By Colin McGuire, ProWrestling.net Staffer
The most antiquated thing you can do in pro wrestling media in 2026 is write about pro wrestling once a month. The landscape changes by the tweet (or … um … X post). Everyone and their best friend’s best friend’s aunt’s nephew has a podcast ready to dissect the latest rumor, angle, program, television show, and passive aggressive social media post that just happened 30 seconds from now. Offering something up at the beginning of each month is an exercise in idiocy, a lesson in pointlessness and an assurance that your *thoughts* will quickly be forgotten.
So, all right. Let’s write about pro wrestling once a month.
WWE IS IN NEED OF A HEART TRANSPLANT
In my mind, there are only three reasons someone would ever want to pursue being a professional wrestler as a living. One, you were born into it (live the business from an early age and it might become all you know). Two, you were a massive die-hard fan who went through all the states of fandom by the time you were in your teenage years, you found a way to try it out, fell in love with it, and absolutely could not live without doing it for the rest of your life (hey, it can happen). Or three, because you’re an ex-pro athlete of some kind, you thought your life would be sports-related but something derailed that, and yet you still have the size, look, and vanity that makes pro wrestling a logical, can’t-miss place to land (though there are exceptions … cough … Omos … cough).
It’s a curiosity of mine I’ll never grasp. There are so many stories of people in their late teens/early 20s who once competed on the LSU gymnastics team (or something), figured pro wrestling might be an option (or something), gave the WWE system a try (or something) and five years later, got chewed up, spit out, and never heard from again. Those aren’t the people you typically see pop up on the independent circuit six months later. For so many of them, they rest firmly on a milk carton.
But what about the people in their late 20s/early 30s? You took it this far. Maybe you get a crack at The Big Time after a decade or so in the business. You do what you can, be a good soldier, lose when you’re asked to lose, be a consummate professional at every turn. Then, in one freak accident on one freak night, you injure your ACL, MCL, and meniscus in one fell swoop against Rhea Ripley and Kairi Sane. You take a year to work your way back. You do everything right. You’re even cleared to compete. Then, within a week or two, you’re told you don’t have a job anymore.
Enter Zoey Stark.
Why? Because that’s what happened to her when WWE announced its traditional post-WrestleMania cuts on April 24. The list of dismissals felt exceptionally long this year and while there was a notable share of surprising names (like, it should be noted, there always is), the one that stuck out to me the most was Stark. It’s the classic “WWE isn’t fair” tale — and perhaps the one that makes me take issue with them the most: Someone is on the shelf for a long period of time and right when they’re ready to come back, you cut them loose without giving them a fair shot at regaining their spot on the roster.
It’s infuriating for a million reasons, but here’s one that drips of hypocrisy: With the synergistic reality of corporate America now running the entire operation formerly known as the WWF into a sea of Slim Jim tables and Dude Wipe billboards, why does this company stay married to this practice of firing people after they aren’t around due to injury? I thought this left when Vince McMahon left? And I thought TKO/Endeavor was here to make things more reasonable for the talent, make things more like either pro sports or pro entertainment and not engage in these antiquated practices that were found during the days when pro wrestling was built in smoky back rooms?
Think about it. If you’re a talent in WWE right now and you just saw this woman suffer an injury that took her out for a year … only for her to come back … to receive her pink slip almost immediately … does that not strike fear inside of you? Do you not worry, despite the assurances some may give you within the company, that if you get unlucky on a random Monday night in May that you just may well be out of the only job for which you’ve spent years grinding? I mean, if we’re saying house shows are antiquated, can’t we say this idea is just as much an outdated practice?
I’m not the first to say it and this isn’t the first time you’ve heard it, but the way WWE treats its employees is shameful. Disrespectful. Inhumane, even. I’ve never been mistaken for the biggest Zoey Stark fan the universe has ever seen, but when I read her name as part of the cuts list, my immediate thought was … well, what now? Really. What does she do? She turned 32 this year. She’s been wrestling since 2013, but didn’t really catch a break until NXT happened and then even there, she wasn’t an NXT A-lister. On WWE’s main roster, she was mostly a bit player — but one who earned her spot, one who worked for a decade to get there and then got there, which in its own right should earn her a fair amount of respect.
And now it’s gone. Does she go back to the independent circuit? Land in the abyss that is AEW’s ROH? Spend another five years working at shows without cases of water in the back to hopefully get another look from WWE in three years? Five years? How does that work? She was firmly placed in the mid-card throughout all her time in WWE, save for a quick NXT tag title run with the then-Iyo Shirai. Maybe her indie fee goes up because of the former WWE talent status, but is that enough to support a life with a working wage? Is there stability in any of that?
