Monday Night RAW
Rhodes and Rollins tease another match, interrupted yet again.
I’m interested to see if it’s a long-term angle for them to meet at a bigger show (Wrestlemania? Royal Rumble?) or if it’s just an opportunity to put your two biggest stars on the brand opposite of each other, tease interest, pop the crowd and send them on their opposite paths. They did this kind of interaction when the new World Heavyweight Title was unveiled. Rhodes wasn’t in that tournament, he was dealing with Brock Lesnar.
Rollins joined the tournament and won, beginning his WHC reign.
At Summerslam, both men dispatched of their mortal enemies. Finn Balor swore revenge on Seth, only to lose (with an inadvertent distraction from Judgement Day teammate and Señor MITB, Damian Priest). Cody Rhodes survived Lesnar and earned his respect.
On Monday, Rhodes wanted a fight. He wanted a challenge. Rollins responded. Rollins clearly respects Rhodes and has he utmost confidence in himself right now as World Heavyweight Champion.
But you can tell he has insecurity around Rhodes. He knows it is only a matter of time before Rhodes turns his ire towards him and the WHC.
Rollins will not be taken by surprise, like at Wrestlemania 38 or Hell in a Cell, when Rhodes powered through a torn pectoral to defeat Rollins.
Judgement Day interrupted. Sami Zayn also came out because he’s the nicest guy on RAW and wants to help all of his friends AND convinced Rhodes and Rollins to work together to defend their real-life and on-screen buddy, Kevin Owens’ honor.
JD McDonagh, Balor’s questionable ally injured Sami Zayn backstage, messing up his elbow.
Shinsuke Nakamura took his place with the super friends, helping them dispatch of Judgement Day. Then Nakamura turned on Rollins, seemingly setting up their feud.
Rhea Ripley mentioned Dirty Dom is not finished with Cody yet. Sp, Rhodes seems to be taking on Judgement Day in place of Rollins.
Seemingly the two stars will be kept apart for now. But, the continued teases of tension show how valuable HHH and co. think these two stars and their feud precisely could shape the post-Bloodline era.
And I completely agree. This could be the rivalry of our generation.
AEW DYNAMITE
Brochacos in the Main Event
My full dynamite review can be found here.
And at least to the audience, Cole has tipped his hand. I truly believe Cole has always been planning to turn on Max when the time is right. And right now it *seems* like Max is eating it all up. MJF accepts and now the BFFs have to take on the dangerous ROH tag champs, Aussie Open on the Zero Hour of ALL IN (free on YouTube, good call Tony).
But now the real question is how much has Max been playing all of us? Will he turn on Cole in the tag title match before Cole can depend on him? Or is he simply so enamored with being friends with Adam Cole that he’s lost his edge?
Friday Night SMACKDOWN
The Bloodline Explode and Jey Peaces Out
Jimmy Uso turned on his twin brother Jey during Tribal Combat at Wrestlemania.
This earned the ire of a lot of wrestling fans around the world. Why was Jimmy turning necessary? Why do brothers have to fight? He turned on Roman first, why turn on Jey?
The explanation wasn’t great. Or was it?
Jimmy mentioned that he was afraid the power of the Tribal Chief would corrupt Jey.
However, a few weeks ago, Roman mentioned that Jimmy never believed Jey could handle the role.
Roman is a master manipulator and gaslighter. Everyone assumed he was lying to get at Jey. But what if he wasn’t?
And what if Jimmy has actually picked up more from Roman than he’d be willing to admit?
In my opinion, Jimmy is jealous of Jey. Has been for 3 years. He’s jealous of the “main event” moniker. He’s jealous that Roman trusted him. So when Jimmy was the one who decided to superkick Roman and effectively end the bloodline and then JEY is the one who gets a title match?
The clip of Jimmy declaring himself the tribal chief is going around as well from before Wrestlemania. The seeds have been there. Jimmy has been positioned as the lesser twin for years.
Now is his time to show his worth.
Jey Uso proceeded to take out Solo, Roman and Jimmy, declare himself out of WWE and exited through the crowd. He is now in the WWE.com alumni section as the bloodline saga seems to be pausing for a bit.
Let’s hope that they have the juice to be able to afford to pause.
AEW COLLISION
I would love to write about actual wrestling in my first weekly recap article.
But. CM Punk is determined to keep himself in the news for reasons that have nothing to do with the stories being told in the ring. After the show Saturday, Punk had this to say about Hangman Page.
Naturally, the internet has spent the last day arguing about Punk and his pettiness. More reports have surfaced of AEW talent being told to “stay away” from Collision. Two weeks out from their biggest show in history, CM Punk can’t seem to get out of his own and AEW’s way.
In less than two weeks, all parties involved will be in a different country together to perform in front of the biggest wrestling crowd in the history of the sport. Get your shit together.
AROUND THE WRESTLING WORLD
Tetsuya Naito defeats Will Ospreay, Kazuchika Okada in back-to-back days to win the G1 Climax 33.
Every summer, New Japan Pro Wrestling hosts the most prestigious tournament in all of wrestling: The G1 Climax. This years tournament featured 28 men in 4 blocks, competing in a round robin tournament. The winner gets a title match at Wrestle Kingdom, NJPW’s Wrestlemania, but they must defend their contendership at least once before January.
Tetsuya Naito, probably the biggest babyface in all of NJPW, has had a rough go of it the last year, losses piling up and losing his star pupil, Sanada to the group Just 5 Guys. Sanada is the IWGP World Heavyweight champion and has been on a killer run. But he has been able to avoid Naito.
Not for long. Naito in a matter of days, defeated the 3 most prominent NJPW stars besides himself, dispatching of Hiroshi Tanahashi along with Ospreay and Okada in the semis and finals respectively.
Ospreay and Naito had one of the best matches you’ll see this year. A back and forth affair, Ospreay’s athleticism on full display but the real story was Naito battling someone younger and more physically able, but preserving with the support of a crowd who was fully behind his journey to battle Sanada.
Naito and Okada have been through plenty of wars, including their classic bout at WK14. The series was 7-6 Okada going into Sunday, but Naito prevailed at the end hitting Okada with the full arsenal of his offense and setting up a date with Sanada at WK. This also frees up Okada and Ospreay for additional big-time matches at the Tokyo Dome in January, potentially rematches with AEW stars Kenny Omega and Bryan Danielson.
Buckle up.