ASK TITO: WWE & New Japan, Ultimate Warrior Documentaries, John Cena/China, AEW Double or Nothing Predictions, More

Follow Mr. Tito on Twitter by going to the following link: @titowrestling

The weekend Excellence in Column Writing is upon you, as I answer your questions from Comments below, Twitter, or Email and present my answers in column form. Man, it’s been busy over here at NoDQ.com, as responding to Twitter alerts has become a full-time job. All because I have unique yet professionally stated wrestling opinions. Remember, it’s hard to Cancel someone who is working voluntary… Keep trying… Funny thing is that I never say anything offensive, yet it’s my opposing wrestling opinions that have people calling for my head. Welcome to 2020s, where Freedom of Speech and freely expressing opinions are only allowed if you agree with a specific person or group of people.

Before I get to your questions, I just want to give a shoutout to PGA Golfer Phil Mickelson… No, not for his recent PGA Championship major win but for having the highest Television Ratings since another older superstar, Tiger Woods, won the Masters major during 2018. In fact, Golf viewership, overall, has been down since Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson were competing at their peaks during their late 20s and throughout their 30s. The younger golfers that came after Tiger and Phil aren’t flashy, don’t have much personality, aren’t unique, or are not relatable like Phil.

Does that sound familiar?

Oh yeah, WWE… They can have Legends Night or convince Bill Goldberg to make another appearance and it will easily pop another 300,000 viewers for Monday Night RAW. Meanwhile, the talent base that has followed Austin, Rock, and the Ohio Valley Wrestling Class of 2002 (Cena, Batista, Orton, Lesnar) just aren’t appealing to the masses or drawing in casual viewers as those veterans once did. In fact, RAW, since depushing John Cena during the late Summer of 2014, went from having just over 4 million viewers to just under 2 million.

Just saying, there is something wrong with how PGA and the WWE are marketing or developing their future generations of talent. While I can believe that Phil/Tiger and Austin/Rock are once-in-a-lifetime talents, both WWE and PGA have major technological, internet, and access advantages than the WWE/PGA of the past. If either had talents of that caliber, they would be exploding in growth right now.

Thankfully, though, WWE is shying away from identity politics which has greatly hurt the NBA and NFL‘s numbers. Both the NBA and NFL have good systems and marketing to replace their top superstars, thanks to College Football and Basketball, but letting athletes refuse to play and then marketing a specific point of view while ignoring others on purpose has angered half of the viewing audience of their sports. NBA has seen a massive deterioration in viewership while the NFL has seen a decline as well.

If only the WWE had a BETTER Talent Developmental system, much like what Jim Ross built during the 1990s and early 2000s, then we’d see more Main Event draws appearing. As bad as WWE Creative could be, it was equally bad during the 2000s when led by Stephanie McMahon. Just look at how Batista debuted as “Deacon Batista” or how vanilla both John Cena or Randy Orton were to start (thankfully, Lesnar had Paul Heyman). The cream always rises to the top, however, and Orton/Batista/Cena figured out their roles and put their own creativity into what WWE assigned to them. For John Cena, he was openly displaying his rapping talent on a bus and Stephanie McMahon heard him… Little things like that is all that it takes to get noticed.

Right now, WWE suffers from a BAD Creative Team but also a BAD Talent Developmental system for MEN. That boils down to weak recruiting by Triple H and not having the right trainers in place at the Performance Center for Male Wrestlers. However, if either of them would improve, WWE would explode in growth because (a) they don’t delve into identity politics like other sports and (b) their technological infrastructure of the WWE Network, Social Media, and other platforms would get something successful noticed very quickly and spread like a wildfire.

However, since the WWE won’t address fixing both Creative and Talent Relations, as Vince McMahon would have to admit mistakes on both, WWE will have to continue bringing back the veterans for a pop every once and a while, no matter how old they are. Much like the PGA prays that Phil Mickelson or Tiger Woods would just miraculously win a Major every once and a while.

Onto your questions.

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ASK MR. TITO – Your Questions, My Answers

What do you think of WWE’s potential deal with New Japan and Tony Khan’s response to that rumor?

