MR. TITO: WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event Review – Seth Rollins Injury, Goldberg vs. Gunther, and More
Many, many wrestling events happened this weekend. In fact, TOO MANY wrestling events happened this weekend. After compelling wrestling fans to watch 2+ hours of RAW on Monday, 2 hours of NXT on Tuesday, 2 hours of AEW Dynamite on Tuesday, and 2 hours of Smackdown on Friday… We’re expected to 3 Pay Per Views/Premium Live Events (AEW All-In, WWE Evolution, and NXT Great American Bash) and 1 WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event?
BUT, let me say this… This weekend was AEW’s weekend and WWE should have backed off. In my opinion, it was a total DICK MOVE by the WWE to host NXT Great American Bash and WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event as competition for AEW’s top show of the year, AEW All-In. What are you trying to prove, WWE? You trying to drive down their less than 200,000 Pay Per View buys in order for them to watch your over-exposed product? Good lord…
Sorry, but AEW is miles away from being competition now… WWE won the 2020s “wrestling wars” and began pulling away when WWE decided to take wrestling seriously again when the Bloodline storyline got really hot again, coincidentally when CM Punk was working for AEW. Been a tough road for AEW since 2022 when the drama began while WWE has significantly distanced itself with a massive growth in their business. So why on earth do they want to pick on the little guy?
What good does squashing a smaller business like AEW do at this point? WWE needs another reasonably sized wrestling promotion out there to serve as a breeding grounds for new talent that maybe, just maybe, they could pick off at a later data via free agency. Where did Cody Rhodes come from again? AEW… WWE had him during the mid-2010s and insisted that he portray Stardust. Cody helping to start-up AEW made him more appealing to sign later. CM Punk returned after 7 long years to join AEW. His return with AEW made him valuable for the WWE to sign later. Penta, Mariah May (Blake Monroe now), Ricky Starks (now Ricky Saints), and several others… Without AEW, those talents couldn’t find a showcase to prove themselves as stars that the WWE would eventually want.
Placing NXT Great American Bash and WWE SNME as cheap-to-free options to oppose AEW’s top Pay Per View of the year, All-In, was a DICK MOVE by the WWE, period. This isn’t the 1980s where the WWE is trying to squash the territory system and fend off the competitive NWA. This isn’t the mid-to-late 1990s when WWE and WCW were having their Monday Night Wars. You have a WWE promotion selling 10,000 tickets per TV show versus another that sells up to 4,000. AEW makes like $185 million per year off of television while WWE makes close to $800 million per year. It’s like fighting tanks against soldiers on horseback…
Do better, WWE… Quit wasting resources on additional weekend shows and burning out your wrestling fanbase, particularly fans who WANT to enjoy both.
FINGER OF SHAME to the WWE for their weekend DICK MOVES to stack up cheap-to-free shows against AEW’s biggest show of the year.
Now, I personally want to talk about just 1 show from this weekend…
– It’s not going to be WWE Evolution. Why would I want to watch a midcard division host an entire Premium Live Event?
– It’s not going to be NXT Great American Bash. Why would I want to watch the farm system of the WWE host an entire Premium Live Event?
– It’s not going to be AEW All-In 2025. Look, if you look at my history, I barely covered TNA and Ring of Honor during the past. I’m in the mode of “if you cannot say something nice, don’t say anything at all” with AEW. If you enjoyed AEW All-In 2025, then good for you and I won’t bash you for enjoying it. AEW lost me and my business with the whole CM Punk drama and less of my time and PPV money has gone to them since All-In 2023. If you’ve noticed my column patterns lately, I’m covering way less AEW stuff and only discuss bigger headline topics rather than shows, PPVs, or storylines. There are others around here at NoDQ than can provide you with AEW coverage. Don’t let my sway you from liking the show or not, but all I needed to see was one clip online of the Young Bucks, Ospreay, and Swerve superkicking each other repeatedly within like 30 seconds to validate my decision to NOT cover AEW this weekend.
No, what I want focus my time on is WWE’s Saturday Night’s Main Event… I have a ton of thoughts on this show and I think that this single Saturday Night show had significant implications for the WWE, moving forward.
