Is his entrance going to work with the timing of the song and that 5 mile long entryway for the royal rumble in a stadium? Unless they have him go #1.

Currently watching last night’s raw after getting off work. First impressions are it’s interesting to see Rhea Ripley get done with her feud with Liv Morgan that resulted in her being legitimately injured twice. Thankfully they paired her with their safest worker in Nia Jax. So can’t wait to see Rhea’s return to SummerSlam after that backstage segment. Also Pat McAfee was not at the announce desk due to the college football playoffs, so Wade Barrett took over. For his sake, I’m hoping there’s a segment between him and Corey Graves later in the show. Otherwise, best of luck with his future endeavors?

Also had to check the news multiple times to make sure Vince McMahon wasn’t pardoned or any bullshit on day 1. So far, so good.

Think that Mr. McMahon hasnt been formally charged with anything yet so theres technically nothing to pardon. but knowing the guy who was friends with Epstein and literally named Linda as Education Minister i would not put it past that asshole.

I personally havent been too in touch with Wrestling beyond clips and highlights. Summerslam literally came to my city and i couldnt go. Support your local indie shows tho they can be a lot of fun

WWE Raw from Dallas TX on January 20:

Show starts with Joey Uso coming in from the crowd. I’m figuring people are now prioritizing ordering seats near the aisle on the far right side of the ring from hard cam. Folks even had YEET in big letters at the top of the stairs, but fucked up their chance to get on camera. By the way; SIGNS ARE BACK BABY (also if you go to a show, understand that the folks behind you probably blew as much money as you did so the signs can come down when you’re obviously not on camera or the attention is on the ring). Jey starts his promo, and I can’t tell if he’s winded from his whole entrance or if that’s just his excited cadence when speaking. Few minutes in, Gunther comes out ready to choke and slap some bitches. Crowd shifted from YEET chants to WHAT chants, but Gunther kills that in less than a minute (I wouldn’t want him to slap me). At some point, Jey mentioned how he main-evented Wrestlemania and Gunther hasn’t; that statement confused me for a moment. Finally they fight, and somehow Jey slips Gunther and kicks him out of the ring. Jey has a busted lip though. I caught myself getting caught by the words Gunther spoke until I remembered Trump was assuming office today, and that ruined his gimmick.

Backstage segment with the New Day, who run into JBL who is going to guest commentate Kori’s match with Rey Mysterio. Now my previous worries about Corey Graves. Seems like a shoehorned way to have JBL on the show, but match comes up next. Before the entrances, they show some bull rider dudes with the standard cowboy hats in a major metropolitan area. Steers and… nevermind. For whatever reason, the New Day still have their old theme, but I guess this is the lazy way to let them get on the mic for additional heat. Match goes on; there was a strangely smooth botch when Kori goes to put Rey in the powerbomb position near the announcers table, and he flips him on the floor instead. Yeah just pretend that was the spot. Match had an out-of-nowhere roll-up pin, then the New Day beating up Rey only for the LWO to take their sweet-ass time to wait until the end of the match to maybe be out to assist their partner.

Maybe the LWO was made to look like flunkies so that the Penta segment looked way bigger and better, and to troll Tony Khan a bit more or sucker any other AEW wrestlers into thinking that they too will get a monster push like this (followed by a run with the Speed Championship). Then Chad Gable and the other white people did a promo that spoke to the reality that this group should maybe have a manager or only allow Gable to speak.

Sami Zayn continues the speaking portion of the pro wrestling show by announcing for the royal rumble. All of a sudden, the guy from Smackdown that is in possession of company property and has assaulted the champion several times has been allowed in the building and they provide him with a microphone to speak. They finally remind me in this segment that Zayn and Owens beat the Usos on night 1 of the main event of Wrestlemania 39, which sucks even more because I was fucking there…

Anyway, Owens manipulates Sami into considering entering a pact where they help each other out at the rumble, and then they could main event Wrestlemania again. After that, Sheamus does a backstage segment about winning the IC title, then Bron Breakker interrupts and talks shit. This infuriated the angry and passionate Irishman to get mad enough to… sort of shove Bron. About at this time, the show was bumping up against the legal limit for required wrestling on a wrestling show, so women’s match up next.

Bayley earlier announced that she was moving to Raw. Nia Jax (who they haven’t officially mentioned that she also moved to Raw and I guess is content with Tiffany Stratton screwing her out of her championship) also attacked Rhea Ripley when she arrived at the building. Nia and Bayley have a match, but I’m preoccupied thinking of a threesome I had with some amateur pornstars who looked like Nia Jax and Rhea Ripley (If both were about Nia’s size). Some girl who isn’t Nikita Lyons from NXT is in the audience and I guess her and Bayley are going at it. Thankfully Bayley has the wherewithal to just bounce off Nia Jax and sell like she’s being beaten to death rather than actually get beaten by Nia. Bayley hits Nia with all sorts of offense; Nia sells none of it of course. They go out of the ring in front of Roxanne Perez so her and Bayley can start to argue. Roxanne goes to slap a wrestler across the barricade, but Bayley hits her and causes “security” to finally restrain the spectator who is attempting to physically contact a performer. In tragic irony while doing this, an actual wrestler then hits an actual crowd member and knocks her to the floor. [insert Stephen P. New plug]. This terrible match since Nia continues, including Nia actually hitting a senton splash on Bailey’s arm since she couldn’t roll out of the way fast enough. Very slow offensive push by Bayley, but out of nowhere Nia hits her with 3 or 4 moves in succession and wins. Then Rhea comes out for revenge, and I’m reminded of my BBW sex adventures.

