Can't Knock The Hustle: Booking 2025 (Part 1)

Yesterday at 04:07 PM

*By Request*

“Hey man, been reading your stuff since your days at Whatculture. I have a column request for you. If you were making decisions for both AEW & WWE, what booking would you make this year? What’s the main event at Wrestlemania? Who wins the Royal Rumble? What world champions are crowned? Thanks for your time man.”

I’ve been writing wrestling columns for over 17 years now, working for a few different sites, so it’s always interesting for me to find out exactly when people first started reading my stuff.

After a follow-up message, he wasn’t asking me to do a month-by-month list of what I would do for both companies. As long as I cover all of the big stuff, he’s fine with how I cover his request.

It’s a simple request. The key thing to remember, though, is that these aren’t my predictions of what WILL happen in 2025. It’s all about what I want to see happen, or what I would have happen if, for some reason, I was responsible for decision making in both WWE and AEW.

I guess going in chronological order is the right way to handle this, so that’s what I’ll be doing here. Time to have some fun.

January Saturday Night’s Main Event: First things first, I probably wouldn’t have made Jey Uso the next contender for Gunther’s World Heavyweight Title. That’s nothing against Jey, mind you. It’s more that Jey is currently 0-5 in World Title matches on television or pay-per-view. I think it’s a safe assumption that most people are expecting Gunther to defeat Jey at SNME, making Jey 0-6 in those types of matches.

On one hand, you can build someone up by having them fail to win “the big one” before finally overcoming the odds to do it at some point. However, on the other hand, you could also define someone’s entire career by showing the world that they’re not capable of reaching that level. What doesn’t help is that Jey was also 0-3 in matches for WWE’s midcard titles before finally winning the Intercontinental Title back in September… only to drop the title again 28 days later.

At this stage, WWE is a lot closer to defining Jey as what Gunther said during his promo on Raw… a really talented tag team wrestler, and perhaps not much more than that. Jey is far too over with live crowds all over the globe for that to be written on his forehead at this stage.

So, what’s the alternative? Do you shock the world and make Jey Uso the brand new World Heavyweight Champion? Let’s dig a little deeper on that idea.

There are those who would strongly disagree with the idea, saying that Gunther is in the perfect spot right now, and that he deserves, at the very least, to enter WrestleMania as the champion.

The flip side of that coin is simple, and it’s what I’ve already said… Jey Uso is one of the most over acts in all of pro wrestling, and has been for a long time.

Here’s my tie-breaking vote… if WWE is looking to make Saturday Night’s Main Event a must-see show, and not just a flashy, glorified house show… why not have a major title change to show that “anything can happen” when the show airs? In the entire history of Saturday Night’s Main event, covering 37 events, there has only been two title changes to take place on the show. In 1989, Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard defeated Demolition to win the WWF Tag Team Titles, and in 1992, Shawn Michaels defeated The British Bulldog to win the Intercontinental Title.

That’s it.

Make viewers feel that they need to watch SNME. Give them a reason to think that the show isn’t something they can skip. Let’s give Jey Uso the World Heavyweight Title. For those who feel Gunther should enter WrestleMania as the champion, this would still provide nearly three months for him to regain his title.

Women’s Royal Rumble: Remember when John Cena and The Undertaker were running roughshod on WWE for years? Every year, fans wondered if this was finally going to be when we would see those two face off at WrestleMania. It was the biggest match WWE could give us at the time… The Undertaker’s legendary undefeated streak at WrestleMania going up against “Super Cena” himself.

Outside of Cena’s early days with the company, the two were largely kept away from each other over the years, so it seemed like we were building up to something. That “something” ended up being a match at WrestleMania 34, long after both men were full-time performers, and the match didn’t even reach the three-minute mark.

