Tag: john cena

So Long and Thank For The Fish, Man #115: WWE, We Need to Talk.

So Long and Thank For The Fish, Man #115: WWE, We Need to Talk.

WWE, buddy. Have a seat. No, no, don’t run for the door. This needs to happen. I know you’re busy! What with your WWE Backlash PPV absolutely being panned across the web, fan sentiment falling faster than Doink’s pants once did, and your mothership becoming (somehow) even more hated than Vince McMahon. But, c’mon kid. You’re in a safe space. It’s time we go ahead and address a few things. Clear the air. And yes… this is your Performance Improvement Plan. 

Let’s go ahead and warm things up a bit with what you’re doing right, mmk?

I know it’s creating a bit of controversy among certain former colleagues of ours online… but I’m going to commend you thus far on your use of Danhausen. He’s moving plenty of merch. His pairing with Miz right out of the gate was a smart first feud. I’m going to warn you though… don’t blow this. The match at Backlash was getting some pre-show buzz with the thought of Mr. Hausen tagging with any number of stars not on the bill that night. With only five (!) matches on the card, you had stars like Oba Femi, Joe Hendry, Je’Von Evans, or Pepsi Phil himself, CM Punk all without anything to do on a nice Saturday night. Instead, you continued this narrative of Danhausen’s minhausens. I hate to be the bearer of bad news here… Dan is over. The minis? Not so much. It’s playing to the kids a bit much, and while I applaud the attempt? Danhausen is peak when he has more to play off of. And hey… much love to El Torito. He’s an amazing performer. But the dime store gear looked awful, and it slid the match into the kind of “ha ha” that you’re not needing. 

And hey, kid. Good job with putting over Bron Breakker and Trick Williams. They are both young, with a ton of upside. Letting them beat some ring vets like Rollins and Zayn helps them continue to establish themselves — and sets us up for hopefully some new storylines. 

Giving Iyo Sky and Asuka proper time to tell a great story in the ring was also a nice play. Good on you. And while you’re being coy as to whether or not this was the curtain call for The Empress of Tomorrow… I’m sure we’ll know soon enough. She’s got a hall of fame career, and you did right by her. No notes.

I’ll get to Roman Reigns in a bit. He’s part of a much larger concern we need to discuss.  Continue reading “So Long and Thank For The Fish, Man #115: WWE, We Need to Talk.” →

So Long and Thanks For The Fish, Man #99: Pro-Wrestling Wrap Up 2025 – Part 2

So Long and Thanks For The Fish, Man #99: Pro-Wrestling Wrap Up 2025 – Part 2

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.  Continue reading “So Long and Thanks For The Fish, Man #99: Pro-Wrestling Wrap Up 2025 – Part 2” →

So Long and Thanks For The Fish, Man #99: Pro-Wrestling Wrap Up 2025 – Part 1

So Long and Thanks For The Fish, Man #99: Pro-Wrestling Wrap Up 2025 – Part 1

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” →

Another Smart Marc Podcast — The Pilot!

Another Smart Marc Podcast — The Pilot!

Just in time for professional wrestling to implode, Pop Culture Squad is proud to present the pilot to Another Smart Marc — a pro wrestling podcast as part of our Pop Culture Squadcast Network!

Join PCS columnist SmartMarc Alan Fishman and his guest, singer/songwriter Jeremy Lieb as they breakdown the coming and (mostly) goings in the world of rasslin’.

The lads discuss the current empty arena shows — the good, the bad, and the ugly. We’re taking Friar Ferguson levels of ugly. And if you get that reference? Well my friend, you’re just another smart mark.

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