The Sixth Era

2019-2024 (The Sixth Era):

2019-2020:

 The period between the Fifth and Sixth Eras was obviously the greatest gap in time between eras in history. Just over four years passed between when the PWI ended the Fifth Era and when Benny reached out to WOW and ultimately to Catherine to negotiate the Third and Final Installment of “From Dusk Til Dawn” (FDTD). Hosted in June 2019, the final FDTD was slated to have ten great matches, culminating in the battle of the monsters which was teased ever since FRED and Armageddon first saw each other in late-2003.

 As MMouse Enterprises (led by Catherine) and BWM Inc. (led by Benny) discussed the coming mega-event, Benny started encouraging Catherine to relaunch the PWI so as to go at it one more time in a “respectful” battle. Catherine reportedly resisted for weeks, suggesting that she didn’t have the time or drive to do it (not to mention, the company was ill-prepared for a relaunch, as they would have to buy new equipment, etc.), but Benny would not relent.

 A few weeks before FDTD’s Third Installment, Benny announced that EWA was returning in early-2020. Seeing that Benny was serious, and being interested in the ratings battle that she was denied in the Fifth Era, Catherine buckled and announced that PWI would also return in 2020!

 The rest of the card for FDTD came together. It featured a battle royal with numerous legends, won by Goldust. There was a “Beginner’s Ball” which showcased the newcomers, won by Homicide. Undertaker defeated Kane, Soultaker, and Agramon in a Total Anarchy Match called the “Callaway Bowl”. Teo defeated Attitude in a classic encounter. Women battled in an incredible First-Ever Women’s Massacre Six Match that was won by Angelina Love! Slammu and Splinter battled once more, Slammu won, and they finally buried the hatchet! Amazon defeated Athena Starr in what Catherine had hoped would be the main event! Olson and Lee defeated the Legacy, Randy Orton shockingly defeated Dragonfly, and Armageddon defeated FRED in a battle which left you wondering if this was really their last encounter!

 Before the incredible night of action, the once-peaceful interpromotional talk of a new era led to Mickey returning to the picture, inserting himself as the Chairman again (which meant deposing Catherine and demoting her to Vice Chair). Mickey resumed trash talking with Benny, hijacked Mmouse Enterprises, and even hijacked FDTD! Mickey and Catherine launched another surprise attack in the historic draft which preceded FDTD, and after Benny announced the EWA would debut with the first ever all-women’s PPV “Hell Hath No Fury”, Mickey announced that PWI’s opening day would both feature a first ever Women’s Total Anarchy Match and a violent intergendered approach to wrestling!

 Following Mickey’s hostile overthrow of Catherine in Mmouse Enterprises, the company was thrown into a state of managerial chaos! Benny and BWM Inc. chided the Mmouse Enterprises Board of Directors from afar, calling for them to oust Mickey as Chair, restore Catherine’s power, and to ban intergender wrestling. Within two months, they did each of those things (not without an extremely divisive fight), but not before Mickey announced that he and Catherine were splitting PWI in two, with Mickey running a brand called “Asylum” and Catherine running “Legends”.

 By November 2019, the Board appointed Jeff Murrey (the promoter who started it all when he launched the WWF in the First Era) as the new Chairman of MMouse Enterprises and ultimately of PWI. Mickey was beside himself about having Murrey as a superior. It was revealed that the company was divided in shares by Mickey, Catherine, and mystery third party (Mickey, Catherine, and the mystery shareholder all held 24% shares, respectfully, with Benny, the Board, and publicly traded shares splitting the remaining balance).

 Mickey moved the launch date of PWI up to December, EWA followed suit, and then it was announced that PWI would be debuting on November 30th with “Greatness Reborn”. EWA swiftly responded by announcing that their event “Hell Hath No Fury” would debut on that same night!

 On that night, Nikki Bella became the first Knockout’s Champion of the new era for EWA and carried the EWA to its first victory of what became an undefeated streak throughout the first season of the era (from November 2019 through June 2020). That same night, PWI put on an impressive show as well, with Brock Lesnar becoming the first Immunity Champion of the era, the PWI title being left in suspension (which it remained until the following Spring when Teo captured the gold), and Living Dead Girl slaughtering three other women in a gruesome Total Anarchy Match to become a dominant PWI Women’s Champion!

 By the end of year, Los Guerreros were the first Men’s Tag Champions in PWI, A Taste of Heaven (Zevon Heaven and Britt Baker) were the first PWI Women’s Tag Champions, Yokozuna and Umaga were the first EWA Tag Champions, AJ Styles became the first X-Division Champion, and Randy Orton became the first EWA Champion! The first ever PWI Women’s Immunity Champion – Asuka – was crowned in the spring! The following fall, Johnny Gargano became PWI’s first ever Ascendant Champion, Alexa Bliss and Petey Williams won unique tournaments to become the first female and male Premier Athletes!

 The EWA started to slip into its familiar erratic pattern at the end of 2019, but came back numerous times in the Spring of 2020. One of the times that they re-emerged was for a special episode of Revolution called “Retro Revolution” which was blessed with an incredible array of surprise cameos from the stars of the past including the onscreen return of Cool Quest for the first time in nearly 2 decades, the emergence of the first WPW Champion Garz Gargoyale, Iron Claw, the shock appearance of Ghost Rider, and the biggest ratings pop of the night: the return of Granddaddy Duxen!

 Benny Mouse was also involved in an incredibly-delivered surprise appearance of HCW Owner John Brown as part of his partnership with Benny’s wife Molly, who was in the midst of an affair with former fling Saguna. This chaos contributed to the premature demise of EWA, as the controversy over company controlled was supposed to be resolved at the 2020 Installment of No Boundaries, but the company never held another independent show.

 In the end of the EWA in 2020, Ember Moon had become the Knockout’s Champion, cashing in her Money in the Bank briefcase on Megan Mouse, who herself had just toppled Nikki Bella (losing it a year later to Ronda Rousey). Granddaddy Duxen became the last EWA Champion over Randy Orton at No Boundaries. Athena Starr finished her rivalry with Rousey, losing in a hellacious cage match.

 Over in the PWI, FRED made a sudden return at Fate’s Resurrection on behalf of Bray Wyatt in the midst of Bray’s rivalry with Kane. Bray revealed that FRED was his weapon now and that he had effectively rebuilt the monster as part of the Wyatt Family alongside Braun Strowman and The Scarecrow. Kane would disappear after losing an inferno match against FRED at Motivation and Drakus would follow suit in a Buried Alive Match against Bray at the same event when Keeper (Drakus’s mentor) pulled Drakus into the grave!

 Lance Storm’s career came to an end at the hands of his son, Robby. Robby turned on Lance at the end of their tag title reign, and Robby took joy in defeating him at Motivation. Alexa Bliss capitalized on her status as the first ever Premier Athlete, defeating Sasha Banks at Motivation and firing her on the spot in utilizing her privilege as “Boss of the Day”. She had also tried to help Petey Williams win the World Championship, but he fell short in the Night One bout with Teo.

 Teo’s war with Attitude came to a head on Night Two of Motivation when he successfully defended the PWI Title in a classic battle. The sad thing, though, is that Attitude’s career was on the line. Attitude actually hugged Teo after the match. However, when the 4th Season of the PWI started in the summer, it became apparent that the story wasn’t over as Teo was mysteriously injured, leading to his best friend Attitude to step in as a temporary champion reigning for Teo by proxy and to a major investigation to find out who caused the accident.

 Teo was given an ultimatum to return to action by the end of November lest the title be vacated, and when he failed to return the gold was put up for grabs, which led to Scott Nash becoming champion, defeating Rhyno. Asuka surprised the world when she cashed her Immunity Title in and defeated Living Dead Girl for the Women’s Championship! This predictably set up a situation where Living Dead Girl wanted revenge. She disappeared for a little while, but returned on Thanksgiving reinvented in the scariest version of her that we have ever seen attacking Asuka and costing her the gold against Alexa Bliss!

 Speaking of Alexa Bliss, she employed her one night as “Boss” to force Tessa Blanchard into servitude, which trapped Tessa to do her deeds, largely encompassing tormenting Gail Kim (whom Alexa viewed as her biggest threat). Angelina Love also turned over a new leaf, pairing with The Allure, forming what would later be called “The Dollhouse”. Their primary target soon became Becky Lynch and Madison Rayne.

 In the Women’s Tag Team scene, we saw Molly Holly and Ivory come together and begin getting trained by Stevie R of the Harlem Turtles. Stevie told the women that he knew best how to prepare them for greatness, soon winning over the loyalty of Molly to the chagrin of Ivory. Meanwhile, the Elite secured their dominance of the Tag Division. This was made easier by the fact that a number of would-be rivals (such as the Henchmen and the Family) were mired in wars over control of the company. Their dominance didn’t last forever, though, as American Alpha (Jason Jordan and Chad Gable) won the gold at the end of the year.

 With the power struggle in the PWI, Jeff Murrey managed to solidify his hold on the Chairmanship when his team won an all-important War Games match against Mickey’s team when Dragonfly betrayed Mickey at Fate’s Resurrection. Moreover, as Mickey was struggling to find his footing again, the Crock’s investigatory segments led to him uncovering an uncomfortable truth about the company. Crock went to reveal this truth at Motivation, but he was kidnapped by Mickey’s Henchmen before he could reveal the truth!

 Shortly after the beginning of the 4th Season, Chairman Murrey appointed Ted Brown as an interim commissioner. We also saw the beginning of mysterious segments wherein we were warned that an “Apocalypse is Coming”. Moreover, Bray Wyatt and his Family proceeded to stalk certain officials, leading to him kidnapping Jackie Mouse (daughter of Blaster and Catherine, who was revealed as being alive and the mysterious major shareholder who influenced the company via her proxy Harry Puddphucker)!

2021:

PWI

 On January 4, 2021, Mmouse Enterprises held a special edition of “HCW Monday Night Mayhem”, with Ted Brown’s blessing as the interim commissioner of PWI. The show was HCW-in-name-only. While the rules were suspended in the spirit of HCW, the only HCW-alumni to appear on the show were the PWI Champion, Scott Nash, and Rhyno in a Lumberjack Match Main Event. There was slight public outcry from fans and critics alike as a result of the lack of HCW appearances on the show. This show and the reaction to it would play a big part in the events to come before the year’s conclusion.

In March, PWI introduced a new PPV, entitled “The Epic”, which included – for the first time involving women – a Death From Above Match (as an annual part of the show) to determine the challenger for the Women’s Title at Motivation (won in the first installment by Amazon) and a 40-man Royal Rumble-style battle royal to determine the challenger for the PWI Title at the same PPV in June (won in the first installment by Teo). A month prior, at the Showcase, Dragonfly would become World Champion, but Scott Nash reclaimed it at The Epic.

Alexa Bliss continued to dominate the Women’s Division, thanks to the help she had from Slammer. Alexa also continued to enjoy the perks of her privileges as the initial winner of the Premier Athlete Tournament Roulette, as she tormented Tessa Blanchard and Gail Kim. She would exercise her right to insert herself into the finals of the 2021 tournament, to battle Tessa Blanchard and Gail Kim!

