By Colin McGuire, ProWrestling.net Staffer
AEW’s Full Gear is this weekend. WWE’s Survivor Series is the weekend after that. Before we know it, Saturday Night’s Main Event, World’s End, Wrestle Kingdom … the list goes on and on and on these days and there is hardly ever a moment reserved for breathing. As such – and with so much to consider in the professional wrestling sphere anymore – here’s a quick-hit love/hate edition of McGuire’s Mondays. Because sometimes, you need a sip of water before the fire hose starts drowning you yet again.
LOVE
Big Bronson Reed’s current push on the main roster in WWE. When pro wrestling bookers get big men right, there are few things that resonate more, on a purely aesthetic level, in this form of entertainment. After his assistance in beating down Roman Reigns on Friday’s Smackdown, it appears nobody will be off limits when it comes to the big man’s wrath, and that’s a good – no, great – thing. Let monsters be monsters and don’t subject them to waffling booking that so many promoters from top to bottom seem to invest in these days. Now, with all of that said …
HATE
The apparent inclusion of Reed and Seth Rollins into this year’s men’s War Games match. Reed, I’m happy to accept for all of the reasons noted above. Seth, though? The winding, complicated, deep history he has with Roman Reigns makes me look at this decision with an eyebrow akin to The Rock’s. It was only six months ago – six months – when Rollins was embroiled in a blood feud with Reigns and The Rock based solely on his loyalty to Cody Rhodes. Now, because he hates Reed with the passion of a thousand red hot suns because … well, just because(?) … he’s going to be shoehorned into this thing? That doesn’t work for me (brother). It might be a little different if Rollins and Reed’s feud had the longevity and depth of, say, CM Punk and Drew McIntyre’s program from earlier this year, but at this point, all I know is Reed showed up one week and beat the hell out of Rollins. Since then, the two have brawled a bit. That simply doesn’t warrant a spot in a match that’s aimed at highlighting a completely different story within the WWE Top Card Cannon. You mean to tell me nobody else could have been woven in here, program-wise? I don’t buy it.
LOVE
Oba Femi.
HATE
The fact that I have no idea where Oba Femi is these days, now that he is without a title in NXT.
LOVE
The idea that Private Party are AEW Tag Team Champions. Those two guys have been with the company since day one, and it’s always nice to see that type of loyalty and work paid off in a way like this. AEW is at its best when it gives the underdogs the unexpected Big Wins because AEW, inherently, is the underdog, itself. Title runs like Private Party’s can go a long way in establishing the future of the company and it was the right call to give them the titles – especially over the Young Bucks, considering their history as teams.
HATE
The fact that Private Party are AEW Tag Team Champions. Don’t get me wrong. I meant everything I just wrote. But, man. Can we all agree it would be fun to see House Of Black finally win some real gold in AEW (outside of those phony baloney trios titles)? FTR, for one reason or another, always feel more inspired when they have gold around their waists, so another title run for them wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. This new pairing of Lance Archer and Brian Cage has a ton of potential. I’m just saying: Private Party getting over the hump was a great feel-good moment, but I can’t help but think that there are more interesting teams in that company who could stand to hold some gold right now, too.
LOVE
Zack Sabre Jr. as the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. He’s a fantastic pro wrestler. It’s the type of shot in the arm that New Japan needs to try and work its way out of the bowels of irrelevancy. He has personality. He’s been doing this for a long time. It’s the best of what NJPW could possibly do right now.
HATE
The idea that there aren’t really any formidable challengers for Sabre in his current run. Omega had Okada. Okada had Omega. Ospreay was always floating around, too. There was actually a time, believe it or not, when Tanahashi wasn’t just a shell of himself. My point is the main event scene in New Japan got pretty hot, there, for a pretty long time. These days? Not so much (sorry, SANADA). Here’s hoping someone – or some ones – can step up while Sabre has his flag planted at the top of the mountain.
LOVE
Hearing Mauro Ranallo on the call again in the combat sports world Friday night for the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson bout. I just love that guy. He’s so sorely missed in the pro wrestling sphere and knowing his mental health struggles only makes me root for him more. Now, of course, if he feels it best to stay at home because staying at home is the best for him, I can’t argue with that. But, boy, he brings so much to the commentary of a match.
HATE
Netflix’s inability to get its shit together for its highest-profile live stream ever. Yes, 60 million people aren’t going to tune in on a random Monday for Raw, but you can’t tell me this made WWE feel great about its upcoming partnership with the streaming service. The buffering issues were so bad, it made watching a pixelated fight, during which you could barely make out either fighter in real time, feel like a victory, if only because it was a million times better than that endlessly spinning wheel of death that popped up so often during the event. I mean, come on guys. You threw $100 million at a Kevin Spacey-driven political drama a decade ago, and in the interim, you couldn’t figure out how to live-stream a boxing match? Peacock would never … .
Netflix won’t have the issues with WWE programming that they had with the Tyson-Paul “fight” because, as you said, WWE will never have 60 million people watching the programming. It’s a non-issue due to that fact, so its silly to keep reading people saying, “Man, WWE is worried now.”.
I doubt the “Love is Blind” reunion had as many viewers as Raw, but that was also a streaming debacle for Netflix. They need to prove they can make this work consistently. We’ll see how they do on Christmas with the NFL games.
Maybe, just maybe this will have a learning effect or maybe it will just be another one of those columns that will age like milk (Nia Jax and Gunther won’t get title-matches at SummerSlam – we recall / they are btw still your Champs). Maybe just maybe let the storylines play out, before you make up stuff in your head (Seth Rollins joining the bloodline) that’s not happening.
Or maybe you’ll continue to shout against clouds again next time. We’ll watch intently.