So… of course it’s later than planned, but who ever is on time in wrestling?

I went back and forth on a few occasions of what to do for my WWE 2K24 Universe Mode, and eventually I decided to ask Twitter… and they went with ‘random draft’… which means I get a bunch of names, and assign them to Raw or SmackDown with the help of a random number generator from Google. So LETS HAVE SOME FUN!

Let’s start with the basics…

Two shows, Raw and SmackDown, as usual… but with a slight twist… Raw will appear as the most modern day Raw would on the game, but SmackDown… we going back to 2002…!

Now for the PPVs… I’ve mixed it up a little bit with these, put some different events in and come up with a schedule that I think will be a lot of fun…:

May – Backlash (week 4) – San Juan, PR

June – Money In The Bank (3) – London, Eng

July – King Of The Ring (3) – Cleveland, Oh

Aug – SummerSlam (4) – Detroit, M

Sep – Queen’s Crown (4) – Charlotte, NC

Oct – Halloween Havoc (4) – Las Vegas, N

Nov – Survivor Series: WAR GAMES (4) – Rosemont, Ill

Jan – Royal Rumble (4) – San Antonio, Tex

Feb – Elimination Chamber (3) – Montreal, Can

Apr – WrestleMania (1) – Philadelphia, Pen

Now we know when the shows are happening, let’s take a look at what the guys and girls are gonna be fighting for. Again, with these I’ve had some fun and gone old school with a few…

Raw:

• World Heavyweight Championship (02-13)

• Women’s World Championship

• United States Championship (03-20)

• World Tag Team Championship (97-02)

SmackDown:

• WWE Championship (88-98) aka “winged eagle”

• WWE Women’s Championship

• Intercontinental Championship (11-19)

• WWE Tag Team Championship (02-10)

WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship (to appear across both Raw and SmackDown)

So now lets get to the ‘random draft’ part of my Universe Mode. The way I did it was I utilised a random number generator app from Google, and I was careful to be sure there were rough numbers on Raw and SmackDown (to allow for me to book coherently and have enough people to be able to make up a show), but the personnel was completely randomly picked. I kept tag teams together, but some factions I split up, or more they were assigned to separate brands by having their number called to the alternate shows. I’ve ‘called up’ some people from NXT, with others in reserve should I ever choose to ‘bring them up’. Any DLC releases and additions to the game’s roster, I will treat them as ‘free agents’ and assign them to shows as and when they become available in the game. There were two people who (just for fun) I have already assigned to shows. In exhibition mode of the game, I had two Royal Rumble matches with the men’s winner being my World Heavyweight Champion (and so number 1 ‘draft pick’ for Raw) and the women’s match winner being crowned by WWE Women’s Champion and so going as pick 1 to SmackDown… so… lets tell you all who’s going where…

Raw roster

??? & ??? (You’ll have to wait and see…)

World Heavyweight Champion:

GUNTHER

Cody Rhodes / Seth ‘Freakin’ Rollins / Randy Orton

Roman Reigns (with Paul Heyman) / Drew McIntyre

Charlotte Flair / Gigi Dolin / Candice LeRae / Indi Hartwell / Kayden Carter / Katana Chance

Rhea Ripley / Bayley / Tiffany Stratton / Shayna Baszler / Zoey Stark / Cora Jade

Jey Uso / Sami Zayn / LA Knight

Karrion Kross (with Scarlett) / Damian Priest / Shinsuke Nakamura

Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson (with Michin) – The OC

Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa – DIY

Chad Gable & Otis (with Akira Tozawa & Maxxine Dupri) – Alpha Academy

Giovani Vinci & Ludwig Kaiser – Imperium

Erik & Ivar (with Valhalla) – Viking Raiders

Elton Prince & Kit Wilson – Pretty Deadly

Wes Lee / Apollo Crews / Tyler Breeze

Austin Theory / Grayson Waller / Wade Barrett

SmackDown roster

John Cena / Kevin Owens / Carmelo Hayes (with Trick Williams)

Finn Balor / AJ Styles / Jimmy Uso (with Solo Sikoa)

WWE Women’s Champion:

BIANCA BELAIR

Becky Lynch / Liv Morgan / Raquel Rodriguez / Tegan Nox / Shotzi

Iyo Sky / Asuka / Dakota Kai / Piper Niven / Alba Fyre / Isla Dawn

Bobby Lashley / Ricochet / Montez Ford

Bronson Reed / Dijak / Angelo Dawkins

Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods – The New Day

Julius Creed & Brutus Creed (with Ivy Nile) – The Creed Brothers

Cruz Del Toro & Joaquin Wilde (with Rey Mysterio & Santos Escobar & Zelina Vega) – LWO

Butch & Ridge Holland (with Sheamus) – The Brawling Brutes

Tony D’Angelo & Channing ‘Stacks’ Lorenzo – The Family

Veer & Sanga (with Jinder Mahal) – Indus Sher

Tyler Bate / The Miz / R-Truth

‘Dirty’ Dominik Mysterio / Omos (with MVP) / Robert Roode

So that’s who is where… so shall we get these shows on the road finally? Here is my first week of both Raw and SmackDown!

MAY WEEK 1

RAW

Gunther opens the show with an in-ring promo. Seth ‘Freakin’ Rollins comes out after, they go back and forth before Roman Reigns (with Paul Heyman) is next out, he gets into it on the mic with both Gunther and Rollins, Jey Uso is out after, and eventually we set up a tag match for the main event.

Women’s World Championship Qualifier (winner of each of three triple threat matches will compete in a final triple threat match at Backlash to crown a Women’s World Champion)

Rhea Ripley vs Candice LeRae vs Cora Jade

After a fun match, its Rhea Ripley who books her ticket to Puerto Rico for a shot at the Women’s World title!

Kayden Carter and Katana Chance have a backstage interview. They talk about that triple threat match, as well as the Women’s tag titles… when Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark interrupt…

World Tag Team Championship qualifier (winner gets place in title match): DIY defeated Viking Raiders

LA Knight backstage interview (on the US title match tonight)

Cody Rhodes comes out for an in-ring promo, eventually Randy Orton comes out, and the two have a friendly back and forth, followed by a handshake, when suddenly… the lights go out… and when they come back on, Orton and Cody are attacked… by… ??? and ??? … also knows as…

BRAY WYATT AND UNCLE HOWDY!!!

Women’s World Championship qualifier:

DIY are backstage doing an interview, happy about their earlier win, when Imperium interrupt… Gunther goes back and forth with Ciampa and Gargano, before they leave as Gunther turns to Kaiser and Vinci saying “I will do my job later on tonight, now it’s time for you to do yours!”

World Tag Team Championship qualifier: ‘Imperium’ defeated ‘The OC’

Karrion Kross (with Scarlett) video package

Sami Zayn backstage promo

Drew McIntyre backstage interview

United States Championship:

Jey Uso backstage interview

And finally… the main event! One of the biggest, most star-studded tag team matches in Raw history!

Jey Uso & Seth ‘Freakin’ Rollins vs Gunther & Roman Reigns (with Paul Heyman)

The champ for a reason, and he concludes our first Raw standing on top!

SMACKDOWN

We kick off with John Cena coming out for an in-ring promo, Dijak eventually interrupts, they go back and forth with Dijak saying that he will bring “ruthless agression” and they get into a brawl. Jimmy Uso and Solo Sikoa come out and join in the attack on Cena, before Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams run out to make the save. They have a stare down after, and that sets up the main event.

Iyo Sky and Dakota Kai are interviewed backstage

WWE Women’s Championship Number 1 Contender’s Match =

After a heck of a match, it is The Empress of Tomorrow who earns a future title match!

WWE Tag Team Championship Qualifier match = The New Day defeated The Street Profits – the key bit here is that after the match, after some miscommunication in the match, Angelo Dawkins turns heel on Montez Ford!

‘The KO Show’ in-ring segment, with Kevin Owens and his guest Finn Balor. Eventually AJ Styles comes out, and after an initial confrontational face to face with Balor, he then joins Finn in attacking KO.

Intercontinental Championship Ladder match qualifier = Bronson Reed defeated Tyler Bate

LWO Video Package

Tegan Nox and Shotzi backstage interview

Alba Fyre & Isla Dawn defeated Tegan Nox & Shotzi

Montez Ford is interviewed backstage… but he doesn’t really say too much…

Intercontinental Championship Ladder match qualifier = Ricochet defeated ‘Dirty’ Dominik Mysterio

Sheamus (with Ridge Holland and Butch) is interviewed backstage, Bobby Lashley approaches and they go back and forth

Main Event time! Quite the match, with the vacant WWE Championship playing on all 6 men’s minds…

Quite the battle ends with the heroes of the hour standing tall!

And finally, sorry again, we have our first chapter of my WWE 2K24 Universe Mode in the books! A fun start, maybe might be helpful that it isn’t as structured as my previous Universe Modes, maybe twitter isn’t all that bad after all for voting for this idea. But I have plans for what to do going forward, and I’m excited to play them out.

And also… it’s only a couple of weeks until a certain someone comes into play…

Josh.

Usually, on the morning of WrestleMania Night 1, I would post my annual ‘Apparently It’s WrestleMania…’ preview blog, where I post some personal stuff with how I’m feeling and how the last year has been, before looking at the two nights of WrestleMania and the matches and what I feel like could/should/will happen… but this year I don’t feel like I can talk about much else. And that’s not down to any lack of quality on a WrestleMania line-up, that despite a number of notable absentees (for varying reasons) is still pretty strong, but this time around one thing stands out about WrestleMania 40 more than anything else, and (as it probably should be) it’s the Night 2 main event. It’s the rematch from last year. It’s Cody Rhodes, and him finishing the story… take 2…

I say ‘take 2’ because we all know what happened last year; the over-used interference to ruin an (up until then) GREAT Roman Reigns title match, the backlash online, the beat down suffered on the following Raw, all the memes of Cody and that fucking rubber chicken… I could go on, I felt it was a terrible decision then, and even now as we stand on the verge of the rematch and (HOPEFULLY) the different result this time, I still feel the same. Cody Rhodes should have beaten Roman last year, could’ve still had all the same feuds for Cody but WITH the championship, and none of the stuff with The Usos that Roman did after Mania required for him to be champion. But that’s in the past now, and whilst we had A LOT of bumps and possible speedbumps in the road for Cody, he actually might be finishing the story FOR REAL this time…

But as with any story, there is a beginning, middle and an end. Cody Rhodes’ story, given who his father is, could probably be started from his literal birth, but in this context and the way I am going to tell it, I will focus on the beginning of THIS story being Cody’s release from and subsequent run outside of WWE, the middle being his return 2 years ago and his mission statement from day 1 of winning the title for his Dad, and now towards the end on the eve of the match of his life (the second time anyway).

When I originally started work on this blog, just after Cody won the Royal Rumble for a second year in a row, I had thought it would be fairly straightforward to create… But since then at different stages, I didn’t even know if I was going to be able to release it, if ‘Finish The Story 2.0’ was even a thing anymore (we will get onto that later), but that really is a theme in Cody Rhodes career, things are never quite as they seem. This is a guy who really isn’t afraid to go against the grade, and I can only respect that. I mean, who helps create one company, does his maximum and reaches his ceiling there, and then takes the big step to go out on his own and see if he could be the top guy in another promotion? Well, Cody Rhodes does. And he did it. From undesirable, to undeniable.

Cody made the first major decision of his career in May of 2016, when he walked away from the biggest company in the game… at a time when there was no other real alternative. The independent wrestling scene was doing… fine… but it wasn’t really thriving, and it certainly isn’t a regularly done thing where people could leave WWE, and wrestle elsewhere and do their own thing, and be absolutely fine. Nowadays, it seems people urn to leave WWE or AEW and be able to go on their own path (Mustafa Ali for example seems to be having the time of his life recently wrestling all over the world), but it the middle of 2016 this wasn’t a clear and obvious road to go down. Cody didn’t have a back catalogue of work that would guarantee he would be fine on the indies, he was not close to the main event level, he hadn’t come even close to being WWE Champion at any point in his near decade long first run on WWE TV, he had a few tag title runs, different runs with the IC Title, a few different gimmicks… a great time tagging with his brother to take down The Shield which was really cool… and he had Stardust… and to be fair, Stardust alone would be enough for most to quit. But I think the one thing Cody will take the most from his first run with WWE, is he met Brandi. And if nothing else, he had that, which in the end would be the backbone of his life for years to come. After the sad loss of his legendary father, he had a helping hand to be with him every step, as he embarked on his solo wrestling journey.

Cody’s independent wrestling time began just over 3 months after ‘Stardust’ had his last match in WWE. Within his first month on the indies, he had wrestled the likes of Zack Sabre Jr., Kurt Angle, Chris Hero, Sami Callihan and Tommaso Ciampa. Within 2 months he was on TNA TV and wrestling for their world title, and he would continue his independent run in a wide variety of promotions in North America and also in England, where I was lucky enough to see him for myself in Nottingham when he competed in WCPW. But things really began to pick up for Cody in late 2016, and into early 2017… Cody began wrestling in Ring Of Honor (his first match being at 2016’s Final Battle against Jay Lethal), and he joined the then top faction in wrestling, The Bullet Club. But everything you need to know about Cody, can be summed up with his mission statement… Upon returning to WWE at WrestleMania to face Seth Rollins, the night after he made it very clear he was back for one reason and one reason only. After left WWE initially he did the same… with the now infamous list…

So… lets look through this list and see how he did shall we?

