The Shoot Ep2

Welcome back to The Shoot! It’s been a while. With the site design now complete, I thought I’d get back to actually writing some stuff for the site. I know right?!

World Wrestling Jerichoholics?

The rumours are swirling again in regards to Y2J. It seems as though he is done with AEW (I’m not sure why this is the case, it just seems to be rumour) and heading back to WWE for one final swansong.

I am a big fan of Jericho. His work over the past couple of decades has been incredible. From his WCW days, debuting in WWF (who can forget the countdown to the Millennium?), the Festival of Friendship (genius!) to his AEW run – where he adding star power to a new company.

He has done it all and deserves a final run – if this is what is happening. I’ve seen a few online who are rubbishing this idea. Let’s be honest, his last run in AEW was an interesting one. The fans seem to have tired on him a bit and Jericho being Jericho, he leant into this for his gimmick ‘The Learning Tree’ in which he took on new recruits to learn from his wisdom.

I must admit, I have had a few laughs with ‘TV Time’ and how he turns everything into something and runs with it. That’s the thing with Jericho. He can take any idea and run with it. He will have a great final run – whenever that may be. It will be a sad day when he does finally retire.

Who would you have Jericho go up against if he did have one more WWE run? The options are there of course, but I would like to see him cross paths with Owens again in some shape or form.

False Hope Again

So the WWE vignettes started last week in which we saw someone walking in a finely polished pair of black shoes. This was enough to send the internet wild with speculation. Who could it be? What does this mean?

Then another pair of finely-polished shoes! Internet goes wild! What does this mean? Who are these people? Is this the same pair of shoes we saw earlier?

Of course the initial speculation was Chris Jericho. Fair assumption with the rumours circulating at the moment.

Then we got the reveal. I think they revealed this quite quickly. Maybe this was to stop the Jericho speculation? Who knows. But the reveal was very underwhelming. Actually, we should have known all along!! It was of course – an advert. Yep. An advert, for WrestleMania. Sigh.

Main Event Jey Uso Take 2?

So the match is set. Rollins vacates the title due to injury and now we have CM Punk vs Jey Uso for the World Heavyweight Title at Saturday Night’s Main Event.

Punk won the title earlier this year just to lose it minutes later due to Seth Rollins cashing in his contract. So he hasn’t had a run with a title yet since his return.

Jey won the Rumble, and then the title at WrestleMania. He then went on a several-month run with the title, before dropping it back to Gunther on an episode of Raw.

It seems there are some within WWE headquarters who are pushing for another Jey run, and to be fair, if they want to build new stars then this is the sort of thing they need to be doing. Pushing new guys and seeing if they can run. The argument would be that Jey has had a shot earlier this year, and it was a lack-luster run.

If Punk wins, you can see a run against Bron Breakker or LA Knight, heading towards WrestleMania season. A Jey loss? I don’t see where he goes from there.

Hangman Needs Some Challengers

AEW seems to be picking up steam again following a bit of a lull, and we are heading into Full Gear season now with Hangman as the champion. The problem you ask? Controversial possibly, but his run has been disappointing so far.

I know I know. Hear me out. I mean, his match with Kyle Fletcher was great. But I never felt like he would lose the title. I need my title matches to make me feel like the title COULD change hands. I need that excitement from my world title matches.

He beat MJF at Forbidden Door but he had only won the title a month prior, so wasn’t losing. He then beat Fletcher at All Out and then Samoa Joe at WrestleDream. Now, he’s facing Joe again at Full Gear. It feels like the title scene is just stumbling along with no direction.

I do love Joe as this badass, and this second time around does seem to be more enjoyable than the build to WrestleDream, but I still don’t have that fear that Hangman could lose.

Maybe they are just biding their time until some of the big hitters return from injury. Swerve and Ospreay being two of those names. But I don’t want my main title scene to just be treading water.

You’re asking how I would book it right? Well, I don’t believe every title reign should be a 6 month to 1 year reign. It’s ok to have someone win a title after a month. It’s fine. I’d have Joe win at Full Gear and then drop it to Lashley at Worlds End. MJF can even return to cost Hangman the title if you want shenanigans, and have them feud going into Worlds End also.

Then I’d have Lashley drop the title to a returning Swerve down the line at perhaps Revolution, setting up a Swerve/Hangman feud for the main title. If you book this Tony, I want credit!

How Much Is Too Much?

With a ton of wrestling on our screens now, it’s difficult to stay on top of all the action. The question here is, how much wrestling is too much?

• Raw – 2-3 hours
• NXT – 2 hours
• Smackdown – 2 hours
• Dynamite – 2 hours
• Collision – 2 hours
• Impact – 2 hours
• PLE/PPV – 3-6 hours

These are not even including any others that the hardcore fans are watching (NJPW, RevPro, Indies). I mean look, we all love wrestling. There’s no debate about that. I’m asking if the product would improve if the show times were reduced slightly?

Would a solid 2 hour Raw, 1 hour NXT (it is developmental after all) and 2 hour Smackdown suffice? Would taking Collision to an hour or 90 minutes work in it’s favour? We all know how AEW PPV’s are usually high quality, but definitely need reducing in time.

I think coming up with storylines for so many hours of telly is a mammoth task and I feel that if shows were cut down a little in time, then we would see a marked improvement in quality. Less is more after all, right?

Thanks for reading if you made it this far and join me again for some random shooting!