Honestly, I would place New Japan in the same place Impact was when AEW began featuring them on their shows lately. New Japan needs the WWE much more than the WWE needs New Japan. We’ve witnessed New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) attempting to make it in the United States market multiple times now for the past 25 years and it’s not sticking. They were heavily involved with WCW during the late 1990s and none of their wrestlers impressed fans back then, even when they were involved with the NWO. The show on AXS didn’t even have a viewership number that appeared on the top 150 list on a freakin’ Friday Night. Think about that for a second… Impact will appear on that list for getting near 200,000 for Tuesdays, so how low can you go on Fridays to not appear in the top 150? The Cow Palace show struggled to fill seats and that was after having many 5-6-7 Star match wrestlers on that show.

If I were to guess anything, WWE wants to recruit some talent to fill their 3 rosters while purposely messing with All Elite Wrestling. I wouldn’t doubt that this is truly a Nick Khan move, as Japan is a great market as America and Japan are great trading partners. Pro Wrestling is the one Japanese thing that hasn’t grown much in the United States, as things like Nintendo, Pokemon, Anime, Godzilla, and many other things have been injected into our Pop Culture from Japan. Their Pro Wrestling products, no matter how hard the Observer Boys hype, just aren’t drawing interest from die hard wrestling fans here. That goes to show you how important PROMOS are to American wrestling fans.

I also wonder if the owners of New Japan are worried that maybe they have peaked as a promotion, provided that many of their top stars are getting older and AEW stripped away many of their wrestlers as well. Maybe by working together with the WWE, they can do some talent swaps or joint shows.

However, until I see Vince McMahon push a Japanese wrestler (Yokozuna wasn’t really Japanese), I could just see this potential deal as something to pad WWE’s roster and to mess with AEW.

Now, as for Tony Khan‘s response… If you needed any more proof of amateur hour, just listen to Tony’s response to this New Japan/WWE rumor in his online promo with Tony Shiavone. Yikes… First of all, this MARK said “I read the Observer today”… Then, this manchild tries to cite all of the Japanese wrestlers and involvement with NJPW in AEW. Tony then calls Nick Khan, WWE’s Chief of Revenue, the “con-man of Connecticut”. This is your company President? On top of that, this is the guy who operates a NFL team and a European soccer club?

A few years ago, I wrote a column for my previous employer called “The Day that WCW Died” and I argued that Eric Bischoff joining the NWO during November 1996 planted the seed towards WCW’s ultimate destruction. With time, Bischoff began to focus more on his NWO heel character rather than the day-to-day operations and creative of WCW. 1997 looked great running on NWO fumes but by the time 1998 arrived, everything fell apart quickly. Well, this Impact-AEW deal that started during December 2020 and then Tony Khan beginning to appear on Impact Wrestling can be argued as the beginning of AEW’s end.

Look at all of these executives or bookers getting intoxicated by being television characters instead of keeping a tight ship backstage. Happened eventually to Vince McMahon, definitely hit Bischoff when he joined the NWO, Dusty always kept himself involved as a wrestler when booker, Vince Russo in WCW as an on-screen character during 2000, Stephanie McMahon always getting involved, Triple H as an authority figure, and the EVPs of AEW are definitely struggling to manage other people and care more about their own pushes. Tony Khan got a taste of fame by being on television and now he feels a sense of invincibility. This is BAD for AEW…

That promo about WWE and New Japan potentially working together was unprofessional by Tony Khan. There are much easier things to mock the WWE about, such as their PG rating, 40 writers backstage, NXT struggling to draw, RAW’s viewership continuing to decline, delivering terminated wrestlers’ stuff via garbage bags, etc. PLENTY of stuff out there to mock the WWE… But sounding STUPID over a rumor displayed in the Wrestling Observer and calling an office employee as a “con-man” is tacky by Tony Khan.

*****

What are your thoughts on the WWE moving off of Adnan Virk already as an announcer?

I’m not surprised. The problem with WWE’s announcer situation is that Vince McMahon believes in himself too much as an announcer and that everybody he hears is inferior to his announcing talents. Seriously… Look at how many times Vince has changed-up the announcing team since 1993. With Ross, alone, he moved him in and out of that chair and yet Ross has always been recognized as the best in the business.

