It was a week of highs and lows. Of ebbs and flows. Of blessings and blows. The same RAW that had the stellar Sami Zayn entrance through the Montreal crowd -- as we're all taking note of WWE's exciting new production changes since WrestleMania -- also had Women's World Champion Rhea Ripley -- Xenia Onatopp, The Mami Who Was Promised -- relinquish the title due to injury.
Believe it or not, as a Liv Morgan fan who wanted to see her face Rhea at 'Mania over Becky, I did not pray for this (though it would be funny if Liv put out a shirt, like Drew McIntyre did, aping the Grant Gustin/Oliver Queen grave meme).
Rhea got hurt during the backstage attack on the April 8th Raw, which means she got "injured by Liv," technically. Which, in the very least, silver lining-wise, fits into the story. All signs point to the Bad Thing™ happening when Rhea went into the wall shoulder first - which doubly sucks because that’s, like, Backstage Brawl 101. Being rammed into things. Walls. Doors. Gates. Cars. Objects with molecular structure.
We just watched Cody take that shoulder-to-everything beatdown from The Rock a month ago. It's sort of the most benign version of a backstage scrape. It’s literally the only thing you used to be able to do in wrestling games when they first incorporated dressing room donnybrooks.
As much as I wanted to see Rhea lose her title to Liv, having Rhea’s reign end this way just flat out sucks. Just two weeks ago she and Damien Priest, the Disgusting Brothers, held their world titles high, coming out of WrestleMania with sheer dominance that breathed yet, once again, for like the 10th time, new life into The Judgment Day. It’s always hard to have to vacate a title, and even harder still, I’d imagine, after a successful WrestleMania defense that has the world talking about your legacy.
There are two things that spring to mind here. One is the unique fickleness of wrestling fans that will turn a hero into a heel, despite the hero being in the right, simply because the heel is now cooler or has come to exemplify some in-the-moment X factor that resonates more strongly than what’s normally considered “justice.”
Stone Cold and Bret Hart is the shining example of this but the alignment swap continues, echos, to this day with Liv and Rhea. Liv is out for revenge for what Rhea did to her as an unrelenting heel. But now Liv is the heel for wanting, and exacting, that revenge on someone who the crowd now likes. It’s a fascinating switchback that makes for some of wrestling’s best stories because the NEW heel is, for all intents and purposes, not wrong.
The other aspect here is how much injuries create opportunity. It’s a tale as old as time in wrestling but we just saw it happen in a major way with Drew and CM Punk. Drew would have probably had a match at WrestleMania (maybe? Perhaps? Liv sure didn’t) but it wouldn’t have been with Seth for the title. Punk getting benched opened up a new path (one that still almost didn’t happen because it was going to be Cody vs. Seth) and it not only led to Drew getting a big title win at ‘Mania but also an ongoing, marquee feud with Punk that will pay off in a big way when they finally have that grudge match.
There’s no question that Liv was going to be Rhea’s next big challenge, but Rhea, more than likely, would have dispatched her and continued on with her title run. Now though, and yes it’s all tinged with suckiness, Liv becomes Rhea’s biggest nemesis to date. And Liv has a chance, in Rhea’s absence, to nab that title for herself so that when Rhea’s back she can carve a canal of carnage to get her belt back.
In other happenings, AEW’s got its Dynasty PPV this weekend, the latest in their new drive to deliver, mostly, monthly premium events. And while I mentally buckle a bit under this new direction, this impetus to (hopefully not over-) saturate themselves, the card is really strong. Even stronger than Revolution, I think. And with Swerve Strickland actually having a good chance to leave as AEW World Champ. Still though, Double or Nothing in May feels like the true grand event here so what would y’all like to see happen?
Whether Swerve defeats Joe or not I could see him facing Adam Page at DoN. It could be defending the title or it could be getting revenge of Page costing him the title at Dynasty. If it’s a grudge match, than maybe it’s the winner of Danielson vs. Ospreay that goes on to face Joe in Las Vegas. With Danielson supposedly wrapping up his in-ring career this year, I’d love to see him have a main event PPV title shot at some point. Whether it’s at DoN or at All In in London.
By the freakin’ by, the August 25 to September 1 to October 12 PPV chain that AEW runs in the fall is still diabolically nuts. Oh oh oh...and congrats to Jon Moxley for winning the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. Couldn't have happened to a wilder thing.
KNEELIFT!
Watch wrestling.
