On this day 17 years ago Edge cashed in for the first time against John Cena

This is a script from my latest YouTube video about Edge and Money in the Bank. The video is available here: https://youtu.be/pXzoudHVvL0

On January 8th 2006 WWE presented New Years Revolution from Albany New York. On this night John Cena defended the WWE championship in a gruelling Elimination chamber match, against several of WWE's toughest challengers. Shawn Michaels, Kurt Angle and Kane. Carlito and Chris masters were also there. After nearly half an hour of action Cena would prevail, but nobody knew that his night wan't over yet, but first we have to go back to the opening match on the card.

In the first match of the night, Ric Flair would defend the Intercontinental title against Edge which would devolve into chaos. To get back at Lita for getting involved in the match, Ric would apply his trademark Figure Four leg lock, which would enrage Edge. He would take a briefcase, and hit Ric with it twice, bloodying the Nature Boy, but also getting himself disqualified. Edge would continue the assault leaving Flair laying, seeming not to care that he just cost himself a championship. Later in the night in a backstage segment, Edge would tell Lita that he had bigger things on his mind than Flair without explaining what he meant. By the end of the night, we would find out what was on his mind.

As John Cena lay prone in the ring, recovering from his title defence, the familiar music of Vince McMahon played, and the chairman entered. He announced that for the very first time, the winner of the money in the bank briefcase was about to cash in his title shot, and out came Edge.

As the live crowd went crazy, Edge and Lita headed to the ring and nearly two minutes later, we had a new WWE Champion. It had been said previously that the money in the bank briefcase could be cashed in for a title match at any time but this being the first time it was cashed in, nobody expected it to be used in such a way.

For a little background, in 2005 the Money in the bank ladder match is commonly known to be the concept of Chris Jericho and at the time head writer Brian Gerwirtz, who is often known for being the Rocks chosen writer. Jericho has claimed that he intended the match to be a regular part of Wrestlemania, as a way of getting a bunch of talented mid-carders on the show. This started as a six man match, but over the years the match would slowly grow to include as many as 10 wrestlers in 2010. Also in 2010 Money in the Bank would become its own PPV event, with two of the match on a show, one for Raw and another for Smackdown. This event still exists today, but with a a match for the mens and women's divisions.

Over the years since 2006, the briefcase has been cashed in in all manner of ways, but at New Years Revolution Edge set the trend. He won the briefcase at Wrestlemania 21 the previous year, and was coming to the end of the one year time limit that you have to cash in. Looking back it's hard not to think of Edge as a complete main eventer, but in the early 2000's he was constantly coming close but never quite making it. As early as 2002 he was challenging the likes of Brock Lesnar for the WWE title, but in November of that year in a ladder match with Eddie Guerrero, he would sustain a neck injury that would eventually halt his career for an entire year. Edge continued to work for a few months, but in February of 2003 he was written out of storylines and wouldn't be seen again until March of 2004. Upon his return he would feud with the likes of Shawn Michaels and Triple H, but would never win the big one.

Edge's luck was about to change at Wrestlemania 21, where he and five other challengers competed to be the first ever Mr. Money in the Bank. He was of course no stranger to ladder matches having helped to pioneer the tag ladder match with the Hardys at No Mercy 99, the three team ladder match at NO Way Out 2000, then finally TLC at Summerslam 2000. On the May 21st 2001 episode of Smackdown, Edge would also be a part of the first four team TLC match. He was now about to co-pioneer another variation on the ladder match, a six man singles version. His opponents on the night were Christian Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Kane and Shelton Benjamin. While Kane on the surface might have seemed like an odd choice compared to the other five, he had once won a four team TLC match by himself on an episode of Raw in 2002, when his tag team partner the Hurricane couldn't compete. You heard me right, Kane and the Hurricane were a team once... Another notable name in the match was Shelton Benjamin, who arguably stood out the most in the match. At one point he performed a springboard dive from the top rope to halfway up the ladder, as if the floor was lava. Shelton would for the next few Wrestlemania's become known for trying a crazy new move in the Money in the Bank match, similar to Kofi Kingston's miraculous Royal Rumble stunts years later. In the end though, just when it looked like Chris Benoit was going to win, Edge attacked him from behind with a chair, and stole the victory.

Over the next 10 months, Edge would carry the briefcase but not make any suggestions of when he was going to cash in. He would spend the Summer feuding with Matt Hardy, and would be joined by Lita in the process following real life events behind the scenes. I've talked about this situation in a previous video so I'll skim over what happened here. Despite some feeling like Edge should have been punished more, he would win in the feud with Matt, then again in a storyline with Kane, but he still hadn't won the big one, making the events of January 8th 2006 all the more shocking. Just like the Royal Rumble became a way of propelling new stars into the main event scene, Money in the Bank became another opportunity to do that. In one night Edge went from losing in the opener, to being the only thing anyone was talking about on January 9th. Unfortunately for Edge, things didn't quite carry on like this. Because of his racier storylines lately, Edge had begun to refer to himself as the Rated R Superstar, and this was to be put to the test.

