Category Archives: Pro Wrestling

WWE Unreal S1 E4, E5

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Spoilers

So I wrapped up the final two episodes of WWE Unreal tonight with two episodes that I thought were the best ones of the series.

Episode 4 featured the heel turn of John Cena, including the parts of the story involving Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Episode 5 was Wrestlemania 41.

There were a lot of cool moments in these episodes. I did enjoy listening to the planning behind the Elimination Chamber where what exactly they wanted to do with the Rock/Cody story was determined. With it leading to John Cena’s heel turn, the writer’s room was pretty cool.

I did enjoy hearing CM Punk give the idea for the ending of the men’s Elimination Chamber where Seth stomps Punk and Cena puts him into the STF. It went exactly as Punk had laid out and hearing that was an awesome moment. Especially with all six participants surrounding Triple H in the planning. It showed how professional these men were.

My favorite part of the entire series was seeing how emotional CM Punk was over finally main eventing Wrestlemania. He had tears in his eyes before heading out for the match. Triple H told him that he had always been a main event performer and you could see how much that meant to Punk. The tears after the match were so powerful too. He spoke about how he had accomplished his lifelong dream and it was not just a written promo. This was Phil Brooks (CM Punk’s real name) speaking from his heart.

The show did mention some of the negatives that lead up to Wrestlemania, such as Jey Uso’s troubles where we saw a ZOOM meeting where creative had discussed not putting the title on him because of his malaise. They also addressed the Charlotte Flair-Tiffany Stratton promo that had gotten too real on an episode of Smackdown.

It still felt as if there could have been more that we saw, but, perhaps the dirt sheets that report all these things, do not necessarily get things correct. The relationship between Rock and Triple H is supposed to be very bad, but there was no even slight example of that in this docu-series.

This was an interesting docu-series and I do believe it was well put together. It was certainly produced carefully, but it was fun seeing the backstage parts.

WWE Unreal S1 E1-E3

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Spoilers

The new docu-series dropped on Netflix today called WWE Unreal. It was a series that takes the audience behind the scenes to see what happens to create the magic of the WWE.

The show focused on the time period starting around the Netflix debut of RAW through Wrestlemania 41.

WWE has always been great at documentaries and there was some definitely controversy about WWE pulling the curtains back. I did enjoy this, but I am going to say that Unreal was clearly too clean… too produced.

What I mean is that we do not really see any negative things that might happen or that was rumored to happen. They did not mention Seth Rollins’s absolute hatred of CM Punk, which feels like would be a major piece of what happened backstage.

However, I did like the few looks into the writer’s room with how they were putting together ideas for the matches.

The first three episodes featured in on CM Punk, Rhea Ripley, Chelsea Green, Charlotte Flair, Bianca Belair, Jey Uso, and Cody Rhodes (in particular with his matches against Kevin Owens).

What we got was fun, but it did feel very homogenized. I like seeing the wrestlers backstage out of character and how they bond with each other. Watching the group of female wrestlers heading out for the Elimination Chamber match praying together was fascinating.

The show did continue to show that this was not just scripted material, but that these men and women truly put their careers on the line every night they go out to perform. They talked about injuries to Rhea Ripley, CM Punk and Charlotte Flair. One of my favorite moments was when Kevin Owens was discussing a spot he had with Cody Rhodes during the ladder match when he gave Cody a fisherman’s buster off the second rope into a ladder. KO was worried because of the way the ladder had been set up and he was afraid Cody’s neck would be injured.

Another great moment was watching the backstage agents dealing with the matches. Chris Park, who used to wrestle under the moniker of Abyss, was in charge of the Netflix RAW debut main event CM Punk vs. Seth Rollins. The match is a great match and will be on a list of the best of the year, but Park was facing pressures because the match was running long. Park, trying to get approval from Bruce Prichard, who was pushing him to get the match to go to the finish. I felt for Chris Park because it felt like he was in trouble despite this being a classic match.

