AEW vs WWE

 I'm gonna start this off by saying I just don't get why wrestling fans want to make up a rivalry between AEW and WWE. Why would you want one company to win and the other to fail? We've seen what happens when there's only one company and it isn't that good.

I should start this off by showing you where I come from as a fan. First, I love pro wrestling. Not sports entertainment. Sports entertainment was a term created by Vince McMahon to get around individual states' sports licenses. I don't use the term sports entertainment and for the rest of this blog, I will only use it when talking about WWE's current product because it isn't pro wrestling.

I discovered WWE in 1986 when my mother recorded an episode of Saturday Night's Main Event because she thought I would enjoy it. It was shortly after Wrestlemania 2 so one of the first matches I saw was a replay of the British Bulldogs winning the tag team titles from the Dream Team. I was absolutely hooked. I made my mom record SNME for me every week and I never missed an episode of Hulk Hogan's Rock n Wrestling on Saturday mornings.
When Wrestlemania 3 happened I wasn't able to watch it until it was released on home video and I could rent it. But on March 29th, 1987 the night it happened, 10-year-old me lay in bed that night thinking about it nonstop and keeping myself awake well past my bedtime wondering who would win, Hogan or Andre?

Wrestling kind of took a back seat in my life for a few years after that, anyone who was a boy aged 11-16 will tell you their interests change dramatically for a few years.

But in 1995 I was walking through a store and I saw an issue of WWF magazine on the rack, the one with Diesel on the cover with the championship.

Something compelled me to pick it up and read it cover to cover. Then buy a subscription, and then start watching Monday Night Raw every single week. Yeah, I was hooked again.

My best friend at the time was also a big wrestling fan, it was kinda weird because we both loved wrestling as kids but drifted away from it around the same time. He and I met when I changed schools in 5th grade and were pretty inseparable from then on, so when I started watching wrestling again, so did he.
In 1996 we each pitched in $15 so his father would order Wrestlemania 12 on pay-per-view. It was the first time we ever saw one live, and even though historically it was one of the most mediocre, to us it was amazing because we were seeing it live! 
From then on we never missed a pay-per-view or a Monday Night Raw. Every week I would go over to my friend's house on Monday night and we'd watch Raw together, and once a month I'd show up on Sundays for the pay-per-view and pay for half of it. 

We saw the rise of Stone Cold Steve Austin, the creation of Degeneration X, and the fall of Bret Hart. The Montreal Screwjob, the beginning of the Monday Night War with WCW, it was a crazy time when you never knew if a WWF guy was gonna show up on WCW or vice versa. We saw it all, and when WWF would have live events near us, we'd get tickets and see it in person. The very first episode of Monday Night Raw I saw in person was the last Raw before Wrestlemania 13. The one where Bret Hart loses a cage match against Psycho Sid after Steve Austin and the Undertaker interfere, and then Bret goes on a swearing spree after knocking Vince McMahon on his butt in an interview after the match.
Yeah, I was in the live crowd that night!

Okay, I'm not gonna run on and on about my entire history in professional wrestling. Just know that I went to several more live events, I even became a wrestler myself for a few years before a pretty severe injury ended my career before it even really got started.

But now that you know my history, you'd know that I'm a pretty hardcore WWE fan right? Well, you'd be wrong. It's true that I was a hardcore WWE fan, but that ended a few years after WWE bought WCW and single handily ruled the world of professional wrestling. Then the WWE went public and started selling stock in their company. In my opinion, this was the final straw, this is where what I loved died. Because once they started selling stock, it was no longer about putting on a great show and selling compelling storylines. It was now about protecting the status quo and not rocking the boat too much because we have to keep those stockholders happy.

Fast forward to 2019 and AEW is founded by billionaire Tony Khan. I enjoyed AEW because to me it had a bit of that same feeling of the early days of the WWF. Tony Khan went around and recruited the top stars he could get from independent promotions all over the country, as well as some of the biggest stars in Japan. Much the same way Vince McMahon did in the early 80s. Vince McMahon didn't create Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Junkyard Dog, Jake "the Snake" Roberts, and all those other guys that became household names in the 1980s, they were already stars in other promotions all over the world. Vince just brought them together and put them on a national stage. And that's what Tony Khan was doing with AEW.

