ASK TITO: AJ Lee WWE Return, Stephanie McMahon VPN Comments, Matt Riddle, WWE 2K25 Switch 2 Review, and More
After a few heated columns, the Excellence in Column Writing has returned with your questions sent to me via email (mostly longtime readers), social media, or the comments below with a preference on current events stuff. Hopefully, you have enjoyed my columns this year, as I’m literally the same hard-hitting opinion writer today than when I began almost 27 years ago. That’s write, I’ve been writing these damn columns longer before many of you began swimming in your dad’s balls!
Now, I just have to LAUGH regarding the Tiffany Stratton wearing no make-up “controversy”. Someone took a photo with Tiffany like at an airport or something and she wasn’t wearing the make-up that she usually has on while being a WWE performer. With a side-by-side comparison, she looks very different with or without the make-up. I think she’s beautiful either way, by the way… But damn, the internet went nuclear and commented heavily on it… And you know what? They actually agreed that Stratton looked BETTER without the heavy WWE make-up on. How about that?
I laugh at this reaction because a few years ago, I literally wrote a column about how maybe WWE female performers were wearing too much eye make-up. The point of my argument was that (a) WWE’s female wrestlers were NATURALLY beautiful and (b) if everyone has heavy eye make-up on, they all LOOK THE SAME. But somehow, writing this opinion was so offensive that writers from other wrestling websites and even Jordynne Grace called me out. If you read through the column, I said nothing vulgar or misogynistic which is what I was somehow accused of.
Took many of you a while to see my point, but at the time I wrote the column, you’d think that I just insulted all of your mothers. I didn’t, I had a point… (a) WWE women are naturally beautiful and (b) if all women wear heavy eye make-up, they all look the same!
Checkmate, motherf***ers!
Onto your questions.
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ASK TITO: Your Questions, My Answers
Thoughts on the return of AJ Lee? (asked as the rumor mill was ramping up)
Well, I’ll answer it now that she has appeared on Smackdown… WELCOME HOME, AJ Lee.
You were ROBBED of a great career previously, as you were POORLY USED when you were here (idiot decision to make you General Manager) and AHEAD OF YOUR TIME with the great in-ring work and killer promos. While I think Paige is the Godmother of the great in-ring work, AJ Lee is the Godmother of personality and promos that female wrestlers are allowed to have. Plus, AJ Lee is naturally cool.
She’s like Avril Lavigne… If you talk to Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift, or Olivia Rodrigo, they’ll tell you who was cool back in the day and she was Avril Lavigne. The look, the charisma, and the unapologetic voice of her generation. That was AJ Lee to the Women’s Division, as many have literally taken her act for themselves ever since AJ Lee left the promotion. But I’ll say, not her style… Nobody can pull that off.
MASSIVE POP for her expected return and I can imagine that Punk/Lee vs. Rollins/Becky is going to blow the roof off the place at Wrestlepalooza. By the way, how about the way THAT card is shaping up? I realize it might be going against AEW that day (All Out, but start times have changed), but damn, WWE isn’t messing around with this card.
Good to have AJ Lee back and now she has a whole new world of opponents to check out. AJ left the WWE originally through early April 2015, JUST BEFORE the Divas Revolution began when Sasha Banks, Charlotte Flair, and Becky Lynch were promoted to the main WWE roster with many other NXT call-ups on the way (Bayley, Alexa, Asuka, etc.). She has all of these amazing female opponents to wrestle now along with that older, wiser brain upstairs to creatively make it good. Plus, AJ is rested and should be fresh versus if she stayed in the business since 2015 and had mileage built up on her body. Furthermore, CM Punk is in GREAT graces with WWE and I think that will help her obviously.
I think if all goes well with AJ Lee and continues to go well with CM Punk, they’ll join Rollins and Becky to become “WWE Lifers” as Virtue always puts it, as Triple H needs to begin adding more youth to his backstage management group with himself, Bruce, HBK, Hayes, and others getting older back there and WWE expanding too quickly. WWE could use both Punk and Lee’s creative minds and put them to good use.
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Do you think that Stephanie McMahon is in hot water with TKO after suggesting fans should use a VPN to watch WWE PLEs on Netflix?
