Well well well. Cody vs. Kevin Owens. At Bash in Berlin.
What do we think about this? How do we feel? What are the vibes? How does this strike us? Are we wary? hopeful? Excited? Horny? Which Disney dwarf matches our demeanor? Which Sex in the City character are we?* Omg, I got Chandler! IT’S ALL PIPES, JERRY!
*Sorry, Sex AND the City. Because, New York is like a fifth character.
It must be a wee bit rough for Cody*, having been belle of the ball back at WrestleMania, to now take a storyline backseat to most everything happening on Raw, which has been cooking with gas with top-tier WWE feuds like Punk/McIntyre and Ripley/Morgan. Now you throw in Gunther as champ and the dismantling of the Judgement Day - and heck even the Bronson Reed hambush on Seth Rollins – and the American Nightmare seems even more underwater.
*As rough as it can be for a megastar who’s currently Undisputed WWE Champion who everyone sings to.
This is all a slight rehash of stuff I’ve brought up before about how Cody feels locked into his title, and safe, until he faces either Roman Reigns or The Rock. Which means that his foes until then are meant to fill time. But, to be fair, that’s also how it felt for Roman during the years he held the title. We’d only perk up at ‘Mania time because that could believably be when he lost the belt
Cody’s Solo Sikoa match at SummerSlam felt a bit different because it was a continuation of his Bloodline feud (and Roman was returning) but we still knew he was winning. No, this, this Kevin Owens match, feels like the AJ Styles angle and the Logan Paul match from the spring except now it’s a babyface vs. babyface bout. It has a different sheen, sure, but it’s still ultimately a Cody win.
Will Owens turn heel though? Is this when he shifts back into villain mode? I doubt it. Also, then it would feel even more like what Cody’s already run through. My guess is that Kevin gets pretty intense. Like, he gets close to turning heel but doesn’t go full tilt. As if to say “You want a competitive Kevin Owens? You want to face K.O. at his best? At an 11? Be careful what you wish for!” Almost like what Jeff Jarrett just put Bryan Danielson through in AEW when he wanted to prep him for All In and the match kicked off with Jeff bashing Bryan in the back with a gee-tar.
I have nothing against this seemingly friendly feud except that I (and I think most of us) would love to see Owens with a world title again at some point, and this won’t be it. After years of trying to take it from Roman, this just seems like another dead end. So it’s almost like were at the point of “Don’t put K.O. in a title program UNLESS YOU MEAN IT!” I fear that this Bash in Berlin loss will truly mark him as a guy who’ll never win the “big one” again. And that would be a sad sad sack of sauerkraut here in this brat(wurst) summer.
Speaking of not winning the world title, how do we think Bryan vs. Swerve will play out? Danielson is ending his in-ring career. Or, at the very least, his regular weekly main roster in-ring career. This would be a big gold star for Swerve if he puts down Bryan and “ends” his career, but keep in mind that this is a huge event for AEW and they might need a ‘Mania style ending with Bryan standing tall as the top champ. Something he actively doesn’t want to be, necessarily. BUT the extremely Bryan-coded Pacific NW WrestleDream is in October so he could drop the belt there and bid us all a heartfelt farewell in front of his hometown (er, state) crowd.
Given Swerve’s wins on both Collision and Dynamite, it’s certainly looking like a Bryan win.
I'll probably ask this again next week, but...
AEW just announced that All In 2025 is in Texas. In July.
Again, that’s Texas.
In July.
TIL that AEW was trying to actively murder its fans.
Now, Globe Life Field has a roof. And the Rangers rules state that if it’s over 80 degrees the roof remains shut. That’s a baseball call, though. I hope Tony K opts to shield us sheep from the nasty unrelenting sky fire because personally I don’t want to go All In on the tag team of heatstroke and melanoma.
KNEELIFT!
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