My complaint about the WWE has been how slow-moving their creative is. How little happens from week to week. It really just becomes stale and kind of paint-by-numbers—obvious where they’re going. You watch every week knowing exactly what’s coming, and Drew McIntyre becoming the new WWE Champion on SmackDown in Berlin? I didn’t see that coming. And that’s the thing—I actually want to applaud them for it.
They took a bit of a risk, and I like it. They made some real moves this week. New champions across the board. They took the Women’s Intercontinental title off Maxine—good move—put it back on Becky Lynch—good move. Rhea Ripley and IYO SKY are your new Women’s Tag Team Champions. And Drew McIntyre? Finally. Finally, they gave the man the belt.
Six Months of This. Six. Months.
Here’s what you need to understand: these guys have been feuding for six months. I was talking about this with my son because we’re going to see WWE in Montreal in a couple of weeks—SmackDown and Saturday Night’s Main Event. And we were remembering the last time we saw WWE live. It was August. Cena and Cody versus Drew McIntyre and Logan Paul. And after SmackDown, Drew was throwing Cody into the announce table to take him out for two weeks.
That was August. It’s January now. If they’re gonna still do this, at some point, Drew should win. Otherwise, what are we doing? We’re just waiting for Cody to wrestle Roman at Mania with the belt on the line. We’re just kind of in this cycle of Cody wrestling guys that don’t matter because we know in the end he’s gonna be champion at Mania anyway.
But they made a change. They switched it up. And now what we’re watching isn’t pointless because now you go, “Well, is Cody gonna get the belt back or not?”
I’m not sure where we go from here—and I like the fact that I’m not sure. It makes it more fun to watch.
The Three Stages of Hell Breakdown
Drew won the first fall with the Claymore—a good old-fashioned wrestling match. Kind of cheated, honestly. Pulled down the turnbuckle pads and hit Cody with a low blow. But still, they gave him the first fall, which surprised me.
Cody won the second fall—falls count anywhere—with the Crossroads through the announce table. And man, Cody got so much air on that dive from the crowd. He was hanging in the air for so long, jumping from up there down through the table on Drew. That was nuts. He was flying. He was high up. Only a two-count, though. Had to hit him with the Crossroads to finish it.
The steel cage for the third fall? That’s when Jacob Fatu shows up. He’s back. And he attacks Drew… and then attacks Cody for some reason? And while he’s fighting Cody, Drew crawls out of the cage and wins by escaping.
What was Jacob doing? What’s the motivation there? I don’t get it. Johnny thinks Jacob was going after Drew for taking him out, but Cody touched him from behind and—look, he’s an animal, he just attacked. Whatever. The finish was what it was. Not my favorite way to change a title. But they did it. They took the belt off Cody and put it on Drew McIntyre.
Jacob Fatu Changes the WrestleMania Picture
The second Jacob came out, you knew—that’s the path for Drew at WrestleMania. Jacob versus Drew for the belt at Mania makes sense now.
But here’s the question: Is there a world where it’s Jacob versus Drew for the belt at Mania and Cody and Roman wrestle just to see who’s the man? It’s tough to have that match without it being for the WWE Championship, though. It’s a bigger match if it’s for the belt. But so is Cody and Roman.
I think Drew will drop the belt and then drop it back to Cody. Maybe at Elimination Chamber in Chicago—that’s a Cody Rhodes town. AEW did a lot of business there. Maybe he wins it in the Chamber, then we get Cody and Roman for the trilogy at Mania.
But things can change. If Jacob gets super hot like he was before, maybe they run with that all the way to Mania. Nothing’s set in stone. We saw what happened today.
Well played, Triple H. Well played. I like it.
Reality Check: Bron Breakker Got Exposed Against CM Punk
The Reality: Bron Breakker is not yet at the level of MJF or Will Ospreay—he’s being rushed to the top without the necessary in-ring polish or backstory to justify a main event push.
Now, let me bury Raw because it was not a good show this week.