Elsewhere, we continued to see the periodic warnings of a coming “Apocalypse” accompanied by carnage left behind, and Iron Claw was recruited by the leadership to help deal with it (Ted Brown and Jeff Murrey). Soon, it was revealed that WWF Legend, Apocalypse was behind the whole thing, and that he had one mission: ending the industry!

In April, PWI resurrected “Wrestlemania” for its Seventh Installment under the Mmouse Enterprises banner (the first installment since the Sixth back in April 2002). For the 2021 return, it was subtitled “Into the Asylum” as it was a special episode of Asylum, and it was headlined by Scott Nash successfully defending his PWI Title against Drew McIntyre…only to soon lose it to Kurt Angle by way of a shocking cash-in of Angle’s Immunity Title!

In the build to Motivation VIII, Becky Lynch and Madison Rayne had been the primary targets of the abusive Angelina Love’s Dollhouse, but over time, Love’s manipulation turned Rayne and Lynch against each other. At Motivation, Lynch pulled off the victory over Rayne, and this was the last we would see of either for quite some time, due to both being drafted by EWA later in the week.

Brock Lesnar had been doing everything he could to get back to the top of the company, but he was oddly paired with Robby Storm; who had created an aura of untrustworthiness between his sneak attack on Dragonfly back in 2012 and his betrayal of his father in 2020. Lesnar didn’t trust Robby, and his suspicions were accidentally proven right, leading to a match at the big show; wherein Lesnar crushed Storm.

The rivalry between Asuka and Living Dead Girl reached a fever pitch, including a moment wherein Asuka intentionally injured herself and Living Dead Girl by tackling her from the top of the rafter in the Death From Above Match at The Epic. At Motivation, they battled in a No Holds Barred Match, which saw Living Dead Girl pick up the victory!

Sunfire returned for the first time in over a decade at The Epic, and he immediately found a conflict with his old foe and former tag team championship partner, Dragonfly. This soon produced an “Iconic Showdown” at Motivation, which saw Dragonfly get the win!

American Alpha continued to ride high atop the Tag Division and as members of Kurt Angle’s Alpha Academy. Retaining their titles against Mickey’s Henchmen, they would set their sights on trying to hold the gold for at least a year! Angle, for his part, had to defend the PWI Title in a new variation of the Total Anarchy Match – called “Version 2”, with a Ladder Stipulation instead of a Cell – against Scott Nash, Drew McIntyre, and Teo, and he remarkably pulled it off!

After years of being the underdog, Brandon Lee finally achieved a major victory, overcoming the odds by surviving Bobby Lashley in the finals of the 2021 Men’s Premier Athlete Tournament Roulette! As for the Women’s side of the Tournament, Alexa Bliss used her manipulation of Tessa Blanchard to win both the tournament and the Immunity Championship. As a consequence, Bliss would set her sights on making Gail subservient to her next as well as change company policies so as to permanently enshrine herself and Slammer as exemptees in each successive draft. By the end of the night, she would cash her Immunity Title in on Io Shirai – who had toppled Alexa a month prior – after Io had just successfully defended her title against Amazon. Another consequence of Alexa’s tournament win was the premiere of a show in her honor: Goddess Appreciation Night!

The biggest story of the night, though, was Project Extermination 2: a match set up in the weeks leading to Motivation which would pit three teams against each other. Mickey had orchestrated the attacks by Team Apocalypse in order to force Catherine, Murrey, and Ted Brown to agree to a showdown. Bray Wyatt would also get involved, using his kidnapping of Jackie to his benefit. Catherine and the leadership acquiesced, agreeing with Mickey to put a majority of company shares up for grabs. In the end, Team Wyatt Family pulled off the win as Bray Wyatt, FRED, Braun Strowman, Scarecrow, and Petey Williams survived against Teams Apocalypse (Legion of Doom, Legion of Maniacs, and the monstrous Juggernaut) and PWI (Mr. Kennedy, Aleister Black, Mike O’Malley, Kevin Owens, and Ted Brown). After the match, Catherine was distraught and begging to know where her daughter was (Bray had pressured her to engage the match to save Jackie), but Bray deferred to Mickey…his new master! Catherine was apoplectic and Mickey revealed that he was the one behind Bray’s antics as well as those antics of Apocalypse! This resulted in Mickey getting an overwhelming majority of Mmouse Enterprises shares, which he used to promptly fire Jeff Murrey and reinstate himself as THE Chair of the company! Furthermore, Mickey looked at Bray and thanked him for restoring his monster, FRED, and with a snap of his fingers, Mickey had FRED DESTROY Bray!! Bray was left in a heap as Mickey cackled in celebration!

The week which followed Motivation VIII – which became the highest rated show of all time up to that point, besting the previous highest rated show, EWA’s “Retro Revolution” – saw the World of Wrestling host both the 2021 Draft and the Inaugural Starrcade; the first joint event since the final installment of From Dusk Til Dawn two years prior. PWI had a successful draft – though, a number of big names were drafted away -, and at Starrcade, we saw a number of the pickups debut: Sean Olson returned and challenged for the PWI Title (coming up short, unfortunately), Angelina Love bested newcomers Naomi and Natalya (as well as Mandy Rose) to earn a shot at Alexa Bliss, and Jeff Hardy beat newcomer Daniel Bryan in a great opening contest!

During the 2021 Preseason, Kurt Angle continued to enjoy his dominance (as both the World and Immunity Champion) alongside American Alpha, and he found himself defending against all-comers, including the now-former Ascendant Champion, Adam Cole at the “Wrath of Mickey 2021” PPV in September. His reign continued, however, as he seemed unstoppable, until he loses the gold to Brock Lesnar in November!

The Undying Legends (Molly Holly and Ivory) experienced a bit of a rebirth in their careers after months of torturous , yet comedic, “training” by Tag Team legend, Stevie R. They captured the Tag Team Titles of the Women’s Division at Motivation and ended the 3-month curse of previous Women’s Tag Champions when they retained over A Beautiful Lie at the next PPV!

Mickey’s tyranny with near-full control of the company began as he subjected his daughter Catherine to the worst punishment that he could envision; standing by and introducing her perverted and misogynistic Uncle Vinny (who had twice won Women’s Championships out of boredom) as the new commissioner of an all-women’s show called “Bitches Ball”. Mickey decreed that Catherine would have to be her Uncle’s “Assistant Commissioner” and watch idly as he enjoyed the exploits of his new privileges.

Additionally, Mickey set his sights on his other foes, such as his oldest one: Blaster. Hiring European up and comer, Walter, Mickey dispatched the so-called “Ring General” to deal with Blaster forever. What Mickey didn’t count on was Blaster hiring the legendary Steve Austin to help him, thus beginning a season-long rivalry between Walter and Austin! Ultimately, Austin would win the feud for Blaster!

Alexa’s reign continued as she ran through newcomer Trish Stratus. She had revealed by this point that she had secretly reinstated Attitude immediately after his career had been ended by Teo the previous year and it was further unveiled that Attitude had been the one who injured his former tag partner, sidelining him for months! This leads to Attitude capturing the PWI Title for himself at Rising, as he ends the year where he strongly believes that he belongs!

Following a summertime hiring spree, a new top prospect named MJF debuted. Taking the industry immediately by storm and bringing back the iconic Vader to serve as his bodyguard, it became immediately clear that Maxwell Jacob Friedman was going places! This became very relevant later down the line, as MJF found himself feuding with yet another legend of the past!

The season also saw the premiere of a new and popular holiday-themed show, called “A Premier Halloween”, and coupled with the return of “Thanksgiving Brawl”, the early portion of the season became peppered with numerous special broadcasts like the aforementioned “Bitches Ball”, “Goddess Appreciation Night” and the “Championship Spectacle” series!

Much to Mickey’s chagrin, Bray Wyatt was not destined to stay away, and the audience began to see a series of dark-themed vignettes, starting with one showcasing that Bray may not be gone! Soon, we experienced the long-awaited return of the legendary Masked Phenom, who started targeting a seemingly possessed Raven for a major public sacrifice! Raven was sent flying from the rafters despite Big Show’s best efforts, and soon we saw the demonic return of Bray Wyatt via a new backstage segment called the “Firefly Funhouse”!

This period also saw the arrival of new-draftee, Roman Reigns, as we worked with his cousins, Yokozuna and Umaga, to establish a new stable: The Bloodline. Samoa Joe got wrapped up in this as an unwitting organizer, but he soon fell victim to the new “Tribal Chief”, Roman! Roman would sadly get drafted back to BWM Inc. the following summer after conquering Joe, but this (along with the briefly dominant Tag Title reign of the Samoan Connection) helped to build him and his new group as forces to be reckoned with.

While trying to find his way back to the top of the card, Dragonfly experiences some difficulty with USWA and UWA legend Demonrider, who returns seemingly to harass Dragonfly. This becomes an obvious and unwanted distraction from Dragonfly’s goals, but it soon becomes clear that Sunfire is behind the whole thing, as he is bitter about losing to his greatest foe of all time. This rivalry culminated with Sunfire demanding one more shot at defeating Dragonfly at 2022’s Motivation IX, but this time it would be in a Career Match! The match itself was great, but Sunfire again fell short, ending his career at the hands of Dragonfly!

EWA

Unfortunately, EWA completely returned to form on their erratic ways in 2021. The only thing that the audience saw from them in this year was during the 2021 WOW week which started with the Draft and ended with Starrcade. At that show, EWA put on a hell of a performance, as we saw some major developments: Metalhead and his brother Heavymetal – the Brothers Metal – retained their Tag Titles against the legendary team of Splinter and his brother Splidder, Ronda Rousey claimed the EWA Knockout’s Championship over Ember Moon, and Granddaddy Duxen retained the EWA Championship over Randy Orton. The biggest development, however, came in the form of Benny Mouse appearing sick in a hospital bed as his adopted daughter, Megan, visited him and was told that she would have to take over while he recovered!

2022:

PWI

As 2022 began, it became clear that Ted Brown was tired of how things were being run by Mickey, and he remembered how the people had called for the original HCW to be better represented at the Mayhem special in January 2021. This led him to declare his intentions to revive the HCW, and to do so by becoming the PWI champion! Soon, we saw superstars who had a past in HCW jumping on board with Brown’s plot, most famously with Scarecrow’s betrayal of Braun Strowman as he “wrote” “HCW” in the air!

MJF found himself at odds with Masked Phenom, and this followed him through to Motivation IX, whereat MJF found himself targeted by Phenom one more time as punishment for stealing the opening of the big event! Unfortunately for PWI, MJF’s meteoric rise would be destined to happen elsewhere as he was traded away in a blockbuster trade which brought Granddaddy Duxen, and the Young Bucks to PWI!

The Tag Division reached its most competitive state to this date as teams like the Samoan Connection, The Elite, The Revival, and eventually The Undisputed Era traded and vied for the gold. The Undisputed Era came out on top, ultimately, as they finished the year with the gold en route to enjoying nearly a year as the longest reigning PWI Tag Champions of the era!

Alexa Bliss lost her second Women’s Title reign at Showcase 2022 to the rising Beth Phoenix. This inspired a bit of jealousy with Beth’s supposed best friend, Natalya. Natalya would go on to win the Death From Above Match at The Epic, securing her place as Beth’s challenger at Motivation! While the match between them was great, in the end, Beth came out on top!

