Steve Cook looks at the “Greatest Wrestling Match Ever,” Howard Stern and AEW, and much more in the News From Cook’s Corner!

Hi, hello & welcome to News From Cook’s Corner! I’m Steve Cook, and I’m pretty jazzed up about this edition of the column. If you’ve been with us the last few weeks, you know it’s been a depressing time around here. Even if I could act like an asshole last week to pay tribute to one of the best assholes the IWC ever knew, it was still pretty rough.

I have yet to watch Backlash, so I don’t know if we actually saw the greatest wrestling match ever or not last night. I do know that Edge got hurt, which just goes to show that the dude hasn’t lost a step. Just goes to show that us old guys still have it, am I right? Anywho, here’s your look at all the latest and greatest news…

WWE News

When you’ve been following pro wrestling for as long as I have, you grow to realize that it’s a “matter of time” business. Especially on the WWE side of things. Every so often WWE makes big announcements heralding some form of change. You know it’s just a matter of time until that change is cast aside and things go back to the way they were before. That has the side effect of not getting worked up over things that other people go crazy over.

A prime example of this would be a huge announcement WWE made on June 27, 2019.

“WWE has named Paul Heyman as Executive Director of Monday Night Raw and Eric Bischoff as Executive Director of SmackDown LIVE, newly created positions reporting directly to WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon.

In their executive roles, Heyman and Bischoff will oversee the creative development of WWE’s flagship programming and ensure integration across all platforms and lines of business. The creation of these roles further establishes WWE’s ability to continuously reinvent its global brand while providing two distinct creative processes for its flagship shows.”

Boy, did that get a lot of us going crazy with rumor & speculation or what? I can understand why. So many different layers to the story of Uncle Eric & Happy Heyman returning to positions of power in WWE. It was fun to speculate over how Raw & SmackDown would be different going forward. Maybe Raw would have a grittier feel to it, and focus on younger stars. Maybe SmackDown would feast off of star power.

I never really got wrapped up in all of that. Why? I knew the endgame. Neither Eric or Paul were going to last in that position for too long. A year seemed like an attainable goal, and Paul almost made it there. Eric…not even close. Doesn’t matter. What does matter is that there’s one factor that shapes everything that WWE produces. We here on the Internet try to boost certain creative minds while dismissing others, but at the end of the day there’s only one creative mind in WWE. As Bill Watts said while telling Vince McMahon he was going home after several weeks working for the man, there can only be one Titan at Titan.

As long as Vince is the big cheese, the head honcho, the cock of the walk, the chairman of the board, whoever is going to attempt to be the creative force behind Raw and/or SmackDown will need to have their finger on Vince’s pulse. That makes things easier for everybody involved. If the “head of creative” already knows what Vince will think about something before Vince thinks it, it’s the next best thing to having Vince in the room. Call him “The Vince Whisperer” if you like, though I’d much rather have Jennifer Love Hewitt whispering to me if ya know what I’m saying but maybe I’m the only one that remembers that show.

That’s why Bruce Prichard was always going to have this job. A lot of you love him, a lot of you hate him. I have no real opinion, though I’m not sure I’d buy a used car from him. What I do know about Bruce is that he’s in the upper echelon of people that have had Vince’s ear for an extended period of time, and that his podcast proved he was capable of explaining any ridiculous decision Vince made over the years. I wasn’t surprised when he took over from Eric on SmackDown, and I’m even less surprised that he’s taking over a minimized Raw/SmackDown booking team.

I’ve seen some people worrying about Brucey due to this promotion, with the idea that working for Vince is a highly stressful situation. I’m not. Bruce knows what Vince wants. I see him sitting at the head of the table, hearing ideas and telling people whether Vince will like them or not. I’ve heard of less stressful situations. Besides, Vince will come in day of show, tear everything up and produce something to his liking anyway. Prichard has heard so much Vince yelling at this point that he has to be immune.

Of course, with the creative teams being combined, everybody’s wondering when the rosters will be combined. I can’t tell you when, but it’s something else falling under the “matter of time” umbrella. WWE has a few tricks they go to when they want to boost the ratings. One of them is splitting the roster. The other is putting the rosters back together. So, yeah, that’s coming. Don’t know when, but maybe when the pandemic lifts? Just spitballin’ with that guess. Do I know what that will mean for various championships? No. Does it matter? No. I assume Charlotte will combine any women’s championships on the roster. Tag teams don’t matter to WWE so that’s easy to unify. The rest will keep floating around. Gotta have the IC & US belts, and two world titles. The company knows nothing else at this point.

24/7? Eh, whatever. I’m honestly surprised they didn’t retire that thing with Gronk.

Heyman will be focusing on his role as an “in-ring performer” according to WWE’s announcement, which either means that Brock Lesnar is coming back soon or Paul’s finally going to start having regular matches. I would guess the former, but one never really knows these days. Heyman could theoretically manage somebody other than Brock, but he hasn’t shown any interest in doing that in a long time. Not even when he was managing people other than Brock!

Many backstage are disappointed with the news of Paul moving on, as he’s been responsible for various pushes of newer talent. (Gotta say “newer” because the talent isn’t always “younger.”) Prichard’s never really been known for pushing non-established talent, so one can understand their concern. Not everybody is frowning about the news though, as it was reported this week by Rovert & Dave Meltzer that AJ Styles requested his move to SmackDown due to an inability to get along with Heyman. Styles blamed Heyman for not fighting Vince on the releases of Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows, and allegedly there was also some heat because Paul liked to make fun of AJ for being a flat-earther. Paul’s certainly not the only one on that front, though. Daniel Bryan called him out on it on an episode of Talking Smack some years back, and Randy Orton recently brought it up in an interview without prompting. Hey, you believe stupid stuff, people are gonna call you out on it. That’s life. We’d be a lot better off if people got called out for saying & believing factually inaccurate things more often.

