ASK TITO: WWE Wrestlemania 41, Ricky Starks, Vince McMahon, AEW in Australia, Demolition in HOF?, and More
The Excellence in Column Writing has returned… I hope that all is well with you and your friends/family, as it’s getting rough out there. Inflation seems to be making a comeback and yet our policy makers aren’t doing a damn thing about it. Like Wrestlemania tickets, large grocery chains and utility companies are allowed to freely price gouge you and your friends/family without any penalty. While I think WWE can get away with it because of high demand, they’ll start to pay a price for it when they poorly book Wrestlemania 41. Sorry, but Jey Uso and Charlotte Flair were the WRONG choices to win the Rumble matches.
That’s the ironic thing going on right now with WWE fans… On one hand, many WWE fans are riding the “YEET” wave and believe in the momentum of Jey Uso, yet many longtime fans see through Jey Uso’s ability and “YEET” feels so much like the “YES!” movement to me. What Jey Uso fans don’t realize that once Jey captures a World Title, what is left for him to do with his character? And do you believe that he’s credible enough to defeat the likes of Roman Reigns, CM Punk, or even Cody Rhodes? Is he credible enough to carry the company and draw packed houseshows on his own?
That’s the issue… Jey Uso is feeling the vibes on the climb by live attendance fans, much like Daniel Bryan was over 10 years ago. Once Bryan became champion not once but twice, the bottom fell under him. Jey Uso is literally Daniel Bryan, though Jey has more in the personality basket while Daniel Bryan has more in the in-ring ability basket. If I were agenting Jey Uso right now, I’d come up with a cool looking finisher that nobody is doing right now or recycle a longtime great finisher that nobody else has used for years. Something because his Spear looks so weak, as does his fully body splash. There’s just a lack of impact with his moves needed to look more convincing in the ring, while dressing like a teenager takes away the impact of looking serious like a main eventer.
And then there is Charlotte Flair and to a degree, John Cena. The veterans are being shoved back into the top, despite barely working during 2024 and suddenly appearing for 2025’s Rumble to Wrestlemania season. Sorry, but both of you have already had your 14 and 16 World Title reigns. There’s a reason why you’ve won so many title reigns in a short period of time and had barely any length to them: WWE repeatedly changed their mind during your peak years and just hot potatoed the titles back to you due to a lack of confidence in the rest of the roster. Cena feasted on WWE having lack of confidence in Miz, Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, Sheamus, and many others while Charlotte Flair literally beat Sasha Banks on 3 different occasions in a row to reclaim the Women’s Title for 3 of her 14 championships.
For John Cena, I can understand… The guy sells tons and tons of merchandise, even the older version of him moves that crap. But what has Charlotte Flair drawn, exactly? Sorry, but her merchandise does NOT sell well at all and no real shows can admit it packed seats due specifically to Charlotte. Great in-ring worker, yes, and I’ll never deny that… But her character is terrible and stale, as she can’t evolve like Becky Lynch, Liv Morgan, Bayley, or Alexa Bliss could. However, WWE officials are infatuated with her because of her bloodline and keeps pushing her hard, despite fans getting tired of her act.
But it’s not like Charlotte has been loyal to the WWE, despite pushing her to be a star. Her relationship with Andrade created a ton of complications, as it appeared evident that she and her father were politicking to get out of the WWE and somehow join AEW. On top of that, just raging jealousy of Becky Lynch becoming way more successful than her caused many backstage issues that spilled into an interview segment. But all of this extensive time off is getting ridiculous. While some of it is health issues, she’s just taken time off for her personal life. WWE has major inconsistency issues in granting time off for personal or mental issues for some, while not granting it for others. And then every time Charlotte comes back, WWE treats it as if the heavens have parted and a goddess has come down from sky.
I think that you’re going to see a ton of CORRECTIVE actions taken at Elimination Chamber. Looking how Wrestlemania tickets are stuck in the mid 40,000s and WWE wants to pump that up near 60,000, I figure Triple H and WWE Creative are going to re-assess how the card looks and what will be the outcomes. Personally, I don’t see what Charlotte gains from another Women’s Title reign without changing up that STALE character and feel that Tiffany Stratton has much more to gain by actually defeating her. Furthermore with Jey Uso and John Cena, I think WWE has to swallow the decision of Jey winning the Rumble and put him against Gunther. So what if Jey beats Gunther for the secondary RAW World Title? What matters is who is wrestling Cody Rhodes.