One additional note regarding the Women’s Division in early 2022, “Bitches Ball” would host the Eighth Installment of Wrestlemania, marking the first time that Women main evented the show as well as the first time the show entirely consisted of Women’s Matches. The Main Event featured Beth Phoenix successfully retaining her Women’s Championship over Naomi.

Moreover also at the Showcase, Alexa’s significant other, Attitude, lost the world title when Brandon Lee cashed-in his privilege for a title shot! However, Attitude would capture the Immunity Title at The Epic, and Alexa would use her authority permitted at an installment of “Goddess Appreciation Night” to allow Attitude to cash his Immunity Title in for a chance to be inserted into the Premier Athlete Tournament Roulette! This led him to face off for the first time in 2 years against his greatest foe – Teo – in the finals of the tournament. In that finale, Attitude ultimately came out on top at Motivation IX as Naomi won the Women’s tournament.

As for Alexa herself, her torment of Gail Kim came to an end as she suffered her first Motivation loss in the Ninth Installment when Gail Kim defeated both Slammer and her to be freed from serving Alexa forever!

Bobby Lashley and Brock Lesnar would have a set of bouts (with their first ever encounter happening at Rising), but their last bout was the most significant and consequential of all! At The Epic 2022, Bobby Lashley would defeat Lesnar in an Opportunity Match. This granted Lashley a shot at the World Title (which he failed to capture) and sent Lesnar to the Ascendant Class. This last part was the most crucial, because while it may have been interesting to watch Lesnar climb back out of the bottom ranks, this turn of events left Lesnar off of the exemptions list for the first time in the era, thus resulting in him being drafted away!

An old rivalry from three eras ago re-ignited between Sean Olson and Christian, but Olson sadly sustained a significant leg injury at the hands of the Big Show at the 2022 Epic PPV. Olson and Christian still had a match at Motivation IX, but Olson’s performance was nowhere near 100% as a result of the injury. Christian, predictably, won the big match.

Falling from the top of the Women’s Tag Team ranks, The Undying Legends found themselves in the crosshairs of the bitter tag team veteran, Booker D. Booker was not a fan of seeing his brother coach Ivory and Molly, and he was dead-set on forcing him to “wake up”, even going so far as to kidnap him! Stevie eventually agreed to abandon his pupils, but Booker wasn’t done yet: he wanted to make the Undying Legends pay for weakening his brother. This came to a head at Motivation IX, with an Intergender tag team match wherein the Harlem Turtles bested the Undying Legends!

FRED, was prevented from stopping the Crock (more on this in the next paragraph) due to a new monstrous threat: the son of Apocalypse, named Magog. The two of them clashed a number of times – including at the Epic -, but their ultimate clash was at Motivation IX. The stipulation held that the winner would be added to the PWI Title Match (which itself was the last of many attempts by Mickey to stop Ted Brown, since he had no faith in Lee), but FRED’s victory came at a cost: he couldn’t effectively stop The Crock, and he would miss the Main Event!

Having escaped from his imprisonment by Mickey, Crock reached out to his old pal Bossman. He told him that he had to find a way to safely tell the world the information that he knew. Bossman reluctantly agreed to help, and soon FRED was on the chase – as instructed by Mickey – to stop them. Eventually, Crock announced that he would reveal what he knew at Motivation IX, during the “Final Crock Show”! When the time came, Bray – acting as The Fiend – saved Crock from the hands of FRED and brought him to the Funhouse so that he could share the news, which turned out to be that Mickey Senior had sired a bastard son, a son who was never meant to enjoy any of his wealth, a son now known as Scott Nash!!

In the build for Motivation IX, we saw Ted Brown’s pursuit of the PWI Title as part of his mission to revive HCW take its next big step after he won the Epic Royale with the help of Dragonfly eliminating himself at the end of the match! With Ted having the top contender’s spot locked, he turned his sights on manipulating the HCW Alum, and PWI Champion, Brandon Lee. Ted kept tearing Lee down for his loyalty to Mickey over the years and openly expressed doubt that Lee could overcome him at Motivation to stop HCW from coming back to life. However, after Lee retained the title over Ted Brown at Motivation, he bowed in subordination to his old boss, signifying his allegiance to HCW! After seeing Lee devote himself to HCW, Ted Brown grabbed the PWI Title and handed it back to Lee, calling him the “first HCW Champion” of the era!

There was no installment of Starrcade in 2022, so PWI just proceeded after its short break and came back on fire during the Preseason. During such, we saw CM Punk arrive, Becky Lynch, Paige, and Kevin Owens return, and Granddaddy Duxen come home to Mmouse Enterprises for the first time in 2 decades! We also saw Dollhouse Leader, Angelina Love capture the Women’s and Women’s Immunity Championships, becoming the “Women’s Ultimate Champion”. HCW also returned to television with a new weekly show called “Insanity”!

Duxen’s return and top spot on the card ran afoul of the also-returning Kevin Owens, who took it out on the elderly icon! This heat triggered a season-long war between them wherein Owens kept beating Duxen down, and Duxen started feeling sorry for himself. Soon, we saw the return of Duxen’s grandson, Jimmy, who talked some sense into his grandfather and encouraged him to keep pushing forward. The feud then culminated at the Tenth and Final Motivation in June 2023 whereat Duxen came out as the ultimate victor!

CM Punk’s arrival initially caught the interest of his old HCW nemesis, Edge, but once he bested him he was faced with another foe, pot. Jesse Hash had been drafted to PWI in 2022 and now he was annoying Punk with all of his flagrant disregard for the wellness policies. Hash basically laughed in the face of Punk each and every time the issue came up, and this feud persisted through to Motivation X in June 2023 whereat Hash defeated Punk in the opening bout!

Another newcomer emerged in PWI in the summer of 2022: Jade Cargill. Jade would make her name something that the talent could not ignore as she kicked off her career on fire!

Bray Wyatt would be stopped on multiple occasions from reaching the world title, and his journey would take him through Drew McIntyre as his latest target. Mickey, though, sought to get ahead of Bray and used Drew and FRED in the process.

The revival of HCW led to some old wounds being reopened as Lee experienced backlash from some classic HCW talent for being on top. Scott Nash, who was deeply enraged by learning that he was Mickey Senior’s bastard son, sought to tear Lee down and eventually succeeded by defeating Lee for the HCW Title (which became a separate title with the return of HCW in the summer). The rest of the year saw HCW continue to evolve into its latest incarnation, growing its roster little by little.

Much to the annoyance of Alexa, Attitude found himself in a rekindled friendship with his mentor; Sabu. The draftee from BWM Inc., Sabu and Attitude looked as if they would pair up again, until Sabu turned out to be toxic for Attitude; even costing him the Immunity Title against Seth Rollins. This soon led to Teo and Attitude discussing the trials of trust that Attitude was experiencing. Teo – who had experienced his own fair share of recent disappointments – was genuinely trying to be there for Teo, and while Attitude initially didn’t trust him…his walls came tumbling down.

Alexa, though, soon found a new chief foe in one Becky Lynch. She saw Becky as an obstacle in her path back to the Women’s Title, and she had to be dealt with, especially as Becky captured the Women’s Title in a Triple Threat Match at Rising, besting Alexa and the champion, Angelina Love!

Nikki Bella had arrived on the scene, being drafted – in an unprecedented pairing for the draft with her then-PWI-star sister, Brie – and had joined her twin to reform The Bella Twins. The two of them – despite Nikki’s obvious and sometimes overbearing conceited nature – experienced early success; soon capturing the Women’s Tag Gold for a time!

Dragonfly finally got back to the top of the mountain, at the September “Desperate Times” PPV, winning a Total Anarchy Match against Baron Corbin, Teo, and the PWI Champion, Brandon Lee! Little did anyone know at the time, but this would start an incredible and historically-long reign!

At the end of Rising 2022, Bray’s mindgames had finally had their impact, as it seemed like he had freed FRED of Mickey’s control, leading the monster to obliterate Drew and then take apparently Mickey, who went missing after the lights went out!

EWA/AEW

Just before the 2022 Draft, Megan Mouse announced that she was reorganizing the Elite Wrestling Alliance into the new All Elite Wrestling, and vacating all of the championships in the process! AEW then went on to have a promising first ever draft as Megan’s agenda of completely transforming the industry became her chief influence. Now, while AEW did disappear after this and fail to premiere on time, programming did actually start broadcasting by the end of the year, marking the first time BWM Inc. had been weekly since 2020 with a premiere on November 28^th, three years after the EWA premiere at the start of the era!

Immediately, it became clear that MJF would be a main attraction, as he was introduced to this new audience alongside both Vader and his new bodyguard, Wardlow. Eventually, he had Wardlow dispense with Vader to throw out the old news, and we even saw the start of a new rivalry with Cody Rhodes!

Chris Jericho began the process of what would become his assembly of the new group to be known as the Inner Circle with Sammy Guevara, Santana, Ortiz, and Hagar.

The first show back also featured a massively important Massacre Six Match where Brock Lesnar was the favorite to become the first AEW Champion, only for AJ Styles to best him, thanks to some outside interference from Connor McGregor; thus starting a brief rivalry between them which ended very badly for Connor!

Infuriated that she was unfairly stripped of the Knockout’s Championship with the birth of the new company, Ronda Rousey kicked off her pursuit of vengeance to show management that she shouldn’t have been treated in such a way! As for the first AEW Knockout’s Champion, that distinction went to Asuka, who made history as the first woman to become a champion in two different companies in the Sixth Era!

We also saw the beginnings of what would turn out to be an iconically-funny story with Hulk Hogan annoying Kevin Nash – who wanted to be left alone so that he could aim for the top prize – on a weekly basis. Hogan was the out-of-touch friend of Nash and Scott Hall who just couldn’t catch a clue that he was always misreading the room and just in Nash’s way!

Bryan Danielson also made his way to AEW, after the former “Daniel Bryan” had been drafted away from PWI. He and his pal AJ interacted off and on through to the end of the year as Danielson enjoyed some early success, laying the foundation for what was to come down the line.

As for Megan, she would make it clear to all that she was undeniably in control as she became increasingly tyrannical – enlisting the services of AOP – and even brought the former one-time head of LWF, Eric Bischoff back to help run the show!

HLW/AXW

Nothing took the industry by storm in 2022 more than the arrival of a third promotion for the first time since 2010. Cameron (sometimes called “Camden”) Cross, the former podcast host of the “Higher Level Wrestling Podcast” – which had an episode or two in the summer of 2020 -, launched his first wrestling promotion in August 2022, called “Higher Level Wrestling” with a PPV called “Rocky Mountain Mayhem”!

HLW was an instant success upon its debut, and featured crazy stories and great matches. It welcomed newcomers like the inaugural HLW Champion Matt Riddle, Darby Allin, Apollo Crews, Shotzi Blackheart, Thunderosa, Orange Cassidy, Beer Money Inc., Damian Priest, Cameron Grimes, Dominik Mysterio, and – most significantly – Matt Cardona (who became champion after soundly defeating Riddle for the gold, thus starting a reign of terror)!

Someone else who experienced a major push in HLW was Wade Barrett. The former PWI and EWA star quickly assembled a group of men together as he asserted his dominance over the locker room and soon rose to become the Main Event Champion!

