As has been happening lately, a lot of people are coming back to watching WWE, or watching it for the first time. I think, ever since Survivor Series last year, it's as though a new era of pro-wrestling has begun. This last Wrestlemania season was one of the best of all time.

But, to the point. 

It had been years since I watched WWE, so I'm really behind on things. The major problem is I know who a lot of the wrestlers are, as I was heavily into NXT a while ago, and so a lot of my favourite superstars from that roster are now major players on RAW and Smackdown, but I don't know how they got to their positions or the background on things.

I've found WWE's Youtube channel to be extremely helpful in catching up... kind of in the way that old WWF VHS tapes were able to catch you up on the last few years of a certain superstar and highlight some of their big moments, including some of the matches.

Now, I've been a big fan of Liv Morgan ever since she was in a stable called the Riott Squad, which included Sara Logan and was led by Ruby Riott - I really dig the punk theme, and I very much enjoyed Liv Morgan's style. But, she's clearly grown a HUGE amount since those early days. Now she's involved in a very interesting storyline with the Judgment Day. How did we get here? The story is a lot bigger than I thought it was, and it has its origins March 2022 when Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan worked as a tag team. This is a really good collection of clips to give the full background:

Guess I was wrong here. The fans did not like CM Punk screwing over Mcyntyre. Surprisingly good match between Priest and Drew. Hopefully Priest wasn't hurt too badly on that ugly spot. Another solid B PPV. Every match was pretty good. Nothing really exceptional. 

Assuming Priest got injured, he could drop the title soon.


Hopefully they hold him off for at least until Summerslam where he will likely drop the title regardless whether he's injured or not.

Currently have Money in the Bank running in the background. Crowd is going crazy for the women's match. And... uh, working! But glancing back at the screen, there have been several impressive spots in this match I've never seen before, and the execution is a lot better than like 10-15 years ago where they were clearly calling spots all the time.

Speaking of obvious spot calling, as good as Steiner and Zayn was, the one thing I couldn't get over was how obvious Steiner's talking was through the match - I think I spotted it about a dozen times throughout the match, and I wasn't paying particularly close attention. The guy has incredible potential, that much is obvious, but his greenness is showing.

EDIT

To echo Michael Cole, that was probably one of the best ladder matches I've ever seen. I haven't had that kind of exhilarated feeling since the Triangle ladder match at Wrestlemania 2000 or Jericho vs Benoit Royal Rumble 2001.

EDIT

JESUS! That snap whisper in the wind like move at the end by Jacob Fatu.

Also, it looked like Tonga Loa got his bell rung in that dive from Cody, as he seemed legitimately out of it for the rest of the match.

NXT Heatwave today (still behind, maybe I'll get to RAW as well).

Arianna Grace and Karmen Petrovic tag team is an "odd couple" type where one is a straight woman, and the other is Norma Desmond levels of histrionic - in fact, I'm pretty sure that's the direct inspiration for her character based on the faces she makes. Sunset Boulevard is a great film.
Oba Femi is Iron. Give him the F-5 as a finisher. He's the perfect guy to inherit it.
Sol Ruca was doing some Blue Blazer stuff with the ropes, brought back some memories (when I was a kid that stuff blew my mind)... Except she did a springboard 450 from the center of the top rope, which few wrestlers have ever been capable of.
I can't stop picturing a sober Macho Man Randy Savage while listening to Booker T's commentary.
Crowd is super into the Chase U match that I'm not watching, they're doing all the chants, and every now and then I hear a CRASH and "Holy Shit! Holy Shit!" I'll watch this again later when I can pay attention to the screen. Just kinda listening at this point.
Rest of the event was all very high quality and more traditional matches. The main event featuring Trick Williams, Shawn Spears, Ethan Page, and Je'Von, was probably the overall best of the traditional matches.


Some additional thoughts on Money in the Bank now that I've dwelled on it.

I watched the women's ladder match again last night, this time with my full attention. That match was very entertaining. I think the next generation is ready to take over from
Asuka, Charlotte, Becky, Baylee, and Sasha. Although, I think the veterans Naomi and Io Shirai still may have their biggest moments ahead of them.
That arena crowd was nuts (in my adopted country of Canada).
Is the signing of Randy Orton's theme a normal thing? This is the first time I recall hearing it, maybe I wasn't paying attention before.
Jacob Fatu, after looking up some more clips, I'm looking forward to seeing more from this guy in the future. I know Jim Cornette is a big fan of his. That's high praise.

Overall:

Great from top to bottom.

IMO (So far) the best matches were 1. The Women's Money in the Bank Ladder Match, 2. The Fatal 4 Way NXT Men's Championship, 3 (Tie). Sol Ruca vs Kelani Jordan, and Oba Femi vs Wes Lee would be fourth.
Weakest were the pre-show NXT Women's Tag Match - Ariana Grace and Carmen Petrovic vs Jack Jayne and Nyx (mostly because it was the shortest match of the weekend), followed by Priest vs Rollins for the Championship (though it was good from a story standpoint), Roxanne Perez vs Lola Vice, and probably Bron Steiner vs Sami Zayn. THAT SAID, these bad matches were on par or better than some of the best of the night in RAW/Smackdown PPV events from just a few years ago. All matches were entertaining.

The NXT event had better matches, but the gap between main roster and NXT is not even close to as high as it was 5-8 years ago when NXT's worst matches were significantly better than the best match on the main roster.

I think singing theme songs has become more common in general. They had been doing it with Cody, and then when Orton came back I think they've been doing it.

The women's gimmick matches (Rumble, Elimination Chamber, Money in the Bank) have been doing much better than the men's variants for the last few shows I can remember. Whoever the agents are are doing a hell of a job. And of course, the wrestlers as well.

On an unrelated note, Cena is retiring. Which makes me feel pretty damn old. I think that's the first real legend whose career I've seen through from beginning to end. Unless we count Brock. Any guesses on who his final opponent will be? 

Summerslam Card so far is an odd one.

For the first time in as long as I can remember every match on the card is a singles match. Even more strange is that, as of now, there really aren't any matches with any stipulations, except the Drew Seth one which has a guest ref.

Not necessarily a good thing or a bad thing, but interesting, at least to me. Of course, there are still 5 hours of WWETV between now and then, so it wouldn't be shocking to see some stiplulations or matches added. Still hoping they'll make Rhea and Liv a match for custody of Dominic.

Just for those who skip NXT.
NXT/TNA cooking the next big thing. He has CM Punk intensity.

Speaking of CM Punk, he was among the small handful that watched Joe Hendry's first post-training match (along with William Regal and Fit Finlay).

Joe Hendry's theme is awesome and I had it replayed for almost an hour a few weeks back lmao.

Well, that unmasking on RAW was a bit of a tribute to past cults. Kevin Sullivan and Raven tribute by one of the guys.

Cults used to be a common stable gimmick, with The Jackyl and the Truth Commission, the Brood, and the Ministry, just in the WWE Attitude era.

WWE has multiple groups with a cult-like gimmick going right now.