The Phantom Rant: The Rock’s Motives & Is It Really A WrestleDream?

Bad Blood has come and gone (even with it’s weird start time because of the playoffs, college football and UFC PPV) and I have to say the WWE once again delivered with a premium live event. My only complaint was Drew McIntyre vs. CM Punk should have been the main event. No one was following that match and with all the drama and spectacle. I was upset it opened the show. Yes, Cody and Roman needed a lot of time for their bloated entrances. But when it came down to it as a main event, the Cody/Roman vs. Solo/Fatu match was not nearly as good as the Hell In A Cell that opened the show. Though most of the story came after the match when Jimmy Uso and The Rock returned.

I should not complain though. For a show titled Bad Blood we got blood and lots of it in that opener. I mean it was a nice change of pace for once. In the past matches would be stopped if someone got a paper cut. Drew bled a ton and delivered a hell of a match with Punk. The unsung hero of the match is apparently the monster Abyss. For a guy who was in TNA for the prime of his career, I’m glad he’s having so much success in the WWE in a backstage/producer role. This HIAC match was probably the closet the WWE has come to a TNA Monster’s Ball match. Only thing missing was thumbtacks and barbwire…though we did get those beads which I’m sure did hurt.

Circling back to the main event, I was shocked when The Rock’s music hit and he showed up. Apparently the other day Pat McAfee might have spoiled this when he asked Cody in a video after his show about “the big guys return”. I didn’t pay much attention to it when I saw and I’m glad I didn’t. The Rock’s return like I said was a genuine shock. The Rock coming back adds so many damn layers to The Bloodline story which I believe was starting to run dry. Roman only works certain dates now and Cody has soundly defeated Solo on more than one occasion. I’m guessing this is leading to the build up for War Games since the WWE Champion vs. World Champion match has been moved from Survivor Series to Crown Jewel. So they need something big for War Games this year to carry the Survivor Series event.

There are so many ways The Rock could go. I believe (as do others on the interwebs) that he’s going to turn on Roman and be revealed to in league with Solo and that part of The Bloodline. Solo would still be the tribal chief, but The Rock would be a revered tribal elder. Yeah, hes THE FINAL BOSS, but it goes deeper than that. If you remember back to the original Rock vs. Roman press conference, The Rock showcased a Bloodline family tree explaining how everyone was related and their place in the line. The Rock had “High Chief Seiuli” under his name. He inherited this from his grandfather the original “High Chief” Peter Maivia. I’m by no means an expert at the lay of the land with this stuff. I can only go by what I see and read and I think The Rock is going to be in with Solo.

As an added bonus, after the show was over The Rock did one of his walking and talking Instagram promo’s. He didn’t say it outright, but he sure did insinuate he did not like what he just witnessed in the main event. So one has to assume he’s not happy with Roman. He also said it goes back six months. That’s Wrestlemania and that’s when Roman lost the title to Cody. My favorite part of the promo was him walking past the WWE trucks and there’s this huge picture of Dusty Rhodes on it. The Rock says “he loves Dusty…but he hates his son”. So The Rock vs. Cody is almost a guarantee down the road. Who would have guessed in 2024 going into 2025 The Rock would be doing some of his best work ever with THE FINAL BOSS. You have to capitalize it to show the added significance it has. I for one am excited to see where it goes. Insider @WrestleVotes on Twitter simply posted “1,2,3…41” after The Rock showed up at the end of Bad Blood. We are about to be on a hell of a roller coaster ride for the build up to Wrestlemania 41 in Las Vegas.

It’s fun to be excited about things isn’t it? I can’t say the same about AEW. The second annual WrestleDream is next week and aside from Danielson vs. Moxley, there’s nothing really on this card that screams…well WrestleDream. Chris Jericho is getting another shot at a World Title when he faces Mark Briscoe. I love Mark, but Jericho bores the hell out of me and I say that as a Jericho fan. This whole learning tree thing is just so dumb. Big Bill and Bryan Keith honestly deserve better than being second and third fiddle to Jericho. I just hope Mark Briscoe does not lose but you know Jericho is ready to trademark “The Nueve” since that would be nine world titles for him.

One match I’m interested in seeing in the train wreck aspect is Jack Perry vs. Katsuyori Shibata. These two have no business facing each other. Shibata is vastly over qualified to be facing Jack Perry. But Perry is an annoying little bastard who I would love to see get stretched the hell out of. I have said I don’t mind Jack Perry as TNT Champion. But this Scapegoat gimmick is dead in the water and he needs a banger of a match to prove he deserves that title. With the conflicting styles I just don’t know if he’ll have it.

Another match that should at least be good is Will Osprey vs. Ricochet vs. Takeshita in a triple threat for the International title. We know what Osprey and Ricochet can do together. Adding Takeshita into the mix should be a nice counter balance to all the flippy moves.

Speaking of flippy moves, The Corporate Young Bucks defend the tag title against Private Party. This should be a perfectly fine tag match. But I do not care about The Bucks as tag champions. At this point I will take anyone getting the belts off of them…even Private Party. It’s been a long time since I cared about Private Party so hopefully they turn back the clock to the Private Party of a few years ago with this one.

I am sorry if I am bashing AEW here. I mean they just inked their renewal deal with Warner Bros/Discovery. So everything should be cool. But in all honesty it is not. They gave away Danielson vs. Okada III the other day not only for free, but with less than a day’s notice to boot. That just screams desperation on Tony Khan’s part and that wing and a prayer of a match didn’t even break 700 thousand for the night. Well to be fair they were up against MLB Playoffs. I mean I had the lap top tuned to the Mets game (who are on a divine mission from Grimace himself) while I watched Dynamite on the big tv. But still, a match of the significance of Danielson vs. Okada III…for all we know will be the final match they ever have should have gotten more than 24 hours notice.

I don’t doubt that WrestleDream won’t be a good PPV. AEW always over delivers when it comes to PPV’s. With shows bordering on and sometimes over four hours long, they have to do that. It’s just asking Bryan vs. Moxley to carry this PPV is A LOT.

On that note I am done for this week. As always comment can be left down below, on twitter or just email them to me @ phantomlordnyc@gmail.com