The Post's Joseph Staszewski explores the world of professional wrestling in his Tuesday column, “Post Match Angle.''.
The conversation Rhea Ripley and Drew McIntyre had in October may turn out to be more meaningful than we imagined at the time.
This led to McIntyre's loose entry into The Judgment Day at WarGames at Survivor Series, but this meant that the two-time WWE Champion would not be able to compete in a seven-month long WrestleMania and Money in the World match. What if this was just the beginning of Bank's story?
Let's look at the evidence.
Damian Priest has been Mr. Money in the Bank since July, and has been thwarted in numerous attempts to cash in before becoming official, the last three being by McIntyre. , including the opening day World Heavyweight Championship match against Seth Rollins on Raw. On Monday, all Priest did was stand up at ringside, and McIntyre emerged from the crowd to shut Priest up for next week's match.
Priest, who was reluctant to team up with McIntyre from the beginning, mentioned to Ripley about eliminating him as a threat, but Mami fired him a week earlier.
Who are the other two people McIntyre has had major interactions with recently?
First, Rollins has defeated McIntyre twice in the last two and a half months in championship matches. McIntyre, who will face Cody Rhodes again on Monday, believes he should have won both matches, having only put his foot slightly on the ropes during the pin attempt to deny him the gold medal on the first day.
The other was CM Punk, and the two had a tense and heated exchange on Raw last week. It ended with Punk telling McIntrye he would be eliminated from the Royal Rumble.
McIntyre, who has always said he wanted to become world champion for the first time with fans watching, was left with a clear storyline and a bit of revenge against each member of the Ward Heavyweight Championship picture.
Two of the most powerful words in wrestling now take over.
If…
Punk wins the Rumble, allowing him and Rollins to achieve their goal of main eventing WrestleMania, unless the injury he reportedly sustained on Monday is serious.
Next Monday's match is just the beginning, and to resolve the McIntyre issue, Priest or Ripley will have Money in the Match at either Elimination Chamber, Pre-WrestleMania Raw, or WrestleMania. What if you were brazen enough to risk your bank contract? itself? McIntyre won't stop Priest from trying to cash in further if he wins, but R-Truth ends up losing the match.
What if Rollins' main event WrestleMania moment ends up being money-grabbed like he did against Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 31 and ruined just like his first match? ?
What if McIntyre cashes in and pins Punk to win? In this way, Rollins won't be locked into the title, and “The World's No. 1” won't become champion right away, but rather after several must overcome adversity. McIntyre is well on his way to finishing his storyline, with a potential program with Rollins, Punk and Priest starting at WrestleMania.
It may not happen. Maybe I'm just making reservations on a whim. But if WWE goes in that direction, the story points are already in place.
Old faces appear in new places
The beauty of Jack Perry's return is that it's the complete opposite of how AEW handled his return from controversy. Instead of glossing over it or ignoring it like they did after All Out 2022 and All In 2023, which they probably legally had to do, they're leaning into it.
Perry was suspended for his actions with CM Punk at Wembley Stadium last summer, but he returned for the first time in more than four months at New Japan's Battle in the Valley on Saturday, sporting long hair and a beard. He grew up and attacked Shota Unno. Perry terminated his contract with AEW and wore an armband that read “Scapegoat.” This would be far more interesting than him returning to AEW as is, blurring the lines of reality. Seeing old faces in a new location was the highlight of Saturday night.
Dana Brooke made her debut as Ashley at Elegance, and Nick Nemeth ended the show at TNA Hard to Kill by confronting and attacking new TNA World Champion Moose. Nemeth, who calls himself “Most Wanted,” is currently scheduled to compete in New Japan Pro Wrestling against IWGP Global Champion David Finlay (TNA), and will compete at GCW in Los Angeles on February 3rd. He is scheduled to face Matt Cardona.
Hard to Kill was a great show, but more needs to be done for fans to see Brando in a different light than he did at Impact. Battle in the Valley, on the other hand, was a lot of fun and really continued New Japan's hot start heading into 2024.