There are two more episodes of this docu-series that have dropped. One of them is focused in on the John Cena heel turn and another one on Wrestlemania 41. Both could have some major news, including an original match lineup for Wrestlemania 41 before things get switched around. This list was released as news from the series so I look forward to finishing up the series.

RIP Hulk Hogan

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I was coming out of the comic shop in Bettendorf this morning when I saw a YouTube notification for John Rocha’s channel. It said “Hulk Hogan is Dead.” I was shocked and immediately started looking though my phone to see what this meant. It was a strange way of putting it so I thought maybe it was that he was metaphorically dead. But I found other articles about the Hulkster’s death from cardiac arrest in a hospital in Florida.

I found myself feeling very strange. I have not felt like this in a long time. When I was young, Hulk Hogan was one of my favorite wrestlers. I would have been a Hulkamaniac for sure. The years in the 1980s helped cement pro wrestling as one of my favorite things to do.

I went to the closed circuit broadcast in Davenport at the Palmer Auditorium for Wrestlemania 3 when Hogan wrestled Andre the Giant. I was so into this match and I was emotionally invested.

However, then I grew up. I started seeing Hogan as not just a character, but a performer who was an asshole. He was racist. He was a politician backstage, keeping others down. Someone who went into the WCW and helped bring that organization down.

I found myself disgusted with Hogan. When he came to RAW on Netflix in LA earlier this year and the crowd booed him out of the building because of his choices that he had made. Some blamed his support of Donald Trump, who he spoke for at the Republican National Convention, for the reaction of the liberal LA crowd, but I think that is too easy of an excuse. I do think the issues from his racist comments to his sex tape to other choices he made is what led to the booing.

Either way, I felt sad and confused about my thoughts of Hulk Hogan.

RIP Terry Bollea.

WWE Evolution (2025)

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It has been well known that the WWE has some of the greatest women wrestlers in the world today. I have sat watching RAW or Smackdown thinking about the sheer number of awesome female performers the company could put out.

They only solidified that by having their all-female PLE Evolution on Sunday night. They had done an all-women PPV (at the time) in 2018 and it was a fun night, but this was at such a level that some are claiming that it is the best show of 2025 so far for the WWE.

There were complaints about the build to the show as the WWE only had two weeks of build and nothing of real note had happened. The WWE was also building to Saturday Night’s Main Event, The Great American Bash and SummerSlam during this stretch so the time was limited.

It just goes to show how remarkable the women of the WWE truly are that they can put on arguably the best event of the year with little background.

Lots of credit goes to the Atlanta crowd because they were hot all night long and that is a key to having a great event.

Show kicked off with a triple threat match for the Intercontinental Championship with champion Becky Lynch defending against Bayley and Lyra Valkyria. It was the match that had the best story behind it and I had even heard some people say that this should main event the show. The three wrestlers had amazing chemistry with each other and it was a spectacular match. All three of them delivered and the first match on the card threatened to steal the night. Becky did this amazingly smooth roll-up finish that I had never seen before. It was so good.

NXT has claimed that they have the best Women’s division in all of wrestling, and they got a chance to show it with NXT Champion Jacy Jayne defending against Jordynn Grace. They had a banger of a match that ended with a heel turn from the newly arrived Blake Monroe. I saw that one coming from the pre-show, by the way. I smelled the heel turn.

The four way tag team title match saw the Judgement Day retain their titles against the Kabuki Warriors, Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss and Sol Ruca & Zaria. This was a lot of fun too. The Atlanta crowd was hot for Charlotte, even chanting “We Want Charlotte” at one point. That was amazing considering how hated Charlotte Flair had been since her return. It was a wonderful moment for sure.