As for Gallows & Anderson’s dismissal, it’s perfectly understandable that AJ would be ticked over losing his best friends. At the same time, that’s a Vince McMahon decision, and blaming somebody else for not changing Vince’s mind is some weak sauce. But hey, at the end of the day, I’d rather have AJ Styles on SmackDown anyway. So it’s all good in the hood.

One of the folks Heyman was involved in pushing was Shayna Baszler, whose push had already flatlined after WrestleMania. It’s said that Vince “doesn’t get her”, so her prospects don’t look to great at the moment. Then again, WWE.com finally moved her to the Raw roster last week, so maybe there’s hope after all. Baszler is filling time by doing interviews bashing Becky Lynch for getting pregnant while being champion, which is both pretty tasteless but pretty smart since Becky will need somebody to feud with if/when she returns.

I have yet to watch Backlash because I got home late from work, and most of what I saw online wasn’t very complimentary. All that I know for sure is that Edge tore a tricep during the GREATEST WRESTLING MATCH EVER, which automatically doesn’t make it great because nobody should get hurt during a truly great wrestling match. Sorry, but dem’s the rules.

So, what I’ve been asking people lately is what is actually the greatest wrestling match ever. There’s a comment section down at the bottom, and my Twitter handle is @stevecook84. I do have a quality filter for the sake of my sanity, so you’ll need to be good for me to see you. I am curious though. What do people actually think is the GREATEST WRESTLING MATCH EVER?

Let’s iron that out. I can’t imagine I’ll get a consensus on it, but I’d like to hear some viewpoints on this. Lord knows we argue about enough these days. Let’s argue on the greatest wrestling match.

AEW News

AEW’s main news this week involved Howard Stern randomly ranting on Dustin Rhodes. Based off of the clip I heard, I have no idea how somebody listens to Howard Stern in 2020. The dude still makes a ton of money off of satellite radio, so I have to respect it like I do all these geeks that do what I do and make more money off of it. I just don’t get what the common listener is thinking that they think Howard Stern is a relevant voice in 2020.

But, I also don’t get the appeal of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, 700 WLW’s entire lineup minus the legendary Ken Broo, or any of the other knuckleheads making up lamestream radio in 2020. Apparently one of the requirements of having a radio show is not having a brain. Based off of the half-assed wrestling radio show that somehow made Cincinnati airwaves recently, I can only assume that not having a brain is a requirement for being on the air, since they’ve never contacted me about being on their show. So Howard is probably doing pretty well these days.

AEW needs to spend less time chasing this washed up Stern love and more time chasing the love of fans like me that actually will watch the shit. That’s a shoot, brother. AEW needs to focus on the future, and not worry about the past. I know they have plenty of people on staff that can tell them this. If they can’t, I’m available to do so.

Other Wrestling News

Johnny Walker, known for much of his life as Mr. Wrestling II, passed away last Wednesday at the age of 85. He was a big fan favorite in the Florida & Georgia territories during the 1970s & 80s, and also had a run in Mid-South in the early 80s as the mentor of Magnum TA who ended up turning heel when Magnum got more popular with the fans than II was. Wrestling II had a brief run in the WWF from 1984-86 when they were signing everybody that had ever been a top star in wrestling, he didn’t do a whole heck of a lot there since he was well past his prime. Walker’s wife Olivia was a seamstress that made Ric Flair’s robes back in the day.

Mourning II’s death became a bit awkward when many of us learned for the first time that Johnny Walker was a registered sex offender. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/19212533/mr-wrestling-ii-johnny-walker-rape/ It was easier to sweep stuff like that under the rug back in the day, so it’s hard to say if people in the wrestling business even knew about it. Learning about that right after hearing of his death definitely took a bit of a sting off of the news. I’m not even sure WWE recognized his passing. They did make sure to recognize Jimmy Snuka after he died, and he actually killed somebody! They also pushed Jimmy’s daughter right around the time the Darkest Side of the Ring episode on Jimmy Snuka aired, and they tried to bury Owen Hart’s widow right around the time that episode airedl

So you would think registered sex offender Mr. Wrestling II would merit a two hour special, am I right? Apparently he made the crucial mistake of not being a sex offender while under WWF contract. A shame the man tried to reform and as far as I can tell never caused any problems during his wrestling career. Obviously, he should have done some stuff when WWE could bail him out is all I can say.

Speaking of deaths, EVOLVE seems to be on its last legs. Rumors are afoot that the owners are looking to sell everything to WWE. I figured that was the endgame when Gabe Sapolsky got that consultant gig, but it has to be even more so now that indy feds can’t hold shows and draw audiences. WWN doesn’t have a lot of new stuff to offer, so whoever is subscribing now is their base. If that’s not enough…well, it’s probably time to look for potential buyers. If that’s WWE, it is what it is. They can get some usage of that library, and I wouldn’t mind being able to view it on the Network. I would have preferred it a few months ago when I could have reviewed it via podcast with a friend, but better late than never!

Feels like it’s time to close it out for this week. Hope y’all are fine and keep your stick on the ice.