Some football head coach did a press conference where he plugged being a wrestling fan and going to see the Road Warriors live as a kid. Got awkward when they mentioned one of their linebackers was the son of Road Warrior Hawk, and they mentioned the late Joe Laurinairis by name and hoped that was all the discussion we would have around that last name on this show…

Penta is now wrestling Pete Dunne. They added more pyro to his entrance and now he’s smart to wait until he gets to the ring to struggle to take his jacket off. They mention that these two previously wrestled in RevPro wrestling just to dunk on the indie fans some more with his booking. They’re again fucking around with normalizing the Canadian destroyer by having Dunne roll out of the ring after getting one. They do some more shit, then Penta hits him with his moves and wins quickly. They keep mentioning his merch sales are through the roof and stop short of mentioning how they have no Maxwells or Rickeys on their roster…

Logan Paul video. Hoping they stick him with Rollins again to occupy the two of them.

They do a really cool old-school babyface promo with CM Punk getting interviewed by Jackie Redmond in the crowd. Punk plugs why he’s going to win the rumble, and gets a chance to shit on Hulk Hogan some more. Texas crowd cheers. SEE IT ISN’T POLITICAL ASSHOLES! They even put the sign of the night segment on TV; they’re really trying to sell this as wrasslin’ again.

The Alternative Lifestyle Collective against CTRL-ALT-DELETE. Zoey Stark hit a fucking vicious missile drop kick, and now I’m concerned she remembers I was in the luxury box at Wrestlemania 40 when they did the wrestler meet and greet and I had to admit to another guy there I had no clue who she was. Regardless, they lose for fuck if I know why.

Drew McIntyre vs. Seth Rollins for the main event, and I’m cheering for DM Hunk. Good match, but for some reason I heard what sounded like loud profane language coming from the direction of Louisville Kentucky when they did the superplex-counter move. More shit and again a surprise roll-up for Seth to win, but Drew beats him up. Before he’s about to kick him, in comes Sami to save Seth, even though the two of them argued earlier. Sami goes to hit Drew, but FUCK HE HITS SETH! *dramatic music*

Raw is starting to get a bit better; probably since they’re trying to start building up for Wrestlemania. Glad I’ve also started to watch the replay the day after so I don’t have to see those weird Netflix commercials. 6/10 (Corey Graves rated it -100/10; commentary team sucked).

2025 Royal Rumble predictions:

#DIY beats the Motor City Machine Guns

Bianca Belair wins the Women's Royal Rumble

Cody Rhodes retains his Undisputed WWE Championship

CM Punk wins the Men's Royal Rumble

Actual trash winner

trash return

no AJ lee

2/10

enjoyed the performance tho

Hopefully she ends up jobbing for Rhea Ripley. Or they put Flair up against Tiffany Stratton and she learns how quickly she has been forgotten.

I was being harsh but it’s genuinely baffling she won again, I never cared for her

Men’s rumble ended with quite a surprise. I’m guessing this leads to Jey Uso vs Gunther (although the unlikely story of Jey challenging Cody and finally becoming the Tribal Chief would have way longer storytelling).

And of course they have Roman Reigns eliminate Joe Hendry. Roman heel turn confirmed…

Dude every single person in this discord was so divided, one said yeet and one said fuck yeet. It was funny as shit

Jey Uso is selling a small nation’s GDP worth of YEET merchandise and has whole crowds going into a frenzy when he comes out. Even though his promos are awful (since he’s out of breath after moving his arms up and down for 5 minutes every entrance), his match quality is garbage, and this will either result in Gunther’s title run ending early or Jey predictively getting smashed again, I’m guessing this is his reward for being a company man for a few years.

Seems Punk would logically enter the elimination chamber next, but also probably feuds with Logan Paul (I’m hoping they don’t try to limit what he can say to not hurt Logan’s ego). That only gives me short-term happiness with the prospective promo that is about to get cut on Logan. Very weird that nothing was made out of Seth Rollins immediately getting kicked by Sami Zayn, but now they seem like they’re doing Seth and Roman. Barring that he just took a nasty looking bump and isn’t actually hurt (good sell if that was the case), I’m guessing Zayn fights Owens next. Absolutely no clue what they’re going to do with Cody unless they give a legitimate story for the winner of the elimination chamber. Seems too early to have Jacob Fatu challenge, and everyone wants to see him destroy people some more rather than have to boo him vs. someone like Cody (although Cody might start getting his AEW crowd reactions very soon). I could also see someone attached to the Owens storyline (maybe Zayn) calling out Cody for coming back and rubbing in his win while everyone was checking on Owens after the ladder match.