HLW – which changed its name to AXW (American eXellence Wrestling) during the fall – also featured a unique comedic-style approach to the industry not seen since TNA in 2010 and the LWF in 2004. As part of this approach, HLW/AXW mastered the use of celebrities such as Michael J. Fox (who was teased as “MJF” on one episode) and Ralph Macchio, but the best was yet to come.

Finally, what was arguably the best part of HLW/AXW programming in 2022 was the story of Aiden English – the so-called “PWI Hall of Famer” – and his pursuit of a wrestling contract! The constant journey of this star who had been traded away by PWI in 2020 and forgotten in EWA afterwards was rib-hurting funny material! By the end of the year, Sami Zayn joined in Aiden’s cause to earn the man a contract. But, instead of purely helping Sami get a match for earning a contract, Sami swerved Aiden by using his opportunity to speak with the boss to get himself an important match!

2023:

PWI/HCW

With 2023 beginning, HCW was trying to assert itself as being on equal footing with PWI, and this resurrection of the Hardcore brand was underscored not only by the return of some classic HCW talent, but also a number of defections. However, three legends of the industry – Krusader, Phobe and Terminator – were dispatched by Mickey (via Apocalypse) as a group called “Project Wormwood” to wreak havoc on them, and this mission picked up as the new year began. It is worth noting that John Cena becomes a bit of a breakout HCW star during this time, rebounding after not being popular since the Third Era.

The HCW’s revival leads Ted Brown – the Acting President of the company in the absence of his brother, John – to seek some help from Scott Nash. He asks Nash to consider investing his inheritance that he deserves from the Mouse Family Estate into the rebuilding of HCW. Nash is resistant at first, but Brown soon manages to get Nash on board; including with the brewing interpromotional fight. At the Epic Royale, Scott Nash wins the match, securing his top contention of the PWI Championship. Nash does so partially at the behest of Brown, who was growing annoyed with Dragonfly refusing to show up to work during HCW programming. Later down the line, we see Dragonfly clapping back by securing the top contention for the HCW Title, and it is soon announced that the two will face off at Motivation X to determine an Undisputed Champion!

Project Wormwood and the Undisputed Championship present a dual threat/opportunity for HCW. Apocalypse sought a deal wherein HCW would present three fighters to take on Project Wormwood at Motivation to decide HCW’s fate, and Brown reluctantly agreed. Regarding the Undisputed Title match, Mickey sees the growing number of lawsuits and extends an offer to match: win at Motivation, and get both the title and Mickey’s controlling shares. Lose, and forfeit any claim to inheritance as well as his career!

Nash’s decision to agree to Mickey’s terms becomes truly consequential as Nash’s failure to defeat Dragonfly at Motivation X (thanks to Rhyno’s shocking interference) seals the book on his wrestling career. The moment is an emotional one, but also very bittersweet due to the outcome of the match involving Project Wormwood.

Another, very popular, feature of the Sixth Era incarnation of HCW was a series of segments involving the soft-spoken giant named Tiny and his exploits with the comedic giant duo of Giant Satan and Maxx Steel. Tiny had slipped into a multi-year lull in the Ascendant Class of PWI and had chosen to defect back to HCW. Giant Satan didn’t trust the intentions of Tiny, and Tiny didn’t approve of the carnage-causing methods of the Hardcore Giants (as they had a tendency to prevent opponents from ever starting a match with them via preemptive strikes). Maxx, though, wanted to loop Tiny in and help him understand their ways. What followed was a gradual building of trust and an initiation process that built a stronger version of the team!

Seeing the strength of the Hardcore Giants grow over the course of the season, Ted Brown winds up choosing them to represent HCW at Motivation! This decision becomes crucial as the Hardcore Giants secure the pivotal victory to save HCW!

Weirdly enough, shortly after Jeff Murrey purchases AXW and renames it the WWE, he sends a “cease and desist” order to PWI and HCW to stop the HCW-hosted ninth installment of “Wrestlemania”. This ploy doesn’t manage to make PWI or HCW budge, though, as Mickey reacts with mockery and reminds everyone that he has used the event since 1997 without issue. After Murrey drops the request and chooses instead to have a new premier PPV named “Then Now Forever”, HCW proceeds with the 9^th Wrestlemania, headlined by HCW Champion Scott Nash defending successfully against Krusader!

Also, Catherine stepped up into the role of Acting Chair to fill in for her missing father, and one of her first acts was to suspend FRED for seemingly destroying Mickey the last time we saw him! She also ordered that her Uncle Vinny seek counseling for his treatment of women (something that he initially fought and then begrudgingly agreed to) and appointed her daughter, Jackie, to serve as her assistant.

In the midst of her tenure as Acting Chair, we even see her patch up her relationship with Jackie’s father, Blaster. Unfortunately for both, Jackie is resistant to any kind of relationship with either of them, seeing them as the parents who abandoned her! One very notable twist in this affair is that Bray Wyatt’s pursuit of justice leads to him discovering a plot against Catherine, and as he is trying to warn her, he has a seemingly one-off encounter between him as The Fiend and Jackie. The interesting part, though, is that Jackie seems absolutely unphased by this encounter, and even states that she has no fear for him!

Even as her life was apparently in danger, Catherine continued to make sweeping changes from ending the disgracefully-named “Bitches Ball” to making some Administrative Changes, her goal was to leave her permanent mark on the company as everyone continued to wait for Mickey’s return; which happens at a major episode of Asylum! Jackie is happy to see her grandfather come back, as she sees him as the only one who truly cares for her!

With Mickey back in the picture, though, a renewed power struggle emerges. Catherine doesn’t want to step down as chair and Mickey merely brushes this off, saying that Jackie is the proper choice for chair when he steps down. Catherine and Blaster come to conclude that they must rescue their daughter from his influence! Vinny returns from counseling and is bit off, and majorly subdued. Convinced that his niece sent him to counseling to “die”, Vinny advises that Jackie look out for herself, because family will let her down in the end. This advice was also not taken lightly, as Blaster sought violence as the solution to prevent further corruption!

This violent act led Jackie to flee. Catherine angrily demanded that Blaster find their daughter, and when he did, Jackie said that he scared her. She eventually fessed up and said that she recognized that Mickey was using her and that he was manipulative. At that moment, it seemed like everything was going to work out as Jackie apparently made amends with both of her parents!

The final months of the Sixth Season see the arrival of a couple new stars brought over in a trade with AXW: Swerve and Shawn Spears! Spears is the one who manages to get everyone’s attention, though, as he quickly asserts himself as a big deal. As part of his rise, he connects with FTR and Jade Cargill to form a new group: The Pinnacle!

Yet another new feature is the debut of “Edge Court”! This features the insane Edge as Judge, his bailiffs Maniac and Krazy Kid (Kid also cosplays as the prosecuting and defending attorney), the announcer The Guy, and the Jury: Lenny Mouse and Fitz Riot! The first installment puts Miz on trial for “not having any grey poupon”, and sentences him to “death of testicular magnitude” wherein his balls are kicked violently by one of the bailiffs! The second trial summoned Aiden English after he was drafted from WWE…and his fate at Starrcade 2023 was just as cruel!

As the 2022 Women’s Premier Athlete, one of Naomi’s privileges was that she could get 3 opportunities for any title of her choosing. Another privilege was that she could change the stipulation of her matches. Throughout the last half of the Sixth Season of PWI, Naomi repeatedly tried to change her match stipulations to help become the Women’s Champion, but it failed each time…all the way up through Motivation X! The funny part is that Naomi’s numerous attempts coincided with Paige also trying on three separate occasions – the last being at Motivation – to cash-in her title for the Women’s Title. The two of them inserted themselves into the Women’s Title match between Death From Above Match winner and Number One Contender, Nikki Bella and the Women’s Champion, Becky Lynch. Becky winds up winning the encounter!

For the 2023 Premier Athletes, Liv Morgan wins the women’s tournament in a hellacious match, last defeating Mickie James, and Karrion Kross takes down Adam Page to win the men’s tournament!

Getting some revenge for their ill-fated match the previous year, Sean Olson manages to defeat Christian, getting his win back from Motivation IX!

Bray Wyatt begins targeting the Rock, but after each of his segments we see a vignette for the coming arrival of Finn Balor. We even see Bray and his persona the Fiend having trouble staying focused as something has seemingly short-circuited his abilities. This culminates at The Epic 2023 with the arrival of The Demon Finn Balor! It soon becomes clear that Finn has been dispatched by Mickey to put an end to Bray Wyatt. So, a match is set up…but there is a special twist. As part of Bray’s attempts to thwart Mickey’s plot, he tries to utilize FRED to handle Finn – to no avail – and then launches a surprise attack on Alexa Bliss during one of the Goddess Appreciation Nights! Shortly thereafter, Bliss is…different. She uses her authority on the night to make Bray’s match with Finn at Motivation a Firepit Match! The match itself is a brutal affair, but it leads Finn to a resounding victory as he tosses the Fiend into the firepit!!

PWI also debuts a Wednesday show called “Wednesday Night War” to counter-program AXW Warfare. Unfortunately for PWI, Warfare wins every such ratings battle. However, WNW is a hit with the audience, as it features only 3 matches and is regularly a lot of fun to watch. Among the biggest programs seen on WNW is a brief rivalry between Demonrider and his old mentor Ghostrider. This culminates in Ghostrider winning out and Demonrider agreeing to stay by his side for one final run!

On Ascendants, the breakout star of this season is the man who quickly rises to first become Ascendant Champion and then the HCW Extreme Champion (following the revival of the HCW’s bloody title), Austin Theory! Theory even goes on to follow in MJF’s footsteps from the year before by opening Motivation, but his meteoric rise also comes at a cost to PWI; WWE wanted him more. So, after the draft, Theory is traded to WWE and the Extreme Title

The relationship between Teo and Attitude continues to mend, which eventually leads us to their announcement of reuniting as a team! Calling themselves “The Attraction”, they reveal their plan to pursue the tag gold for the first time in 2 decades! This comes at the cost of his bond with Alexa, who seethes as he pursues his dreams! At the end of the season, The Attraction manages to capture the Tag Gold at Motivation X in a hellacious Ladder War, defeating the champions – FTR -, the Duct Tape Men, the Hollys, the Harlem Turtles, and the Young Bucks!

At the end of the Sixth Season, we see a final image of Catherine and Blaster getting ready for their planned dinner with Jackie. However, they are suddenly and viciously attacked by Jackie!! Jackie then proceeds to put her parents in the back of a truck and drive off as we are left wondering “what’s next?!”

At Starrcade, the drama continues, and we still have no idea where Blaster or Catherine are as Mickey seizes control of the 2023 Draft for PWI. It’s another blockbuster one, but the biggest news is a landmark trade deal which sends Randy Orton to PWI! This is followed-up by the surprise twist of Orton challenging Dragonfly in the PWI Main Event of the show for the Undisputed Championship! Orton was an odds-on favorite considering that he had won their only other singles encounter at the last From Dusk Til Dawn in 2019. Yet, when it seemed like Orton would win, Mickey came out and made sure that he didn’t!