I’m not saying this is the same as Cena vs Taker, but we’re currently being kept away from a huge match in the world of women’s wrestling in WWE… Rhea Ripley vs Bianca Belair. They faced each other a lot in the NXT house show circuit in the early days of their time with the company, and have shared the ring in a bunch of tag and multi-woman matches on the main roster. Their one and only singles match, though, was in 2022, during a Gauntlet Match to determine who would enter the upcoming Women’s Elimination Chamber match last. You may remember this match as when Rhea wrestled for nearly 25 minutes, defeating Nikki ASH, Liv Morgan, and Doudrop, before going another 20 minutes with Bianca in a banger of a bout.

We know those two are capable of great things in the ring together. Why keep waiting? Bianca Belair will celebrate her 36th birthday a week-and-a-half before WrestleMania this year. Wrestlers are extending their full-time careers longer and longer now compared to eras gone by, but Bianca won’t be around forever. I don’t want another Cena vs Taker scenario, where we finally get that major Rhea vs Bianca match, but it comes when one, or both, women are well beyond their prime and are no longer wrestling a regular schedule.

Give me Bianca winning the Rumble, making her the first two-time winner of the women’s match, and then “jumping ship” to Raw to challenge that brand’s champion instead of going after Smackdown’s champion.

Men’s Royal Rumble: While I obviously haven’t been privy to the contract negotiations that brought CM Punk back to WWE before the 2023 Survivor Series, I would be more than willing to venture a guess that part of Punk’s “asking price” was that evasive WrestleMania main event spot that he hasn’t been able to achieve in his career.

Why wouldn’t it be?

In his long and storied career, he has been everywhere and accomplished just about everything, except for two things… a WrestleMania main event and a Royal Rumble victory.

So… let’s go ahead and kill two birds with one stone, as the weird saying goes.

He’s 46 years old and has a troubling injury history since making his return to the sport in 2021, WWE can’t count on Punk having a bunch of chances for something like this in the future. It’s time to do it now, and it makes perfect sense to do so.

John Cena has been an off-and-on betting favorite to win the Rumble, and I get why, but I have other plans for him. More on that later, of course. Just for the sake of suspense and drama, though, Cena would definitely end up being in the final four of a Rumble I booked, if not the outright final person to be eliminated. That would be a blast.

Elimination Chamber: We’ve seen the Chamber matches be for a bunch of things through the years. There were times when a World Title was on the line in the match. Other times, a World Title match at WrestleMania was on the line. We’ve even seen Tag Team Titles up for grabs in the past.

Personally, I like the idea of the Chamber winner getting a World Title shot at WrestleMania. It’s a simple thing to create on television. The Royal Rumble winner doesn’t take a lot of time before declaring who they want to face at WrestleMania, leaving the other brand’s World Champion without an opponent. Then you put the EC together to find that opponent. Boom. Easy peasy.

As I mentioned, I would have Bianca Belair and CM Punk win the Royal Rumble matches this year. I’ve already stated that I would have Bianca challenge Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley. As for Punk, I think the money is in a match against Cody Rhodes.

Punk and Cody haven’t faced each other in singles competition since the December 29th, 2008 episode of Monday Night Raw, and that match lasted about four minutes before ending in a count-out. Their stories are pretty similar, too. They both had to leave WWE after becoming upset with how they were being treated, and they both needed to go elsewhere to become happy again, and they would eventually make their way back “home” for the next chapters in their stories. Cody vs Punk is absolutely, positively the type of match you could promote on every piece of physical and digital content that WWE creates, from video packages to billboards in downtown Las Vegas.

With the World Heavyweight Title and the WWE Women’s Title needing challengers for WrestleMania, let’s put the Chamber matches together, shall we?

Damian Priest, John Cena, AJ Styles (assuming he’s ready to return to the ring by then), Carmelo Hayes, Sheamus, and Penta win qualifying matches to enter the Chamber on the men’s side.

Iyo Sky, Liv Morgan, Charlotte Flair, Bayley, Zoey Stark, and Roxanne Perez win qualifying matches to enter the Chamber on the women’s side.

The women’s match can come down to Charlotte, Bayley, and Roxanne. You could do something easy like Charlotte beating Roxanne, followed by Bayley laughing at Roxanne to continue their feud, only for Roxanne to attack Bayley from behind, leading to Charlotte getting the win. That gives you Tiffany Stratton vs Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania, but it also gives you Bayley vs Roxanne Perez on the show, as well.

