Mission 004 – The Mission? Introducing the Si Saw Battle
Alright, the first week of the Seventh Era has concluded and we as an audience now have some serious whiplash from the si-saw battle we have seen thus far! Night One of the era saw ULW pull off the victory on Friday, the 5th over WWE, and Night Two saw AEW reassert itself in a slight nail-biter this past Monday. I’m betting that WWE’s first ratings victory of this new era is around the corner, because it is becoming clear to me that my projection that this era would belong to no clear dominant force may prove true!
I know that some of you are reading this anxiously awaiting the “scoop” that I came across during the transition from PWI’s Sixth Era set and the new ULW set, but we will get to that later. For now, let’s get to business on analyzing what made this week so unpredictable!
WWE
The Draft
On the eve of Starrcade, Murrey Entertainment announced that they would kick off the era with their own 2-night draft, splitting the roster amongst Raw and Smackdown. What we got was some fun twists (some of which we will get to momentarily) and an announcement that Raw will have its own World Heavyweight Championship.
The draft pick which stood out to me was that of Miz and R-Truth, creating a new tag team called “The Awesome Truth”. I fear that Miz has been cursed with staying in the tag division in perpetuity, as he just came off of an era-spanning run alongside Johnny Morrison in the popular “Elite” team, but I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t looking forward to seeing what R-Truth and him can offer together.
RVD’s New Approach
Speaking of a pairing that I am positively excited for, this new grouping of Rob Van Dam and Dave Matthews has me warming up the popcorn and leaning in with anticipation! We have NEVER seen Matthews in a role outside of his former interviewer role, and it has been many years since RVD was anything but a babyface!
The combination of a more reserved and determined RVD and a Matthews with a new lease on life has the makings of a match made in heaven, and possibly comes equipped with a giant sticker saying “money!!” If done right, Murrey Entertainment may have just found their next big hit right here.
A man and his weed eater
Speaking of Murrey, I was on the floor losing half of a lung when the commentary team revealed what happened to Pete the referee. Word to the wise: be very careful when Murrey asks you to come do some house chores! Don’t you EVER question why. Just do it!
I kind of feel bad for Pete, but I really hope that this is just the beginning of Pete being suckered into the role of Murrey’s new adopted son, filling the void left by his real son leaving the nest. Pure gold.
The brewing feud between Regal and Bischoff
Another area where I am absolutely invested is in seeing where this brand rivalry goes, as led by Eric Bischoff and William Regal. The two of them have great minds for the business, and we can expect that the battle for brand supremacy will give us plenty to enjoy in the coming season!
Stephanie McMahon is in WWE!
Speaking of things to enjoy in this season, WWE had a great surprise for the world on Monday when they revealed that the brief ULW Extreme Commissioner Stephanie McMahon had been traded to WWE! Joining her husband, Triple H, the newcomer to Murrey Entertainment addressed a raucous crowd in Ottawa, sending their decibel reader into unchartered territory in the process. Part of the scoop that I have later for you partially involves this very trade, by the way!
Not-So-Alpha Academy
Despite their prominent place in the draft, the Alpha Academy left the opening series of WWE events for this era looking…not-so-alpha. Look, I don’t want to poke fun, but the reality is that Chad Gable and Otis have their work cut out for them to make this worth Jordan and Angle’s while.
First, Gable gets DESTROYED by Solo, and then Sheamus and Butch decimate him and Otis three days later. Not a good start for the group, but I suspect that this new angle with Gable turning on Otis (in spirit, that is) will lead to some kind of reboot for the stable. We’ll see.
The Bloodline Shift
With Solo’s success and the official arrival of at least half of the Usos, the Bloodline has found a new home…in the world of WWE. While we have yet to hear from the Rock after he dispatched Damian Priest at Starrcade and enjoyed the strengthening of his version of the supergroup, I have no doubts that this recent development will only guarantee that Rock holds the title for up to a year…at least! Perhaps we will get some kind of interpromotional or cross-promotional Bloodline Civil War? Let’s stay ready to watch and love it!
