Medium • 20th July 2021

The Curious Case of Karrion Kross

On last night’s edition of WWE Raw, you had the returns of John Cena and Goldberg and the triumphant MITB cash-in from Nikki A.S.H. to become the new Raw Women’s champion. However, there was a debut a particular that turned a lot of heads. (more so, the result of that debut). Karrion Kross, the current NXT champion, made his way down the ramp to the main roster ring with fans. His entrance had the same apocalyptic style as it did in NXT. Well, kind of. Scarlett Bordeaux was absent. The black and

The Pop Break • 1st June 2021

NXT 5/25 Review and A Brief Look Ahead: Kross Retains and Future Feuds Take Shape

The Pop Break • 8th April 2021

NXT Takeover: Stand and Deliver Night One Review: ‘A Changing of the Guard’

Medium • 24th February 2021

Bad Bunny and the Perils of Wrestling Gatekeeping

The intersection of pop culture and wrestling isn’t something new. It has been an integral relationship to both business models. Remember WrestleMania 10 when Burt Reynolds, Donnie Wahlberg, Jennie Garth, and Ronda Sheer were the celebrity guests? Little Richard sang the National Anthem that year. Mr. T and Muhammad Ali were at the very first Wrestlemania. Athletes such as Lawrence Taylor, the late Kevin Greene, and Dennis Rodman were in actual matches. Arnold Schwarzenegger close-lined Triple H

Medium • 31st December 2020

AEW Dynamite 12/30: RIP Jon Huber (Brodie Lee/Luke Harper)

When you become a wrestling fan, the men and women who perform and built their bodies on the line become gladiator avatars. It’s the good guys versus the bad guys. We cheer hard for them to win and overcome the odds. We also jeer just as hard for them to lose sometimes. That inner child that holds on to that sense of wonder stays with you. These people become the characters they portray and there’s insulation to the outside limiting factors of life. Surely the heroes that I see every week can’t

Medium • 15th December 2020

The Man and the Streak

When Bill Goldberg made his return to WWE TV on October 17th, 2016, the chants of his name from the crowd rained down on him like in his many years in WCW. Walking down the long hallways to the ring as WWE superstars cheered him on, he was as focused as ever. Goldberg approached his trademark pyro and although older, he emerged from it with the same intensity. Taking the mic, he spoke about missing being a superhero for the kids all around the world as his wife and son looked on. That’s what wre

Medium • 10th December 2020

WWE NXT 12/9: Proving Grounds

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Well, the road from NXT War Games has a lot of injuries. Candice LeRae, Dakota Kai, and Bobby Fish to be exact. We only have a month until New Years Evil, and there are a lot of moving parts to be set. Let’s take a look with some quick thoughts. • Finn Balor is back with a new set of challengers. To have Pete Dunne come out first was a great touch. After all, he’s a former NXT UK champion himself. It’s about time that they moved Damian Pri

Medium • 7th December 2020

NXT War Games 2020: Still Undisputed

Women's War Game Match: Candice LeRae, Dakota Kai, Raquel Gonzalez, & Toni Storm vs. Ember Moon, Io Shirai, Rhia Ripley, & Shotzi Blackheart: I know that some people may have been puzzled that the babyface team got the advantage (myself included). However, they structured the match in a way where they tried to balance it out from a psychological standpoint. Dakota Kai goes in first for Team LeRae, but you find yourself rooting for her to overcome the 2 vs. 1 advantage. That’s why they sent Raque

Medium • 4th December 2020

WWE NXT 12/2: War Table

Season’s greetings! We are at the precipice of the last big NXT event for the year. I didn’t get a chance to say this before, but I’m glad that the WWE sprung to pay the money to use Black Sabbath’s ‘War Pigs.’ I was as shocked as you are. Let’s talk about this go-home show: • When it comes to the actual War Games match itself, The Undisputed Era are the well-tested veterans of the NXT version itself. Having been in every single one and boasting a 2–1 record. Team McAfee is on a hot streak. Burc

Medium • 3rd December 2020

AEW DYNAMITE 12/2: WINTER IS HERE

How nice is it that AEW falls within the same company as Warner where they can borrow this tagline? Hopefully, it didn’t bring bad memories of the polarizing season eight of Game of Thrones. CEO Tony Khan stated that this show would be structured like a PPV. They were trying to fit as much as they could before the championship match, but a LOT of things happened. Diamond Battle Royal and The Inner Circle Is In Disarray:: This battle royal went the way as many AEW battle royals go — to further s

Medium • 13th November 2020

AEW Dynamite 11/11: ‘Send For You’

That Promo: First off, I’ll commend AEW on Darby Allin winning the TNT title. It was long overdue and AEW needed to start prioritizing getting their younger upstart wrestlers in higher positions with big wins. This is the start and I hope it continues. Cody infers going after MJF, but setting up a celebrity match with Shaq works because it keeps him to the side. He’s been front and center with the TNT tile for a while, so it’s time for a bit of a refresh. This loops into Team Taz with the tag m