Adam Cole – Both worked closely with one another, as big parts of both Bullet Club and ROH, but didn’t get round to that singles match before Cole went to NXT in 2017 (albeit they did team together on a few occasions representing Bullet Club).

Dalton Castle – They had a big feud in ROH, with Cody dropping the ROH world title to Castle at 2017’s Final Battle

BOLA – Cody competed in PWG’s annual Battle Of Los Angeles tournament less than a month into his indie run

Angle – Cody faced Angle in his 5th indie match

Hero – Cody faced Chris Hero in his 2nd indie match

“The Miracle” – Cody faced Mike Bennett in his 4th indie match

Moose – Cody was unsuccessful in challenging for Moose’s IMPACT Grand Title in March 2017/

Pat Buck – Cody wrestled Buck in in October 2016 for WrestlePro

the streamers thing – A common practice for Ring Of Honor is for the popular wrestlers to be greeted with a display of colorful streamers before their matches, as a mark of respect. Cody got his firstly before his 2016 Supercard of Honor match with Kenny Omega.

Young Bucks – Cody and Matt & Nick Jackson became synonymous with one another upon Cody joining the bullet Club and becoming a key character in their popular YouTube series ‘Being The Elite’. They would compete mainly with but also against eachother, and would become EVPs of AEW in 2019.

Trevor Lee – Cody and the more recently known as ‘Cameron Grimes’ in WWE had 3 singles matches with one another, most notably for PWG.

Shibata – Cody was able to go up against Japanese legend Katsuyori Shibata in a tag team match at the ROH/NJPW Honor Rising: Japan 2017 show, where Rhodes teamed up with Adam Page against Shibata and Jay Lethal.

Personal Ring Announcer – I mean… he kind of did get this one, with wife Brandi announcing Rhodes for several of his big matches (being a former WWE ring announcer herself I’m sure helped).

and finally… the one Cody DIDN’T manage… Roderick Strong… who joined WWE in the later part of 2016. But overall… not bad right?

By late 2018, Cody was widely viewed as one of the biggest names in independent wrestling. But all that was about to change. On January 1st 2019, an official announcement was made that would change wrestling forever. Cody having left WWE, now had somewhere else to make his name on a big stage on American Television…

AEW quickly became a thing, and in May of 2019 they had their first PPV, with a match between Cody and his brother Dustin (an absolute all-time classic match by the way that I would highly, highly recommend) being one of the headline matches. By October, they were on weekly TV with Cody as one of their top stars. He had a few big matches in the company’s early days, against the likes of Darby Allin, Sammy Guevara and Shawn Spears. In November of 2019, Cody was in the main event of AEW’s Full Gear PPV against then World Champion Chris Jericho, with the rather fascinating stipulation of if Cody didn’t win, he could never again challenge for the World title of the company he helped form… Well… in conjunction with a much expected heel turn from his then ally MJF, Cody did indeed lose the match. The company had been on TV for a couple months, and now one of their founding fathers could seemingly never again challenge for their championship.

Subsequently, we got the feud between the master and the apprentice. And (funny enough given Maxwell Jacob Friedman was involved) the feud was GREAT! The story was Cody demanded a match with Max, and Max wouldn’t give it him… unless Cody overcome obstacle after obstacle, with two notable moments standing out. The guy who we see now as the top babyface in WWE, he was always there. He was there in AEW too, the people just didn’t wanna see it and maybe the environment wasn’t right for him I don’t know… but this was one of the best babyface segments I’ve ever seen.

After that, Cody had one more obstacle to get his match with MJF. He had to face the monstrous Wardlow. In a cage. And if that segment showed he could garner the emotion and show the heart of a top babyface, then this cage match showed he could captivate the audience and risk it all to get the win. Cody loved him a big spot in AEW, this one was right up there with the best of them…

Oh, and for the record, the cage match was in Atlanta… Cody’s hometown…

And after that AEW Dynamite went off the air, Cody showed once again, that he could TALK like a top guy. Get the tissues out for this promo.

In the match itself, MJF did what MJF does and got the win by any means. From here Cody went into a feud with the now Jake Roberts managed Lance Archer, as part of crowning the first AEW TNT Champion. And with the belt not even finished yet (bizarrely), Cody Rhodes beat Archer in a tournament finals to win the new belt at Double Or Nothing 2020. He’d go on to lose the belt in incredible fashion to Mr Brodie Lee in August, in a match that lasted just over 90 seconds. He would return later, and the two would rematch in October of the same year in a Dog Collar match (another match I would highly recommend seeking out). Rhodes would win back the title in what turned out to be the final match of the legendary Mr Brodie Lee.

Cody lost the TNT title to Darby Allin a month after this, and around this time, things for Cody in AEW started to get… weird… He was totally away and unassociated from The Elite by this point, he had his own crew of Wife Brandi, Arn Anderson, brother Dustin and others. But it was almost like Cody and his storylines were totally separate to anything else in AEW, and not entirely for the better, and thus the so-called ‘Codyverse’ was born.

Cody Rhodes entered into a feud with former NBA megastar and pop culture icon Shaquille O’Neal. Yes, I’m serious. They eventually had a mixed tag team match, that saw Cody team with Red Velvet (his wife Brandi became pregnant, so obviously couldn’t do the match) to take on Shaq and the debuting Jade Cargill… Wonder what happened to her… And amazingly (at the time at least), Shaq and Jade won the match. Shortly after, at the Revolution PPV, Cody was in the ‘Face of the Revolution’ ladder match for a shot at the TNT Title… but came up short. A few weeks later, Cody got into a feud with former friend QT Marshall and his cronies, including a debuting former pro-boxer Anthony Ogogo.

(This pains me to write)… On the Blood and Guts episode of Dynamite, Cody beat QT before facing and defeating Ogogo at 2021’s Double or Nothing PPV. This was the now-infamous Cody ‘Mr America’ time, that I really don’t wanna write about, but it was bad let me tell you. I get what they were going for, but even for America it all felt forced and a bit too much. They buried Ogogo and it’s not a shock to me he’s never really got off the ground in AEW since this. Finally, at Road Rager in July of 2021, Cody beat QT in a Strap match to end the feud.

Then we got back to some good stuff… Although there was elements to this storyline that formed part of the reason that Cody got tired of his role in AEW…

At the AEW Dynamite Homecoming episode on August 4th 2021, Cody faced a debuting Malakai Black. And less than 5 minutes later, Cody had been pinned with relative ease. A post match kick sent Cody off for a hiatus for a number of weeks, before the rematch was set up for the AEW Dynamite Grand Slam at Arthur Ashe stadium a few weeks later.

Cody had been had. Again. They told a fun story of how Malakai was trying to expose Cody… were we FINALLY going to get a Cody Rhodes AEW heel turn? Would Cody give in to the hate? Well… just like someone else he would not… something had to give going into Cody vs Malakai 3 right…?

Cody went from there to team up with PAC against Black and Andrade at Full Gear, and they did get the win… A few weeks later in an Atlanta Street Fight, Rhodes kept up his streak of doing batshit-crazy stuff in his hometown, by essentially setting himself on FIRE to win a match against Andrade.

From there, Cody would once again pursue the TNT title. And on the episode of Dynamite broadcast on Christmas Day, Cody would become the first 3-time TNT Champion.

Cody was supposed to defend the title against the man he won it from Sammy Guevara on January 8th’s Battle of the Belts event, but due to a Covid issue, he was unable to compete. In his place his brother Dustin would face Guevara for the ‘interim’ TNT title, which Guevara won. And around that time… the rumours began, and on January 17th, a bombshell dropped…

Shortly after, with rumours abound about his future, Cody cut what is for me PERSONALLY, one of my favourite promos of his career. Something Rhodes himself has later referred to as his AEW ‘exit interview promo’…

On January 26th, At AEW’s ‘Beach Break’ addition of Dynamite, Cody would face Sammy Guevara to crown an Undisputed and Unified TNT Champion. And add to the ‘insane Cody AEW spots’ list also… Talk about going out with a BANG!

An emotional Rhodes also spoke after the match…

And a few weeks later, the unthinkable was confirmed…

And a couple of months later, something even more unthinkable happened… WrestleMania 38, Seth ‘Freakin’ Rollins stood in the ring waiting for his ‘mystery’ opponent… and THEN… From undesirable, to undeniable…

Winning what was a fantastic match with Rollins, Cody Rhodes in WWE 2.0 was off and running! And what was maybe most shocking was that this was literally the Cody we saw in AEW; same attire, same music, same presentation… they didn’t change anything or give him a completely new character, and also… he definitely was not Stardust.

The next night on Raw, Cody made it very clear he was back in WWE to win the title his legendary father could only ever have in his hands, but never was allowed to call his own. He would go on to win the rematch with Rollins at the WrestleMania Backlash PPV… Around this time there was talk from some critics of Cody that his run as an ultra babyface in WWE would soon turn cold, that fans would tire and turn on him as they did in AEW. But a rather unfortunate freak occurrence led to a series of events that meant that the fans weren’t likely to turn on Cody anytime soon…

Cody Rhodes was due to face Seth ‘Freakin’ Rollins at the Hell In A Cell event in the structure itself in the PPVs main event. A huge moment for Rhodes, and a real clear sign WWE were running with him. On the eve of the match, whilst training in the gym, and down to maybe his own negligence or over-training (things Rhodes himself said he did), he tore his pectoral muscle. Completely torn. He would require surgery and be out of action for many months. Disastrous timing, Rhodes would surely be in no shape to compete, WWE would need a new main event… RIGHT? Well… think of this what you will, but if a muscle is torn, there is a thought process that it cant get any worse, so to the astonishment of everyone, the match was on. Cody would endure the pain during the match (a match he himself has said he will never watch back), get it done, and deal with his pec afterwards.

The astonishment that he could compete, would turn into utter horror when the real effect of Cody’s injury was shown to the world.

The match itself was fantastic. A genuine 5 star match, which between two great wrestlers isn’t a shock really… But my god, you cannot talk about this match without talking about the guts, the lunacy perhaps, but the bravery shown by Cody to do this match with THAT injury… indescribable. But of course, it did mean that 2 months into his return to WWE, Cody would be out, for a long time.

How long in fact? Well… the rumours and predictions were true in the end, and why they felt the need to announce this ahead of time I don’t know, but on the final Raw before the 2023 Royal Rumble, Cody Rhodes let us all know, he was BACK! 7 months later, The American Nightmare returned, again.

And right away, as Michael Cole said on commentary “The American Nightmare, one step closer to the American dream”!

And from there, the real game begins. And the next week, on the February 6th 2023 Raw, things got… personal.

Just among the things that were said here:

• Cody thanked Heyman for giving his father work in ECW when he, and his family, really needed it.

• Heyman said Dusty told him that Cody was his favourite son, but that Roman Reigns was the son he always wanted.

• Cody said he was just trying to win a wrestling championship, but that everyone was trying to make it personal. Cody then said that Heyman wouldn’t pay for it, and that Reigns would pay for it when Cody PERSONALLY took the titles

So now it had been made personal, Cody got to work. And a few weeks later, he got his meeting with The Tribal Chief himself.

Your bullet points here…:

• Cody said how people had always doubted him, that he’d always be Orton’s understudy, never get away from Stardust, and that he and his friends couldn’t draw 10,000 fans to his ‘little indie show’, and so beating Reigns isn’t impossible for him.

• Roman mocked Cody, and asked if Rhodes had ever won the WWE title, poitning out he had never even competed for it or had been in a WrestleMania main event. Before adding he had been groomed for his spot by his father AND Dusty Rhodes since he was a child.

• Reigns only had praise for Dusty Rhodes, but added that Dusty never talked about Cody, but that he missed him and and promised that if there was anything Dusty didn’t teach Cody, then Reigns would teach him it at WrestleMania.

• Cody concluded that he wasn’t playing on the same field as Roman, that maybe Roman was the son Dusty always wanted, and that he had to beat him. He finished with that for him to matter and exist, he must complete his story and beat Reigns for the title. And then we eventually got the very tense handshake.

But Cody knew that to take down Roman, he had to take down The Bloodline too. And so he looked to help to hurt and former friends get back on side again… and he did his bit to help the other WrestleMania main event. Weeks of talking and trying to mend fences eventually proved fruitful, and dad had got the kids talking again.

On the March 20th Raw, our boy Cody was on SMOKE. Delivery a monologue that I so hope is brought up in the build up to this year’s match. Cody foreshadowed the fall of The Bloodline in complete totality, and told it right to The Tribal Chief’s face.

