Welcome back to the Mop-Up, where we take a look at the most notable events throughout the week in the world of professional wrestling. Before we begin, I am excited to announce that next week, I’ll be kicking off the Superstar Series, in which I’ll sit down with some of All Elite Wrestling’s biggest and brightest stars! It’s been a long while since I’ve gotten to interview anyone, so I’ve got some lost time to cover and it’ll be a can’t-miss series!
WWE:
- Not Guilty!: The Trial of the Century concluded this past Monday on Raw, when the judge ruled that Christopher “Doc Brown” Lloyd was not guilty of causing Flex Fuller’s medical episode the week prior. Instead, Flex testified before the court that the cause of his heart palpitations was Logan Paul’s PRIME Energy drink! (Logan appeared on Dynamite with his PRIME in hand, someone needs to warn him of the side-effects before he drops dead in the center of the ring!) All jokes aside, I want to say that no one does comedy in professional wrestling like Murrey and the WWE. We’ve seen PWI attempt to replicate the success of Aidan English’s WWE run in PWI & HCW, and we’ve seen BWM Inc.’s own twist on things with the ongoing Hogan/Nash & Friends saga. While we get some gems from those segments, it’s hard to deny that they’re HEAVILY influenced by the ratings success the WWE has experienced with its cast of comedic characters such as Doc Brown, Flex Fuller, and Johnny Lawrence…
- Damn it, William: Speaking of comedy, Johnny Lawrence had another stand-out, show stealing segment on Raw when he promised revenge for Murrey’s Misfits attack on Sensai Kreese. Martin Kove played the straight man perfectly in this scene, once again attempting to explain to Lawrence that he’s an actor, and these are characters they played in the late 80s. Johnny looked more serious than ever as the segment concluded, and I believe this will continue to be a show-stealer in the weeks to come.
- Then, Now, Forever 2 Build: Murrey’s booking style has been criticized in the past for being chaotic, and his opponents have accused him of lacking the ability to tell a longterm storyline. I think the critics are fools to doubt Murrey, and he’s proving them wrong with the build to the main event of TNF 2. It’s been a slow burn since Big E won the Rumble, and Murrey’s done a great job of advancing the feud without having the characters interact face to face just yet. And, we still have plenty of time before the PPV, so this story is going to continue to simmer before it boils over just in time for the company’s biggest PPV of the year.
- WWE’s Got it’s own Feel: One thing I’ve been wanting to talk about for a while now is how WWE feels different than any other wrestling company in terms of how they present their television shows. WWE uses quick cut scenes, has no set formula for how many matches will be on a show, and this week they furthered that even more by rebranding NXT under Camden Cross. The show feels different already, and has a great mix of veterans and up and comers on it. My only nitpick was having The Rock on the show; I would’ve swapped Rock and Big E’s segments and had Raw on Monday night, where the head to head ratings battles are.
- The Rock: As I touched on last week and in the segments that preceded this one, The Rock’s totally rejuvenated himself and given WWE a legitimate superstar in the main event with his heel turn. We saw him take pot-shots at the HCW and the “EWA” (Rock is so cool he hasn’t even heard of the AEW” I’m totally here for Hollywood Rock, and I hope his title reign is a long one if he’s going to continue to deliver in the main event scene!
PWI/HCW:
- Krusader Awakens the Dragon(fly): One of my main concerns with the Global Conflict/Mickey shutting down the PWI/”killing the industry” plot line has been the wrestlers just continuing on as if they’re not all going to be out of jobs come May. This week, MMouse Enterprises worked to address that with Krusader reminding Dragonfly that it doesn’t matter how long his title reign is if there’s no company to work for. We got an impassioned promo between the two cousins/rivals and Krusader really did his part in reminding the audience, and Dragonfly, of what all is at stake here. Dragonfly was cool in the moment and tried to dismiss Krusader’s concerns, but I think in the coming weeks we’ll see Dragonfly emerge with a fire under his ass, realizing that this all is coming to an end for him as well.
- AJ Lee is a Player: For months now, AJ Lee has been working to win over the respect and adulation of her “best friend” Becky Lynch. This week, Becky finally snapped and told AJ that while she appreciates what she’s done for her, they’re not actually friends – let alone besties. AJ totally snapped, taking out Charlotte Flair with a steel chair in a match that ended in DQ. I loved every second of this, and AJ Lee (who has been a consistent ratings draw for PWI) finally feels like she’s arrived. She’s going to be a player in the final months of PWI, and the worst thing about the company ending is that it might just do so before she gets a chance to have a legit run at the top of the card. She has “IT.”
- Archer’s Back: So, I guess this isn’t so much about Archer as it is the Million Dollar Corporation, which looked quite silly last week when DiBiase failed to get Dragonfly to go along with pinning FRED without a fight and joining him in the stable. (Another plot hole with all that is, why wouldn’t Dragonfly WANT to take the easy win? I mean, he could have conceivably pinned FRED and kept his title, ensuring the 500th day, and THEN betrayed DiBiase… it’d be totally in line with his character, since he’s a man who will do whatever it takes to remain champion… anyways, I digress!) With Archer returning and costing Mistico his match, the stable does feel like more of a threat. They still have some work to do before anyone takes them as a serious threat in the Global Conflict series, but they COULD be players AND have it work with the story if the writing would tighten up just a bit.
- The Attraction: I know I said I didn’t want another Teo & Attitude feud, but maybe I don’t even know what I want anymore because the tease we got in the 6-Pack Challenge definately piqued my interest. I think what’s interesting about this is they can play up the tension, and continue to keep them together as a tag team for a little while longer. I will be upset if they break them up before I get to see them take on the Young Bucks.
- The Main Event: So, this is the one area where I’m gonna come down on PWI a bit, rather than looking for the good in what they’re doing. I think the PWI suffers from a serious main event issue at the moment, with no one outside of Randy Orton feeling like a legitimate threat to Dragonfly’s reign. Balor won the right to challenge Dragonfly next, but after just losing to The Fiend, it’s pretty obvious that Finn’s not becoming World Champion (nor should he at this point!) They brought in the Warrior and catapulted him to the top of the card, only for him to sort of fade away the past few weeks. MMouse Enterprises insists on booking everyone on it’s massive roster as often as they can, which comes at the expense of others who NEED to get some TV time so they’re believable contenders. A solution to this would be to rotate out the cast every few months instead of trying to utilize as many people on the roster at the same time. I suppose it all seems for naught given the fact it’s all likely ending, but in that case, all the more reason to give the crowd the characters the WANT to see. For example, we haven’t seen LA Knight since the Final Showcase, and leaving off Brian Cage and Terminator from this week’s shows also hurts the momentum they’re trying to build in their feud with Phobe. I could cite more examples, but unfortunately, we’re all out of time!
I’ll be back next week with the Mop-Up and the Superstar Series!
World Of Wrestling: Murrey Universe 