Show starts off with Randy Orton vs. Drew McIntyre. Oh, you didn’t realize those two had a match? Me neither, as everything was 100% focused on WWE part-timer Logan Paul and NON-WRESTLER and musician Jelly Roll. Now, I like Mr. Jelly and do admit that I enjoy several of his songs… But stay out of the ring, please. Your combat experience is what, exactly? I’m sure that life behind bars made you tougher, but Logan Paul actually was in the ring with Floyd Mayweather and has had a few other professional bouts. In the context of WWE, Paul has wrestled 21 matches and has fought many top opponents in the WWE.
Initially, I was worried that Jelly Roll would get the best of Logan Paul when they were hitting each other, but then Logan Paul viciously took out Jelly Roll and showed him their difference in-ring talent and capabilities.
BUT, rather than SELL that Jelly Roll was “injured due to the actions of Logan Paul”, WWE instead immediately announces the Randy Orton/Jelly Roll vs. Drew McIntyre/Logan Paul tag match for SummerSlam 2025. Yeah, I realize that SummerSlam is just a few weeks away, but couldn’t this be announced on RAW or Smackdown this week instead? Give Jelly Roll the ability to at least sell the attack sustained on SNME rather than instantly booking the match?
That’s just details that real promoters should think about and understand about the wrestling business. What do I know? I’ve just been following this stuff for almost 40 years now.
Now, with Solo Sikoa vs. Jey Uso… First of all, I’m just not seeing what everyone else may be seeing with Solo. He’s a MEH wrestler, too one-dimensional and just lacks any psychology or personality aside from his “always pissed” look. But the in-ring ability is lackluster and doesn’t match well with the “always pissed” look. Maybe he’s “Resting Pissed Face (RPF)”? Either way, my stock of him was sold during 2024 when his matches were lackluster then.
Secondly, WWE Creative Team… Can you come up with BETTER names for the Samoan wrestlers? Good lord… All of their names are structured and sound the same. Some guys have Tonga as their first name, others have it as their last name. Why can’t a good name like ROMAN REIGNS be thought of? Jey and Jimmy Uso are perfectly good names, too, as is Solo Sikoa. The rest of the Samoan crew have terrible names that are brutally hard to market and sell. And damn it, make Tonga their last name.
Now, here is where I’ll ruffle the feathers if I haven’t already…
Why on earth is Seth Rollins doing high risk moves as a MAIN EVENTER and as a 39 year-old wrestler?
That looks to me like a torn ACL and he did so by doing a USELESS flip off the top rope which was preceded by another high flying move.
If he blew out his knee, the entire Wrestlemania 41 storyline is DOWN THE TUBES because the whole idea was that Roman Reigns, fresh off of his 2-3 month vacation, was going to get revenge on Seth somehow through SummerSlam or after SummerSlam. But nooooo, because Seth Rollins is poorly agented and managed backstage, he’s allowed to make ridiculous high-risk moves that risks injury that can keep him out of the ring for a freakin’ year.
This is the SAME EXACT conversation we had with CM Punk doing high risk moves during 2022 with AEW. Dumb, dumb, dumb… Late 30 year-old bodies struggle to perform like they used to, let alone getting into your 40s. There’s a reason why it’s rare when NFL and NBA players make it to their 40s and still perform at a high level. Tendons begin to wear out, bones aren’t as sturdy, and flexibility starts to go downhill.
Seth Rollins was performing EMPTY CALORIE moves in his match against LA Knight that were meaningless because Rollins has performed those high-risk moves so much that fans have become desensitized to them. Yet, rather than applying a headlock or a chinlock to conserve his energy, he flips off the ropes and Seth’s injury will cost the WWE millions for such an injury mistake.
Wrestlers need to learn how to do MORE WITH LESS inside the ring… More psychology, more selling, and more personality with involvement with the crowd nearby. When you feed the audience non-stop servings of cake with tons of high-risk moves, they get tired of devouring the same sweet goodies over and over again and want something even more sweeter than before. Well, it’s not always possible to outdo another high-risk performance.
THIS is the kind of thing that TKO executives need to hold Triple H accountable for on his annual performance evaluation. Seth Rollins is a top WWE asset and now he’s likely to be on the shelf because NOBODY backstage told him to reduce the high-risk crap that could get him hurt.
