The Mop-Up: The Past Goes Over

WWE:

We kicked off the week with a painful reminder that Jey Uso has won a singles championship before Roman Reigns, which feels like a trivia question designed purely to hurt people.

Don’t get me wrong, I like Jey Uso. And I’m even excited for the return of the old wrestling trope of the “breakout singles star” emerging from a tag team —a callback to when tag teams existed as a stepping stone instead of a permanent parking spot. One of the most notorious examples was the Sean Olson & Brandon Lee pairing. The half-brothers started as a tag team, a damn good one, before blowing past the division and moving on to bigger, better things.

These days, most tag team wrestlers come up with the explicit goal of being the best tag team in the world, not quietly waiting for the singles run fairy to show up. There’s a reverence for the division now that didn’t really exist before, so I get why the trope has faded.

Still, all of this just makes Roman Reigns’ situation more depressing. He’s a hell of a talent, and one world title run would instantly lock him in as a permanent, credible main event act for years. He’s already proven he can draw — both in AEW, and in WWE with the Rock feud — but he’s always come up short when it actually mattered. I am beyond ready to see how he fares with a run on top. Wait… did WWE just accidentally make me want to see Roman dethrone The Rock?!?

Elsewhere on Raw, Hit & Spear returned as WWE continues its long-term experiment in turning Natalya into a credible threat for Rhea Ripley. Natalya’s career has always been a little frustrating, mostly because she never quite got the credit she deserves.

Back in the 4th Era, when EWA, and later ECW, launched the Knockouts Division, Natalya was a legitimate pioneer. That division helped drag women’s wrestling into the mainstream, and they did it with a roster that was far thinner than what the Big 3 are working with today. Women like Natalya had to work twice as hard just to convince the industry that women’s wrestling was worth taking seriously.

So yeah, I’ll always have a soft spot for Nattie. Do I think she’s taking the belt off Rhea? Absolutely not — and she shouldn’t. But I’m fine with the ride if it means more screen time for a significant part of the foundation of the women’s revolution. I also got a genuine laugh out of Goldberg’s commentary on Will Ospreay.

Meanwhile, Jean-Claude Van Damme continues to quietly lap half the roster in terms of actual value, which is not something I had on my 2026 bingo card. WWE’s leaned into him exactly the right way: sparingly, self-aware, and just unhinged enough to work. As my ULW counterpart noted, the movie-trailer-style cold open to NXT was absurd in the best way possible, and is an early contender for Comedy Segment of the Year. The parody of ULW’s more spooktacular Mouse saga elements was sharp, and just mean enough to land — though I’d be lying if I said I enjoyed seeing BWM Inc. alum Metal Head catching random strays. Put some respect on my boy’s name!

On SmackDown, WWE continued its slow but deliberate attempt to give the women’s division an actual identity, with the debuts of Alba Fyre and Lyra Valkeria. Both came off as credible, but Lyra immediately reads like someone they have real plans for, rather than someone destined to hover in the background.

WWE’s history with women’s wrestling has been a cycle of enthusiasm followed by amnesia, so I’m cautiously optimistic this is the beginning of something more sustainable. We’ve seen the blueprint work in BWM Inc. and CME/MMouse Enterprises for years now: take the women seriously, invest in them consistently, and the audience will follow. It’s not complicated; it just requires commitment.

What WWE has figured out lately is tone.

The balance between comedy and seriousness has been very effective, with each show having its own distinct brand of humor instead of everyone fighting over the same punchline. And yes, I’m very curious where the Murrey/Pete situation is heading as the fallout from the so-called “Jeff Gene Files” continues to ripple through the programming. There’s enough smoke there to suggest this isn’t just a throwaway angle, and if they stick the landing, it could end up being one of the more interesting long-term stories they’ve told in a while.

ULW:

Down south, the ULW Championship tournament rolled on, with Roderick Strong advancing with a win over Scott Steiner, thanks in large part to his continuing preoccupation with the Beast Incarnate, Brock Lesnar. If all of this is just connective tissue leading us to a Bron Breakker vs. Lesnar collision, then by all means, keep the engine running.