This tag match also had one of my favorite sequences of the night as Sol was holding Alexa so Zaria could spear her only to wind up getting speared herself when Charlotte pulled Alexa away at the last moment. The timing on that was impeccable and it looked so great. I also loved how Charlotte held Alexa in the corner and mouthed “I got you” to Alexa even though their gimmick has been that they were not friends. The Charlotte and Alexa pairing has been sensational so far and has helped get Charlotte cheered.

Tiffany Stratton defended her WWE Women’s Championship against the Hall of Famer Trish Stratus in a solid match. Tris is almost 50 years old and she looks amazing. She still has it to as these two put on a really entertaining title match.

Anything went in the next match between Jade Cargill and Naomi. This feud had been going for months and this felt like a blow off. There were a bunch of cool spots in this match including the ending sequence of Jade putting Naomi through a table from a top rope Jaded. It looked great.

Battle Royal followed this and it was fine. The best part was the win by Stephanie Vaquer, who now gets a title match at Clash in Paris. Vaquer is one of the newer stars in WWE, but she is known worldwide and she is one of the best going.

Then, what has a chance to be the Match of the Year. Iyo Sky defended her WWE World Championship against Rhea Ripley. We have seen this match several times, but, honestly, it never gets old and this match was brilliant. These two have such chemistry together and are so special in the ring that they stole the entire weekend that had been loaded with wrestling.

Then, after a beautiful Spanish fly maneuver, the big shock happened. Naomi, fresh off of getting beaten up badly in the match with Jade, came down with her Money in the Bank contract and cashed in, making the match a triple threat. Iyo and Rhea had killed each other so much that they were easy picking for Naomi and she became the new Women’s World Champion.

An unbelievable moment with a shocking cash in. I, like many, figured Naomi was cashing in on Tiffany or Jade after their match at SummerSlam, but instead, she cashed in on Iyo and made a historic moment.

There should be no doubt that the WWE women could put on a show like this. Their amount of riches they currently have is an embarrassment of riches. This was even without the currently injured Liv Morgan, who is one of the best of the division.

WWE Women’s Division has come a long way from the Bra and Panties matches of the past. They are now the main events and the bangers that were once exclusively the male’s area. Congrats to the WWE Women’s Division on a massively successful show that exceeded expectations.

Wrestlemania 41 Weekend: The Raw After Mania

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The Wrestlemania weekend continued tonight on Monday Night Raw, which has become known as the Raw After Mania. It is a night where they reset stories, debuts some new talents and have a general amount of chaos.

John Cena spoke about his plans to leave with the belt after his final 27 dates scheduled. I’m still not sure how this was going to “ruin wrestling” as he claimed. We saw the next opponent for Cena as Randy Orton gave him a RKO out of nowhere.

Rusev made his return after five years and attacked the Alpha Academy, who were getting ready to take on the New Day. Rusev looked really great.

Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez regained the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship by defeating Lyra Valkyria and Becky Lynch. Afterwards, Becky flipped out and attacked Lyra. Did not seem to be the same person who went to the press conference last night after night two with her daughter on her lap.

Iyo Sky came out to celebrate her World title defense and she was interrupted by NXT Women’s Champion Stephanie Vaquer, who wanted to congratulate Iyo and fight her. Then we got an impromptu match between them. They are two of the best women wrestlers in the world and they were having an awesome match until they were disrupted by Roxanne Perez and Giulia, resulting in a DQ.

Dirty Dom, the new IC Champion, pinned Penta. Yes, I typed that. There was interference from a returning JD McDonagh, but still. Of course, I would have hated to see how the crowd would have turned on Penta if the WWE would have done the one-day title reign to Dom.

Jey Uso came out to celebrate and Sami Zayn joined him. I was afraid that Sami was going to turn heel on Jey the entire time they were out there, but it did not happen. I do not want heel Sami. He is just too good of a babyface.

Gunther took this celebration badly as he was there after the commercial, confronting Michael Cole for comments Cole had made. He put Michael in the sleeper, but Pat McAfee broke it up. Then, Gunther grabbed Pat and choked him out while a bunch of security and backstage people tried to get him to stop. Pat sold this like he had been nearly killed.