Then you have all the WWE fans that criticize AEW every time they hire a wrestler that WWE has let go. Well, what are they supposed to do? Never work again? Change careers and give up on wrestling because WWE doesn't want them anymore? Do these same fans know anything about the history of wrestling before Vince McMahon took over the WWF? Wrestlers were journeymen. They traveled the entire country and sometimes the world going from company to company, working in one for a few weeks or months and then moving on to another one. This hasn't changed, there are just fewer places a wrestler can go these days.

Now as for all the nay-sayers that just love to pit WWE and AEW against each other across social media, I can understand to a point. They either witnessed, or grew up hearing about the war between WWE and WCW, and they want that to happen again, and they want to feel like they're on the winning team. So everyone chooses a side and verbally trashes the other side.

But this is where I feel differently. You can't pit AEW against WWE the way WWE did with WCW. Because WWE and AEW are not the same thing. You can't judge them on a fair and even platform because they are two different companies selling two different products. You wouldn't compare the NFL to the NBA because even though they're both a sport, they aren't the same sport. Sure they're similar in that they have teams and coaches and fan bases but at the end of the day, they're both selling two very different products.

And that's what WWE and AEW are doing. WWE is sports entertainment. AEW is professional wrestling. Sports entertainment may have started as professional wrestling, but somewhere along the line, it changed into something else. 
Now don't take this to mean that I hate WWE and AEW does no wrong. That's absolutely not true. AEW goes a bit overboard with the constant high spots that get big wows out of the crowd but make absolutely no sense storywise. If it takes 30 seconds for two guys to get their balance on the top rope while a crowd of guys is waiting outside the ring to catch them and act like they all got wiped out, it's a bit hard to suspend belief. It no longer looks like a fight at that point. That's sports entertainment, not professional wrestling. 

So what is the point of all this? I guess I'm just sick of seeing people route for one company to put the other out of business. They aren't the same thing, they can exist together, and you can even watch both of them and enjoy them both, guilt-free. You're not cheating on WWE if you watch AEW and enjoy it. WWE is not going to reward you for your unwavering loyalty if you verbally bash AEW at every opportunity. So just be a fan and enjoy it, whether it's sports entertainment, professional wrestling, whether it's WWE, or AEW, just sit back, relax, cheer for your favorite wrestlers, and boo your most hated superstars. But just stop fighting against each other while you do it.

(That's me on Monday Night Raw - June 16, 1997)

The Money Fight

Normally, when I feel the urge to blog about sports, it's about Professional Wrestling.  But how could I ignore my assessment of what I saw this past Saturday night.  Some call it a sham, some call it the biggest fight of all time.  Whatever it was, it was entertaining.  So let's get to it.

The Money Fight

It's been months since the dream boxing match between Floyd "Money" Mayweather Jr. and "The Notorious" Conor McGregor was made official. We've seen the all the hype and all the talking (and talking and talking and talking. Wash the hype tour really necessary?). Now, it's finally over. What went down?

Going into the fight, most assumed Mayweather would win. After all, this was a boxing match and he was the boxer. However, many of the faithful held out hope for McGregor, as he was younger, stronger and had a reach advantage. I personally had no preference, I honestly don't care for either fighter but respect their skill.

The spectacle began with some pretty crazy entrances. When the bell rang, there wasn't much of a slow feeling out process. McGregor was the aggressor and immediately started landing some solid shots.

The crowd was in an absolute frenzy. McGregor was on the attack and it seemed all Mayweather could do was play defense. McGregor clearly won the first three rounds. This wasn't how many thought the fight would go, though many hoped it would.  However it may have also been part of Mayweather's strategy, given that he had never fought someone like McGregor before.

The announcers said Mayweather seemed like a shadow of his former self. He wasn't nearly as active and wasn't throwing many punches. There were times McGregor seemed like he might be disqualified for throwing hammer fists, which Mayweather baited him into doing. Was this his master plan? Provoke a DQ? However, we'd all soon learn he had an entirely different plan in mind.

Starting in the fourth round, Mayweather started fighting back. McGregor was still landing hits, but Mayweather was landing his own as well. He was the winner of the fourth round, and suddenly the fight shifted.

There's one very important difference between boxing and MMA that Mayweather chose to exploit. In his career, Conor's longest fights were five, five-minute rounds, totaling 25 minutes. Meanwhile, boxing consists of 12, three-minute rounds, totaling 36 minutes. "Money" banked on having more cardio than McGregor.