Drew’s Rebirth
Something that I am already watching and loving right now is the rebirth of Drew McIntyre! The Intercontinental Champion may have suffered a defeat by Shinsuke Nakamura – with the help of the fractured Doc Brown 6 -, but he felt undeterred from saying that he would become the first ever World Heavyweight Champion!
I’ve gotta hand it to them, I am still completely on board the Drew train, and I am beyond excited to see what comes next!!
Finn gunning for gold
Still, one person who may have something to say about Drew becoming champion is the man who battled his way into earning a spot in the jeopardy match: Finn Balor! Experiencing a bit of a career resurgence since his encounter with the Fiend back at the Showcase in February, I am so happy to see this guy featured prominently and about challenge for a world title for the second time in less than five months! Great job, Finn (I still think Drew has a better shot, though)!!
Asuka’s First Loss (even if by DQ)
Lastly for WWE, we come to the woman who Main Evented Raw, the ONLY woman reign as WWE Women’s Champion…Asuka! Asuka suffered her first lost in well over a year, but not because Nattie was able to beat her, but only because Asuka brought in an ally: Kairi Sane!
With the so-called Pirate Princess at her side, the Sixth Era’s Best Women’s Wrestler Award winner will continue to be truly unstoppable!
AEW
The Arrival of Ospreay
On to AEW and the object of the man who created the buzz around Sami’s claim to have made the “biggest signing” of the era so far: Ospreay.
I’ve heard a great deal about this young man and his immense talents. A little over a month ago, AEW asked the World of Wrestling if it was permissible to sign Mr. Ospreay despite him not being in the Available Talent Pool, and they gave him the go-ahead since WWE was given a chance to sneak Danhausen from under everyone’s noses earlier this year.
Now, the world will see Mr. Ospreay perform on the biggest stage he has ever seen, and we will see if he is able to live up to all the hype!
Johnny Lawrence Jumps Ship
One signing that the world didn’t see coming, and the arguable reason that ULW didn’t sweep the premieres of the Seventh Era was AEW’s surprise of bringing in Johnny Lawrence!
My jaw left my face and collapsed straight to China when I saw Mr. Lawrence make his way to the ring, and I sat there with that expression for about half of Dynamite. For starters, I can’t believe that WWE would let their biggest draw go to another company. Seriously.
Secondly, I am already loving the pairing of him with Xolo. It has everything that you need for it to be endless gold! Just great!
Harlem Turtles reunite with Molly
I was also very happy to see the brief reunion of Stevie R with Molly Holly. Yes, Stevie was depressed and found himself reverting back to where he mentally was in 2021; wanting to retire as Booker D was left clinging on to their decades of glory. However, this entire segment was epic and befitting of a description that has become popular with Gen Z: “Cinema!”
More please!
FTR on a collision course with The Acclaimed?
Already being hailed as the GOATs of modern tag team wrestling, Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder, the two-time PWI Tag Team Champions have their sights set on one goal: conquering the AEW Tag Division. With AEW having lost a massive chunk of the major teams which would have stood in their way (with another team looking to be broken up while yet another struggles to avoid retirement), FTR has an almost unstoppable path to the gold.
Can the Acclaimed prevent the seemingly inevitable here? I suppose we need to wait and see.
Omega/Page
Yes, the team on the outs to which I was referring was that of the former Tag Champions: Adam Page and Kenny Omega. We saw them have a sort-of argument on Monday as Page wallowed openly in his drunken self-pity as Omega sat confused as to why Page was crying “woe is me” and ready to throw away their team.
The truth is that their egos were always going to be too big to share space in one tag team together forever. It’s Teo and Attitude all over again, and I am here for it.
Heyman’s Fatal Mistake
Just when you thought that we were done with wrestling funerals, Paul Heyman had to go and sign his death warrant by costing Roman dearly in his last shot to get to the world title before Lesnar.
Heyman was visibly conflicted during the entire showdown and it all culminated perfectly in the end when Roman ordered Paul to show his loyalty only for Paul’s attempt at obeying to backfire spectacularly on his Tribal Chief!
Now, Lesnar is poised to commit a felony or two against his boss for the gold while Heyman will be forced to flee retribution for the rest of his days!
Nia goes Hardcore!