Bron Breakker joined up with Seth Rollins and Paul Heyman and they destroyed CM Punk and Roman Reigns as the show went off the air.

Wrestlemania 41 Weekend: Night Two

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Night Two of Wrestlemania 41 was considerably stronger than night one. There may not have been anything quite like Punk-Rollins-Reigns match, but there were a couple that came close.

John Cena won his 17th championship when he defeated Cody Rhodes with help from Travis Scott and by hitting Cody with the title.

The crowd in Las Vegas was much better tonight than they were Saturday. They were in the matches all night. However, some of their reactions were weird. They cheered for Cena. They booed Cody. They cheered wildly when Dom Mysterio became the new Intercontinental Champion. The crowd was bizarre.

The triple threat match with Bianca-Rhea and Iyo Sky was an amazing match to kick off the show. Iyo won and retained, and I am so happy about that. She had been shown as a third wheel of the build for this match and it seemed as if there was a lot of disrespect for Iyo. The crowd did love her, and her big victory was awesome. This is in the conversation for Match of the Year when December comes around.

I am also happy Drew McIntyre won the Street fight with Damian Priest. However, it looked liek Damian was injured. They apparently carted him off after the match, off camera.

Logan Paul defeated AJ Styles cleanly (for the most part). That was a sad moment of the night, though it was a really strong match.

Somebody must have said his name… because Joe Hendry answered the Randy Orton challenge. Of course, the TNA World Champion was defeated by the RKO, but Joe Hendry got a really great response from the crowd. It was short and sweet, but it was fun. Randy liked Joe Hendy’s theme song too, you could tell.

Becky Lynch returned as Lyra Valkyria’s partner and they became WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions by defeating Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez.

I had heard some rumors that they might be considering putting the IC title on Dominik Mysterio, but I never thought they would do it. Yet, it happened when he hit a frog splash on Finn Balor. Bron Breakker was not involved in the final, and he looked like a phenomenon during this match.

The whole cheering Dirty Dom blows my mind. I do not know where it came from. Same way the boos for Cody seemed to just materialize.

Night two was really great.

Best matches of the weekend (Not necessarily in this order)

  1. Rollins vs. Punk vs. Reigns
  2. Oba Femi vs. Je’Von Evans vs. Trick Williams
  3. Rhea vs. Iyo vs. Bianca

Wrestlemania 41 Weekend: Night 1

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Saturday Night at Wrestlemania 41 is in the books.

The main event, where Seth Rollins defeated Roman Reigns and CM Punk with the help of the Judas Paul Heyman, was a fantastic match.

The rest of the card, while nothing was egregiously bad, was okay, at best.

Jey Uso became the World Champion. Jacob Fatu became the US Champion. The New Day became the new World Tag Team Champions. Tiffany Stratton retained her title. El Grande Americano defeated Rey Fenix, who replaced the injured Rey Mysterio. Jade Cargill defeated Naomi. This was all fine. The Stratton/Flair match was pretty rough. Cargill and Naomi was pretty good.

The main event is absolutely the standout match of the night. Roman Reigns is just an amazing performer as his facial expressions are so good that they add so much to the match. Paul Heyman betrayed CM Punk first, with a nut shot. Then he betrayed Roman with another one. Paul Heyman aligned himself with Seth Rollins. Many had predicted that this is what was going to happen (including me at the EYG predictions) but to actually see it play out is surreal. The evil look on the face of Heyman as he and Rollins went up the aisle was chilling.

The crowd was great for the main event and for the opening match with Uso/Gunther, but were pretty dead the rest of the way.

I was 5-2 in the first night. I missed the LA Knight match and the Tiffany match.

Sunday night is next up.

