TheVileOne

Will be attending a premiere screening of Dark Side Season 7 on Monday. I assume they will show the first two parts of Jeff Jarrett's TNA. Unfortunately, I'm already seeing some red flags with the TNA episodes, as it looks to be heavily skewed from Jeff Jarrett's perspective, and it will be a lot of back-patting and self-aggrandizing. In this clip alone, there's a ton of that, with someone saying, "Jeff Jarrett built this new revolution in sports entertainment, and it's pissing off Vince, but there's nothing he can do about it." Excuse me, what? Is there any legitimate evidence that Vince McMahon ever spared one thought to TNA or that TNA legitimately pissed him off? That sounds like utter nonsense. When TNA was good, it was really good, but on its best day, it was always a distant No. 2 to WWE. They went head to head with WWE Raw, and that lasted for all of about two weeks after they got annihilated.

Wonder what happened with Bron Breakker? Months ago, the talk was that he was getting the rocket ship; now he looks like the WWE version of Wardlow. Granted, The Vision has been an absolute disaster since it started and snake-bititten. I'm glad Sami Zayn won, but I expect this to basically be a Bob Backlund run with the title. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if Oba wins the belt on Monday just to set up another match with Brock at SummerSlam. Either way, I'm glad Sami Zayn won. Cody Rhodes, as the top guy, has been absolutely insufferable. His interview with Ariel Helwani was equally insufferable. He literally claimed he's a goody two shoes and a kid's first exposure to an f-bomb shouldn't be at a WWE event. Cody Rhodes is one of the most unlikable babyface main eventers and champions of all time. Cody was also insufferable as a top babyface in AEW, so I'm starting to wonder if he was getting to be a problem if he was like this 24/7 backstage, while also micro-managing booking and creative. Not sure what's going on with Jade and Piper Niven. Niven shouldn't have posted that because stuff like that isn't helpful and could hurt her hiring prospects elsewhere.

I guess TKO's AI systems are telling them the mystery caller storyline worked so well a few weeks ago that they need to run it back with Jacob Fatu.

Did WWE not cut The Dudley Boyz in 2005 in post-WrestleMania spring cleaning?

IMHO, Night 2 was not that great. Night 1 was just such utter garbage that Night 2 feels like a breath of fresh air in comparison. As I've said before, TKO's model of WWE PLEs isn't sustainable, and TKO Mania 42 proves it. Other than a few matchups, most of this felt like glorified episodes of Raw and SmackDown. Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton was utter dogshit. The booking made no sense. Fans are checked out of Cody Rhodes as the babyface champion and his sanctimonious self-righteous act. Fans wanted to see Orton, who had done everything but threaten Cody's family in the run-up to this match, win Orton also looked bad on Saturday night. Carrying around that much muscle mass isn't helping him. He looks bigger and more jacked than he ever was in his 20s. He and Cody both looked like they were wrestling in quicksand. The finish made no sense. If Pat McAfee were an illegal crooked ref, why wouldn't he count three or count faster? Why did Orton attack McAfee? The finish also makes Cody look more like a heel. Once again, Cody thinks he's Captain America when he's really US Agent. Roman and Punk had a good main event, and it was one of the few matchups that felt like a genuine WrestleMania match. The pacing of the show and most WWE PLEs in the TKO era are terrible. I realize TKO has about $4 billion in debt they need to pay down, hence why they are prostituting every layer of WWE, but it's becoming nauseating and disgusting, not just to wrestling fans but the casual fans as well. Like they give Adam Weistman a seat at the announce table, he proceeds to not say anything. It's like a different variety of awful from Vince nonsense, like the Nicholas crap or Ezekiel. Also, WWE courted mainstream coverage more than ever. ESPN anchors and broadcasters can barely disguise their contempt for covering wrestling. Also, corporate mainstream media outlets utterly trashed Night 1. This is after they childishly blocked Andreas Hale from attending the show.

Is Cardona really okay with how he got buried by Orton on SmackDown and looked like a total imbecile? He was literally on Chris Van Vliet's show talking about how detrimental the Kane beating was to his career. It only took a few months for WWE to do this to him again. Cardona might be okay with just saying I'm a WWE Superstar and being on the same roster as his wife. But that only goes so far. WWE cuts people they are still using on TV now if TKO thinks they are getting paid too much.

I think wrestlers and celebrities in general should not be on social media. Frankly, all of humanity as well, but it's never going to happen. Drew McIntyre is at least good at being a social media troll and keeping it to his wrestling character and feuds without stepping over the line. Just as an example of how you can be a social media troll and have it sort of work.

ROH Final Battle 2024 if ROH counts.

IMHO, having a four-match PLE like this with two Elimination Chamber matches, much like Royal Rumble, kills the pacing of these shows. Lack of variety, lack of more guys being featured. It's not sustainable, and it doesn't work. Triple H notably stayed off the analyst desk on the post-show after the negative crowd reaction he received in Saudi Arabia. Noticeable change from a couple of months ago, when he was telling the booing fans "I thought the boos would be louder!" after Cena lost his final match. Whereas AEW overpacks their PPV events, and it just feels like too much. But at least one could argue, for value, AEW is giving you more bang for your buck if you are going to be a big event. At least if you pay $50 to get into Revolution, at least you will likely get a decent live experience. If you're a Matt Cardona fan or a Michin fan or an R-Truth fan or a Street Profits fan, WWE PLEs have nothing for you. Say what you will about filler or midcard matches, but they play a role in rounding out shows. Having matches with just main events and no filler is a big problem. Much like the Rumble, the women outdid the men this year. The men's chamber match sucked. You don't need two-chamber matches at Elimination Chamber. It kills the flow and novelty.

Even Heyman doesn't want to be associated with them anymore.

The Vision is dead in the water. Time to cut bait. They're done.

Oh man, Thekla was on tonight. I liked how they did Thunder Rosa's return and played that right into an angle with Thekla. Thekla's great, and it's nice to have someone out there on the mic for once who doesns't look like a deer in the headlights and sound like Ricky Bobby when they're being interviewed. Thekla is clearly a star and exudes stardom, and it's great that she has the belt right now.

It is a bit weird when people comment things like "Vince would never do this." I mean, Vince McMahon was the one who sold the company to TKO. So this is the result of his dealings.