We are fresh off the heels of a wonderful ‘Saturday Night’s Main Event’ retro event where we saw 3 world titles defended, plus a brand-new women’s United States champion crowned, and it’s been a while since I’ve got on here to just vent about some wrestling. Other things have stood in the way content wise lately, like Halloween, football, and now Christmas season. But as the year begins to wind down more and more, WWE begins to heat up as we start feeling the early vibes of WrestleMania season looming in the midst. So how are things going to shake out as we wind down this year and into a whole new era come 2025, the Netflix era, on top of Mania season!
All the World champions feel like they could lose the title sometime relatively soon, even though I think realistically at least a couple of them will hold their titles till at least WrestleMania Vegas, but that’s in part to just successful storytelling. Liv Morgan still has Dom on one shoulder and the Women’s World Title on the other, but Rhea Ripley’s shadow is getting closer and closer, and it feels like this is only going to end 1 way. With Damian and Rhea getting the upper hand and the victories over their former compadres and running mates before riding off in the sunset. I just don’t know where you’d go with The Judgment Day from there or if they just slowly dissolve throughout 2025, but I’ve thought that they’d have been broken up long before now and I’m sure if this was McMahon’s WWE they would’ve been. But with HHH’s WWE you see a lot longer and more drawn-out storylines with multiple chapters and shifts and I honestly like that, it keeps things interesting and harder to predict and keeps these factions and tag teams alive a lot longer. So only time will tell, but I think shortly after Liv loses the title back to Rhea then the Judgment Day will likely part ways. I was honestly hoping that my girl Iyo was going to pull off the upset this past weekend at ‘Saturday Night’s Main Event’ and get another run with a world title because I honestly think she’s a great in-ring talent and the Liv-Rhea story is such a blood feud now that it doesn’t need the title for it to work. Yet alas, Liv is still champ, the Judgment Day is still “thriving” (they’ll never be what they once were when Rhea and Damian were still there, before JD and Carlito), and at this point the only person I can see pulling the title off her and it making sense is Rhea. They’ll just have to build the story right through Mania season which I’m sure they’re more than capable of if you look at their track record with storytelling these last couple years.
Nia Jax is still running rampant over on Smackdown with the Women’s Championship as well, but I think anyone who keeps up with WWE even slightly can kind of see where this one is likely headed. Tiffany has gotta cash in the briefcase on her and get that ultimate pop right?! I mean they wouldn’t tease and tease this just to throw us a curveball at the last second and have her cash in for the Raw Women’s Title, or even worse cash in unsuccessfully…right? I don’t know man, I’ve seen crazier things happen with that damn briefcase over my time watching wrestling, but if I had to lay out my prediction personally, I think Tiffany is going to cash in on her and become the next Women’s Champion. The only thing about this that I don’t really like is that it makes all the Nia title matches feel rather predictable right now. You know she isn’t going to lose to whoever the #1 contender is, Tiffany is going to have a moment in the match where she considers cashing in and the whole crowd goes nuts, then she ultimately doesn’t, gets scolded by Nia, and Nia wins the match and continues holding onto the belt. Rinse and repeat. I just feel like at a certain point, either pull the trigger or quit teasing us like you’re going to because it’ll soften the pop when she finally goes for it. I think seeing Tiffany lose in the semifinals match for the inaugural US Women’s Championship tournament kind of solidified for me that she’s going to go straight to the World Title though and at this point I’d be shocked if they went a different direction, but as I said I’ve certainly been shocked before. Both good and bad. Speaking on the inaugural Women’s US Title though, my girl Chelsea actually did it! Chelsea Green won the finals match this past weekend at ‘Saturday Night’s Main Event’ to become the inaugural Women’s United States Champion and honestly, she seems the most right to hold it first. She has a rather comedic and ridiculous character in WWE and is not necessarily on the eschalot of some of the main event women, or at least not viewed that way by the bookers, but Chelsea comes with some serious wrestling cred and background prior to joining WWE and truly knows her stuff so I’m happy for her.