Sorry, but Adnan Virk knew NOTHING about Pro Wrestling when he joined the company and was failing quickly to learn it on the fly. Compare that to Pat McAfee who joined Smackdown’s team as a color commentator. It’s working because Pat is a HUGE wrestling fan and appreciates it as a sport and form of entertainment. On top of that, Pat has some actual in-ring experience now.

To work in the wrestling business, you have to WANT to do this and be willing to work the long hours as well. Unlike a real professional sport, the announcers have to be in-sync with the storytelling inside the ring to sell an angle or a wrestler to a large audience. You can’t just recruit some guy working for a sports company… They HAVE to be a fan of this stuff as well.

Honestly, Tom Phillips wasn’t that bad and should still be there (but the WWE released him!!!)… He did the job up to WWE’s standards and he’s not the problem. Having to play talk football with 2 other commentator is the problem along with the product inside the ring. Give the announcers something more interesting to commentate on and it will do wonders. WWE Creative and Talent Relations are making it hard for any announcers to successfully call matches because the product is so inferior right now. HOWEVER, just listen to how excited Michael Cole and Pat McAfee get when Roman Reigns comes out. THAT RIGHT NOW proves that it’s not the announcers who make the WWE product, but that the WWE product greatly helps your announcing.

Reportedly, WWE has hired another non-wrestling announcer to become RAW’s play by play guy. How many months should we bet on before he’s gone, too?

If Vince wants the announcing to be perfect, he should get his 75 year old arse out there and do it himself.

*****

What is the WWE doing with all of their recent job cuts at the WWE Offices?

It’s just more Nick Khan being Nick Khan… He’s WWE’s Chief Revenue Officer and he’s reshaping the WWE’s corporate structure to his liking. Based on these aggressive changes made by Khan, which are allowed upon by Vince, it tells me that Nick Khan will become the next President and CEO of the WWE. Sorry, McMahon kids and Triple H, it’s not happening for you. We never saw you restructuring the WWE’s corporate structure as Nick Khan has.

The firings were mostly in WWE’s Media and Digital divisions, as redundancies were recognized by WWE management. For example, Bryan Alvarez reported that there were multiple graphics and social media divisions as well as extra production teams for hyping and producing WWE shows.

But I know what is really happening and having worked for several corporations, it’s easy to see. It’s Nick Khan reshaping the WWE into his own personal vision. What that means is that he wants employees who fit that vision. That could mean bringing in talents from prior places that he worked for or hiring younger for people he can mold into what he wants instead of a longer time veteran. For those who remain in the WWE Offices, you better start stepping up and presenting yourself well… Get noticed for the value that you can still bring to the WWE table. Otherwise, the protections that you thought that you had from prior relationships inside the WWE are now gone.

For companies that make big hires at the very top of their corporations, that is usually a sign of wanting major structural changes or someone who can attract new business. Then, the company president or board will give them free reign to change things up. These aggressive change-ups are a part of a new Executive being hired as an outside hire and the Board/President recognizing that the current operations just aren’t working as well as they used to. This is what many corporations are constantly going through, as layoffs out of the blue happen all of the time. Often, it just takes 1 hire of a new executive who has a different vision than the prior one. Now, there are better analytics that the younger executives have at their disposal and they’ll use them to better understand who fits their systems and who is or isn’t productive.

Honestly, it’s business as usual… WWE does have a bloated corporate staff and has for a while… Khan probably recognizes this. But does he recognize that WWE has about 40 television writers on their staff, too, as reported also by Bryan Alvarez of the Wrestling Observer? As I discussed in my Last Column, the WWE Creative Team, despite their numbers, aren’t producing results for WWE Television and that includes top brass like Vince McMahon, Bruce Prichard, Kevin Dunn, Triple H, Michael PS Hayes, and many other guys backstage.

I’ll be very interested in Nick Khan if he can reorganize that Creative Team in its current form. Doubtful, as having that bloated Creative Team gives Vince McMahon many scapegoats from preventing himself from looking directly in the mirror.

*****

What do you think about Jim Ross’s comments about Randy Orton being the best wrestler through 2021?