In case you missed it on her Podcast, she actually suggested that WWE fans do such a thing… WWE PLEs stream on Netflix for international countries and the way to bypass the expensive ESPN app payment of $29.99 per month is to utilize a VPN service and watch Netflix as if you were in another country. Therefore, there would be no need for the ESPN service.
So yeah, Stephanie McMahon messed up, BIGTIME and I’m sure that Disney executives immediately called TKO executives about what she said and legal teams are probably getting involved. I would imagine that TKO will advise to bar Stephanie from future WWE events and maybe her little podcast will cease getting WWE promotion.
Dumb thing to say, but she’s technically not a TKO employee… And I’m sure she won over many WWE fans by openly saying that. Her not being a TKO employee probably will protect TKO from any issues with the ESPN deal, but it just looks bad for someone to say that who is close to a TKO executive.
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What are your thoughts on Matt Riddle calling out CM Punk?
I have the same reaction to Riddle talking about other wrestlers than I do with Ryback. Both guys ruined their opportunities with the WWE and were let go by WWE, and yet there isn’t a big line of other promotions willing to hire either one. Both like to open their mouths or their keyboards to spouting insane nonsense or even conspiracy.
Basically, I could give zero Fs about Matt Riddles opinion or alleged stories about CM Punk or AJ Lee. Punk and Lee just had a very successful night on WWE Smackdown while Matt Riddle allegedly no-showed a charity event.
Nobody’s perfect, but I can see who works for a legitimate promotion and who can’t.
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Do you think that Chris Jericho rejoins the WWE or stays with AEW?
What Chris Jericho is displaying is leverage… Smaller pond (AEW) with big bank account has him but larger pond (WWE) could give him one last satisfying run and his rightful WWE Hall of Fame induction that can help older Chris Jericho make money for years with appearances. While Jericho may be older in wrestler years, he’s still young enough to be making maximum money for another decade or so.
I just think that the losses of Punk, Cody, and Jade STILL haunt Tony Khan and I believe he’ll give into the leverage and give Jericho one last great 3-4 year contract. Then after said 3-4 years, then Jericho will return home to WWE. Tony Khan has to appease Warner Bros. Discovery and Chris Jericho is a star who has been on their shows from day 1. Plus, Jericho has history… Remember how HARD it hurt WCW when he appeared on WWE RAW during the late Summer of 1999? Lessons learned and I figure some WBD executive might nudge Tony to spend money to keep him.
I also think there is an X-Factor here… While they made great music when they wrestled, Jericho and Triple H didn’t always see eye-to-eye backstage. If you’ll recall from various podcasts, Chris Jericho openly admitted to disagreeing with Creative at the time (Triple H since late 2013) and then going directly to Vince McMahon to have it changed. Instead of working out the creative issues with the EVP of Creative, whether that was Stephanie or Triple H, he always went to Vince McMahon. That stuff stings and takes time to be forgotten. Thus, I don’t see the demand by Triple H to drop that back into his culture. Therefore, staying with AEW another 3-4 years to continue to cool things down wouldn’t hurt.
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Who is to blame for the bad Nikki Bella vs. Becky Lynch at the Clash?
Nikki Bella still has rust on her by not performing for years, while also being careful due to legitimate neck injuries and a cyst on her brain. That missed kick is a good example of that, along with needing to be carried at the Clash event.
But then I look at Becky Lynch’s selling efforts on the outside announcer’s tables… Just looked bad…
I think there is a slight pattern here, as shown by the tacky Charlotte stuff and a few other online or promo battles, that if Becky isn’t fully in control or satisfied with the match conditions, she’ll shut it down somewhat. I think that’s just come with age and prestige, as the younger Becky Lynch was full of energy and the willingness to help out. Becoming a top star may have gone to her head, slightly, which is very common for many top stars including her husband, Seth Rollins, who was legitimately pissed that CM Punk was brought back.