All in all, I only slightly regret not finding the motivation to travel to Indianapolis to see this live, as that would’ve been all Big 4 shows (saw Survivor Series in 2022, Wrestlemania 39 and 40, and Summerslam 2024). Certainly not fucking going to Saudi Arabia in 2026 (probably same as Punk). I am going to the next MSG show in March, and I’m debating if I want to put up with dealing with NJ Transit ever again for this year’s summerslam at MetLife Stadium.

Wanted to say that I got to go to the Royal Rumble this year and it was awesome.

Don't think I marked out for either Rumble match winner, but I loved the on-screen they added to the show where you almost always knew who had come out, which number was next, and how many people had been eliminated thus far. Made following along a dream.

Was glad that I got to see Champ Cody Rhodes and the Motor City Machine Guns IRL, too.

I don't know how Indy is gonna be able to handle a WrestleMania, though. The crowds were NUTS just for this event.

I figured I would post here with a conundrum.

Im set to see Smackdown and Raw in 2 weeks (smackdown in Philly, and Raw in NYC). A buddy of mine from work was supposed to go, but he had plans change and can’t go. I also had an additional ticket that was slated to go to either his girlfriend, or to someone else at work. So far it doesn’t seem like I have the ability to find someone on short notice to travel that far.

And since all my homies hate Ticketmaster, I can’t exchange 3 tickets for 1, and fuck if I’m going to resell them on their site. If 2 folks can make it to Philly on Friday March 8th, PM me for info.

Said seats are the highlighted ones:

Or seeing how this is in the Motherland, I would mark out if @TomFulp went (or if he knew some fans in the area looking for tickets).

Maybe @Luis or @Krinkels are wrestling fans?

Sadly no and I’m out of town that week womp womp

Smackdown last night was… three fucking hours long. Apologies to the family sitting next to me who had to pay outrageous money to see the show (I had to make some of my money back, but blame Ticketmaster for charging both of us fees).

How was it seeing the Bianca and Naomi segment live?

It was so unfortunate seeing all the little girls dancing to Naomi’s theme music not knowing what was coming. Credit to the fans in front of me who laughed when I mimicked Rikishi’s “I DID IT FOR DA ROCK!” promo when she finally admitted to it. I was 100% sure this was going to be a setup since both Bianca and Naomi were in black and Jade was in white. I couldn’t see what was going on in the entrance ramp since the ring (and that dumb prime bottle) block that view.

More embarrassing was Alba Fyre’s run-in during the street fight. I had no clue who she was. Sucks her tag team partner got released, so I guess this is the lifeline that creative is throwing her so she doesn’t get future endeavor’ed next.

If Rollins Wins, We Riot!

New heel John Cena… *chef’s kiss*

I’m glad a lot of the wrestling podcasts are starting to address the absurd prices that WWE/TKO/whoever-the-fuck Inc. are charging for WrestleMania.

Right now on Ticketmaster, floor seats are going for as much as $15k for the 2-night combo. You can try the company OnLocation (same subsidiary that owns WWE by the way), and you can currently get a suite in the stadium where Undertaker will come by and interrupt you watching one of the matches for $8,600. I forgot exactly what the Hogan meet-and-greet bullshit was that was running for $10k (I would’ve saved up for that just for the opportunity to ask if his daughter is into half-black dudes at least).

I went to the last 2 wrestlemanias. Both of them for 2 nights cost roughly $1500. 39 in Inglewood was a floor seat several rows behind the announcer’s desk with a decent view of the entrance ramp and a sort of meh view of the ring. 40 in Philly ended was in a upper suite with all-you-can-eat and drink amenities and a meet-and-greet with the jobbers (and Big E).

The fact that they seem to just consider that people will pay these exorbitant prices, and thus price out either the casual fans or families I think might come back and bite them in the ass. Hell, even looking at their scheduled tapings is all larger cities and their big stretch in Europe. Seems that they figured that if they kill a bunch of towns in the US, their fall-back plan is just to go international (until a few of their wrestlers start refusing all that travel). Last year they did shows in my area in Hartford CT and Worcester MA. Compared to the shows I went to in places like NYC or Philly, those were much more laid back and filled with everyday folks, families, and fewer people who just want to be part of the experience and we’re there to see their favorite wrestlers.

I’ve probably shot my load this year with one smackdown and one Raw. Summerslam would be nearby in NJ this year for a 2-night event, but seeing how much they’re going for right now, I would actually be better off buying a bigger TV to watch it on. Hell, at least I have enough ringside seats to pretend I’m there live.

(I was supposed to get a sectional sofa for my loft, but I figured it cost about as much to just go to a couple live shows and bring the seats back, ha)