On the January 9th Raw, one night after his historic victory Edge promised to celebrate his win by having having an intimate moment with Lita live on Raw in the middle of the ring. This segment would of course be interrupted by John Cena seeking revenge before anything could go too far and thats all the detail you're getting about it here, because I rewatched it to write this and it's just cringe. Maybe part of that is because I know now that both Edge and Lita were very uncomfortable with taking part in the segment. As noted a furious John Cena would attempt to get revenge, and three weeks later he would get that revenge at the Royal Rumble.

After just 21 days as champion, John Cena would win back his title in a rematch. In July of 2006 Edge would find himself WWE champion again, but by September would lose it again to John Cena, this time in a TLC match the match Edge made famous. To some fans these starts and stops rendered the shocking moment at New Years Revolution meaningless given that it was undone so soon. Here's a stat for you, Edge has 4 recognised WWE title reigns, and only one, the second one I mentioned before, lasts longer than 21 days. Note that this is a separate title to the World Heavyweight title, which Edge held on Seven more occasions, all of which being longer reigns than three weeks.

While initially to some fans, me included it might have felt like Edge losing the title after just three weeks was a letdown, consider where Edge is now. He spent many years as the face of the Smackdown brand, often as World Champion. He even retired while holding that title. He is a legit Hall of Famer, and will be remembered not for his short title reigns, but for being the first man to cash in. If you need any more convincing, go and watch Clash at the Castle, and listen to the reception Edge received on that night. Us Brits love a good sing along.

24 years ago today Mankind defeated The Rock for his first WWE championship.

This is a script for my YouTube video which you can view here: https://youtu.be/8Vp5oh2jGRU

On January 4th 1999 in a pre-taped show from Worcester, Massachusetts, Mankind would win his first WWE championship. On this night Mankind's victory would air despite being taped in December, where he would defeat a man to end his first reign, The Rock. At the 1998 Survivor Series, Rock would win in controversial fashion, when Vince McMahon called for the bell during a sharpshooter. You know, like that other time something similar happened that nobody ever talks about. There is a fair amount of backstory to lead to this night however, dating back to before Mick Foley even got signed to WWE.

In the early years of Mick Foley's wrestling career, being based in New York he would sometimes work enhancement matches for WWE under the names Jack and Nick Foley. He would even make it to television, with his TV debut being a tag match with Les Thornton against the British Bulldogs. This match would become infamous, as the Dynamite Kid would beat on Foley remorselessly, which is commonly known as taking liberties with the much lower level wrestler. Things like that were more common in those days than they are now, as every wrestler who made it to the global stage today, was an enhancement talent at some point and rarely do bigger stars seem to take that for granted.

Mick Foley finally got signed by WWE in April of 1996, hired by Vince McMahon as a bet against Jim Ross, who had long lobbied for Foley's hiring. Mick had before this achieved a decent amount of success in WCW, but had been fired due to what Foley claims was a misunderstanding. As an attempted peace offering to build bridges between the two companies, Foley who was going by Cactus Jack at the time was allowed to take bookings in ECW. During one promo where he wanted to get across how important his upcoming hardcore dream match with Sabu was, he spat on his WCW tag team championship belt and threw it down. In Foley's mind he was just trying to get his big singles match over, but WCW didn't appreciate this treatment of their belt, and promptly fired him. Fortunately for the Hardcore legend, this left him with another company to work in, and he took full advantage of his ECW run. During this time, Foley became known for his captivating promos, embracing a new heel character that disavowed hardcore wrestling, instant heel heat in ECW. He would cut a series of 'anti-hardcore' promos, with the most famous one being targeted at the fans, as one had held up a sign saying 'cane Dewey', referring to Mick's at the time three year old son. While Cactus was excelling in ECW, Jim Ross was lobbying for him to get a WWE role. McMahon finally relented, but only to try and teach JR a lesson that he always knew best.

The Mankind character initially feels like an attempt by Vince to cut Cactus Jack's legs out from under him, but it grew on fans as it was dark and compelling, something Duke the Dumpster Drose and Isaac Yankem weren't. Mankind would enter to slow and somber music, and leave in victory to a beautiful piano tune. The reason for this was the designed backstory of the character. It was implied  that a young Mankind would mainly live underground, his life controlled by Mrs. Foley. When she held parties, he would be brought out to exhibit his mastery of the piano, but was still treated as less than. Mankind would eventually snap, breaking his own fingers so that he couldn't play the piano anymore, hence the strange leather finger wraps he would wear. These wraps also made it easier for Mankind to apply the mandible claw, as they combined the the necessary fingers.

