While yes, I didn't get to rebrand this weekly news series as "THE 5 NEWS WEEK: UNCORKED" or something which would've been a great thing if I pretended to have snitches throughout my "journalistic career". It was another year of dissecting the industry that gave you the Yeti, professional wrestling.
Remember The Time Calvin Cambridge Wanted To WRESTLE!?
Yes, he did and guess what, you literally forgot about that until I mentioned it, am I right?
According to the man behind his yippy yo yippy yay, his aim is to focus on the wrestling business as a performer after his last album drops.
WWE Hall Of Famer and a real somon**ga, Rikishi, mentioned in an interview with Chris Van Vliet that Shad Moss came over to his wrestling school to train.
What makes the news particularly suspicious is that this isn't the first time that Xavier Smith had proclaimed his music project as his last.
5 years ago, Twinkie told XXL (a hip hop/rap media outlet for all of you snow bunnies) that his 2016 record will be the end of his musical career.
In other words, I think the dude is doing it to get some traction for his so-called "final project" but will see what the future holds because we might be humming "THEY'RE PLAYING BASKETBAAAALLLL! WE LOVE SOME BASKETBALL'' once again in a pro wrestling setting.
CM Punk's Return To Professional Wrestling.
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| Via AEW Rampage |
For a while, I thought a possible CM Punk return isn't happening anytime soon, you know, like an actual win for Arsenal. My prediction for a CM Punk return was one match aka his last given how the business, particularly WWE, made the guy not enjoy the very thing he loved to do.
But, I'm glad I was wrong.
I didn't get the chance to fully speak about his return mainly because I haven't recapped an AEW show the entirety of August so it's a fitting way to briefly talk about his return on the second episode of AEW Rampage.
And you know a return is so good when Living Colour's Cult Of Personality being played in a wrestling arena wasn't remotely enough.
By far, the best thing about his return was how within the first few lines of his promo, he related his huge positive reaction from the crowd to Britt Baker's hero's welcome in her hometown of Pittsburgh, PA.
It's not only a classy thing to say but it also showcases how impactful babyfaces have with their dialogue alone.
All in all, If Tool finally released their long-awaited album then so can CM Punk come back to highlight once more that he's really darn good at this thing called professional wrestling. And guess what? People actually liked it a ton.
The Mass Firing Of Talent From WWE.
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| via WWE |
With the hilariousity of Bow Wow's professional wrestling interest and the emotional warmth of CM Punk's pro wrestling return, I have to also look back at the immoral this industry can bring this year which was, of course, the mass release of WWE talent.
Here's the tweet from the amount of talent WWE has released in a one-year span courtesy of Denise Salcedo.
The 2020 and 2021 list of WWE Releases.
— Denise Salcedo (@_denisesalcedo) November 5, 2021
Some talent have been signed elsewhere, but many of these have not.
#wwereleases pic.twitter.com/bgA2UwfaF3
What can I say about all of this other than it's f**king awful and I'm not just strictly talking about the underutilization of some of the released talents.
The sad thing is that letting go of workers in order to maximize profits is, unfortunately, the norm in the capitalistic world we live in and unless the profit motive isn't being considered, NOTHING will ever change.
The Eventual End Of The Retribution Stable.
The Retribution act was nothing more than a reactionary execution to garner interest in the product specifically for the 18-49 demographic aka the average audience of Joe Rogan's podcast.
While I clearly don't hate the rushed and sudden end of dollar store Sanity, the stable didn't lead to anything worth substantial for all of the members involved including the likes of Mia Yim, Mustafa Ali and Dominik Djakovic.
I know this piece is short but hey, so was the quote "reign of Retribution''.
NXT's Another Reboot. Was It Needed?
The answer is a soft yes? NXT moving to Tuesdays was the right move for the brand and the quality of their episodes did increase just a tiny bit.
However, the two main problems the former black and gold brand had is how redundant the story tropes can be (looking at you, "once best friends now bitter enemies cliche") and how half of the talents signed weren't being showcased at all.
The NXT "I'm inclusive. I love all colours" edition fixed the second problem. The first? Well…….more distraction finishes, anyone?
The 3rd brand has its few highlights (shout out to my favourite POC wrestler, Tony D'Angelo) but the program does have its moments so dull, I thought about not reviewing the show as a whole. Will see how NXT 2.0 matures in a year from now.
The 5 News Week will be back on January 16th.