Tag Archives: Pro Wrestling

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.

Nature Boy: 30 on 30 (2017)

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January 11

There have been several documentaries on the professional wrestler known as “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair. This was an ESPN 30 on 30 documentary that had him as a subject, that aired in 2017 called Nature Boy.

This was an interesting doc looking at Flair, but it did feel as if the negative parts of his life were brushed away, outside of the death of his son Reid. They mentioned parts of his life that came along with the persona of the nature Boy, but they did not go into a great deal of explanation on it. The touched on his legendary drinking, but not with a lot of specifics. They touched on his legal troubles with Jim Herd of WCW, but did not go into details. The match between Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair that was intended on being the main event of Wrestlemania VIII was mentioned, but nothing specific was revealed. These moments really form the man who would be Ric Flair and I would have liked more about them all.

They did a pretty decent job with his early days, and gave some solid info on the Verne Gagne training that Ric Flair went through. The infamous plane crash that broke his back got some time, though, again, I think they did not focus much on this seminal moment of the young Flair’s life.

It was kind of scary when the doc talked about how it was amazing that Ric Flair was still alive with the amount of drinking, and I thought it would lead to the time when Flair nearly died from his drinking. However, I believe that happened after this documentary was filmed, so it turned out to be prophetic than anything else.

The details on Reid Flair’s death was some of the most emotional moments of the doc as you can clearly see how his son’s death affected him and it was nice to see him reacting to his daughter Ashley, known in the WWE as Charlotte Flair, and her massive success.

It felt like this doc just scratched the surface of the life and times of The Nature Boy Ric Flair and that they needed way more than 30 on 30 to do it justice.

Mr. McMahon E2

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Spoilers

“Heat”

The second episode of the Netflix docuseries about Vince McMahon, the former head of the WWE, started off fairly minor, discussing Wrestlemania II and then Wrestlemania III. The stories behind these two event were interesting, and I did like hearing about the Hogan-Andre match, but the episode started kicking more when the scandals started coming out.

There were a bunch of scandals mentioned. The ring boy scandal where three executives were sexually abusing teens who were there to set up the ring. This was gross situation. Then there was the steroid scandal, first with the doctor, and then eventually from the federal government against Vince himself. They also touched upon the Jimmy Snuka girlfriend possible murder.

The words of the wrestlers about all these events were fascinating. Tony Atlas making reference to Pat Patterson grabbing his penis was disturbing.

There was also a lot about Hulk Hogan in here, including how he went to WCW and how it hurt Vince. It included how Hogan had to testify against Vince for the government. Hogan is not the best character over the years and he definitely did not look great here. They showed him lying on Arsenio Hall Show too.

The documentary spoke to Phil Mushnick of the NY Post, who has been writing columns about Vince and the WWE for years. Mushnick had plenty of negative words to say about Vince, specifically that he was a dirtbag.

The doc ended abruptly with a major cliffhanger with Vince’s steroid trial.

Overall, this episode was okay, and it really shows what kind of person Vince McMahon is. His clips from the Donahue Show are some obvious evidence of that. And I do not even think we’ve hit the worst part of his life.

Mr. McMahon E1

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Spoilers

“Junior”

The infamous former head of the WWE, Vincent K. McMahon is featured in a new docuseries on Netflix called Mr. McMahon, with interviews from everyone involved, including McMahon himself.

Ironically, before the doc finished filming, Vince McMahon resigned from WWE because of a series of horrendous scandals that were to result in lawsuits. Reportedly, there were some of the most heinous things listed among the lawsuit. The docuseries pushed on.

The first episode of the series addressed McMahon’s rise through his childhood and to the world of sports entertainment. His father, whom Vince said he never met until he was 12, Vincent J McMahon, let his son join his business, at the time named the WWF (World Wrestling Federation) and we learn how “Junior” came up through the organization to eventually purchase the company from his father. After doing that, McMahon crushed the idea that wrestling promotors remained inside their own territories, and he began promoting shows across the country, taking his WWF nationwide.