Foley embraced the role and slowly endeared himself to Vince McMahon. In May of 1997 Foley filmed an interview with Jim Ross that would air in weekly parts. During this series, Foley offered footage of Dude Love, the character he used to play in his backyard, going as far as to jump off the roof of his house. The footage came to be known because of a conversation between Mick and one of this greatest opponents Shawn Michaels, in which Foley admitted that before becoming a wrestler he had always wanted to be like the heartbreak kid with the Dude Love Character, and there was footage of this. McMahon was drawn to this side of Mick, so much so that he wanted to harness this character, not just the deranged Mankind. I already talked about the debut of Dude Love on this channel so I won't detail it here, but from this grew the idea that Cactus Jack could re-emerge as a third personality of Foley. On the September 22nd 1997 episode of Raw from Madison Square Garden, Dude Love and Mankind both introduced the third face of Foley. Cactus would debut having a absolute battle against Triple H, who Mankind had been embroiled in a feud with since the 97 King of the Ring final, again also previously talked about on this channel.

By mid-1998, Foley made himself undeniable by showing his versatility playing not just the unhinged Mankind, but also by performing as the wild man Cactus Jack, and his childhood character, Dude Love. Channeling the jump off his roof years earlier, Mick would achieve his career defining moment by allowing himself to be thrown off the Hell in a cell cage by his fiercest rival, the Undertaker. He and the deadman had many firsts against each the such as the first ever boiler room brawl, but the match the had at King of the Ring 1998 was several steps too far.

Later that night despite all he went through, Foley would make a run in that would be pivotal to the WWE title changing hands, as Kane would defeat Steve Austin to win the WWE title for about 24 hours. Despite the world of pain Foley must have been in, he still came back and played his role in the storyline that would eventually take Mankind to the WWE championship, as Mankind found himself doing the bidding of Vince McMahon, in keeping the title away from Stone Cold. Vince clearly had destain for Mankind, but would throw him enough bones to keep him loyal for months. The most significant bone being the WWE Hardcore championship, which began life as a gift to Mankind, but became an active championship in 1999.

This loyalty would lead to the 1998 Survivor Series, where a tournament known as the Deadly Game would guarantee a new WWE champion. On the night, Mankind would be given an easy first round match against Gillberg, a comedy ripoff of WCW's Goldberg. He would then make short work of Al Snow in the second round. Steve Austin would claim a win after the Big Bossman got himself disqualified by using his nightstick. Bossmans one job was to weaken Stone Cold for the later rounds. Austin would get a pass into the semi finals though, as X-Pac and William Regal went to a double count out. Commissioner Slaughter tried to restart the match but X Pac and Regal just brawled to the back, giving Stone Cold a bye that McMahon didn't want him to receive.

This led to a semi final match between Steve Austin and Mankind, in which the McMahon's pulled out every trick to make sure Steve didn't win. Mankind would take the W, leading to the final match, Mankind vs The Rock.

In the weeks leading up to the deadly game, the Rock had been a fan favourite just under the popularity of Stone Cold. He and Vice had had words, but Vince's main concern was not letting Steve Austin win. At the end of the night, The Rock applied a sharpshooter to Mankind, and Vince rang the bell, declaring the Rock the new WWE champion, his first of 10 world title reigns, turning on Mankind in the process. A rather cheap callback to something that might have happened a year earlier... Mankind would get a rematch at the December pay per view, named Rock Bottom and themed around the new corporate champion. In the match, Mankind would apply his Mandible Claw, making the Rock pass out. In any other match Mankind would have been declared the winner, but McMahon forced the referee to not award Mankind the title, since Rock never submitted, an ironic twist on that thing that might- oh screw it, it was yet another reference to Montreal.

Come January 4th, Mankind was ready to go to any length to get another title shot against the Rock. To get the match he would take Shane McMahon hostage in the ring, and threatened to break his arm if Vince didn't give him a title match that night. This would be called back to later in the year, as on August 23rd Triple H threatened to break Jim Ross' arm if Mankind didn't give his a title shot. Mankind agreed but Triple H did it anyway, and left that night with his first WWE title win.

The match itself was good but Mankind and the Rock would have better worked matches. The finish came when all out brawl happened between Vince's Corporation and DX, who were feuding at the time. All of a sudden the glass shatters, and Stone Cold Steve Austin arrives to one the biggest crowd pops in Raw history. He blasts the Rock with a chair, and pulls Mankind on top of Rock to get the pinfall. Post match once Foley gains his composure, he runs around ringside, gets lifted up by DX which will become a problem later, and gives an emotional speech where he dedicates the match to his children, exclaiming "at the risk of not sounding cool, big daddio did it!"

As I noted before, this match had actually been taped in December 1998, meaning that the result was known before it aired by anyone in attendance, and Eric Bischoff of course. At this time Eric was getting desperate in his weekly ratings war, so desperate that he would give out the results of that nights Raw on Nitro in a sleazy effort to stop fans from turning to Raw. On this night in particular, he had lead announcer Tony Schiavone announce that "Mick Foley who once wrestled here as Cactus Jack is gonna win their world title. That'll put a lot of butts in seats". Whether it put any butts in seats or not is irrelevant, but it did cause thousands of Nitro viewers to switch to Raw to watch the title change, an estimated 600,000 fans to be more. Over the years Mick has expressed that he was very hurt by Tony's comments, and Tony has also expressed much regret for his words. Thankfully, it sounds like the two were able to reconcile their differences after a phone call.

