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Wrasslin' Crew: Last thread got future endeavored


Guest ssj4gogita4

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Well, it’s that time of year again: post-WrestleMania spring cleaning

The likes of Samoa Joe, Billie Kay, Mickie James, Tucker, Peyton Royce, Chelsea Green, Bo Dallas, Wesley Blake and Kalisto have been released so far. With more to come I’m sure, if last year was anything to go by. Letting go of Joe and The IIconics are probably what’s hitting me the most. Joe knocked literally everything they gave him to do out of the park both in and out of the ring. Even if they wanted to wind down on his in-ring career, surely he’d be a keeper on the commentary desk. And with the recent change up in commentary, I thought he was finally being primed for a return to the ring (cuz a feud with heel Roman sounds so fucking good, it writes itself), but that isn’t the case now.

And the loss of the IIconics is probably the most tragic part on the women’s side of things. They were literally broken up for nothing when there’s a women’s tag division that’s literally hanging on by a thrown together thread, Peyton didn’t even get that much reported singles push out of it, both of them just being thrown together in other makeshift tag teams. Billie made the absolute most of that bad situation by putting out some of the best character work of her WWE career.

I was a fan of Chelsea Green’s work as Laurel Van Ness in Impact, so her release feels like a missed opportunity to me. She would’ve benefitted from more time in NXT to craft a new character that’s just as good as that one was. Losing a veteran hand like Mickie James, who can still go, feels like losing a wealth of experience for the younger members of the division, but I guess there’s always someone like Natalya or Tamina to fill that role. I’m sure Mickie still has a place to come back to since she seems to be held in the same regard as a Trish or a Lita, but her last few tv appearances felt a bit sour and I wish she could’ve gotten a better note to leave off of than that. She certainly deserves it.

Tucker felt like pretty much in the same boat as The IIconics when it came to his breakup with Otis. That all felt wasted when it could’ve possibly elevated both guys, but Tucker never was as highly regarded as Otis, unfortunately. I felt they had a lot more mileage together and an underdog run, helping Otis alongside Mandy through his MitB arc, could’ve made for a pretty feel-good or tragic moment if more competent hands took the reins of that story. I mean, they made the Otis-Mandy love story work!

Wesley Blake has had some of the toughest breaks throughout his years, the whole Ryker thing being the shittest instance. Sucks to see him go out like this after going through all that he went through just to get a taste of the main roster, and with a new baby on the way too. Bo Dallas would go down, at least to me, as one of the company’s biggest wastes of potential. I loved his NXT run and I thought he would’ve translated so perfectly well to the main roster (and it kinda did for a hot minute), but who gives a shit about nuanced characters? Bo had just as much upside as Bray and he’ll always be one of NXT’s best home grown talents to me.

Kalisto’s release has been a long time coming, seemingly. WWE (or specifically Vince) has a horrible track record with luchadores. Masked wrestlers fall under the Mysterio formula and those who go unmasked fall under the Guerrero mold and if they don’t meet those astronomically high expectations, then they’re relegated to just being basic trash. Andrade was a victim of this and Carrillo and Garza are going through those motions right now. They’ve got the King of the Ropes, Gran Metallik, out there doing the Lucha Dragons’ basic ass gimmick and playing with Fortnite llamas. Watching Lucha Underground showed me that there are better ways to present luchadores in the American market, ways that can retain each of their uniquness, than WWE’s basic ass one of two formulas. I fear for Santos Escobar, I really do.

there’s guaranteed spots for names like Joe, Kay, Royce, Green, Kalisto and Mickie in other places and I’m sure they’ll tear it up wherever they end up. Bo seemed primed and ready for life after wrestling according to recent reports, but names like Tucker and Blake have a tougher hill to climb I feel if they’re gonna continue making a go of wrestling since they’re both predominantly tag guys who haven’t really made names for themselves before joining WWE, but Blake has a slight edge since he could always reunite with Steve Cutler on the indies. Sucks to see this shit, but it’s the nature of the beast, I suppose. And they’re all free to do whatever they want now.