CM Punk beat Bron Breakker for the World Heavyweight Championship, and look—it felt like wrestling school. It felt like Punk was trying to teach Bron Breakker how to work a main event match. It didn’t feel like a guy who’s young, hungry, and just ready to take it because he’s that good. It didn’t feel like MJF vs. CM Punk.
It felt like early Roman Reigns vs. CM Punk, where they’re just trying to help the kid along because this is the guy they want, so we gotta make him into something. Meanwhile, we’re watching this going, “I feel like Bron Breakker got exposed a little bit.”
He just seemed not ready after that match. He did not blow me away with his performance. He has very limited offense. His strikes do not look good. He’s either killing you or looking like he’s doing nothing.
The Frankensteiner thing? Bron almost landed on his head. Punk’s legs were on the wrong side—they’re supposed to be in, not out—and Punk was sitting down. That was not a good position for Bron to be in. Could have been horrific. The gut buster he hit twice? Both times it looked bad. The piledriver looked bad. There were some things that looked bad in that match.
His in-ring work is not on par with some of the guys, like MJF and Will Ospreay. Some of the younger under-30 talent, where it appears that they’re the future of the wrestling business? Bron Breakker is not at that level.
What has Bron Breakker done in WWE? Why would we rush him to the WWE Championship when he has absolutely no backstory as a wrestler? There’s no history. He hasn’t accomplished anything. He joined Seth’s group, turned on Seth after like two weeks, and Seth got hurt. He was Intercontinental Champion for a bit—who’d he beat? Jey Uso. Who’d he lose it to? Jey Uso. Cool.
Whatever happened to slowly climbing the mountain?
If you’re a smart wrestling person—and I know they have those people in WWE—you’re looking at that match, and you go, let’s pump the brakes. Let’s not have him win the Rumble this year. Somebody else. He’ll get there, but let’s not rush it.
It was good that Punk beat him.
Reality Check: Maxine Dupri is the Worst Wrestler on WWE TV
The Reality: When commentary can’t even cover for your botch and says “I don’t know what that was” on air, you shouldn’t be on television. Maxine Dupri is the worst wrestler on WWE’s TV roster.
The match with Becky Lynch? Incredibly bad. And it was all Maxine’s fault.
She did this one move where she just kind of fell. She hooks Becky’s arms, looks to be doing an offensive move, and drops to her knees. Becky’s just standing there because Maxine has let go of her arms as Maxine drops to her knees, kind of falls, and makes a mean face. And commentary’s like, “I don’t know what that was.”
They said, “I don’t know what that was,” on commentary. They couldn’t even cover for it. They didn’t even say “oh, she didn’t get all of that” because there was nothing to get. There was nothing there. It was so bad.
She’s the worst wrestler on WWE’s TV roster. I have not seen anyone on their shows worse than her. All her strikes are bad. Everything she does is not believable. Her promos. If you’re doing that level botch on TV, you gotta be taken off TV immediately. If that’s your offensive move and commentary’s like “what the hell was that?” You’re gone.
LA Knight Should Win the Royal Rumble
Here’s my pitch: LA Knight.
Roman’s only won one Rumble—2015. Check out the guys in the two-time club: Brock, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Batista, Cena, Randy Orton, Edge, Cody Rhodes. Roman should be with them. He should have two Rumble wins. So yeah, maybe Roman wins.
But if you had to pick anybody—if it didn’t matter, whatever, you just want to elevate somebody, kind of like what they did with Jey Uso—I’d give it to LA Knight.
There’s a real desire among a lot of wrestling fans to see LA Knight win a big one. And there are fewer big ones than the Royal Rumble. LA Knight vs. CM Punk for the title? You can do some good promos leading up to it. It’s not the main event, but it’s a big match. Have LA Knight beat Punk at WrestleMania? That’s cool. I’d be happy with that.
There’s just something about LA Knight. He carries himself like a pro wrestler. He’s got the look, the thick chest, he’s got attitude, he’s got bravado. He seems not care what the other wrestlers are thinking about him when he’s cutting these promos. It’s a little bit like CM Punk, except Punk is reformed now and just trying to be friends while pretending he’s still the mean guy.