While there are many great things about Mick Foley's WWE championship win, one that has always hit me most was in my opinion the greatest line Michael Cole has ever said, because of the impact it had on a younger me. As Mankind is celebrating, Cole proclaims that "Mick Foley has achieved his dream, and the dream of everyone else who has been told you can't do it." That line, in that moment, was perfect.

Foley's three WWE title runs would all occur in 1999. He would lose to The Rock in brutal fashion at the 99 Royal Rumble in an I Quit match, and would win the title back during Halftime heat, an empty arena match that aired between halves of the 99 Superbowl. Mankind would win again the the 99 Summerslam in another match I have already made a video about. Foley's three reigns add up to a combined length of 21 days, but that doesn't matter given the impact that man made on many a wrestling fan over the years. What matters is that this moment feels like a win on that night felt special for every underdog anywhere, those of us who have been told, you can't do it. But you can.

Looking back at one of the worst nights in John Cena's WWE career.

This is a script from a video on my YouTube channel. You can find the video version here: https://youtu.be/4auzn3HIJcM

The new year is a time where people are supposed to be optimistic for the future but if you were a John Cena fan in 2007, a rare breed at the time, it was hard to be anything other than angry. On January 1st 2007 WWE presented Raw from Miami Florida, where WWE Champion John Cena would lose in the a main event four on one handicap match by getting himself DQ's for using a chair. By the end of the night Cena would stand tall leading into his upcoming title defence against Umaga, but in the process Super Cena had well and truly snapped. What caused him to lose his temper? He also lost in the opening match that night, against someone who never got in the ring before or since. Kevin Federline. The man known at the time as K-Fed was famous for being the spouse of one of the most famous pop stars of the time, but lets look a little further into his background.

Kevin Federline was born in 1978, making him 28 years old at the time of his one wrestling match taking place. He began his career as a backup dancer, appearing in music videos for the likes of Pink, Justin Timberlake, and crucially Britney Spears. After five months of courting, Kevin and Britney would marry in September 2004. This union was heavily criticised by the media, given that Federline had left his pregnant former partner, actor Shay Jackson to begin his relationship with Britney, who had her own issues as the time too. Neither's public image was great by late 2006, especially Kevin who came across in the media as a gold digger. In October 2006 Spears filed for divorce, but also in the same month, Federline would release his own rap album, Playing with Fire, which Britney was an executive Producer of. If you're wondering, Playing with Fire was absolutely panned by critics, selling 6000 copies in its launch week, and isn't even on Spotify today.

I'm only adding this for context, but six weeks after Kevin's Raw match in February 2007 Britney would reach her lowest point, when she walked into a hair salon late at night and shaved her own hair off in full view of the paparazzi that had been following her almost constantly. In interviews years later she would claim that the incident that triggered this was Kevin not allowing her to see their two children. This led to the conservatorship that she was kept under until late 2021.

Sorry for getting off topic, but all of that is relevant to why Kevin Federline was ever in WWE, as he first appeared in October 2006 to promote his album. He would get into an altercation with John Cena, who at the time wasn't far removed from his rapper character having released his own rap album called 'You Can't See Me' in 2005. For comparisons's sake its worth noting that Cena's record sold 143,000 copies in its first week, considerably more than K-Fed. The album also introduced the world to "The Time is Now", the song Cena makes his entrance to still in 2022.

It's worth noting at this point for fairness, that the Wrestling Observer noted that Federline was well liked backstage, and clearly appreciated his time in WWE. That doesn't make it any less baffling though, how they would put him over the current WWE champion ahead of a major title defence. At least it didn't happen anywhere close to cleanly...

The much anticipated Cena vs Federline match would open the January 1st Raw, and would be riddled with interference as K-Fed announced it would be a no DQ match, and would walk to the ring with Johnny Nitro, as he was known at the time. Now he's just called John "whatever company he happens to be at tonight". 

Before the bell K-Fed stalls to draw even more heat from a crowd that likely didn't want to see him anyway. Seconds in Jerry Lawler notes that this is the first WWE match of 2007, making this all the more worse. Cena offers Federline a free headlock, which is the exact same way Lawler started his legendary match with Andy Kaufman, so that had to be a callback with Jerry sitting ringside. I'll spare you from a blow by blow analysis, but this match was truly awful, ending when Umaga took advantage of the no DQ rules and attacked Cena, leading to K-Fed rolling in and getting a pin fall victory of the WWE Champion. A true low point for John Cena, and one I bet WWE wants you to forget. Later that night, Cena would get a measure of revenge after laying out his opponents in the handicap match. He would go after K-Fed who was doing commentary, and deliver a vicious looking FU, now known as the attitude adjustment. Cena's career would recover though, as he would defend the WWE title in an epic match with Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania 23, then a month later have a one hour classic with the Heartbreak Kid on an episode of Raw from London.

