Every film reference you might have missed in the Seth Rollins Wrestlemania trailer

This is a script for a YouTube video on my channel that you can find here: https://youtu.be/81ZjWW3ORbQ

As we get closer to Wrestlemania 39 going Hollywood we already know that we are going to see parodies of famous movies just like we saw the last time Wrestlemania went Hollywood back in 2005. That time the parodies were straight up remakes of famous movie scenes, but it seems like we are going to get more nuanced trailers this time, as the first one released during Elimination Chamber had more references to other films than we had back in today. If I miss a reference please let me know in the comments but here are all the ones I spotted.

From the start a cover version of Rock and Roll part 2 by Gary Glitter plays with a Seth Rollins inspired chorus. Gary Glitter is a very controversial person in music given that he served prison time for things you can look up on google. This was of course also controversial when the song was used in the film Joker. Also in the context of wrestling was used by Larry Sweeney, a manager/wrestler who was gone way before him time, who Seth would have likely shared locker rooms with back in his indie days. He likely used the song also for heat.

At the 21 second mark we see facepaint on Seth reminiscent of the 1994 film the Crow, starring Brandon Lee. The Crow was also an inspiration for Sting whose later half of his career was influenced by the look, but also has a history with Seth Rollins as Sting's last WWE match was with him, and the ill fated buckle bomb made us think Sting might never wrestle again, but he has done several times in AEW.

We then get to the famous Joker scene where Seth is dancing on the stairs. Seth is wearing a bright yellow suit which made me think of the Mask starring Jim Carrey, which also came out in 1994, and also features the leading man dancing down stairs. In the Joker film Joaquin Phoenix is wearing the more traditional Purple Joker suit when he does the dance down the stairs, making me think we are supposed to notice the canary yellow suit Rollins is wearing as more of a reference to Carrey's iconic role.

Rollins then pulls a lollypop out out his mouth quite noticeably, and I can't decide if this is a reference to Joker smoking a cigarette, or another movie reference I have missed, please let me know in the comments below.

One thing that I noticed is that both jump into a puddle of water despite it not raining. I expect this is a reference to the original film but perhaps also a nod to the classic scene in Singing in the Rain, that Joker was originally drawing inspiration from.

From here we outright leave the Joker completely, as Becky Lynch appears doing her best Christian Bale Batman voice. I also feel like the big glasses Becky puts on might be a reference to something, but you tell me what in the comments.

So there we go, all the films references I could find in the first Wrestlemania 39 trailer. Did I miss any, please let me know in the comments. Thank you for watching and if you enjoyed this please consider leaving a like or subscribing.

The story of Mick Foley wrestling 18 days after his brutal Randy Orton match.

This is a script for a video on my YouTube channel. You can find the video here: https://youtu.be/IKn2giVOOxw

On April 18th 2004, Mick Foley would wrestle one of his most famous matches, a brutal hardcore brawl with Randy Orton. This match is famous not only for Foley being hell bent on avenging himself for his performance at Wrestlemania 20, but also for making fans see Randy Orton in a new light. This was a a match unlike any he'd had before.

After such a violent affair you might think Foley would go away for a while and heal his woulds, being after all in the twilight of his career, well, one of a few twilights if we're being honest. As it turns out, Foleys next match would take place just 18 days later in Japan, for a promotion known as HUSTLE. This was no preliminary match either, it was the semi-main event for the Triple Crown title against Toshiaki Kawada.

I won't pretend to be an expert on Kawada, but here is his legend in brief. He is known as one of the four pillars of Heaven, four men who raised All Japan pro wrestling to new heights throughout the 1990's. Misuhara Misawa, Kenta Kobashi, Akira Taue and Toshiaki Kawada all had epic battles against each other that in some cases broke the scale. Long before Kenny Omega and Kazuchika Okada broke Dave Meltzers famous 5 star scale, back in 1994 Dave awarded a match between Kawada and Misawa 6 stars. Kawada would be part of 21 5 star or higher matches, which puts him at in joint 3rd place for the most ever, with Kenny Omega. It's also worth noting that this might have been even harder to do in the 90's with how more difficult it was to access these classic matches.

So before I get into the match, how did it come about? Foley was booked at fairly short notice and for money he didn't feel he could turn down, despite still suffering from a bad knee from the Orton match. Foley was still signed to WWE at the time, but with HUSTLE being in Japan, and them not having any on screen plans for him for now, WWE didn't seem to mind him doing a match or two outside the US. The company that promoted HUSTLE as well as MMA promotion Pride were known as Dream Stage Entertainment, and they had began to draw suspicion after signing not just Foley, but Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and Goldberg all to big money deals, at least 75 thousand each according to the Wrestling Observer. They were also apparently in negotiations with Stone Cold Steve Austin, but that never went anywhere. The promotion was a sort of experiment, an attempt to make American style Sports Entertainment work in Japan, which is well known for its more serious style, usually.