Wrestlemania 41 Weekend: NXT Stand and Deliver

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  • NXT Championship: Oba Femi vs. Trick Williams vs. Je’Von Evans
  • NXT Women’s Championship: Stephanie Vaquer vs. Giulia vs. Jordynne Grace vs. Jaida Parker
  • Women’s North American Championship: Zaria vs. Kelani Jordan vs. Sol Ruca vs. Izzi Dame vs. Lola Vice vs. Thea Hail
  • North American Championship: Ricky Saints vs. Ethan Page
  • NXT Tag Team Championship: Nathan Frazer & Axiom vs. Hank Walker & Tank Ledger
  • The D’Angelo Family vs. Darkstate
  • Fatal 4-Way Elimination Match to determine the #1 contender for the WWE Women’s Tag titles: Jackson & Lash Legend vs. Fallon Henley & Jacy Jayne vs. Gigi Dolin & Tatum Paxley vs. Cora Jade & Roxanne Perez (pre-show)

Gigi Dolin & Tatum Paxley won the Fatal 4-Way.

Tank and Hank defeated Fraxiom for the NXT Tag Team Championship

Ricky Saints defeated Ethan Page to retain North American Championship.

Sol Ruca won the Women’s North American Championship in ladder match

Darkstate defeated D’Angelo Family when Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo turned on The Don.

Stephanie Vaquer retained her NXT Women’s Championship

Oba Femi retained his NXT Championship.

At least two Match of the Year contenders in this event, with the match between Oba Femi, Trick Williams and Je’Von Evans being astounding. The second MotY contender is the tag match between Hank and Tank and Fraxiom. Absolutely breathtaking.

All of the matches were excellent though. Another wonderful Stand and Deliver from NXT.

Wrestlemania 41 Weekend: Hall of Fame

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The Hall of Fame ceremony was scheduled this year in Las Vegas and they were having it a couple of hours later than Smackdown. That meant it was going to start on Peacock at midnight, my time. I know how long the Hall of Fame ceremony can run, so I decided that I would watch this Saturday morning instead.

I am aware how some people online view the WWE Hall of Fame. They consider it a joke, lacking credibility. There is no brick and mortar Hall of Fame (which I wish they would have) and, for years, only one person admitted the inductees. Are there performers that I believe should have been inducted years ago? Of course (Demolition, Miss Elizabeth, Bam Bam Bigelow etc.) To all that criticism, I say that you can see the emotion in the wrestlers’ faces, eyes, tears… and it is clear that this honor means something to them. As far as I am concerned, that makes this an important event.

This year, the inductees included Triple H, Lex Lugar, Michelle McCool, and The Natural Disasters (Earthquake & Typhoon). Then, they inducted Ivan Koloff, Dory Funk Sr. and Kamala in the Legends wing.

It was kind of funny how long Triple H’s speech was. I’m sure he’ll catch some criticism online for that, but he was clearly emotional and grateful for his induction.

Best induction of the night: Easily Shawn Michaels, who was emotional, funny, and was given more time than some of the others. Shout out to CM Punk who inducted the Austin-Hart Wrestlemania 13 match. He did not have much time, but he was able to present the match with a lot of sincerity. You truly believed that Punk loved this match.

Best Speech of the night: Triple H’s was great, but I am giving it to Michelle McCool. She was really solid and thanked plenty of people during the time she was allotted.

Lookie there: I spotted Zack Ryder in the crowd! Of course Zack Ryder, real name Matt Cardona, is married to Chelsea Green, who is a current performer and would be required to be there.

Awkward Moment of the Night: Triple H thanked Vince, calling it “complicated.” You think?

Best Joke: Triple H said about how long he was talking said he was sure Shawn was fuming backstage because he had a call time for NXT Stand and Deliver in 15 minutes.

Ugh: Linda McMahon. Nuff said.

Wrestlemania Weekend: Smackdown

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Friday Night kicked off the Wrestlemania weekend with Smackdown on the USA Network. Three hour show (Smackdown was better when it was two hours, just saying) filled with fun promos and exciting action in Los Vegas.

