The X-Factor: A war, and a future imperfect Submitted by Victor Mariscal on 09/03/2019 at 07:04 PM
Minister: Colby Lopez, do you take The Man as your lawfully wedded, uh... spouse?
Just trying to picture how those vows would go. Speaking of marriage, congrats to Peyton Royce and the ex-Tye Dillinger on tying the noose. JK. Now on to other things.
So, NXT is gonna be on USA now. The smart fans are loving that.
Aside from the obvious “Vince will kill it” fears, this is not the biggest surprise. Chris Jericho can say AEW isn’t looking to go to war. Their actions say differently: All In’s arena sellout; signing Jon Moxley; Bret Hart unveiling their world title; the throne at Double or Nothing; AEW on TNT, the very network who warred with Vince McMahon before; and now Y2J winning their world title. Now that’s been stolen. Nice caution there Chris.
Those were not shots across the bow. The G1 Supercard at MSG wasn’t AEW’s doing, but a direct result of them challenging WWE’s position. Still, it’s the shot in the arm Stamford has needed for years.
It’s Triple H’s show. His in-law is gonna be busy with the XFL. It will stay at Full Sail for the near future. It’s not Vince we should be worried about. What if USA decides NXT needs to look more like Raw instead of the would-be indie promotion it is? What’s more, the ratings are gonna be weak no matter how good it is. It’s only appealing to a certain group of the fans. The same ones who see fit to endlessly whine even when they get what they want.
Things would be so much easier had CM Punk not cut that promo and had they not decided 18 seconds in Miami was long enough. Imagine if this toxic environment was a thing in the Monday Night Wars.
In 1998 - 1999 there were 27 pay-per-views. The Rattlesnake wrestled in all except 5 and main-evented 19 of them. Five of them weren’t title bouts. The Rock didn’t get to headline his own PPV - as WWF Champion I might add - because Stone Cold had to qualify for the Royal Rumble. Of those five he didn’t compete, two had him in a guest referee role.
The words “overrated” and “overexposed” would get tossed around a lot in today’s fan base. Never mind Austin. People would bitch about the nWo, Goldberg, DX, The Rock, hell even Sting and DDP if those fans thought like today’s.
I respect Triple H, but I don’t like him much. I would likely ask for an autograph if I met him. I’ll admit it.
It goes way beyond the ring. The haters are so easily triggered. Brie Larson holds up Mjolnir and people lose their damn minds. That hammer could be held by a woman in the next Thor movie. So what?
Ok, let’s talk about recent stuff. You like that, right?
The fans didn’t take to Becky’s “turn” on Charlotte the way they were supposed to. Same with the ex-Hugger now. It beckons the question: where does Becky go from here? She was red-hot just months ago. Not so much now. There’s also Charlotte, a heel who’s challenging Bayley for her title. We could see a “Two Dudes with Attitude” situation here. Imagine Sasha and Bayley with four belts.
Where do Alexa and Nikki go from here? The IIconics? We have enough heels.
When Roman Reigns went apeshit on Triple H, it wasn’t a turn. That was him becoming who we wanted him to be. It didn’t work for long, but it still worked.
Speaking of, I do not miss the salty fan base finding every stupid excuse to trash him. He’s had to make Shane McMahon look good this year. Now Roman is part of a half-trash “whodunit” angle.
Now for my final point.
It got some criticism when Kevin Owens pleaded with Shane McMahon to rescind the $100,000 fine for the sake of his family. KO is a family man. Even as a heel, providing for them was his motivation. Owens uses the Stunner now, but he’s not Stone Cold Steve Austin. Tell me you wouldn’t do anything for your family, even humble yourself.
Damn. This post took me longer to write than I thought.