‘You’ve gotta wake up without these titles, that mean the most in our world, and when that happens, here’s what else happens, Jey is gonna leave you, and then Jimmy will leave you too, so no Usos, guess what happens then, Solo, (who you been glaring at me all night), let me tell you something that I had to find out when I was a second generation flanked by the champion, you think you’re ready, YOU’RE NOT READY, Solo leaves you too… and when Solo leaves you, this man, well he becomes an advocate again… so there you’ll be, a man without a family, a Roman with no more Reigns, a Chief without a Tribe”.

The next week, on the final Raw before WrestleMania, the Cody-led Avengers-like team set about on The Bloodline. And as Kevin and Sami helped take away the threat of The Usos, Cody was able to get a huge win to hand Solo Sikoa his first main roster pinfall loss.

And with that, we were pretty much set. It was time. For the story to end.

Or, so we all thought…

You know what came next… he tried, they cheated, and so he failed. And we were all VERY mad!

After that… Cody had to pick himself up. You know what he went into after that, and I don’t really wanna talk about that guy, so lets just say Cody went into a big feud that tempered the worry that I had coming out of Mania… and that was that Cody would lose some of that love form the fans. He didn’t. If anything it grew. He was still our guy, and he wasn’t giving up on his story either!

He did have a couple of fun side-quests before he revisited the story though… including the long and somewhat protracted feud between the ‘avengers’ of Monday Night Raw and the members of the Judgment Day (with Drew McIntyre for good measure). That all came together at Survivor Series in Chicago in November of 2023. Survivor Series: WAR GAMES that is!

Yeah as you can see, Cody brought back RANDY ORTON for the match! And Randy essentially handed over the decisive pin to Cody, and they all celebrated, and then nothing else happened on that PPV at all… well, there was that other thing I guess…

So after that, the next big stop was the Royal Rumble! And as we marched towards everyone’s favourite WWE event of the year, it seemed very clear (to us at least) what the two world title matches at WrestleMania would be, CM Punk challenging World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins, and our boy Cody facing off against Roman in the big rematch. So now, the question was how would they get to those? Particularly after a… rather tense face off on Monday Night Raw, it seemed a clear two horse race (despite rumours of a Gunther win) to me at least, that either CM Punk or Cody Rhodes would win the Royal Rumble. And honestly, I was pretty convinced that Punk would win the Rumble, and Cody would win an Elimination Chamber to get his rematch with Roman…

Or… that’s what I THOUGHT would happen anyway…

So coming out of the PPV, the pathway was made clear… Cody vs Roman, and Punk would have to win the Chamber match to get Seth… right…?

But then… everything that we thought was, was not.

A combination of CM Punk being hurt, and… other stuff… meant that inevitably, plans had to change. WWE quickly teased the idea that Cody would face Rollins at Mania, and then even more shockingly, we were presented with quite the… interesting… alternative to Cody vs Roman 2…

Reports emerged that, people… shall we say, without pointing fingers, had decided that Roman Reigns vs The Rock, and Cody vs Seth was the way to go for WrestleMania. Which on the face of it, giving one of the biggest dream matches possible, and another edition of what was an excellent rivalry, doesn’t look like terrible ideas… the reality though was very different. Right ideas, VERY wrong timing.

And so now WWE had a choice to make, go with their plan or go with the fans wishes. At the WrestleMania press conference event, we got our answer…

Quite simply, they listened, and they changed their minds. If ever you needed a sign that this is a NEW WWE, it was them changing the main event of WRESTLEMANIA, because the majority of fans demanded as such.

But what was most interesting, was the Seth ‘Freakin’ Rollins added element. Immediately there was talk of a tag team match, maybe Rock vs SETH? But one thing was clear, that The Rock was a HEEL, and Rock and Roman were ALIGNED! HOLY SHIT!

I’m not going to talk about ALL the ifs, buts or maybes, but The Rock has been very clever with this mini-run. After WrestleMania is all said and done, there’s going to be so many little moments (for example, clock above with The Rock doing The Bloodline point, but it appears he is doing an L) where we’re going to be able to say that this and that was a tease to this or that… But it’s been an absolute BLAST to see him on WWE TV regularly again. I’ve loved how each week he’s added another layer, the fancy jacket, the red eyes on the bull on the titantron, the 2003 Hollywood Rock theme music, it’s been delightful. The promos have been a combo or corny-Rock and a more modern and edgy dialogue, I’ve enjoyed it. But let’s get back to Cody.

I think he’s shone brighter and brighter the closer we get. I think when each week you’re having to not only keep the people onside, and have them route for you as the number 1 good guy going into the main event of the biggest show, but he’s having to provide replies to THE ROCK. About as tricky a promo task as you can get. His line about handing the title to his mum, because he can’t hand it to his dad, as awesome. And what I’ve really liked is that he’s shown a bit of an edge, I mean, HE SLAPPED THE ROCK!

Yeah, CODY is The People’s Champion nowadays!

The one aspect of this story that I don’t think many of us saw coming, was Cody getting a helping hand from the man who at one stage wanted Cody to face HIM at WrestleMania, the CURRENT World Heavyweight Champion Seth ‘Freakin’ Rollins. He does appear to be an odd man out here to me, as his other opponent for WrestleMania Drew McIntyre has pointed out, could Rollins be putting too much of his focus on The Bloodline? I guess time will tell, but Seth has done his best to speak for the people and tell both Roman and The Rock what he thinks of them, but could it all work out that after the tag match, he has given so much that by the time he defends his world title on night 2, he simply has nothing left… We shall see…

But of course, Cody didn’t pick Seth, he picked The Tribal Chief to face at WrestleMania… eventually anyway… I think it’s been tricky for Roman at times in this feud. Kind of difficult not to look like a number 2 compared to THE ROCK… but they’ve done maybe as good a job as they could’ve in making out that it’s still ROMAN that’s the guy Cody has to beat, not just ‘The Final Boss’ The Rock. In fact The Rock has caused Roman’s confidence to only increase, he recently said this will be the easiest WrestleMania he’s ever had. Which with two matches back to back nights, says a lot about how much they seem to have stacked the deck against Cody. It is wild to think that THE world title reign of the modern era could be just days away from ending, but SURELY Reigns’ ever-increasing confidence has to come back to bite him… RIGHT???

Having The Rock back, especially as a heel, was proving to be very fun to watch. But a lot accused this new Rock incarnation of calling back too much to the types of phrases and sayings Dwayne Johnson would use in the attitude era… But gradually ‘The Final Boss’ came to be. And on the March 25th Raw, The Rock as ‘The Final Boss’ showed he could be what most bosses can be… scary.

This wasn’t The Rock being entertaining, this was horrifying. This was… the only thing I could compare it to was in The Dark Knight Rises film, when Batman fought Bane for the first time. And Batman, our superhero, got his ass BEAT… and then some. Bane, just like The Rock did to our hero Cody, pulverised him. Humiliated him, conducted a character assassination as he continued to beat the guy’s ass. Now it wasn’t just a dream match, this really was becoming like a nightmare. And… it was all The Tribal Chief’s idea. He authorised an attack on his WrestleMania night 2 opponent, and The Rock had executed the plan, and near executed Cody too whilst he was at it.

So the question now was… what would be the response from our hero Cody? In the Batman film, Batman went away, trained and dusted himself down and came back to whoop Bane’s ASS! Here, I personally wanted Cody to come back on SMOKE! I wanted him to channel Stone Cold Steve Austin and just unleash hell on The Rock and anyone standing in his way! And so the next week, Cody’s brother in arms took it to The Final Boss… and our hero got the upper hand and got his revenge right…? or not…

And now here we are… As I have 1.5 billion wrestling stuff to watch, I’ve not got the chance to include whatever happens on the final SmackDown before WrestleMania. So with that being said, I guess I should say about the matches themselves… I think on night 1, given the added stips, it has to be Rock and Roman getting the win surely… and then that sets it up for ANYTHING to happen in the Roman and Cody match on night 2. And… then… I truly in my heart believe that Cody… WILL finish his story! He HAS TO… RIGHT?!?!…

But whatever happens, as a very proud ‘Cody Crybaby’ I am so passionately behind Cody Rhodes and him finishing this wonderful story he has created. And as much as it’s become an ongoing gimmick and tagline, and at times a bit of a meme… The reason I believe in it, is it’s largely based in reality. Cody Rhodes simply has to finish the story at WrestleMania 40.

Good luck Cody. We are all with you.

FINISH THE STORY.

Josh.

Well, this is it! The end of the line, the final chapter of the series. I’ve had a lot of fun, and we are going out with a BANG! A fantastic WrestleMania card, 12 great match-ups, and lots of exciting happenings! So… LET’S GOOOOOOOOOO!

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WRESTLEMANIA (April Week 1 Sunday – LA (Hollywood wasn’t in the game), California)

We get going with the Women’s Tag Titles on the line…

Damage CTRL know they are defending their titles, and half of their opponents but that is all…

And their opponents are…

The Kabuki Warriors (Asuka & KAIRI SANE) (with Iyo Sky) defeated Damage CTRL (Bayley & Dakota Kai) (C) to win the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship

A triumphant return to WWE for Kairi Sane, really she was the only choice to help her friends Asuka and Iyo. And we have NEW Women’s Tag Champs to kick off WrestleMania!

Following from a heck of an opener, we have… quite the match…

6 of the very best. A ladder match. WrestleMania. What more could you want?

Sami Zayn (C) defeated Seth ‘Freakin’ Rollins & Drew McIntyre & AJ Styles & Rey Mysterio & LA Knight in a Ladder Match to retain the Intercontinental Championship

Pretty much as advertised, pure carnage! But in the end, Sami found a way, and just like in real life, Sami Zayn has his big WrestleMania 39 moment!

Up next, another big tag title match, and MAYBE a final shot at glory for a legend…

KO might know a thing about big tag title matches at WrestleMania irl, but how can he do here?

And having been fired up by his tag partner, Edge has a chance here for another Mania moment.

Albeit, none of that is a foregone conclusion up against a formidable pair of opponents…

DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa) (C) defeated Kevin Owens & Edge to retain the Raw Tag Team Championship

A great back and forth, but in the end the cunning of DIY got them the huge win! And STILL!

Well that COULD have been the final match of Edge’s career, but this next match will definitely be the final one for somebody…

The match we SHOULD have got at WrestleMania 35, I’m finally doing it here, with it ALL on the line…

Becky Lynch defeated Ronda Rousey in a No Holds Barred match (Ronda Rousey must now retire)

She did it FINALLY, as she should have done at Mania 35, by making Ronda tap out! The Man marches on, and finally gets her singles win with no BS or asterisk against Rousey.

Not even half way through the Mania card yet, and its been banger after banger so far… next up… it’s time for the Gunther match…

So we know half of our next match… but who would The Ring General face…?

Well… I like to do cool shit sometimes… oh yes, yes, yes…

Gunther defeated Daniel Bryan

This was A LOT of fun, because of course it was! Two of the all time greats, at WRESTLEMANIA, cause… why the heck not? Gunther gets the W, but with this match I think there would be no losers really.

After that banger, it’s time to see if he really is HIM…

It’s been an up and down ride for Randy Orton this past year, but he looks to end it on a high now as a champion…

But he is up against a champion who has been on a roll recently, and now on the grandest stage, it’s time to see if he really doesn’t miss or not…

Carmelo Hayes (C) (with Trick Williams) defeated Randy Orton to retain the United States Championship

Melo gets the win… ‘outta nowhere… so, maybe he is HIM after all?

Next up, what was once a dream match has now become a grudge match!

Goldberg has found a darker side in recent weeks, now he looks to claim the ultimate prize once more…

But Big E didn’t get this far to only get this far… right…?

Big E (C) defeated Goldberg to retain the World Heavyweight Championship

It’s his time now, and Big E proves he’s not just about the laughs. THE World Heavyweight Champion!

Next up, a match that for me SCREAMS WrestleMania. Two of the absolute best.

Rhea Ripley defeated Bianca Belair (C) to win the Raw Women’s Championship

This is Mami’s world. We are all just living in it.

Next up… it’s a big one… a FORBIDDEN BATTLE some would say…

Bo Dallas betrayed one of his own, revealing his true self to the world, will he face his punishment here?

And in doing, Bo unleashed the monster in his own brother…

The Fiend defeated Bo Dallas in a Hell In A Cell match

A wild and brutal battle as one would expect! But in the end, The Fiend will rule the earth!

Now… we’ve a story to tell…

Cody Rhodes defeated Finn Balor (C) to win the WWE Championship

Quite simply… Story, FINISHED!

And one story finishing there, to another that is finally getting it’s big moment on the biggest of stages. A singles match that I am still astonished never happened at a WrestleMania, but I am putting that right here!

The Boss returned to WWE and immediately won the Elimination Chamber match to get her shot here, now can she make the most of the opportunity?

Or will The Queen continue to reign, as she has done all through my Universe Mode?