Seth Rollins started the show off with a fantastic in-ring promo, sitting in the middle of the ring much like his rival CM Punk would do, delivering a scathing promo on the Saturday night match against Roman and Punk. Rollins is just one of the best all-around performers in the WWE. He threw even more gas on the fire of this match.

The Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal was won by Carmelo Hayes, which I found shocking. I expected Rey Fenix to win the battle royal, but El Grande Americano showed up and cost him the match. Funny, Chad Gable was in the battle royal and had been previously eliminated. It came down to Carmelo and Andrade and they have amazing chemistry with one another.

Smackdown tag team champions the Street Prophets do not get on Wrestlemania card, which was a shame, but they defended against Motor City Machine Guns tonight. However, Gargano and Ciampa interfered causing a no contest and they stole the title belts. Nick Aldis got them back and announced a TLC match next week.

LA Knight and Braun Stroman defeated Solo Sikoa and Jacob Fatu. Knight had injured Tama Tonga before the show. He was taken to the infamous “Local Medical Facility”.

Selina Vega pulled an upset against Chelsea Green in a non-title match.

Cody Rhodes and John Cena had a face off in the ring. Cena delivered another strong promo, and the crowd seemed to boo Cody when he started his retort, but Cody pushed on and seemed to win them back afterwards. Both men are great on the microphone. Cena may be right about the crowd and how fickle they are.

Wrestlemania 41 EYG Predictions

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Night One match card (April 19, 7 p.m. ET, Peacock):

  • Triple-threat match: Seth Rollins vs. Roman Reigns vs CM Punk
  • World Heavyweight Championship: Gunther (c) vs. Jey Uso
  • WWE Women’s Championship: Tiffany Stratton (c) vs. Charlotte Flair
  • World Tag Team Championship: War Raiders (c) vs. The New Day
  • United States Championship: LA Knight (c) vs. Jacob Fatu
  • Rey Mysterio vs. El Grande Americano
  • Jade Cargill vs. Naomi

Night Two match card (April 20, 7 p.m. ET, Peacock):

  • Undisputed WWE Championship: Cody Rhodes (c) vs. John Cena
  • WWE Women’s World Championship (triple-threat): Iyo Sky (c) vs. Rhea Ripley vs. Bianca Belair
  • Women’s Tag Team Championship: Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez (c) vs. Bayley & Lyra Valkyria
  • Intercontinental Championship (fatal four-way): Bron Breakker (c) vs. Dominik Mysterio vs. Penta vs. Finn Bálor
  • Sin City Street Fight: Damian Priest vs. Drew McIntyre
  • AJ Styles vs. Logan Paul

– Shaheen Al-Shatti Uncrowned

It is that time of the year. It is Wrestlemania 41 weekend! Live from Las Vegas, two sensational nights of professional wrestling and sports entertainment. The glitz. The glamour. The spectacle. Wrestlemania 41 has had some people questioning the build to the card, but I think that will all go by the wayside when the event finishes. I am very excited about all of the events this weekend and I will be covering as much as I can for EYG.

Starting off, we will be looking at the official EYG Match predictions for Wrestlemania 41!

Night One:

  • Kicks off with Jey Uso vs. Gunther for the WWE World Championship. I’m torn on this. I do not really want Gunther to lose his title, and Jey Uso’s run has been spotty. However, Jey has been fire the last few weeks. I may be quietly rooting for Gunther to retain, but…

Predicted winner: Jey Uso, new World Champion. Yeet!

  • Jade Cargill vs. Naomi. This one-on-one match has had one of the best builds of any match on the card as it goes way back to the “who attacked Jade?” angle. I think Naomi needs the win more, but I think the babyface gets this one.

