The Phantom Rant: My Problems With The WWE

Greetings conversationalists all across the world wide web, it is I the one and only “Phantom Lord” Joseph Davis and this is The Phantom Rant. As always I am coming to you from the big apple that is New York City and I think last column really struck a nerve. My point that was quoted on Twitter and elsewhere about AEW being sub 500 thousand views a week really drove the point home that the last thing AEW needs is another title belt. But this week according to the new Nielsen ratings system calculations, AEW did about 600 thousand viewers for Blood and Guts. If they can build on that number that would be great. I will say this though. The women’s Blood and Guts match was really good and if you haven’t seen it and you have HBO Max, I would watch the replay over there. You won’t be disappointed.

But I am not going to focus on AEW this week. That’s what honestly burned me out. It’s like screaming into the abyss and expecting to get a response. So I’m gonna focus my attention on the WWE this week. The WWE is not without it’s own problems right now.

The biggest problem that I have with them is the pacing of the show itself. RAW on Netflix especially is terrible when it comes to pacing. Every time a match starts to get interesting…what happens? A DAMN COMMERCIAL BREAK. I know it’s been like this since the start of RAW on Netflix, but man last night on RAW it just seemed like overkill. This commercial overload just kills the flow of the show. I was really interested in the Maxxine Dupri vs. Becky Lynch match and soon as it got started…we go to commercial. I did pop for Maxxine winning so yay for that. Later in the night we have Je’Von Evans vs. GUNTHER and again just as the match was picking up…WE GO TO COMMERCIAL!!!

I understand there needs to be commercials. We just don’t need the sheer volume of them especially on Netflix when I have for the ad free tier (are there commercials on the international version?) It’s impossible to get into a match on Netflix because of the commercials.

Evans vs. Gunther wasn’t a bad match despite all the commercial interruptions. The problem with the match though was the outcome was seen as soon as the match was announced last week. Not a person in the world believed Je’Von could beat Gunther. Didn’t mean it wasn’t competitive. But Je’Von was going to be defeated. This whole tournament has been too predictable. The heavily rumored winner of the whole tournament is supposedly going to be Gunther. I have no problem with Gunther winning. What I have a problem with is everything leading up to it being predictable.

The way John Cena announced it you would think there would be some interesting choices for this tournament. The choices though are not that interesting. They went with Sheamus over Shinsuke. I was not happy with that. Rusev over Damien Priest was a good move but it leads to Sheamus vs. Rusev and there’s a possibility that could go to a no contest or something leading to Jey Uso getting a free pass to the semi finals when he almost certainly wins over LA Knight.

This week on Smackdown the other quarterfinal matches will occur with Carmelo Hayes vs. BIG Bronson Reed and Penta vs. Finn Balor. I suspect Bronson will lose to Carmelo via shenanigans to set up the impending War Games match on the 29th. That gives us Carmelo vs. Gunther. The only match I can’t pick a winner on is Penta vs. Finn. It could go a number of ways. I hope most of them are in favor of Penta because if things were aligned right, Cena vs. Penta would be a fun match for Cena to retire with.

I’m predicting a Gunther vs. Penta final for the Cena tournament. Anything else would feel like a let down to me and I’m sure a lot of you. Gunther has nothing to gain by facing John Cena in his last match. Penta could use the proverbial rub by facing Cena in his last match. The WWE needs a new mega star and Penta is just at the cusp of reaching that next level for them. My only question is “does Cena win or lose that final match”? The WWE has always been built on sending people home happy so of course it would be a very WWE thing to do to have Cena win his final match and ride off into the sunset like that.

I mentioned Penta as a potential Mega Star because the WWE is filled with so many guys who won’t be there in the next couple of years. CM Punk is pushing 50. Roman Reigns is barely a part timer. AJ Styles is retiring in the next year. Cody Rhodes has repeatedly said he will retire sooner rather than later. The WWE has plenty of talent in NXT, but someone has to be the Captain of the ship when the time comes. I don’t know if Penta could be the guy to be that guy someday, but him being Cena’s final opponent would be a good start.

Honestly I don’t trust Triple H’s booking with the talent of NXT when they finally get moved up to the main roster. Though to be fair, the main roster of the WWE has been a terrible place for NXT talent for eons. For every one good success story…there are a dozen of swing and misses. A guy like Trick Williams has peaked in NXT. But not if, but when he makes the move to the main roster the question is will he be treated as something special or will he just be another guy on the roster kinda like Carmelo Hayes is at the moment. I’m not knocking Hayes there. It’s just booking wise he’s been “just there”.

Oba Femi is another guy I have doubts about. In NXT he’s mostly unstoppable. But when he gets the call to the main roster, how long will he last before he’s just another guy (which would an impressive feat considering how damn imposing he is).

Well we shall see where the Last time is now tournament ends up going with the matches on Smackdown this week. The WWE can be very predictable, so I’m fairly certain my predictions for who will win will end up happening.

On that note I am done for this week. As always you can leave comments down below, on Twitter or email me at phantomlordnyc@gmail.com