Planet Kayfabe: AEW Drama & Sackless Cena thoughts

Planet Kayfabe: AEW Drama/ Dream Statement/Cena is a Bitch

By: Paul Matthews

email: kcanoq@gmail.com

Hello everyone and welcome to Planet Kayfabe where even here John Cena is being ridiculed for being the massive bitch that he is. Also, in today’s column, I’ll be getting into Velveteen Dream’s statement. It’s lengthy, but my thoughts on it are not.   Finally, some drama in AEW, and I answer if I have changed my stance on fans ruining a wrestling show.

JOHN CENA IS A BITCH:

Right now in America’s history, we are very politically divided. Turns out anyone who is slightly patriotic or has a Gadsden Flag sticker on their truck is labeled a “white supremacist” and everyone with blue hair and fake black glasses on the left is a communist signaling an anti-American prelude to a second Civil War. However, this week I saw people from the likes of Stephen Colbert to Ben Shapiro all bury John Cena for his weak, gutless apology to China for daring to refer to Taiwan as a country, which it is, but ya know, that is offensive to communist Chinese money marks that Cena has been trying to ingratiate himself to for a few years now.  At just the right time, it’s a good thing we have John Cena to center us a little bit and unite this country.

Ya see, doing that doesn’t sit so well with actual communist leaders in China and Cena quickly apologized in their language being the pandering tool he is and always has been. The funny thing about all this is everyone was quick to get their shots in on John Cena, but he’s no different than LeBron James who is adored by the media. Both present themselves as always standing up for perceived injustices in our country and pander to the woke crowd because it actually benefits them here, but when faced with real injustices, real actual modern-day slavery, and human rights violations in China they keep their mouths shut and bend a knee to their communist overlords because rocking that boat would cost them a lot of fucking money and that’s truly what these people care about. So, fuck you, Cena. You deserve every shot you’re taking but the hypocrisy isn’t lost when I see someone like Lebron constantly get a free pass for his own hypocrisy and selling out his ideals while slave children sew his overpriced sneaker empire and guys like him, John Cena, and all those other SJW elitists snobs out there can look down and point their judgmental finger down at America tweeting from their mansions.

Since John took it from both sides of the political aisle, I do wonder if this will hurt his film career at all. I know he’s taking over Fast and Furious, but outside of that, what’s he doing other than being in Hefty commercials? He certainly isn’t in high demand like Dwayne Johnson or even a guy like Dave Batista who wasn’t as big of a star in WWE as John but he’s doing a lot better in Hollywood. Who knows. Who cares. John Cena, once a bitch always a bitch. Fuck him. It was fun to see the internet burying him in 2021 like it’s 2009 all over again, though.

VELVETEEN DREAM ADDRESSES THE PUBLIC:

Patrick Clark, the former Velveteen Dream issued a statement regarding the allegations made against him of sexually pursuing underage teens. I wrote a bit about him last week and I had more of a perhaps liberal take on it then than I do now just one week later. I felt bad since he’s only 25 and threw away a promising career. A career that guys like HBK Shawn Michaels and John Cena said was going to skyrocket into being WWE’s next legitimate superstar.

Since then, there were rumors of Clark being a bit of an asshole backstage. Hard to deal with. Acting in character at inappropriate times. Stuck up. Immature. All that doesn’t surprise me since it seemed like three or four years ago Clark was on the fast track to stardom and then he kind of stalled. Even his ring work suffered and he wasn’t presented as some big deal anymore.

On to his statement, I’m not going to get into the whole thing, but it seems he’s using “kayfabe” as his excuse. He never denied the pictures that are out there are of him, just that they were taken without his consent. As for his voice messages, he attributes it to his commitment to keeping kayfabe and making sure his “sexually ambiguous, gender-fluid” (his words) character was not compromised by opening his DM’s to the public.

Well, Clark, you compromised kayfabe just by opening your DM’s. If kayfabe was that important to you, then you shouldn’t be interacting with fans in private messages. Do what some do and reply to tweets publicly in character. I’m sorry but this whole “I had to keep kayfabe” line sounds like bullshit to me. First of all, no one in his generation gives a shit about keeping kayfabe, but even if he is the one who does care, it seems like he is using his character as a convenient excuse for his inappropriate behavior.