On his recent Grilling JR podcast, Jim Ross reiterated that he thinks that Randy Orton is the “best wrestler in the world”. Ross has his right to his own opinion but then he had to go further in pouring salt on the would by stating “I’m sure there’s Kenny Omega fans out there that would say Omega is the best wrestler in the world” and added that everyone has a right to their opinion.

Could you imagine Eric Bischoff or Tony Shiavone, during 1996, saying the following… Hulk Hogan is our world champion but we believe that Shawn Michaels is the best wrestler in the world right now.

Look, I love Jim Ross and everybody knows that. I’ve praised him for years upon years and I have many columns to prove it. In my opinion, he helped save the WWE from disaster and they are still riding on the fumes of his successful developmental system of wrestlers. That said, he has to realize that today’s generation of wrestlers don’t take to criticism as well as prior generations, PARTICULARLY the ones who work in the same company as you. Furthermore, Ross is an announcer on AEW. How can he credibly call matches when he absolutely believes that another wrestler working for another company is better?

I actually agree with Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega being upset at Ross’s comments, though I thought Omega took it too far with his Tweet and it clearly shows animosity that he probably has towards Jim Ross to begin with. After all, Ross was calling his New Japan matches and has been seldom utilized as an advisor to the EVPs of AEW. There is definitely built-in heat here and it doesn’t help that Kenny Omega has a massive ego that can be easily bruised if a member of the same company praises another wrestler from another company.

Honestly, I wouldn’t doubt that this is the beginning of Jim Ross’s demise in AEW. His contract expires in less than a year, anyway… And if Ross is free, the WWE should snatch him up quickly. I love Ross as an announcer, but his value is much stronger returning to Talent Relations and helping the WWE rebuild that system. What the WWE needs is better recruiting of athletes sticking out in smaller independent wrestling promotions or who are performing in other sports who might make great wrestlers. Ross could function quite well in Gerald Brisco’s older role as a recruit and/or coinciding with John Laurinaitis. Jim and John could give the WWE the “best of both worlds” and in my opinion, do a better job than what Triple H did throughout the 2010s.

Ross has to realize AEW’s mistake of having 4 active wrestlers become Executive Vice Presidents… You cannot do both, folks… Wrestling and having a backstage say hardly ever mix and eventually, the roles always merge.

And now an interview comes out about Jim Ross suggesting that Impact has benefited more from their relationship with AEW… Oh man, that’s not going to sit well with Kenny Omega and Tony Khan who are deep into that Impact deal.

*****

Do you think that Finn Balor could successfully rejoin the WWE main roster?

Did Finn Balor grow lately or put on some more weight to look the part of a REAL heavyweight? No, he didn’t… Did he draw much on NXT? Well, we have many shows that were under 700,000 viewers with him as NXT Champ.

Facts are facts, folks… For the several pushes that he received in the WWE, he didn’t draw and he looked much smaller inside the WWE ring on the WWE stage. On top of that, much of the WWE roster towers over him in height and in weight. In real life, size advantage matters and that is why UFC and Boxing have weight classes. Oh, and amateur wrestling too… I keep forgetting to add that point.

In my opinion, I would place him on 205 Live so that he can fully act like the wrestler that he really wants to be and not how Triple H wants to push him. HHH has put a ton of his chips on this guy to be one of the biggest success stories out of NXT and it’s not going to happen, ever. I don’t care if Finn Balor dresses up like the Demon nightly. He cannot cut a promo to save his life and he’s undersized. What he has is good ability inside the ring but most of the WWE roster has that as well. What most NXT call-ups are lacking are either size (6 feet and under + being 200 pounds or lighter) along with a horrible ability to cut promos and present their characters well (that’s on you, Matt Bloom).

Go ahead and try to push him again on the main WWE roster. Make my day and prove me right again about Finn Balor. The FACT is that he was DEMOTED back to the NXT roster because he couldn’t successfully make it on the main WWE roster and that will forever tarnish him. But he’s just not good enough to be presented as a Main Event like wrestler in the WWE and he’s not that exciting for the midcard either.

*****

Do you believe in Veleteen Dream’s statement where he defended himself after his release?