As for Kevin Federline, as best I can tell he has made more attempts to succeed in the music business, and appears to be working as a DJ as of this year, living a quieter life. To his credit from recent interviews Kevin comes across as a devoted father, just not one who should have pinned Peacemaker. I only added DC in to make this just a little bit weirder...

Seven Years ago today Roman Reigns won the WWE title on Raw and punched Vince McMahon

This is a script for a video on my YouTube channel, you can find that video here: https://youtu.be/9f_PlWo-XKo

On December 14th 2015 on Monday Night Raw, Roman Reigns would defeat Sheamus to win his second WWE Championship. The whole reason I'm making this video is to acknowledge not just the Tribal Chief, but a bleak point in his career, that he very much came back from. This video isn't as much about Roman through, as it is the way he was booked back then, why the fans couldn't accept him and how strange that feels when watching the Tribal Chief today.

Roman first won the title in the Survivor Series main event just 22 days earlier, in a tournament final against Dean Ambrose, after Seth Rollins had to vacate the title due to injury. Something about those three names rings a bell... Following his win, Roman would promptly lose the title, as Sheamus cashed in his Money in the Bank contract. This would be the second time in 2015 that Roman would be screwed out of the WWE championship because of a money in the bank cash in, as Seth used his contract to add himself into that years Wrestlemania 31 main event where Roman battled Brock Lesnar.

Looking how far Roman Reigns has come and the absolute star he has become, it feels almost bizarre to think about where Roman was in the mid 2010's. He quickly gained popularity as a member of the Shield, but when he began to be pushed as a singles star, he suffered from many WWE fans rejecting him in the same way they had John Cena years earlier. Cena spent years weathering that storm, and eventually would begin to win over a lot of his critics, and Roman seemed to be following this path which is paying off now, but was incredibly frustrating to watch as a fan at the time.

Roman's first title win was Vince's attempt to capture lightning in a bottle twice, as Daniel Bryan suffered a similar fate at Summerslam 2013. On that night Bryan would defeat John Cena for the title cleanly, only to lose it moments later thanks to a Randy Orton cash in and a Triple H heel turn. Bryan was already a fan favourite, but this moment at Summerslam seemed to be the catalyst for fans to really back Bryan, eventually leading to his unlikely but triumphant victory at Wrestlemania 30. Fans saw through this though, and did not appreciate WWE using the same tactic with a wrestler they didn't have as much love for. With Bryan, at the time it felt unfair, but by the end, organic. 

After cashing in his contract and beating Roman at Survivor Series, Sheamus began to build a faction around himself, along the theme of it being an international group. According to Sheamus himself, the group that would become known as the League of Nations was pitched by producer Jamie Knoble, and it would consist of Sheamus, Rusev, Wade Barrett and Alberto Del Rio. Sheamus has since confirmed what was blatantly obvious at the time, that the group was put together for one single purpose, to build Roman. The group was fairly short lived, and by the sounds of it none of the participants wanted to be involved, but it did in the end serve its purpose until it slowly fizzled out by Spring.

I mean no disrespect to any of the members of the group except maybe Alberto for very different reasons, but the entire League of Nations group felt like a lazy attempt to throw some foreign heels at the chosen top star, the way Vince McMahon used to get Hogan over in the 80's. It was all so transparent, and thus did little to endear the fans to Roman. Finally on the December 14th Raw, Vince used the weapon in his back pocket, himself.

Throughout history Vince McMahon has shown an odd quirk where certain wrestlers were taken out of the spotlight before they themselves were ready, because Vince felt they were getting too old. I call it a weird quirk because he seemed to have it with some wrestlers but not others. The most famous example of this would be Macho Man Randy Savage, who Vince relegated to the announce table around the same time as the early episodes of Raw, despite Savage wanting to continue in the ring. This in the end was the reason that Savage went to WCW as soon as he could, and continued to wrestle through the 90's. The reason I'm bringing this up is because by the mid 2010's, Vince appeared to have this opinion about himself, as it was sometimes reported that by this point hated putting himself on television but he would do it if necessary. This led to him only being seen very rarely, so when Vince appeared, it felt important.

Towards the end of the started creating a distraction on the apron. Eventually Roman would have enough of this and he decks Vince with a superman punch, which the crowd erupted for. As rare as it was to see Vince who was 70 years old at the time, it was even rarer to see him get physically involved. After a flurry of Superman punches, Roman would counter Sheamus' brogue kick with a spear, and would win the WWE title with the fans in the Wells Fargo center in Philadelphia cheering like they'd seen the Philadelphia somethings win an insert your sport here.

WWE achieved their goal of making Roman look like a top star on this night, but it would still take several more years and many more attempts to make Roman into the man he is today. I still love the Shield, I acknowledge the Tribal chief, but there was a whole load of shite in between those years.

Three crazy Christmas stories from WWE and Memphis Wrestling

This is a script for my Youtube video which you can view here: https://youtu.be/-451x13THig

Wrestling has always had an interesting and slightly bizarre relationship with Christmas. Back in the territory days Christmas night would be mean a packed house filled with babyface wins to send the crowd home happy. We are far from those days now, and Christmas themed gimmicks have gotten more elaborate and frankly, awful as time has passed. Here are a few stories from wrestling's ghost of Christmas past. Thats's me if the analogy wasn't clear enough...