Now… The main event of Bill Goldberg versus Gunther for the World Heavyweight Championship.
While I am a true critic of Gunther’s drawing power as a main eventer (or lack thereof), I do not question his in-ring ability. That has always been superb… Folks, he just pulled the most convincing looking wrestling match out of Bill Goldberg since 2017. Everybody else from Undertaker to Roman Reigns has struggled with somehow carrying the older Bill Goldberg. Gunther said “no problem” with the 58 year-old Gunther. Now granted, I could CLEARLY see Gunther calling the match inside the ring, which should prompt Botchamania to conveniently feature it in their “You Talk Too Much” segment… Still, Gunther pulled a reasonable looking 15 minute match out of a 58 year-old Bill Goldberg. That’s remarkable to me.
Goldberg wasn’t in good cardio shape and he clearly lacked strength by not being as jacked up as he normally is. Which is what happens in your late 50s, but Goldberg has been struggling for his last 7 years worth of matches. Quality has not been there, neither has the ability to breathe air without the need to suck out everyone else’s from the arena. Gunther seriously wrestled himself and did so much stalling to make Goldberg have a fighting chance.
So props to Gunther for one of the best carry jobs, ever.
For Bill Goldberg, see ya.
I’m very glad that you came back and helped restore your legacy, while I give the WWE props for rebuilding Goldberg into a main event force again. 2003-2004 didn’t go well for Bill during his initial WWE run, but neither did anything in WCW beyond July 1998. He’s not the best in-ring worker, as he was rushed to the ring without much training or proper appreciation for what wrestlers actually do inside the ring. Then, his WWE run was just bad… He was clueless and the RAW brand wasn’t good for his career with a dominant Triple H on top. Then, he looked terrible at Wrestlemania 20 against Lesnar.
But then Survivor Series 2016 happened and Goldberg SHOCKED the world by defeating Brock Lesnar so quickly. Then, their follow-up match at Wrestlemania was even better and is arguably Bill’s best match aside from the DDP match at WCW Halloween Havoc 1998. But, “all things must pass” as George Harrison used to say.
Bill Goldberg needs to thank the WWE for rebuilding his brand. Now, he can make appearances anywhere as the big superhero character that he always wanted to portray in the later years of WCW or that disastrous 2003-2004 run.
I’m grateful that Bill Goldberg got to walk away on his own terms and with a good match to end his career. Now, be gone because you’re physically unable to present that “Goldberg mystique” unless someone like Gunther can carry you to look decent inside the ring.
This is the tough part because Goldberg is CLEARLY beyond expiration… But give pro wrestling credit… Because it is scripted, they can use clever ways and quickness of the hand to create an aura around an older wrestler to keep them relevant. While UFC, boxing, NFL, and NBA spit out athletes due to age, pro wrestling can lean a little more into the mic skills and personality to keep a wrestler relevant. Remember how BAD those Hollywood Hulk Hogan PPV main event matches were? They were AWFUL… Yet, it was the storylines and promo work on WCW Nitro that made you buy that Pay Per View. Then, after you got burned, you’d fall for it all over again on the next few editions of WCW Nitro.
WWE got every last drop out of Bill Goldberg and re-established him as a big star… In his freakin’ 50s!
That’s the beauty of pro wrestling…
See, that’s my problem with Seth Rollins. He doesn’t HAVE to flip off of the ropes.
Bill Goldberg literally has 2 moves, the spear and the Jackhammer. Other than that, it’s clotheslines and maybe some brawling in the corner. YET, through deceptiveness, he can convince you that he’s still the same “larger than life” character. It worked and WWE received 9 solid years of Bill Goldberg doing great business.
Meanwhile, Seth tore his ACL on a transitional high-risk maneuver that he didn’t need to do…
For Gunther, it’s time to break the bank and give him an opportunity to make Brock Lesnar look like a star again.
You cannot push Gunther to be a badass in-ring worker, and then a cartoonish super villain who easily falls into traps on the other. He’s too legitimately tough to act like a fool or show any fear. Get him Lesnar or start pushing him like Bill Goldberg now that Bill is gone. Undefeated streak, why not?
Not sure where WWE is going, but they need some stars to return from vacation and they need the developmental system to make a main eventer already. WWE’s top of the roster is getting older and with age comes injuries…
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