SmackDown Completes WrestleMania Fallout and then It's on to New Business...

Happy Friday, Enthusiasts!

How is everyone doing? Well, there’s certainly some stuff to chat about. I think you know what I’ll land on, among a few other things. Shall we get into it?

Before I get into the “state of WWE”, let’s talk on a few things going around the Wrestling World. The first of which appears to be Jeff Hardy seems to be on the mend in more ways than one. There was some fan sightings circulating on social media with a grayer Hardy obliging for photos. Also, word is that he is recovering from “eye surgery” and spending time with family. 

He definitely looked more weathered from what I saw but not in a disconcerting way. We all know he “lives the life” so to speak. He could be in a lot worse shape. It’s nice to see him finding his center. I’m sure I’m like many and wish him a fast yet complete recovery.

In AEW news, the big reveal going around is that this Jay White that I’ve been hearing about signed with them. I don’t know who he is so, the news is somewhat lost on me and probably proof why WWE didn’t make more of a play. Would their audiences even care? We do tend to be quite casual. A lot of us don’t even know what’s going on in NXT so have fun hyping someone from the Indies. 

Not that they shouldn’t scout talent. It has to come from somewhere but what’s becoming clear is that WWE fans are generally casual and watch more for personal reasons than for wrestler fandom. I admit that I’m kinda lazy about branching out but due to my nature, I try to see what’s going on just to see if there’s anyone that should be looked at. It’s just good to be aware in general is my thinking but White is foreign to me but I wish him well nonetheless.

Okay, so that brings us to the WWE Universe. The prevailing sentiments are that Mr. Vince McMahon is back on creative duties and many onlookers felt they could see it on the screen, especially with how this week’s RAW ended. Many bemoaned the return to crap content as they felt this week’s RAW was one of the worst.

Now, right there I kinda have to go hold on. I’ve been watching this stuff for 10 years solid and I can definitely attest to having witnessed worse RAWs. I would say just about any RAW from 2013 - 2020 was worse than what we saw this week. So, people need to just chill out. We’ve been accepting crap for damn near 20 years. 

As for this week’s episode, I wasn’t upset with it. What our more sensitive viewers may not like is the appearance of stomping out something good, something that WWE appears to do at will. Anytime someone not scripted to succeed gains traction, they have a habit of shitting on it for what looks like no reason. We saw it with Rusev Day. We saw it with the sudden release of Aleister Black. We saw it with never really giving Cesaro a real chance. And now, Cody Rhodes is mercilessly, “annihilated” by Brock Lesnar. Why?

WWE fans are often disappointed and it may appear to be on purpose. In the past, it may have been blatant power plays. The boss does what the boss wants. Yet, with fresh eyes and hands on it, WWE programming has become more palatable than I’ve ever seen it in the past 10 years. Even the boss has to appreciate good numbers and responses. 

Contrary to popular belief, I doubt Mr. McMahon is as much of a megalomaniac as people make him out to be. I think he’ll gladly let us think that he is one but I doubt that it’s the truth. This is why when I heard he was returning, I said this is something I would have kept secret at least until the new and improved product was fully up and running and then I would have dropped how he was involved all along. 

The news of it would probably cause the heads of some perpetually disgruntled fans to explode. Or they would say it was just some ploy for some other goal, to look good to investors and/or content providers in this case, for the media rights discussions probably taking place. 

My point is, people like to run their mouths in the WWE Universe. If you want to come out ahead, you gotta make people seem like they don’t know what they’re talking about and let's face it, to a certain degree, we don’t. WWE should consider remembering this basic fact going forward. 

They know how we are. If they want to minimize flak, they need to do what they can to keep the “less than appealing” information to themselves. I would have kept Mr. McMahon’s involvement an unsubstantiated rumor until approval ratings were solid. Even if the news was dropped at that moment, people would probably start to instantly see flaws though if they thought it was Triple H, they would have no problem or maybe even praise it. 

Too many have come accustomed to not trusting Mr. McMahon with creative so, I would have accepted this fact and let fans live in ignorant bliss. We already know most of them believe what they want anyway. Let them. Just concentrate on putting on a solid show. 

With that said, that brings us to tonight’s SmackDown. It is the last of the Fallout shows following WrestleMania and Triple H is here to assuage all our fears. In this rendition, Triple H is akin to Ned Stark of Game of Thrones if he had never died and served the Mad King before Robert Baratheon. With his steady and clear-headed hand, he’ll stave off the realm from falling into utter chaos 😉 If they’re smart, they’d play it like this for the time being.

In any case, to assist Triple H we will have Rhea Ripley address her new kingdom as Women’s Champion. The Judgment Day in the form of Dominik Mysterio and Damian Priest will team up to face Rey Mysterio alongside Santos Escobar. We’ll see if Edge’s win over Finn Bálor will have any implications or not. The Brawling Brutes will take on Imperium. And Sami Zayn will confront Jey Uso once again as we see where the next chapter of the Bloodline Saga goes. Shouldn’t be too bad. 

See You in a Bit,

-Nicole Alexis (^_~)