A great veteran would have pulled out the stops and made Nikki Bella look good inside the ring, and thus can brag that she made Nikki look good. But someone protecting their spot and afraid that Nikki could quickly rise up the ranks, thanks to her past E! reality show popularity, may not provide such an effort and maybe could be trying to sabotage. Again, look at the announcer’s table spot, as that looked tacky for any veteran performer. And I don’t fully think that Nikki would just do that kick for no good reason, either, as someone just may not have been there…
On another side note, maybe Becky Lynch was right to perform how she did? I don’t like the way Nikki Bella is going after Wade Barrett. Barrett did nothing wrong with his “desperate” comments and was providing Nikki multiple compliments before that questionable line even came up. Complete much to do about nothing, and I think Nikki going public with it shall only divide up the locker room more against her return. Based on the way she was previously pushed, many are already cautious of her but then creating controversy out of nothing to harm Barrett’s career could create further drama backstage against her. And hey, AJ Lee just returned… “Talent is not sexually transmitted”, was the famous line AJ delivered to the Bella Twins back in the day.
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What are your thoughts on WWE 2K25 on the Nintendo Switch?
You know, I never did review this game as promised… I’m getting older in my days and I really don’t like reviewing things like I used to.
Easily, WWE 2K25 is the VERY BEST pro wrestling game on a Nintendo Switch-based system. Now granted, and you can read my ranking of Nintendo Switch wrestling games from December 2022, the Nintendo Switch hasn’t been blessed with great wrestling games particularly from the WWE. WWE 2K18 was a bad game on Playstation and Xbox, but that bloated game especially didn’t work on Nintendo Switch. WWE Battleground was terrible on any system. Though, I do hold a special place in my heart for “Wrestling Empire”, which is pure and utter chaos to play.
But WWE 2K25 on the improved Switch 2 hardware performs great inside the ring… The menus, though, are slow as hell to get through but I understand that is a problem on both the Playstation and Xbox versions. Thus, if you’re looking for something reasonably equivalent of those platforms, Switch 2’s WWE 2K25 is a good game and isn’t an embarrassment like WWE 2K18 was.
For me personally, I like to play many games at once… Right now, I have Rocket League, Fortnite, Tetris 99, Mario Kart World, and Donkey Kong Bonanza currently in my rotation. I just don’t have time to fully master WWE 2K25’s controls, as I just don’t feel it’s a game worthy of pouring hours of my time into getting good like I have for Rocket League, for example. Just too many controls on WWE 2K25 for me to just pick-up and play. THAT SAID, if you’re willing to dedicate yourself and master the controls, you’ll get much out of this game than me. Honestly, though, if you’re a casual gamer looking to pick up something, I’d reconsider based on the controls with excessive button used and button combinations to press to executive what should be simple moves. The best games of all time, the Nintendo 64 AKI games and Day of Reckoning games on the Game Cube did the same exact moves but with fewer buttons pressed.
So yeah, I’m yelling at the clouds here, but I just want a game to pick up and play versus spending days committing button combinations to my muscle memory. Sorry, but I’m not going to be playing a pro wrestling game that much in 2025, so making controls simpler would be a plus.
Presentation wise, the game is amazing… The atmosphere, the wrestlers, the fans, the theme music, etc. all fit together to make the WWE look good here. I was very impressed with WWE 2K22 on the Playstation 5 and this game seems to resemble that quite well.
Micro-transactions are all over the place here, though… Although I was foolish and bought the Bloodline edition to unlock a little more than the standard or the Undertaker versions of the game. Honestly, I wasn’t that impressed with the Bloodline story on the game and I don’t know if I encountered a glitch or not, but trying to slam someone through the outside table would not work for me no matter how many times I tried it and I looked to YouTube on how to walk through that section. But regardless of the possible glitch, the objectives just weren’t fun and didn’t appear fun overall from what I’ve seen. Thus, I’d recommend getting the standard edition to be honest (Undertaker stuff wasn’t all that exciting as well).
What I liked on WWE 2K25 was the MyGM mode, as you can book shows against a rival brand to see how well you perform as a General Manager. It worked reasonably well on WWE 2K22, but it seems to oddly favor the computer too much. During my several attempts to try it, I picked the bigger stars for my roster while the computer always selected lower midcarders or NXT wrestlers for their RAW or Smackdown brands. Despite me having the greater STAR advantage from my roster, the WWE 2K25 must have had Dave Meltzer conducting star-ratings on matches and always favored the computer. I played the game right, too, as I knew how to use promos, build-up rivalries, etc. from WWE 2K25 but the system always favored the computer brand. That broke my heart, too, as I always selected Miss Elizabeth to be my General Manager and I wanted her to succeed, badly.
