginable. The mafia guys, two of whom are the NXT Tag Team Champs, had the restaurant they own (or maybe just frequent?) demolished by new challengers Price and Nima. Both groups recently added female members, so we’ll get the old-fashioned Fed rules for this mixed tag match – guys tag out when a gal tags in. It’s not as fun as watching the World’s Cutest Tag Team back in the day, but since none of these workers are problematic, I guess it’s for the best. I’ll pick the Family to win here, since whoever wins the Dusty cup later is guaranteed a title shot. No sense making the story even more convoluted just yet.
Dijak versus Joe Gacy in a No Disqualification Match
These guys have been at each other’s throats for a few weeks now, and they also have a longer history back when Gacy was running a cult (because it’s NXT and that’s a normal storyline on this show). I’m feeling a push for Gacy now that Ava, his former protégé, is in charge, and Dijak never seems to suffer after a loss. He’s just too good a baddie to not be believable as the guy your favorite might lose to! So, we’ll say Gacy picks up the win.
Oba Femi shocked the world, or at least me on my couch, when he picked up the win against Dragon Lee a few weeks back. I’ve loved Femi since he was first introduced in the Men’s Breakout tournament a few months back, but I still thought it would be months until he even sniffed a title opportunity. He’s been mostly good in the role as the powerful champion, maybe a little rough around the edges but the base is there. It would feel disingenuous to let Lee get the strap back right after losing it, so I’ll go with Femi to retain a while longer. If the match is good, or even if Lee were to win, I’d still expect a third match at Stand and Deliver. But we’ll see how Sunday goes before we start fantasy booking that ‘Mania weekend show.
I mentioned this matchup earlier, and I think the goofy NXT storytelling around Tatum Paxley has been fun so far! She’s playing the role of obsessed goth well, but there’s a chance she might end up costing Valkyria the title with her shenanigans. The popular opinion on the socials is that maybe Roxy is gonna be turning heel soon, but I think that’s a mistake. I’m hoping Valkyria goes all the way in on having an evil partner, and I’d also love to see Perez win the title and eventually move on to the big shows. Roxanne as the lovable underdog would help ease her into the move up, and also would make a hell of a moment when the loving NXT fans thank her and see her off in Philly. We haven’t had much in the way of big debuts on the Raw after WrestleMania the last few years, but I think there’s a strong chance several NXT stars see their way up this year.
Trick. All day. The man is everything you want in a WWE Superstar – he’s got the look, he’s good on the mic, he can wrestle a good match, and the crowd is all the way over for him. If you need evidence of that, check out his SmackDown appearance, saving Carmelo Hayes from a Austin Theory/ Grayson Waller beatdown. Those fans aren’t even the NXT faithful and yet the “whoop that trick” chants were loud and clear throughout the arena.
I liked Ilya’s championship run, but WWE has had a history of missing the boat on several recent hot NXT acts. You’ve got an immediate storyline with a jealous ‘Melo to work through WrestleMania weekend, and the history between those two, along with a possible “can they coexist” storyline if they win the Dusty Cup. It’s basically everything WWE bookers want, all at once. WHO SAYS NO?
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 a stacked SmackDown tonight, where we’ll start that brand’s Road To WrestleMania with appearances by Cody Rhodes, Roman Reigns, and who knows who else! AEW will be playing host to some cool CMLL talent on Rampage and Collision, giving us some solid lucha libra in our diet. Sunday brings us the first NXT PLE for the year, Vengeance Day. Our Monday weekend in review should be pretty packed! Hopefully I stay on my game and, you know, write it!
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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