For the men, I don’t think it matters how you get to the end… what matters is that John Cena comes out victorious. That gives us Gunther (who I would have win the title back at this very Elimination Chamber event) vs John Cena at WrestleMania.

NXT Stand & Deliver: A lot of folks, myself included, weren’t thrilled with the way Oba Femi became the NXT Champion. While NXT has a pay-per-view event (Vengeance Day) airing two weeks after the Royal Rumble, I think Stand & Deliver would be the best time to really do right by Oba and his reign.

I think most people are already under the assumption that Oba vs Trick Williams will take place at Stand & Deliver. I’ve already seen a bunch of predictions that Oba defeats Trick again, and this will end up being Trick’s last match in NXT before being called up to Raw or Smackdown in the immediate aftermath of WrestleMania.

Outside of a surprise addition to NXT, either from the main roster or from outside like TNA or a free agent signing, there aren’t a ton of people being built up for a spot in the main event of the brand’s biggest show of the year. There are a bunch of people that could have a good match with Oba, though, that’s for sure. I like the idea of Trick Willy getting his shot, only to be unsuccessful, and then move away from NXT.

WWE Hall Of Fame: While it isn’t a rule, WWE often likes to find some sort of connection between a Hall Of Fame inductee (and sometimes more than one) and the city/state they’re being inducted in. Paul Heyman in Philadelphia, Andy Kaufman in Los Angeles, The Undertaker in Texas, Stan Hansen in Texas, The Fabulous Freebirds in Texas, Jacqueline in Texas, Rikishi in the California Bay Area, Bruno Sammartino in New York, Mick Foley in New York, Donald Trump in New York, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin in Texas, The Von Erichs in Texas, The Funks in Texas… the list goes on and on.

WrestleMania takes place in Las Vegas, Nevada this year. Nevada, as a whole, doesn’t have anywhere near the same history in the sport as other states do. That’s both a blessing and a curse here. On one hand, it means the door is opened to anybody. However, on the other hand, it’s like when your teacher told you that you could write your paper on whatever topic you wanted, and you had a harder time figuring things out without being told what to do.

The first name to drop here is someone that has already been told he’s being inducted… we just don’t know what year it will happen. Batista was revealed as a Hall Of Fame inductee for the Class Of 2020, and then COVID shut that down completely. He was announced for the Class Of 2021, but previous engagements prevented him from attending, so he was placed in a “future inductee” category. 2022 rolled around… nothing. 2023 rolled around… nothing. 2024 rolled around… nothing. Now that 2025 is here, I think it’s time to pull the trigger on inducting him already. The only reason not to do it at this point would be certain people within WWE being petty over Dave’s political views. Some fans say that type of thing isn’t a hurdle, but then there’s other fans that would point out the fact that the last handful of WWE Hall of Fame classes feature very vocal supporters of Donald Trump, while not featuring any vocal detractors of Trump. However, since this article is about who I would be booking, I’m putting him in. Fuck a political debate… “The Animal” belongs in the Hall by any possible criteria you could create.

In the interest of keeping this column somewhat short, I’ll just throw out the other names I’d induct, without having to type out paragraphs for each one. Batista is the headliner, and the rest of the class would be… Jim Johnston, Lex Luger, Ken Shamrock, Haku, and Cyndi Lauper. Save the complaints about a lack of Bray Wyatt, Sid Vicious, Demolition, and any other “deserving” candidate. I’m tired of seeing “predictions” posts that feature like 12 inductees, nine of which should be headliners in their own class. We have to keep people for future years, folks.

Just for fun, because everyone talks about it when it comes to the Hall Of Fame, I would choose any of the members of Evolution to induct Batista, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin to induct Jim Johnston, Diamond Dallas Page to induct Lex Luger, The Rock to induct Ken Shamrock, Tama Tonga & Tonga Loa to induct Haku, and Wendi Richter to induct Cyndi Lauper.