Speaking of Miss Elizabeth, if you type in “Macho Man Swimming Lesson” on Facebook, you’ll see a HILARIOUS video of Randy Savage being interviewed by Jesse Ventura at a swimming pool and Macho was there to give Miss Elizabeth a swimming lesson. Oh, and by swimming lesson, Savage meant by throwing Miss Elizabeth off the waterfall platform and into the pool for her to learn on her own. Ohhhhhh yeah, classic 1980s WWE!
But everything that you’ve come to grow and love from a WWE 2K game is here, as usual… Create-a-Wrestler is still here and massive. I just don’t have the time and energy to create my own, so luckily the online community does and has plenty of interesting imports to consider. However, the arena selection seems a bit weak and I heard there were fewer abilities to get creative with the Arena building on the Switch 2 versus the Xbox and Playstation versions. Regardless, there is still plenty to download and add to the experience.
If you have the time to master the controls and are a wrestling diehard willing to pour hours into this game, then it is definitely for you. However, if you’re a casual gamer looking to pick up & play, maybe think about it or wait until it is on-sale. There are way too many controls that require time to master and commit to muscle memory… Plus, to be honest, wrestling games just aren’t that exciting to play as the 21st century goes on. There are far more better fighting games out there to play instead, especially with friends. I’d consider those before the WWE 2K franchise.
I’ll go [ B ] with my grade. If I had more time to pour in this game, I’d probably appreciate it more… But I’m not the casual gamer that it was made for, so therefore, consider what you want with this game before considering my opinion on it. Me giving it a “B” is a pretty solid grade, as I’m suggesting that it’s easily the BEST Nintendo Switch-based wrestling game and honestly by a longshot.
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Have a great weekend! Check out my most recent columns, if you haven’t yet already:
– 9/1 – The Need for Triple H, the Rock, and TKO to be Transparent with WWE Fans
– 9/2 – The Call to End AMATEUR HOUR in Pro Wrestling (WWE, AEW, Indies, etc.) and With Fans
I thought both of those columns were especially hard-hitting, even for me.
Honestly, I’m running out of steam as AEW is just AEW and WWE, I believe, peaked during 2024 or specifically at Wrestlemania 40. For WWE, anytime that you bring back older stars (Lesnar & AJ Lee) but struggle to get any younger wrestlers over, it’s an admission that we’re in 1991-1992 mode where you get veteran heavy and hope for the best.
History will show that WWE blew it by not having Rock vs. Roman Reigns when they could have. Rock was willing to wrestle and Roman was more available to wrestle. Now, Hollywood has Roman’s attention and the Rock is looking rather skinny these days.
And there isn’t much in NXT or on WWE’s midcard that is ready to rise-up and replace the late 30s and early 40s WWE veteran male wrestlers on the roster.
I also think that we’re either entering a recession or one is coming soon, and that shall rock the corporate TKO attempts at being greedy. High prices during a bad economic time don’t mix, brother. The past 3 jobs reports have been terrible, and the tariffs will only further increase prices to make everything unaffordable. If you look at consumer data, they are strained and tapped out on their savings and use of credit. TKO wants to keep price gouging them, too, with tickets to events, merchandise, and now forcing consumers to become customers to price gouging streaming services. Sorry, but doubling the price to see WWE Premium Live Events is utter nonsense.
Like I said in another column, everyone who likes the NFL and WWE are now forced to pay for Disney’s massive debt burden of over $40 billion. They’ll price gouge you on your favorite things until it breaks you…
By the way, Endeavor has around $6 billion of debt itself while TKO has around $3 billion.
Do you see why you are paying high prices? Quit giving in… Stop buying overpriced merchandise, stop buying high priced tickets to live events, and you don’t have to watch every PLE (so use your money sparingly to watch the bigger WWE events).
Otherwise, if you let TKO and Disney price gouge you to pay off the debt that they rang up, they’ll gladly keep prices high and raise them even further. If your demand is strong enough to sustain their higher prices, TKO and Disney will be your huckleberry.
Mr. Tito Column Archive @ NoDQ