Greetings squad. I’ll go ahead and just apologize for my severe lack of content to y’all this year. Suffice it to say, when the first half of my 2025 was spent woefully unemployed, and the latter half was spent catching up on being employed… my time was (and still is) often spoken for just trying to keep my head above water. My last name may make you think I have a predilection to undersea living, but alas I am more man than fish. But I digress. As cripplingly crazy as my schedule has been, my guiltiest of pleasures has never been far away. I’ve been knee-pad deep in all the comings and goings throughout the pro-wrestling world in 2025, and here are my top highs and lows to share with you — my stalwart pop culture stable. May you continue to let me be your Jon Moxley, and never your Finn Balor*.
* OK, I’ll just get this out of the way. I know AEW seems to be sewing the seeds that Mox is slowly losing his clout within the Death Riders, and I friggen love the slowly gurgling cauldron that it is… But Mox has shown what a faction leader should be, and the less said about Judgement Day the better. No offense, but “With Finn”, you don’t win.
Honorable Mentions:
Mick Foley.
Fed up with being tied to a continuously grosser-and-grosser version of the company that once offered him the biggest platform possible, Mrs. Foley’s baby boy had enough. In a single, delectable Instagram post, Mick Foley cut ties to the WWE for their continued support of the Trump administration in the wake of Donald Trump’s subhuman response to the murder of Rob and Michele Reiner.
MJF.
Even if it feels like most of the year has seen AEW’s baddest baddie out for filming and various other projects… Maxwell Jacob Friedman makes the most of his minutes. And while he personally doesn’t seem to be at fault for the complete misfire that was his stint in the “Hurt Syndicate”, his ability to return a couple months later to waltz back into the World Title picture and have it feel fully within scope says everything. He’s just better than you, and we know it.
Max Caster getting the dumbest catchphrase mildly over.
OK this is a purely indulgent pick for me, and maybe me alone. When AEW’s homegrown tag team “The Acclaimed” split, I was genuinely curious how both Max Caster and Anthony Bowens would fare alone. Max’s big idea? To get arenas full of people to spit back his word-vomit catch phrase “Let’s go Max, you’re the best wrestler alive!”. By Crom? He did it. Not everytime… but enough times for me to publicly acknowledge it. Kudos, Max.
Dishonorable Mentions:
HHH.
Whether it’s purposefully slapping his name on screen at the end of all WWE productions, being Trump’s appointed “Health Guru”, or just his lackluster copy/paste booking… Paul Levesque just keeps finding ways to grind my gears. The fact that he’s not an on-screen paid performer anymore just rubs salt in the wound. It turns out if you live the part of a villain long enough, you just might go ahead and become one. Continue reading “So Long and Thanks For The Fish, Man #99: Pro-Wrestling Wrap Up 2025 – Part 1”