Sasha Banks defeated Charlotte Flair (C) to win the SmackDown Women’s Championship

A great match that went exactly how it should’ve gone for me result-wise. It saddens me that Sasha doesn’t seem to be heading WWE’s way anytime soon, but one day maybe, we’ll get to see the below become a reality again…

And then FINALLY, it is time for my WrestleMania main event!

Indeed, one of the biggest matches in WWE history. And as I am showing here, it doesn’t HAVE to be for a World Championship, in fact it definitely shouldn’t be… Which in my Universe is good news for our (CURRENT) Tribal Chief…

And looking to take the head of the table’s spot, The Great One returns for the ultimate family-warfare match…

Roman Reigns (with Paul Heyman) defeated The Rock

I was happy with how this turned out. To me there can only be one winner, and from here Roman Reigns (having proven himself STILL to be THE Tribal Chief) can go about trying to regain his World Championship… that’s where I would go anyway…

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And that’s WrestleMania DONE! And my Universe Mode DONE! And this blog series DONE! I’ve had so much fun doing this, but now it’s come to a natural end. And as much as I have thought of doing a second year on this game, A. I need a break, B. I want to do blogs about other topics and things, and C. WWE 2K24 has some… interesting… roster additions that I am very excited to book in my own WWE Universe. So stay tuned to NobodyIsRaedy.com when at some point in the next few months, I will very likely begin a blog series similar to this one, but for WWE 2K24.

Thank You to everyone for reading and following along with this series. See you all soon for 2k24.

And see him soon…

Oh… and him…

Josh.

WWE’s irl Elimination Chamber PPV in Montreal last year was good, I think I can do better. Shall we see if I did or not then…?…

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Elimination Chamber (February Sunday Week 4 – Montreal, Canada)

We kick things off for the home town hero, looking to defeat the ‘unbeatable’ champion… sound familiar?…

Sami Zayn defeated Gunther (C) to win the Intercontinental Championship

Yes, I did the thing! I just felt it was right, I had it planned for months and for me it was just such the perfect moment. Sami Zayn had been having match after match in my universe mode for months, all bangers! Who remembers Sami cutting his “My name is Sami Zayn” promo that I wrote into my Universe Mode some months back? Ever since then he’s been on a journey, and that culminated here, in his town, against an undefeatable monster, and he won the championship. Beautiful stuff.

Next up, quite the extraordinary dream match for a number of reasons…

Seth ‘Freakin’ Rollins defeated Adam Cole

Genuinely think this is one of the best matches of the series that I’ve done! What an absolute BANGER, but of course it was. Rollins has been one of the series MVP’s and so it made sense he would get the win here, and send Cole packing back to… the other place…

We had one Canadian hero win in our opener, lets see how another gets on shall we?

Rhea Ripley & Dominik Mysterio defeated Beth Phoenix & Edge

You might think this is an odd booking, but I have my reasons. Rhea is going to WrestleMania to challenge for a championship, so her getting a big win on PPV here made sense to me. And also with Edge, I have a story for him too, so stay tuned… but for now, its The Judgment Day’s time!

Another dream match next, but maybe not one that most people would immediately go to…

Carmelo Hayes (C) (with Trick Williams) defeated Logan Paul to retain the United States Championship

He’s HIM. And keep watching, because he’s going to keep on proving it…!

Another WILD dream match next, Big E’s ULTIMATE dream match in fact…

I can’t say I’ve loved the recent years creative for Bill Goldberg in WWE, so I’ve taken a punt and will try to do better… having respectfully answered the call out from Big E, he now steps up to try and shock the world again in Canada…

But this is of course a pretty big deal for Big E also. Can the World Heavyweight Champion keep his cool and retain his title here?

Big E (C) defeats Goldberg by DQ to retain the World Heavyweight Championship

Long story short, Goldberg couldn’t beat Big E with his big moves. He got frustrated, lashed out and turned heel. And we go from there…

Next we have a very personal story finally coming to a head… in EXTREME circumstances!

Since his heel turn, Orton has been on a campaign to take Cody down…

But after his Royal Rumble match win, can The American Nightmare keep his momentum going?

Cody Rhodes defeated Randy Orton in an Extreme Rules match

A heck of a match, and another HUGE win on his road to WrestleMania!

One Canadian hero had his crowning moment, the other tasted defeat, so now its down to KO to try and bring the big one home…

Finn Balor (C) defeated Kevin Owens to retain the WWE Championship

Another hero tried, another got his ass handed to him. Balor goes into WrestleMania as WWE Champion.

Our semi-main event sees a tag match that was all about… FAMILY!

The Rock & Jey Uso defeated Jimmy Uso & Solo Sikoa

And on The Rock goes, with help from a freshly turned Jey Uso, to his big showdown with the (current) Tribal Chief…

And finally… the reason this show exists… It’s time to find out who challenges Charlotte for the SmackDown Women’s title at WrestleMania…

And the surprise entrant, and newest signee to SmackDown is…

IT’S BOSS TIME!!! SASHA BANKS IS BACK! And…

Sasha Banks defeated Liv Morgan & Sonya Deville & Raquel Rodriguez & Shayna Baszler & Mandy Rose in an Elimination Chamber match to earn a SmackDown Women’s Championship match at WrestleMania

Yes… SHE IS BACK! AND SASHA BANKS IS GOING TO WRESTLEMANIA!

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AND THAT, IS THAT! Elimination Chamber is done, and the road to WrestleMania is well underway! Next up I will have all that WrestleMania build, and I will list the full card for the show of shows… exciting times ahead!

Josh.

We’re well on the road to the showcase of the immortals now! We have our Royal Rumble winners, but there is still plenty more to be decided before we know our full line up… and before we go to WrestleMania, we have one last stop on the way… with the ELIMINATION CHAMBER PPV! So lets get into the build up for that show shall we?…

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FEBRUARY WEEK 1

Raw

(AJ Styles, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson are ‘loaned’ to AEW in exchange for the AEW wrestlers that took part in the Men’s Royal Rumble match, and… others…)

Edge comes out and looks really upset, Dominik and Rhea soon follow to mock him, before BETH PHOENIX comes out to even the odds! Dom and Rhea back off after a face to face

Bianca Belair defeated Zoey Stark (with Alba Fyre)

Cody Rhodes cuts an in-ring promo, where he references both WrestleMania, and ‘finishing the story’…

‘DIY’ (C) defeated ‘Street Profits’ to retain the Raw Tag Team Championship – ‘DIY’ cheat to win

Carmelo Hayes, and Trick Williams, come out for an in-ring promo… eventually Damian Priest and then LOGAN PAUL come out… (Logan mentions his Royal Rumble performance)…

Carmelo Hayes (with Trick Williams) (C) defeated Damian Priest to retain the United States Championship – Logan Paul on commentary

Seth ‘Freakin’ Rollins defeated Mustafa Ali – Seth cuts an in-ring promo after, saying that he will fight anyone, anytime, anywhere, including at the Elimination Chamber PPV…

Becky Lynch comes out for an in-ring promo, she talks about Ronda Rousey and all that happened at the Royal Rumble … Damage CTRL comes out after, they go back and forth with Becky before… The Way run out to even the odds…

Becky Lynch & Candice LeRae & Indi Hartwell defeated ‘Damage CTRL’ – Becky pinned Iyo. AND THEN… BAYLEY AND DAKOTA ATTACK IYO!

WWE Champion Finn Balor comes out for an in-ring promo… he is fired up and angry, before he looks up to the titantron and sees that both Dominik and Damian have been attacked, and Rhea has no idea who did it… Finn is all confused, before suddenly KEVIN OWENS jumps in the ring and gives Finn a stunner! Then leaves…

SmackDown

The Wyatt 5 comes out to the ring, eventually Uncle Howdy SPEAKS and says… “all is fair, in love and war…”… and then Uncle Howdy, Dutch and Vincent ATTACK BRAY WYATT! Alexa Bliss is left to look on, and try in vain to protect Bray… she’s devastated

Kayden Carter & Katana Chance (C) defeated Shotzi & Natalya to retain the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship

Sami Zayn comes out for an in-ring promo, he PASSIONATELY calls out Gunther for a match at Elimination Chamber!

LA Knight defeated Wade Barrett

The New Day come out to the ring, they each talk on the mic, last to do so is Big E. He says it’s an Honor to be World Heavyweight Champion, and that dreams can come true… once again… they are then interrupted by Legado del Fantasma…

‘The New Day’ defeated ‘Legado del Fantasma’

Charlotte Flair comes out for an in-ring promo, she talks about WrestleMania, Rhea Ripley, and says whatever happens and whenever she faces at WrestleMania… before she’s then interrupted by Liv Morgan. They go back and forth, before Toxic Attraction interrupt her,… Raquel Rodriguez then comes out to try and even the odds…

Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez vs ‘Toxic Attraction’ (Gigi Dolin & Jacy Jayne with Mandy Rose) ends in a DQ when Sonya Deville comes out to attack Morgan and Rodriguez… meanwhile Shayna Baszler runs out and attacks Charlotte Flair (who was on commentary)

Drew McIntyre & Karrion Kross (with Scarlett) defeated Sheamus (with Butch) & Rey Mysterio – Drew pins Sheamus

The Bloodline (Roman Reigns with Paul Heyman, Jimmy Uso & Solo Sikoa) come out to the ring. Roman Reigns gets the mic from Heyman, before asking the crowd to “acknowledge me!”… and then… THE ROCK comes out!!! He gets the mic and says “FINALLY… THE ROCK HAS COME BACK… TO BECOME THE TRIBAL CHIEF!”… he drops his mic and Rock and Roman go face to face. Heyman looks on absolutely stunned, Solo looks focused and Jimmy is visibly shook. The Bloodline then retreat as The Rock poses to close the show.

Maybe now is a good time for a little roster update by the way…

RAW

WWE Champion: Finn Balor

Randy Orton / Damian Priest

Cody Rhodes / Edge / Seth ‘Freakin’ Rollins

United States Champion: Carmelo Hayes (with Trick Williams)

Kevin Owens / AJ Styles

Bobby Lashley / Mustafa Ali / Dominik Mysterio

Raw Women’s Champion: Bianca Belair

Becky Lynch / Asuka / Iyo Sky / Canide LeRae / Indi Hartwell (with Dexter Lumis)

Rhea Ripley / Ronda Rousey / Bayley / Dakota Kai / Zoey Stark / Alba Fyre

Raw Tag Team Champions: ‘DIY’

‘Viking Raiders’ (with Valhalla) / ‘Pretty Deadly’

‘Street Profits’ / ‘Alpha Academy’ / ‘The OC’ (with ‘Michin’ Mia Yim)

Omos (with MVP) / Shelton Benjamin / Cedric Alexander

Dolph Ziggler / Elias / R-Truth

SMACKDOWN

Roman Reigns with Paul Heyman (with Solo Sikoa & Jimmy Uso)

The Rock (& Jey Uso)

World Heavyweight Champion: Big E

Bray Wyatt (with Alexa Bliss) / LA Knight

Uncle Howdy (with Dutch & Vincent) / Karrion Kross (with Scarlett) / Drew McIntyre

Intercontinental Champion: Gunther

Santos Escobar / Shinsuke Nakamura

Sami Zayn / Rey Mysterio / Sheamus

SmackDown Women’s Champion: Charlotte Flair

WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions: Kayden Carter & Katana Chance

Shayna Baszler / Mandy Rose / Sonya Deville / Gigi Dolin / Jacy Jayne

Liv Morgan / Raquel Rodriguez / Shotzi / Natalya

SmackDown Tag Team Champions: Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods

Braun Strowman & Ricochet / ‘Brawling Brutes’

‘Imperium’ / ‘Legado del Fantasma’

The Miz / Rick Boogs / Tyler Breeze / Madcap Moss

Wade Barrett / Robert Roode / Happy Corbin / Jinder Mahal

FEBRUARY WEEK 2

RAW

Kevin Owens comes out for an in-ring promo… on Finn Balor, the WWE Championship and The Judgement Day. Finn then comes out and they go back and forth on the mic, before Priest jumps KO.

Seth ‘Freakin’ Rollins defeated Omos (with MVP) – Seth again cuts a promo stating he would fight ANYONE, anytime, anywhere, including at the Elimination Chamber

Judgement Day are backstage, Cody Rhodes approaches them, there is an INTENSE Face to face with him and Finn Balor, and an equally intense back and forth…

Bayley & Dakota Kai come out to the ring, they explain their turn on Iyo Sky, and say there’s a bright future on the horizon for Damage CTRL.

Bianca Belair defeated Zoey Stark (with Alba Fyre) – Alba banned from ringside during the match, and then after the match… Rhea Ripley goes face to face with Belair and says “I’ll see you at WrestleMania!”

(ad break) then… Rhea Ripley defeated Beth Phoenix in a Backstage Brawl

Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams have a backstage interview, on Logan Paul, who they challenge to a face to face next week!

‘DIY’ defeated ‘Alpha Academy’ – by cheating, again… then ‘Street Profits’ run out to save Alpha Academy from a post match beatdown

Kevin Owens backstage interview

Candice LeRae & Indi Hartwell (with Dexter Lumis) challenge Bayley & Dakota Kai to a tag match next week!