Yes… I am fully aware that the list of people making the inductions is completely LOADED, but that was done for a reason. Recent rumors have stated that WWE was upset over fans leaving last year’s Hall Of Fame ceremony after Paul Heyman’s speech was over. It would be a lot more difficult for fans to leave early with names like Austin, Rock, DDP, and any combination of Triple H, Ric Flair, and Randy Orton doing speeches.

Oh, and by the way, since I’m in charge… move the fucking Hall Of Fame back to being its own event. Part of the reason why fans are leaving is because they’ve already sat through three-ish hours of content before the HOF ceremony even begins. I don’t care if you make the Smackdown before WrestleMania the HOF ceremony, or if you make the ceremony on Sunday morning/afternoon… it just needs to be its own thing again.

WrestleMania 41: So far, based on this column, we have Cody Rhodes vs CM Punk, Gunther vs John Cena, Rhea Ripley vs Bianca Belair, Tiffany Stratton vs Charlotte Flair, and Bayley vs Roxanne Perez. WrestleMania 40 featured seven matches on each night, WrestleMania 39 had a total of 15 matches over two nights, WrestleMania 38 had a total of 16 matches over two nights, WrestleMania 37 had seven matches on each night, and WrestleMania 36 had eight matches on each night (not counting pre and post-show matches). That means we’re probably looking at 14-16 total matches at WrestleMania this year.

Five down, nine-plus to go.

Randy Orton vs Kevin Owens seems like it would make a lot of sense based on what we’ve already seen on WWE programming. Street Fight, Last Man Standing, No Disqualification, Falls Count Anywhere… whatever fun stipulation you want to throw on, throw it on.

With the Wyatt Sicks heading to Smackdown, I think an eight-man tag between the Sicks and the new Bloodline makes sense. Based on everything we’ve seen from the Sicks, it seems like they would absolutely target someone like Solo Sikoa for what Solo did to his own family. Uncle Howdy, Erick Rowan, Dexter Lumis & Joe Gacy vs Solo Sikoa, Jacob Fatu, Tama Tonga & Tonga Loa. Of course, this depends on Tonga Loa being able to return from his injury, but current rumors say that he will be able to wrestle again before WrestleMania rolls around.

How about Bron Breakker defending the Intercontinental Title against Sheamus in a Title vs Career match? Much has already been made about that title being the one thing that has evaded Sheamus during his first-ballot Hall Of Fame career, so putting that career on the line for another chance at winning it seems like something that makes sense.

Whether you like the idea or not, Roman Reigns vs The Rock is big money. It gives Roman something huge to do without having him in the World Title picture, gives Rock a spot on the show, and helps to put a wrap on the story after several years. We don’t need to drag it out another year.

Damian Priest vs Logan Paul. This will be the first domino to fall that eventually gives us Bad Bunny vs Logan Paul down the road. Because it’s WrestleMania, having Bad Bunny there in Priest’s corner would allow for yet another selling point that will create buzz and get more eyeballs on the show.

DIY vs Street Profits vs Motor City Machine Guns vs A-Town Down Under for the WWE Tag Team Titles in the typical “pack as many people into one match as possible” WrestleMania match.

War Raiders vs Authors Of Pain vs The Creed Brothers vs Rey Mysterio & Dragon Lee vs Finn Bálor & JD McDonagh for the World Tag Team Titles in another “pack as many people into one match as possible” WrestleMania match.

Jey Uso & Sami Zayn vs Drew McIntyre & Seth Rollins provides an intriguing story to tell. It doesn’t even require a heel turn for Seth, as he’s merely finding himself understanding Drew’s point-of-view about the Usos, Sami, and anyone else who has become friendly with Roman Reigns since Roman’s return to the company.

Penta vs Dominik Mysterio will keep Penta in the “Rey Mysterio Orbit” moving forward. That allows for Penta to be one of Rey’s final opponents, if not his actual final opponent, sooner than later.

