Thoughts on Motor City Machines Guns signing with WWE and other news stories

It’s been a wild week in the wrestling world and as usual I wanted to sit down and take some time to give thoughts on the bigger stories coming in and out. From TNA Victory Road PPV, new possible signings to the WWE, fallout from AEW All Out and the switching over for WWE to new networks. There has been so much to process that your head could spin from just the sheer information and not know where to begin.

Without further ado here are my musings, thoughts and translations on everything that has gone down. In fair warning to everything, the opinions are mine and mine alone so if you don’t like them, I don’t care but don’t give Aaron Rift any crap. This is a free country and last time I checked, he brought me on to write opinion articles, not to be a PR for everyone.

Let’s start with the first match and just go from there;

Motor City Machines Guns signing with the WWE and debuting on the new “Season” of CW.
To me this was always the end result as for the Guns it makes the most sense short term and long term. Both men have been in the wrestling industry since 2006 and are over 40 years old with a lot of mileage on their bodies from the wear and tear of pro wrestling. There work in impeccable, they are one of the best tag teams in the world and both have helped younger wrestlers over their careers in getting over and learning the trade.

In NXT they get a chance to start and either get promoted and have one big main roster run or stay in NXT and eventually get hired as producers/trainers. This screams of building towards the long-term future as Alex Shelley is a certified physical therapy clinician and has wanted to do that after his wrestling career is over. With WWE expanding their training centers to Las Vegas in the next few years, its perfect for him post wrestling.

Also, both men have a lot of supporters in the WWE (Kevin Owens, Seth Rollins, AJ Styles and Bobby Roode to name a few) who value their appreciation. For them, it’s a chance to just have security and peace in knowing the job will be there for them, paychecks are steady and they have a potential future once they hang it up. For two guys who have poured everything into this business, I couldn’t be happier for them.

TNA Victory Road one of the highest selling US Events for the company this year.
The last few months for TNA have been challenging as they have had to endure problems that have been out of their control. Slammiversary was best by complications from 2024 Crowdstrike that shut down computer servers, airline flights and banks worldwide. Rich Swann was arrested for drunken disorderly infraction and put him on a leave of absence from the company. Alisha Edwards, Steph De Lander, Killer Kelly and Kilynn King have been either injured, pregnant or dealing with injuries leaving the women’s division extremely thin. And RD Evans leaving for AEW has forced changes behind the scenes for the creative team as well as other wrestlers.

Yet through all of it the company that has been considered “LOLTNA” has continued to deliver top shelf wrestling and build itself up and attempt to become the #2 wrestling promotion in the industry. The fact that TNA Victory Road was a sellout and one of the most profitable events in the country this year for them, is proof they are on the right path.

Friday night was proof that TNA is becoming something for everyone who wants an alternative to the WWE. They had the nostalgic veterans in the Hardy Boyz vs. Top Flight which is for the older fans. The X Division title match between Zachary Wentz and Mike Bailey was the high-flying Lucha Libre/New Japan style that fans love and delivered. You had your “Meat” match between Alex Hammerstone/Jake Something vs. Eric Young and Steve Maclin which was hard hitting and full of power moves. And you had the Josh Alexander vs. Joe Hendry

UFC 306 at the Sphere draws rave reviews from fans, media and fighters for its layout and presentation.
Just when you think you saw it all with Wembley Stadium, MSG, Saudi Arabia fights and everything else, Vegas continues to show they can one up everyone. UFC 306 otherwise known as RIYAHD Season Noche was held at the new MGM Sphere which seats 18000 and cost 2.2 billion dollars to create.

Watching the event on TV, you could see how the event changes everything as the sphere features Interior and Exterior LED lights. To translate for the regular folk (yours included) you can watch the even on the floor or if you’re in the cheap seats, anywhere on the jumbo walls which feature LED screens that allow you to feel like you’re watching a movie.

And one interested party who was at the event; TKO president Nick Khan who was critical in getting WWE deals with Allegiant Stadium several years ago. Don’t think for a minute that he has designs on landing either a Royal Rumble, Survivor Series or another major event (sans SummerSlam and WrestleMania) in this beauty of a stadium

File it under the rich get richer.