Kevin Owens defeated Damian Priest – Finn Balor attacks Owens post match, and stands over him raising the WWE Championship high as the show goes off the air

SMACKDOWN

Liv Morgan defeated Sonya Deville in an Elimination Chamber qualifying match

The New Day are seen talking with The Rock backstage, Cody Rhodes then comes in to talk with Big E…

Drew McIntyre defeated Rick Boogs – LA Knight runs out to stop a post match beating after

Uncle Howdy and Dutch & Vincent video package

Sami Zayn backstage interview… Braun Strowman and Ricochet join him…

Sami Zayn & Braun Strowman & Ricochet defeated ‘Imperium’

Shayna Baszler defeated Shotzi in an Elimination Chamber qualifying match 

Charlotte Flair backstage interview

Gunther defeated Sami Zayn in Backstage Brawl – Gunther then accepts Zayn’s challenge for a match at Elimination Chamber

The Rock comes out for an in-ring promo, eventually he is interrupted by Jimmy Uso, and then Solo Sikoa comes from the other side and The Rock is seemingly trapped… until JEY USO runs out to even the odds! We go off the air with the two pairs brawling, and Jey and Rock clearing the ring and standing tall!

FEBRUARY WEEK 3

RAW

Cody Rhodes comes out and cuts an in-ring promo, he says he will make his WrestleMania decision after Elimination Chamber, but he will be in Montreal for the show… at this point Randy Orton attacks Cody!

‘Damage CTRL’ defeated ‘The Way’

Damian Priest defeated R-Truth – afterwards Kevin Owens comes out and hits Priest with a Stunner… and then hits one to Truth as well

Seth ‘Freakin’ Rollins has a backstage interview, Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin interrupt it…

Montez Ford (with Angelo Dawkins) defeated Johnny Gargano (with Tommaso Ciampa) – Afterwards Kevin Owens comes out and hits STUNNERs to everyone!

Finn Balor has a backstage interview, he looks very stressed, and he thinks Owens is approaching, but it’s actually the other members of The Judgement Day. They reassure Finn that everything is OK, they leave… and just as Finn is calm, Owens runs in, hits Balor with a STUNNER, then runs off before Judgement Day can get him

Seth ‘Freakin’ Rollins defeated Shelton Benjamin (with Cedric Alexander) – after Seth gets the mic, and eventually is interrupted by ADAM COLE! He gets into the ring and says “I’ll see you at Elimination Chamber… BAY BAY!”

SMACKDOWN

Jey Uso comes out for an in-ring promo, Paul Heyman comes out and they go back and forth, and he announces it will be Jey vs ‘one of his brothers’ later tonight…

Mandy Rose (with Gigi Dolin & Jacy Jayne) defeated Katana Chance (with Kayden Carter) in an Elimination Chamber qualifying match

Drew McIntyre defeated LA Knight – Scarlett came out and blew red mist into Knight’s eyes… leading to the finish

Paul Heyman (in The Bloodline locker room) announces that “The Tribal Chief has ordered that YOU SOLO must VANQUISH Jey Uso TONIGHT!”

The New Day backstage interview

Sami Zayn defeated Santos Escobar (with Cruz del Toro & Joaquin Wilde) – Gunther (with Kaiser & Vinci with him) is on commentary, and after the match it is announced that next week it’s ‘dealers choice’ where Zayn and Gunther will pick eachother’s opponents

Alexa Bliss cuts a sad in-ring promo, Howdy and Dutch & Vincent then come out, Dutch states that if Bliss is “not with us, then you’re against us”… they look like they’re about to attack her, but the lights go out, and when they come back on Bray Wyatt AND Erick Rowan are in the ring, and they attack Duthc and Vincent as Uncle Howdy leaves the ring, btu amongst the chaos Howdy takes his chance and hits Bliss with a Sister Abigail! The heels flee as Wyatt and Rowan tend to Bliss

Raquel Rodriguez defeated Natalya in an Elimination Chamber qualifying match – Charlotte Flair is seen watching on from backstage

The New Day come out for an in-ring promo, Big E makes a challenge for Elimination Chamber… to GOLDBERG!

Katana Chance and Kayden Carter have a backstage interview, both upset about Chance’s loss earlier… when they hear laughing… and DAMAGE CTRL approach them! They laugh at Chance and Carter and then walk off…

Solo Sikoa (with Jimmy Uso) vs Jey Uso ends in a DQ after Jimmy jumps in to attack Jey… only for THE ROCK to run out and make the save! The Rock then makes the challenge for a tag match with him and Jey vs Jimyy & Solo at Elimination Chamber!

FEBRUARY WEEK 4

RAW

Finn Balor comes out for an in-ring promo, he calls out Kevin Owens, and he says he is going to hit him where it hurts… before ADAM COLE comes out and attacks KO, Seth ‘Freakin’ Rollins comes out to make the save, and Owens makes the challenge for a tag team match tonight!

Becky Lynch defeated Ronda Rousey in a Backstage Brawl

Trick Williams comes to the ring and calls out Logan Paul, Paul comes out and says Trick does have a match tonight, just not with him…

Mustafa Ali defeated Trick Williams – Logan attacks Trick after, but Carmelo makes the save

Edge and Beth Phoenix come out for an in-ring promo, they challenge Dom and Rhea for a tag match at Elimination Chamber! Dom and Rhea eventually come out and we get a big brawl!

‘DIY’ – ‘Street Profits’ vignette

Seth and KO are backstage talking about their match tonight…

Dolph Ziggler backstage interview

Cody Rhodes defeated Dolph Ziggler – Randy Orton seen watching on backstage

Bayley & Dakota Kai backstage interview, they challenge Carter and Chance for a tag title match!

Ronda Rousey has a backstage interview, she says she is done with Becky Lynch now, that she is taking her spot back and she challengers Bianca Belair for a title match next week! And then she’ll beat Rhea Ripley at WrestleMania as well!

Randy Orton defeated Elias – Orton then challenges Cody to an EXTREME RULES MATCH at Elimination Chamber!

Finn Balor & Adam Cole defeated Kevin Owens & Seth ‘Freakin’ Rollins – Finn pins Seth, then after the match there is a huge brawl with Rollins hitting the stomp to Adam Cole, and Owens hitting a stunner to Balor!

SMACKDOWN

‘Dealer’s Choice’ match: SAMI ZAYN defeated Ludwig Kaiser & Giovanni Vinci in a 2on1 handicap match – Gunther is seen FURIOUS backstage at the result

Kayden Carter & Katana Chance have a backstage interview, on Damage CTRL and the last chance qualifier tonight…

The New Day are backstage and seem really happy

‘The New Day’ (Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods) defeated Happy Corbin & Jinder Mahal – Big E on commentary

Big E then cuts an in-ring promo, and then GOLDBERG comes out to the ring! He looks at Big E and says “I accept, cause YOU’RE NEXT!” and they shake hands

Bray Wyatt – Erick Rowan – Alexa Bliss vignette

‘Dealer’s Choice match’: GUNTHER defeated Braun Strowman (with Ricochet) – Sami Zayn gets into the ring and tries to hit a Helluva kick on Gunther, but he moves last second, Zayn tries the kick again but Gunther responds with a huge chop, and Gunther stands tall as Zayn looks on.

We see The Rock/Jey Uso – Jimmy Uso/Solo Sikoa/Paul Heyman in their locker rooms

LA Knight defeated Karrion Kross (with Scarlett) – Originally Tyler Breeze comes out for the match, but he tells Kross that someone else has asked if he can have a shot at beating Kross’ ass, and that’s when LA Knight comes out. Drew McIntyre comes out after the match and tries to attack Knight, but he is able to evade.

Charlotte Flair backstage interview. She talks about the Elimination Chamber match for a shot at her at WrestleMania, she says she’s not concerned by the last chance qualifier tonight, or anyone in the Chamber match, not even the ‘mystery entrant’ and new SmackDown signing that will be taking the final spot in the match… because “I’m The Queen, and I don’t worry about peasants”

LAST CHANCE Elimination Chamber qualifying match: Sonya Deville defeated Natalya & Katana Chance & Shotzi

Jimmy Uso, Solo Sikoa and Paul Heyman all come to the ring, then out come Jey Uso and then The Rock with him. They have an in-ring contract signing and face to face, Jimmy goes verbally at Jey, Jey back to Jimmy, then The Rock goes at Solo and Jimmy, Solo goes to attack The Rock, only for Paul Heyman to order him off as ‘The Tribal Chief has requested that the physicality from The Bloodline be saved and turned into BRUTALITY at Elimination Chamber’. The Rock tells Paul Heyman that he and Jey will dela with these two ‘jabronis’ and then “you can tell your so-called ‘Tribal Chief’ that he needs to learn to SMELL what THE ROCK is COOKIN!”

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And that’s how we do it really. I have intentionally tried to be as concise as possible with this blog, due to my actual time limits and wanting to get on with the series as quickly as I can now, but I can assure you that Elimination Chamber and the ROAD TO WRESTLEMANIA in my WWE 2K23 Universe Mode will be with you very very soon!

Josh.

When I started this blog series SIX years ago, it was as an idea and a way for me to say all my shit in another way, as opposed to spouting off all my wrestling nonsense to my friends. Now here I am all this time after, and we are at blog number 300. I’d like to thank everyone who has ever encouraged, read and supported nobodyisready.com, and I’m not sure what I’ll do with the site going forward, but I’ll do my best to make it as fun and exciting to read as possible. And what better way to celebrate blog post 300th than with my latest part of my WWE 2K23 Universe Mode series… and it’s my go at running my favourite PPV of the year, Royal Rumble!

We have our 2 rumble matches, as well as 5 other matches all with huge implications. So… shall we get underway? Here is my WWE 2K23 Universe Mode ‘Royal Rumble’ PPV!

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Royal Rumble (January Sunday Week 4 – St Louis, Missouri

We get things underway with a bang! The WOMEN’S Royal Rumble Match!

We kicked off the Women’s Rumble as they did irl…

Women’s Royal Rumble Match

And so with a record 24 eliminations, one woman is indeed going to WRESTLEMANIA!!!

To follow one epic moment, we had a couple of others… beginning with the final match of the long rivalry between two of Raw’s top stars…

Bianca has had more than one chance at the Raw Women’s Title, but this IS her LAST chance… so the stakes couldn’t be higher for the EST.

She will need to overcome one of the most intimidating and feared women in WWE history to do so…

Bianca Belair defeated Asuka (C) to win the Raw Women’s Championship

After quite the match, we have a NEW Raw Women’s Champion!!!

BUT… as I would have it… THAT’S NOT ALL…

MISS MONEY IN THE BANK RONDA ROUSEY comes out of nowhere and attacks Bianca Belair! She then promptly CASHES IN her Briefcase, and we have an impromptu title match… and as the match is going on, we get a ref bump… and Ronda sees her opportunity… she grabs the briefcase again and goes to hit Bianca with it… but out comes…

THE MAN stops Ronda in her tracks, and grabs the briefcase from her, allowing for Bianca to pick an unaware Rousey up, hits the KOD, and BIANCA BELAIR RETAINS!!! STILL YOUR RAW WOMEN’S CHAMPION, AND BECKY LYNCH EFFECTIVELY COSTS RONDA ROUSEY HER MONEY IN THE BANK CASH IN!

Following on from all that drama, we go into the small matter of BEAST vs ALLMIGHTY!

Brock Lesnar defeated Bobby Lashley

A great man once said something about big men and their meat slappin… this was that… and the winner was Brock…

Next is our second Women’s title match of the night, and it’s a first time ever dream match!

Charlotte Flair (C) defeated Beth Phoenix to retain the SmackDown Women’s Championship

And on the road to WrestleMania (aka Charlotte’s championship match show), THE QUEEN continues to reign supreme!

Next up, a long running rivalry finally comes to an end, with the biggest prize in the game on the line!

The challenger has somewhat of an advantage having chosen the match stipulation himself…

But the champion got the win in brutal fashion before, can he do so again here?

Finn Balor (C) defeated Edge in a Ladder Match to retain the WWE Championship

Finn proved his greatness tonight, STILL YOUR champion!

And if that match wasn’t big enough, the next one might be even bigger! The MEN’S Royal Rumble Match!

We get things underway with a man who stated that he would lead his family to the promise land, by winning the Royal Rumble!

And if that wasn’t shocking enough, Bray Wyatt was very much familiar with the number 2 entrant…

Men’s Royal Rumble Match

It’s HIS story, and I’m going to write it!

And the main event of the show. 1 on 1. For the championship.

He’s worked through every obstacle he can, and now he has his moment… but van he make the most of it?

Or can the seemingly undefeatable champion continue to REIGN?

Big E defeated Roman Reigns (C) (with Paul Heyman) to win the World Heavyweight Championship

HE DID IT! No interference, no excuses, finality! It was quite simply a case of on this night, he was the better man, and he was the one who left the Royal Rumble PPV as the NEW World Heavyweight Champion!

