Todd's Blog

The Rock is trying to ruin Wrestlemania -- Again.

noreply@blogspirit.com (Fletcher) — Sun, 23 Feb 2025 06:36:47 -0500

I don't think anyone on earth can explain The Rock's appearance on Feb. 21 Smackdown.

It's pretty obvious the original plan was for Rock to announce the Wrestlemania 42 location. But for the rest of the segment, and the press conference after the show?

Let's try to stay in chronological order. It was The Rock that came out and gave us the goosebumps entrance. It was The Rock that announced WM42.

But then The Final Boss started peeking through.

Let's be clear: The Final Boss and The Rock may reside in the same Dwayne Johnson, but they are not the same character. The Final Boss is Heel Rock. But for some reason, both characters are occupying the same airspace, which gives you disjointed segments where The Rock curries favor with the crowd and The Final Boss taunts them.

So now you've got the biggest star in the WWE universe being cheered one second, and in the next, dropping F-bombs in front of a family-friendly audience. This is the Director of the company? Didn't that manic get removed a few years ago?

Then The Final Boss calls Cody Rhodes out to the ring, mainly to say over and over, using basically the same words over and over, that he wants Cody to be even bigger, and that it will only cost him his soul, and that TFB needs an answer at next week's Elimination Chamber.

Do what?

So now we need to incorporate the presser into the discussion. I'm going to say DJ the person showed up, working on at least his third tequila in the last hour (if it were much longer, then DJ and Cody were knocking back drinks BEFORE their in-ring segment), and we're informed that the storyline involving Cody's soul doesn't need to play out in the ring.

This is where I really got incredulous. "The Final Boss" is terminology in gaming that means you have a battle coming. An appropriately large, challenging battle. But we're being told that this doesn't need to play out in the ring, the way wrestling stories do.

So, what could this be? Are we somehow rehashing DJ's career beyond wrestling, using Cody as the main character? Does DJ have a drinking problem? Or an ego problem?

But DJ's presence at WM 40 was unnecessary and distracting. And in one appearance, has accomplished the same thing this year.

The last year of the Bloodline

noreply@blogspirit.com (Fletcher) — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 06:35:19 -0500

As we amble towards Wrestlemania, I wanted to look back at the last year of the Bloodline, a story that seems to never end.

At WM40, Cody Rhodes defeated Roman Reigns, the Bloodline splintered, and Solo Sikoa ended up with the Ula Fala.

In October at Bad Blood, Roman asked Cody for help to defeat Solo and his cronies. Cody obliged, their team won, and nothing happened. Solo kept the Ula Fala.

Jey Uso's singles run without the family has been a rocket ship to success.

Jimmy Uso has gone from a Roman suck-up to a Jey wannabe, now using "yeet" in his promos as well.

Roman finally defeated Solo on the first Netflix RAW to regain the Ula Fala, then vanished until a blip at the Royal Rumble before vanishing again.

Six weeks later, and Solo still hasn't acknowledged the new Tribal Chief like he said he would, but I guess it's tough to acknowledge someone who is absent.

Solo's crew is running rogue? They sure as hell aren't showing any respect to the OG Bloodline members.

And all of this is PLANNED, because WWE writes their storylines backwards with the endgame already known.

If they keep us in the dark long enough, we'll forget what's going on, and that way the writers can make drastic changes without logical reasoning.

Royal Rumble Predictions

noreply@blogspirit.com (Fletcher) — Sat, 01 Feb 2025 09:32:57 -0500

Gimme CM Punk and Charlotte Flair as Rumble winners tonight.

Back-ups: Roman Reigns (assisted by Bloodline), and Becky Lynch.

Why the WWE's Transfer Portal is bad

noreply@blogspirit.com (Fletcher) — Tue, 28 Jan 2025 15:59:39 -0500

So, the WWE attempted to be like college athletics by adding a transfer portal.

But they didn't make it so it was only wrestlers transferring to another WWE program, they've let each show's General Manager have the ability to transfer wrestlers off their show and onto another.

But when a GM does it, it's not a transfer, it's a banishment, and it makes the wrestler being transferred look diminished. Why? Because if a wrestler was really making things pop on their current show, then the GM wouldn't be transferring them away.

When a wrestler transfers, it's because they see opportunity and greener pastures ahead. Maybe they're right, maybe they're wrong, but they start out with hope, and there's no hope when a GM banishes you.

WWE could have, and should have, replaced GM transfers with trades instead of transfers. Trades would present hope for the future, and would at least show that the the wrestlers have value.

This week's RAW & Dynamite

noreply@blogspirit.com (Fletcher) — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 06:27:23 -0500

Monday's RAW was fine. The transfer portal thing is a hacky attempt to act like the draft doesn't matter when the writers need different storylines.

But if you're on RAW, and you couldn't get screen time when the show was 3 hours, you'd better be looking for a new employer now that RAW goes about 2:40.

I'm digging most of what's happening on Dynamite, but I'm in the camp of people that simply don't understand what the Death Riders' purpose actually is. Moxley talks about reshaping AEW, but every match they are involved with just ends up with the Death Riders ganging up on the opponent, win or lose. They aren't growing, and they aren't gaining respect from the roster.

Also, Grand Slam: Australia doesn't have an air time listed yet, but it's being promoted as an episode of Collision.

A quick RAW review

noreply@blogspirit.com (Fletcher) — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 19:28:14 -0500

The second episode of RAW on Netflix was just over 2.5 hours, and felt comfortably tight. I'm a big fan of Penta from his AEW days, and hope he gets a steady push in his new home. WWE fans got to see a lot more chops in the ring than they're used to, that's for sure. Seeing Penta dispense a half dozen sling blades at the Rumble is going to be a lot of fun.

I'm a big fan of being able to fast forward through the ads on the replays. I hope it continues being a feature.

Excited to see Nia Jax challenge Rhea Ripley.

Hope Damien's feud(s) with Judgment Day are finally over.

The first of many "WTF is the Bloodline story doing?" posts

noreply@blogspirit.com (Fletcher) — Sat, 11 Jan 2025 12:02:45 -0500

Watched the recent Smackdown, and saw Jacob Fatu and Toma Tonga running around causing chaos, getting involved with Cody Rhodes.

My question is, are they running without direction, or did Solo put them up to it? Because Solo's loss on RAW to Roman, coupled with Solo's pledge to honor the result of the match, does not mesh with the actions we saw on Smackdown. As well, Jimmy Uso got involved AGAINST them, and WITH Cody.

I feel it was a booking mistake to not immediately follow up the Roman-Solo match on RAW with Solo's acknowledgment on Smackdown. Pushing it out a week weakens the importance of the story.

And with three-hour Smackdowns now, for the time being, there's no excuse of a lack of time to get it done.

Should I write about Wrestling?

noreply@blogspirit.com (Fletcher) — Mon, 30 Dec 2024 18:13:05 -0500

Since this still exists...

#hashtag

noreply@blogspirit.com (Fletcher) — Wed, 15 Apr 2020 11:27:02 -0400

Here's the periodic post to inform nobody that I'm still kicking.

The virus sucks and I'm bored.

Here's a hot take on the situation: [THIS POST HAS BEEN CENSORED BY THE GOVERNMENT]

I'm still here, 2020 edition

noreply@blogspirit.com (Fletcher) — Thu, 16 Jan 2020 16:16:46 -0500

That's not actually me, on the left. That's definitely not me on the right. But damned if it didn't look like me at the time.