The Phantom Rant: WWE’s Life After Mr. McMahon

Well it’s been an interesting week to say the least. The Mr. McMahon documentary debuted on Netflix and I think as of this writing I am the only person in the world not to have watched. It’s not that I don’t want to watch it. I’m just a terrible binge watcher when it comes to things, so I’ll eventually get to it. Luckily I’ve seen plenty of clips all over Twitter so I at least know what I’m getting myself into. I’ve had a love/hate relationship with Vince McMahon ever since the debut of the Mr. McMahon character on television. The high’s were high and the low’s were very low. When he first debuted the character as a foil for Stone Cold Steve Austin, it was fun and inventive.

But over time the whole Corporate boss vs. babyface angle got played out. That didn’t stop him from using it for the next twenty years though. I thought one time though the angle had new life and that was when John Laurinaitis was up against John Cena. Johnny Ace could actually wrestle and he was a naturally despicable person. Instead we got the usual Cena squash and that was that. I have a theory that Vince doesn’t like anything that might outshine him. All one has to do is look back to his purchase of WCW and how that property was treated for proof of that. Vince is also the type of guy that gets bored with stuff real quick. So don’t look for story’s to last for month’s on end. This is one of the reasons why there were always reports of scripts for RAW being torn up and redone at the last minute. Things are so much better under the reign of Triple H. It’s funny, twenty years ago we were begging for the reign of Triple H to end. Now we can’t get enough of it.

The difference with RAW is like night and day between Vince’s vision of the show and Triple H’s. I love how things have a chance to breathe now compared to the old way when they were rushed. Smackdown is equally as good and has been for a long while. Gone are the days of Vince sabotaging Smackdown because it was doing “better” than RAW. If you don’t believe me, go watch some of the old Smackdown/RAW drafts when RAW would pillage Smackdown’s roster. This past week we got a really good main event match on RAW with Bron Breakker and Jey Uso. I was pleasantly surprised when Jey actually won the Intercontinental Championship. For year’s we have been so geared towards a schmoz of some sort happening to keep him just short of winning the title. But I’ll be damned, he did win and it was a great moment.

That’s what the WWE is built on after all. Great moment’s in time. You know like the “Wrestlemania Moment”. Jey got his moment and it was great and I hope the feud with him and Breakker is far from over. Another feud that has been simmering and is ready for a nice boil is GUNTHER vs. Sami Zayn. I love how Gunther keep’s trolling Sami by saying no. This past week he took it to a new level by making it appear he was ready to fight Sami (who just had a good match with Ludwig Kaiser). He was dressed and ready to go and just when you thought he would say RING THE BELL, he tells Sami…No. I busted out laughing at that. Wade Barrett got a good laugh from it too. The new announcer Joe Tessitore did not find it funny. I like the work he’s been doing so far. I almost think he’s channeling the late Lance Russel with his tone. I like it when the announcer gets morally outraged at the actions of a bad guy. Sami and Gunther was a good match at Wrestlemania this year. So when Gunther is finally forced to defend the title against Sami, I have no doubt they will have a great match for the World Title.

When it comes to a chef’s kiss for story’s, the award goes to Drew McIntyre vs. CM Punk. It’s rare that we see a feud have this many levels to it in this day and age in the WWE. I am really looking forward to the Hell In A Cell match between these two next week. This is going to be an old fashioned feud ender. I hope Punk and Drew live up to the promo and make each other bleed. It’s been a long time since there was a blood filled HIAC match. But, it can’t go any further than that because these two have all ready done everything to each other. If Vince were in charge of things, this feud would have never lasted this long. Of course there’s a good chance CM Punk would not even be in the WWE if Vince were solely in charge. As fans we are really lucky now that Vince has been pushed away.

Triple H is not a saint, but considering what he has done he’s pretty close. I mean he brought Bruno Samartino and The Ultimate Warrior back into the WWE family and got them to make peace with Vince. I fully believe had he not died, The Macho Man Randy Savage would have done the same thanks to efforts of Triple H. Yes, I should be using his given name of Paul Levesque since that is how he is billed now. But typing Triple H is a lot easier than Levesque. I even like how at the end of WWE Programs now he is billed as the executive producer. It’s just the little things like that end up making a big difference.

I made it a whole column this week without mentioning any AEW problems. According to @WrestleTix on Twitter, Grand Slam was set up for over 8,000 people in attendance. I’m glad my first column’s statement of them barely doing 5,000 did not come to pass. Bryan vs. Nigel happened and it was a really good match. So kudo’s to AEW for pulling that off. Apparently AEW is holding Rey Fenix and Pentagon hostage so I’m sure I’ll have something to say about that next time.

Until then thanks for reading. As always you can leave comments below, on twitter or E-Mail me at phantomlordnyc@gmail.com