For Part One of this year-end wrestling wrap-up check here.

 

JUST DOWN: The Rock

Dubbing himself The Final Boss, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson — now a bonafide TKO Board Member — has leveled himself up right where he’s always wanted to be. Off screen and on… he’s still making HHH his bitch. And much like his nemesis’ reign of terror… every time I see Rocky turn up on screen, my eyeroll is audible as I quickly fumble for the remote.

During the run-up to this year’s WrestleMania main event, The Rock interjected himself into the burgeoning storyline. Playing to the old hits as once being the Corporate Champ, Cody Rhodes was invited by Dwayne to kiss the ring (so to speak) and become his champion. But not for superhero Cody! He rejected the offer to the welcoming arms of a proud papa John Cena. But *gasp*. John Cena nodded to the bewildered Rock, and turned heel! A quick kick to the dingus, and our main event was now Evil Cena vs. Hero to All Children Rhodes with the Rock’s “I want your soul!” vibes making everything awkward. “But surely with all this pre-Mania involvement, the Rock will appear, and the storyline will make sense!” we cried to no one.

And thus, Cena low-blow-belt-shotted his way to strip poor Cody of his championship with the surprise run in of…. TRAVIS SCOTT! 

Don’t worry. I am both too old and too white to have known who that was either. But luckily Mr. Scott took so long to make his way to the ring at WrestleMania, I had the time to google him, get bored, do a little Amazon shopping, and then get back to the waste of time that was that main event. 

In the end, there was no follow up by the Rock, at all over the storyline. Evil Cena took the belt, and proclaimed he would be evil with it (for a while), and Dwayne went off to promote his box office flop The Smashing Machine. To this day, The Rock remains an enigmatic figure within the WWE. He comes and goes as he pleases, and now clearly at the cost of story cohesion. It, like his recent movie career, is just a mounting series of epic fails. Smell that, Dwayne. 

 

UP: The AEW Main Event Scene

As of the writing of this column, AEW’s Men’s Heavyweight Championship is being decided in a four way bout between the defending champ Samoa Joe, “Hangman” Adam Page, Swerve Strickland, and the recently-interjecting MJF. That any of these pugilists could win that belt, and I’d be elated, showcases how good a job Tony Khan is treating one of his top prizes. Samoa Joe recently heel-turned into his victory over former champ Page (now out for revenge), and has once-again proven why he’s a viable — if perhaps well-seasoned — choice to hold the title. He’s vicious, and now old-enough to know a little cheating goes a long way. Respectively, Page and Strickland represent the breed of antihero babyfaces AEW likes to have. They are good, with long histories of being less-good. Swerve and the Hangman have a long history with one-another, but they’ve recently began to play the “we’ve fought so many times, I’ll just respect you for now” card. It makes for strange bedfellows. And just to frak-up the whole dang dance? The Hebrew you love to hate comes schmaltzing back into play! (I can say that. I’m Jewish!)

MJF is the wildcard this match needed to go from “probably a great bout that likely ends with Swerve and Hangman accidentally getting in each other’s way and Joe slides out…” to a “well, now I’m stumped”. And that’s beyond smart booking. Each of these men have held the belt before and have had great reigns. So, it’s a win-win-win-win as far as I’m concerned. A great place to be!

But look past these four, and you still have a fairly decent list of talent you could put into the top of the card. AEW has a recuperating Will Ospreay (still needing to win the big one), the always palatable Kenny Omega, the still-never-even-looked-at-the-belt-but-why Kazuchika Okada, Bobby Lashley or Shelton Benjamin from the Hurt Syndicate, and former champ Jon Moxley all as viable contenders. And behind them? I could list another half dozen names of mid-carders a strong push away from joining those ranks with ease. It’s a great spot to be in!

 

DOWN: Belts, Belts, and more G.D. BELTS!

This finger wag of shame is directed equally at the WWE and AEW. Both promotions are so absolutely choked with fancy cumberbunds that it dizzies the mind to consider! 

In the WWE, we have two top men’s belts, two top women’s belts, two sets of top tag team belts, two mid-card titles for men, two mid-card titles for women, and a single set of women’s tag belts all being regularly defended. 

In AEW? One heavyweight title a piece for men and women. Tag belts for men and now women. Trios champ belts for men. Four separate mid-card mens belts (!), and one for women. And on top of that? Current TBS Champion Mercedes Moné at one time this year held 12 belts at once (collected across eleven other promotions + one in AEW). 

Now, let me make one thing clearer than clear: Equaling belts by gender? If the roster can handle it? I’m here for it! But both the WWE and AEW are bloated with a capital B with unnecessary belts. For example: AEW’s Kazuchika Okada is presently on the roster page holding three separate mid-card titles. One of which (the Continental Champion) is a belt he doesn’t defend, it’s just awarded to the winner of the Continental Classic tournament. Another belt he dons, the International championship was unified with his winning of the Unified Championship belt — yet BOTH BELTS remain “active” for AEW. And for the WWE smart marks giggling over the folly of that? I ask you simply: wouldn’t your lives be better if they unified the RAW and Smackdown titles and made the champs float? You don’t have to answer, because you know I’m right. 

