The Phantom Rant: AJ Lee’s return and a moment vs. storytelling

Greetings conversationalists all across the world wide web. It is I the one and only “Phantom Lord” Joseph Davis and this is The Phantom Rant. Boy things have sure heated up since my last column in the war between the WWE and AEW. The WWE is going for the jugular by announcing Wrestlepalooza as the same day as AEW’s All Out. Add to that this PLE will be the start of the WWE on ESPN’s new service. I think Nick Khan and the WWE have made a major miscalculation about just how many people will sign up for this new service. Me personally, I am not. At a starting price of $29.99 a month and it going up to as much as $44.99 a month for the no commercial version, that is just too high a price for what tends to be predictable WWE programming.

The WWE has become really ho-hum (I couldn’t think of any other word for it) in the last year or so. I’m all for “the moments”. But “the moments” tend to be lame and over thought. Sure, they’ll go viral for maybe a day or two…but that’s it. The WWE still does not care about consistent story telling. Sure it got a little bit better under the regime of Triple H. But he only can do so much. With the move to ESPN here in the states you would think they would tighten the ship up so to speak but it looks like they are not.

Right now as I said the WWE is going all out (pun intended) against All Out. The big story on Smackdown the other night (even though it’s a story for RAW) was A.J. Lee returning to team with her real life husband CM Punk against the new two man power trip in Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins. I have wanted to see AJ come back for a very long time. But honestly, not like this. This story is so rushed and just reeks of desperation on the WWE’s part against AEW. A.J. Lee deserves better than that. I really hate moments. I prefer long term story telling even if it’s bad. At least I know some thought was put into bad story telling. When Becky cost Punk the world title at Clash in Paris, that was a moment. Something cool to show on television and claim that it got millions of views on social media.

AJ Lee returning on Smackdown was a moment. A really good moment and I’m sure it’s gone viral on social media. But I want to know where does it go from here. I would assume on RAW, Becky will get her heat back after AJ beat her up on Smackdown last night. Apparently AJ has signed a full time deal. So she won’t be just a one off appearance for this super stacked Wrestlepalooza.

I’m glad she’s signed a long term deal because there are plenty of matches with her I would like to see. But I just hope the storytelling is on point so it’s not a waste of bringing her back. Also I hope the excitement continues for her return. Let’s be honest here. Women’s matches in the WWE do not get the attention they deserve. Just the other night on Smackdown, there was a decent match between Michin and Giulia. But from what I observed, the crowd did not care. Part of it might have been burnout. I mean they got John Cena’s final appearance before the match and a really good Cena/Sami Zayn match all before Brock Lesnar came out to lay everyone out. So naturally the crowd might have been spent by the time Michin and Giulia came out.

Of course they recovered for the main event segment with Punk/Becky and AJ Lee. I think it’s more about storytelling than being burned out to be honest. The story with Giulia is she has a gatekeeper/manager now in Kiana James and she is holding back anyone who wants to face her client. Michin did some trolling on social media and eventually got a match with Kiana where she beat her in three seconds. As I said the match was with Michin and Giulia was this past week and the crowd just didn’t seem to care. Now when we eventually get Becky vs AJ one on one, I’m sure the crowd will care. But it’s where they go after it that is the problem.

This all comes back to the war between the WWE and AEW. The WWE is about the moments while AEW (as bad as the storytelling is) is about the umm story’s. Now as for the rest of the year, it doesn’t look like the WWE will be putting anything up against AEW past Wrestlepalooza. That doesn’t mean they wouldn’t try, but right now the schedules don’t line up. I honestly don’t know why the WWE is trying anything with AEW. AEW moved All Out to 3pm that Sunday on September 20 th so they won’t be in direct competition with each other. By doing the that, the WWE won. AEW blinked and showed they are the weaker company. It pains me to say that as an AEW fan, but it’s true. I mean if it were me running the company, I’d go full speed ahead at the original start time. WWE was gonna start 7pm to get a jump…but who cares. You had the date first.

If there were no Wrestlepalooza, would the WWE have pursued AJ Lee to come back? I don’t honestly know. AJ by all accounts has been doing very well for herself as a writer and speaker on mental health. So what made this different? Money had to be a big factor. AEW aren’t the only ones who can throw the dollars around. I just hope it was worth coming back after all this time. AEW should have been in a new period of success right now…but they are not. Ratings continue to fall and the WWE is looking for the kill.

The WWE has what should be a great women’s match for the vacant World title at Wrestlepalooza with Iyo Sky taking on Stephanie Vaquer. But aside from that and Cena/Lesnar and the heavily implied Punk/AJ vs. Seth/Becky….nothing has been announced for the show. The WWE is banking on people just choosing them over the AEW ppv. AEW is countering with their usual loaded show and honestly if you were going to chose one show over the other, I would go with AEW. The longer AEW survives (despite their own ineptitude on things) the better things will be for the wrestling business as a whole.

The WWE is fueled by spite and hatred for competition against them. We shall see where things go from here as this important date in the ongoing war comes up. Someday people will write about the night AJ Lee came back to the WWE and how it was a turning point. Which was it turns is another story.

On that note I am done for this week. As always leave feedback below, on twitter or email me at phantomlordnyc@gmail.com