Wrestle Review: Big Things in the New Year

Rick Steiner’s kid won the NXT Championship in dominating fashion over Tommasso Ciampa Wednesday night. I’d still love to know where they came up with the name Bronn Breaker. Maybe his favorite basketball player is Lebron James. Anyway, Ciampa had a dark match on Smackdown against Pette Dunne, I hear. Ciampa to Smackdown would basically be the end of the old NXT I think. William Regal and Road Dogg got fired earlier this week along with Timothy Thatcher from NXT.. It wouldn’t shock me if Shawn Michaels were next. Wouldn’t even shock me if Vince canned Triple H. Although that’d make for awkward holidays this year. Samoa Joe also got fired (again) this week. The man stood out in a thunderstorm for you, and you fire him twice. I wouldn’t be shocked, however, if Joe was back in WWE in a few years. Why?

Last night on Smackdown, they announced a bunch of returns for the women’s Royal Rumble. Lita and Michelle McCool were among those announced. The one that raised the most eyebrows was Mickie James. What’s more, Pat McAfee actually said the words “Impact Wrestling Knockouts Champion Mickie James”. After my initial shock, this thought ran through my mind: perhaps WWE and Impact Wrestling have entered a working relationship. Maybe not but that would definitely get the wrestling world talking. I really hope Mickie James goes to Impact management, tells them “I just got WWE to say Impact Wrestling on their tv show” and gets a raise. And then gets a big payday from WWE at Rumble.

Over on AEW, nobody got fired but tonight’s TNT title match got changed because Cody Rhodes reportedly has Covid. It will now be Dustin Rhodes vs Sammy Guevara at Battle of (some of) The Belts to crown an interim TNT Champion. I bet this leads to a ladder match as soon as Cody is cleared where he will reclaim the title. Hangman Page shocked me when he retained the AEW Championship Wednesday against Bryan Danielson. Also, will Jim Ross ever not say Daniel Bryan by accident? Jade Cargill became the first TBS Champion. Perhaps this was a little ointment on the New Year’s Eve wound TK opened after his Big Swole comments.

I mentioned Sammy Guevara vs Dustin Rhodes tonight. Also, occurring will be Dr. Britt Baker defending the AEW women’s championship against Riho. Ricky Starks will defend the FTW championship against Matt Sydal. This coming Wednesday will see CM Punk face Wardlow, Hobbs vs Dante Martin and Serena Deeb vs Hikaru Shida.

There’s no telling who else will be announced for the Royal Rumble. And the two title matches (Rollins/Reigns and Lesnar/Lashley) are pretty big if you ask me. Seth Rollins vs Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship: obviously Reigns will retain but I’m looking forward to the first meeting between these two former Shield mates in years.

There will unquestionably be big weeks ahead in the wrestling world. And with the Ring Of Honor champion defending on Impact’s Hard To Kill and Impact’s Knockouts Champion at The Rumble, it makes me wonder if anyone has secretly purchased a promotion or two, if you get my drift. Or has the forbidden door truly been ripped from its hinges?