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And that is that! What a show, lets hope the irl Rumble PPV on Sunday is even better… as we are truly now on the road to WRESTLEMANIA!

Josh.

It’s truly the most wonderful time of the year!!! No, not that stuff with the guy in the red suit, that’s SOOOOOOO last month… IT’S ROYAL RUMBLE SEASON!!! By a mile my favourite PPV of the year, everyone loves the rumble right? So I myself have been watching a different Rumble match each day, and I thought I would share with you all a review of one of my personal favourite rumble PPV shows from recent years. Special to me because it was a good show of course, but also because I watched the show at the home and with one of my best friends Stefan, and as kids who grew up in the Ruthless Aggression Era, we got to experience an all-timer of a return together, which is something I will never forget.

I’m not going to dwell on the kick-off show matches, WWE didn’t really care for those too much, so why should I? And anyway, this is back when WWE used to regularly do 4 hour shows, and in this one of course we have two matches that go plus an hour! So lets get into it and rewind SIX years to Philadelphia and the Royal Rumble PPV from 2018!

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Our opener promised to be interesting, with a… unique… dynamic to say the least…

AJ Styles (C) defeated Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens in a 2on1 Handicap Match to retain the WWE Championship

This was in the time of SmackDown when KO was on a tear as a heel being an absolute menace, and now he had turned the uber-babyface Sami to the darkside. Zayn just wanted to help his friend, but now the two Canadians were intent on becoming “Co-WWE Champions”… Naturally, this was really fun! Zayn and Owens put the beating on Styles for pretty much the entire first half of the match, and as much as the crowd tried to get AJ into it, the 2 on 1 advantage showed to be too much early on. Styles looked to get back into it with a flurry, but Owens grabbed him off the top and slammed him down (face first) for a 2 count nearfall. Owens tried a cannonball, only for Styles to move and as a result, KO looked to re-injure his ankle he had hurt on the previous SmackDown, hence Zayn was promptly tagged in. Styles flipped Zayn off the top, but was too worn out to capitalize as Owens tagged in, Styles hit a Pele kick to Owens, Zayn came in and was thwarted from hitting a Helluva kick and then AJ got a reverse DDT, Owens came in again as Styles fought back, and we had a crazy spot where Owens flipped Styles into Zayn, who immediately got a head scissors and flipped Zayn (I did a terrible job explaining it, but its around 12:21 of the video above), Styles soon after had KO in the Calf Crusher, and he seemed close to tapping before Zayn broke it up, much to the crowd’s displeasure. Styles fought back with a clothesline to Zayn, and soon after Owens was sent into the ringpost, Sami tried for a Blue Thunder Bomb but Styles got out of it, soon after he did hit the move after some Owens assistance, but Styles kicked out of the pin. Sami got Styles up top, but Styles slipped out and Zayn went into the ring buckle, Styles then knocked Owens down and hit the Phenomenal Forearm to Zayn, but Owens broke up the pin. Sami and AJ exchanged strikes, and couldn’t get the tag… or did he? It wasn’t quite clear, anyway… Styles dumps Zayn to the outside, KO hits Styles with a superkick, then tries for the Pop-Up Powerbomb, but Styles reverses it and gets the roll up pinfall for the win. AJ retains as Owens pleads with the ref, commentary addressed but didn’t make a big deal out of the whole thing afterwards… not as much as I thought they should’ve anyway… Styles celebrates with the title as KO and Sami are left to scutter away disconsolate.

***1/2

A furious Kevin Owens and a frustrated Sami Zayn confronted SmackDown Commissioner Shane McMahon backstage. They protested at their perceived injustice in the WWE title match that had just unfolded, but when asked if he saw what had happened, Shane replied with “Yep” (Zayn’s catchphrase at that time) before smiling and walking away, leaving Owens and Zayn dumbfounded.

The Usos (C) defeated Chad Gable & Shelton Benjamin in a 2 out of 3 falls match to retain the SmackDown Tag Team Championship

The crowd sadly didn’t seem to care much for this match, maybe just wanting to see the men’s Rumble match at this point who knows… But the in-ring stuff was of course good, given who was in the match. Albeit I can’t say it did much for the challengers losing 2 straight falls, but I guess if you never do it then it’s one of those where people won’t ever think it could happen, so maybe a match like this was the time to do a 2-0 match? … Anyway, Gable and Benjamin worked great together, and so the match was some good tag team ‘rasslin! It was approaching 10 minutes in when The Usos hit superkicks to both challengers, before a splash on Gable got a close nearfall. After that both Usos went to opposite corners, only for Benjamin to kick down Jey, leaving Jimmy to fight it out with Gable. Eventually they went to the corner, as Gable looked for a German Suplex Jey was able to sneak a tag, Gable tries the suplex, Jey helps his brother out of it, and a bunch of superkicks later and its 1-0 to The Usos. Second fall came only a couple of minutes later, this time after Gable kicked down Jey, Shelton tagged in and called for a double team move, but with Gable on the top Shelton got rolled up with an inside cradle, and just like that we had the second straight fall for The Usos.

***

Next up is what you all came for…

So now go and get some form of snack and/or beverage of choice, get really comfy, and sit back for the next (just over an) hour, because this next one… is something…

Shinsuke Nakamura won the Men’s Royal Rumble Match

Honestly, this match was so wonderful! I wont go into every entrant and elimination, but if you want a great rumble, you could do a lot worse than this one. We start with Aiden English introducing Rusev at peak ‘RUSEV DAY’ era, Balor is number 2 and ends up as the iron man, Rhyno at 3 gets the big pop in Philly as an ECW legend, Corbin comes in, goes out after 1 minute, and then plays spoiler to everyone in, Elias comes in and tries to do his gimmick, soon interrupted by then NXT Champion Andrade who gets a big pop, a few more come in, Sheamus on his birthday lasts 2 seconds, after they had Heath Slater finish his run of being stopped from actually getting in, by then getting an elimination of a former rumble winner in Sheamus. Shinsuke Nakamura enters at number 14 to a huge pop, the ‘Kofi spot’ of the year was Woods laying on the floor to stop Kofi’s foot from touching the floor, and Big E getting a plate of pancakes to stop the other foot hitting the floor, Woods and Big E then got together to give Kofi an ‘alley oop’ to flip him over the ropes and over Jinder Mahal, Kofi then kicked Jinder out and Big E and woods threw pancakes at him, only for Andrade to hit him with the DDT and throw Kingston out the other side immediately after. In the midst of their feud, WOKEN Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt bizarrely teamed up to eliminate Rusev (which the crowd did not like), John Cena came in at number 20 and got a typical Cena reaction from the crowd, he got Elias out right away, and then The Hurricane came in number 21, and lasted 45 seconds after doing a spot with Cena, but still was our SUPERHERO… Number 23 was ADAM COLE from NXT which got another big reaction, Randy Orton was next out, and he got Andrade out (Andrade lasting an impressive 29 minutes). And number 27… was one of my all-time favourite Royal Rumble returns…

Me and Stefan were Ruthless Aggression kids, so seeing Rey come back and being together for it… what a moment! And what a pop he got, what amazing shape he looked in, and it’s no shock to me that within the year, Rey would be back with WWE full time. After this, Roman Reigns was number 28 (he was not so popular with the Philly crowd), Goldust 29 and at number 30… was Dolph Ziggler (who to recap, had won the US title after weeks of coming out as a different legend, he immediately vacated the US Title, ‘left WWE’ and then here he was)… and his big return lasted… 2 minutes and 1 second… garbage… That left us with a final 6 that pitted 3 legends against 3 stars of today’s WWE…

This eventually broke down, and we had Roman get out Orton (a reverse of the finish to the previous year’s Rumble), and then Finn got out Rey, and Cena threw out Finn. Final 3 for me was the two nightmare winners and my dream winner going in… and it worked out to PERFECTION… Cena got hit with a knee before Nakamura put him on the apron and after a brief exchange, one big knee later and Cena went crashing to the floor. Roman and Nakamura left as the final 2.

This was a fun finishing sequence, that had the crowd enthralled. In the end, they got what they wanted… As eventually Roman tried to throw Nakamura out, but Shinsuke used the ropes to power out, both men ran the ropes before Shinsuke hit the big knee before Roman could get the spear, then with Reigns dazed Shinsuke tossed him out… and the CROWD GOES WILD!

This was one of the all-time great Royal Rumble matches.

****3/4

Sheamus & Cesaro defeated Seth Rollins & Jason Jordan (C) to win the Raw Tag Team Championship

This this match was very much ‘after the lord mayor’s show’. Crowd didn’t care, and the match was fine, 4 great wrestlers but they were doing the story where Jordan couldn’t wrestle (we would later found out sadly why), so it was essentially Sheamus and Cesaro against Seth in a handicap match. Rollins and Jordan had only won the titles a month earlier on the Christmas Day (yes, they did a LIVE Raw on Christmas Day in 2017… my god…), but in this match they had Jordan take a bump after being thrown into the ring post by Cesaro, and so he couldn’t do anything. At one point he was tagged in, and basically immediately tagged out, and it led to Sheamus and Cesaro combining for their finish, and the pin. This was fine, but again it had little to no heat, not sure if the match or the fact it came after the men’s rumble was the cause, but we had new tag champions here.

**3/4

Now it was time for MONSTER SMASH!!!

Brock Lesnar (C) (with Paul Heyman) defeated Braun Strowman & Kane in a triple threat match to retain the Universal Championship

OK… Should Kane be anywhere near the main event scene at this time? Absolutely not. Was this a classic? Nope. Was it FUN AS FUCK to see 3 massive monsters beat the shit out of each other for 10 minutes? Yes of course it was! Brock was always winning of course he was, but this was a fun watch, if you accepted going in it was gonna be strikes, weapons, and big moves only. This match is probably most remembered for the opening moments, where a knee from Braun went a little too hard for Lesnar’s liking, and he returned fire with LEGIT punches to the face (which visibly staggered Strowman) as Brock… politely… told him to “SLOW THE FUCK DOWN”… In hindsight we should maybe be grateful the match went on as planned without Brock genuinely ending the life of Strowman… For the finish of this carnage, Kane tried for a Tombstone to Brock, only for him to slide out and shove Kane into Braun, this knocked him from the apron… And then Brock finished things with an F5 onto a chair to pin Kane for the win. This was the obvious finish going in, and at that time possibly the right one. It’s a shame they never struck why the iron was hot with Braun, and his championship run came in the early days of the ‘no fans era’ some years later…

**3/4

Then it was time for the main event.

A truly historic moment in WWE history, and one that created a tonne of excitement, maybe a watershed moment for the women in WWE… to be followed by another after the match itself… but lets get onto the match first shall we…

Asuka won the Women’s Royal Rumble Match

This was as much a rumble, as it was a celebration of WWE Women’s wrestling down the years. Lots of fun returns, and a couple from NXT too. Tonnes of fun face to faces too, this really was a crowd pleaser match. A super strong start with Sasha at 1 and Becky number 2, Sarah Logan and Mandy Rose of Absolution (remember them?), number 4 was our first return, LITA! She soon played the hits and also eliminated Mandy Rose fairly quickly, Kairi Sane of NXT was next… which myself watching at the time was overjoyed at… but she was only in as a late replacement for the injured Alicia Fox… and as a result lasted less than 5 minutes before Dana Brooke eliminated her (she did hit the elbow off the top and went flying into Lita in the corner which was cool to see). Torrie Wilson was number 9 which… pleased some… Molly Holly was another legend who came in, as was Michelle McCool who had quite the performance with 5 ELIMINATIONS; that of Sonya Deville, Liv Morgan, Molly Holly, Lana and she joined in the elimination of Vickie Guerrero, who in turn came in and did her “EXCUSE ME!” gimmick, and was almost immediately eliminated by 4 of the competitors. Good fun. We had some other surprises from Kelly Kelly and Jacqueline, and also Becky Lynch was eliminated by Ruby Riott, a 30 minute run for her from number 2. Nia Jax came in at number 22 and went on a tear, getting 4 eliminations in no time at all really. Jax went to try and get Naomi out as well, as she smashed her from the apron and Naomi fell into the arms of a group of women on the outside… and then from there found her way onto the crowd barrier… Whilst she was out there number 23 entered, the NXT Women’s Champion Ember Moon, but she saved herself from being eliminated by Jax… just as Naomi was walking along the barrier like a tight rope, she made her way all the way round to the announce desks, and from there dragged a chair with her feet towards the ring steps and once there simply used the ring steps to get back into the ring… only to jump off the top, right into the arms of Nia Jax, who promptly chucked her out of the ring… There’s your women’s ‘Kofi’ spot of the rumble then. 24 was Beth Phoenix who went face to face with Jax, before we got her reuniting with Natalya soon after, which was nice… whilst it lasted as Natlaya eliminated Beth! Then the game changed… number 25 was ASUKA! Soon after I got a moment that warmed my heart as former NXT rivals Asuka and Ember Moon came face to face once more, Mickie James was 26, Nikki Bella was 27, a saviour came just in time… as Nikki was getting beat down… Brie Bella entered the match at number 28. 29 was Bayley… and of course number 30 simply had to be Trish Stratus. She went on a tear before we got a face-to-face with her old rival Mickie James, soon after the women decided it was time to get on and eliminate Nia Jax! Sasha eliminated Bayley, because of course she did… Trish eliminated Natalya, Trish and Sasha went at it (damn that we never got that match by the way) with Banks eliminating Stratus, we then had the frankly preposterous booking of The Bellas eliminating Sasha Banks (surely it was not obvious who was winning?) after 54 minutes from number 1 in an amazing performance. Soon we had Nikki do the spot where she betrays her sister, before logic prevails and Asuka gets rid of Nikki to win the match. This was a good rumble and a great start for the women, bravo to them.