LA Knight seems like he’s willing to go for the jugular, and he does not care.
You can see the hunger,r too. When he’s doing his promos and when he’s wrestling, he believes that if he pushes hard enough, he can get to the top of the mountain. I feel like a lot of the wrestlers in WWE don’t feel that way. A lot of them go “no matter what I do, I’m never gonna be Roman or Cody, so I’ll just do my thing, go through the motions because it’s a paycheck.”
But LA Knight does everything with a hunger that makes it feel like he’s trying to take the spot. There’s a fight there. It’s missing from everyone else.
He’s got that Stone Cold in him. That “I’m in it for me, come along for the ride” mentality. There’s an excitement there. There’s a spark.
I don’t think he’s winning it, but I’d love to see them go there.
Reality Check: WWE’s Creative Limitations & Watering Down the Product
The Reality: WWE has talented wrestlers but puts limitations on them that AEW doesn’t. They protect main event acts by preventing mid-card matches from stealing the show—and the product suffers for it.
Here’s the bigger issue: WWE has talented wrestlers. They have very good talent. But they impose these limitations on their talent that AEW does not. And this makes the in-ring product in AEW far more compelling than it is in WWE.
So, at what point does WWE just remove those limitations? What are they waiting for? It can’t be for safety—WWE basically just does TV now. Same schedule as AEW, pretty much. So why are the limitations still there?
I think there’s too much focus on story and not quite enough focus on athleticism in the ring. They don’t want mid-card matches to outshine the main event. They make sure that doesn’t happen. Which sucks.
The Dudleys were just talking about how they and the Hardys and Edge and Christian were early mid-card at a WrestleMania, and they stole the show. And Stone Cold told them, “Man, I can’t follow that. God damn, son, hell of a match.” He wasn’t mad. It was allowed to happen. The shows were better because of it.
I can’t remember the last match I saw in WWE where I went, “Oh my God, that was incredible.” AEW has those pretty consistently. Cody vs. Kevin Owens at last year’s Royal Rumble? That was an AEW-style match. Match of the year in WWE. And they did a lot. But that’s once a year. WWE is capable of it. I just wish they would let them do it more often.
AEW Dynamite Was Very Good (Despite the Lights Going Out)
They had a Lights Out match, and the lights actually went out for a good chunk of it. Not on purpose. It happened earlier when Andrade came out; they turned the lights off and couldn’t really turn them back on. The whole Willow celebration was half in the dark.
But match-wise? Excellent. The Bandido vs. Sammy Guevara match was fantastic. The Lights Out main event with Hangman and Swerve teaming up to beat Powerhouse Hobbs and Hook—an important match. Hangman finally got his revenge.
Andrade El Idolo debuted. He’s out of the courtroom and into the ring. Now he’s with the Don Callis Family.
MJF cut a promo on Bandido—they’re doing the title match on Dynamite. He’s not losing to Bandido. AEW Revolution is March 15th in LA, so they’ve got time to build. Could we see MJF vs. Kenny for the world title? Kenny said he started his journey on Wednesday. Dynasty is in Vancouver the next month—maybe Kenny gets the title shot there. Western Canada for the Winnipeg boy.
What’s Coming
Drew McIntyre defends against Sami Zayn at the Royal Rumble—Sami’s gonna win the fatal four-way at Saturday Night’s Main Event in Montreal. The crowd’s gonna be so hot for Sami winning. Then Drew holds on at the Rumble, at least.
CM Punk holds the World Heavyweight Championship through Mania. Jacob Fatu vs. Drew is building. Cody finds his way back to the title somehow before facing Roman.
The road to WrestleMania just got a lot more interesting. For the first time in months, I’m not sure where we’re going.
And that’s a good thing.
Wrestling Uncensored airs live every Friday at 10 PM ET on the Ringside Report Network.
