Boring and the Beast – By Wrestle G

Hello NoDQ.com, readers it’s your boy Wrestle G back here once again to throw some opinions about pro wrestling at you. I hope everyone is well and looking forward to Clash In Italy this weekend. I keep saying it, but we are eating so well as wrestling fans, you get the tribal aspect of the fandom buy my goodness even in sloppy booking times right now there is far more good stuff to enjoy across all of the companies currently operating.

Speaking of which Double Or Nothing made a huge splash last weekend out of New York. The production looked first rate, the crowd was hot and the matches as they always do on AEW PPV delivered huge. Right from that first match you can tell the atmosphere was a little bit special and that the wrestlers were feeding off of it. The majority of winners I didn’t have a problem with, and I think it was right that MJF came out of there with the world title. I think the Kevin Knight turn was a little bit of overkill but it’s a huge endorsement of him. It might have been better left until Dynamite though. The one big question I have now though is that is MJF getting to Wembley with the World title? I absolutely think he should but the Kenny and Ospreay rumours persist. I have a lot of opinions about that potential match up, but I think that’s best left for its own column in the future when we see where the plans land……

Moving on to WWE and Clash In Italy is this weekend and the card is far more stacked than I initially expected it to be. Lots of intrigue around a lot of the matches I think Rhea and Jade Cargill have done a really good job of making me care about their rematch. On the flip side of that I am having a really hard time caring about Cody and Gunther and I sit here and wonder who Gunther who had that all time IC title run, who then had a hugely long world title run and who has retirement matches with Goldberg, Cena and AJ Styles can feel so cold? A complete mystery to me but I think the crowd will pull us through this match.

In the other title match I have loved how Jacob Fatu has been handled, and he feels like a genuine threat to Roman here. WWE don’t often go full tilt into the violence of a match, but I feel like this Tribal Combat needs to feel like Punk and Drew in the Cell. Sell to me during this match that Jacob is willing to go all the way to be the Tribal Chief, sell to me that Roman will do anything to hold onto his current spot and rebuild his bloodline dynasty. I have faith in this one and hope it delivers.

The biggest gripe I have for Clash In Italy though is The Ruler against the Beast……

Arrive, don’t work, leave, Repeat!

So, Brock Lesnars retirement lasted less than even some of Terry Funks efforts (maybe Brock has some sick horses on his farm as well?) And he is now slated for a re match with Oba Femi this coming Sunday.

WrestleMania felt like the WWE audience was ready to say goodbye to Brock Lesnar a spontaneous looking retirement at the grandest stage of them all. After all he’s achieved in the ring and given his age now the retirement made total sense. Not to mention the huge reputational damage that has occurred through the Vince McMahon accusations.  But it wasn’t just the stage and the age that is a problem for me. It’s been a long old time now since Brock Lesnar really hasn’t been very interesting.

For the Last 15 years since he returned to WWE from UFC the Brock Lesnar formula has been the same.

* He makes his return.
* He shows up for 3 minutes every other Raw so Heyman can do his grand announcement.
* His match lasts about 8 minutes.
* He goes away again.

It’s been a rinse and repeat booking for the longest time, and at first, I’d say that worked and his returns felt exciting. But it’s a case of diminishing returns and further than that the way in which Brock put over Cody and Roman in long drawn-out programmes took away a lot of the invincibility that Brock had managed to build up during his programmes with Cena and The Undertaker.

Outside of the structure of Brocks booking being boring, I’m not sure how you adequately navigate the outcome of Clash In Italy. At this point I think a no contest is the only way to get through this. If Brock wins on Sunday, then Obas demolishing of him at Mania feels like it means less and it makes Oba Vulnerable at a time where that doesn’t need to happen. If Oba wins then how do you get any value out of a Brock retirement match? He can’t retire again so quickly and have the fans buy in, the announcement for another retirement at this point would be met with huge scepticism. It just feels like the whole angle and match is booked into a corner.

Brock taking Oba to his limits and neither man backing down seems like the way to make the best out of a bad situation. Have them throw bombs at each other take a few finishers and just keep fighting. Let’s get to a point where staff from the back simply can’t stop them. The end point of this would be Brock showing he has learnt from the first match and Oba now has a different Brock to conquer in the future, likely at SummerSlam. This outcome isn’t the end of the world but I think it speaks to how unnecessary it was for Brock to do the fake retirement, in a world where we aren’t that far removed from the Seth Rollins fake knee injury angle the whole ‘working the boys’ schtick just doesn’t land very well for me.

Even if they manage to salvage this feud between Oba and Brock without harming Oba, I think it really can’t be long until those boots are left in the ring for real by Lesnar. In terms of in ring impact, it’s been a hell of a ride for Brock but I’m just not sure how much intrigue is left in his current routine of returns and minimum ring time. I think wrestling is much more interested in the ascent of Oba Femi and seeing if he can forge himself a long-time career at the top of the card. Sunday will be intriguing to see where the path forward may lead for these two men.

Ok everyone that is all for this week. I hope you’ve enjoyed my opinions on Lesnar but as always, I’d love to know what YOU think! Let me know in the comments below or of course you can tell us via the socials searching for NoDQ.com or my socials are:

X- @Wrestle_G and TikTok – @wrestleg

Would love more of you to join me for wrestling discussion all through the week.

Until next time,

Cheers,

G