RAW Lays Down the Final Touches for the Royal Rumble...

A Joyous MLK Day to You, Enthusiasts!

A day off in the name of Civil Rights is always appreciated. The wrestling world doesn’t sleep often and though the past few days haven’t been the most riveting, there is some interesting news to chat about. Shall we?

So, a bit of news that may raise an eyebrow is that somehow, Cody Rhodes is a free agent. I don’t know if this is more an indication of the looseness of his contract or if he’s more of a general employee that earns a wage. I’m not even sure I should even believe this information as it may be fodder for some AEW storyline. 

The timing of it does lend to some speculation as the Royal Rumble is coming up. Could Rhodes be a surprise entrant? Reports circulating say that there is no crossover planned between AEW and WWE but I doubt they’d promote something like that. I would think they’d like to keep that a secret so we’ll see if he shows up on old ground. That could be fun.

In the WWE Universe there’s some tension apparently as Mustafa Ali has requested his release. Many bemoan that he’s a missed opportunity but I’m not sure about that. I had no problem with him and he did well when out there but WWE has never known what to do with the smaller gentlemen. Ali is not intimidating and the WWE Universe works like high school. How were they supposed to push a “pipsqueak”? I know, shallow but true. This is the main reason guys like Adam Cole and Kyle O'Reilly went over to AEW. They wouldn’t get much respect in WWE. Who’s afraid of them?

The normal size dudes have to have an angle that evens the playing field. That’s why Finn Bálor has a lot of potential as the Dæmon. If they can set it up right, he should back up people twice his size when he walks through. Ali didn’t have an angle like that. He had to have a black belt in something or be known to be vicious in the ring, be the Tasmanian Devil of WWE something like that. The little guys can’t just roll in with heart. Daniel Bryan/Bryan Danielson has that covered. They have to have an edge somehow that makes them a few cuts above average otherwise fans and Management alike go, “What’s the big deal?”...

Ali certainly tried to come up with something. He was always vocal about getting screen time and whatnot but we all know that Creative hasn’t been exactly knocking the content out of the park for some time. He should have been thinking of ideas on how to make him seem like more of a general threat. Why should people keep him on their radar? That sort of thing. Without that, people forget about him. 

And so, I hope WWE goes ahead and lets him go. This is a sort of lesson that can get confused in this sort of dispute. Ali probably expected WWE to have all the answers and the last decade or so exposed how they don’t really have them. A performer/wrestler has to have most of that fleshed out already. They can’t expect WWE to figure it out. It's a tough lesson to learn because it causes a person to second guess themselves. WWE was supposed to be the dream but as with most things in life, the reality isn’t so rosy. 

Ali will probably fare better in an environment like AEW just because they’re more about the wrestling than the presentation. He’s a good wrestler, no one can take that from him, and in AEW that would be appreciated. The WWE audience doesn’t care about how well you can wrestle. It’s more how much you can entertain and sell a fight. Lowest Common Denominator is what guys like Ali have to remember. Why does anyone care is the question they need answers to. The bigger guys are at least a spectacle and intimidate. We do a lot of the work for them with imagination alone. The smaller dudes have to prove they’re someone to reckon with. That’s how it’s always going to be in the WWE Universe. Personally, I think Ali should have known that from the get-go.

In any case, that brings us to tonight’s RAW. We’ve got a week until the Royal Rumble Go Home show so, we should see the penultimate pieces getting put into place. Bobby Lashley will have words for the jovial Brock Lesnar. Becky Lynch will contemplate facing a Doudrop for the RAW Women’s Title and what happens now to RK-Bro? Answers to all these questions should arrive shortly. In the meantime, funny tweets and Likes get retweeted. Let’s see what they got.

See You in a Bit,

-Nicole Alexis (^_~)