These are the questions that haunt these types of decisions each year in my mind. I get business and I especially get the corporate-ness of it all these days. But I don’t understand why there isn’t a better plan in place for workers who are forced to miss action for an elongated period of time because they got hurt on the job. It’s unfair, it’s unlucky, and it’s unforgivable. Be better, WWE. You have all the money in the world these days — more than you’ve ever had, actually. Figure out how to be better to those who deserve it.
HE’S BETTER THAN YOU …
There was a point, not terribly long ago (but long enough for it to be when this column ran once a week rather than once a month on this website) that I was fairly vocal about being down on AEW. The TVs weren’t compelling. So much of the stories felt like they were missing something creatively. In all, the product was disjointed and perhaps even aimless.Not anymore.
AEW has found its footing in what I can only call The MJF Era. The guy went to Hollywood and stopped by the pro wrestling space only occasionally to remind everyone who he was. But now, he appears to be back full-time, coming off a world title reign and almost single-handedly carrying the company on his shoulders as it continues to mature into a refined professional wrestling product.
Dropping his world title to Darby Allin made all the sense in the world – Darby feels like someone who deserves a reign with that belt, but as an underdog fighter, part of that appeal always meant he probably wouldn’t hold onto it for long, so freeing MJF up to take a loss to, say, Kevin Knight, like he did on Wednesday was/is a stroke of mild brilliance. We all probably think MJF is destined to win the gold back later this month, but in the meantime, using him to elevate others, like Knight, is crucial.
It’s also crucial to recognize that MJF, despite all his shenanigans (did anybody really believe he was flirting with WWE?), is actually probably AEW’s biggest success story. Sure, you can argue that such a distinction ought to go to Adam Page, but MJF hasn’t just elevated AEW when AEW has needed it; he’s also found a way to balance (successful) creative projects outside of the company.
That matters, too, as we live in an age where so many pro wrestlers seem to be so dedicated to succeeding at everything other than pro wrestling. It’s not good enough to just be a world champion anymore. You need TV or movie deals. You need cameos on ESPN shows. You need a social media presence. You need a … ahem … brand.
MJF checks off all those boxes, and as we sit in May 2026, he’s unquestionably the company’s most valuable asset. So, while I’d absolutely love to see how he’d swim in the sea that is WWE someday, I think he’s doing his most important work currently as AEW’s steadying force. After all, he is better than us, and we do know it.
UNREAL
There is far too much to say about recent reports that WWE is using or has been using artificial intelligence while crafting some of its stories, so I’m not even going to try in a mere handful of paragraphs. Instead, I will only offer this: If you’re surprised about any of it, you ought to head into the bathroom, look at what’s in the mirror and have a long conversation with yourself about naivety. Because, come on.
Of course they’ve been doing this shit!
AI is the new Tool of Tools for People Who Think They’re Smart and, as we all know, the WWE creative braintrust believes it is the smartest collection of people the pro wrestling business has ever seen. Plus, shortcuts? Like, do we need to rehash all the reasons we’d think someone like Paul Levesque might be interested in seeking out any shortcut he could use to make his life easier? We do not.
My point is, Smackdown, especially, has been bad — in fact, really bad for a really long time, even. WrestleMania season was a catastrophe this year. The product isn’t all that good these days after coming off a creative renaissance over the past few years. In some ways, I’m almost relieved to hear some of these terrible decisions were left to be made by computers rather than Important Wrestling Minds. At least there’s an excuse now.
Who knows where it goes from here. One thing I do believe in, however, is the reality that there are just some things AI can’t replace, and good pro wrestling booking appears, at this point, to be one of them.
PREDICTIONS ARE LIKE WHAT AGAIN?
Last month, I went 10-9 for my overall record thus far to stand at 14-13 after going 4-4 during the first month of this thing’s existence. Onto May:
– For the matches currently announced for Backlash, let’s go with Roman Reigns over Jacob Fatu to retain the World Heavyweight Championship, Bron Breakker over Seth Rollins, and Iyo Sky over Asuka.
– For the matches currently announced for AEW’s Double Or Nothing, I’ll go with Kazuchika Okada over Konosuke Takeshita to retain the AEW International Championship, and Cope and Christian Cage over FTR to win the AEW Tag Team Titles. And even though it’s not announced, hell, I’ll throw in a bonus play and say MJF walks out of that show as AEW World Champion again.
– For the matches currently announced for ROH’s Supercard of Honor, I’ll go with Athena over Maya World, Trish Adora, Yuka Sakazaki, Billie Starkz, and Persephone in Survival of the Fittest, Deonna Purrazzo over Diamante to keep the ROH Women’s Pure Championship, Bandido over Blake Christian to retain the ROH Championship, and Nigel McGuinness over Josh Woods.
– Cody Rhodes will not wrestle a televised match throughout all of May (and yes, I understand Saturday Night’s Main Event and Clash In Italy are both slotted for this month).
– Aleister Black’s next stop will not be in a U.S.-based company.
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