After the flurry of the first three rounds, McGregor had punched himself out and was starting to breath heavily. Mayweather gave him the beginning of the match to secure the win later on. He defended himself brilliantly from the barrage and began his own assault when McGregor started to tire. Long time boxing fans might recognize this as the infamous "Rope-A-Dope" strategy made famous by Muhammad Ali.

The longer the fight went on, the worse it got for the notorious one. He was having a hard time keeping his hands up and Mayweather was landing heavy, heavy shots. McGregor tried hugging him in defense to catch his breath, but it was only a temporary solution that wouldn't last much longer.

Finally, the fight came to a conclusion. The referee stepped in between the competitors and ended the bout at one minute and five seconds into the tenth round. The official decision is that Floyd Mayweather Jr. defeated Conor McGregor via technical knockout.

Many felt that the stoppage was premature. After all, McGregor was still on his feet. However, his guard was completely down and Mayweather was teeing off on him. It could have gotten ugly very quickly. Seeing that he wasn't intelligently defending himself, the ref made the right decision, despite protests from McGregor or the fans. Conor himself admitted in a post-fight interview that even though he wished he could have finished the round, he felt the referee made the right call.

For winning, Mayweather was awarded the Money Belt. Just another championship in his already ludicrous collection. As if his record of 50-0 and the $300 million dollar purse wasn't enough.

Phenomenal One vs The Showstopper

So last night I'm getting ready to watch WWE Payback and on the network they are showing an episode of "Dinner for 3".  The episode airing was with AJ Styles, Kevin Nash, and Shawn Michaels. During the course of the dinner, the topic of a potential dream match between AJ and Shawn comes up and there was even a mock up promo poster shown.

Shawn brought up some very valid points on why it would be very difficult to make the match happen.  To name a few, his outstanding last match with Undertaker no longer being his last match if he comes back, and also the problem with who would win between him or AJ and why would it benefit either character?

It got me thinking and I believe I have come up with a way that could make both of them look good.  Now bear with me because we're stepping into the realm of professional wrestling storytelling here.

Step 1- Shawn has been well documented as a desk analyst on several pay per views over the last few years, giving his inside opinion on potential match outcomes and the growth of several superstars.  It is not out of the question that he could be at one of these events and make some very public critical comments on one of AJ's performances.
Now for this to work, AJ would have to already be walking the line of being a heel at the start of this.  After hearing Shawn's comments, AJ would have a rebuttal during his next appearance on Smackdown.  Telling Shawn to mind his own business and that his time is over, and how AJ is better than Shawn ever was, you get the idea.

Step 2- Shawn would try to be the bigger man and let AJ's comments slide.  But this would only increase AJ's desire to prove himself better than Shawn in the ring.  You could literally go on a campaign for several weeks here with AJ trying to draw Shawn into a fight.

Step 3- AJ finally goes over the line and pushes Shawn's buttons.  You could use whatever you want here, verbally going after Shawn's close friends or family.  Maybe even a backstage assault on a visiting member of the clique like Kevin Nash.  Whatever it takes to finally make Shawn jump the railing and get physical.

Step 4- The buildup ends at Wrestlemania where the two finally have their match.  It's a spectacular display of air and ground attacks that we have grown to expect from both of these class A players. But eventually Shawn gets the win and pins AJ clean.

Step 5-  Now this is where everything gets wrapped up.  Shawn gets a final Wrestlemania win, cementing his legacy as "Mr. Wrestlemania".  But AJ comes out of the match better than he went in, having a newfound respect for Shawn, he ends his crusade to prove his superiority.  Endearing himself to Shawn's fans and growing his own popularity, and also doing the opposite of when Chris Jericho lost to Shawn and then attacked him after the match.  They both come full circle, giving the fans their dream match, and helping both their characters look good in the end.

Well this is just an idea.  But I think it could work and we've certainly seen worse ideas that put butts in seats and in the end, isn't that what it's about?  I'd love to hear your thoughts or opinions.

Last night in London

Okay so Raw wasn't live last night but still, it aired last night. I don't have a whole lot to say about last nights show so this is going to be my shortest blog yet. Basically I became pissed off early in the show when the opening match was the WWE championship match between CM Punk and Mark Henry.