Medium • 14th October 2020

Looking Back At The First-Ever AEW Dynamite: One Year Later

On October 2nd, 2019, a new wrestling promotion came back to TNT programming after an almost 20-year hiatus. At the Capital One Center in Washington, DC, All Elite Wrestling or AEW officially broke ground on their weekly show. Coming off All Out where Chris Jericho was crowned the first AEW Champion, the beginning of the AEW tag team tournament, and a crazy ladder match between The Lucha Bros and The Young Bucks. Tonight is AEW’s anniversary show and a lot has happened since Cody smashed the ma

Medium • 10th October 2020

WWE Draft 2020: Night One Thoughts

The champions (Drew McIntyre, Asuka, and Roman Reigns) stay on their respective brands. Not really sure why they were draft-eligible, but history has had major champions switching back and forth. With Roman, there was no way they were going to move him with the Jey Uso feud. Smackdown just has to get a couple more babyface wrestlers to challenge him. (looking at Keith Lee) Might as well address the elephant in the room — it looks like The New Day is breaking up. Since 2015, the collective has b

Medium • 8th October 2020

NXT 10/07: Eclipsed

Just want to start by saying that was an unfortunate injury to Ridge Holland and I hope he gets well soon. Looks as though he was primed for a big storyline with the Undisputed Era and I hope the injury isn’t that serious. Tonight marked a lot of returns and setting some pieces as we get ready to head to NXT Halloween Havoc. Let’s rattle off some quick thoughts: • Tomasso Ciampa vs. KUSHIDA was a very good opener. These are two men who have been on both streaks of aggression and wins as of late

Medium • 5th October 2020

NXT Takeover 31 Review

First things first, welcome back Halloween Havoc, eh? Shotzi Blackheart as a host is (chef’s kiss) perfect. I’m sure NXT will do the ghosts of Diamond Dallas Page vs. Macho Man Randy Savage proud. Also, the new Capitol Center looked great. It gave this Takeover a completely different flavor and made this PPV feel major. Damian Priest vs. Johnny Gargano: The athleticism of Damian Priest collided the heel savvy of Gargano. I liked that Priest got to do the high-flying moves and Gargano was there

Medium • 2nd October 2020

WWE NXT 09/30: Power Couple Power Trip

Even though Austin Theory has been on a losing streak, they made him look competitive against Adam Cole. That’s big because it’s against a former two-time champion of the brand. It looks like they are going to continue the young, cocky, hotshot character that gets his comeuppance. It fits him. With Cole, there was something that stuck out to me. He was very vocal in his backing on Kyle O’ Reilly. I mean, of course — that’s his stablemate. He could either be turning into a full baby face or prim

Medium • 24th September 2020

WWE NXT 09/23: O’ Reilly Time

The Poison Pixie Is the Next In Line: Nothing like a good ole’ battle royale to kick off an NXT episode. There were a lot of new faces amongst the mainstays to the point where you knew who were going to be featured wrestlers. At first, it was a Rhea Ripley/Raquel Gonzalez expose to see who can eliminate the most people. That’s until they went toe-to-toe — this was alluding to a feud between the two. Good for Raquel having her first feud sans Dakota Kai. Kacy Catanzaro was able to play on her Ro

Medium • 17th September 2020

WWE NXT 09/16: Welcome To The Ball Pit

Last week’s SUPER TUESDAY episode gave us a new champion and king of the castle, Finn Balor. This week gave us the building blocks as we head towards an October Takeover (crosses fingers for a Halloween Havoc theme). If you don’t know by now, Shotzi Blackheart is a star. It’s an embarrassment of riches in the NXT Women’s division, and the non-title match between Io Shirai and Blackheart was another example of that. They both had to work out the timing in the beginning, and once they got through

Medium • 7th September 2020

AEW All Out Review: A Mixed Bag

On a hot and humid Saturday night in Florida, AEW put on the second All Out. Going into this Pay-Per-View, there was an average go-home show. Some matches on the card had better build-ups and anticipations than others. Other than a couple of matches, All Out felt like an addendum to Dynamite. Something else that was notable — no Cody match. His matches have a certain style of booking, and you could feel his absence on the show. Not taking anything away from Dustin Rhodes’ promo, which was one of

Medium • 6th August 2020

AEW Dynamite/ August 5th Post Show Notes

AEW Dynamite has some good, some so-so, and some entertaining things tonight. The episode furthered some storylines and put some wrestlers over. However, there is something I wanted to write about before we get into the big points of the show. The AEW Women’s division has been a point of contention amongst many wrestling fans. Today, the company unveiled All Elite Heels. It’s noted as being a safe haven for female wrestling fans that includes meet and greets, custom merch, and seminars. It’s al