***1/2

But of course we were NOT DONE… as our women’s champions from Raw and SmackDown (in Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair) entered the ring, with Rumble winner Asuka between them, seemingly giving us a physical glimpse at the decision The Empress of Tomorrow now had to make… suddenly… it happened… and women’s wrestling changed forever…

Ronda Rousey had arrived in WWE. She was on her way to WrestleMania. And at that stage, that was as much as we knew. The show went off the air with Ronda taking in the reception from the crowd, pointing at the Mania sign (again) and Michael Cole alerting us to ‘breaking news’ on social media regarding the matter…

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This was a lovely WWE PPV, which did a great job in presenting two exciting Rumble matches, and setting up the building blocks for the road to WrestleMania. Fingers crossed the 2024 show sets the excitement levels to even bigger heights. We can only hope.

Josh.

Just as in the real world of WWE, I in my Universe Mode am also building up to what is my personal favourite PPV of the year. But I’m not just building to the two Rumble matches, I’ve got 5 other matches lined up for the show, so lets see how we got to them shall we? And all the other goings on in my own WWE 2K23 Universe Mode for the month of January!

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January Week 1

Randy Orton comes out for a promo, Cody Rhodes comes out to interrupt, and Randy Orton flees…

Bayley was on commentary, and after she got into it verbally with Bianca, seeming more concerned with Belair than with Dakota, which seems to annoy Iyo…

Seth ‘Freakin’ Rollins has a backstage interview, Edge interrupts, and they go back and forth…

‘DIY’ Vignette

‘DIY’ attack ‘Street Profits’ after

Rhea Ripley comes out with Dominik Mysterio for an in-ring promo, Becky Lynch comes out and they go back and forth…

Damian Priest backstage interview, Carmelo Hayes (with Trick Williams) passes through and goes eye to eye with Priest…

Bobby Lashley cuts a promo before…

Lashley BRUTALIZES Ziggler afterwards!

AJ Styles (and the rest of The OC) have a backstage interview

Kevin Owens backstage promo

WWE Championship Number 1 contenders match:

‘The New Day’ come out for an in-ring promo, Paul Heyman comes out after, and Big E and Heyman go back and forth (Heyman reveals that Roman Reigns will be on SmackDown next week)

(Santos Escobar was on commentary)

Liv Morgan backstage interview, Raquel Rodriguez comes out, and they have a friendly back and forth, Shayna Baszler comes out and they go back and forth, and it’s not so friendly…

They shake hands, and show mutual respect after, and Miz raises Zayn’s arm after

‘Wyatt 5’ vignette, with Alexa Bliss talking about being in the Royal Rumble… “RUN!”

Open Challenge match:

Karrion Kross (with Scarlett) video package

Gunther (and Imperium) video package

Zayn is very passionate after, and he challenges Drew to a match for next week!

(Liv Morgan is seen backstage injured, Shayna Baszler smirks as she walks away from the scene, and officials tend to Liv)

SmackDown Women’s Championship Number 1 contenders match:

January Week 2

Brock Lesnar came out during the match, he attacked Omos (to stop him interfering), Melo got the win, and Lesnar locked eyes with Bobby Lashley and then showed mutual respect to both Hayes and Trick Williams

Damage CTRL backstage interview, Asuka looks on, smiles, and walks away

‘DIY’ cheat to win

Randy Orton has an in-ring promo, Cody Rhodes comes out after and they go back and forth (on the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania)

Candice LeRae is backstage and sad, Mia Yim walks up to her and she’s upset with what ‘DIY’ did to Gallows and Anderson, they go back and forth until Zoey Stark and Alba Fyre attack them both

Edge – Finn Balor in-ring segment

Seth ‘Freakin’ Rollins is backstage, Damian Priest walks up to him, they go back and forth referencing the Royal Rumble, Priest then locks eyes with a passing Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams

Becky Lynch vignette – she talks about the Royal Rumble, the Raw Women’s Championship, ‘doing what’s right’ and Rhea Ripley…

Dakota Kai and Asuka were on commentary, and after the match Kai and Bayley attack Belair, Iyo stands to the side unsure of what to do, but ASUKA SAVES BIANCA! And they show mutual respect to one another after!

Beth Phoenix comes out and cuts an in-ring promo, Charlotte Flair comes out after, and they go back and forth until Charlotte is the one to back off

This match ends in a non-finish, as the lights go out, the WYATT 5 appear, and Alexa Bliss attacks and takes out all 4 of the other women, the lights then go out again and when they come back on, the Wyatt 5 are gone

Sami Zayn has a backstage interview where he talks VERY passionately!

LA Knight comes out for an in-ring promo, a Karrion Kross vignette plays on the big screen, Kross then tries to jump attack Knight, but LA manages to evade and fight him off

Kayden Carter and Katana Chance video package

Drew McIntyre backstage interview

Big E (with Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) comes out to the ring, Roman Reigns (and the rest of The Bloodline) follows, Reigns tells everyone else to leave so him and E can talk man to man, and the two proceed to have an INTENSE back and forth!

January Week 3

Brock Lesnar comes out for an in-ring promo, he calls out Bobby Lashley! But MVP comes out instead, and after they go back and forth, Brock gives him an F5!

Damage CTRL have a backstage interview, Bayley questions Iyo about last week, and they go back and forth as Dakota tries to cool things.

‘Street Profits’ come out for their match, before ‘DIY’ come out and say they can’t face them tonight, but instead have an alternative for them…

Becky Lynch in-ring segment, Dominik Mysterio comes out after, they go back and forth, until Lynch attacks Dom until Rhea Ripley makes the save

Carmelo Hayes & Trick Williams backstage interview

After… Stark and Fyre state their claim for the Women’s Tag Titles

The Judgement Day are all backstage, all seeming very happy, as WWE Champion Finn Balor prepares to make his way to the ring

Finn Balor – Edge in-ring segment, this sets up a 6 man tag match next week, with the winner picking the match stip for their match at the Royal Rumble

Asuka and Bianca Belair backstage interview

SmackDown opens with Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods having been attacked backstage, Big E is left to look on as medics attend to his two fellow New Day members, and his is NOT happy!

Solo Sikoa attacks LA Knight, behind the ref’s back, leading to Kross winning

Natalya backstage interview, with Beth Phoenix, and both seem happy

Big E goes and finds LA Knight in the locker room, they go back and forth, before shaking hands

Paul Heyman is backstage in The Bloodline locker room, he tells Jimmy Uso and Solo that he is happy with their… ‘work’… this evening, leaving Jey Uso to ask “what work? What you talking about Paul?”, Jey becomes irate and gets into it verbally with Solo and Jimmy before Paul calms things, or tries to anyway… Heyman then says it will be Jimmy Uso and Solo Sikoa vs Big E and LA Knight tonight… which leaves Jey to look on confused and dismayed…

‘Wyatt 5’ Vignette

‘Imperium’ are seen backstage watching on…

Alba Fyre and Zoey Stark appear in the backstage area, they confront Katana Chance and Kayden Carter, and challenge them to a Women’s Tag Title match next week over on Raw!

A FIERY Liv Morgan promo after, where she speaks about Shayna and challenges her for next week, looking on to the Royal Rumble match, and “WATCH ME!”

January Week 4

The Judgement Day come out to the ring for a promo, eventually Edge comes out… and he brings out… Seth ‘Freakin’ Rollins… and Kevin Owens! Everyone is then banned from ringside before…

Damage CTRL are backstage, they seem to be at odds with one another, with Bayley losing it at Iyo and saying that the Royal Rumble could be ‘decisive’

Brock Lesnar comes out, Bobby Lashley follows, and they go back and forth and set up a match at the Royal Rumble

United States Championship open challenge:

Asuka and Bianca Belair have an in-ring contract signing, and it’s very very tense!

Cody Rhodes runs out mid-match to cause a no contest as he attacks Randy Orton!

Logan Paul vignette, announcing that he will be in the Royal Rumble match!

Edge then picks for his and Finn Balor’s match to be… a LADDER MATCH!

The Bloodline come out to the ring, Roman Reigns seems very happy, but Jey Uso is not… he interrupts The Tribal Chief and questions as to why he wasn’t informed in advance of the plan last week? Roman (absolutely dumfounded by Jey’s remarks) accused his cousin of disrespecting him, and it all gets very heated… until The New Day come out, they each go back and forth with Reigns until a 6 man tag match is set up for later!

After the match, Charlotte attacks Dana Brooke, but Beth and Natalya make the save,

‘Wyatt 5’ vignette

Drew McIntyre backstage interview… Karrion Kross soon enters the scene, as does then Sheamus with Ridge Holland and Butch, and a huge brawl ensues that officials and referees have to break up…

‘Toxic Attraction’ backstage promo

This match ends in a no contest, after… Sonya Deville, Raquel Rodriguez, ‘Toxic Attraction’, Katana Chance, Kayden Carter and Shotzi all run out and a huge brawl ensues!

Backstage in The Bloodline locker room… Roman Reigns tells Jey Uso to get out of the arena, so that ‘My Family will handle this’, which seems to really upset Jey as he slowly leaves…

---

And that’s how we got to the Royal Rumble PPV! Which leaves us with 7 matches, including of course the men’s and women’s Royal Rumble matches… as we officially begin the ROAD TO WRESTLEMANIA!

Josh.

2023 was certainly an eventful year for All Elite Wrestling. But one thing I don’t think many fans can dispute, is they had a pretty consistent run of great PPV events. Some which had a plethora of dream matches, others that had the main event scrapped and changed mere DAYS before, and of course that incredible night at Wembley Stadium. But in my personal opinion, the one that topped the lot was the show designed to pay tribute the the great Antonio Inoki. It was an idea from Tony Khan, as part of AEW’s expanded PPV schedule, to pay tribute to the Japanese wrestling great with a show in his honour. And my oh my what a show it was! A show that had FOURTEEN matches mind you… so for my own sanity I will be skipping the Zero Hour, and it’ll be more of a look back than a full on review (it’s the festive time of year, cut me some slack guys!).

The show itself took place at the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington. This meant it was somewhat of a homecoming for a fair few AEW stars, which certainly added some extra spice to a few of the matches, which we will get to as we go on…

For the record… the Zero Hour included 4 matches: a bizarre 8 person mixed tag match saw the team of Athena, Billie Starkz, Keith Lee and Satoshi Kojima defeat Lee Moriarty & Shayne Taylor (of Shayne Taylor Promotions), Diamante and Mercedes Martinez, an absolute BANGER saw Claudio Castagnoli defeated the great Josh Barnett (a match remembered for the wonderful ‘rasslin, the hilarious commentary from Jon Moxley, and the post-match promo with Barnett putting over Claudio hugely), Luchasaurus squashing Nick Wayne, and The Acclaimed and ‘Daddy Ass’ Billy Gunn retaining the trios titles against TMDK (Bad Dude Tito, Mikey Nicholls, and Shane Haste).

That all left us still with TEN matches to get through, but to AEW’s credit it was a heck of a stacked card! At least 3 of those 10 I would have on my list of AEW match of the year contenders, and one of the things people worried about with AEW having more than their usual 4 PPVs each year, is that would they still sustain the importance of the matches on these shows, given usually with only 4 big shows a year, you’ve time to make every match important and have a good story behind it, and from that POV I’d say this show proved that AEW will be fine on the whole in that regard. There was also A LOT of rumours going into this show about a certain someone… you may think you know him… but more on that later… for now, lets get into talking about AEW WrestleDream from October 1st of this year!

Our first match of the show saw a quite unique handicap match, with one man defending TAG TEAM gold…

Of course our beloved champion had seen his ‘brochacho’ Adam Cole go down with injury, and so he was forced to defend their ROH Tag Team titles in his honor… And although this was the WORLD CHAMPION, it was wondered how he would go about successfully defending those tag titles against such a formidable team, and (for me anyway) how AEW would do such a booking without burying Dutch and Vincent… well…

MJF (C) defeated The Righteous (Dutch & Vincent) to retain the ROH Tag Team Championship

MJF cut a promo on his two opponent as he made his way to the ring, proclaiming (much to the crowd’s delight) that he would bodyslam Dutch, and as such… when he later did so the crowd went wild for it, as they did for their hero MJF all match. I felt a little sorry for Dutch and Vincent here, as this was all about their opponent, but given they were facing the WORLD CHAMPION, perhaps that could be excused… MJF hit the Kangaroo kick, and then a heatseeker on Dutch, before getting the pinfall (with his feet on the rope). I should also mention that Maxwell felt the need to SHOVE VINCENT’S HEAD UP DUTCH’S ASS before the finishing sequence, which was maybe the story of the match sadly for The Righteous.