WWE continues to disgrace itself and insult every old school fan by putting its biggest title up first in the show instead of in the main event of the evening where it belongs. What was in the main event you may ask? Of course it was John Cena. Who else would it be?

I'm going to say this one time loud and clear so that in the future I'm not misunderstood in my opinions. FUCK JOHN CENA. The piece of crap is the worst thing in professional wrestling since Eric Bischoff.

The only other part of Raw I watched was the recorded interview that Brock Lesnar did about his return. And while I think he at least, shares my views on Cena, I did have one small gripe. But I'll let you watch the interview first.

No Brock, you didn't come back because you like hurting people. You came back because it got too hard to compete in the UFC and the WWE is the only other place on Earth where you can make a seven figure salary.


And just because I want to end this on an amusing note. Here's a random episode of "Are you Serious?" with The Road Dog and Josh Matthews.

The day after Raw

So last night Raw took place in our nations capitol of Washington DC. And it started right off with John Laurinaitis taking credit for bring Brock Lesnar back and then invited him to the ring. When Lesnar started speaking, he had barely gotten a few words out when he was interrupted by John Cena. Cena never took a microphone but you could hear him say to Brock, "I never got a chance to thank you for last week" with a big smile on his face. He then walked up to Brock and slapped him across the face. What came next was probably the best double leg takedown I have ever seen as Brock dumped Cena on his back and then proceeded to pound on him. The entire locker room quickly emptied and the ring filled with wrestlers and officials. It took pretty much everyone to separate the two. It was instantly evident however, that Cena took the worst of the encounter, having a big bruise on his jaw, a fat lip and a mouth full of blood. Looks like Lesnar got in one shot that wasn't a pulled punch.

Next was a tag team match that was basically a grudge rematch from last week. Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger versus Santino Morella and Brodus Clay. It was another typical cookie cutter good guy/bad guy match up where two of the more talented wrestlers on the roster were defeated by a walking comic strip and a dancing gorilla.

By the way, Jerry Lawler and Michael Cole .... the dinosaur discussion was not even slightly entertaining.

Then we cut away to Santino backstage looking for the evenings celebrity hosts, the "3 Stooges". Stars of this upcoming weekends theatrical tragedy ... er I mean comedy. Santino ends up stumbling upon Kane for was just standing behind a doorway in a corner for some reason. Morella then quickly ran off in fear.

We were then treated with a match between R Truth and Cody Rhodes. The match had barely begun when once again The Big Show came out and showed everyone footage of Cody losing to Kofi Kingston last week because he was watching footage of his Wrestlemania loss to the Big Show. A loss within a loss within a loss. (Inception?) Anyway, chalk up one more for The Big (Distracting) Show.

There was a brief but pointless backstage spot where Santino finds the 3 Stooges in a large shipping crate that was marked "Fragile" (with a backwards E), which Santino pronounced Fra-gi-lé and then commented on how it sounded Italian. (Okay I chucked at that part.)

Lord Tensai had a match next WWE's Japanese superstar Yoshi Tatsu. It turned out to be another squash match just like last weeks that again had to be stopped by the referee. I really wish someone would tell the writers that when a new guy has a debut, it makes them much more entertaining and intimidating if they have a great back and forth match and still come out the dominant competitor. Five minutes of manhandling someone half your size does not impress anyone.

Then we had basically a half hour segment of talk and then a match from CM Punk, he discussed the attacks by Jericho on his personal life and his straight edge lifestyle. And then he had a match with Mark Henry, a rematch from last week where Henry won by countout. The match lasted only a few minutes after CM Punk to it to the ringside area and bashed Henry in the head with a commentators monitor, getting himself disqualified.
I'd also like to say that I sympathize with CM Punk, being forced into this "alcohol abuse" angle that he is clearly uncomfortable doing.

Next was a pointless match between Zack Ryder and Alberto Del Rio where Alberto returns to winning and Zack keeps losing.

With a half hour left in the show the evening celebrity hosts, The 3 Stooges, finally came out to the ring, "Curly" entered by himself to the entrance music of "Real American" dressed as Hulk Hogan. He got in the ring, there was a slapstick and then "Curly" did his best Hogan impersonation. Which really wasn't that good, and also its old and tired since everyone on Earth has a Hogan impression up their sleeve. (Hogan however does a pretty good Randy Savage.) The crowd thankfully, let the 3 usurpers know that they were not appreciated. And thank god that Kane came out and ended it all with a chokeslam.