So far in 2026, Bron’s done a lot to quiet my criticisms from the Year in Review by reclaiming the Providence Championship, but he’s still one defining win away from feeling inevitable rather than merely protected. ULW has gone out of its way to shield him in drafts and trades, but it’s starting to resemble the long, frustrating wait for Cody Rhodes to finally get his moment — a wait that, until last week, felt endless.

As for Steiner, he’s clearly serving as a speed bump on Lesnar’s road, but it’s worth noting this is probably the biggest singles program Big Poppa Pump has sniffed since the Third Era. Back then, it really did feel like he was on the verge of a true main event breakout following that classic feud with RVD. Time really is a flat circle, I guess.

Elsewhere, Metal Head and Menotaur continued their search for Jackie Mouse, whom they believe holds the key to stopping Abigail, Azazal, and the lingering spirit of Mickey Mouse. Yes, that is a real sentence that I just typed. Mr. Kennedy remains understandably hesitant to get involved, despite the minor detail that his partner Hans Gustav is currently being held captive by Zaz —which is absolutely what I’m calling Evil Taker from here on out. Nothing earth-shattering this week, but the tracks are clearly being laid, and at this point, it’s less a question of if the derailment happens and more about how spectacular the wreck is going to be.

In a main event that felt like it fell out of a time capsule labeled 1998, Slammu advanced in the tournament with a win over Giant Gonzales. And look… I had fun. The match was exactly what it needed to be, and I’ll freely admit I’m a Slammu mark. But it also highlights one of my lingering issues with ULW as a whole. An outsized amount of the company’s star power still lives with its legends, and I can’t quite tell if that’s an indictment of the draft strategy or a reluctance to fully hand the keys to the next generation.

This isn’t a knock on either guy. The match worked. Still, when ULW has the depth of young talent that it does, it’s hard not to feel a little frustrated watching the main event scene continue to be dominated by stars from eras long gone.

Compare that to WWE, which is at least attempting a balance between established names and rising talent. In AEW, the main event scene — outside of someone like Sean Olson — is almost entirely populated by what I’d call the stars of today. I’m not saying AEW’s success is solely because BWM Inc. committed to building new stars, but it sure feels like a significant part of the equation. Food for thought.

Friday night gave us a glimpse of that future, as two of those younger faces were put front and center when Dragon Lee pulled off an upset over Ricky Starks in a genuinely fun match. You could practically feel the urgency coming off both men — two guys wrestling like they knew this was an audition as much as it was a contest. I was a bit surprised to see Lee get the win, but if this turns into a longer program, it might be exactly the right call. Sometimes, frustration is the point.

And once again in the main event, ULW reached back into the archive, as the soon-to-be Mr. Saguna Rose — whose segment with Nyla, by the way, was excellent and continues to do a great job of building hype for their upcoming nuptials — failed to advance in the tournament after falling to Dragonfly. The loss came after Chris Jericho cornered Dragonfly backstage to remind everyone that yes, he still exists, and yes, he still wants his belt back.

Jericho has officially declared for Epic Royale, which is still months away. I appreciate the early promotion of the show, truly, but if Jericho’s plan to stay relevant between now and then is limited to ominous backstage reminders, he may want to expand the playbook a bit. Last year proved he can still matter when properly motivated… now he just has to actually show it.

All told, a solid effort from the competition this week. The ratings aren’t in yet, but I don’t think it’s exactly a hot take to assume AEW took Monday with Elite Warfare. Friday’s battle between WWE and ULW will, perhaps, be the more competitive of the head-to-head battles.

We’ll have plenty more to say about Elite Warfare in the days ahead, especially with AEW off tonight and returning next week. I’m also hoping to sit down with Cody Rhodes this week for the Superstar Series, schedules permitting. Until then, that’ll do it for the Mop-Up.