The HUSTLE 3 card where the match took place had many other American top level talents too. Steve Corino and Dusty Rhodes had a 6 minute match where both men managed to bleed. Sabu and Mike Awesome were on opposite sides of a tag match, both having competed for years in Japan for various promotions, mainly FMW. Also in the main event, Hall and Nash teamed up in what was said to be a terrible match. This would be one of the final matches Hall and Nash would wrestle as a team, with their final one being in TNA in 2010. Clearly a lot of money was being put into this promotion, but where it was coming from was a mystery that would later be solved. In mid 2006 it would be found that Dream Stage Entertainment may have had some links to the Japanese Mafia, leading to Pride which had become one of the biggest MMA promotions in the world, being sold to their main competitor UFC, and Hustle not. making it past 2009.

For the big match Foley would don the leopard print boots again, going under his Cactus Jack persona. This would have been how most fans in Japan knew him after the tours he did in the 90's. Before even the opening bell the camera catches a shot of the scratches all over his arms from going into barbed wire at Backlash. As you can probably imagine this match wasn't going to be easy for Foley, the very first thing that happens in the match is Kawada kicking him to test Foleys bad knee that he hurt on the Orton match, immediately putting him on the back foot. The early match is fairly slow and is just Foley and Kawada trading punches but also includes a rare Foley attempt at chain wrestling.

Once the action spills to the outside with Kawada throwing Foley over the top it starts to get interesting. Somehow Foley finds a barbed wire baseball bat, and begins throwing chairs into the ring. Foley tries all of his trademark moves, the piledriver, the elbow off the apron, even the corner punches into the running knee, and then ends with a double arm DDT, but none of these are even close to keeping Kawada down. Someone at ringside manages to get Foley's bat to him, but Kawada blocks its use for now. When all else fails, Foley pulls out Socko San, but Kawada reacts by kicking him in the head repeatedly. It's now time for one of Kawadas trademarks, a modified Dragon Sleeper which Foley won't give up from. Foley gets his mandible claw with Socko on, but this only seems to enrage Kawada, who kicks him in the head, and wins the match by pinfall. This was never going to be one of Kawada's five star classics, it was however impressive when you consider everything that Foley went through less than three weeks ago.

The strange time that Chris Rock appeared on NWA TNA

This is a script for my YouTube video on this subject. You can find the video here: https://youtu.be/tooJpp4pGjQ

It's almost time of the Oscars so of course it's time to talk about Chris Rock. Not for the reason you might think though as just over twenty years ago Chris would make a bizarre appearance on the sixteenth weekly NWA TNA pay per view.

On October 9th 2002 the former SNL cast member was in the TNA Asylum to film a scene for his upcoming film Head of State. Full disclosure I watched Head of State just for this video and I can confirm that it is worth a miss.

To bring this back to wrestling, a scene was filmed that night in the TNA Asylum that lasts less than a minute in the final movie. It does include cameos from various TNA wrestlers though. I did laugh a bit at the start of the TNA scene when Rocks character is welcomed into the Asylum by Road Dogg, who bizarrely is holding the NWA World championship. Seconds later with no explanation Road Dogg is on the mat, with Jeff Jarrett holding the belt, giving Chris Rock a kicking accompanied by Ron Killings and a Harris Brother probably...

Thats the scene in the movie, but what about Rock's PPV appearance that night. His entire time in the ring was so brief that it exist on as a YouTube short on Impact's channel. Cheap plug for my own daily wrestling history shorts by the way... Chris looks completely bemused by the wrestling show environment, and quickly pronounces NWA TNA to be the best wrestling in the world, before bolting out of the ring.

Chris Rock would have another connection to wrestling, as in 2005 he would appear in the significantly better Adam Sandler film The Longest Yard. This film had several wrestlers playing roles such as Kevin Nash, The Great Khali, Bob Sapp, Bill Goldberg and even Stone Cold Steve Austin.

Rock's final link to pro wrestling is indirect to say the least. Following the events of the 2022 Oscars, memes of Chris Rock vs Will Smith at Wrestlemania were all over the internet. Chris Rock however, would likely rather had the match take place in NWA TNA, which he infamously proclaimed to be the best wrestling in the world.

TNA has a fairly unusual and you could say inept relationship with celebrity appearances, including some far worse than Chris Rock on this night. This is the company who more than once booked cast members of the Jersey Shore, despite it not occurring to them that they were cross promoting with a show that aired at the same time as impact, therefore making the appearance useless as Jersey Shore fans were likely watching the real thing on another channel. They even created characters to appeal to Jersey Shore fans, Robbie E and Cookie, but again, you're trying to draw from an audience that is likely watching the real thing at the same time.

Maybe the most egregious though was TNA reportedly signing Survivor star Johnny Fairplay to a 300,000 dollar a year deal. In a fairly recent interview about his time in TNA Jonny made some interesting claims. He makes it sound like Dixie Carter in particular was desperate to sign him, claiming she was willing to give him whatever he wanted to join. So, Fairplay took the money, but also requested first class flights, five star hotels and health insurance, and he was given all of it. There was a rumour at the time that Dixie was a fan of reality shows such as Jersey Shore and Survivor, and this was why these stars got involved in TNA, whether it made good business sense or not. Fairplay had gained notoriety for pulling a stunt on Survivor where he attempted to gain sympathy for his Grandmother dying while he was participating on the show, only for his lie to be found out after filming had ended.

Fairplay would end up making just 8 appearances for TNA, making it hard for anyone to justify the cost of signing him. Nothing against the man himself for taking advantage of the money offered to him, but it's stories like this that make it so amazing that TNA lasted past those early years.

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.