The decision by Mickey to screw Orton over was a head-scratcher until he explained at the beginning of the 2023 Preseason that he chose that path because he couldn’t just let someone so strongly associated with the history of BWM Inc. come over and conquer his own most-celebrated champion…and least not without a fight!

Speaking of “fights”, a tumultuous summer – which involved two very significant deaths that impacted the PWI-HCW locker room (with the biggest one being the death of former promoter, Shane Murphy) -, included the resurrection of interpromotional invasions. Mickey was not content with just leaving HCW be, but Brown wasn’t going to sit idly by and watch everything happen without a response. What happened next was a continuation of worsening relations and instability until Mickey finally declared a final “war” on HCW. Only this time, he was determined to end the entire industry at an event he was calling “Armageddon 4: Mickey’s Endgame” (a sequel to the September 2002 final USWA event, called “Armageddon 3: The End is Now”)! The earth-shattering announcement caught the industry off guard and immediately set HCW and PWI on a war footing for the final stretch in 2024!

Other major PWI developments in the final months of 2023 included:

The Attraction lost the Tag Team Titles to newcomers via the draft, Beer Money Inc. This, unfortunately, triggered a series of events for the Attraction which culminated in their break-up early in 2024; borne out of frustration for not being able to make it back to the top, but more on this later.

The Million Dollar Man, Ted Dibiase, was picked up by PWI during the 2023 Draft, and no one knew what to expect. Dibiase had no plans to come out of retirement, but instead set his sights on rebuilding his “Million Dollar Corporation” to again dominate the landscape. He recruited the likes of the Beer Money Inc., Lance Archer, Krusader, the 2023 Men’s Premier Athlete, Karrion Kross, and even the Undisputed Champion, Dragonfly! He also tried to recruit Mystico and Petey Williams, but neither were committed by the end of the year.

There were some new arrivals, but the most impactful were the new talent in HCW: Amazon was forced into retirement in PWI, and jumped ship to HCW, but she was soon targeted by newcomers Jamie Hayter, Penelope Ford, and Maryse (“Picture Perfect”)! Finally, the biggest newcomer of the year was LA Knight, who took the industry by storm and even captured both the Extreme and Immunity Championships!

Mickey had also announced during the preseason that he was be sun-setting the Ascendant Class, the Premier Tournaments, and merging the Immunity and Ascendant Championships at the end of the year. It soon got revealed that the former Premier Tournament winners would automatically be added to the final tournaments in 2023-2024, and that the Women’s Immunity and Ascendant Champions would join the finalists of the Women’s Premier Tournament to determine the first ever Women’s International Champion (an honor which went to Charlotte Flair), and that the Men’s version of all three would determine the Premier Champion (which went to Attitude)!

Alexa Bliss continued to experience the effects of her possession after Bray’s attack in May, and continued to capitalize on her new abilities, thus forcefully recruiting Nikki Cross. She also started stalking Finn Balor up through sacrificing Nikki to resurrect a charred Fiend!! At one more encounter between them, at The Final Showcase in 2024, the Fiend soundly defeated the Demon Finn Balor, but it was not over yet!

Alexa also started to bother Jade Cargill – foreseeing her as the next major threat -, starting with sending Nikki Cross to stalk her, and then eventually leading to a match to close the year at Rising. However, at their Rising match, Jade wound up defeating Alexa by disqualification due to Slammer injuring Jade!

Orton sought to climb back to challenging for the Undisputed Title, but Seth Rollins wanted a piece first, throwing his name in the hat and injuring Randy to thwart his plans! By the end of the year, though, Randy had defeated Seth and moved closer to his goals!

Since Paige exhausted her third and final attempt at a cash-in of the Women’s Immunity Title, Liv Morgan exercised her right as Premier Athlete to declare herself “Immune”, and thus fill the Immunity Title vacancy. This contributed to her rise to prominence a couple months later as she shockingly defeated Becky Lynch to become the new Women’s Ultimate Champion! At Rising, though, Liv lost the Immunity Title to Ruby Riott, but still ended the year in a strong position as Women’s Champion!

Lastly, for 2023 in PWI, as the HCW-PWI war was heating up, Blaster and Catherine managed to escape their captivity in the hands of their daughter and soon thereafter chased Mickey into hiding. Seizing control of the company, they put a – temporary – halt to Mickey’s war, noting that they had no intentions of letting him destroy the industry! Following their lead of defiance, and bitter about the ending of his brand – Ascendants -, Ascendants Commissioner, Slammu, declared at the Final Spotlight that the Ascendant Class would defect to HCW and that he would come out of retirement to help defeat Mickey in the war!!

AEW

Tragically, BWM Inc. returned to its erratic ways after the new year, but it got back on the proverbial saddle by mid-April 2023. Right out of the gate, Megan Mouse is nearly hit by a car, and the audience is sort of left wondering if her new appointee Eric Bischoff had anything to do with it. This emanated from the continuing mystery surrounding Benny’s whereabouts and Megan’s growing lust for power.

As part of the impending power struggle with her father, Megan even ordered the House of Black (Aleister, plus the Legions of Doom and Maniacs) to take out Benny’s hired gun: Armageddon! In the end, it was all for naught as we saw Megan suddenly kidnapped by Benny Mouse and Sami Zayn at Starrcade; thus revealing who almost ran her over! This leads to Sami assuming the unofficial position as Co-Chair alongside Benny as he acts as Benny’s surrogate, with his first major act being the firing of Bischoff!

Randy Orton rejuvenated his legend-hating ways as he attacked Kevin Nash and Hulk Hogan, thus beginning a mini-feud, which kind of played as background noise to what was really unfolding with Hogan and Nash’s saga; which included a hilarious crashing of Nash’s family dinner by Hogan and his “Hogan Knows Best” camera crew! This series then sees the duo going into therapy together. As a result, Hogan agrees to abandon the cameras and respect Nash’s boundaries.

After having Sasha Banks since June 2020, BWM Inc. finally puts a championship on her when she becomes the Knockouts Champion, thus kicking off a complicated reign, marred only slightly by one more erratic pattern in the schedule. A key moment, though, during this period is when Sasha retains her title against Ember Moon at Starrcade only to then be forced to look face-to-face at the possessed Alexa Bliss in a major teaser!

In the last months of AEW’s 2022-2023 season, we see the beginnings of the story being told with Bryan Danielson and his buddy, the AEW Champion, AJ Styles. Danielson insists that he is trustworthy and ready to wait while Styles prepares for his Starrcade match defending against Lesnar (a match that Styles won only because Darby Allin interfered to cost him)!

Above all, the unquestioned star of AEW in 2023 was the continuously rising star of MJF! MJF expressed his displeasure with the inconsistent schedule of his new home and even teased jumping to WWE if it didn’t improve! His luck does improve, however, as MJF forces Wardlow to fight on his behalf at Starrcade to capture the Television Championship in a tournament finale with Cody!

Following the draft, AEW put Rousey back on her warpath in pursuit of her rightful Knockout’s title shot – setting up a future encounter with Rhea along the way -, and finally debuted Kenny Omega, having him lose to Chris Jericho in the process!

Unfortunately, one show in July is all we got from AEW until they returned on January 1^st!

AXW/WWE

Picking up seamlessly with the great angles, AXW saw its time gradually come to an end as Jeff Murrey stormed onto scene, jumping ship from PWI and Mmouse Enterprises for the first time since 2004! Murrey was first brought in by AXW owner Cameron/Camden Cross to help run the show, but Murrey’s ego soon led him to fully assume control and buy it all out! Renaming AXW to WWE, Murrey immediately set his focus on reinventing his initial project which started it all!

However, before the change in identity, the hilarious angle involving Sami Zayn and Aiden English continued, culminating in Sami earning an unsuccessful AXW Title shot after winning the only installment of Revolution Rumble! Yet, the best part of Aiden’s story in this part of 2023 came with his reaction to an ultimatum to earn a WWE contract wherein he had to win gold by the end of a show and chose to do so by attacking Chelsea Green to become the 24/7 Champion! This triggered a comical feud with Green and her husband Matt Cardona, which led to a Starrcade match (won by Cardona) and Aiden being summoned to Edge Court!

One of the key projects of Murrey’s was crowning an inaugural champion, and by a stroke of dumb luck, the first WWE Champion was actually a set of co-champions: Damian Priest ad Jungle Boy! With Priest leading the Final Judgment (the merged group created from the Dark Order and Judgment Day), he sought to become the Undisputed WWE Champion, and succeeded in that endeavor by toppling Perry at Then Now Forever’s inaugural installment! Perry’s loss and the continued issues with the Final Judgment led Perry’s tag partner, Luchasaurus, to challenge for the WWE Title at Starrcade 2023. Though unsuccessful, Luchasaurus gave Priest a run for his money in a match which felt like a fitting Main Event for the supercard!

Immediately following the name change, a key highlight of WWE programming was a series of banger matches between Matt Riddle and Cameron Grimes! The two stole the show quite regularly, and it has a great impact on ensuring that Grimes had incredible draft stock in June!

We also saw the emergence of Zeus, a monster of a man who entered the company to torment members of Team Taz!

During the 2023 Draft, Murrey decided to do something unprecedented and completely unorthodox: exempting only two superstars! He had the option for more, but chose this route to ensure that he could participate in the whole draft, and it absolutely paid off!

The show-stealer of all show-stealers for WWE in 2023 started out of nowhere at Starrcade at the outset of the WWE Title match when William Zabka and Martin Kove of “Cobra Kai” accompanied Damian Priest to the ring. Zabka went fully insane during and immediately following this as his method acting took him down a rabbit hole and convinced him that “William” was fake, and that he was actually his character Johnny Lawrence! In the months which followed, Johnny Lawrence became WWE’s main attraction, with one of the highlights being a truly hilarious therapy session!

Additionally, WWE picked up a number of great stars and put them to use immediately, such as when they gained Asuka. Asuka made history once again when she became WWE’s inaugural women’s champion, making her the ONLY woman to become a champion in three different companies…period.

Another set of pick-ups put to use were the Viking Raiders, who came from PWI, and they quickly rose to the top, capturing the Tag Team Gold and holding the titles for a very long run!

Drew McIntyre was drafted to WWE in June, and in July he won their Money in the Bank briefcase, cashing it in to challenge for Damian’s WWE Title at Summerslam, wherein he captured the gold and held it through to the end of the year!

WWE was left looking very strong heading into the new year!

2024:

PWI-HCW

As the new year began, the PWI-HCW war started in earnest, and it was soon announced that there would be a number of special broadcasts leading to Armageddon 4, called “The Global Conflict Series”. As part of this series, there would be a tally for overall wins for each faction in the conflict, with the winning faction of each installment having a special decision left to them, and the overall tally winner deciding the final stipulation of what was to be called “The Final Battle”.

Randy Orton getting back into the title picture had another major hurdle thrown its way when he was confronted by the surprise arrival of The Ultimate Warrior! Interestingly, on the same night just a couple hundred miles away, someone else debuted in WWE calling themselves the Ultimate Warrior as well! This seemed to have created a conundrum of sorts, but it was soon discovered that WWE’s Warrior was actually a lookalike named “Flex Fuller”, but more on him shortly.

