The Post’s Joseph Staszewski brings you around the world of professional wrestling every Tuesday in his weekly column, the Post Match Angle.
There will be other opportunities, but for now, there remains a significant unchecked square on Triple H’s booking Bingo card.
Since taking over as WWE head of creative in July, Triple H has yet to bring in a wrestling star without strong past ties to the company and show he can make them a bigger star under his watch on the main roster — having previously done so in NXT.
The majority of the people Triple H has signed since July were talent previously released by or left the company — even Cody Rhodes — and outside stars’ contracts don’t just run out every day.
It’s why WWE missing out on Jay White feels so significant for whatever the reasons may have been. Because the opportunity to sign someone of his stature and name recognition feels like it could happen less and less in the current wrestling landscape with so many companies thriving. And free agent Kota Ibushi has already said that AEW is his first choice, especially with his good friend Kenny Omega there.
Fightful reported that WWE higher-ups “failed to communicate properly along the process” in pursuing White. Maybe Vince McMahon’s return played a role, maybe it didn’t. Either way, the former IWGP world heavyweight champion is now in AEW instead after debuting on Dynamite at UBS Arena last week instead of at WrestleMania weekend.
Not only would landing White have been a coup in wrestling free agency — given the fact he has performed in AEW before and has strong storyline ties to a number of their wrestlers — but it would be been a fascinating case study in Triple H’s booking philosophy and White’s talents.
White is coming off the defining run of his career in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, where everything had finally clicked as the leader of Bullet Club. While WWE loosely alludes to its Bullet Club ties with Finn Balor and A.J. Styles, White would have had a chance to feel super fresh in WWE and potentially have a chance to craft something new unless they would have tried to lump him into The Club with buddies Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson.
There were a ton of dream matches to be made as White has never had singles matches with Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes, Edge, Styles and Balor to name a few. White has a very unfiltered promo style that made him a hated heel in New Japan. Would WWE have let him continue that?
It would have been fascinating to see if WWE was interested in and could get him to become a WrestleMania main-eventer or if he got lost in the mid-card. Being successful at the former would have made a loud statement to future free agents. But it now seems we will never know.
Instead, we will likely see a continuation of some deep storylines in AEW from White, who has history with Omega, Adam Cole, “Hangman” Adam Page and the rest of Bullet Club back in Japan when we get to Forbidden Door. He has never faced Bryan Danielson, Darby Allin, Chris Jericho, MJF and Ricky Starks, so there are plenty of new areas to explore with him. Though, with a heel champion in MJF, it’s hard to see White getting an AEW world title shot in 2023, but anything is possible.
AEW got the better of this free agency opportunity and we will still have to wait and see how a major outside star will be handled in WWE under Triple H.
Tony Khan promised a huge announcement for Dynamite and we ended up with two significant pieces of news.
First, AEW announced its long-awaited UK show for Aug. 27 at the 90,000-seat Wembley Stadium, and the show will be called All In. Much like The Elite’s independent show back in 2018, this is a massively ambitious project for the company and now the biggest show in its history. Finding success here would be massive for the profile of the company in the UK’s premier building, which hasn’t been run for wrestling since SummerSlam 92, as well as its media rights in the UK. And if AEW’s schedule remains the same, it’s happening the weekend prior to All Out. So, that’s an insane amount of good wrestling if it happens.
Then came White joining Juice Robinson in beating up Ricky Starks so their match didn’t even happen. It was announced shortly after that White signed with AEW in a big get and a possible keep-away for the promotion. I had no problem with how White re-debuted. He’s been on the show before and it happened so fast that it leaves you with the good feeling of you don’t want to blink and miss a second of Dynamite. Starks had a world title match recently, so he is more than an average mid-carder.
Vince McMahon’s creative role can’t become an ongoing distraction for WWE and its talent. There were reports last Monday of McMahon having a heavy influence on the Raw after WrestleMania, and then Friday the chatter was he was at an Eagles concert during SmackDown and made some minor changes while reviewing the format of the show remotely. McMahon was reportedly not at Raw on Monday. This cannot become a weekly conversation and a convoluted creative tug of war. Wondering who is really in charge is never a good thing. Clearly define the roles and move on.
