WrestleMania 41 - SmackDown Fallout

How’s It Going, Enthusiasts?

Happy Friday! Well, there isn’t a great deal going on in the Wrestling World this week, but there’s enough to chat about. You up for it? Let’s get to it.

We’ll take a brief stop in the Realm of AEW as the rapper, Master P, stopped by to issue Jon Moxley some “love taps” while Samoa Joe proceeded to proclaim his new focus on claiming the Title. Swerve Strickland was close by as well. Is this the end of the Death Riders? To be honest, it looks like it’s just “the beginning”. There must be ups and downs to make this all compelling. This is all to rev up what’s next or at least, it should be. So far, a 6.5 isn’t looking too bad on Mox and that’s good. He’s going to have to hover here for a while but I doubt it will be boring. Let it all cook, as the kids say 😉

In the Land of Free Agency, more or less, Bishop Dyer fka Baron Corbin has some choice words for WWE Brass for switching out Bayley for WrestleMania. I could sympathize because Bayley is solid and deserves a great deal of respect. Yet, I doubt this was done without Bayley’s approval and let’s be honest. Remember that the WWE Universe primarily functions under the tenets of a popularity contest. For whatever reason, Bayley just isn’t the most popular. Most would say that they’d take Becky Lynch returning over Bayley and Lyra Valkyria just out there tag teaming. 

My point is further illustrated by just mentioning Natalya. She’s a stellar wrestler. Wrestling royalty, but the WWE Universe could care less. It’s not fair but it’s how the cookie tends to crumble. That is why she’s cruising the indy scene just putting wrestling over while we’re entertained over here with the cool kids. 

Besides, with Lynch heel turning on Valkyria anyway, Bayley can easily be inserted back into the narrative. She could pick Valkyria up and serve as a “Face of the People” to counter Lynch becoming an elitist Heel. Though, there’s talk that Bayley’s contract has about 18 months on it or so, I don’t really see her working anywhere else. There’s still life in her and with the new crop coming through, there’s plenty of work to be done but if she wants to learn from Natalya’s handling, she should focus on keeping herself interesting. 

I would double back with her a bit to being lovable but perhaps a bit hardened. That could support no hard feeling towards Valkyria and maybe light a fire to get Lynch back for this “slight”. Also, there’s no telling how long Rollins stays on top so we can presume there will be plenty of opportunities for the Faces to “fight the power”. So, all in all, I’m not nearly as upset as Dyer but it’s nice to see him championing an underdog. Some good people just don’t get any respect. 

In other WWE news, there are some grumblings that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s absence from WrestleMania was done deliberately. What I can’t discern is if it’s kayfabe or not. Personally, I just think everything is kayfabe unless I see it on the real news. Then I start to think it’s real. Since I haven’t heard word of this on any reputable news sites, I’ll just chalk this up to kayfabery. Regardless, I think it paves the way for some drama down the line, say Summer Slam? 

WWE alum, Jonathan Coachman, claims that this is all an indication of creative differences at the center of the no-show and again, even if it is, it can get swept under the table with kayfabe. So, I’m just going to call this fabricated drama until I get more proof to the contrary. 

I will say, that given the lead up, The Rock not being there to appreciate the progression of events does seem like sloppy storytelling, which could provide some evidence for creative differences, but with what’s available, I’d say that is a stretch at best. We’ll just have to see what summer holds.

And so, that brings us to tonight’s SmackDown WrestleMania Fallout show. It looks like we’ll get introduced to some NXT call-ups in the form of the Tag Team Fraxiom. They’ll take on the Cousins Garza in Angel and Humberto Carrillo. Zelina Vega is going to attempt to overthrow Chelsea Green’s US Championship reign. That said, I think we can anticipate the return of Aleister Malakai Black as well. We’ll have a not quite 6-Man-Tag but rather a Tag Team Triple Threat as DIY, MCMG and The Street Profits have a TLC Match for the Titles. And John Cena will give us another tongue lashing for being reprehensible fans. 

The unofficial watch party will begin at 8pm PDT. The end is now, figuratively speaking. We’ll have to stand by as the new beginning takes shape. 

See You in a Bit,

-Nicole Alexis (^_~)