Starting during the Preseason, we saw the arrival of PWI’s #1 draft pick, AJ Lee, and Lee immediately took a liking to Becky Lynch after Lynch intervened to stop Thunder Rosa from beating Lee down. A few misunderstood comments from Lynch later and Lee was in full-blown obsession mode. This obsession manifested at first in some harmless comments about being Becky’s best friend, but soon after the twisted Alexa Bliss manipulated AJ into thinking that “Becky forgot”, AJ felt compelled to interfere against Becky’s wishes in her Women’s Title match – which Becky recaptured the Women’s Title from Liv – against Maryse, but a misstep by Lee cost Becky the gold!

The moment that Lee kept Becky from retaining was all she wrote for Becky to stop ignoring the growing threat. From there, the war was on, and it finally culminated at Armageddon 4 wherein Lee shockingly defeated Becky fair and square!

Former “4:20” host Jesse Hash and The Crock started hanging out with Granddaddy Duxen and Don Sparking (who returned with the surprise comeback of The Crock the previous fall, who began to imitate certain wrestlers like Brock Lesnar – calling himself “Crock Heffner” – and CM Punk; calling himself “Crock MP”) over the course of the first few months of the seventh season of PWI. At first, this seemed like a peaceful situation with some friends enjoying some quality green time together, but it started to change shortly after The Crock took on a new persona: “The Hero” and captured the Extreme Title from LA Knight soon thereafter.

From there, Crock’s friendship with Hash and company continued, but there was a new factor brewing: the Million Dollar Corporation (“MDC”). By this point, Ted Dibiase’s MDC had formally entered the global conflict and was recruiting top names left and right. When the time came, Crock was set to defend his title against some friends, but that was starting with his friend Jesse Hash (who earned it in a multi-man match in HCW). Just before their match, Sparking was found beaten down in a brief mystery which was soon unveiled – following an interference from some MDC monsters – to be the newest recruit for Dibiase: Jesse Hash! Capitalizing on Crock’s shock, Hash betrayed his friend and stole a victory for the Extreme Championship!

In the weeks which immediately followed, Crock was feeling a bit down on his luck, and was faced with a much-needed pep talk, courtesy of his iconic father: Woody the Second! After the needed talk, Crock emerged after Hash retained over Duxen and challenged him to a proper match at Armageddon 4! Just before their match, Hash hosted a special episode of “4:20”, interviewing and mocking Woody the Second and bringing out Woody’s arch-nemesis Metalhead! Crock did not sit idly by for this as he would come out (Duxen would also join in), but in the end Hash retained over Crock…ending the era on the highest possible note!

With Dibiase’s MDC gaining steam, there was an immense amount of pressure for all of the talent to consider which side they wanted to join in Mickey’s war. This would play a major role in influencing the fate of The Attraction as Attitude chose to join MDC out of frustration for his inability to enjoy success otherwise. Immediately, he found himself in an advantageous position wherein the MDC was aiding him and he soon climbed straight to the finale of the Premier Tournament to become the inaugural Premier Champion. Initially, Teo was not a fan of Attitude joining Dibiase, but soon agreed to accompany Attitude on behalf of the group in pursuit of the tag gold one more time.

Unfortunately for the Attraction, their last push for tag gold fell short as the Young Bucks continued to push onwards. In the aftermath, Teo scrambled to save his team, but couldn’t convince Attitude that he wasn’t being selfish once again. The end result was that Attitude completely exploded and turned on Teo. Upon doing so, Teo responded by costing Attitude the Premier Championship against Seth Rollins (who later lost the gold to the newcomer, Carmelo Hayes). Following this, Teo had an offer: one more match, an ultimate Career Match at Armageddon 4 between them. The match itself was great, and in the end Attitude ended Teo’s career the same way that Teo ended his in 2020: by using his former partner’s finisher against him. However, this time, instead of making up after the match like at Motivation 7, Attitude faked like they would do it again and then decimated Teo…ending his career in disgrace.

As for the Young Bucks, they found themselves faced with their own problems heading into Armageddon 4, as a new team – formed between Hans Gustav and Mr. Kennedy, called the Neck-Breakers – came together. It started with Mr. Perfect and Mr. Kennedy joining forces the previous spring as “The Misters”, but the Misters found themselves in the crosshairs of Edge Court. After Edge summoned them for trial, they were sentenced to the worst possible punishment as carried out by the neck-breaking madman, Hans Gustav. Gustav got his hands on Perfect, but Kennedy got away and Gustav went on the hunt.

For weeks after the trial, Gustav kept interfering in Perfect’s matches and breaking his neck in pursuit of Kennedy until one day…Kennedy broke Gustav’s neck! Gustav, as a result, developed a newfound respect for Kennedy and promised to train him in the ways of neck-breaking. After completing his training, they joined forces and captured the tag gold from the Young Bucks! The Bucks were not out of the conversation, though, as they fought their way back into title contention and then managed to retake the tag titles against the Neck-Breakers at Armageddon 4!

Aiden English search for relevancy led to numerous interactions with the Duct Tape Men as well as the insane serial killer-esque Dexter Lumis! The Duct Tape Men promised to help Aiden free himself of his troubles, but it would require that he train to become “Duct Tape Man Quatro”. When Aiden agreed, the training began until Uno informed him that he would have to survive his final test: surviving “The Alpha” at Armageddon 4! Aiden agreed and what we saw at the event was nothing short of hilariously stupid as the Alpha was revealed to be the long-lost Masked Gonzales!! Once the challenge began, though, Chelsea Green emerged and attacked Aiden as payback for his vicious attack on her the year before! Even with this attack, though, Aiden persisted and then passed the test…thus becoming Quatro!!

Slammu remained atop HCW’s warriors helping wage the counter-effort to thwart Mickey’s agenda, but with the rise of MDC, Karrion Kross was dispatched to handle his former Ascendants boss. During their match at Global Conflict II, Slammu was prepared to defeat Karrion until his brother Rip suddenly reappeared!! Following this, Rip was obsessed with getting a match with Slammu to prove that he was the superior member of a family which had seemingly always favored Slammu. Rip’s obsession took him on a journey of relentlessly and systematically destroying the HCW locker room until Slammu started to fight back. Then, it happened, Shane McMahon and Scott Nash agreed that they would have a match at Global Conflict V, which was amazing (actually, the match of the night) and ultimately won by Slammu!

Dragonfly’s reign marched forward through a who’s who of top-class challengers. Having started the year as a member of MDC, Dragonfly’s reign started to conflict with Dibiase’s agenda since he had shown mixed allegiances to Mickey and HCW over the past few years. Dibiase insisted on a final show of loyalty as he brought FRED into the fold just before Dragonfly was set to defend against him. Dibiase instructed Dragonfly to pin FRED – who laid down on the mat – so as to secure his loyalty, but Dragonfly refused, thus leading to a period of time wherein he had to survive everything that Dibiase threw at him after FRED. This included the incredible return of the Giant Gonzales and then the arrival of Ted Dibiase Jr.!

Eventually, as Randy Orton struggled to get back into the title picture to challenge Dragonfly once more (while Randy dealt with the former HLW/AXW Champion, Matt Cardona), Dibiase’s son found himself challenging for the Undisputed Title and defeated Dragonfly for it, ending the historic 589 day reign (the longest world title reign in Mmouse Enterprises history)! Dragonfly and Orton would have a showdown to see who would get one more shot at the title at Global Conflict V, and it was won by Randy Orton, who ultimately went on to face the cocky Epic Royale Winner – Cardona – once more at Armageddon 4 (after feuding with Cardona since the start of the year), wherein his successfully retained!

Back to Alexa Bliss, as her pursuit of the Women’s Title finally brought her the first Women’s Title that she would hold in years as she defeated Maryse. However, as she enjoyed her rise to prominence with the influence of Sister Abigail, Jade Cargill made her way back and sent a message that she hadn’t forgotten Alexa’s actions. At the Global Conflict installment of the Epic, Alexa asserted her dominance as Jade Cargill won the Death From Above match to earn a shot at Alexa at Armageddon 4!

However, Alexa was not prepared to just let Jade challenge her without some obstacles. Jade managed to clear the way, though, except that she soon found herself faced with one more major barrier: Alexa’s manipulation of everyone else around her. For weeks, Mickey – consumed by paranoia and the war he started – was complaining about some apparent mindgames being played with him at his house. It was eventually unveiled that Alexa – or rather, Sister Abigail acting through Alexa – was playing these games…because she wanted to deal with her dual threats of Bray and Jade with Mickey’s help. After threatening to keep up the games, Alexa offered Mickey a choice: deal with the torment or eliminate Jade while Alexa handled Bray and helped him win his war!

Needless to say, the choice was easy for Mickey as he sought to end the war on his terms. So, Mickey joined in throwing obstacles at Jade and even bribing her, but none of it – not even a final obstacle involving the returning Agramon – succeeded. This final obstacle was actually accompanied by several twists as Alexa forced Bray to compete in a Gauntlet against her minions and his former dark force enemies (Hell’s Fury, Drakus, and Slammer). Bray sacrificed his ability to win so as to take out Slammer, and then later he attacked Agramon and kidnapped Alexa Bliss (more on this very shortly)!

Speaking of the war, the battle for the lead in the tally grew intense with every passing week. In the midst of this battle, HCW – as led by Ted Brown and Scott Nash – continued to avoid an explicit union with Catherine and Blaster. All along, it appeared that Mickey was gaining steam, and then the MDC entered the war. So, the internal fighting commenced as Blaster parted ways with the union and insisted that he would go the unthinkable route to rid them all of Mickey for good while Nash pressed and pressed for Brown to work with Catherine and take the war more seriously. Brown, though, would be put out of commission as his decision to cost Mickey’s newest weapon (Ultimate Warrior) the world title led to Warrior injuring him as Nash stood idly by!

In Brown’s absence, Nash was free to lead HCW into an official union with Catherine and the defecting stars of PWI to create a third possible incarnation of the UWA! This was met with hostility, though, in the HCW locker room and there was some serious division building until Brown returned from injury! Meanwhile, it was revealed that Blaster – much to the dismay of Nash and Catherine – had formed a partnership with Dibiase; who had no compunction about ridding the world of Mickey no matter what!

Ultimately, though, Nash and Brown had a match to decide whether HCW would stay independent or be absorbed into UWA, and after Nash won, Brown agreed to comply with the agreement as UWA came to be a true alternative to Mickey’s vision of apocalypse for the immediate future. It was also revealed that Dibiase was angling to create his own wrestling promotion: the Million Dollar Wrestling League.

Mickey’s desperation to win the war as the UWA and the MDC began to close the gap in the tally became undeniable as Armageddon 4 grew closer. Also, Lenny Mouse – the 3^rd eldest of the Mouse Brothers – composed an earth-shattering column for his “Wrestling with Lenny” section of the website. This was done in part as a response to the growing instability of Mickey and Benny, as well as the apparent declining health of Vinny (whose health started to take a terrible turn after Shane Murphy’s death).

This revealing article covered the history of the events leading up to and following the death of Mickey Jr.’ mother Minnie. The story revealed the abusive nature of Mickey Sr., his corruption of Mickey and Vinny, and how he did it with the help of Dr. Evil. Moreover, it was unveiled that Mickey Jr. had a secret twin sister named Mickie who the boys had been misled into believing was their first cousin.