WWE once had an evil version of Santa Claus, because of course they did. On December 17th 1995 WWE presented In Your House 5: Seasons Beatings from Hershey Pennsylvania. In one of the most bizarre moments I've ever seen. Savio Vega heads to ringside with Santa, who is throwing presents out to the crowd. They are interrupted though, by the devious Million Dollar Man. Ted Dibiase goes on a rant about how Santa isn't real, with Savio protesting that he is. Eventually, the Santa in the ring attacks Savio from behind, as he and Dibiase put the boots to him. While this is happening Jerry Lawler is gleefully shouting that Santa has been bought by the Million Dollar Man which isn't surprising, as he likely booked weird stuff than this in Memphis. More on Memphis later...

The evil Santa would make a couple more appearances, but would never be seen again after the holiday season ended. At least he got a longer run than the Gobbledy Gooker. After his shocking betrayal of Savio Vega, and every child on earth, Santa would undergo a drastic makeover. Gone was the long white hair and thick beard and in its place shorter darker replacements. His costume was also changed from the classic red and white look to red and black. He looked like the bad guy in a Home Alone straight to video sequel. Perhaps most pointlessly, his name was changed to Xanta Klaus, with and X and a K.

As noted, Xanta would have a short run on WWE television, but one more strange fact lies in who the wrestler who played the character was. Prior to this character, Jon Rechner had been an enhancement talent for WWE, and had also had a run in Jim Cornette's Smokey Mountain Wrestling. After playing Xanta, Rechner would go on to become ECW's hardcore chair swinging freak, Balls Mahoney. Though he is sadly no longer with us after suffering a heart attack in 2016, Rechner's run as Balls would become what he was most famous for, and thankfully, not for being the evil Santa.

I mentioned that I'd be getting back to Memphis and here it is, because in 1992 Jerry Lawler actually did book what might even be a stranger character with an even more famous wrestler under the hood. Jerry Lawler once booked wait for it, the Christmas Creature. The character was actually the idea of Lawlers son Kevin who also ran some shows in the area. He approached recurring character of this channel, a young Glenn Jacobs who would go on to be Kane. Kevin sent him concept pictures of a swamp monster looking costume equipped with tinsel and other Christmas decorations. Kane has claimed that he wasn't thrilled by the idea, but had nothing else going on at thew time so took the booking. The final full body suit would actually be made by Kane's mother which right away reminds me of Homer Simpson dressing Lisa as Florida. Kane has also noted that the costume had working lights in it thanks to a hidden battery pack. Unlike Xanta Klaus, he also noted that the character would live on well into January before I assume heading back to the swamp.

The final story I have for now comes from the December 20th 1999 episode of Raw. This was an interesting period in WWE, as following a major swerve in which Triple H and Stephanie McMahon had banished Vince in storyline and created the McMahon-Helmsley regime, which ran roughshod over the vast majority of storylines at the time. Triple H would use his newfound power to humiliate one of his most fierce rivals of the time, Mankind.

On the December 20th 99 Raw, Mankind would be booked in a boiler room brawl with of all people, Santa Claus. Any fan of Mick Foley will know about his absolute genuine love of Christmas, and so this was designed to mess with him. To make sure Mankind entered the match, the Mean Street Posse blindsided him and threw him into the boiler room where Saint Nick was waiting. Mankind reasons with Santa that he should just walk out of the boiler room and win, only for him to be ambushed by three more Santa's. It's not clear who these men were, but Foley did a number on them.  On his way out of the boiler room Mankind is attacked by two more Santa's, who turn out to be Road Dogg and Billy Gunn. Foley would once again get the upper hand and attempt to leave the boiler room before he is attacked by one last Santa, who turns out to be Triple H himself, who leaves the boiler room and claims victory.

On the following weeks Raw Triple H wouldn't rest until one of his most credible challengers was out of the picture, so he booked Mankind vs The Rock in a "pink slip on a pole" match, with the winner keeping their job. Rock would win the match leaving Mankind to be fired just two days after Christmas, but the rest of that story is for another day.

Thoughts on #FireRondaRousey

This is the script for my video about this topic, you can find that video here: https://youtu.be/a3EbdTGMEnk

As I watched Smackdown this week, I kept seeing the hashtag Fire Ronda Rousey, and it made me want to dig into the topic, and maybe find a clear reason why. As is sometimes the nature of Twitter, this isn't always as easy as you might think...

Before I begin this I suppose I ought to present the position I am coming from. I'd describe myself as a lapsed fan of Ronda Rousey. I was a guy who used to wake up at 5am UK time, and watch Ronda's UFC fights, then after she usually won in a couple of minutes would go back to sleep for a bit before getting up for work. I was thrilled when she appeared at Wrestlemania 31 with the Rock, and when she got in the ring at Wrestlemania 34. Everything after Wrestlemania 35 has admittedly been a bit off to me, I feel like she should have been more of a special attraction than a regular roster member, and she definitely doesn't feel like a special attraction anymore.

