The Phantom Rant: A Tale of Two War Games Matches

Well our great long national nightmare is over. Jake Paul defeated Mike Tyson. I’m certain I did not think I would be writing that sentence in 2024, but here we are. Seriously, did anyone really think that it would be a competitive fight? The only good thing about the fight was that it was on Netflix so at least people weren’t fleeced for pay per view money. Just the cost of that month’s subscription. Aside from a couple of moments of image quality, I did not have the buffering issues that seemed to plague almost everyone else watching. I personally think this is a plus for the WWE when RAW starts on Netflix in January.

Personally I don’t expect sixty million people to be tuning into RAW every week. So the bandwidth issues that happened to Paul/Tyson shouldn’t be an issue. It will be fun not having to scrutinize ratings every week with RAW on Netflix. Yeah there will still be Smackdown, NXT and to a lesser extent AEW with their ratings. But RAW will be chartering new territory. Live weekly television shows are a new concept to internet streaming. I think they will handle the pressure and the show will succeed.

So WAR GAMES is coming up and I think the men’s match has a great build. The story has been fantastic with the OG Bloodline vs. The New Bloodline. This might be the best build up to a WWE War Games match yet. The intrigue of who is the fifth man on team OG Bloodline is pretty good. Seth Rollins got taken out on RAW so it appears it won’t be him. There’s not many viable options for a fifth man that can go toe to toe with The New Bloodline. Last week on Smackdown, Roman Reign in a sign of desperation called Paul Heyman only to discover the Wiseman’s phone number was no longer in service.

Many of people are speculating this goes back to when Solo took Paul’s phone when he was trying to call Roman in the ring and he stomped on it. Now it’s entirely possible that Paul got a new number when he got a new phone. I don’t know I’ve had the same number for the last four or five phones I’ve had. All I know is it added a layer of intrigue to the story. Roman needs to contact Paul, but he can’t. Though one would assume he could just go to Heyman’s house or office. The Wiseman must have an office. Point is, I hope they do something with him trying to find him. I don’t think Roman is the type of guy to try once and than say the hell with it.

Realistically there is only one person who if Roman was able to get touch with Paul Heyman that it would work storyline wise and that’s CM Punk. Punk is a Heyman guy so if the Wiseman was in a pinch and needed to ask for someone for help, odds are it would be Punk. It’s just a shame the other choice…Brock Lesnar is persona non grata in the WWE because that would be the pick I would want to see. Lesnar facing off with BIG Bronson Reed and Jacob Fatu…just take my money. Yes, I know why it can’t happen. But a guy can imagine.

So yeah, aside from CM Punk…I don’t see anyone who would be a credible enough choice to fill the void of the fifth man for team OG Bloodline. The catch is though like I said, he would do it for Heyman. Not Roman. One person I can almost guarantee it won’t be is The Rock. He might be back sooner rather than later because of the bomb that will be Red One (which I actually want to see…just not in a theater). But yeah, it won’t be The Rock. Besides he’s on Solo’s side of things.

Onto other things, One thing I can do without at the Survivor Series is the Women’s War Games match. While the mens match has a great cohesive story for it, the Women’s match screams thrown together. We have Liv Morgan, Raquel Rodriguez with Nia Jax, Tiffany Stratton and I think Candice LaRae vs. Bianca Belair, Jade Cargil, NAOMI, Io Sky thrown in for the hell of it…and oh yeah Rhea Ripley who is suffering from a broken orbital bone in her face. Why couldn’t this be a traditional Survivor Series match. Why must it be a War Games match?

Aside from the stupid stand off spot that I HATE, you know Io is gonna do a moonsalt off the top of the cage onto a pile of people waiting for her below. Probably with a trashcan over her head as she’s done before. I really wish the damn cage had a roof like it’s supposed to. No one is supposed to jump off it. It’s supposed to keep people in while they destroy each other to the point of submission or surrender. I’m not saying the Women’s match won’t probably be good. It’s just there’s no real point to it.

Speaking of traditional Survivor Series matches, I wonder if there will even be one. I really miss those matches. All the teams made sense somehow and you usually got a good match that could end up three on one with the one guy defying the odds to survive. I know I could easily go watch an old one on Peacock or perhaps one I have on VHS laying around somewhere. But I just want to see some damn Survivor Series matches at THE DAMN SURVIVOR SERIES. Is that so much?

At least they aren’t doing brand vs. brand. I hated that. It usually leads to very meh matches. I went to the Survivor Series two years ago at the Barclays Center and saw a very mediocre Charlotte vs. Becky match and poor Big E getting destroyed by Roman Reigns…who to be fair was in the middle of his whole God mode gimmick. Also people thought The Rock was showing up that night too for his 25th anniversary. It didn’t happen then and and it won’t happen now.

Well that’s about it for this week. Didn’t comment on AEW because I didn’t need my blood pressure to rise while I was writing this. Full Gear is this weekend and will probably be a good pay per view. But it’s everything else that needs to be worked on. So we’ll see what’s what next week in that regard.

Until next time feel free to leave a comment below, on twitter or you can actually email me at phantomlordnyc@gmail.com