Shinsuke Nakamura vs LA Knight vs AJ Styles vs Carmelo Hayes vs Jimmy Uso vs Andrade for the United States Title. Another match that gets a whole bunch of people on the show, and you can make it a Ladder Match or something to spice things up even further if you want.

In the final spot, take some combination of Liv Morgan, Lyra Valkyria, Iyo Sky, Dakota Kai, Chelsea Green, Nia Jax, Raquel Rodriguez, Candice LeRae, Michin, Piper Niven, and Naomi… throw them into a match of some sort. It’s really difficult to get everyone involved in WrestleMania, even with two nights.

The main event for night one would be Gunther vs John Cena, while the main event for night two would be Cody Rhodes vs CM Punk. I’d have The Rock cut a promo, either during the Smackdown before Mania, or during the Mania pre-show, where he says he doesn’t want to wait to beat Roman’s ass, so he’s ordering their match to go on first.

AEW All In: This is the annual show that draws the largest attendance for AEW. Because of that, this is the show that should have the biggest possible draws to get those fans in the building. It doesn’t always work that way, but it should.

Because of that, there’s only two options for the main event of All In this year.

Kenny Omega vs Kazuchika Okada.

Kenny Omega vs Kazuchika Okada vs Will Ospreay.

That’s it.

Personally, I would prefer a singles match over a Three-Way, so I would go with the first one.

Omega and Okada haven’t shared the ring together since January 5th, 2023, and that was a tag match that saw them on the same side. You have to go back to September 30th, 2018 to find the last time they had a match as opponents, and June 9th, 2018 for their last singles match against each other.

To say that their feud in 2017 and 2018 changed the game for New Japan, and for wrestling, as a whole, would be an understatement of epic proportions. Yes, I said the entire sport of wrestling. Their matches, and the way they completely broke Dave Meltzer’s star-rating scale, paved the way for an entire generation of wrestlers who watched and studied every move, and then tried to use some of it for themselves.

I’m not saying there wouldn’t be an AEW without the Omega vs Okada feud, but I am saying it’s certainly a possibility. That’s huge.

If you put those two men in the ring again, it’s going to capture attention from all corners of the wrestling world, and it’s going to put asses in the seats.

AEW Forbidden Door: Above all else, Gabe Kidd needs to be heavily involved in the show. After his star-making performance against Kenny Omega at Wrestle Dynasty on January 5th, his stock is insanely high right now. If AEW is going to bring people from New Japan over to work the show, it’s time for someone new like Kidd to grab the spotlight. He wrestled on the pre-show of last year’s Forbidden Door, but he’s damn sure not in the same position he was in last June.

It makes even more sense with Kidd being from England, and England being the host of this year’s Forbidden Door event.

Beyond that, I would do something special for the fans of British Graps, even if it isn’t something that has anything to do with AEW or New Japan, at least as of right now. If you’re in England, I’d reach out and do whatever it takes to get Michael Oku on the show. Not just putting him on the show, either, but putting him in the ring with Will Ospreay. If you’ve been reading my columns, you already know why. Their match at RevPro’s High Stakes 2022 was my choice for 2022’s Match Of The Year, and their rematch at RevPro’s High Stakes 2024 was my choice for 2024’s Match Of The Year. Putting them in the ring again, in front of a bigger crowd, and with their biggest spotlight yet, just makes sense.

World Championship Changes: Because this is what’s going to be on everyone’s mind… would I give John Cena his 17th World Title reign, breaking his tie with Ric Flair on the list of most (officially recognized by WWE) World Title reigns in pro wrestling history?

Yes.

Not only would I do it, but I think WWE ends up doing it in real life, as well. For the last few years, WWE has been going extra hard with pushing and calling Cena the greatest of all-time. What better way to “prove” that he’s the GOAT than by giving him the record?

If you’ve read this column all the way through, you’ve already seen that I didn’t book Cena to win the Royal Rumble or the Elimination Chamber match to get him the top spot at WrestleMania. I think that’s too easy of a story, and therefore, too many people are expecting it. Cena has already been selling the “woe is me, I can’t be a main event guy” story for a while now. Keep pushing that. I’m not saying he should be losing on Raw every single week between now and December, but having him come up short in the Rumble and the Chamber continues telling his story well.

