Man, it’s tough to be away from pro wrestling. Tough because I enjoy it and miss it, but also tough because it’s so damn difficult to catch-up these days. But, like Michael Jordan in 1995 — just without a fax machine, I’m back.
The Florida vacation with my wife, two daughters, and other family members was wonderful and waiting for me upon my return was a wrestling tape library that rivaled some of the first WWE Network collections. Staring at me was an episode of AEW Collision, Dynamite, Raw, NXT, two episodes of Smackdown, and a large batch of 2024 New Japan Cup tournament matches.
Obscene. Even for me.
Needless to say, it took some late nights and early mornings, but I made it and three giant things stood out amidst the treasure trove of missed wrestling content.
The Rock was unprofessional during his concert schtick on Smackdown
What the hell was The Rock doing on Smackdown during his “Rock Concert” segment? The bit was cute, funny, and entertaining at times like most Rock stuff is these days, but it severely belittled the WrestleMania 40 storyline.
Before The Rock could usher in a negative reaction, he played into the star reaction he received from the Memphis crowd by talking about how great the city was and the historical roots that he has there. What???!!!! Look, in pro wrestling there is a tried and true way into the heart of any fan and that’s complimenting their hometown. As “The Final Boss” heel character in the middle of a story with soon to be crowned hero, Cody Rhodes, The Rock soaking in cheers and then fanning those into something more passionate was a very bad miscalculation at best and flat-out stupid at worst. It undercut Rhodes in a major way just weeks before the biggest show of the year.
Does The Rock not understand his role at this point? I doubt it. You can say a lot about The Great One, but he understands the pro wrestling business. He knew what would happen once he started fawning over Memphis and did it anyway. Does he just not care? Ding ding ding!!
On Friday, The Rock cared, just not about anything but himself. The Rock wanted to soak in the positive reaction because he wanted to. It’s that simple. Not because it did WrestleMania, Roman Reigns, or Cody Rhodes any favors, but because he wanted to play the role of a guy bigger than the business and any business be damned because he’s The Rock.
Before this colossal miss of a segment, The Rock showed glimpses of actually working to further the matches he’s involved with at WrestleMania. He acknowledged Roman Reigns as the Head of the Table and he ate a slap across the face from Cody Rhodes. Both were moments that the WrestleMania narrative needed in order to progress properly. Then, cool guy Rock made an appearance Friday night and tossed cold water on it all.
We’ll see just how over Cody Rhodes is as a babyface now. Can he navigate around the boulder The Rock planted in front of him on the road to WrestleMania? He can, but it was an unnecessary and unprofessional move on the part of The Rock and he should know better.
Mercedes Mone looked like a star for AEW
The Mercedes Mone era of AEW is off to a strong start — in most ways. The elephant in the room is the ratings for Mone’s debut that were way less than stellar. Tony Khan and Mone surely were disappointed, but for those that were watching, the debut was a massive success for long term growth potential for AEW.
Mone looked like a star and was presented like one. She looked tremendous, had the time on the show to bond with the audience, and was featured in the open and close of the show, which signals here importance in the company and premiere level status as a star. Most AEW debuts haven’t gotten this treatment, so it’s a major deal that she did.
The question now is what’s next for her? Willow Nightingale seems to be a match we’re headed for and that makes sense given their history together outside the company and the fact that Nightingale beat Mone to become the first-ever NJPW Strong Women’s Champion. That’s an easy putt to sink and a fine first feud for Mone under the AEW banner.
After that, we need to see the big matches from her, though. Mone vs. Britt Baker, Mone vs. Toni Storm, Mone vs. Saraya, Mone vs. Deonna Purrazzo, and Mone vs. Jaime Hayter at some point. Those are the money matches for the division and if Mone is truly going to fulfill her destiny and Tony Khan’s expectations, those are pieces of business that have to come sooner than later.
House of Torture burns 2024 New Japan Cup
Over the years, I’ve been a casual defender of House of Torture in New Japan Pro Wrestling. They are a heel faction, so members of the faction cheating to win made sense to me. There’s heel heat to be had winning matches the way that group does.
But look, there’s a heel heat and then there’s what has happened in this year’s New Japan Cup Tournament. The House of Torture has taken the tournament over and burned it badly. Heat = good. Burned to a crisp = bad.
Right away, I want to call out the notion that Gedo’s House of Torture booking in this tournament may pay off. If all the cheating, weapons, ref bumps, and other obnoxious shenanigans puts over a big star in the end and the audience reacts to that big star in a big way, so be it. I’ll wait for the crow and take a giant bite.
Things don’t look like they’re going that way, though, so I’m confident I won’t have to. A grizzled veteran may take out the group and win the tournament, but more likely is a House of Torture member winning the tournament and rendering the entire thing worthless and less credible than it’s ever been.
The matches in this year’s tournament have been the worst in quite a while and the constant barrage of House of Torture BS is a major reason why.
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