Well, a day late and a dollar short is apparently the motto of the industry this week. This includes my DVR, which finally decided to allow me to watch this past Monday’s Dynamite. I was starting to worry that Benny’s reemergence had re-infected the AEW with the erratic affliction that we all became accustomed to over most of the last 20 years.
However, my fears were calmed and just like my condition, the excitement returned!
TEN. MJF STRIKES FIRST
The future of professional wrestling and the uncrowned AEW Champion, MJF showed Danielson that the champion’s confidence is mistaken. Danielson was trying to show us that he wasn’t concerned about the freight train that I call “The Momentum of Inevitability”. He is convinced that he will stand tall over Maxwell at New Horizons and if I didn’t know any better, I would leave this interview thinking that he may be right.
Hell, under normal circumstances, I would conclude that the actions of MJF’s henchmen to end the interview and leave the champion in a pile of pathetic rubble was a dangerous foreshadowing of the fabled “last laugh rule” for the challenger. You know? That absurd and arguably superstitious belief that the winner will be the opposite of the person who enjoyed the “last laugh”.
Fortunately for the greatest star in the business to date, these are not normal circumstances and we are poised to see his long-awaited coronation in one short week when a real Jewish Savior makes Easter something to celebrate!!
NINE. COBRA KAI MONTAGE
At the absurdly-short NXT special that we received on Thursday after LVL Up was cancelled, we were treated to a truly great segment featuring Kushida training talent under the awesome banner that Johnny Lawrence wishes to lead to wrestling supremacy. As part of this insanity, we see Austin Theory beat the ever living shit out of Johnny…Gargano.
Theory reveals that he wishes he had taken LeRae to pound town before taking out his former protégé and tag partner. I am not sure what to expect here between them except maybe a “Candice on a Pole” match at Then Now Forever 2.
Think I am being facetious? Remember, this is Murrey Entertainment where the most absurd ideas are taken as a stroke of genius and put to use in a chaotic fashion that prints money and makes us Mouse Brothers squirm!
EIGHT. ELITE CONFRONTATION
You know, I have been overly negative about the delayed emergence of Omega and Page. Yes, I felt justified early on in feeling that these two potential megastars should have enjoyed a record-breaking rise to the top…individually, but their presentation as a team really has grown on me.
In a game-changing moment for the pairing, Omega and Page were confronted on Monday by the once-GOAT Tag Team, The Elite. It really made me wish that Miz and Morrison hadn’t split here in PWI, but I understood Miz’s motivations in that moment: he wanted a singles run, but that was interrupted by the Draft.
Anyways, Miz and Morrison have apparently buried the hatchet and are ready to seize the AEW Tag Division much like they did PWI’s. They will have their work cut out for them via Omega and Page, but this is absolutely a great way to further build this division into being a behemoth rivaling PWI’s.
SEVEN. BROTHERS OF DISRUPTION RETURN
Speaking of the AEW Tag Division, Undertaker and Kane returned to disrupt yet another match as they forced Cody to suffer a disqualification to prevent Owens from having a title victory and save Cody for Darby. Seeing a DQ finish to an exciting match is always a let down, but this one was an exception, because the path for Cody and Darby just became clear. For a moment, I almost forgot that this group of men are presently holding a Beast hostage.
Maybe Taker and his charred brother sold Lesnar to the Bloodline to be nursed back to health at the direction of Heyman. Perhaps we never see the master of the F5 again. I don’t know, but this temporary deviation creates the conditions for Darby to move on from Lesnar until the time comes for the MMA monster to seek his vengeance.
Ultimately, and to take this more seriously, I suspect that Lesnar will play a role in Darby failing to capture the TV gold, but time will tell.
SIX. THE BIG E INTERVIEW
Mick Foley sat down with Big E and helped humanize the number one contender for Rock’s gold. Big E took us on a stroll through his immediate family history, explaining what it would mean to him and his loved ones if he captured the prize from good old Dewey. E might be on a path to becoming THE guy in the company, but I actually left the segment feeling a little less confident that Rock is dropping the title to him on April 10th.
Why? Well, I suspect that the Bookers (not the old USWA and HCW tag team) are creating a Red Herring of sorts for us. They are making us look at Big E as a man with near-unstoppable momentum and leading us to cool down on seeing Rock as unbeatable.
Think about it: last week, Big E ends the show as he stands tall over the Rock after enjoying tag success earlier in the night. Then, this week is the FIRST Rock-less week in WWE since he captured the championship at the Rumble. They want us to see Rock as being in serious danger, but I am beginning to doubt that he is.
We never fully know in the crazy style of Murrey Entertainment until the moment actually comes, but the past two weeks have swayed me a little more in the “Rock will retain” column.
FIVE. CHYNA STOPS ROUSEY
On the subject of outcomes I didn’t see coming, Dynamite ended on a shocking note when Ronda Rousey was prevented from EVER challenging for the Knockout’s Title as long as Sasha remains champion.
Rousey gave it her all and proved herself as a beast in her own right as she fended off Sasha and Chyna for a while, but the numbers game ultimately overwhelmed her to the delight of the champion, but I don’t think that Sasha should let herself get too comfortable.
That’s because Ronda’s loss – via a stipulation announced at the outset of the show – triggered the door to violently swing open for Sasha and the title’s biggest threat: Bianca Belair. You will recall that I feel Bianca is on a steady path to being the champion, and even if the EST doesn’t happen to capture it at New Horizons, I absolutely still believe she will be the champion by year’s end!
Watch out Boss, because you are about to be someone else’s bitch.