Why didn’t he release this statement earlier? WWE gave him bad advice here on not saying a single thing about these accusations and it just fed into the Internet hate towards him about he allegations. By remaining silent and not presenting facts, it made many fans assume that he really did these alleged crimes towards minors. Now, thanks to that advice, he has no employment with the WWE.

If I were Dream, I’d raise absolute hell about these allegations and actually sue not just the ones alleging foul play on his part, but the WWE for wrongful termination. If the WWE terminated you based on false allegations and took part in helping to bolster those allegations (i.e. advising Dream to remain silent), he might have a case. After all, the WWE didn’t terminate him immediately based on the allegations compared to how they handled Enzo. One could argue that allegations make for bad press for the WWE and can hurt its reputation in the market place. For Dream, however, they kept him around ONE YEAR after the allegations were made.

You have to go down fighting on this stuff if you believe that you’re innocent… The late Kobe Bryant fought like hell against his accuser during the mid 2000s, as he insisted that he and the accuser had consensual sex (albeit a bit rough). Mike Tyson was accused of sexual assault during the 1990s and fought like hell in that criminal trial brought up against him. To this day, he insists that he was innocent. What’s the difference? Both Kobe and Tyson, despite harsh allegations in which they made actual physical activity (consensual or not), were able to maintain their careers afterward and actually grow as pop culture legends. Many people have already forgot about their past allegations. Tyson went to jail for it and people love him. Look at the showering of love for Kobe Bryant right now.

Dream is in a bad spot because sex trafficking and pedophilia are not only in the news, but there are actual political conspiracies about one political side of the aisle actually engaging in it. All you have to do is Google “Q’Anon” and what that movement believes to see why the Velveteen Dream’s allegations have been heavily believed by many. Maybe if Dream was alleged of a different crime, the heat wouldn’t be on him. Just the wrong allegations at the wrong political time is likely what is fueling nobody to believe “innocent until proven guilty”.

My thing is this… He could have did it or he could have been hacked… What ISN’T disputed is the nude photo that was allegedly sent to a minor and that was indeed Dream’s part. Why are you taking nude photos of yourself and keeping them stored on your devices? How obtuse can you be? Furthermore, you have ADMITTED to sending private messages to fans who were minors. Why are you doing that? BOTH having nude photos on your phone AND messaging minors opens the door for trouble. Whether it was a hacker or Dream himself sending the photo himself, the FACT remains that he (a) took a photo of himself and (b) was communicating with minors online. Both (a) and (b) are factual and has been admitted by Dream himself.

Anyone in the public eye needs to be smarter than this. Velveteen Dream could be 100% innocent in this matter BUT by having a nude photo on his phone and communicating with minors via Social Media, it opens the door for allegations.

Now that you’re free from WWE’s legal advice, FIGHT LIKE HELL if you are truly innocent of any alleged crimes or improper behavior. PROVE YOURSELF to the public and CLEAR YOUR NAME.

But stop taking damn nude photos of yourself with your phone and stop using Social Media other than promoting your wrestling character or where you may wrestle. Those “Private Messages” aren’t so private and can be shared with anyone. It’s easy to take screenshots and forward them. Whether your allegations are true or not, you’re at least a dumbass for opening the door to let people on the internet determine the fate of your own career.

*****

What are your thoughts on this week’s Ultimate Warrior documentaries?

I enjoyed the A&E Biography from Sunday Night. Yes, it was heavily controlled by his current family and his image, since his death, remains heavily on guard from the WWE. That said, they were honest about Warrior’s problems… They covered his steroid use, HGH use, his issues with his suspensions and firings in the WWE, and later his controversial statements in speeches or on his website. They covered a good bit as to why the Warrior was only around in the WWE for 5-6 years. Yes, the story of his current family was heavily told, but they have a right to that and as far as we know, he was a GREAT husband to his 2nd wife and a GREAT father to his 2 kids. I LOVED what Paul Heyman said at the end of the Biography, something to the effect that Warrior sought being loved in the wrestling business but in the end, found it with his wife and kids. Just nailed it, as Warrior’s life growing up had issues with his Dad abandoning him at the age of 10 (or 12-13). My only strike about the Biography was not mentioning his WCW run, but honestly, that was insignificant to his life and career. He was more than rusty as a wrestler and WCW was beginning its downfall at that point.

