_MJ_

I thought the Pat McAfee smokes weed stuff from Paul was the tamest/lamest of the bunch. Although it would be funny, if that not-so-startling revelation is the one that actually gets him in any type of trouble at ESPN.

The Paul Heyman clips on Pat McAfee's ESPN show, that will be going around if you haven't seen them yet, is great timing considering the AAA acquisition news. PR doesn't matter much if it aligns with a certain administration these days, I guess. Ugly years ahead. Eh.

Thought about putting it there, but I had some board control issues so didn't want to double post by mistake. Feel free to delete it here and/or move it there, Dolfan.

Behind the scenes. Propaganda. Kayfabe vs. Unreal. Meltzer's job security. Netflix's Formula 1 formula.

Yeah, I noticed they ended the 4-way intercontinental match the same way they ended the women's 3 way match too. It would have been neat if they had Dom watching the match in the back in one of their many breaks, and/or have the commentary team make an offhand remark about Dom taking notes on it. Speaking of the commentary team, Wade came off the best imo, which is hilarious considering how long Cole has done this and even Pat. To be fair, that might be because I have less experience with Wade's verbal ticks and calls.

That might have been the lowest pop I've heard for Stone Cold Steve in decades. Meanwhile, I think Dirty Dom's win got the biggest reaction of the night. 2025. Priest/McIntyre and Bianca/Iyo/Rhea delivered. I think they are going to have to make this year, Drew's year. He keeps delivering for them so it's going to be tough to keep putting him on the backburner on every big PPV. Expect vague Meltzer Rock gossip after this event.

Cena/Cody segment was the best one so far in regards to their WrestleMania. Not sure if it's pivot or intentional progression: first Cena addresses the audience on the point of the heel turn, which wasn't great, and now Cena goes at/addresses Cody on the point of the heel . I guess if it's intentional progression the next step for Cena would be addressing the Rock connection to the match/heel turn, which I think is a weaker point than the Cody reasons imo, but hopefully I'm wrong.

Lylo victory makes sense if they got certain plans for the Jade/Bianca feud.

Depends on what timeframe you're basing this on as I don't think he's better than 2000 babyface Rock. I think a lot the success of this angle is weighted on the tone and execution of Cena's first promo after this incident. I think Cena only gets cheer if comes across as "cool heel" vs. "loathsome" to the audience. Cena can pull it off though and has enough pull to pretty much do/say what he wants in it so whatever the promo, it's going to be his way. The good news is that he's obviously thought about it for awhile.

Well, I doubt Austin's asking price to appear at Mania has decreased from last year to this year (at least, it shouldn't) so TKO might be willing to cut the check this time

You know if it was anyone else, I would say the ending of the ladder match would have been the first planted seed toward a Cody Rhodes long play heel turn. Nah...maybe...nah.

Let's pretend like this wasn't a double post and say Trish Stratus visually looks in better shape and a better presentation than John Cena now. Hot Take.

I'm more a causal now, but it let me have little less bias than I use to with favorites so I noticed: Alexis Bliss pop/ovation/cheers/whatever when her music hit and when she got dumped out were noticeably louder than Charlotte's entrance and her win cheers. May not mean anything but facts. To be fair, Bliss return was obviously a surprise vs. Charlotte's predictable win and they were building up her return with vignettes. Charlotte is a boring pick and crowd confirmed that with the reaction, but if they want Tiffany to have a big moment than Tiffany/Charlotte thing works though I don't understand how they would book it. Bron speared that Speed youtuber before he was in position and could brace for impact, and I think legit hurt that dude. Damn. Bron's spear on Roman looked good too, but the spear on the youtuber Speed guy was stiff. Damn^2. Did Penta feet hit the ground early on? Haha. I felt like I saw him a couple of times almost miss catching the rope after someone toss him out and almost got eliminate once or twice before he was supposed to during the match. I appreciate Logan Paul eliminating Punk. Kevin Owen is going to store that one in his bag for future use in a promo with Punk. TNA champ getting legit ovation tells you how valuable entrance music is for wrestling especially in the WWE and times that by 2 at the Royal Rumble. In contrast, Finn came out to some free sample generic rap song that I cannot even remember one lyric from right now, and it sounded like very few knew who was coming out or cared. AJ comes out to his old WWE rap theme music and it's a decent tune (at least has a memorable beat and chorus chant, which is half the battle even if you don't like the song) people still remember. It's not science. WWE needs to step their in-house entrance music game up or dig deeper into that TKO Corporation piggybank to license some legit songs out there. Good on them for trying to subvert expectations in the Men's Rumble with the winner after going with the easy Charlotte layup win. I don't know if Jey is very versatile and can be interesting beyond the YEET movement/Bloodline storylines but over is over and they are going sell a lot merchandise. I think I would be more cynic about his win if I was watching more regularly but legit surprise when he pull it out and WWE knew it and played with it with the Cena back and forth.

Exactly. It's why the world title scene with Punk/Drew/Seth, and now Priest has some spice to it. Anyone one of them could credibly win that title, and keep the audience interested (well, maybe Priest plus Judgement Day). They should do the same with Cody, especially if Roman and Rock are gone for a bit. This is one reason why I think they might turn Seth on him eventually.

Sami's story was better than Cody's imo, but I get why the people in charge would pick Cody to be the one to dethrone Roman. Cody is now a polish interview, and generally good at PR. It would have been fun to see a short Sami reign during that time though. I'm not a big Cody guy but considering the old school babyface he's playing, I think a lot his run is going to be determined by the quality of his rogues' gallery of heels during his run. If they aren't interesting and doing interesting things to him, his act could get stale. I wonder who they have lined up (minus the Rock).