I’m just not feeling John Cena vs. Cody Rhodes… Sorry, but part-time Cena doesn’t deserve that big spot, as it should be deserved for one of the WWE’s true 3 big draws: The Rock, Roman Reigns, or CM Punk. As the NoDQ Review crew was talking about the other day, an easy solution to make Wrestlemania 41 interesting is to have Roman Reigns win the Elimination Chamber to challenge Cody Rhodes and then have CM Punk “cash in” in his favor with Paul Heyman to be added into the Wrestlemania WWE Title match with Cody Rhodes. I’d MUCH RATHER see a Triple Threat with Cody, Punk, and Reigns rather than the proposed Rollins, Punk, and Reigns match.
I like Seth Rollins and am proud of all that he’s accomplished. I still admire what he did for Wrestlemania 40 last year… BUT, star power is star power, and he’s just a notch below Punk and Reigns. However, I really like the match-up of John Cena vs. Seth Rollins instead… Remember, it was Seth who broke Cena’s nose years ago. Seth could taunt Cena that he’s “too old” and “doesn’t deserve a Wrestlemania spot” to build up heat and then the one-on-one match would be good at Wrestlemania. Sorry, but part-time John does NOT deserve a World Title shot, let alone being the one who defeats Cody Rhodes for that title. That would diminish the massive chase he had climbing through the Bloodline and Brock Lesnar to become champion.
WWE has a mess on its hands, but one that can be creatively fixed… Remember last year?
Onto your questions…
ASK TITO: Your Questions, My Answers
What do you think of Ricky Starks’s debut at NXT?
I liked it… He came through the crowd, unannounced and unnamed, and just cut a promo. That’s tearing a page out of Scott Hall’s playbook from 1996 when he returned to WCW. Make things mysterious as to WHY he’s here… Obviously, we all know his AEW contract expired, but play things up as if he’s there to cause trouble and hide his motivations until the best time to reveal them.
Hopefully, Ricky Starks can retain his name “Ricky Starks”, as that’s his real name in real life. The NXT naming factory hasn’t been too nice to many of its developmental wrestlers, so I hope that WWE realizes Starks has some naming value and retains his name.
But yeah, he’s a good talent that AEW just lost and I think this will hurt them. And I’m fine with him being in NXT, as the WWE roster is a bit too crowded at the moment and he could be a great asset for TNA crossover matches.
What’s going on, AEW? That was a good, young talent that you let walk out the door and yet you’re still stuck with Adam Copeland’s expensive contract. I thought that verbal on-screen exchange that they had was unprofessional on Copeland’s part, as making a comparison to a WWE superstar for gimmick infringement should never come up during an opposing promotion’s show. Again, sign of mismanagement of AEW where wrestlers can break script and say something stupid to bury their own co-workers. But that’s OK, as AEW is still paying $2-3 million to Copeland while WWE gets a 34 year old Starks for a lot less than that with a bigger runway ahead of him.
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What are your thoughts on Vince McMahon receiving no charges from a federal grand jury?
Duh… Do you really think that Donald Trump’s justice department would try to indict Vince McMahon on any charges? SEC, weeks ago, settled with Vince over financial fraud related to his NDA payouts and now suddenly, no criminal activity was escalated by a grand jury. Granted, that’s a jury making that decision, but federal prosecutors are presenting evidence to them for facilitating their decision on whether to move forward with their indictments or not. They could have just presented poorly or withheld any evidence.
We’ll see what happens with the Janel Grant lawsuit… If they rule in favor of Janel, Vince will immediately appeal and you never know what favorable judge will be in that appellate court. And the further you go up the legal system, chances are that you’ll run into a judge that buddy Donald appointed.
If I were Janel’s lawyers, I’d try to settle and get whatever you can because this could become very expensive to them with a losing result in the end. Vince has over $2 billion in cash to fight you and has judges who will take care of him beyond the appeals process. Problem is that Vince won’t settle and wants to defeat Janel whose friend took their relationship public and ruined his funtime and prestige with the WWE. This is personal to Vince now and I’d take any settlement at this point, if I were Janel Grant, as the deck is stacked against her.
If you want to defeat Vince McMahon in this game, you need to find the female wrestler during the mid-2000s who was awarded $7.5 million as a settlement. THAT is the problematic case, Vince coerced her into oral sex for a push but then no push happened… Instead, Vince wanted more sexual favors and when this wrestling talent refused, she was depushed as a character instead and eventually let go. I think that I know who it is and would be curious if she ever wanted to assist Janel and many other women to beat Vince down for his games. However, terms of that NDA are attached to that $7.5 million settlement and said person probably doesn’t want to relitigate.
