WWE

It’s been the most tumultuous week in the world of pro-wrestling since WCW folded two decades ago, with Vince McMahon abruptly announcing his “retirement” last Friday, surely signalling that further awful revelations about his behaviour are sure to surface shortly. Further news has been coming out on a daily basis… it was reported by Dave Meltzer on Post Wrestling that not only has he retired from his role as head of creative and chairman, he is also no longer on the board of directors.

My generous gut told me that a new era won’t truly begin until McMahon actually sells his majority shares and someone else (or another corporation outright) owns the business; and then it was reported that he has forfeited some of his stock already. Crazy times! I’m sure in between the time I’m writing this post and it being published more news will have spilled out of WWE headquarters.

Still, regardless of whomever is really in charge the one thing that for sure won’t change is that they’ll still be taking Saudi blood money for many years to come.

What do you make of these momentous events?

It was also announced that Wrestlemania 40 will be held at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on Saturday, April 6 and Sunday, April 7, 2024. Hey! That’s the stadium featured in the Always Sunny opening credits!

Oh, there’s also SummerSlam this Saturday, but as usual the wrestling is the least interesting thing going on in the World Wrestling Entertainment universe. Here’s the card:

Undisputed WWE Universal Championship — Roman Reigns (c) vs. Brock Lesnar (Last Man Standing Match)
United States Championship — Bobby Lashley (c) vs. Theory
Pat McAfee vs. Happy Corbin
Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship — The Usos (c) vs. The Street Profits (with special guest referee Jeff Jarrett)
SmackDown Women’s Championship — Liv Morgan (c) vs. Ronda Rousey
Raw Women’s Championship — Bianca Belair (c) vs. Becky Lynch
The Miz vs. Logan Paul
The Mysterios vs. The Judgement Day (No Disqualification)

ROH

The Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view was broadcast Saturday 23rd and I thought it was a pretty excellent show; the best match obviously being the 2/3 Falls main event between FTR and the Briscoes. That table bump and the avalanche piledriver were crazy spots. FTR have come a long way since I was chanting along with everyone else “Which one’s Dash? Which one’s Dawson?” at NXT shows. I also greatly enjoyed the Rush/Dragon Lee match and Mercedes Martinez vs Serena Deeb contests. I don’t know if it’s a hot take or not, but Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman on commentary were so bad my ears were aching. I loved Regal when he took a headset and mic to contribute to the Blackpool Combat Club matches. He should just be given full control of ROH, it would be amazing. Did you watch it? What did you think?

AEW

The general consensus online seems to be that AEW has been on a downward slide recently. For me though, Wednesday’s Dynamite was great. The Interim Championship match was superbly brutal (I love Rush when he puts his working boots on, and he’s done so twice in the past week). It was fantastic to see Miyu Yamashita perform so well in front of such a large audience, and of course having Bryan Danielson back is a boon. And of course a million other things happened too (do we really need more Jericho right now, in the ring or at the commentary table? No, no we don’t, but I digress). Did the show float your boat?

NJPW

The G1 continues; I haven’t had the opportunity to watch much beyond Tanahashi vs Naito, which was another slice of fried gold between these two, with a heelish Ace rolling up Naito to give him his second loss in the tournament. But he can still win! This is probably his last chance before his body breaks down! Come on Gedo, stop torturing us L.I.J marks.

Bushiroad also announced they are creating an IWGP Women’s World Championship belt, to be defended on NJPW events; it will not be replacing any of Stardom’s current championships.

ELSEWHERE

It’s been a hectic week, I’m not sure what’s been ticking on outside of the Big Three.

Stardom’s 5★Star GP is this weekend… that will undoubtedly be awesome!

It’s Ric Flair’s Last Match – Jarrett’s getting a hell of a paycheck this weekend… he’s out-carnied all the carnies! Let’s hope everyone comes out of it alive.

Share your thoughts and tell us what you watched!