Tag Archives: Roman reigns

Lightyear Damage Control

Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I don’t think certain things get leaked without a reason. Disney has announced they have a woman kissing woman scene in the new Buzz Lightyear movie. Many people think this is in response to a new bill proposed by Ron DeSantis, banning schools from teaching about sexual orientation until after 3rd grade. The bill is now being trolled as an anti-gay bill and Disney is mad about that.

Now all of a sudden, it is leaked that the same sex kissing scene will be in the movie…after apparently being cut from the movie. My issue is why is a kiss the most talked about thing in this movie? I haven’t heard a single thing about the plot, any secret cameos or anything important.

The same thing happened before the movie the Eternals came out. In that movie, there was a man kissing another man for a second and that was all the internet was talking about. I didn’t read anything about how this movie tied into the MCU, nothing about the after-credit scenes, nothing about anything of value except the kiss. And Disney blamed the low box office numbers and bad reviews on that kiss.

Is Disney already writing the narrative of why Lightyear is going to fail? Are they going to go with the Liberal 3 (catchphrase pending), that the hate is from homophobic, misogynist, white supremacists? Or is the hate going to be well deserved because the movie might be poorly written?

I don’t expect this movie to crush the box office records by any means. The creation of Disney+ makes me ok with waiting for the movie to come to streaming for the included price. I think the only Marvel movie I saw in theaters in the last few years was No Way Home because it wasn’t going to be on Disney+. So why would I pay extra to see the movie in theaters of pay a Disney+ premium price to watch a movie that I can just wait a few months to see for no extra cost?

More importantly, will the Chinese release have this same sex kiss in it? Disney has kowtowed to China many times over the past few years. Making Finn smaller on the Chinese Star Wars poster and putting Black Panther in a mask in the movie poster didn’t really scream China really like black people. The Eternals didn’t have a release in China because of the same sex kiss. China is a massive part of Disney’s profits, so it’ll be interesting to see what the new Disney direction will be without China’s influence.

Do you agree with my theory that Disney is pushing the narrative? Do you think Lightyear will fail in the box office?

Let me know.

Where Are You Going With This?

AEW needs a proper developmental brand to help build up wrestlers. NXT makes sense for the WWE. Wrestlers stay there for a few years before going to the main roster after winning championships or being there for long enough that fans will recognize them on the main roster. My issue with AEW’s lack of developmental brand makes me question the path of Captain Shawn Dean.

Dean has a very bright future in the world of wrestling, but I don’t know if AEW even believes in him. He was thrown in a garbage match against MJF, with resulted in Dean winning because CM Punk came in the ring, attacked Dean and technically ruined MJF’s undefeated streak. And this coming week on Dynamite, Dean will be facing MJF again and I’m predicting Wardlow will come out to the ring, which will distract MJF and Dean can get the rollup win. Maybe sparking a tag match between Shawn Spears and MJF vs Wardlow and Dean.

Whatever the outcome, Dean isn’t booked to be a realistic wrestler in AEW. Sadly, I predict Dean will be a roster filler for the most part, we will see him a little more in this MJF and Wardlow feud, but Dean’s roster spot will be on Dark and Elevation helping other wrestlers increase their win/loss record.

What do you think about Shawn Dean’s future in AEW?

Simptastic Joe

Why Punish Him?

I don’t know the full story of what happened, but Nash Carter (current NXT Tag Team Champion) has been released from NXT following a domestic abuse allegation. Then they stripped Nash and his tag team partner Wes Lee of the titles….why? Why is Lee being punished for Carter’s actions?

This could’ve been a great opportunity for Lee. A storyline could’ve been created of Lee trying to find a tag team partner for an upcoming match. Maybe have him being jumped and be in a handicapped match against the number 1 contenders for the title.

A few members of NXT UK have been wrestling in the United States for a few months, so it wouldn’t be ridiculous to bring over another wrestler for a few weeks to team with Lee and eventually drop the belts. My top picks would be Dave Mastiff. Mastiff has been one of my favorite wrestlers of the UK division and I don’t think he’s been in the title picture enough.

If you want to go with a current NXT member in the US then Xyon Quinn (my new favorite wrestler) would be a great pick. Quinn is being booked perfectly as of late and it would be cool to see him in some tag matches. Or you can go with a current main roster wrestler who has done absolutely nothing and needs a rebranding. T-Bar (barf) sorry I mean Dominik Dijakovic was amazing on NXT, but never won any titles before going up to the main roster. Or if you want to trying building up someone on Smackdown devoid of a story then Mansoor is perfect. I think Mansoor should have an amazing year as the WWE is looking to branch out and make an NXT company in the Middle East. Mansoor needs to get better if he is going to lead that brand. And a great way to get him more screentime is teaming him up with Lee and holding those belts for a while.