When the whole issue with Sasha Banks and Naomi happened earlier this year, my hope for the Women's tag titles was that Ronda and Shayna Bayzler would take the belts and hold them for a long time. Back then it had only barely been acknowledged that the two are friends in training videos for this years Wrestlemania, but at the time I'm writing this they are regularly together on Smackdown, so I might still get my wish down the line. As I watched Smackdown this week I was keeping an eye on Twitter, and the Fire Ronda Rousey hashtag was trending, inspiring me to look further into it.

Before I get deeper into this I'd like to note that the points I am making are based on a couple of days worth of research, and if I am missing something I'd really appreciate if you let me know in the comments, and I might even make a follow up video if there is enough that I haven't covered here.

At a cursory first glance. some of it seemed to come from fans who simply prefer other women on the WWE roster, but then I found that a fair bit seems to come specifically from Sasha Banks fans. I then found a clip from Kurt Angle's podcast from a year ago that people are bringing back up now, where Sasha flat out, in no uncertain terms says she didn't like the star treatment Ronda walked into WWE with. While I completely understand why Sasha or anyone on the WWE roster might think like this, I don't really take her side on this occasion. This is the same issue that CM Punk had with the Rock coming back and taking the WWE title and thus the Wrestlemania main event away from him. I leaned towards Punks side back then, these days not so much.

One thing I'd like to point early on is that this podcast aired in November 2021, and Ronda wasn't even an active member of the roster at the time, given that she would return at the Royal Rumble two months later. Admittedly I haven't sat through the whole thing, and some fans have the view that Sasha was being in character, but at the time this was recorded Ronda wasn't around, and by the time she returned Banks and Naomi were an active team, while Ronda won the Rumble, so I can't see why Sasha's comments would be made to build a match when the two were clearly on different paths. It's also not like this would be a first time ever dream match either, as the two wrestled at the 2019 Royal Rumble, with Ronda winning that night.

Sasha says and I am quoting here, "Who is you and what you do", which I'm aware sounds awful in my accent, but the point is she clearly has little respect for Rondas previous accomplishments. This is baffling to me for reasons I'll get to laster in this video, but this is who Ronda Rousey is. According to an article published in November 2022 by Give Me Sport which I'll link in the description, Ronda main evented two of the ten highest drawing UFC PPV's in history, with both drawing over 1.1 million buys. There are only two WWE pay per views that ever beat that number, Wrestlemania 23 and 28. Before any of this, Ronda Rousey was the face of a division the UFC didn't even want to promote initially. Along with the likes of Miesha Tate, Holly Holm, Amanda Nunes and others, Ronda drew millions of dollars at the box office. Around the same time Sasha and her peers aspired to the same thing in WWE, taking women's wrestling further than it had gone before. As a fan who appreciated both, I'd argue that the WWE women's revolution TM and the rise of Women in UFC happening around the same time is no coincidence. To make myself really clear, I think it is unfair and even narrow minded to consider Ronda as someone who was just handed everything just because she made her name elsewhere.

To broaden the scope a bit, nearly forty years ago Wrestlemania 1 was built on the integration of stars from other worlds from Cindi Lauper to Mr. T, to Liberace. Wrestlemania 11 was main evented by an NFL outside linebacker whatever that means, which is my one English joke for this video. Sometimes WWE has gone overboard with involving famous people from outside the ring. I imagine if she were around at the time Sasha would have hated the horrible Guest Host era of Raw, where celebrities would come in for a week, get their lines wrong, and plug some shite movie they were in. Can you tell I hated that too, except the week that the Muppets were there...

Let me get back on track here by bringing up a modern equivalent. Logan Paul is another famous person who made his fame and infamy elsewhere. He drew over a million PPV buys for his boxing match with Floyd Mayweather, and according to boxing promoter Eddie Hearn, his second match with KSI did two million, which would make it the 5th highest grossing pay per vier ever, way higher than any pay per view WWE has ever done. Logan also recently main evented Crown Jewell against Roman Reigns, after only two previous matches, and all three have generally been critically acclaimed. Admittedly I'm not the closest follower of WWE News, but as far as I'm aware you don't see many of WWE's male roster complaining about Logan being treated like a top star from the jump. There is even speculation of what dream match he could have at Wrestlemania 39 assuming he is healed up from his injuries, implying that people are looking forward to more of Logan being featured prominently.

I took way longer than I expected to in explaining why I don't agree with Sasha's comments, but this other reason that I found won't take long to debunk. Reading further I found an article from Forbes, link down below, that claimed that the Fire Ronda hashtag came from a botched DDT spot in her Survivor Series match with Shotzi. Admittedly I skipped that match on the night so didn't see the offending move, but having seen it since this is just ridiculous. If Maffew of Botchamania has taught up anything, it should be that botches happen all the time to any wrestler on any given night. If wrestlers were fired for a single botched spot guess what? There would be no wrestlers left. I broadened my last argument so I'll do it again here, every single one of us make mistakes, and unless its a really big one, most of us don't get fired for just one. Okay, rant over.