If only ANY of these women harassed by Vince would have made their accusations public instead of taking the money and signing Non-Disclosure Agreements instead. Instead, Vince’s money and his legal team can easily protect him against his horrible sexual predator moves of the past.
At least Vince McMahon is out of the WWE… Thank God.
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Who could join Ricky Starks to jump to WWE from AEW?
I think Malakai Black (Aleister Black) and Miro (Rusev), who are no longer under AEW contract, will for sure rejoin WWE. Both are “Triple H guys” whom were released after Triple H lost his EVP of Talent Relations job during early 2020. WWE retaining Rusev and pushing him again as a monster would be a great story and I believe WWE fans would be totally into it.
I definitely think that Rey Fenix is coming to the WWE and will join Penta. Easy decision there.
I think there is a good chance that Britt Baker rejoins WWE (worked as a jobber previously). She’s their biggest female star and I think she’d thrive in WWE’s ecosystem.
Otherwise, I’d just think about Wardlow and MJF if and when their contracts come up. I think that MJF has cornered Tony into paying him whatever he wants for many years, but Wardlow just doesn’t seem to have any interest by Tony. I could see WWE putting Wardlow in NXT under a new name and pushing him as a monster.
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Thoughts on AEW’s Grand Slam becoming a Collision taping versus a featured AEW Dynamite or Pay Per View?
Well, they had ticket sale issues there and had to move venues, hence the demotion from being a potential Pay Per View to just a secondary show taping.
Didn’t we hear, for years, how “strong” AEW was internationally? Yeah, I don’t think so…
AEW needs to look in the mirror and wonder why they cannot fill buildings with LOW ticket prices. I always laugh at how WWE sells out places with HIGH ticket prices, but AEW is legitimately struggling to sell 2,500 tickets with LOW prices. You’ve got yourself a DEMAND issue, AEW, as nobody wants to pay anything to see your product and viewership continues to decline.
Tony is just lucky that Cable/Satellite channels are desperate for ANY kind of live sports content and that’s been their lifeline to survive. But I’d worry in 5 years when the DEBT of many of these media companies explodes and many of them begin filing for bankruptcy.
The second All In show dramatically lost attendees and now Australia isn’t drawing… Viewership is down everywhere, ditto for Pay Per View buys declining. Demand is declining for AEW and Tony and his doofus EVPs have no clue as to why… But it’s them and their management of the roster. AEW should still have Cody and CM Punk on their roster, but don’t and for good reason.
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What are your thoughts on the recent WWE releases and could they go anywhere?
Sigh… When WWE releases talents, for as rich as they are and as somewhat loyal Triple H is to many of the talents he groomed, it’s a sign that the wrestler hit their peak and can’t go any further. Hence why AEW isn’t benefitting from signing any of the released wrestlers.
We’ve tried and tried with the Authors of Pain, but it’s just not getting any better. I’m surprised that Karrion Kross survived, as he’s been equally as bad as them but again, Triple H is a loyal guy. Sad to see Paul Ellering out of work, as he’s one of my favorite managers.
They did the most that they could with Sonya Deville… Don’t know what else you could do with her.
The rest, I’m just sorry that they are out of work, but I forget what half of you did for NXT or WWE, unfortunately to admit.
With any release, it can be motivation to go out there and prove WWE wrong.
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What are your thoughts on Demolition returning to WWE.com’s alumni section?
A fan forwarded me an article from What Culture, noticing that they’ve been re-added to the website… This is cool, as WWE and the 2 members of Demolition have been in legal litigation for years. It all started when WWE deemed Bill Eadie (Ax, also known as the Masked Superstar previously) to be too old and wanted to replace him with a younger Crush. Anytime that Eadie tried to wrestle with anything resembling his Ax character, WWE legal would come after him. Then, on top of that, both Ax and Smash (Barry Darsow) joined in the concussion lawsuits which the WWE fought tooth and nail. This strained their relationships further and I believe the push to have the New Day break their tag title records was done on purpose.
But the concussion lawsuits have ended through 2020 and enough time has passed, along with Vince McMahon stepping aside. New WWE owners and newer people in charge may help Demolition get that DESERVED Hall of Fame recognition.
And WWE should hurry and do it this year, as Eadie is 77 years old while Darsow is 65. Both are still in relative great shape for their ages and they deserve to have their moment in the sun.
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