As for Dark Side of the Ring regarding the Ultimate Warrior… Was this the sequel to the Self-Destruction DVD? Seriously… Look, I love BOTH Jim Ross and Jim Cornette. Neither guy was saw much of him personally. Granted, both of them saw the 1996 version who was couldn’t separate the Ultimate Warrior character from the human being behind it. However, They were just negative for the sake of being negative, as Jim Cornette said in his opening line that he’s an Ultimate Warrior hater. HELLO, Vice?!? For anyone who said that A&E was biased, what about Vice? Seriously, the criticism of A&E was the lack of peers… You had, what, 1 peer with Jake “the Snake” Roberts? And even that is questionable because his stories change up often… Eric Bischoff was on the documentary but they said nothing, as well, about the WCW run (unless I somehow missed it). This show was sloppy, as proven by the “where did the Dingo Warrior name come from” stuff in which audio from the Warrior can be clearly obtained of him telling that story.

A&E won the battle of the “Ultimate Warrior Documentaries”, in my opinion… Honestly, Dark Side is hit or miss with me and they are guilty of having guests, like A&E, who weren’t peers of the wrestler. Vice’s felt like a hit piece and the only redeeming quality was the ex-wife’s contributions. The shocking reveal is that the Warrior, as a pro wrestler on the road, cheated on his wife back then. However, the ex-wife wasn’t always carrying an axe here… Aside from the cheating and then getting into the character too much, she had positive things to say about him.

What’s the worst thing about the Warrior? That he was a tad bit demanding and couldn’t get along with others? Wow, shocking in the wrestling business. He did steroids too? Another shocker… Cheated on his wife while on the road? Another shocker! And worse of all, he used to blog and do video rants while saying foul things. Really? Have you not seen most stuff on YouTube or Social Media? Oh, his Politics too? I guess that you have missed the last 10 years of extreme debating of the political wings. The fact is that Jim didn’t physically abuse anyone or commit any crimes… He just had a personality that was just a bit out there to work with or to listen to at times.

To discredit him as a talent is unfair… NOBODY and I mean NOBODY could have been called “Ultimate Warrior” and fit that role the way that Jim Hellwig aka Warrior did it. He was one of a kind… Things fell apart for him after he won the WWE Title during 1990 and the WWE did him no favors by giving him awful opponents between Wrestlemania 6 and Royal Rumble 1991. But I’ll tell you this much, the Ultimate Warrior that I witnessed from SummerSlam 1988 until Wrestlemania 6 was the coolest thing that I ever saw as a kid.

The fact is that Pro Wrestling isn’t finding guys who could play roles like the Ultimate Warrior, Hulk Hogan, the Rock, Steve Austin, Undertaker, or Brock Lesnar… On top of that, Creative isn’t there to help create a gimmick that sells an image and hides wrestler weaknesses. If the Ultimate Warrior was so terrible, then why can’t anyone dress up in a gimmick like the Warrior and legitimately draw as well as he did? We’re talking about Finn Balor lately… Why can’t his little Demon gimmick draw like the talentless Warrior gimmick? Because Warrior LOOKED THE PART and had a mystery about him. All you have to do is observe Finn’s Social Media to see that he has no mystery to him.

A&E wins easily, for me… They made a quality documentary that talked about the GOOD and the BAD of his life while looking professional doing it. Dark Side was just a sequel to the Self-Destruct video, even repeating lines from it directly.

*****

What did you think of John Cena’s apology to China?

Honestly, I didn’t care… John Cena is not a country, nor will he ever will be. It’s not his job to conduct foreign policy as well as everyone wants him to conduct it. His job is to ensure that the new “Fast & the Furious” film sells as many tickets as possible. Last time I checked, we weren’t at war with China. Could China do things better? Sure… We could, too, such as not taking advantage of their cheap labor in bad factory conditions to make all of our stuff. If you have a problem with John Cena or even Lebron James apologizing to China, then throw everything that says “Made in China” into the trashcan because you’re enabling that country too.