Now, Money In The Bank could be something fun for Cena. As of this moment, we don’t know when the 2025 edition of Money In The Bank will be taking place, but the last four MITB events have taken place during the month of July. Let’s say the 2025 edition happens in July, too. That gives the Cena story plenty of time to play out, with fans clamoring for him to win the big one, only for him to come up short on multiple occasions. If he wins Money In The Bank, him having the briefcase makes every show, television or pay-per-view, much more important and must-see than it would otherwise be.

Then, you have a couple different directions you can go. Does Cena go the honorable route like he did in 2012, when he won MITB and announced ahead of time that he was cashing in against CM Punk? That didn’t work out for him, as Big Show interfered in the title match and caused a disqualification, but it would certainly fit the John Cena character.

Or… does the pressure and the obsessive chase of Number 17 get to him? No, I’m not calling for a heel turn, as I don’t think you could turn him heel at this point, anyway, but it might be a lot of fun to see Cena grow desperate and look for the right opportunity to cash in on a vulnerable champion like most of the previous Money In The Bank winners did. Cena is on a time crunch, after all. The usual MITB winner has a full calendar year to cash in, but Cena has already said that he’s done when 2025 is done. If MITB is in July this year, that means he has four or five months to make it happen.

Give Cena the cash in and the title reign at some point in the “slow” parts of the year for WWE, when they’re up against the NFL and Monday Night Football every week. His reign wouldn’t be a long one, but he can put someone over at the end of the year, on his way out the door.

Who should he put over?

Bron Breakker or Jacob Fatu would be my choices. More than almost anyone of his stature in the business, John Cena understands about working with younger talent and helping them out. Okay, so The Nexus may disagree, but I’m more talking about the latter half of his career. He knows that dropping the title to Bron or Jacob can “make” them.

What about AEW?

I think Will Ospreay or Kenny Omega needs to be the one who takes the World Title from Jon Moxley. Then we need some sort of reset for Moxley’s character, because this current story has done a ton of damage to him and his cronies, to no fault of their own.

I do think Bobby Lashley ends up being the AEW World Champion, but I might hold off on that until 2026. Once Mox drops the title, if it’s to Ospreay or Omega, that title reign should be a relatively lengthy one. Until, of course…

Christian Cage cashes in and turns his Casino Gauntlet shot into a World Title reign.

When you think about the type of heel heat Christian generates, you can see that multiplying if he sneaks his way into becoming the World Champion. I’m all for it, even if that doesn’t end up being a lengthy reign. Perhaps that could be the way that Lashley takes the title, as a matter of fact.

You know what? I’ve gone WAY longer than I was expecting to when I started this column. Things have been very WWE-centric, based on the company’s dominance on the first few months of the pro wrestling calendar.

I’m going to wrap things up right here. There’s still a lot to cover for 2025, so I’ll probably return sometime soon with part two of this request, covering the rest of the year for WWE and AEW.

For now, I turn things over to you. First of all, what do you think about some/all of my booking decisions listed here? Second of all, if you were given “the book,” so to speak, what would you do for WWE and AEW in 2025? As always, feel free to hit me up in the comments section below, or on Bluesky (@aaronhyden.bsky.social), and let me know what’s on your mind.

Now, let’s switch it over to my Weekly Power Rankings, before closing things out with the list of songs I was listening to as I put this very column together.

Weekly Power Rankings

Rey Mysterio vs Kevin Owens: Kudos to KO, who has mentioned Rey as his “dream opponent” in multiple interviews through the years, for finally getting to have that singles match. It’s insane that they’ve been on the main roster for so long and didn’t have a singles match against each other until last week. Then they went out and had themselves a banger.

Tiffany Stratton vs Bayley: A 20-minute women’s match on WWE television? Yeah, we’re definitely seeing some benefits to Smackdown’s extended weekly runtime. Works for me.

Samoa Joe: He’s one of those “product is infinitely better when he’s around” guys, and now that he has returned to AEW, it’s time to watch him kill some people again.