Mickie was reportedly the subject of abuse from her brothers and father as her mother quietly tried to offset her pain with compassion. One day, the abuse got to be too much, and Mickie ran away, leading to a major division between the boys’ parents.

After the column was published, the news spread throughout the family and led to increasing talk of Vinny’s impending death. Soon, as Catherine was seeking options in combating Mickey’s growing power (particularly after his union with the possessed Alexa Bliss), she struck a deal with a mysterious hooded figure to help deal with the duo. As payment, the figure insisted on a “sacrifice”. Catherine reluctantly agreed…and Vinny was taken by the end of the night!

At Global Conflict V, a week before Armageddon 4, Bray’s actions taking out Slammer and the rest of Alexa’s Cult paved the way for him to take Alexa – Mickey’s greatest source of power -, and the next time we saw her was with her tied to a table as the mysterious hooded figure attempted an exorcism. In the middle of the exorcism, Mickey barged in and interrupted, demanding to know what was happening…but then we heard thunder as Mickey was suddenly sent flying into the door behind him!

The figure immediately knew that something bad had happened as he departed, but Alexa woke up, questioning why she was tied up and demanding to be released. That was when Mickey started giggling in a menacing and haunting way as Catherine approached and realized what had happened: Mickey had been possessed by Sister Abigail now!

With Armageddon 4 upon us and Mickey indwelt by the spirit of Sister Abigail, the night unfolded with one spectacular moment after another until culminating with the Final Battle deciding the fate of the industry (as far as PWI, HCW, and the MDC were concerned). In the match were: Team PWI (Mickey, FRED, Rhyno – who had come out as desiring to end the industry so as to save it -, and his “Secret Weapon”, El Giante) v. Team UWA (Scott Nash, Dragonfly, and Slammu) v. Team MDC (Dibiase, Giant Gonzales, and Rip). It was a “Capital Carnage” match wherein it took place in the parking lot and was elimination, with the first team eliminating another team’s captain winning out!

The match was chaotic, but the most important twists were: Rip abandoned his team completely and Dibiase was revealed to not be in the match, but Blaster was instead! As the match continued, Rhyno “accidentally” GORED his teammate (El Giante) before taking himself out of the equation and eventually the match saw Nash, Blaster, and Mickey left standing. Nash shocked everyone when he attacked Blaster and powerbombed him as Mickey cackled. Nash then left whilst Mickey gloated that Blaster would seal the industry’s fate with his pinfall!

As Mickey celebrated killing the business (he sincerely believed that ending HCW and PWI would lead to WWE and AEW closing as well within 18 months), he was full of himself until…the lights went out! Soon, the lights returned to reveal that Bray was in the match, and that he was both replacing Rip, and had been named the joint-captain of Team ULW (instead of Team MDC)!

With Mickey and Team PWI defeated, the lights go out one more time as we are taken on a journey through a dark forest. When the journey ended, the camera faded back in and revealed that Mickey was waking up atop a nearby roof as the hooded figure was revealed to be Bray Wyatt.

AEW

At the end of 2023, AEW announced that they would return to TV on January 1^st, with a special New Year’s return. Upon returning, it was clear that Megan Mouse was still missing as Sami Zayn and Benny Mouse returned to being in control. Sami stated that it was going to be a brand new day for the company and that started with ending the days of being erratic as well as firing Eric Bischoff! Sami kept acting on Benny’s behalf for a while as people began to wonder where he was.

This continued until Master Splinter emerged (flanked by the legendary Harlem Turtles), unveiling that he had been doing some investigating and found out about Benny and Sami’s horrible reasons for kidnapping Megan. What followed was the continued unfolding of drama wherein Sami denied there was anything wrong and Splinter insisting that he knew this supposed truth.

Splinter then revealed that Benny had dementia ever since 2008, and that this had contributed to EWA/AEW’s erratic nature up until recently. He also announced that there would be an investigation by the Board of Directors to consider whether or not Benny is fit to lead.

At first, Sami did everything he could to deny that it was true, and even went so far as to drag the suffering Benny in front of cameras to act as if everything was fine. Hidden camera footage broke this myth up piece by piece as it showed secret footage of Benny openly discussing experimental medication meant to keep his disease at bay. And eventually, Splinter began hinting at another fact that contributed to Megan being kidnapped!

It got to the point where Splinter was preparing to unveil the truth and being suddenly stopped by his First-Era nemesis, Mentaur (or now, “Menotaur”). After recovering from the injury, Splinter told the world what else he knew: that Benny was Megan’s actual biological father, and manipulated her from the very start into believing it was actually a dead-beat dad in Saguna.

Menotaur acted on behalf of Benny Mouse and Sami Zayn and took Splinter out with the help of the Acolytes; along the way, Splinter and the gang discovered that Megan was now missing from the nursing home where she was staying (apparently catatonic) as Sami and Benny discussed a diabolical plan that will rock the industry. Then, as the Harlem Turtles were left to deal with this insanity. Splinter, then, received help from Megan’s old bodyguards: AOP. AOP helped for a little while until…Armageddon returned! Once Benny saw his old monster come back, he fled!

But the power struggle was far from over as Splinter returned again and had an announcement: the Board was removing Benny from the company!! Molly and Splinter begged for Benny to willfully step down and release, but his response was with defiance and an expression of fealty to Sami! When the time came for Benny to leave, Sami and Benny revealed that Sami had married Megan and was now in charge alongside Benny. Moreover, they fired the entire Board to clear the way for the future!

Unfortunately for Benny, Armageddon was still on his trail, and then proceeded to destroy the Co-Chairman saying “I’m sorry” before obliterating him! And Splinter himself wasn’t finished with them, though, and demanded a match with Sami…a Total Anarchy Match!! Only, this match would have lumberjacks and would give the winner the decision over whether or not Benny and Sami complied with the Board. At Retribution, the match was insane and involved numerous call-backs throughout.

Only, at the end, Sami won (ending Splinter’s career in the process, as that was one of the stakes)…but because Megan revealed that she was actually a willful participant in Sami’s scheme all along! Yet, there will be more on this in a few!

Upon return to television, the Knockout’s Division saw some serious attention as well. Rousey was still on the rampage to get back to the title that she “never lost”, Athena Star went on a sort of farewell tour – though it was cut short when Living Dead Girl returned and the two fought to a no contest in their match -, saying that she would retire soon and would like to be Knockout’s Champion one more time. Nia Jax found a serious bit of momentum on “Dark”! Finally, the division saw the rise of Bianca Belair and the fall of Sasha Banks as the champion.

When Bianca defeated Sasha for the gold, Sasha lost her mind and tried to use her bodyguard – Chyna – to get her back to the top. However, in the end, Rousey would be the only one to get a serious shot at Bianca before “Retribution”. Bianca had expressed that she wanted to make sure to give Rousey a shot since Rousey helped her fend off the attacking Sasha and Chyna.

Rousey, upon losing, lost her mind and set up for one more match against Athena Star! After Star won the match and sent Rousey into a spiral out of consideration for a draft exemption for the first time ever, Star earned a shot at the Knockouts Championship, and wound up winning at “Retribution”!!

Hulk Hogan’s antics – worsened by his newfound friendship with Matt Riddle – picked up again after the first of the year, and they soon ran afoul of the Inner Circle. At the first PPV of the year, “Genesis”, Hogan, Nash, Riddle, and Savage (calling themselves “High Minded”) defeated the Inner Circle in a Crimson Car Match, and were really building up momentum!

This was around the time that High Minded irritated the Bloodline and started getting in their way. From there, the gang meddled in Bloodline affairs, culminating in costing the Usos the Tag Team Titles against Kenny Omega and Adam Page! So, the feud got more brutal and saw the Bloodline kidnap High Minded “mascot”, Midget Hogan!!

To free M. Hogan, the group agreed to a War Games match with the Bloodline, but willingly sacrificed the match to save Midget Hogan when the opportunity presented itself! The Usos would get vengeance, though, when they tried to stuff Midget Hogan in the trunk of a car and run it into the lake after cat-fishing him into believing that he was meeting his crush – Lady Love (who played a key role in guaranteeing that the Usos weren’t champions) -, and then they followed up with sinister attacks on his crush at a club, earning themselves heavy punishment for their actions!

But, that didn’t stop them from continuing their havoc as High Minded insisted on continuing to be a thorn in their side! All of this led to some headaches for Roman in addition to seeing his new Wise Man – Paul Heyman – develop split allegiances once Brock Lesnar return from being disappeared by Undertaker and Kane at the behest of Darby. In handling this issue, Roman and Brock interacted and foreshadowed a future conflict over Paul; but more on this shortly!

Speaking of Lesnar’s return, it came at an inconvenient time for the man who cost him the AEW Championship: Darby Allin. In Brock’s return, he was an imposing threat on Darby as Allin had used the Undertaker and Kane to help him lay the groundwork for facing Cody Rhodes for the TV Title (after Rhodes had defeated MJF for the gold; but more on this soon). Darby’s Brothers of Destruction betrayed him for his weakness and sided seemingly with Lesnar, but were stopped with the arrival of Sting!!

Seeing the writing on the wall, Darby soon set up for one last match to Brock, and lost. Then, his partner – Sting – challenged Brock, and was promptly destroyed by him. In the aftermath, Brock – who had been informed that Heyman had worked it out that he gets another World Title shot – looked to the cameras and declared his intentions to come after Roman in the next era!!

With the Television Championship, MJF held the title at the start of the year, but had lost the gold to Cody when Logan Paul accidentally knocked him out! Pissed, MJF soon brought in Scott Steiner as an additional bodyguard to back up Wardlow. He set his sights on the World Title and soon earned a shot at it, taking on Bryan Danielson – who had betrayed AJ Styles after Styles retained his title at “Genesis” and then later defeated him for the gold at “Dragon’s Fury” – and then winning the world title himself at “New Horizon’s” (leading to the birth of Lenny Mouse’s campaign for a new religion: Maxwellianism)!

After Cody took the title and defended successfully against Darby, he had a set of new challengers: Gunther, who had jumped ship from WWE, and Swerve Strickland, who had been traded from HCW. Swerve’s arrival was preceded by weeks of awesome vignettes. Gunther, however, had mission in mind the whole time: becoming the new TV Champion!

Unfortunately for Gunther, though, Swerve was not so easy to get ahead of as the newcomer made his way into a position wherein Gunther AND Swerve were set up to challenge Cody at “Retribution” for the gold. When the time came, Swerve managed to overcome both of them and become the new TV Champion to close the era!!

With the season and era closing in on their ending, a match was made at “Retribution” for the AEW Title pitting MJF against Roman in a match wherein neither was allowed to have their minions help. During the match, complete chaos erupted as Logan Paul – attempting to help MJF – again took MJF out, looking to set up a situation wherein Roman would pick up the gold! However, Armageddon suddenly arrived on the scene and destroyed everyone in sight!

With everyone taken out, Sami reemerged and – with the support of his wife – inserted himself into the match, to make it a triple threat and then became the NEW AEW Champion to close out the Sixth Era of wrestling for BWM Inc.!!