Who would you team Wes Lee with and do you think striping him of the belt was a smart idea?

Simptastic Joe

Cody Invasion

Imagine this. WrestleMania. Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar in a title vs title match. The ref is knocked out. The Usos charge the ring. Brock takes them both out with double clothesline. He starts beating them down. Heyman comes in with a chair and hits Lesnar across the back. Lesnar grabs Heyman by the throat and yells in his face. Reigns gets up and goes for the Spear, but his Heyman instead. Lesnar hits Reigns with the F5. 1. 2. 3. Lesnar celebrates, holds up both belts and makes his way up the ramp. He takes one last look at a defeated Reigns who finally made it to his feet. Then it happens. Cody Rhodes jumps the barrier, slides in the ring and hits Reigns with the Cross Rhodes. Then he takes a look at Lesnar and we cut to black.

How good would that be?

Simptastic Joe

Yes It Does Make You Look Weak

The Young Bucks Explain Their Unique Twitter Strategy

Body shaming is bad. Nobody should ever be shamed for their appearance. We get that. It still happens and it will forever happen until the end of existence so you can put up all the hashtags you want on Twitter, but that’s not going to stop anything.

The reason why I bring this up is because of the Young Bucks have a new bio on Twitter. It reads, “If we threaten, body shame or say inappropriate things to you, we should lose our jobs. If you do it to us, we need to have thicker skin”.  

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I read this and don’t think the Young Bucks are the toughest team in wrestling. I know that’s not a polite opinion to have, but it ruins the mystique of the tag team. I don’t think wrestlers should be in control of their social medias. Not because I don’t believe in free speech, but because Tweets and posts like this ruin the wrestlers reputation.

Imagine Mike Tyson, arguably the toughest and most feared human being at the time. Let’s pretend Twitter existed back then and Tyson tweets out, “I know I have a speech impediment, but you don’t need to point it out. I know I sound ridiculous so please stop pointing it out”. How would that ruin the image of Tyson? I think immensely.  

Maxwell Jacob Friedman™️ on Twitter: "Fuck that kid." / Twitter

Now when I go on MJF’s Twitter page its all about wrestling. Its all about his brand. Its all about his character. He makes fun of Brodie Lee’s son. He talks shit about CM Punk. He disses Wardlow. But at no point in MJF’s Twitter feed to I see “If we all ate turkey burgers instead of beef climate change wouldn’t be a thing anymore”

Now lets take a look at the Young Bucks in recent weeks on tv….they dress like idiots. I mean they never really had the toughest outfits in wrestling, but it was never a problem for me. They had the Randy Savage tassels on the boots and the pattern was interesting. But now they dress in multi colored onesies and wearing gemmed headbands. So do the Bucks not want me to point out how ridiculous they look? I don’t know and at this point I have no idea what their characters are supposed to be anymore.

AEW Full Gear Results: Falls Count Anywhere Match - eWrestlingNews.com

I saw a very interesting video of Karrion Kross and he was explaining that he went to acting classes to workshop the character he wanted to portray in the ring. And if you look at his social medias it all about his character, upcoming matches, fan art of him and Scarlett and all other things accompanying his brand. And his brand is that he is the biggest toughed guy in the ring and a threat to everyone.

I think every company should have a team of social media managers whose sole job it is to be the voice of the wrestler online. Post about their ongoing feuds, share links to previous matches and things that are relevant to wrestling. Again, not saying free speech is a problem. The problem is how a little thing like banning the username Lets Go Brandon can impact a business. I that because Peloton’s stock has crashed recently because of their political views. Which is now resulting in longer ship dates for customers because so many people have canceled their orders and they are not assembling them fast enough because of the lack of orders. You’re a bike company. Sell bikes. Don’t lecture me on usernames. If I wanted to call myself ChildToucher69 it shouldn’t matter to the company. And if someone is offended by it, they should be able to press a button that says “hide the username”. Peloton I just did your job for you.

My point is that every Tweet that’s sent out and every opinion given should be reread before sending or thought about before speaking. Bully Ray is having a massive heat because of some comments he said about Jon Moxley. Comments that people have made compelling arguments for and against.

New look Young Bucks show off new heel attitude in Tag title defense -  Cageside Seats

Now obviously the Buck’s bio wasn’t as severe as the other examples, but it does show a lack of maturity and business sense from them. I don’t want the best tag team in the world giving me a lecture of how I should behave. You two are not real people to me. I don’t know either of you personally, we are not on a first name basis and when I watch a wrestler, I don’t want to know any of their non wrestling opinions. Essentially your life isn’t

Bryan Danielson is a vegan and when he was in the WWE, he turned the title into a hemp title because it was better for the environment. They took a real-life aspect of his life and turned it into a gimmick that worked. Danielson as a heel talked down to people who didn’t believe with his cause and would regularly lecture fans on their bad decisions. Why did this work? Because it part of his character.