Clark claims he asked personal questions about the teen simply because he wanted to see him succeed in wrestling. Look, investigators will do their thing, but this just isn’t passing the smell test for me. If Clark is lucky enough to get another job in wrestling and if kayfabe is that important to him, then keep the DM’s closed and only post in character. It is frustrating because this was such a fine, young talent gone to waste, but like I even said last week, he did it to himself. Maybe he should have been less worried about comprising his televised character and more focused on his actual character as a real person and maybe he wouldn’t be in this mess.

AEW DRAMA:

Last week on Grilling JR, that’s Jim Ross’ podcast co-hosted by Conrad Thompson, JR made the mistake of stating an opinion and in particular an opinion that doesn’t jive well with AEW elites and their fans.

What did he say? That Raw, Smackdown, and/or NXT were better than Dynamite? No. That WWE is better than AEW? No. That the Star Wars prequels are better than the original trilogy? No. Jim Ross said that Randy Orton is the best wrestler in the world today. He acknowledged that many may feel it is Kenny Omega, but in his opinion, it is Randy Orton.

Now, I got no problem with someone saying Orton is the best. Do I think so? No, but for years I thought that he was underappreciated by a lot of fans. Orton isn’t the best, but he can be the best or one of the best when he is motivated, working as a heel, working as a main eventer, and in there with a good-to-great worker. If all those stars align, then Randy Orton really shines. As a babyface he is boring. There’s no other word for it. As a midcarder, he is unmotivated. When out there with lesser talent, he goes through the motions and doesn’t dig deep to try and make the match great. I’m saying this as a big Randy Orton fan myself. That’s just the facts. Babyface Orton? I don’t care. Heel Orton? I never leave my seat or change the channel.

Something I will say though is regardless of being a face or heel, Orton has always been a sound worker. He never looks lost. He’s never out of position. He’s never sloppy. He also works well with diverse opponents of many styles.

Now, in saying all that, did I once say that Kenny Omega sucks? No. Neither did Jim Ross, but apparently that’s how Kenny took it and all of the AEW fans. Chris Jericho would respond to Jim Ross’ take innocently enough since he said as an actual worker who has worked with every top guy, in his opinion no one was better than Kenny Omega. That’s fine. Jericho certainly has a different perspective than Jim Ross.

However, Kenny Omega would sarcastically reply to Jericho with this.

“Meh. I’d rather believe the bigot cuck, dimwit e-drones, and the guy that thinks I’m the WWE champion.”

The “bigot cuck” I assume is Jim Cornette, probably Omega’s most vocal critic, e-drones are people on Twitter I guess, and “the guy who thinks I’m the WWE Champion” is Jim Ross who accidentally once referred to Omega as the WWE Champion on TV.

Of course, with this Tweet, the AEW hardcores had their marching orders and spent the rest of the day burying Jim Ross calling him too old, out of touch, not loyal to AEW, a WWE shill, and so forth simply because he said Randy Orton was the best today in his opinion. Not once did he say a bad word about Omega. In fact, when Ross was still with WWE he publicly said he would love to call Omega matches and we all know how much WWE hates it when people under contract to them reference other wrestlers and other promotions publicly, especially in a positive light.

I’m not sure why Omega got worked up over this and lumped Jim Ross in with Twitter trolls and Jim Cornette who, while I believe Cornette stands by his opinions, he is largely being a gimmick for his podcast often taking the most extreme stance possible just for headlines or humor. Tony Khan is often the same way being overly sensitive on social media. Cody and Bradi Rhodes, the same. The Young Bucks were once the indy kings of cutting cheap shots, but the moment the shots came back at them they deactivated their accounts until the heat died down.

The reason why I bring this up because it seems the shit rolls downhill and while people complain about the hardcore tribalism and whiny nature of the most die-hard AEW fans, they aren’t much different than the promoter and the EVP’s in charge.

They all claimed from the start to be the “all-inclusive” wrestling promotion, but in actuality, they are just like everyone else who vocally virtue signals how “inclusive” they are. The reality is those types are the biggest gatekeepers out there. Khan and the EVP’s don’t want other opinions, just like how AEW fans don’t want anything in their community that doesn’t fit their personal rigid guidelines.  Jeff Hardy once said AEW is more open-minded than WWE and I actually disagree. AEW, company, and fans alike are DIFFERENT-minded than WWE, but they aren’t more open-minded like they think they are. They are just as much stuck in their little bubble as WWE is with no interest in hearing individual thought or opinion that goes outside their way of thinking… just like WWE.