WWE

As the new year began, WWE got right back to work with its reliably-comical stories, but one major blunder – mentioned earlier – helped kick off the year when the Ultimate Warrior happened to appear on two different broadcasts at the same time! Once it was revealed that Warrior was actually with PWI, WWE came up with an elaborate explanation via Doc Brown: it was actually not Warrior, but a bodybuilder look-a-like named “Flex Fuller!”

Interesting enough, Fuller himself became an integral part of WWE programming in the opening weeks of the year, even helping lead WWE to their first-ever win over AEW (and PWI)!! This goofy story eventually led us to witness the birth of “Murrey’s Misfits”, which included Fuller, Hook, Brown, Curtis Axel (who Murrey had heavily promoted as the next work-horse wrestler after automatically crowning him as the inaugural Intercontinental Champion), and Ryback.

Initially, the Misfits wreaked havoc on the locker room, and especially on the insane Johnny Lawrence. This eventually led to Murrey hiring the actor who plays “Terry Silver” on “Cobra Kai”, but Thomas Ian Griffith himself even started blurring the lines of reality and fiction as he resorted to his twisted character’s evil nature. In the meantime, Lawrence found a path to great success as he started feuding with the Intercontinental Champion, Ryback (who captured it from Ken Shamrock previously at the start of the year).

Initially, Johnny got hospitalized, and there were a series of vignettes requesting that fans donate to Johnny’s health. Upon his return, Lawrence set fire to Ryback’s gym. Ryback responded by setting fire to Johnny’s pride and joy: his car! This story then became truly hilarious as Lawrence started dating Ryback’s mom and even organized the JWO (Johnny World Order; joining forces with Johnny Gargano and Johnny Knoxville) as a result.

When the match for the Intercontinental Championship finally happened, Johnny defeated Ryback for it, despite Ryback’s mom betraying Johnny! Out of frustration, Murrey discontinued the Misfits (which paved the way for Doc Brown to replace it with the Doc Brown 6). Yet, Johnny wasn’t in the clear as he found a new foe in Bobby Lashley; who crashed the wrap party for the end of filming for the last season of “Cobra Kai”. Tragically for Johnny, this would culminate in Lashley taking his Intercontinental Championship (thus prompting a week-long celebration by Murrey) and the JWO ousting him as a member!

With the Intercontinental Championship out of his hands, Johnny started hearing that he would eligible for the impending WOW Draft, but he confused it with the military draft. He tried to get ahead of it and sign up for military service, but backed out once he realized what kind of work he was getting himself into. He then turned around and prepared for a new wrestling company of his own creation with a name playing off of the different possible paths which could be taken in the aftermath of Mickey’s war. In the end, Lawrence remained strong and was eventually exempted from the draft (a wise choice).

Back to Flex Fuller, though, as Ryback was initially introduced as being managed by Doc Brown (the also-confused character brought to life by a celebrity, Christopher Lloyd). Brown would inject Ryback with a “magic elixir” before his matches, and this was credited for helping Ryback become the Intercontinental Champion. Enter Fuller after the Warrior debacle and the birth soon thereafter of Murrey’s Misfits. Fuller was the most loyal of Brown’s clients, defending him to the very end.

This included when Brown was summonsed to court to stand trial for steroids. Fuller served as a witness in these proceedings and was somehow able to help exonerate Brown by claiming that the apparent steroids were actually coming from his consumption of Prime. For some reason, the court bought this!

Murrey’s Misfits – as led primarily by Brown – were becoming quite the nuisances as they would attack talent and even tried to force Michael J. Fox to take the “elixir” to cure his condition! During these attacks, Curtis Axel was developing a conscience as he began to distance himself from the Misfits and eventually abandoned the group altogether, taking them on with the help of WWF legend Panda Khan and Casey Jones!

Brown would continue to become a central figure in the company, and even started giving Murrey the “elixir” to give Murrey “the edge that [he] needs”. Brown would pitch an idea to Murrey for a show called “Speed” with a championship to be determined by having a group of aspiring talent snorting cocaine from a spinning roundtable; the last survivor becoming the champion (Murrey said “no”). One of his greatest moments, though, came with a special “Back to the Future”-inspired episode of NXT!

With the dismantling of Murrey’s Misfits came the erection of the Doc Brown 6, which included a new member: Shinsuke Nakamura! The dominant Gunther had avoided dropping his European Championship at The Now Forever 2 against Drew McIntyre and Damian Priest, so he jumped ship to AEW – taking the European Title with him (which turned out to be a trade in exchange for Jericho and Kevin Owens) -, and Murrey decided to create the U.S. Title (for which only American citizens qualified), and that is when Brown saw his next great act: Americanizing Nakamura with exposure to American culture, and leading him to a hilarious capturing of the new title!!

In the Women’s Division, Asuka kept dominating. She successfully retained at the Royal Rumble (thanks, in large part to a borderline love triangle between Candice LeRae, Johnny Gargano, and his “pro”, Austin Theory), and soon found a new set of competitors in Beth Phoenix and Rhea Ripley (jumping from AEW and joining the Final Judgment). Neither was able to toppled the dominant Asuka, and she pressed forward through to the end of the era as the sole Women’s Champion in modern lineage for Murrey Entertainment!

Moreover in the Women’s Division, newcomers Sonya Deville and Lacey Evans wound up feuding due to Sonya’s sexual preferences conflicting with Lacey’s conservative ideals. The wild rivalry even involved Lacey using a vibrator to try and straighten Sonya out (which failed miserably), but Lacey only made things worse, as Sonya became obsessed and even invaded Lacey’s home and took it over much like we saw in “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle”.

After Lacey successfully won this rivalry, Sonya merely moved on and found a new object of her desire: Mandy Rose. Her former tag team partner was subjected to having a love letter, a poem, and roses delivered to her. This culminated in Sonya indicating to Mandy directly how she felt about her and Mandy running away, but Mandy would get drafted to ULW before we could see any follow-up.

Back to the Final Judgment, the group introduced a new member at the outset of the year: the son of Brian Pillman, now known as “Lexis King”. His initial feud was with Drew McIntyre as he recovered from losing the WWE Title. Once dispensed with by Drew, Lexis jumped over to NXT wherein he introduced himself and rose to prominence via a series of eye-catching vignettes.

Soon, King captured the NXT Championship and made it clear that he ran the show (though, the General Manager was actually the returning Camden Cross, who himself was revealed as one of numerous mysterious Board Members). His dominance met a brief hurdle in the form of the monstrous Bronson Reed, but after he retained, he had to face his greatest threat: the son of Arn Anderson, Brock Anderson.

Brock arrived on the scene via Murrey’s proud introduction. However, Anderson made it clear that he would not be Murrey’s lackey, thus leading Murrey to bring back his most loyal wrestler ever: Jesse Ventura! Jesse would give a stellar promo in preparation for the match, but it would be Brock who would win the incredible bout!

This achievement by Brock in addition to a series of important victories would place him on a collision course with King for the NXT Championship, with a twist: King was declaring himself for the draft, and threatening to take the title with him! When it came time for the match – the broadcast for which got botched and is lost to history -, King retained the gold and set his title on fire!! In response, Murrey set out to punish King, promising that he would draft King back and make him a cameraman!

One more visit back to the Final Judgment, after Rhea was brought into the fold, the group appeared to be back on a winning path. Yet, when Damian failed to capture the European Title, he was soon ousted from the group! In an odd twist, Dominik Mysterio then ousted Rhea as well; declaring that he didn’t need her either!! Unfortunately for all three, outside of Damian being scheduled to challenge for the WWE Title at Starrcade (which he barely lost, after a hellacious bout and the arrival of Jimmy Uso), the group slowed towards the end of the era.

Speaking of slowing towards the end, when the year began, Drew McIntyre was the seemingly-unstoppable WWE Champion. Then, he was slated to defend his title at the Royal Rumble against Batista and The Rock. Much to the surprise of everyone, the Rock won the gold; capturing his first world title in 15 years! However, at the same event, Big E stunned the world and won the Rumble, setting up for a WWE Title showdown at Then Now Forever 2!

As Big E was pressured to convince the audience that he belonged in this spot at this juncture, the Rock experienced a meteoric ascendance in his drawing abilities with show-stealing appearances, matches, and promos. Rock made it clear that he saw himself as the greatest world champion of the era, and that he had no plans to let anyone unseat him as champion any time soon.

The build for the Rock/Big E match was great, however, as Big E managed to make himself a viable threat. Week in and week out, Big E conveyed his desert for the opportunity by earning the last laugh and with an important interview which dove deep into his past. Yet, when the time came, Big E wasn’t able to get the job done. This was largely thanks to the arrival of Solo Sikoa, who helped the Rock retain and began the construction of WWE’s own “Bloodline”!

This wouldn’t be the end for Big E, though, as he was able to maintain some momentum and lead the New Day to capture the Tag Team Titles, ending the long reign of the Viking Raiders! The New Day would then assert themselves in the division, and seem poised to end the era as champions, but Lashley’s Street Profits managed to sneak in and take the gold at Starrcade!

Leading up to the next major event for WWE, Drew McIntyre started to gun for the Rock, but so did the arriving Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho. Again, Solo would play a role in helping Rock retain, and the aftermath saw Rock and Damian set for Starrcade as well as Chris Jericho pondering retirement. With Jimmy and Jey Uso jumping ship to WWE at that interpromotional show, the WWE Bloodline appeared stronger than ever (especially as the Bloodline had just lost to High Minded earlier in the night)!!

Finally, we have the story of WWE’s own power struggle. After Murrey had revealed that Cross was among the mystery members of the Board, a rivalry began to brew between them, as Cross was still bitter about how Murrey had treated him in the wake of AXW being bought out. At first, Cross made it clear that he intended on running things his way on NXT, but once Murrey began to impede on this, Cross brought in Fandango to be a thorn in Murrey’s side. This would lead to Fandango having an entertaining dance off with Flex Fuller, but that would get interrupted by Murrey’s Misfits!

The feud only continued to build from there, though, as Cross introduced his latest weapon: Danhausen! Danhausen would become a real nuisance and declare a “curse” on Murrey. This curse would get deep into Murrey’s psyche, and cause him to be caught off guard as Cross and Fandango set one of his mansions on fire!

In the wake of this chaos, Murrey would bring in Miss Elizabeth Hulette to help get a handle on things. She would announce that Cross and Fandango were suspended indefinitely (even facing obvious charges) and that even Murrey would be placed on a sort of administrative leave. She would soon begin the process of cleaning house, but Murrey began sneaking his way back into the picture and get really close to her (triggering some rumors of an affair and even a shock appearance from Murrey’s wife).

With Murrey still technically on sabbatical, Elizabeth took it upon herself to create a new brand: Seventh Era Productions, in preparations for the 2024 WOW Week. However, Murrey would himself reassert himself and even make it known that Elizabeth was most certainly subordinate to him. He revealed that Murrey Entertainment was still THE company in charge.

At the draft, WWE had a great night, but a real twist came when Murrey left early and soon instructed the rest of WWE to follow suit. They would do the same thing at Starrcade, after Murrey felt the need to accept all of the WWE awards on behalf of his company. The defiant Murrey boasted within the final week of the era and in the opening salvo of the next that this was HIS universe, and that he would make such undeniable in the coming era!