Damian Priest vs Finn Balor: Are these guys going to feud until the world implodes? It sure seems like it. Yes, they have some really good in-ring chemistry, and that leads to some entertaining matches, but… uh… I think it’s time to move on.

Penta vs Chad Gable: From beginning to end, this was a magnificent debut for Penta. He looks like someone that the company has major plans for. As I always say, though… it’s all about the follow-up and the follow-through. We’ll see where he goes from here.

Joe Hendry: Congratulations to the brand new TNA World Champion, who defeated Nic Nemeth at TNA’s Genesis pay-per-view. His whirlwind ride continues on. Next up? An appearance in the Royal Rumble? Perhaps.

Jimmy Uso vs Carmelo Hayes: This was Jimmy’s best singles match in a long time, and it continued Melo’s run as one of the most consistently entertaining performers on the WWE roster. Hard to complain about much of anything here, especially with an ending that allows for them to run it back again.

Anthony Bowens: For as long as I can remember, I’ve been calling for The Acclaimed to split up because I needed Anthony Bowens to get as far away from lame ass Max Caster as physically possible. Well… The Acclaimed has finally split up, so it’s time for Bowens to do his thing. Seriously, though… Max Caster fucking sucks. At everything. Getting away from him will do nothing but good for Bowens.

Jon Moxley vs Powerhouse Hobbs: I don’t think anyone really thought Hobbs was going to win the AEW World Title here, but I applaud the effort from both men to make it look like he would on a few different occasions. I’m really getting tired of the entire storyline involving Mox and his cronies, though. My goodness, the entire thing has fallen apart on a level never before fathomed.

Lyra Valkyria: Congratulations to the very first WWE Women’s Intercontinental Champion. I will swear up and down that Dakota Kai should’ve been the winner of the match, but I do think Lyra can do some really good things as champion.

FrAxiom vs OTM: At this point, I’m pretty sure I could choose any one of you at random, and we could have a good match against FrAxiom. They’re on an incredible roll right now, with no end in sight.

Kenny Omega vs Brian Cage: I appreciate trying to make Brian Cage look as strong as possible, and it ended up being a good match, but it shouldn’t have taken so long for Omega to put him away. I’m just saying.

Shotzi vs Stephanie Vaquer: When Shotzi picked up the win, I was legitimately stunned, staring at my television in silence for a few seconds. Quite the upset, with one of the hot new acts in NXT’s women’s division taking the loss.

Christopher Daniels vs “Hangman” Adam Page: In no way, shape, or form is this something that should’ve happened. It wasn’t needed. Nobody was asking for it. At least it was kind of fun, though, so there’s that.

Alba Fyre & Isla Dawn vs Lash Legend & Jakara Jackson: Lash and Jakara have come a long way in a relatively short amount of time. They have become one of the things to look forward to the most on NXT every week. All credit goes to them. They’re busting their asses out there.

This Week’s Playlist: “Funny Papers” by Mac Miller… “Someone Who Can” by Coheed and Cambria… “Searching For Tomorrow” by Coheed and Cambria… “Blind Side Sonny” by Coheed and Cambria… “Blackhole” by Architects… “Fatally Fractured” by Hands Like Houses… “Like I Ain’t” by Tech N9ne… “Come On” by Billy Lawrence & MC Lyte… “You’re A Customer” by EPMD… “Back Then” by Mike Jones… “Southside” by Lil Keke… “25 Lighters” by Lil Keke & Fat Pat… “Smile” by Scarface, 2Pac & Johnny P… “BIRDS OF A FEATHER” by Billie Eilish… “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar… “John Crow” by Jimmy Cliff… “Superman” by Tarrus Riley… “Picture On The Wall” by Naturalites… “Steppin’ Out” by Steel Pulse… “I Still Love You” by Justin… “One On One” by Natural Vibrations… “Last Night” by Ho’okoa… “Come On Pretty Baby” by Cityside… “Heartache” by One Groove… “Mysterious Girl” by Peter Andre

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