FOUR. SILVER THE MASTER PLOTTER
Thomas Ian Griffith has full on plunged from showing signs of his character “Terry Silver” bleeding through to wholly embracing the sinister nature thereof. First, on Raw we saw Griffith talking with some other promoter about the plot to take out Murrey – I have some theories as to who this is, and it isn’t “Jake” -, and then he goes all in on his diabolical nature when he cost Macchio and Lawrence the only match that we saw on NXT.
I suspect that the “promoter” he was speaking with wasn’t anyone from the outside – despite the temptation to think it was Nash, Mickey, Brown, or Sami/Benny -, but that they were actually someone on the inside. My feeling is that it is one of two people: Camden Cross, who has every reason to want Murrey deposed, or a returning Eric Bischoff, who has a history with Murrey in the LWF.
Either way, there will absolutely be more to this in the coming weeks, and I may be more excited for what’s to come here than I am about most other things in the business right now!
THREE. BLOODLINE KIDNAP THEATER
Ever since Roman introduced the Bloodline in PWI a few years ago, it has always been clear that the primary inspiration was the quintessential mob boss like we see in “The Godfather” or “The Sopranos”. Now, it is clear that Roman and Heyman have taken this inspiration to the next level as they have kidnapped Midget Hogan and forced High Minded to accept a match.
Kicking off the show with this story and telling it throughout the night was a great deviation from the Benny story arc dominating the night (although that was still told all night long as well, but we will get into that in a second). It kept me invested in a serious way in the actions of High Minded and left me excited for whatever is set to take place at Dynamite tomorrow.
Yes, Riddle is still trying to sift through the rubble left in his brains from years of abusive pot smoke inhalation as he wrestles with the fact that Hulk Hogan is NOT Midget Hogan, and this was a brief funny break from the gravity of the danger posed to the lot of them, but the storytelling here was arguably the best part of the industry this week.
Part of what makes me say that is the great and serious interaction between Hogan and Nash. Nash kept feeling dread and wanted to give up, but Hulk insisted that they take the responsible route and fight against the mob-cosplayers. In the end, and tragically for High Minded, I don’t see this ending well for them, but I am thoroughly enjoying the ride so far!
TWO. BENNY THE PARANOID
Someone who is straight up not having a good time is my dementia-ridden brother, Benny. The brain condition has taken a turn for the worse this week as he is afraid of every large shadow emerging around him, fearing that his demise is near at the hands of his former henchman: Armageddon.
Benny was in hiding and flanked by Menotaur, but he is justly petrified. There is likely nowhere that he can hide that will be a mystery for long from the monster who served him longer than any henchman has ever served anyone else in this business. Benny knows – even through the cloud of his fading cognitive skills – that Armageddon knows him better than anyone else, and that is truly frightening.
Put yourself in Benny’s shoes for a second. You are suffering from this incurable illness of the mind. Your sins of the past – especially against your own daughter – are coming back to haunt you. There is a serious effort in your own company to remove you from ever having any influence over it again, and now the man you once entrusted with all of your evil deeds and secrets for over two decades has turned against you!
Benny insisted that Sami execute some mysterious and twisted plan to fix everything, a plan that is apparently worse than anything ever done by Benny before (I will believe that when I see it, but then again, desperation leads us all to do insane things). Sami seems to get the ball rolling, seeing to it that the Acolytes put AOP on the shelf after having the Harlem Turtles removed.
Unfortunately for Sami, his plans experience a roadblock in the form of the aforementioned bringer of destruction and doom, the monster literally known as Armageddon! Armageddon reminds the Acolytes that he is standing in the way of their plans and we are left thinking that whatever it is that Sami and Benny are plotting has to include ending Armageddon to be realized.
Dynamite this week will likely see a hint of what this plot is, and Armageddon may become a casualty as a result. Either way, it is definitely a reason to tune in!
ONE. THE DANHAUSEN STEAL
Finally, we come to the moment that felt like it had to be selected for number one: Camden Cross’s hiring of the funny Danhausen to “curse” Jeff Murrey!
I should have known that this was the plan all along, especially since Cross foreshadowed Danhausen’s arrival with his mention of a “curse” just days before Raw aired. Danhausen shocked the world with a Cassidy fake-out and defeated Hook before heading to a confused and bewildered Murrey’s office to directly threaten that this curse was coming.
This moment was great and left me wanting more, but there was a little bit of controversy surrounding it. In an accidental moment by Cross, he prematurely hired Danhausen from the list of “Available Talent” to make this happen. Technically, Danhausen wasn’t supposed to be hirable until a week from today. I know that my emails were obliterated with threats of lawsuits and revenge from Mickey, who was likely outraged more about the principle of the incident rather than any real interest in the master of wrestling curses.
Aside from that controversy – for which Cross has apologized to the WOW Board and the other wrestling companies -, Danhausen’s arrival adds a new unpredictable layer to this story (as if a Murrey Entertainment company needed any more unpredictability), because he could play any number of roles in this rivalry between Murrey and Cross.
I see him being a weekly or biweekly annoying thorn in Murrey’s side, distracting him with stupid threats of a curse that will likely come to fruition in the form of Thomas Ian Griffith’s plot with either Cross or Bischoff very real threat to Murrey’s power.
The Misfits will be caught off guard by this, especially since they are largely distracted themselves with Johnny Lawrence, so they won’t be ready to protect their boss from the greater threat noted above.
What a time to be a wrestling fan, though, as the promoters in each company are facing power struggles which risk upsetting the proverbial apple cart of the industry and perhaps transitioning us to a brand new era when it is all said and done.
That does it for this week’s “Wrestling with Lenny”, I will be back ASAP with my predictions and preview for the week to come!!
World Of Wrestling: Murrey Universe 