I used to think it was ridiculous when people would say “the fans ruined wrestling”. Really? The fans put on that bad match? The fans booked that dumb finish? The fans cut that robotic promo? The fans buried that guy who was starting to get over? No, that’s on the companies. However, I think I see what people mean now when they say stuff like that.

The hardcore fans haven’t “ruined” wrestling, but they sure make it harder to enjoy. Even though AEW Dynamite is the best wrestling show on TV right now (although Smackdown has been very good since Wrestlemania) its the whiny “Elite” crowd and their fans who are enabled by this nonsense that makes them difficult to root for. I want to be happy when AEW pops a great rating and breaks 1 million viewers but I know the moment those numbers come out it is going to be a day of Tony Khan marking out and everyone patting themselves on the back at AEW and all the fans chiming along. I want to be happy for them getting better TV deals and making more money, but then you have messageboard mark Tony Khan scouring the internet laying copyright claims on YouTube videos that may present AEW in a negative light.

The Jim Ross thing, in particular, bothers me because there seems to be this culture in AEW and again, with their core fans, of disrespecting legends. To them, unless they say all their comedy is hilarious and Omega, Cody and The Bucks are amazing they are tagged as old, out of touch, irrelevant and useless in today’s wrestling business. Instead of dismissing guys like Jim Ross, they should be listening to him, but this is nothing new. For a couple of years now there seems to be the rising feeling to dismissing and straight-up disrespecting legitimate wrestling legends of the past. That was once a big no-no in wrestling locker rooms, but now its the norm backstage, in interviews, and especially on social media. Even wrestlers of the 80s and 90s can tell you stories about some old guy who tried giving them direction and they dismissed it and would later discover that the old guy was right all along. Again, though, it’s not like Jim Ross attacked Omega. He didn’t say anything bad at all. All he said was Randy Orton is the best in his opinion. Then Kenny took it upon himself to Tweet something that he very well knew would get the AEW fans riled up and storming Jim Ross’ @-feed for the rest of the day like the good little soldiers they are. That’s ridiculous.

As for Cody, he did an interview recently saying he focus groups his promos. What a fucking geek. He said it’s bullshit when old-timers say they came up with promos on the spot. It’s not bullshit. They often did or came up with their promos backstage or while riding in the car to the next town. The Austin 3:16 promo is a great example of something that was cut on the spot. This came after Cody addressed some criticism of a promo he cut a couple of weeks ago going for some force, passionate, patriotic 1980’s type promo, but it just came off as what it was… force and flat.

Cody once had a Von Erich type appeal with AEW fans. He is not a worldwide megastar, but to AEW fans he was like a golden babyface who could do no wrong and everything he did got over huge. Then he got that ridiculous neck tattoo. His promos got even more pretentious. He seemingly shoehorns himself into the show for a program once in a while and then disappears. There are rumors of Cody, who once latched himself to “The Elite” when he was released by WWE is now no longer close to them. Now he’s cutting ridiculous promos about the evil Brits and red coats and segregation 60 years ago in Atlanta. Now he and Brandi and having the first-ever bi-racial baby or some shit. I don’t know. Apparently, this all tested well with his little focus group but has been a rare topic of AEW ridicule on the internet.

If anyone needs focus, it’s Cody Rhodes. This entire year for him in AEW seems to lack any direction at all. It is to the point where “getting the neck tattoo” should be wrestling’s equivalent to “jumping the shark”. I haven’t seen a wrestler lose their initial charm and appeal so fast until he got that ugly piece plastered on him. Maybe he should have seen a focus group before he got that tattoo, actually, he just needed to ask his wife who openly stated that she doesn’t like it.

Thanks again for reading, everyone. Again, if any AEW fans were offended, I don’t know what to tell you. I said Dynamite is the best wrestling show on TV. It’s just the people in charge and their core fans are often too cringe and whiny for my taste. Say what you want about the McMahons and Triple H, but at least they aren’t on social media bitching about fans or what some old-timer said about them on a podcast.

Enjoy your weekend, everyone. Leave a comment below. Email me. Even if you disagree with something I said, don’t worry, I don’t sick the NoDQ fans after you for it. We can have a discussion. These are just my takes and I’m here to give them.

For NoDQ, I’m Paul Matthews, take care and God bless.