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And now Mojo Rawley joins the list of the future endeavored. It’s honestly a release where I’m like, “ok understandable”. Tho it still kinda surprises me because I’d think he’d be set up for an ambassador role similar to Titus but I guess not. Gronk going back to the NFL really feels like Mojo’s death knell now in hindsight. But to Mojo’s credit, he lasted with the company for about 8-9 years, way longer than most guys in recent years who came strictly from a football background. Mang,  I still remember the reports of him being primed to be the next Cena-level superstar like it was just yesterday lol kinda crazy how this round of releases includes two guys, Mojo and Bo, who at one point in their careers were each pegged to be a future face of the company. Mojo’s got personality to spare for any non-wrestling career opportunities. Wrestling-wise, I mean, if Tino Sabbatelli can get a gig with AEW before he got himself blacklisted, what’s to stop the Hype Man? Let’s go, Hype Bros reunion on Impact! But now, a moment of silence

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Really sucks to hear that the WWE’s monthly culling continued over in NXT today, William Regal’s release probably being the most jaw dropping for me. And from the sound of things, a lot of the others were also Triple H guys. Black & Gold NXT may have lost to AEW and it didn’t necessarily “move the needle” the way some would hope an actually good wrestling product would, but it has consistently been the best thing that WWE had going for the last, what, 8-9 years now. Hell, I still remember that time when NXT gave us the best episode of Smackdown in recent memory because Vince left his wrestlers high and dry in a foreign country. It all ultimately comes down to business and I get that, but Triple H and his team gave us something real special with their NXT and their passion showed all throughout the years. That passion and focus is something that Vince’s WWE sorely lacks.

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Here’s my Mania 39 predictions. Probably won’t be able to watch either night live since I’m attending a convention all weekend, but it looks to be a couple of fun shows.

 

Night 1

John Cena defeats Austin Theory to win the Us Title, come on John bring that title with you while promoting Fast X.

Seth “Fuck” Rollins defeats Logan Paul, Logan’s good, real good, but Seth’s the best.

Trish Stratus, Lita and Becky Lynch defeats Damage CTRL to hopefully put Bayley and buddies out to pasture because their group has done nothing for me at all and it sucks that that’s the case.

Alpha Academy wins the Men’s Showcase Tag Team Fatal Four Way, this could really be Gable’s time to shine.

Rhea Ripley defeats Charlotte to win Smackdown Women’s Title, Rhea’s earned it after the year she’s had and being very instrumental to getting Judgement Day to where they’re at now post-Edge. She’s definitely shown more character growth over the year than what they’re trying to portray with Charlotte’s recent return.

KOmania and WrestleZaynia defeats The Usos to win the Smackdown Tag Titles, because why the FUCK not

Dominik Guerrero defeats Rey Mysterio, Rey will end up doing more for Dom in that ring than he ever, EEEEEEEVEEEERRRR, did as a dad.


 

Night 2

Cody Rhodes defeats Roman Reigns to win both belts, it’s not like Roman has to go out to promote a movie like Cena does.

Sheamus defeats Gunther and Drew to win the IC Title, as good as it would be seeing Gunther break Honky’s record, Sheamus deserves his Grand Slam with extra ham and a side of carrot cake more.

The Demon defeats Edge inside Hell in a Cell, the Demon shtick is old hat for me at this point, I just wanna see Finn enjoy the spoils of helping to get Judgement Day to work without Edge as leader.

Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler win the Women’s Showcase Tag Team Four Way, sure why not give it to the only legit tag team in this match.

Asuka defeats Bianca Belair to win the Raw Women’s Title, Bianca’s had a good run, time to finally reward Asuka for being one of the MVPs during the pandemic era.

Omos emphatically defeats Brock Lesnar in dominant fashion, like go full Khali and have him pin Brock with just the one foot on his chest. I wanna watch the whole world burn and see all the wrestling YouTubers lose their collective shit.


Oh, and Lashley for the Andre, I guess. With how the whole Bray/Howdy thing’s been going, this is probably the best case scenario for him.

 

yikes, judging from that Night 2 and post-Mania Raw, looks like Vincent Price McMahon has reached his endgame. Looks like it’s back to the dump for WWE TV.

Edited by Old Man Jenkins
To the dump, to the dump, to the dump dump dump!
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