I started this video by disclosing that I was at one point a fan of Ronda Rousey, and that may well colour my perception a bit. I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments, and I'd also like to thank you if you stuck with me until the end.

Sources: 

Sasha Banks on Kurt Angle Show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bhgPjolnQs

UFC PPV highest buyrates https://www.givemesport.com/1766855-ufc-top-10-biggest-earning-ppv-events-in-history-ranked

Forbes article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alfredkonuwa/2022/11/29/fire-ronda-rousey-survivor-series-match-sparks-backlash-from-overzealous-fans/?sh=6e7e1d816ff1

Is AEW turning the corner?

As a fan of All Elite Wrestling since day one, this was tough to write. I grew up on WWE, and I am very happy with the direction Triple H is going in, so I want to make it clear right here that this is is not intended as a hate piece for either company, just an honest reflection of my opinion. When AEW began in 2019 it had so much good will from wrestling fans like me who wanted an alternative product on a bigger scale than we had seen before. Ring of Honor and TNA had made it to a certain level but it was clear they were never going to be considered competitive to WWE. AEW however felt kind of special. They managed to maintain a lot of that good will through their first two years, though going into 2022 there were cracks beginning to show.

By this point they had won the Wednesday night war against NXT, which if you go back and look at the numbers week by week is an objective fact, but despite being head of NXT at the time, Triple H was technically correct when he pointed out that they had only beaten the developmental brand. Good for them.

As we got into 2022 the roster was already too big, and countless stars had received pushes into prominent roles only for them to disappear for a few weeks and their momentum to slowly cool off, and we saw a lot of this in 2022. In Spring AEW embarked on a major push for Wardlow, following his separation from MJF. The two had worked well together since 2019, but it was time for Warlow to go off on his own. The build up to the blow off match was brilliant, but was sadly overshadowed by MJF seemingly throwing a tantrum and no showing a signing. Following the entirely one sided blow off match at Double or Nothing Max would disappear for months, and Wardlow would feud with 20 security guards. Wardlow correctly said afterwards that his big moment had been spoiled by the antics of MJF, who was rewarded by becoming World champion for his disobedience. Wardlow would win the TNT title from Scorpio Sky who also received a push only to be put on the back burner, but his reign was fairly lacklustre, ending when Samoa Joe beat him recently. The problem of AEW having too many wrestlers signed continues today with the company signing a new wrestler pretty much every week of this year.

Then we get to the backstage stuff, which... No, not going there...

I don't want to be all doom and gloom here though, because overall I had a blast watching Full Gear. That show had its low points for sure, but it's highs were fantastic. The Jungle Boy vs Luchasaurus cage match, the return of the Elite, and the shocking main event turn of William Regal and MJF winning were things that gripped me. It was a show that mostly felt like AEW of old, the one I fell in love with. I left that show feeling like things were looking up after a grim year to be an All Elite Wrestling fan. The following Dynamite carried on this success in some ways. I generally hate best of seven series', but give me the Elite vs Death Triangle seven times and I'm sure with the minds for wrestling involved I'll still be engaged by the end. Give me a new challenger like Ricky Starks who the live crowds clearly love, and put him against MJF, and I'll enjoy seeing a fresh face in a main event title match. Give me the fact that there are finally no interim champions at the moment. I supported the idea initially given how it reflected real combat sports, but it just hasn't worked in practice. I came out of the PPV and the following Dynamite feeling optimistic,  even this weeks Dynamite kept my spirits up, but then I saw the rating.

To be clear, I don't obsess over ratings or care about them that much, but Dynamite used to float around the 700-800 thousand mark when it had a live competitor, it went up when NXT went away and crucially maybe, when CM Punk was around, but now we are back to those levels with no competition. I've massively oversimplifying the numbers here, but at face value the show just isn't growing.

You might notice that I haven't once mentioned Rampage yet, and with good reason. When it first started Tony Khan told us infinitum that it would be another A show, just with more wrestling time and less angles. With the exception of CM Punks debut it has always been clearly the B show. As a UK viewer I'm a little salty towards Rampage because it airs live at 3am here, and there is rarely a reason for me to stay up or catch it later. Rampage is Thunder at this point, and I expect years from now we'll hear about how nobody wanted to have to do it, just like we hear about WCW Thunder today.

It's worth pointing out that a good show doesn't directly relate to a high rating, but consistently good shows will in theory lead to more viewers watching. Look at whats happening with WWE right now. Their product is objectively better since Vince McMahon left, and the ratings and general feeling toward the company have reflected that, but it takes time. Have AEW's best days been and gone? Not necessarily. There are clear and obvious problems still to fix, but there are things to be optimistic about. At the end of the day, wrestling as a whole does best when there is healthy competition, and rather than the demise of one company or another, competition is what we should be hoping for.