KB’s Review: In Other News – Big Week Edition

It’s finally here. This is one of the most eventful weeks in wrestling in at least a generation, as you probably have to go all the way back to the death of WCW and WrestleMania X7 airing later that week to match it. Between the season premiere of Monday Night Raw, NXT moving to USA full time, AEW debuting, SmackDown moving to FOX and Hell In A Cell (yeah that still exists), there are a lot of things going on in wrestling, but what about the smaller stories?

That’s what we’re taking a look at this week: some of the stories that are still important but aren’t going to get as much attention as the top news. There are a lot of things out there that warrant some attention in wrestling but they don’t stand much of a chance when everything else in wrestling is going coconuts. Some of these you probably have heard of but they deserve a closer look.

In no particular order.

NWA Power Debuts Next Week

I know the NWA is nowhere near the shell of the company it used to be but Billy Corgan seems to be starting something. Yeah they’re still a long way off from getting anywhere serious, but at some point they have to get out there and just run shows. That’s what they’re trying to do here and the fact that it’s in a studio instead of an arena makes it feel different. They have to do something different and that’s what they’re doing here.

There are a lot of details to this:

NWA Powerrr - Coming 10/8/19

I know it might not seem like anything important and I probably won’t be watching it every week, but the company deserves points for going out there and trying. Maybe it bombs completely, but at the same time they’re trying, and that’s better than sitting around doing one show every few months and trying to get some attention where they can. It’s not like they can fall very far so just see what they can do with what they have.

The Bump

Just in case WWE didn’t have enough content, they are now airing a show called the Bump. It isn’t clear how often the show will be airing, though I can’t imagine it’s more than once a week. The show is a morning show ala the stuff you see on major sports and news networks with various WWE personalities talking about the current goings on in WWE and NXT.

The show could be interesting:

I’m not sure about this one and in this case I know I won’t be watching. I don’t like the news and sports versions of these things so why would I like the WWE versions with stories that are covered all the time? That’s the problem in general here: there is already so much content that I don’t know how many people are going to want to watch an hour plus long show of people talking about wrestling. It’s not like there are that many interesting stories going on in WWE at the moment in the first place, so why hear people talking about what is there?

John Morrison Returns To The Palace Of Wisdom

This one isn’t clear at the moment but it seems that Morrison (or whatever name he’s going by this week) is back in WWE. I can go with this as Morrison is someone with a lot of talent and charisma, but more importantly he has gotten a lot better by wrestling around the world since leaving WWE. WWE could use the fresh star power so he could be a big deal in a short time.

He does have a history around here:

Morrison is one of those guys who could have been a top star in WWE and seemed ready to break through to the other side several times in his WWE run. That never happened due to one reason or another (read as mainly Melina) but now things are different and one more run is certainly not out of the question. Let Morrison come back and see what he can do and we might be on to something.

CM Punk Back To WWE?

Or maybe not. Or maybe. Or it might be a long time. This story comes up every so often and now it has taken on another life with the story that Punk is up for a spot as a host on Backstage, which debuts in November. I don’t know if WWE is going to bring him back and I have a feeling they could squash it if FOX wants it, though they might not want to push against their banker.

This, but a few years later:

Raw: CM Punk makes his shocking return to WWE

At this point, it would be interesting to see Punk back in WWE but I can’t imagine it would be nearly as big as it has been hyped up as being. The problem is nothing could be that big as a Punk return has hit almost mythical proportions. He has been gone for over five years now and while some of the magic will still be there, the impact he has is going to be limited if he never gets back in the ring, and I don’t know if he would.

205 Live To Fridays

So yeah, we can’t survive without this show moving along with SmackDown. The show is going to air at 10pm on Friday, because the fans who have already spent their Friday night at a wrestling show want to stick around for the minor league cruiserweight show. At a bonus, this comes after a mention that NXT and 205 Live would be coming together more, as it feels more like the show is just changing nights instead of content.

Just a little later in the week:

205 Live is an entertaining show but it isn’t exactly the most important. It feels like content for the sake of content and while that’s fine, WWE has so much content at the moment that it feels overwhelming. I would have no issue with the Cruiserweight Title just being moved into NXT as there isn’t much of a need for a whole cruiserweight show. Or at least make the show more interesting as the stories barely mean a thing. The action is good, but either make the rest better or get rid of it.

Cain Velasquez Coming For Brock Lesnar?

There aren’t many names in wrestling who can hold a candle to Brock Lesnar. He is a monster unlike almost anyone else and it makes a lot of sense to push him as such. At some point you have to come up with something else for him though and WWE may have that in the cards by bringing in Cain Velasquez. That would be the man who defeated Lesnar for the UFC Heavyweight Title in dominant fashion and happens to be trying his hand at wrestling.

Oh there might be someone:

I don’t know how well I can see this going, but the look on Lesnar’s (and Heyman’s) faces could be priceless. It’s a story they haven’t told with Lesnar before, mainly because there are not many ways to tell it in the first place. I have no idea if or when Velasquez will be ready for a WWE level but if they can find a way to put together enough smoke and mirrors, we could be in for an entertaining moment and fun match.

Impact Wrestling Moving To AXS

I know it feels like this is something that we cover every year or so and that’s because that’s exactly what we do. Impact is always moving from one channel to another, but this time they seem to be moving upwards for a change. They’re heading to AXS TV, which at least seems to be a channel that people actually have/people have heard of, making it better than Pursuit.

Notice the new graphic:

Maybe this is one of the many breaks that Impact needs, though they need to do something with the opportunity. At the end of the day, they can only go so far presenting the ECW Players and Ken Shamrock (seriously) with a World Champion who is almost never around. I don’t see how well things are going to go for them, but at least they have a platform where more people can see them for a change.

Rush Ends The Reign Of Terror

I don’t think it was any secret that Matt Taven’s time as Ring of Honor World Champion wasn’t the best for the company. Things have been falling for a long time now and Taven’s time on top seems to be a contributing factor. It was clear that something had to change and that something finally happened over the weekend when Rush beat Taven for the title at Death Before Dishonor.

They were both ready:

As much as various companies might like you to think otherwise, the World Champion is often the centerpiece of a promotion. If fans are not pleased with what Taven was doing, there is only so much that the promotion can do. Taven just was not working with the title so moving it off of him is the best thing possible. I don’t know if Rush is the big solution, but he seems to be an upgrade.

I know this week is a busy one for wrestling and there are a lot of things going on that aren’t getting the spotlight that they deserve. Some of these aren’t the biggest stories around and a lot of them aren’t going to matter in the long run. That being said, they deserve at least a little spotlight as they are going to mean something, which is the case with almost everything in the wrestling world.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his- Amazon author page with 30 wrestling books. His latest book is KB’s Complete 2004 Monday Night Raw Reviews.

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