Predicted winner: Jade Cargill

  • Rey Mysterio vs. El Grande Americano. It is so sad when a newcomer shows up and takes Chad Gable’s spot on the roster. *shakes head sadly*. Any way, I think this is a victory for the newcomer to eventually set up a Mask vs. Mask match down the road. I feel like this story is just beginning and that means a win for the heel.

Predicted winner: El Grande Americano

  • United States Championship Match: LA Knight vs. Jacob Fatu. Tough one to predict. I do not see LA Knight pinning Jacob Fatu, unless there is a direct interference from Solo Sokoa. I don’t know if it is time to take the US title back off LA Knight, though. There are not as many DQ finishes at Wrestlemania, but this would be an opportunity for one.

Predicted winner: LA Knight (with some kind of involvement with Solo)

  • WWE Women’s Championship: Tiffany Stratton vs. Charlette Flair. This has been a mess of a build but I do think these two are talented enough to make the match special. While I would wish that Tiffy Time would continue, I think the Queen reclaims her throne to build up the Charlotte vs. Jade match that was teased a few weeks ago.

Projected winner: And New WWE Women’s Champion, Charlotte Flair

  • WWE World Tag Team Championship: War Raiders vs. The New Day. The villainous New Day has been treading water since their epic heel turn against Big E. I think this is where that is straightened out. New Day wins their 12th tag titles at Wrestlemania.

Projected Winner: And New WWE World Tag Team Champions: The New Day!

  • Main Event of Night One: Triple Threat Match: Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins vs. CM Punk. I legitimately can see this match going to any of the three of the men in the match. I am cheering for CM Punk, but, with what has happened in the build, I think the winner is going to be Seth Rollins. Will Paul Heyman leave with Seth Rollins? What a twist that would be. Or will Paul lead to either a victory for Punk or Roman? I just do not know what way they are going with, but I expect this to be a match of the year contender.

Projected winner: Seth Rollins

Night Two

  • AJ Styles vs. Logan Paul. This could be an exceptional match. The athleticism of these two are off the charts. I do think they should give this match to AJ Styles, but I am afraid that Logan Paul may get the nod. Probably using those brass knucks again.

Predicted winner: Logan Paul.

  • Sin City Street Fight: Damian Priest vs. Drew McIntyre. This match is one of those under-the-radar matches that could be excellent. Street fights tend to favor the good guys, but I think this is a reward to Drew for being such an MVP of the year.

Predicted winner: Drew McIntyre.

  • Intercontinental Championship (fatal four-way): Bron Breakker (c) vs. Dominik Mysterio vs. Penta vs. Finn Bálor. This could steal the show. What a massive match up with some of the best up-and-comers in the WWE. Penta is awesome, but I think a title run is too soon yet for him. Dom would shock the world with a win, but I do not think it is out of the question. Finn has been winning a few lately, but my money is on Bron Breakker retaining.

Predicted winner: And STILL Intercontinental Champion: Bron Breakker.

  • Women’s Tag Team Championship: Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez (c) vs. Bayley & Lyra Valkyria. I do not think there is any chance Bayley & Lyra win this match. In fact, I am leaning towards a Bayley heel turn to set up a future Women’s IC title match.

Predicted winner: Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez

  • WWE Women’s World Championship (triple-threat): Iyo Sky (c) vs. Rhea Ripley vs. Bianca Belair. This is another match that could be amazing. This has had a shaky build and the idea of bringing Rhea into the match did not work overall, but they are three of the greatest women performers in the company. I’d like to see Iyo Sky retain because of they way she has been treated in this build, but I do not think that will happen. Bianca does still have an unbeaten streak at Wrestlemania and, while she is years away, wouldn’t the company love to have another Undertaker-like streak?

Predicted Winner: And new WWE Women’s World Champion: Bianca Belair.

Randy Orton will have a match on this night too, I am certain. Not sure whom it will be as of yet. Randy wins though.

