MR. TITO: ‘Twas The Night Before Pro Wrestling Christmas – 2025 Edition – John Cena, TKO’s Corporate Takeover of WWE, and More
‘Twas the night before wrestling Christmas, when all throughout the arena,
Not a Vince McMahon stirring, not even a retiring John Cena.
At least with Cena, retirement was his choice and something for WWE to prepare,
But with a certain lawsuit still stirring, Vince’s relationship with WWE was beyond disrepair.
Yet, idiot marks were nestled all snug in their beds,
With Vince McMahon’s terrible 2010s creative decisions dancing in their heads.
For years, they cried for Vince to retire and for someone to tell him “that’s a wrap”,
However, wrestling fans have become spoiled even when a good product falls in their lap.
When into my pocketbook there arose such a clatter,
As it was TKO robbing me of my earnings to make their wallets fatter.
Away to their shareholders my money flew like a flash,
That WWE, under TKO, has become all about the cash.
No matter what the circumstances, Triple H tried to put on a good show,
Even when the Rock abruptly changed his mind about Wrestlemania 41 and told him “no”.
When what to my wondering eyes did appear,
It was Travis Scott who was the only one to interfere.
Despite the follow-up to a great Cena heel turn and how Wrestlemania 41 made me sick,
It felt like 2025 was still delivered by Saint Nick.
More rapid than the eagles were John Cena’s opponents stacking up by names,
As we were treated to fantastic matches that made many wrestling fans felt like they came.
Now Cody, Now CM Punk, Now Logan Paul and Brock Lesnar,
On Sami Zayn, Dominik, R-Truth, Orton, and Gunther.
To the top of the card on many top shows,
Because real wrestling fans know what a great year WWE had that kept them on their toes.
Bitter wrestling fans can just tune in to AEW for shows written by a Tony,
With 5-star matches awarded by a writer who has become a phony.
Sorry, but I dislike wrestling promotion,
As the corporate takeover of Warner Bros. has put your demise in full motion.
Congrats to TNA on their brand new AMC television deal,
But did someone give them the memo that cable TV no longer has appeal.
This promotion began in 2002 and it’s still here,
As somehow, the creative tenures of Jarrett, Russo, and Bischoff didn’t make it disappear.
With a sleigh full of toys, Fanatics was excited to see WWE fans at live events,
When WWE marks hand over their cash, that’s a price gouging consent.
Same with ESPN, who now host Premium Live Event WWE shows,
To afford watching WWE events, fans will have to sell drugs that go up the nose.
RAW on Netflix debuted and oh, how merry,
As the WWE tried to pop Netflix’s cable takeover cherry.
Somehow, Netflix is going to pay $82 billion to purchase Warner Brothers,
Right when WWE fans can no longer borrow logins from their mothers.
CM Punk was a good corporate boy this year and even brought back AJ Lee,
Becoming injured during a big angle has become Seth Rollins’s guarantee.
The Vision sucked and it was a shame to waste Paul Heyman the Oracle,
As when you get years of Lesnar and the Bloodline, the rest has been horrible.
You can yell at me and insist that I’m an old man yelling at the clouds,
With all of these return visits to my columns, I feel really proud.
As I’ve built a great relationships and a fanbase that I enjoy,
Even when the haters, with all of the free time in the world, want me destroyed.
I’ve had a great writing career and I’m proud of my work,
But I cannot having so much free time on my hands to provide feedback like a jerk.
Then again, the tears taste great and they are quite satisfying,
As 27 years of writing columns on 2 popular wrestling websites provides no denying.
I gave it my all and volunteered my time,
To hold wrestling promotions accountable even when it’s a climb,
As maybe 6 or 7 years have provided good wresting shows,
And coming up with wrestling columns is hard when the content really blows.
I want this column to be my last though it’s hard to retire,
As something interesting always happens and makes it seems like I’ve been rehired.
But I implore Aaron Rift to sharpen up the stake,
And drive it through my heart before I make another mistake.
Hopefully, you’ve had fun reading my works,
And didn’t take my columns or life too seriously like other dorks.
But I’ll exclaim, as I drive out of sight…
Thanks for everything, Merry Christmas, and to all a good night!
*****
Updated Top 10 Wrestlers of the Wrestlemania Era (since 1985)
#11 – TIE – Bret Hart, Sting, Kurt Angle, Triple H
#10 – Roman Reigns
#9 – Shawn Michaels
#8 – Macho Man Randy Savage
#7 – Brock Lesnar
#6 – Ric Flair
#5 – The Rock
#4 – The Undertaker
#3 – John Cena
#2 – Stone Cold Steve Austin
#1 – Hulk Hogan
I had Roman climbing my list, but his cooling down after Wrestlemania 40 had me reconsidering his resume and if the Bloodline was bigger than him especially since Jey Uso is so popular. In my view, Roman could cut this list in half if he can rebound and have a great year. Still, I think he lacks that trademark 5-star big win over a top talent. Us being robbed of Roman vs. Rock will forever stain his career, along with him becoming a part-time wrestler. I’m always for “less is more”, as over-exposure is bad, but disappearing for like half the year is ridiculous.
One could argue that the Rock should be higher, but his WWE career from 1997-1999 was swimming in Stone Cold’s wake. When called upon to be the top babyface during 2000, WWE started to fall from its peak. Still, though, I applaud Rock for putting many wrestlers over during his prime and the mainstream success that he’s had. However, John Cena is a better actor in my opinion, as NOTHING Rock has on film even compares to the Peacemaker HBO MAX series in terms of quality. Cena has a long film career ahead of him because he’s coachable and perceived as a real guy, whereas Rock is more of an image.
