TheVileOne

The Benoit story was done in two parts. So they could do two-parters if they deem it necessary.

Meltzer is reporting that it's Cody and Seth vs. Rock and Roman on Night 1.

But why would you do that? Whoever beats Gunther can become a made man. I don't think you can have him end his epic title run like this without an emphatic victory.

Collision was a solid show overall last Saturday. The main event angle between Danielson, Akiyama, and Kingston I thought was executed perfectly. You can't watch a segment like that and say there was no storytelling or character work.

I'm assuming all these challengers for the IC title popping up tonight means there's either going to be some big scramble or cluster to produce a contender for Gunther, there's going to be a multi-man ladder match at WrestleMania 40. Something of that sort. I liked Rhea and Becky's segment tonight. It definitely gives me hope that their match will get the build this year that Charlotte/Rhea last year did not. Frankly, got to give it up to Drew McIntyre. The way he's evolved and just made slight tweaks to his character have been utterly fantastic. As a babyface he was OK, but as a heel who speaks the truth and rationally, he's doing the best work of his career. Now, if there's any likelihood of Priest cashing in on someone, it's in the outcome of McIntyre/Rollins. McIntyre seems like the logical choice to win this one, but then you have all this business with Seth and the Bloodline. Is this meant to be a tag team match at WrestleMania? Are you going to have the Bloodline tag team match on Night 1 and Night 2? That basically eliminates anyone else from getting the main event slot on Night 1. But if you have the opportunity for The Rock to wrestle at WrestleMania you have to take it for box office and the PR alone. Raw is far too long, and my hope is that when they transition to Netflix they return to a two-hour format. There's no reason they need to be three hours every week. I don't really feel like three hours showcases more talent. It just kills the show's pacing. What they should do is add a secondary show to SmackDown. Make Main Event the B show for Raw and something like Superstars or some other unused name the B show for SmackDown.

Matt Taven, Dalton Castle, Cody Rhodes. Pre-AEW, they did a lot of crossover between New Japan and the Bullet Club, which played out a lot over NJPW and ROH. And they did basically produce the original All In event. The formation of AEW and then the pandemic were huge blows to any type of chance of ROH had of becoming a challenger brand.

I'm not gutted because this was for an animated feature. Which is fine and all, but I see no point to that, especially not with Bruce Timm and Paul Dini involved. If it was live action, that's another matter, but that's not what they were going for here.

Here's what he wrote:

https://twitter.com/davidbix/status/1757229608452145274

I quite like Moana, and I think Rock did a good job singing as Maui. https://youtu.be/79DijItQXMM

I recall rumors from Dave Meltzer that Charlotte Flair was promised that slot or something, and considering many of Vince's broken promises and failed favors over the years, I wonder why he was so adamant about supposed promises to Charlotte about main eventing WrestleMania. So maybe there was a genuine fear she'd leave or some such. Also, I think if you look at history, she's clearly Vince's type.

https://youtu.be/eQ28T2Wa1To

Charlotte shouldn't have even been in the WrestleMania 35 main event. That was Becky and Ronda's match, and we never got the opportunity to see Ronda vs. Becky one-on-one again after that.

I would like to see a one-on-one women's singles match at WrestleMania without a title involved, but I very much want a women's title bout between Rhea and Becky. That's a potential classic, generational match. They are already giving it the build worthy of a WrestleMania match that Ripley vs. Charlotte never had, and they wrestled each other at WrestleMania twice.

While Triple H and Nick Khan were at least self-aware enough to not allow Brock Lesnar to be out into the stadium and be put on TV last night, Triple H should've been better prepared for questions like that. It was a bad, lose-lose situation but he still answered the questions in the worst possible way. He should've had a PR team better prepare him for that. I like Cody and I believe Cody is a well-intentioned guy, but his comments were also tone-deaf.

PWInsider is reporting that WWE/TKO wants Stephanie McMahon back in the company.

I look forward to the reaction of The Rock winning the Rumble and closing the show tonight.

Yes (via WON) https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/january-29-2024-observer-newsletter-vince-mcmahon-allegations-wwe-raw?

Vince McMahon must be removed and he must be removed yesterday. WWE and TKO should be acting as this is an existential crisis. He can no longer reasonably serve as an executive of the company at this point.

Even then, how legally binding was that NDA? NDAs are not supposed to protect activity like this. IMHO an NDA means like I watched some early screeners of The Mandalorian and I agree not to talk about any of the footage I saw until such and such date. There should be no legally binding document or agreement to cover things like this.

I'm not saying that person's name but I recall the "media blogger" who leaked her name when this story first got out. I totally believe someone gave her name to this vile scumbag who put it out publicly. Most of the original reports in 2022 were not mentioning her by name until this scumbag did. One of the worst people on the planet.

https://411mania.com/movies/masters-of-the-universe-revolution-review/ My non-spoiler review of the series. This is not a direct continuation of the Filmation series. It's more like an updated AU that feels familiar to the original series but it combines elements from across the various sources to create a new singular definitive mythology. Like imagine the Filmation series but it's a bit more serious and mature. Characters can get stabbed, bleed, and die. Like when they meet Gwildor, Man-at-arms references things that sound like "Oh shit, is the 1987 movie canon in this series?" No, it's more like in this series timeline, the characters previously met Gwildor and there was event that was likely very similar in the past that played out exactly like the 1987 movie. Tons of Easter Eggs and cameos throughout the season. Star Trek's John de Lancie voices a dragon. Revolution's biggest problem is the lack of time. They only get five episodes versus 10 episodes for the first season. Makes me feel like Netflix wants to bury the show.

Likewise.

We're almost two years on from the ROH acquisition, and what purpose is it really serving right now? It's just AEW's version of WCW Worldwide/Pro/Main Event at this point. They don't have major title changes on the TV. The biggest title matches are used on AEW TV. All the guys in ROH are AEW guys. What is the long-term plan here for ROH? Because it doesn't look like they have one. It's time to fold up ROH. It serves no purpose anymore. It has no value.

This has been a problem with AEW for years. Guys will be in a big feud or win a big match and then just disappear from TV entirely and fall off the face of the Earth.