This episode showed us up to the first Wrestlemania, including the infamous John Stossal/David Schultz encounter and the Richard Belzer choke out by Hulk Hogan. While there were some of the scandals mentioned in the first episode, this was more about how McMahon took stars like Hogan and created something more than the industry of professional wrestling had ever seen.

Personally, the biggest shock for me was seeing present day Vince McMahon on screen and being interviewed. He had the obviously dyed eyebrows that were as black as you could imagine. He had dark hair too, but nowhere near as dark as his eyebrows. They made he look downright evil and I could not stop looking at those weird looking brows.

Just as strange was when Vince’s ex-wife Linda McMahon was on screen. She looked nothing like I remembered. It was so odd to hear Linda’s voice coming out of this person who did not resemble her at all.

Then Dave Meltzer weaseled his way into the documentary too. I am not a fan of Meltzer and I wish they could have found a different voice to speak on this topic.

The first episode was interesting, but did not feel like it had much more than other a typical doc you might see on the WWE network. We’ll see how the rest of the six-episode series goes.

NXT Stand and Deliver 2024

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  • Joe Gacy def. Shawn Spears.
  • NXT Tag Team Champions Bron Breakker & Baron Corbin def. Axiom & Nathan Frazer.
  • NXT North American Champion Oba Femi def. Dijak and Josh Briggs 
  • Thea Hail, Fallon Henley & Kelani Jordan def. Jacy Jayne, Kiana James and Izzi Dame
  • Roxanne Perez def. Lyra Valkyria 
  • NXT Champion Ilja Dragunov def. Tony D’Angelo
  • Trick Williams def. Carmelo Hayes

The NXT Tag Team Championship match and the NXT North American Championship matches were massive bangers and kicked off the main show with two amazing matches.

Legitimately, the triple threat North American championship match was a match of the year contender as Oba Femi, Dijak and Josh Briggs put on a show including some of the biggest spots you will see from men the size of them.

I do love Ilja Dragunov. He was never going to lose his NXT Championship to The Don of NXT Tony D’Angelo. It was still a great match.

Roxanne Perez got a definitive victory over Lyra Valkyria for the NXT Women’s Championship. She is one of the best in the division.

Which, by the way, as a special announcement, NXT will be adding a new championship for the Women’s Division. The NXT Women’s North American Championship was announced. Well deserved. The main roster needs a secondary title too.

Trick Williams went over cleanly in his match with Carmelo Hayes. I expect Carmelo to head to the main roster for good.

Great kick off. We will have to see if there is any match on Wrestlemania that can be equal to the Oba Femi, Dijak, Josh Briggs match.

WWE Hall of Fame Ceremony

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Last night, the WWE inducted seven people into the 2024 Class of the WWE Hall of Fame in a broadcast on Peacock. This year’s class included Paul Heyman, Bull Nakano, Barry Windham & Mike Rotunda, Thunderbolt Patterson, Muhammad Ali and Lia Maivia.

The headliner of the class was inducted first. Paul Heyman, whose background in Philadelphia with his revolutionary ECW was well known, came out after a really great induction by Roman Reigns. Paul, one of the best talkers in the history of the business, proceeded to give one of the best HoF speeches of all time. I have seen most, if not all, of the speeches over the years and, while I saw several hyperbolic comments online about this being the greatest HoF speech of all time, I’m not ready to anoint it such, but it is definitely in the argument. Paul Heyman had the audience in the palm of his hand and it was exceptional. Paul took us all on a ride that was funny, emotional, nostalgic, and generally inspiring.

There was a great moment inside the U.S. Express speech when Mike Rotunda mentioned his son Windham Rotunda, aka Bray Wyatt, who passed away this past year. Rotunda got out his cell phone and asked for the crowd to follow along with him displaying the light on the phone. This was the symbol of the Fireflies that were the fans of Bray Wyatt.

There was a really weird moment during the Muhammad Ali induction. Yolanda Ali, Ali’s widow, accepted the honor. What was weird was when Yolanda (Nicknamed Lonnie) presented Dwayne Johnson with a title of People’s Champion. Rock came out and thanked her. It felt fairly awkward.

Most of the other speeches were fine, but did not stand out. Thunderbolt Patterson spoke about his faith in God. Bull Nakano was well spoken despite English being her second language.