I have been against the idea of Rock vs Reigns happening at Wrestlemania in place of Cody finishing his story. Roman not defending the Undisputed Universal Championship would be doing a disservice to everyone involved. However, Roman defending his championship early against Cody would be different. Then what happens if Roman Reigns isn't Undisputed Universal Champion by the time he would fight The Rock at Wrestlemania. Not only does that change the match but it changes the potential outcome of the match. Admittedly it's hard to ignore the reaction!! 

Last year we heard rumors and rumblings but they never went face to face. This year off rip we got a tease of the match and now well take a look!!

This time around on the news we have a bit more questions than answers but unfortunately we have some sad news to report as well. Let's get to it!! 

As reported over the weekend CM Punk sustained a torn triceps during the Royal Rumble match and will miss Wrestlemania. Punk had injured his triceps in AEW but it was reported this wasn't the same injury. In my opinion, the promo we saw from Punk was some of the best work he's ever done in wrestling. 

After the reveal that Pat McAfee would be joining Michael Cole on Raw to form the new announce team there were questions to be answered. For example, what would this mean for Wade Barrett and we now have the answer that Barrett will join Corey Graves as the Smackdown broadcast team. Something doesn't feel right about this? 

Bron Breaker was mentioned in a segment last night on Raw with Adam Pearce and Nick Aldis leading some to question if the former NXT Champion could be coming to the main roster soon. What do you think? 

Props to Kevin Owens as well for working his match with Logan Paul at the Royal Rumble with a fractured foot. According to Fightful.com, Kevin sustained the injury in the January 5, match against Santos Escobar. It is unclear if Kevin will miss any television time due to the injury! 
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The "Road to Wrestlemania" is filled with thrills and a lot of questions that will hopefully be answered by the time we reach the Showcase of the Immortals in sixty-seven days' time.

Instead of doing separate articles on each news story and expanding the smallest detail to reach the word count that I want for the articles the biggest stories will share a place right here. 

According to Monthly Puroresu, former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion the "Rainmaker" Kazuchika Okada could be heading to WWE following the expiration of his contract at months end. Both AEW and WWE have a vested interest in signing the now former New Japan superstar and have made pushes to bring in the now legend of pro wrestling. 

It was reported by various news outlets last week that current WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins had sustained injury. Confirmed by Rollins during his promo to open Raw tonight it is unclear what the future holds but a severe knee injury to the World Champion could see the end of his title reign. 

Announced earlier today in January 2025 the flagship of WWE moves to Netflix!! Monday Night Raw is moving to Netflix in 2025 as the last episodic program from WWE has landed a media rights deal. It is unclear how much money WWE is making from this deal with the streaming platform, but it seems to be around or in excess of the deal the company signed with Fox for Smackdown back in 2019. 

In looking at the results of NXT's recent New Year's Evil event I found an odd sight that Charlie Dempsey is on tour in All Japan Pro-Wrestling. I honestly don't know the last time someone in WWE went on tour or even competed in high profile matches for another company. I remember the occasional appearance for NXT stars in Evolve, but seeing someone appear in AJPW is different. Especially considering Charlie wasn't just making one appearance in All Japan. Winning his debut alongside Yuma Anzai against Leona & Tatsumi Fujinami on December 31, 2023. 

In a shocking turn of events Charlie & Yuma won another tag match against the current Triple Crown Champion Katsuhiko Nakajima & Hideki Suzuki. Maybe not so surprising Nakajima took the fall leading into his title match against Dempsey set for Night Two of the AJPW New Year Giant Series. Nakajima had won the Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion back in November 2023, but if Dempsey gets the win it would be a buzz worthy story for not just Dempsey but also All Japan. 

A simple title I know but with the "Road to Wrestlemania" right around the corner it's time they start thinking about the selling points of Wrestlemania 40. If there is something we've learned from Triple H it's that he knows a thing or two about pacing a rivalry up to the pay off. Honestly the one thing that I would keep in mind is that Rollins should at least try and block Punk from getting a title shot to where going into the Rumble that could be looked at as his last chance.

Over the last year a lot has been made about the fact that certain people within WWE didn't want anything to do with CM Punk. Now that he's back in the fold we can see how a bitter feud in WWE would play out. Punk has been the most talked about person in wrestling since his return to the business in AEW and this year was no different. 