AEW TV deal has no concrete ending and getting more rumors than we can count from “sources”.
If you believe all the internet chatter this week, we have an AEW Deal that is either A) Landing at FOX or not even being talked about B) Nearly done and going to be announced any minute now C) 90 Percent done and announced on said day or D) AEW is getting multiple deals or getting cancelled out right.

Allow me to put F in there as in Forget all the nonsense because nobody in the wrestling media has a clue or getting the full facts. The whole ordeal has turned into political polls, sports mock drafts, who is going to be the next James Bond and so on by people who are trying to get clicks.

I for one, have zero idea what is going on and don’t claim to know what is happening because I have no direct line to David Zaslav, Channing Dungey or Casey Bloys who are the three people who truly know.

I doubt anyone at any of the wrestling sites has anyone who knows because why would WBD bother with them? Look at all the major wrestling websites and none of them are considered big fish in the grand scheme of media. This isn’t like CNNSI, USA Today, ESPN.com or FOX Sports where reporters there can flex viewership worldwide with numbers that networks drool over.

It’s a bunch of wrestling sites that cover an industry that is considered niche at best.

For now, everyone is playing the waiting game and trying to figure out what’s going on and who is landing where. The fact we haven’t gotten an AEW TV deal yet has everyone waiting, speculating and guessing. Opinions vary, we have nobody telling us the truth, and nor should they because anyone who does business knows you don’t air it publicly.

What I can tell you for sure is that anyone who says the know and have insider knowledge is yanking your chain.

AEW’s Mercedes Mone says the plastic bag made her uncomfortable and she wouldn’t want her young nephew to watch it.

Here is the dilemma that AEW as a business is facing and has to come to grips with; the lifeblood of any company that sells toys, video games and merchandise relies on families. You need them because they are the people who will buy stuff in bulk, purchase the toys and spread the word. If you alienate them, your business is going to suffer and you might as well count your chickens.

I understand that hardcore faithful will say “But Funk did it to Flair” or “Its fake bro” and more but parents don’t care. No decent parent wants to take their kid to an event and watch them get traumatized by something violent that looks real. You quickly loose that audience and also their wallets which is just as worse.

Mercedes Mone basically said what most parents were thinking and if your Tony Khan you have to take a long look at what’s next. If you want to continue down the road and book for the “sickos”, then go for it and don’t look back because that is what that audience wants.

However, if you do that you risk losing support from TV executives who can’t sell ad space to toy companies, video game companies and other products that buy ad time. And you have to make peace that families won’t watch because they don’t want their kids to see that stuff on TV.

That’s the trade off and you got to consider if that is smart business wise.

Bad Blood Main Event is set with Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns vs Jacob Fatu and Solo Sikoa.

Credit to Paul Heyman, Paul Levesque, Roman and Cody Rhodes because they just extended the Bloodline feud and allowing it to take it into another year. For all those who thought we were going to see Bloodline vs. Bloodline at Survivor Series, this match is proof we are getting something different.

On the debut of the Smackdown on USA Network, Cody Rhodes beat Solo Sikoa in a steel cage match and then was saved from a 4-1 beating by Roman Reigns. But the teaser was the face-off between Jacob Fatu vs. Roman and not letting them get physical.

Jacob Fatu is quickly becoming one of the fastest rising performers in the industry and WWE is taking him to the next level. Not even six months into his debut and he is already in the main event against the two biggest stars in the company along with Solo. And I would bet that Fatu gets the win in his PPV match as this is teasing to something bigger down the road.

It also allows Roman to continue this story into next year and beyond as instead of him reforming the old gang, he can put that off. Fans are dying to see Roman, the Usos and even Sami team up and take on Bloodline 2.0. That is money that you can get from the Fort Knox and lay it out but WWE is appearing to let that marinate for another year.

It also allows Cody to wait until another challenge is built because the one criticism has been he is facing “challenger of the month”. While it’s true injuries to several key wrestlers, Roman and Rock taking vacations and Lesnar being “out of service” have forced WWE’s hand.

But with drawing Cody into the Bloodline feud with Roman, it opens up many new stories, possibilities of a rematch with Roman, the Rock getting involved and more. If anything, the WWE knows its cooking with things in 2025 with the Netflix deal starting and this is a perfect way to generate more business and more money.

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