A review of the post-Fastlane edition of the show with Shane McMahon’s explanation for his attack on The Miz and confirmation of their match at WrestleMania, Randy Orton drops a “Dixie Carter” reference, Becky Lynch speaks, Vince McMahon meets with Kofi Kingston with a big match set up for next week and Daniel Bryan teams with Rowan to take on Kevin Owens and Mustafa Ali.
NEWS OF THE DAY:Raw’s viewership stays steady on Monday, Conor McGregor released from jail with arraignment hearing schedule, Roman Reigns officially added to the European tour in May, and more.
**Grab your tickets for POST Wrestling Live in New York on Sunday, April 7th with a special Q&A show with John Pollock and Wai Ting at the Broadway Comedy Club. Q&A will start at 12 pm with a special meet-and-greet before and after the show at 11 am and 1:30 pm, exclusive tees, vintage wrestling apparel from 3 Faces of Poli.
Wai Ting reviews the March 10th edition of Total Bellas “Road to Evolution” with Brie Bella’s retirement announcement
John Pollock’s review of an interview with Chris “Abyss” Parks from Season 3 of Fight Network’s Retrospective series
Episode 142 of Being the Elite “Dilapidated Toothless Gremlin” as MJF has dinner with Brandi Rhodes, The Young Bucks watch home videos, SCU goes to Australia & more.
Former WWE writer Kazeem Famuyide recently spoke about his time on the creative staff when he appeared on the Wrassle Rap podcast. Pollock goes through that interview.
There was a moment last night when Vince was talking about Kofi not being main event level that I thought he’d say of the three Big E is the one who is…putting the two of them against each other with the winner getting a shot at Mania. I would have much ratcheted that as a interesting hurdle for Kofi to face Big E who has been advocating for him because Big E given his own chance isn’t going to lay down. Throw Xavier in as a guest ref and now you have truly compelling TV that isn’t necessarily as predictable as Kofi running the gauntlet of generic heels.
I still like the story they’re telling with Kofi overall, but last night felt like a little much…
Did you ever tell a little kid that “it’s opposite day”, thinking it would be a funny thing for five minutes, and then all of sudden you have to deal with it for the next five hours? That’s what this booking is starting to feel like. Somebody suggested that they use basics of the Daniel Bryan/Wrestlemania 30 storyline for Kofi, and now they’re just running with it to a ridiculous level.
Fans wanted Bryan in the Royal Rumble and he wasn’t? Let’s tell them Kofi is getting a title match, then take it away… twice! Bryan had to beat Triple H to get his title match at Wrestlemania? Let’s have Kofi run a gauntlet match against three, no… five guys!
Or, they just figure that, in WWE booking, the quintet of Samoa Joe, Randy Orton, Sheamus, Cesaro and Rowan are almost equal to one Triple H.
I actually don’t mind this because if they really take time to dig deeper into it they can tell the story on how this is all coming full circle with Bryan being on the opposite end! I feel like they’re kind of getting to it since Bryan called him a B+ player.
I popped huge too when Randy came out to confront Kofi because how fucking fitting would it be if it was Randy Orton who Kofi would need to take down to get his WM main event. So many call backs and full circle booking you can tell with Kofi in the mix with Bryan and Orton. It’s crazy and exciting but I’m not expecting anything special unfortunately.
The best they can do now with the gauntlet being official is have Randy be the last entrant, yell “STUPID!” at Kofi, and get the finish hit on him leading to Kofimania being official. That would be special!
If they go with Kofi taking the title at mania, they should really do Kofi/Orton as his first program after Bryan. I guess that means putting Orton over AJ at Mania, but I don’t really have any issues with that. Bad guys gotta win sometimes too.
Lol I read a post on reddit today where somebody recorded the “build up” to Jinders title reign, and it had him losing pretty much every single match he was in, then all of a sudden there’s like, 2 wins in a row (a 6 man and a tag team match) and then he beats Orton and he’s the world champion. Good times.
I recall a similar timeline for JBL. One week he’s in the APA with Farooq, a few weeks later he has a whole new gimmick and was WWE champion - having one of the longest reigns in history.
There were a few moments during Vince’s promo when I thought they might go that route, but I didn’t think it ever got there (not even subtly, if that was the intent).
I can’t believe that I’m saying this, but I think the racial elements of this story have been pretty nuanced by WWE standards. They’ve hinted at Kofi’s race as being one of the factors why it’s taken him so long to get here (which is probably true) w/o turning TND into the millennial version of the NOD. The “young bucks” line was a perfect example of that. It’s a line that the casual fan looks at as Vince stirring up crap w/TND, the smarks can take as a shot on Cody/AEW, and Black folks can easily read as coded racial language. That entire segment was brilliantly excecuted.
As far as the question of will Kofi be this hot in three years…Let’s pump the brakes, Lightning McQueen. This is the same company that’s fumbling w/Becky Lynch after she was the hottest character in the company 2 months ago. Let’s hope he’s this hot in 3 months…Lol!
If Kofi wins the title at Mania & has a good run through August/September, I’d consider that a success as you’ve minted a new main event guy, hopefully elevated people like Woods, Big E, & Ali along the way, given us some fresh title matches, and rewarded a dude that’s earned the gold watch at this stage of his career.
I thought that John’s story about Kofi at Wrestlemania 29 was going to culminate with him realizing that, if Kofi gets his big moment at Mania this year, he’s going to be celebrating with the wood and hemp WWE Championship.
I don’t think we can summarily dismiss Kofi’s race as a factor when it comes to the way the company has underutilized him over the years. IMO, it’s one of a number of factors (size, average mic skills, terrible booking) that have hindered him from going to the next level (like many of us thought he would in 2009). That being said, I think he’s at the right place in the right time. The guy can still go in the ring, his character work has improved by leaps & bounds since joining TND, the story of an 11-year grind resonates w/working-class viewers, and as a result of that the crowd is behind him. If they’re ever going to make a move w/Kofi, it needs to be now.
I don’t think Black fans are complaining about the WWE not having Black world champions…We’re bringing up the fact that the top title (formerly the WWF/WWE belt, and now the Universal belt) has only been held by one Black man (who identifies culturally with his Samoan half). And taking race out of it, The Rock is one of the most popular stars in the Fed’s history…Even a blind bigot could see in 3-D that THAT guy should be your top guy…Lol!
As far as other Black stars who could’ve been the top champion, I’d say Booker, Henry, or MVP immediately come to mind. After that, Lashley or Shelton if you booked them right.
Hopefully one day this becomes an obsolete conversation, but until the “faces of the company” more accurately reflect the face of America, I think this will be a point of contention with some fans.
It’s a term that’s usage in a derogatory manner is becoming a thing of the past, but VKM is certainly in the age group of people that would know what referring to a Black man that he ostensibly owns (in storyline)as a “buck” means.
It could be completely coincidental, but if it was an intentional line, then I give a lot of props to the writer/Vince for sliding that in there so deftly.