The only question to have now is does this mean that CM Punk might be the one that stops Cody from finishing the story by winning the Royal Rumble. If it was you, does Cody win the Rumble to go for Roman or maybe Punk wins the Rumble to go for Rollins or Orton wins it for one more chance. I'm not sure heading into the Rumble this year that we've ever had this many different people who could actually win and legitimately deserve a shot at Mania. I'm looking forward to Rollins vs Punk though it should be worth the wait.
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Last night at Survivor Series we saw a sight a lot of us thought may never happen again!! Following the main event a familiar tune began to echo over the speakers in Chicago. The tune blasting was "Cult of Personality" and slowly the Chicago native CM PUNK appeared in the entrance. Punk left WWE in January 2014 and many thought with how he left and everything that happened after he'd never be back again. 

However, we forget one thing "Anything can happen in the WWE" and last night they proved that to be true once again. I was off at work being a "good employee" so I missed his return and was disappointed, but still glad to see that Punk will hopefully be able to leave wrestling on his terms, undoing whatever negative reputation he might have for himself. 

As for where we go from here I think Seth Rollins is ideally at the top of the list for CM Punk, but we will have to wait and see as again this was a sight a lot of us weren't sure would ever happen. I'd like to see Punk treated as someone special and not just another member of the roster, basically ride the shock wave as long as you can. If anyone will make WWE ratings jump it's the sight of Punk on programming for the first time in almost ten years. 

One thing I would like to note though, WWE would be wise to keep Punk away from Roman Reigns for the time being, because Punk needs to establish himself again in the "New WWE" and putting himself with Roman too soon would stunt that ability. I for one though am very happy to see Punk in WWE once again!! It's Clobberin Time!!!

I will keep this simple and let the video do the talking for me, though the breaking news might be a little distracting for us. It shouldn't take away from the fact that Wrestlemania Night Two is still happening tonight. Since his return last year the conversation has existed will Cody be the one to dethrone Roman Reigns. I do have to ask if not Cody then who will be the one to dethrone Roman? Cody proved himself last year against Seth Rollins in that Hell in a Cell Match. Tonight it will be clear that Cody Rhodes will officially move from Undesirable to Un God Damn Deniable 
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Source: 
CNBC Article 
Fightful Article

Might be a little rusty as it's been a while or it feels like it's been a while since I've written much on the site. Either way though it's Royal Rumble season which means I had to spend sometime watching a Rumble from the past. This year I chose the Royal Rumble from 1997 and boy was it something else. One of the main things I noticed was the fact that it was a very silent crowd and a lot of that could've been chalked up to the Alamo Dome being a very large building, but it was the between time. This Royal Rumble falls in a time where WWE isn't the hottest company in the world and is actually about a month away from the lowest rated Raw in company history which would take place overseas. 

Audio issues early in the match left you wondering what was happening as superstars would just appear and there really wasn't much from the fans until Ahmed Johnson appeared with an exceptionally large 2 x 4 to attack Faarooq. Even with an in fusion of AAA stars including Latin Lover, Mil Mascaras and Cibernetico it didn't drum up a reaction as I believe most WWE fans wouldn't have known who these guy were or why they should care about them. One takeaway is when Mil Mascaras eliminated himself by jumping off the top to the floor technically not going over the top rope so even though his feet hit the floor he shouldn't be eliminated. 

The amount of Royal Rumble debuts within the match should how deep the transition was the company was going through at the time. For those who might not know 1997 Royal Rumble was actually Goldust's first Royal Rumble. I also couldn't help but notice the amount of praise that Vince was heaping on Rocky Maivia upon him entering the match. There was also a nice mixture of surprise performances and expected solid performances based on knowing history. Terry Funk had the most surprising performance being in the ring for a lot long then I would've expected especially being the hometown hero. The expected solid performances came from The Rock, Austin and Mankind as I would say think about the upcoming year. 

Earlier this week it was reported that Vince McMahon returned to WWE's board of directors after being removed from power over the summer. Vince alongside George Barrios and Michelle Wilson returned to WWE as members of the board of directors. According to the various reports Vince made a plea to return to WWE to assist with the eventual media rights agreements and a potential sale. It isn't the first time that a conversation about WWE being up for sale has boiled to the forefront of the news cycle. 

This honestly is the first that I can remember potential suitors being actually discussed and a possibility of an actual sale going through. WWE has always been a company owned by the  McMahon family and the idea of the company not being owned by the family would be surreal. It is in this video where I break down the potential suitors for WWE and the likely nature of each possibly purchasing WWE. To think a sale could happen within the next three to six months is absolutely surreal.

Sources:
https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2021/04/01/Finance/Endeavor.aspx

​https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/07/who-would-buy-wwe-as-mcmahon-returns-to-board-to-pursue-sale.html