The Women’s inaugural International Championship tournament is well underway on the Raw side and there’s plenty of viable and competitive women over there as well. Personally, I hope Lyra Valkyria wins and if not her then Raquel Rodriguez or Dakota Kai. Lyra is a really impressive and entertaining in-ring competitor and I’ve really taken to her since she joined the Raw roster so it would be neat to see the young upstart get that honor and get some gold around her waist, Raquel is a large and imposing force (something the women’s roster is in dire need of) and adding some credentials and gold to her resume would never hurt her forceful, imposing character that we’re trying to push, and Dakota Kai like Chelsea is just a tried and true competitor with a lot of cred in the wrestling world prior to joining WWE so it would be neat to see her get bestowed that honor as well. Switching gears but keeping it on the Raw side of things, Gunther looks on top of the world with the World Heavyweight Championship firmly around his waist. They tried to push this story coming into ‘Saturday Night’s Main Event’ that he was in his own head and questioning his ability after he took a loss to Cody Rhodes at Crown Jewel (which I think arguably he should have won, but I get business decisions why he didn’t), but as a fan I just found it a little hard to believe. Like “Um…but you’re Gunther? I’ve witnessed you wreck people time and time again! So what! It’s one loss, get over yourself!” He handled Damian Priest and Finn Balor in a competitive and fun triple threat match this past Saturday, but the story there felt much more revolved around Priest and Finn’s bad blood than it did Gunther and the title, which leads me to ask, where does Gunther go from here? Who could viably take that World Heavyweight Title off of him? At this point I see him holding it till at least WrestleMania where a big match will be built up and by then maybe you could see him actually losing it, but until then I just don’t see it. Damian Priest is too wrapped up in his Judgment Day nonsense still and he feels like the most viable contender on the roster as of right now, which leads me to an early prediction of a potential Gunther/John Cena match for the Title at Mania 41 and hell, maybe John even takes the title off of him there but that I’m less sure about. It is his farewell tour in 2025, right? Why not give him a big marquee title match at WrestleMania one last time. Not sure it’ll happen but I’d love to see it.
The other World Champion, the Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes that is, has all the problems looming in his midst. After a successful title defense over his former friend turned foe, Kevin Owens this past Saturday, Kevin delivered a beat down to Cody that sent him to the hospital showing that the animosity and bad blood between Owens and himself is far from over. Side note real quick, I think KO is just one of the best in the biz right now (like his buddy Sami Zayn as well) and we’re not going to fully appreciate how well rounded and knowledgeable those guys are as competitors until they’re gone. Mic work, character work, in ring work, humorous storylines, serious storylines, those 2 guys can do it all immensely well and I just want to make sure they get their flowers any chance I have to give them to them. But Cody has Kevin looming in his midst, Roman still wants the title, Solo wants the title, hell I’m pretty sure The Rock even wants the title. These Samoans really got it out for Cody and that damn title. Luckily for him, the Bloodline is also dealing with a lot of personal business and family drama so not every target is placed firmly on his back at the moment. Cody has just tried to do too much for too many people and mend too many bridges and it ultimately cost him friendships and alliances with nearly everyone that he was close to. Which leads me to ask, where does Cody go from here heading into WrestleMania season? Gunther’s title contenders feel too slim and Cody’s feel too crowded, but if my earlier prediction is correct and Gunther faces John Cena for the World Heavyweight Championship, then I could see a world where Cody defends his Undisputed WWE Championship against The Rock giving us the ultimate old school meets new school vibe at WrestleMania and delivering something that has never been done before. Maybe that’s hopeful thinking, but that would make for a likely epic WrestleMania as long as Roman and Solo and the Bloodlines still had an intriguing story and an important place on the card as well. That is assuming that Cody doesn’t vacate the title due to injury after KO’s beatdown, which would vastly change the landscape of everything. But for now, that’s what I’m going with for my very early thoughts at the end of 2024 as we head into WrestleMania season here very shortly.
Keep up with my blog as I post weekly and now that we’re nearing the end of the year it’s nearly rankings list time so keep your eyes open for my ‘Top 10 WWE matches of the 2024’ blog coming out after the end of the year, as well as my ‘NFL Awards 2024’ blog and my ‘Top 5 Horror Movies of 2024’! Thank you and until then Happy Holidays!