Backstage Reaction To Joe Gacy's Controversial Woke Gimmick In NXT

Joe Gacy’s character on NXT is a social justice warrior. That’s how he’s written. So his social media is littered with inclusive content. And I predict that Gacy will one day be broken and go to the other side, his social medias will reflect that. And its going to work because it makes sense with the character.

Back to the Young Bucks. They are devoid of character development now. They teamed with Don Callis, started dressing like a pair of grandmothers and wearing brand named shoes. If an opponent during a match says they should do more sit-ups will the Bucks cry and leave the ring?

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I watched an entire ECW arena chant “Fuck you” and “Cena swallows” and did John Cena get mad and walk out? Did he cry it to the media? No, he ate up every second of it and used it to make the match better. He played to the fans hating on him and resulted in one of my favorite matches of all time.

Now a hostile crowd has all the ammo they want to hurt the Bucks. They can chant “Do a sit-up”, “Rogaine” or “Bitch tits” and it would utterly decimate them emotionally. Kurt Angle’s “You Suck” and Stone Cold’s “What” chants are still relevant today even though they happened over a decade ago. Why the Bucks are actively choosing to be this socially inept is beyond me.

The Young Bucks Sign New Long-Term Contracts With All Elite Wrestling

But what do you guys think of their new bio and the Young Bucks now?

Simptastic Joe

Control Your Narrative Promotion?

When I first heard of the Control Your Narrative movement, I thought this was just a wrestling faction, but I later learned this is going to be a new failing company in the world of wrestling. The company’s 3 main stars are EC3, Killer Kross (Karrion Kross) and Adam Scherr (Braun Strowman). In their mission statement, the men explained what the company is. They first took shots are shareholders and billionaire owners.  Saying that owners collect wrestlers like “toys”. Clearly these men have never ran a company before. The “toys” they are talking about are employees, not friends and not members of a bigger picture. If a wrestler or “toy” is not putting in the work, not loved by the fans and making for lower ratings, then a change will be made. That’s running a business.

The letter than goes on to name drop popular wrestlers that have joined the company. Names like Moose, Matt Sydal, Matt Cardona and some no names. Now, are you telling me that Moose, a superstar in Impact Wrestling who is probably being paid very well, is planning on leaving Impact to join this company?

Who’s paying for this? You don’t have a billionaire owner like Tony Khan or Vince McMahon, you don’t have or want shareholders, so where is the money coming from? The top 3 wrestlers starting this company I imagine have some savings, so they can go a little while without getting a regular paycheck, but the others can’t. Matt Sydal was never a “run the company” wrestler. He has been bouncing around from company to company since he left the WWE. And more importantly, why would he want to leave AEW in any capacity?

I don’t know what to think about this company after reading this letter. I’m very confused with a lot of wrestling companies these days. The WWE looks like the only real wrestling company and the others are just all working together in some way.

Jon Moxley still does shows in Japan and backyard wrestling promotions, but still works for AEW. This move I find incredibly stupid because why would AEW be ok with letting one of their most popular wrestlers go to other places? More importantly, Mox went to some unknown company for his first match after rehab, kinda dulling the moment of his return. Why would Impact Wrestling be ok with Moose playing in this other company. If he gets hurt that’s a MAJOR blow to your company.

The whole promotion just seems like a great faction idea, one that would thrive on grabbing wrestlers who are lost or on losing streaks to be more, but as a company they are failing before they even got started. My prediction gets stronger when I read their website. Apparently, if I’m reading this wrong, fights (not matches) are decided by Tap Out, Knock Out or Can’t Stand……so not wrestling. Is this a better version of Raw Underground?

Another section of the website says “FTN blends professional wrestling, cinema, and harsh reality”. The cinema part throws me off. Because they are going to have live crowds. Are these planned out fist fights? I HATED the cinematic matches during the Pandemic Era for the WWE. I thought nothing had to change with the style, just put on great matches and you captures your audience interest.

If I was running this show, the first thing I would do is write up a REAL mission statement of their promotion, take it to Rumble and do shows exclusively on there. Rumble was ready to give Joe Rogan $200 million dollars to be exclusively there. I wonder how much they would pay for the exclusive rights to a wrestling promotion? I wouldn’t do shows on the road. Like NXT, I would do shows exclusively in one location. Buy a simple warehouse or property you can make into an arena and that solves where it would be. I would put the arena somewhere in the South or mid-West because it’s cheaper to buy property there. Maybe one day take the show on the road, but when you’re stating a new company saving money is key.