And I’m defending what China does as a country… That’s for our World Leaders to figure out and decide how to handle. You know what? They seem OK with it because they are heavily trading with China. In the case of the United States, we’re borrowing money from them to finance our Debt. We owe China $1.1 Trillion.

Why are you yelling at John Cena for apologizing to China when your own country uses their labor to make goods, instead of hiring people in the United States to build them instead, and takes their money to finance our own ballooning debt?

What John Cena just found out is what makes America great… 1st Amendment, baby. You can rip and ridicule our government all day long without consequence. However, if you say something about another country, you’ll quickly find out how unique the United States of America is by allowing free speech. In the past few years alone, we’ve seen companies like the NBA and Disney have to bow down to China if they want to conduct business there and make money. At the end of the day, you AS AN AMERICAN have the right to boycott the NBA, Disney, or John Cena for their dealings or apologies to China. Isn’t that great to have such a freedom? But if you’re willing to make easy money with China, you have to kiss their ring and recognize that your speech isn’t free over there. On top of that, their government can just censor your operations over there too. Cena had to apologize or Fast & the Furious would lose millions.

People just have to accept that entertainers, sports, and entertainment/sports companies are there to make the maximum amount of revenue as possible. They know, when they make deals with Chinese outlets that they are dealing within a Communist country. Furthermore, undoing their politics is impossible and going to war with that country would be violent given how many people China has and how connected they are to other countries. We have to co-exist as countries somehow and if doing business with each other keeps both countries out of war, then I’m for it. If the people in China want their own freedom, then they can fight for it as well.

John Cena is not a country, nor is he a politician. Last time I checked, it was NOT illegal for any United States citizen to make money from China. Again, if John Cena doing business with China for his movies was so bad, then why are the majority of our Consumer goods “made in China”? Why are they financing our debt? If our own government and major corporations are allowed to do business with China, then why can’t John Cena? Furthermore, him saying something about China and then quickly apologizing (in their language, too) is on John Cena. If you don’t like what he said, it’s your choice to vote with your dollar and not see his movie.

To me, things are just words… He said something and then said something else to try to reverse what he initially said. Honestly, I don’t care… At the end of the day, we should be more mad at our politicians for enabling a Communist country to deny the existence of a country while also openly sending all of our manufacturing jobs there.

If John Cena shows up on Smackdown anytime soon, I’m cool with that… Just like I’m enjoying Lakers games during the NBA Playoffs.

We need to demand MORE of our politicians to say and do the right things and NOT our celebrities. Because we don’t hold our politicians accountable, that is causing our celebrities, who aren’t involved in the political process or policy making daily, to feel the need to step up. Everybody on this planet has an opinion, good or bad… But I would trust Cena’s opinions on wrestling or acting more than I would on foreign policy.

*****

Predictions on AEW Double or Nothing?

Real quick, as this column has taken me hours to compile this week:

– Serena Deeb defeats Riho
– Kenny Omega retains over Orange Cassidy/Pac
– Britt Baker wins the Women’s Title over Hikaru Shida
– Christian Cage wins the Casino Battle Royal UNLESS a debuting new wrestler enters (Samoa Joe, Daniel Bryan, CM Punk).
– Adam Page will defeat Brian Cage, but it won’t be “all the rage”.
– Miro defeats Lance Archer
– Anthony Ogogo will defeat Cody Rhodes
– The Inner Circle will defeat the Pinnacle in the Stadium Stampede Match to force a 3rd gimmick match to be determined later.
– Sting/Darby Allen will defeat Scorpio Sky/Ethan Page.
– Jon Moxley/Eddie Kingston will become NEW Tag Team Champions over the Young Bucks

If Kenny Omega had better opponents, this could be a great show.

So just chill… Until the next episode!

Comments and feedback are welcome. Follow and Tweet me @titowrestling or login in below to post comments.

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Additional 2024 WWE Draft picks announced after Smackdown goes off the air

Five matches confirmed for the 2024 WWE Backlash PLE

WWE Draft results from the April 26th 2024 edition of Smackdown

Jinder Mahal issues new public statement regarding his departure from WWE

AEW President Tony Khan says WWE “is like the Harvey Weinstein of pro-wrestling”

News regarding there being concern within WWE’s NXT brand heading into the 2024 Draft

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