There were two promos backstage afterwards, the first was with Mark Henry when he was informed that he will get another match with CM Punk next week, and this one will be no DQ and no countout. Henry then forgot what title he was wrestling for when he declared he would be the next world heavyweight champion. (Strong like bull, smart like tractor.)

Then Brock Lesnar had his interview where he named himself a "war machine", and that he took Cena, and "knocked his pretty little mouth on his pretty little face." Did everyone eat a big bowl of dumbass this morning?

The final match of the evening was a match John Cena demanded. Laurinaitis placed him in a match against David Otunga. Now, Otunga is a great athlete with an imposing form but he really needs to stop posing during the match and focus on business at hand. Cena dispatched him with an "attitude adjustment" and then an STF submission. But before he could celebrate Cena was jumped from behind by Brock Lesnar and then treated to another F5.

After the show went off the air, Dolph Ziggler came out shooting his mouth off about Cena, John then planted him with an attitude adjustment so that the women and children in the crowd could apparently go home feeling good about themselves.

Rumor Mill

Just here to comment on a few things that have worked their way to my computer.

The first is concerning Brock Lesnar's recent return to the WWE and if Paul Heyman will be joining him or not.

Apparently, Lesnar has signed a 1 year deal that includes a major match at Wrestlemania 29. His "in-ring" return may not be until the end of the month at Extreme Rules, or in May at Over the Limit.

There are currently no plans to bring Heyman in as his mouthpiece. The reason being that Heyman is busy with several projects of his own.

A rumor involving the possible return of another former champion, Batista. He was quoted on his twitter account as saying "Follow my manager @JohnnyRyanJr he's going to be making some announcements about me VERY soon."
Does that mean the Animal and the WWE have gotten a deal done? Guess we'll have to wait and see.

Too Many Titles and Farewell to a Legend.

So I'm thinking a lot lately about the salad days of my youth, and I found a full set of the old 1985 WWF trading cards that I can get for $20. You bet your ass I'm getting them. But anyway back on topic ...

I don't like the title situation in modern wrestling. The WWE has too many titles and they change hands too often which makes them practically meaningless. First of all they need to do away with the "World Title". I know, I know, many of you wrestling "purists" are saying "But that belt has ties to the original NWA title, there's so much history there!" Well that's only because the old NWA became the old WCCW which then became the modern WCW which was bought by the WWE. When the undisputed heavyweight championship belt was introduced in the early 2000's that was supposed to be the end of it. That belt was the merging of the lines between WWF and WCW. Which is why if you look around this page, you'll see images of a championship belt, but it's that one in particular. Because that's the only one I recognize as the REAL heavyweight championship.

That spinner belt (that no longer spins) that CM Punk is carrying around right now, while I will admit that I do like its shape and girth, I am not a fan of all the gemstones on it. It's way too "bling bling". (Thanks alot Cena) And like I said before, the world title (which is the old WCW title) shouldn't exist at all anymore.

As for the United States title ... Why? Why was that belt brought back? The US title was retired in 2001 when Edge defeated Test at Survivor Series and unified the United States and Intercontinental titles. I know, I know, once again they brought it back for "Captain America", Super Cena. But it's a useless championship that serves no purpose except to draw attention away from the Intercontinental title.

The Divas championship? What's the point? These girls want to win something, put them in an evening gown on a runway somewhere because the only one of them that knows a thing about wrestling is Natalya. The rest of them are models and nothing more.

Finally the tag team titles. I really miss the old WWF world tag team belts but I do kinda like these new ones. They look more "tag team". But the division itself is dead and pointless. They don't even give it any tv time anymore.

They really need to go back the way it was and have the new guys start out as tag team competitors, work their  way up into a singles career and maybe one day be Intercontinental Champion. Then if you're good enough and you've stuck with it for years and you pay your dues, then you might one day become heavyweight champion. Ask guys like Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart. They know what I'm talking about.

One final piece of news is a legend and WWE Hall of famer Chief Jay Strongbow,  passed away this morning at the age of  83. My condolences to his family, he will be missed.