We finally get the anticipated Trish Stratus heel turn as she attacked Becky Lynch after being pinned to lose the women’s tag team championships to Raquel Rodriguez and Liv Morgan on Raw. Lita had been attacked back stage – and we still don’t know by who. One explanation that works for Stratus’ actions given how quickly this escalated is the Hall of Famer was jealous of Lynch getting to be buddies and winning the titles with her bestie Lita – something Trish likely wanted to do. Then Lynch let down her guard and let Stratus and Lita get attacked during this run.
Dominik Mysterio saying he pulled his punches at WrestleMania to not hurt his dad and show him mercy is a solid six on the heel excuse score. Is Dom the best heel in wrestling right now?
Over on Dynamite, it was a mixed night for Sammy Guevara. He got a good win over Kommander, but USB Arena felt like the wrong time and place for a long promo trying to get some babyface sympathy while bashing hometown hero MJF. Then, over on All-Access, it was a very good night for him watching him get emotional after chatting will Bryan Danielson following their two-out-of-three falls match and watching him squash his beef with Eddie Kingston. Guevara’s passion and maturity shone through.
MJF’s performance on Long Island remains a one-of-a-kind experience. His MJF Day celebration was just so different than anything you see on wrestling television. From his Louie Prima song and dance number to a real town supervisor giving him a giant “key to Long Island”, to the truth in the champ’s message about growing up with Attention Deficit Disorder. Jungle Boy being disguised as a cameraman was good to advance the Four Pillar title story.
Indi Hartwell is going to make a fantastic underdog champion because her resume and her recent booking don’t scream her being deserving champ material – but she is — and both a returning Cora Jade and Tiffany Stratton will be great mean heels to play off of.
Impact got everything it needed out of the Josh Alexander relinquishing their world championship due to a triceps injury. Alexander showed the real emotion of what it meant him and his son trying to take it back was adorable. Steve Maclin wanting to be handed it instead of facing Kushida at Rebellion and his challenger taking issues with is a real sold way to build the match.
Triple H announced the WWE Draft is coming in a few weeks, everyone is eligible. But is it too much to ask to give a date for it?
Mercedes Mone’ is doing every she said she would do any maybe more as IWGP women’s champion — having kick-ass matches and raising the profile of the division.The former WWE star had a superb triple-threat math with Hazuki and Azumi at Sakura Genisis that had a crazy fast pace, the stiff action you’d expect along with some super innovative moves and counters involving all three competitors interacting.
Twitter friend The Starkman has been telling me for a while AEW has something special in Julia Hart. Her main event match with Anna Jay on Rampage was a deserved showcase as her cool presentation/entrance with House of Black and her in-ring work is starting to come together. Both women knocked it out of the park.
What’s great about Bron Breakker’s “heel turn” is some people will see it as a true fresh start for him. Others will see the attack as a justified action because Carmelo Hayes deserved it after Trick Williams cheated to help him win the NXT championship at Stand and Deliver.
Extra: What a great use of a count-out finish in the Bobby Lashley-Bronson Reed match on Raw. Those two beat the hell of each other and it left the crowd hot for more – probably at Backlash.
Extra, Extra: The Rhodes family should be very proud of the A&E Biography on Dusty Rhodes last week. It painted an honest and heartfelt picture of the man and truly honored his legacy. It also drew a great parallels between Dusty’s approach to entertaining to that of Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis that I hadn’t considered before.
Extra, Extra, Extra: This Brock Lesnar storyline could have also made for a great first title feud for Cody Rhodes with a few tweaks … just saying.
Sanada, New Japan
It’s been quite the ride the 35-year-old veteran that culminated Sunday with a surprising victory over IWGP world heavyweight champ Kazuchika Okada at New Japan’s Sakura Genesis to win the first world title of his 16-year career. It paid off a complete overhaul of his character that began during the New Japan Cup. Sanada joined a new faction in the “Just 5 Guys,” changed his appearance and added a new move set. It all paid off with the biggest win of his career after being just 1-8 against Okada in singles matches coming in.
Steve Maclin vs. Kushida, Impact world championship (Rebellion, April 16, 8 p.m., FITE)
Now that an injured Josh Alexander has officially relinquished the title, Impact will crown a new champion. It was Maclin, after winning a four-way match at No Surrender, who was supposed to face Alexander. The New Jersey native has been on the best run of his career and will now have to wait for Alexander to return from his triceps injury to finally face him. But will Impact make him wait to also finally become world champion?
Nick Wayne, two days after his 18th birthday, will makes his AEW debut on July 12 against Swerve Strickland for the DEFY championship to complete their trilogy.
Logan Paul has re-signed with WWE on a multi-year deal.