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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!