In simpler times, we had a belt for the mid-card (a sign you were bound for bigger things potentially), a belt for the main event, and some tag team belts (to float on the card wherever it made sense). Eventually we got a curtain jerker belt like the “Hardcore” or “Cruiserweight” titles that showed off different styles and workers who might not quite fit into any other scene on the roster. And all was well. But eventually with companies folding into others, and rosters bloating… the powers that be thought more prizes to fight for was the route the take. And here we are in 2025, when both major promotions have SO MANY BELTS to defend, it’s cheapened the lot of them through the cacophony. Less. Is. More.

 

THE BIGGEST UP for 2025: Women’s Wrestling

Women this year in pro-wrestling made clear: they are here, they aren’t going anywhere, and they’re never going back to the bra and panty match days. Huzzah!

In the WWE, the women dominated when it came to delivering quality over quantity at WrestleMania 41. Simply put: Iyo Sky, Bianca Belair, and Rhea Ripley stole the show by any metric that mattered. Beyond that, the WWE have seen amazing call ups and additions to their rosters with the likes of Stephanie Vaquer, Chelsea Green, Jade Cargill, Sol Ruca and more. In addition, they now have a class of seasoned pros — Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss, Asuka, and Bayley — all interweaving well into respective rosters to add some depth and nuance.  

In AEW, the single most potent character in all of pro-wrestling (male or female!) resides… Timeless Toni Storm. Across 2025, she made every appearance appointment TV. She elevated every opponent in original ways. She delivered bell to bell. Even when she joined the tag team tournament late this year, she pivoted her presentation oh so slightly just to keep things fun and fancy. Storm aside, AEW boasts a great roster of female talent. From current champ Kris Statlander, to winners of the aforementioned tag tourney, Babes of Wrath Willow Nightingale and Harley Cameron, the Ultimo Mercedes Moné, the Triangle of Madness and beyond… the counter brand to WWE is well worn with worthy women. 

Most importantly as noted at the top of this section: 2025 made clear that women in pro-wrestling are no longer anchored to the T&A of yesteryear. While, sure, some women make sexuality and insanely promiscuous ring attire part of their presentation… it is no longer tethered to the yoke of purposeful fan service as it once was. No longer are we subjected to amazing workers like Natalia Neidhart, Molly Holly, or Ivory (Lisa Moretti) being clearly forced into insanely stupid matches with forced titillation as some part-in-parcel section of the card. Instead, for the most part, the ladies in both companies (and MANY other promotions!) are now simply telling good stories in pro-wrestling: fighting to be the most dominant champion, bragging rights, revenge over losses, or just being a villainous heel deserving of comeuppance. Bechdel be praised! 

 

THE BIGGEST DOWN for 2025: The WWE’s Advertising and Ticket Price Policies

“The canvas is sacred”.
“The WWE should be affordable for the whole family to come out.”

A pair of old adages brought to you by cartoon villain Vince McMahon. And while the vileness of that man is palpable, those two sentiments ring truer now than literally anything else out of the filth pipe that is that man’s mouth. What’s that they say about broken clocks being right twice…?

While he’s still alive (drats), Vince must be partially rolling in his grave looking at what has become of his empire — after selling the company to TKO, and ousting himself in 2024 from the board due to his legal issues (which follow him today, mind you). 

The WWE is now a wall-to-wall advertisement, with wrestling in-between. Take this year’s WrestleMania (please!). In addition to anything we, the at-home viewers couldn’t see, advertising at the event included:

• Pre-match commercial for every match.
• A match sponsor for every match.
• Advertisements on the turnbuckles.
• Advertisements on the canvas itself.
• Advertisements on the audience barricade outside the ring.
• Advertisements on the titan-tron.
• Advertisements in the arena in between seating sections.
• Advertisements on the wrestlers themselves for certain entrances!

And this mentality has stuck with the WWE ever since. Every bit of negative space in the production is now fodder to sell to the highest bidder. And that includes the totally above board, no human rights violations here, shut up, kingdom of Saudi Arabia — who proudly paid out the wazoo to secure the Royal Rumble in January, and WrestleMania in 2027. And in case you didn’t know that? Well, look at the mat when John Cena bent down and kissed it, upon leaving his shoes in the ring. He retired with lips firmly planted on an ad for the “Riyadh Season”. Chef’s kiss.

Oh, and about WrestleMania. Why didn’t you go? Was it because the absolutely cheapest you could get a single nosebleed seat for one night for the event was over $500? Whereas Vinny Mac envisioned his product being a family affair, TKO Group Holdings laughs at the idea. Several alpha-honchos in the testosterone-and-tren-only company have declared WWE not maximizing every opportunity to profit at their live events was a fool’s errand. And so ticket prices and packages are now well north of an average family’s mortgage per seat. The WWE can’t stop showing off all the comped celebrities in the ringside seats, and the folks managing to fill up the rest are likely selling their girlfriend’s feet pics to make up for the lost wages in order to see Dominik Mysterio wrestle his father one last time for the 18th time this year.