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Good Morning!
I really was hoping to do a second blog this week, and with good reason. WWE is fully on the Road to WrestleMania this week, and with AEW hitting its stride again and AEW Revolution coming up this weekend, I’d rather spend Casual Friday focused on the All Elite side of things, with a preview of that pay-per-view and a review of tonight’s Dynamite. So let’s talk about the Elimination Chamber show from Saturday morning, and the Fed in general!
We Watched Some Wrestling!
I actually stayed up for Elimination Chamber like a small child, unaware that my sleep would (of course) be destroyed the next couple nights. But it was fun at the time, and the show was largely pretty good! It was predictable, but sometimes keeping the stories on track is all we can hope for – not everything has to be a swerve, and when things go like we predict it makes the occasional hard right turn in the tale all the more interesting and unexpected.
Becky Lynch and Drew McIntyre won their respective Chamber matches, Becky through grit and Drew through opportunistic advantages. Both sets of tag team champions retained their titles, as did Rhea Ripley in a good match against Nia Jax, but as I said, nothing really unexpected overall. I mean, unless you consider Twitter losing its collective mind over the runtime of the show versus the match times, but even that should be expected at this point. The crowd seemed pretty into it, and while I get that WWE’s style isn’t for everyone, I also think there’s no reason to subject yourself to something you know you don’t like, especially if it’s just for engagement purposes. But then again, I only have like a dozen people who pay attention to my stuff, versus the thousands of followers those accounts have, so maybe it’s me who’s doing it wrong? WHO’S TO SAY?
Anyway the big Grayson Waller talk show segment basically existed to have Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins beat up Austin Theory, and for Cody to challenge the Rock to a match. Rocky is scheduled to appear on SmackDown three times before WrestleMania, so that means plenty of back-and-forth between the two of them (well, three if you include Seth, who has kinda eased himself into the whole Bloodline story) in the month before the big show.
RAW had some good stuff too, most notably several challengers appearing for Gunther’s Intercontinental Championship. It’s looking more and more like we’re going to see some version of a multi-man match at WrestleMania with Damien Priest, Sami Zayn, Chad Gable, and Jey Uso all expressing interest in the IC belt. Dominik Mysterio also challenged Gunther, but may himself have found a challenge in Andrade, who spoke with the younger Mysterio backstage. New Day lost a really good street fight with Imperium:
…and Becky Lynch interrupted a match between Nia Jax, who attacked her earlier in the show, and Liv Morgan, who did NOT appreciate Lynch’s interference. Cody Rhodes and Paul Heyman had a faceoff that featured Cody chairshotting some “suspended New York cops” and Drew McIntyre and Seth Rollins had a tense chat after Drew did a bit of CM Punk cosplay.
Over on my beloved NXT – now there’s a show dozens of us are paying attention to – we had some interesting developments on the road to next week’s Roadblock show as well as Stand and Deliver, NXT’s biggest show of the year. A challenge from NXT champ Ilya Dragunov to Carmelo Hayes might have turned into three big matches, as Tony D’Angelo, mafia family leader and somehow good guy on NXT, challenged both Ilya and Melo. So we’ll get Tony versus Melo next week, and I’m hoping we get the return of Trick Williams on that show too. Then it’s Trick versus Melo and Tony versus Ilya at Stand and Deliver, which should both be pretty dope!
Oh, and before I forget to mention it, the part where Carmelo had his security force surround the ring during his contract signing with Dragunov, only for Tony D to walk in, snap his finger, and have the whole group simultaneously hop down from the apron and walk out? Awesome.
We also saw the Good Brothers challenge new tag champs Bron Breakker and Baron Corbin (who I always want to call Corbin Bernsen for some reason) and Joe Gacy, last seen in a straight jacket inside a dumpster, break free and assault Dijak backstage. Oh, and Shawn Spears, formerly of AEW and formerly before that Tye Dillinger in NXT, made his return as the guy teased for the last month in those creepy text vignettes. I’m happy he’s back, and hope he gets used well this time around!
Oh, and while we’re on that subject, how rude of Ridge Holland to just interrupt NXT Women’s Champ Lyra Valkyria while she and frenemy Tatum Paxley were discussing their upcoming women’s tag team title opportunity. This is the champion of your promotion, discussing becoming a double champ, but it’s more important that some guy who’s had a string of bad luck comes out to complain? I’m happy for the returning Spears, and it’s fine that he’s got a rival now, but it seemed really disrespectful the way Holland just shooed the ladies out of the ring. Hell, even the way he said “ladies” bugged me as he asked them to “give him the ring” – at least refer to her as champ, my dude.