***3/4

Next up was a match I’m sure our ROH World Champion wishes he could have every single day. When I think of opponents that would mesh well with the style of Eddie Kingston, not sure there is many better than THE wrestler!

Eddie Kingston (C) defeated Katsuyori Shibata to retain the ROH World Championship and the New Japan Strong Openweight Championship

We got a cool video before the match (as we got for all the matches on the show, which I would always recommend as you never know how many ‘new’ fans you have watching your show) Shibata got a big pop coming out, and then we had pretty much the exact match you’d expect these two great wrestlers to have… Ultra physical and technical with all sorts of fierce striking exchanges, and standing ovations aplenty. The finish came after one of those striking exchanges, Shibata kicked out at one from a Kingston backfist, and so Eddie followed up with a Northern Lights Bomb then another backfist and a powerbomb where he stacked Shibata for the pin. Afterwards, Kingston gave Shibata the ring to take in the great ovation from the crowd. A wonderful display of wrestling violence here.

****1/4

Next we had our sole women’s match of the show… and if there is a negative of the show it’s just that… 14 matches, one women’s match… long has AEW’s women’s division been… questionable… but it’s such a shame that on their best PPV of the year… we had just the ONE women’s match…

But hey… at least it was good…

Kris Statlander (C) defeated Julia Hart (with Brody King) to retain the TBS Championship

The video before this match did a great job telling how Julia Hart had transformed into her current form. And the match itself… I really really enjoyed! This was a big night for Julia, up against one of the more solid female competitors on the roster, and at a point where Julia Hart as a character in her own right, had become one of the more over women in AEW. The crowd were mega hot when Julia hit a moonsault for a nearfall, and then got her big submission move, only for Statlander’s power to show as she got out of it, and then as she rose to her feet she hit Hart with a Tombstone and her ‘Sunday Night Fever’ finisher for the win.

***3/4

Following that was a WILD match… with 4 tag teams in one match, it promised to be carnage…

Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) defeated Lucha Bros (Penta El Zero Miedo & Rey Fenix) (with Alex Abrahantes), The Gunns (Austin Gunn & Colten Gunn) and Orange Cassidy & Hook in a 4 way tag team match to ear a future AEW Tag Team Championship match

The pre-match video here mainly focused on the new team of Hook and Orange Cassidy. And as much as this match was great fun, I just couldn’t get into it personally… I was a little taken out by the clear injury suffered by Rey Fenix, who at this point was also the International Champion (a title he only got due to an injury to Jon Moxley), and so Penta had to do a large portion of the match as the sole Lucha Bro… Naturally with 4 tag teams, the match was wild and had quite a pace, I would like to shout of The Gunns though, who had me in hysterics when they came up with the… interesting… idea that they could pin one another to win after making a tag… that was too much even for Rick Knox… Anyway… Hook looked to have the match won for his team, as he had Red Rum locked in on Austin Gunn, only for Nick Jackson to make the blind tag before the tap out! Nick hit a 450 Splash to both Hook and Austin, and then Penta hit a double Fear Factor (with Nick Jackson’s help), and then he was right in place for a BTE Trigger from The Young Bucks, which got them the win! This would put them in line for a Tag Title match down the line… which we know now they would never actually get…

***3/4

Now this next match… the pre-cursor to one of the best AEW matches of the year… and this first one wasn’t too bad either!

Given this next match saw the heel in his hometown, it promised to be quite the unique atmosphere… and so it showed… it was HIS house for sure!

Swerve Strickland (with Prince Nana) defeated “Hangman” Adam Page

The pre-match video told the story of this feud so so well. And at this point it hadn’t even got into top gear yet… the line from Swerve “what’s a Buckshot to a Killshot?” was GOLDEN! Naturally Swerve was a giant babyface in this match, which was obviously opposing to the whole feud so far, but with this being Swerve’s ACTUAL house (his hometown) it made for a fascinating dynamic and role for The Hangman. This match was simply excellent… a tonne of great nearfalls, and they played off an injury to Swerve’s hand as the match went on. Towards the end Strickland had to endure Page biting at said hand, but cameback to stomp on Page’s arm as he tried for a Buckshot Lariat. Medical staff attended to Hangman, but Swerve saw this as a chance to hit a big stomp off the top! Swerve then got a nearfall from a 450 onto the hurt arm of Page, he followed with a cross arm breaker on the arm but after Page got the ropes, and then out of a JML Driver attempt, he hit a big lariat to take Swerve down. Swerve hit a snap suplex, and tried for another of his stomps… only for Page to hit a Buckshot… but with the injured arm… meaning he couldn’t get the pin right away… Prince Nana tried to intervene and put Swerve’s foot on the ropes, but as the ref was seeing to him, Swerve smashed Hangman with Nana’s crown and got a close nearfall as a result. Swerve finally got the win with two of his stomp/kicks he does followed by a JML Driver for the 1,2,3! And the crowd did indeed go wild for their… villain I guess…

****3/4

Two of the future top stars of the company squared off next…

Ricky Starks defeated Wheeler Yuta

The pre-match video was mainly about the feud between Bryan Danielson and Starks, and Wheeler seemed to just be collateral. We did though have both Jim Ross and JON MOXLEY join commentary, and Mox made this match for me (he was equally entertaining during the match to follow as well). This match was in a tough spot stuck between Hangman vs Swerve, and just before Danielson and Zack… but is was fine enough. Towards the end, Big Bill (who had made his way to ringside during the match) had Ricky thrown onto him by Yuta, and Bill tried to chokeslam Wheeler, but he reversed out of it and sent Bill into the ringpost. Yuta got a nearfall on Starks after, and after Yuta tried to again go at Starks, only for Ricky to hit a big Spear and then the Roshambo for the win. The match was OK, but Moxley and his many swears made this fun for me.

***1/4

It was now time for what many saw as THE main event of this show, a dream match we have waited to see for many years…

Lets FINALLY find out who the best technical wrestler in the world is… maybe…

Bryan Danielson defeated Zack Sabre Jr

Danielson (wearing Seahawks colours) got a standing ovation (including from Jon Moxley, who stayed on commentary) as he made his way to the ring. There was lots of grappling in the match of course, and it was unlike 99% of modern day pro-wrestling matches, as two absolute masters of their craft put on a performance of the highest of standards. I would say if you were scoring this on points, that Zack was ahead early on, as Danielson would look to get into it only for Sabre Jr to get out of it, some of the joint manipulation from Zack was ungodly, like nothing I had ever seen! It seemed to me that Danielson’s striking capabilities would be what could get him the edge here, as he hit a series of his signature stomps towards the end, and the finish came after Danielson hit a Regal Plex and a running knee for a 2 count. Danielson was not to be perturbed, and lowered his knee pad and hit another big running knee, and that got him the win. In conclusion, this was an absolute classic! My words here haven’t done close to doing it justice, and although Bryan won… did we get the answer to the question of ‘who is the best technical wrestler in the world?’… I’m not sure… and as great as this match was, I feel like both men had more to give… and so don’t be surprised if we see a rematch at some point in 2024.

*****

We had a hilarious moment as MMA fighter and former UFC Champion Demetrius Johnson was shown in the crowd. Excalibur informed us that he was facing Kenny Omega next week, to which Jon Moxley exclaimed “WHAT!?”, before Excalibur quickly made clear they would be facing one another at VIDEO GAMES as opposed to actually FIGHTING… I much like Mox wouldn’t mind seeing that too!

Our next match saw… well people have been divided on this feud, but I guess this match meant we had quite the star studded trios match to watch unfold…

The Don Callis Family (Konosuke Takeshita, Will Ospreay & Sammy Guevara) (with Don Callis) defeated Chris Jericho and The Golden Elite (Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi)

The video before was good, but MY GOD I hate everything about this whole thing. I would not have one man in this match in this storyline if I had my way, they’re all far too good to be worried about Don bloody Callis and his dramas. The crowd loved Omega and Ibushi though, so that helped, and helped me sustain some semblance of interest in the match itself too. The actual wrestling of the match was great don’t get me wrong, just the story for me sucked ass… The finish though was absolutely LAME, Will Ospreay got in the way and took a Judas Effect from Jericho for his troubles, and as the ref was tending to him, Jericho got a visual pin on Sammy Guevara. Jericho went for the Walls not long after, but Don Callis hit him with the bat, and Sammy pinned Jericho as Ospreay held back BOTH Ibushi and Omega (???). Dumb finish to an alright match.

****

On a show of dream matches, we had another treat next up. A Year after their classic in London, these two great tag teams went at it in an AEW ring…

FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) (C) defeated Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis) to retain the AEW Tag Team Championship

A great video told the story of how this was 1 full year after their first meeting. This was a very good match, physical and good all-round ‘rasslin, albeit the crowd seemed a little jaded from the previous matches I think. Sadly, we had another injury in this match, as Mark Davis suffered what turned out to be a broken wrist, and this led to both Davis and Fletcher hitting a Shatter Machine themselves, and then their finish for a close nearfall. Davis was clearly hurt at that point, so it was pretty impressive he was carrying on with the match at all… Cash was saved by Dax as he was about to be hit by a Piledriver on the apron by Aussie Open… Davis took the hit instead and out he went, and after FTR hit Fletcher with a Super Shatter Machine for the win.

****

And after one heck of a show, it was finally time for the main event…

Going on last meant there was a few things going on here… One of them was that it was to give the hometown babyface challenging for a title a big main event spot in his hometown… And he certainly got that hometown pop!

Christian Cage (C) defeated Darby Allin in a 2 out of 3 falls match to retain the TNT Championship

A brilliant video package came before both men came to the ring, and both men left their seconds (Luchasaurus and Nick Wayne) behind, so this would be 1 on 1. During Darby’s entrance (to which the crowd went wild for) he smashed his skateboard against the ring steps (which he then gave to a young fan at ringside), as he did so the skateboard bounced up and hit Darby in the face, which cause a trickle of blood to come down his cheek. During the pre-match intros it led to quite the visual… The wrestling itself was quite good early on, and very early on we had our first fall, as Darby (for the third time at this point) pinned Christian with a jack-knife roll up! 1-0 to Allin, and Christian Cage is left stunned! It was at this stage that we see Nick Wayne’s mum in the crowd in the front row… and after initially showing affection to Christian, she then threw water in his face, and then Darby in typical fashion absolutely cannonballed into him! And not long after, Christian went about moving the steel ring steps… and so followed an absolutely HORRID bumb…

After a few attempts and reversals, and near-misses, Christian absolutely LAUNCHED Darby back first into the ring steps!!! It looked a horrific bump to take, and it stunned the hometown crowd into near silence. The bump was such that Darby was counted out, and so Cage tied the match at a fall each. That was when the doctors and officials came out to tend to Allin, and place him on a stretcher. As this was happening, Cage went about tearing up the ring to expose the wood floor… With Allin on the stretcher, Christian hit a frog splash off the top rope to Darby, before getting him back into the ring and hitting a Killswitch on the newly exposed wood ring floor… but Darby somehow kicked out at 2! The crowd were really behind Allin at this stage, and he was able to sidestep a Christian Spear, only for Cage to get Darby into a Scorpion Death lock, but Allin was able to get to the ropes! Darby fought back and hit a Scorpion Death Drop and then a Coffin Drop… but Cage kicked out at 2! Darby went up top again, but Christian got up and hit a sunset flip powerbomb onto the wood… After he went for a Spear again, but he instead hit the referee! He soon after hit Darby with a low blow, and went to grab his TNT title belt… only for Nick Wayne to get the belt from Cage… Cage begged for mercy, and Darby told him to do it… and then he did… NICK WAYNE HIT DARBY WITH THE BELT!!! To the shock of everyone, including Wayne’s mum, Nick cost his ‘friend’ the TNT Title, and Cage got the ref to come to and pinned Darby for the win.

****1/2

Quite the turn of events… and quite the time and place to do it…

With Wayne now aligned with his new father figure, they proceeded to attach Darby, until STING came out for the save, and he looked to be doing just that, until Luchasaurus came out, and the numbers soon proved to be too much… They eventually set up Sting to received a Con-Chair-To… And so with all hope lost, our heroic Darby and his mentor Sting left to surely catch a beating… we waited and we waited… and then, IT HAPPENED!!!

This was just everything! So perfectly well done, what an amazing way to cap off an amazing PPV!

I think the kids call it… “CINEMA”!

And that was just about it with Wrestle Dream. In a year of great AEW PPVs, this for me was the best one. And we still have one more to go… As I said, it’s been quite the year for All Elite Wrestling, 2024 promises to be another… eventful… one, and whatever you think about them, wrestling is better when there’s competition, and for me… AEW succeeding will only help push WWE to be even better, so long may BOTH companies continue to grow and prosper!

Josh.