2025 saw us losing Hulk Hogan, the #1 wrestler in wrestling history in my opinion. Sure, he made a sex tape and said racist things, as I 100% do not condone that… But, that stuff happened after his best years were wrapped up. Hogan had 4 massive drawing eras with his AWA work, rejoining WWE in its nationwide boom, joining WCW and then turning heel for the NWO, and then his WWE return during the 2000s. Guy was complete money, no matter what you said about the creative control he had. There’s a reason why he was given creative control, brother…
Steve Austin is at #2, despite really 1996-1999 really being his white hot years. He was nothing like this major draw in WCW as “Stunning” Steve, though he was one of my favorite wrestlers there. And then when Austin returned to the WWE during 2000, it was a different world with new people in charge of creative and Triple H was there to compete with for the top spot and Vince’s attention. The Steve Austin we got from 2000-2004 wasn’t the same and the 2001 heel turn really exposed that fact.
Two wrestlers that I thought about having on my list were Andre the Giant and Roddy Piper, but if 1985 is my cutoff point, that shaves off many great moments of their career prior to Wrestlemania.
The wrestler whom I feel deserves “Honorable Mention” is Chris Jericho. Aside from AEW, anytime he was with the WWE, he wasn’t the top guy as Austin, Rock, Undertaker, Triple H, and John Cena were always a notch ahead of him. But damn, the consistency of Jericho has always been there and he’s always been a productive wrestler. People crapping on his AEW work don’t realize that he’s doing this stuff in his late 40s and early 50s. As I write this damn column this morning, I’m sore from lifting and moving Christmas stuff from yesterday. I cannot imagine how his body feels from wrestling upwards of 3,000 matches or so. I’ll be very curious on how his WWE return goes and if that adds to his legacy.
CM Punk deserves recognition too, though I’m sad that we were denied seeing him wrestle for over 7 years. Punk was white hot during the Summer of 2011 and could have been something, but Triple H had personal issues with him then and sabotaged his run. The year-long WWE Title run was a joke, as he barely main evented RAW or Pay Per Views as champion. However, CM Punk was incredible during 2013 by pulling high quality matches out of Cena, Undertaker, and Brock Lesnar while having to deal with sandbagging from the Rock twice and the awful feud with Ryback. Then, Punk was given the task of trying to start Roman Reigns’s babyface run and carried his confused arse during that January 2014 RAW match. I think if WWE flips Punk to a heel and cuts him loose, you’ll see greatness again. Corporate babyface Punk is good, but he just needs an edge to make him great.
I really don’t like what 2026 brings, as we no longer have John Cena to carry this company. While I like Punk and Cody, they both need better dance partners and they’ve already burned through most top match-ups already. WWE has a “part-time” problem in managing how they use Rock, Roman, and Brock and dealing with their availabilities causes too much creative chaos. I also lack faith the younger generation of male wrestlers, while I’ve become bored with the entire women’s division. 2026 will also bring about more corporate TKO BS, as we’ll have the Saudi Rumble and Wrestlemania 41 again in Las Vegas. Then, Saudimania in 2027… Looks dreary, with lots of price gouging and sponsorships on the horizon.
But hey, at least WWE is better than the utter crap Tony Khan cannot deliver from his loins. Tony, YOU SUCK at your job running AEW and you’re lucky that desperate cable companies are looking for any kind of live sports content to draw at least 700,000 eyeballs to their channel. However, Warner Bros. Discovery will get sold during 2026 as a complete package or with the channels split-up. When you spend either $82 billion or $102 billion for something, you’ll cut the dead weight or expensive contracts to make that happen. They are spending that money for DC Comics and Looney Tunes franchises, not pro wrasslin’.
Here’s a bold prediction that I’ll make for the next 5-10 years… You’re going to see a massive corporate debt bubble explode thanks to all of these media companies having tons of debt. Whether Netflix or Skydance/Paramount buys Warner Bros., both will have massive debt to pay off and their financially tapped subscribers won’t do it. With time, I think that you’ll see some of these media companies seeking bankruptcy protection and then that will spill into commercial banks. Then, these tech and crypto guys will start overpaying for it, and then once their investments go bust, all of this intellectual property stuff will be available on the market for cheap. And that is when the patiently waiting Amazon, Apple, and Google will scoop all of these massive media properties for pennies on the dollar.
By the way, TKO itself has $4 billion in debt, while Endeavor had about $6 billion in debt before being privately acquired by Silverlake. Funny how companies with big revenue streams have a ton of debt, almost like the company’s owners, who are recipients of that money, are hoping that someone else will pay off their loans for them…
I don’t know, folks… I hate to put coal in all of your Christmas stockings, but I think 2023-2024 will be looked up on as wrestling’s latest peak in business and the interest in the product has been declining ever since. Letting your top stars become part-time performers while price gouging on everything has consequences. Not giving a crap about storyline quality also creates issues…
But hey, the beauty about writing this stuff voluntarily is that I can do what I want and when I want… I don’t have to watch wrestling, nor do I have to feel compelled to write about it. It’s YOU, the longtime readers, who keep drawing me back… From the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for over 27 years of support and relationships built. Given the thousands of columns that I produced, you know that I gave you everything I had to provide written entertainment, free of charge, that was 100% honest with its audience. Unlike the WWE of today that is dollar driven, you know that I wrote these columns for the love of pro wrestling and for you, my longtime readers. I appreciate everything that my platforms (LoP, Top-Rope, NoDQ) have given me and the many people who have read me.
Thanks a million.
Mr. Tito Column Archive @ NoDQ