The next step does against everything they believe in, getting shareholders. They NEED some big money bankrolling this operation. Let’s say if the Rumble deal happens, they give, let’s say 10 million dollars, you still have a lot of things to buy. The biggest would be the location. I saw just use one because you don’t have to worry about costs of travel and you can control the environment more than using someone else’s building.  

Getting wrestlers shouldn’t be that difficult. Yes, I crapped on Sydal before, but he’s a good wrestler. Not someone who can lead the company, but a suitable wrestler. Moose would be way out of their pay range, but Cardona might be a great addition. The 3 creators would be taking a pay cut for the first few months so that’ll save some money. There are a ton of unknown wrestlers and released wrestlers looking for a shot to be on tv again. If anything, this new promotion might be a way to help them. But that would be a WRESTLING promotion and not a….whatever this is.

I don’t think the Control Your Narrative promotion will be a success. The idea is enough to get some early viewers, but this doesn’t seem realistic and will fail pretty soon.

World War Joe

Jay White Vs The Best Friends

After Jay White beat Trent in his AEW debut, I saw something that really annoyed me. The camera panned over to Orange Cassidy before the show cut to black……is AEW seriously going to give us Jay White vs Orange Cassidy? Are they really going to push a fight between White, who I say is top 5 in the world, against one of the least imposing threats in AEW? Not only that, I can see White fighting the entire Best Friends group, probably ending in a multi man tag match.

I figure this might be a good idea for a feud in theory, White is very popular overseas, but if you don’t watch him on YouTube then you probably never heard of him. My problem is that this feud is a waste of time, especially for White. I would have White attack Cassidy before he enters the Face of the Revolution Ladder match this weekend. Attack him backstage, knock him out of the match and get White in that match against the best the company has to offer.

You can have Cassidy interfere and cost White’s chances of winning the match, setting up their feud. But having Cassidy in that match is such a waste. Cassidy isn’t equipped to be the face of the company ever, but White is. Maybe White running through all the Best Friends might buy him time until some of the other feuds are finished and he can get inserted into the main title picture or against a higher profile talent like Hangman Page.

Simptastic Joe

Omos The Next Giant?

The Undertake said “There will never be another Andre (The Giant), but this guy is as close as we’ve come, and that’s a big statement…Omos is special” has the Undertake ever heard of Braun Strowman? I could argue that Strowman is the best big man since The Big Show, who when the Big Show was starting out he was compared to Andrea The Giant.

Omos is ok to me. I think him teaming with AJ Styles has resulted in Styles looking weaker as of late. The pairing seems more like a comedy gimmick rather than a team that will dominate. If they want to put Omos in that top tier of wrestlers than maybe a feud with Styles would be best. Have them win the tag titles, lose them as a result of Styles. Maybe a miscommunication where he hits Omos and then simply have him turn on Styles. Not the most original idea, but it would be effective.

Then have them fight at WrestleMania, make Omos the winner and keep his momentum going from there. I do agree with the Undertaker where if there was someone to eventually be in that Andrea Class then it can be Omos, but you have to book him as the face of the company. Maybe a feud with Roman Reigns would be interesting to see.

But what do you guys think of Omos so far and what would be the best way to make him a superstar?

Simptastic Joe

WWE 2K22

Surprising WWE 2K22 Release Date Announced Plus New Info

I’m hearing bad rumors about the new WWE 2K22. Since the failure of 2K20 and Battlegrounds, the decision has been made to reinvent the wheel and model their game after No Mercy which was released in 2000 for the N64.

Sports games are some of the easiest games to shoot out. Fans are just paying for an updated roster, new moves, and graphics. We aren’t asking the gaming companies to do anything too drastic. I know I can’t speak for all wrestling game fans, but I don’t need much to make me happy. The best addition to the games is the community creations. 

AEW Video Game To Be Better Than WWE 2K Series?

The WWE should embrace AEW as a marketable tool. I still play 2K19 all the time, my created wrestler slots are completely filled with AEW, Impact and NJPW wrestlers from the community creations. The WWE should make it even easier to bring wrestlers from other promotions into this game. Give us all their moves, give us the ability make their gear, give us a ton of slots to build a massive roster. How is this bad for the WWE? Honestly, if their game is better than AEW’s and has the ability to bring in all their wrestlers, then why wouldn’t fans buy this game over theirs?

The WWE’s problem since AEW’s creation has been competition, but making your enemy an asset without having to lose anything is a win.

What do you think?

Simptastic Joe