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Wrestling

Jay White’s Future

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Jay White is reportedly torn between the WWE and AEW as his next destination. There are pros and cons to each company, so I wanted to go over each.

I wrote that line and spend the next 10 minutes trying to think of a single positive of White going to AEW. The way AEW is operating now, with their lack of storytelling and a not split-up roster on the Tony Khan’s 6 shows, White will be lost in the shuffle very quickly. The WWE is the best and only option for him.

White will be a game changer in the WWE, much like AJ Styles was when he entered in 2016. Styles had one of the greatest years in the WWE in 2016, having feuds with the top talents in the company before winning the WWE Championship.

White has a ton of dream opponents and feuds in the WWE. Austin Theory, AJ Styles, Bobby Lashley, Cody Rhodes, Edge, Finn Balor, Kevin Owens, Matt Riddle, Karrion Kross, Sami Zayn, Roman Reigns, Sheamus, Drew McIntyre, and that’s just the main roster. On NXT, he has Carmelo Hayes, Greyson Waller, Bron Breakker, Dominik Dijakovic, JD McDonagh, and more to go up against.

Triple H did tease the Raw after WrestleMania being a huge reveal. Could White be that reveal?

Wrestling

Reigns vs Zayn: Not Over Yet?

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I said many times that I have a Love/Hate relationship with Brock Lesnar. I’ve seen many fantastic matches where he fought Kurt Angle, Eddie Guerrero, John Cena, Triple H and others, but there have been a lot of terrible matches with Lesnar as well. the bad matchres consist of German Suplexes followed by an F5 and sprints to the finish of the match. A lot of high spots that get a quick reaction, but nothing long lasting.

This match was a bad Lesnar match in reverse. Slow, painfully slow. To the point where I questioned if Sami Zayn is even a good wrestler anymore. Zayn’s last couple of years in the WWE have been more theatrical than focusing on in ring ability. Yes, he was great in NXT, but I would say the most impressive thing he did on the main roster was his feud with Braun Strowman in 2016, which was 7 years ago. Since then, he has been bottom tier on the roster, lackluster feuds and essentially struggling to hold any type of spotlight. This could very well be the first time watching a wrestler be elevated to potential WrestleMania Championship match based on emotional storytelling and not in ring ability.

All this match did was show that Roman Reigns can command an arena doing very little wrestling. Roman yelled at the crowd, yelled at Zayn’s wife, mouthed off to Zayn’s father, yelled at the crowd again. Every now and then Zayn caught Reigns monologuing and took advantage, but not for long. It felt like watching a retirment match where Zayn’s career was on the line and we saw glimpses of great moments from his past.

Of course the referee went down, bringing in Jimmy Uso to Superkick Zayn until the ref woke up. The Jey Uso hesitation with the chair was interesting, but makes me wonder if this is leading to Jey and Zayn winning the tag titles, which wouldn’t surprise me, but would be an immense letdown of storytelling. Zayn winning the title from Reigns is the only outcome that makes sense. Anything else is a massive letdown.

So what did this match accomplish? That Zayn isn’t at the level that Reigns is? That the fans will chant for you more if your parents had unprotected sex in that city? This feud is over to me. Obviously, we have WrestleMania and an unfinished Jey Uso moment of truth, but this is now Cody Rhode’s time.

Did they bring back Rhodes to win the Royal Rumble and not be the focal point. That we are getting a Triple Threat Match for the titles that again reiterates the fact that Zayn can’t win the big one? So now, they’re sacrificing Rhode’s potential WrestleMania moment for Zayn, when his moment should’ve been in Canada. What a waste.

Art work from Dream by Wombo AI Art

Simptastic Joe

Wrestling

The Wrestling Merger

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AEW has changed the wrestling landscape forever by making deals with Impact Wrestling and NJPW. The WWE has yet been public about making a deal, but I imagine some sort of agreement will be happening soon. It’s a win/win for the WWE and wrestling fans for a deal to be put in place and here’s why.

Wrestler Swapping is the best way to keep fans engaged and stories fresh. The WWE’s biggest mistake is focusing their attention on a select few wrestlers rather than expanding on the talents they already have.

There is Raw, Smackdown, Main Event, 205 Live, NXT, NXT UK, AEW Dynamite, AEW Dark, Impact Wrestling and NJPW. After many painstaking hours, I have come up with a potential shakeup of wrestlers and unsigned free agents that can populate those shows and make for compelling matches.

The only issue is bad blood with firings. The WWE fired a bunch of wrestlers during the Covid months. Would wrestlers be willing to come back if it means being put in meaningful feuds and championship matches? ACH left NXT at his highest career point citing racism and burned his WWE bridges, but what if he was to return to a prime spot?

The salary would be easy to negotiate. Let’s say (I don’t know what he makes but using a round number) Johnny Gargano makes 1 million dollars this upcoming year. The writers would write out all the potential storylines for Gargano and ship him around to the companies. Gargano spend some time on NXT, Impact, RAW and rounding out the year on Dynamite. It would get split up evenly be his time in each company. How they would negotiate his time and need in each company while excluding others will have be ironed out before a deal is made. The swapping of wrestlers is to keep storylines fresh in EACH company and making sure ALL have an equal amount of talent to shine.

Main Event, AEW Dark and 205 Live I feel are shows made for wrestlers that don’t have anything major going on and give them a place to show their talents as time slots open up for them to shine. Mojo Rawley and Slapjack are not main eventers, but have had impressive showings on Main Event. I wouldn’t make these shows simple hour long shows with many commercials, but 2 hours with compelling storylines and feuds that fans would like to see.

For some wrestlers, the situation matters more than the company. Most of the time it’s not the companies fault entirely. WWE has made it clear they don’t know what to do or have time for Aleister Black and Andrade. It doesn’t mean they aren’t main eventers; it just means they are preoccupied with their bread-and-butter talents like Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Kevin Owens and Braun Strowman. Now if you take Aleister Black and ship him off to NJPW and have him fight the likes of Okada, Taiji Ishimori, Kenta, Tama Tonga, and Jeff Cobb that can be some good wrestling.

There will be no ratings war. Monday you have RAW, Tuesday you have NXT followed by NXT UK, Wednesday you have Dynamite, Thursday you have Impact, Friday you have Smackdown and Saturday you have NJPW. The potential main event matches for these days can be Seth Rollins vs Jay White, Johnny Gargano vs Marty Scurll, Kenny Omega vs Randy Orton, Hangman Page vs Matt Riddle, Roman Reigns vs Lance Archer and EC3 vs AJ Styles. It would be the ultimate set of dream matches for fans. Every promotion will be filled with a massive amount of talent. Main Event, 205 Live and Dark can be a preshow to RAW, Smackdown and Dynamite featuring matches like Colt Cabana vs R Truth, Stu Grayson vs Kalisto and Tucker Knight vs Chris Hero.

I will be making a massive shakeup video soon and be talking about specific wrestlers’ futures and different shows and also the feuds they can expect to have soon. But what shakeups would you love to see happen?

Simptastic Joe