Someone who won’t be fleeing retribution, but rather who will be empowered to continue her path of destruction for the foreseeable future is the inaugural Knockouts Hardcore Champion, Nia Jax!
Nia made history following a very entertaining melee featuring a number of AEW Knockouts to become the first champion in this new subdivision, and now the women in AEW need to start looking over their shoulders, because I suspect that Nia isn’t going to wait for opponents to pursue her 24-7, but rather she is likely to initiate her own title defenses left and right for her own shits and giggles!
WWE was the last to experiment with a title featuring this stipulation, and it was a lot of fun. So, I am very excited to see what’s to come in this latest incarnation!
Toni’s new persona
With a continued focus on “latest incarnation”, we segue into someone whose entire persona seemed to transform as a result of her run-in with Nia during that match: Toni Storm!
Toni already hasn’t been the same since she had her match with the then-possessed Alexa Bliss, but the violence of this Hardcore match coupled with some serious head trauma may have finally done Toni in…and sent her psyche reeling all the way back to the early 20th Century!
The Australian talent adopted a British accent and started referring to herself as some lost movie star as she escaped the hospital with a nurse’s coat.
This is about to be really fun!!
MJF and Logan Pair
Finally, we come full circle to the ongoing saga which helped bring in Johnny Lawrence. Ever since Logan debuted, my predecessor – Lenny Mouse – suspected that Logan was scheming against MJF. Logan helped cost MJF the World Title, and then he crossed yet another line on Dynamite when he invited Sami Zayn for a special installment of “Impaulsive!”
MJF seemingly started to catch on, but Paul wasn’t ready to let MJF see through him just yet. To prove that he was sorry for being a thorn in his “pal’s” side, Paul promised to help MJF out with something, and that something was helping Xolo (I am not going to attempt to spell that last name) defeat the 800-pound behemoth: Armageddon!!
Now, we don’t know if the slate is completely clean for Logan Paul, but we do know that Sami Zayn is none-too-pleased about this, but more on that when I submit my thoughts for the next “Mission in Waiting”!
ULW
New Champions
And now we transition to my home: Undisputed League Wrestling!
Over here in ULW, the world may be figuring out what it thinks of the new company and the Triad may be working out some of the details of how they will work together, but the new promotion came out swinging in its first two events!
As part of that introduction to the world, some analysts have quipped behind the scenes that ULW has “had a course correction” of sorts. Now, regardless of your feelings about such, and irrespective of whether they may be on to something, the first two ULW events saw the International Championship change hands from Charlotte Flair to Mandy Rose and the Extreme Championship go to Jon Moxley as CM Punk intervened!
Additionally, if you include Starrcade, Bray Wyatt nabbed the Undisputed Title from Randy Orton and LA Knight has been forced to relinquish his Premier Championship due to the actions of a disgruntled Carmelo Hayes.
Yes, a lot has been happening in ULW, but it would be a mistake to think that things will be “business as usual” here. ULW is a completely new animal which promises to blend the best of all worlds. It’s only begun, my friends!
Jade set to meet AJ…again
The title scene only continues to get more interesting, too, as AJ Lee is set to face the woman she upset last summer to enter the Women’s Premier Tournament, the now-Women’s Champion, Jade Cargill!
Both women have been through a lot since they last met in the ring. This could steal the show on Monday. Will AJ continue the thread of bad luck for the champions in ULW? Or will Jade overcome the odds as she has done so often in the past few months? More on this in my next column!
Tag Team Mayhem
Hyatte asked me point-blank the other day if ULW intentionally flaunted the four major tag team pickups from the draft in the Ladder War this past Monday, and I had no choice but to confirm that this was intentional…but not for the reasons that one might suspect. Rather, ULW Vice Commissioner Evil scheduled this match with the newcoming tag teams because he wanted to give a new team a chance at the gold, and boy were we rewarded as a result!
The Ladder War was – as has consistently been the case over the past few years – THE favorite match of the first two ULW events, and the winning team (Proud N’ Powerful) was given quite the push into the spotlight as a result!
Details will be unveiled soon enough as to when Santana and Ortiz will get their shot, but for now they should celebrate their accomplishment!