  • Main Event Night Two– Undisputed WWE Championship: Cody Rhodes (c) vs. John Cena. All I see is people expecting John Cena to win his 17th World Championship to break Ric Flair’s record, and that could definitely happen. However, I think Cody Rhodes is going to send John into an even deeper spiral and get the victory here, setting up an even more desperate Cena down the road.

Predicted winner: And Still Undisputed WWE Champion: Cody Rhodes.

John Cena Turned Heel

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Triple H had stated that the WWE’s PLC this weekend, The Elimination Chamber, would be an “industry-changing event” and he was wasn’t joking. The biggest shock came at the very end of the show, as John Cena, the ultimate of all good guys, turned to a bad guy.

Some set up. Dwayne Johnson had returned to the WWE as The Final Boss. A week before, he went to WWE Champion Cody Rhodes and asked him to give him his soul, and become The Rock’s champion. He gave Cody until the Elimination Chamber to make his decision.

John Cena had just won the Men’s Elimination Chamber match by forcing CM Punk to pass out to the STF. Cena was still in the ring when Cody Rhodes made his way to the ring. This was not uncommon. By winning the Chamber, Cena earned a match for the championship with Rhodes at Wrestlemania and there is a long tradition of people in the matches like this facing off with each other. In fact, earlier in the PLC, Bianca Belair had won the women’s Chamber and Rhea Ripley (and Iyo Sky) came out to confront her. So when Rhodes came down to the ring, it was expected to be a confrontation.

Then the Rock came down, and he told Cody that he wanted his answer. He told Cody that if he said yes, he would have everything, and if he said no, his dream would die, again. However, Cody said that he had already given his soul away to the fans and the ring, and that Rock could go “F-himself,” except he didn’t say “F.”

Cena was excited in the background, and he came over to hug Cody. That was when Cena’s face changed and he received the throat-slitting gesture from The Rock. He then attacked Cody Rhodes and bloodied him with the championship belt.

Cena and the Rock stood over top of Cody Rhodes posing together.

Fans have been wanting a Cena heel turn for years, but the WWE rejected the idea. Cena was the ultimate babyface, granted more Make-a-Wish requests than anyone ever, and was always a heroic figure, even if the crowd was half chanting that “Cena Sucks.” They had chances to turn him heel before, and they never took it.

Cena had announced that he would be returning to the WWE in 2025 to engage in a retirement tour. That at the end of 2025, Cena would retire from in-ring competition. He has become a successful actor in Hollywood so this would be the final run. He wanted to win his 17th world championship, which would break the record of 16, a total he shared with Ric Flair.

Turning him heel on his final run with the company and in such a grand manner was gutsy. It was an amazing decision, one that has immediately been compared to the heel turn by Hulk Hogan when he formed the NWO, largely considered the most famous heel turn of all time.

The WWE is upside down and the Cody Rhodes vs. John Cena match suddenly has so many more stakes involved besides a Cena record. The industry is totally changed and will be for the foreseeable future.

The time is now.

Mr. McMahon E5, E6

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Spoilers

“Family Business”

“The Finish”

I wonder what this documentary series would have looked like had the lawsuits and the scandals of sexual misbehavior had not come out when it did. I have a suspicion of what it would have been.

There felt like there was a lot of positive Vince moments and that they would have outweighed the negative or the rumored scandals and this would have been like a fluff piece of the WWE Chairman.

Even now, I would say that most of this documentary felt like it was telling the positives of Vince McMahon and those things that were really bad seemed to be added into the episodes.

Bruce Pritchard was on the doc in episode six making a reference to seeing some of the earlier episodes and saying that it sucked, that it was a hatchet job going against Vince. I am not sure what episodes he was watching because they never felt like a “gotcha” episode to me. Pritchard was a close friend to Vince and so perhaps some of this ideas he formed came from being protective of him. Outside of the sixth episode, the first five felt so much more like a WWE doc.

I really think there are many more things the doc could have gone into with more specificity than what it did. It was an interesting doc, but it did not feel like something that was really worthwhile.