Other NXT developments included the Good Brothers getting a really good, albeit brief, match out of relative newcomers Idris Enofe and Malik Blade:
Which then led to several tag teams making themselves known. I think the addition of Gallows and Anderson to the NXT roster will let the young guys get some good reps in with some seasoned pros, both in the ring and on the mic, which can’t hurt your developmental brand at all.
Also! Charlie Dempsey (son of beloved wrestler William (Steven) Regal) beat Noam Dar in the main event for the Heritage Cup, a former NXT UK staple. Roxanne Perez continued her slide towards a possible heel turn, Gigi Dolan lost to Jaida Parker due to Miss NXT Arianna Grace questioning the fighting on a wrestling show, Lexus King beat up Von Wagner and Robert Stone after losing to Wagner and Chase U’s savior Jacy Jayne and pals ran down Thea Hale’s choices in men and friends. A good go-home show for a branded TV special, for sure!
Let’s Remember A Guy (Dad edition)
If you’ll indulge me before we wrap things up, I’ve had a weirdly dad-centric week and I kinda want to talk about it. Consider this the therapy portion of our program, since I’m not about to try actual therapy and I don’t think my insurance would cover it anyway.
So I had three things that kinda converged into a full Let’s Remember Some Dad. First, I was going to help a friend with some house stuff – fixing holes, installing floors, repairing a toilet, that sort of stuff. Stuff my dad taught me how to do, and stuff that he was always willing to do for everyone. And when I say everyone, I mean it – he’d do handyman work for my mom’s family long after the divorce, and even helped out his coworkers at Target despite having nothing else in common with them. He was just a good dude that wanted to help, and was capable of doing so. If there’s anything I want to take from what he taught me, even more so than the actual ability to work, it’s that desire to help when I know I can.
Second, I started a pitch for SlashGear about tools that would come in handy for an engine swap, and it got me thinking about my dad’s project car. For some reason, we thought it was a 1955 Ford Fairlane 500 with a 351 Torino engine in it. After some research, and learning how older VINs work, it turns out it’s a ‘57, which makes more sense – the 500 wasn’t introduced until then. The engine swap thing turned to that car because I got curious about the availability of the original engine, in hopes of maybe doing a swap myself and finishing what he started, restoring the seafoam Ford to its former glory. He got it running – not well, but well enough that I was able to take it around the neighborhood with him while I was in Tennessee in 2022.
Thirdly, just this (Wednesday) morning, a Twitter pal mentioned that she’d lost her dad two years ago, and asked if folks would have a bloody Mary in his honor as she can’t stomach the drink. Coincidentally, Mo and I were just talking about bloody Marys the night before, so I volunteered my service as a fan of the cocktail.
Just an odd series of things that got me thinking about him again. He was a good dude and a great dad and I miss him terribly, and more often than I tell anyone. It’s weird the little things that spark a memory of someone who’s passed, whether it's a parent or friend or even a pet. As I’m writing this, I just noticed the mug I chose this morning is the Blackhawks one. The logo reminds me of him, a lifelong fan of the team since the days of Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita. He took us to countless games when tickets were cheap, before the Stanley Cup wins in the 2010s led to a spike in prices. But we had a blast, taking the Blue Line El train from Forest Park to the United Center, enjoying pops and beers and watching guys like Tony Amonte, Eric Daze, Jeremy Roenick and Bob Probert. I wonder how he would have reacted to Patrick Kane scoring that overtime game-winner the other night as a Red Wing!
Apologies for getting all reminisce-y on you there. Let’s go home.
Closing Up Shop
…in which I say goodbye for now
And that’s it! Thanks for coming with me on that journey, and for indulging me in remembering my old man. I’ll still be here for Casual Friday, where we’ll talk about AEW Dynamite and do the full AEW Revolution pay-per-view preview, featuring Sting’s Last Match. 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 (if I can figure out how to get it to work – if you’re really feeling like donating, switch to desktop mode and it’ll pop up if it’s not down there on mobile). Have a great week, and I’ll see you back here next time, dear reader. Until then, Let’s Watch Some Wrestling!