Punk and Hash are it again
After being separated for a year, CM Punk sought some vengeance for Jesse Hash sending him to AEW with a bruising loss at Motivation X last summer. While Punk was mired in doing nothing in the interim, Hash was featured prominently by the Million Dollar Corporation, becoming the Extreme Champion, and having show-stealing match along the way.
Now, Punk is back in the picture and wreaking havoc on Hash’s life again. Since there are plans for them on Aggression, I will talk more about this in my next column!
Dragonfly’s Choice
At Starrcade it became clear, and tragically so, that Dragonfly’s days as an active competitor are nearing their end. After accepting the Cash Mouse Entertainment award for Superstar of the Sixth Era, Dragonfly announced that his final match will be on August 5th, 2024. We learned this past Monday that he will have a choice both as to his last opponent as well as the stipulation.
This is a big decision, and it appears that he will be revealing his decision on Monday!! More on this in the next column! (Sorry, I know that I am saying that a lot here, but I promise that it will be worth the wait!)
Damian saves the day
The biggest surprise for ULW in its first week was the reveal that one half of the inaugural WWE-co Champions, Damian Priest, had been traded to ULW!
This was revealed as Damian prevented Bray Wyatt from suffering an Undisputed Title loss at the hands of Attitude, IRS, and Dibiase on The Shockwave, and now there is a whirlwind of questions surrounding why he is here…and why he came to the aid of Bray!!
The Scoop!
Aaaaaaaand that bring me to THE reason why you have hung on for this long: the Scoop that I learned the other day!
First and foremost, this news is multi-part and concerns the ongoing tug of war between Triad Members Brown and Mouse with their out-of-control compatriot: Ted Dibiase. Like I said earlier, the trade of Stephanie McMahon to WWE was part of this, and that’s what we will delve into first.
Initially, Stephanie was traded to WWE at the behest of Dibiase, who apparently had someone in mind in exchange. However, one of the other Triad members caught wind of Dibiase’s ploy (seemingly borne out of his frustration with being ignored so openly during the Draft). When they learned what Dibiase was up to, they swooped in and convinced WWE to cease all negotiations with Mr. Dibiase.
How did they succeed in convincing WWE to shut Dibiase out? I’m being told that this is where the design of WWE’s new World Heavyweight Title came into play. The unnamed Triad Member knew the best belt maker in the business and made a promise to pay for the design that WWE reportedly wanted in exchange for keeping Dibiase out of the loop. From there, the Triad member took over the negotiations and successfully won over Mr. Priest’s contract.
After winning Priest’s contract, Mr. Priest was reportedly pulled aside just before the Main Event of Starrcade and asked by this Triad member to look out for Bray, because they suspected that Dibiase had something rotten planned in the near future.
Now, this isn’t all, obviously, because the fallout of this decision is what reportedly led Dibiase to go “HAM” and launch a vacancy-filling spree in retaliation. He apparently reached out to his best friend and Bray’s father – IRS – about filling the Chief Financial Officer position shortly after he was closed out of the negotiation with WWE, and then he called Stacy Keibler to appoint her to fill Stephanie’s vacancy.
Once he knew that he wouldn’t get who he wanted (a detail that was not disclosed to me, sadly), Dibiase decided that he must “punish” the others in the Triad by going after the man who made the birth of ULW possible, the Undisputed Champion Bray Wyatt! My source tells me that Dibiase’s original plot here was to first cost Randy the title and then to take out Bray, so as to create chaos in the Undisputed Title scene that a member of the former Million Dollar Corporation would conceivably benefit from.
The last detail that my source was able to share with me was the list of the three final board positions to be filled by Mr. Dibiase: the Chief Design Officer, the Chief Marketing Officer, and the Chief Compliance Officer. I, unfortunately, do not yet know who will fill each position, but we know that Dibiase has already filled all of them to help stack the Board of Directors, and that he will be revealing them in time.
So, there you have it. The drama continues and so does the Seventh Era!
Stay tuned, as I will be publishing the next installment of “Mission in Waiting” in the next 24-28 hours!
Until our next Quest, this has been Johnny with yet another Mission!
World Of Wrestling: Murrey Universe 