Mustafa Ali, who everyone is paying attention to, called out to Hiromu Takahashi. Matt Riddle teams up with Jeff Cobb once again. Eddie Kingston may have started Gabe Kidd's rise with a great match and post-match angle. Also, I haven't seen a lot of Gilia's matches, but her showdown with Trish Adore sums up the hype for her for me and why WWE is reportedly interested in her. I corroborated it.
ten count
WWE booking Jinder Mahal and AEW booking Abaddon and Hook for title matches all made sense to me.I do not know why that He had to cause a huge uproar over X that got out of hand, involving the USA Network account, Tony Khan, Eric Bischoff, Dax Harwood, and even Mahal himself, before deleting the post last week.
Bloodline has never felt more dangerous, and that's a problem for Roman Reigns. His return left Jimmy Uso and Solo Sicoah outnumbered, and despite Sicoah's strategic efforts, he was ultimately defeated by Randy Orton, LA Knight, and AJ Styles. Will Chicor and Uso claim this against Reigns in the future, or will Rock say Reigns abandoned his family?
The NXT North American Championship felt like it needed a fresh start after spending most of the year with Dominik Mysterio and interim champion Dragon Lee following injuries to Wes Lee. Obi Femi's bounty to close the show brings it, and this man has all the skills to blossom as a star for the brand.
If Sting's last match was him and Darby Allin vs. the Young Bucks (straight back from Spy vs. Spy), you'd have to think the icon would be the winner at Revolution. Winning is just short-term heat for the Bucks, and they don't need it. Also, there's no reason for Sting to be the Scorpion Death dropping Powerhouse Hobbs through two tables from the ramp at Daley's Place.
This was the second week in a row that we saw a segment take place away from the arena in WWE. First it was a club, and now Tyler Bate and Butch meet for coffee. It's a refreshing story device that the company has underutilized for far too long outside of NXT.
Trinity was soundly defeated by Jordynne Grace for the TNA Knockouts Championship, but she is currently the best woman in the business, with Mercedes Mohn and Bayley also in attendance. Let the WWE and Royal Rumble return speculation officially begin.
It's beautiful to see the teams of Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa and Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell gaining momentum in their respective tag team divisions despite shaky finishes .
I know Sammy Guevara made a name for himself by having some insane crashes, but the one he took this week was just as bad. But his stock won't go up unless he becomes more than a collision man.
Josh Alexander and Alex Hammerstone had one of the best matches at Hard to Kill. Hammerstone looked great, but even though he wasn't signed, I'm not sure I can accept him losing on his debut.
I thought it was interesting to see a side of Becky Lynch and Xavier Woods that we rarely see on Monday. Usually a proud man, Lynch was unsure whether he could beat Rhea Ripley. In fact, you have put her potential challenger at ease. For Woods, it was a vicious act. Maybe it was because of the blood, but he looked even more fierce when he faced Lugwig Kaiser.
Extra: Lee Fitting, who WWE hired to replace Kevin Dunn as head of media production, was fired by ESPN last summer. And, according to the Post's Andrew Marchand, ESPN's fake Emmy scandal is factored into it. Does this mean the Slammys are coming back?
Extra. Bonus: Fun statistics. Since defeating John Cena at Crown Jewel, Soroshicore is 0-18 including live events.
Wrestler of the week
R-Truth, WWE
The truth is shaping up to be the funniest thing on “Monday Night Raw,” and this week we're leaning into the massive increase in merchandise sales WWE saw when they released new shirts midway through the show, so we're looking forward to another one. I felt like I was on a level.
The fact that Truth gave a wad of money to members of The Judgment Day (a faction he believes he belongs to but isn't) for his share before the match made fans think Truth was like Sami Zayn. It was last year during the faction storyline leading up to WrestleMania season.
This week's social media posts
match to watch
Samoa Joe vs. Hook, AEW World Championship on AEW Dynamite (Wednesday 8pm, TBS)
Hook will not dethrone Samoa Joe, but this will be the new champion's first title defense and the rising star's first crack at major competition. It will be interesting to see what kind of story they choose since Hook and Jaw wrestle in very similar styles using almost the same finishers. It's a potentially career-boosting moment for Hook.
around the ring
Mickie James will join Ohio Valley Wrestling as creative director and head of female talent, as well as executive producer of OVW television programming.
