Smark Out Moment

Welcome to another edition of Triple Threat from Smark Out Moment, where three of us get together to discuss three questions based on one big topic going down in the week of professional wrestling.

This week, Robert DeFelice, Jordan Chaffiotte, and Ben Guest will be giving their thoughts on this past Sunday's historic Evolution pay-per-view as well as this coming Friday's Crown Jewel.

It's a monumental week on both ends of the public relations spectrum for WWE. Evolution provided a lot of great publicity while Crown Jewel is just riddled in controversy. So what all is there to expect going forward? Let's discuss…


GUEST: Main eventing WrestleMania. That’s all that is left. Oh, and actually being treated equally and given good storylines. But that’s more difficult to brag about, so just put them in the spotlight every now and then. Evolution was good, and even though I don’t like the idea of an ‘all women’s PPV’ because I think it suggests they can’t compete with men for the spaces on the card. As long we’re getting ‘all men’s PPV’s’ in Saudi Arabia, I’m fine with it. Giving women a chance to actually show what they can do seems to have been the biggest issue since the start of the ‘revolution’ or ‘evolution’, whichever you refer to the start of it as. So at least this gives them a stage to propel themselves. Also, because I don’t think it’s being made a big enough deal of, Ronda Rousey made her debut 10 months ago. She’s SO good.

CHAFFIOTTE: I thought it was overall very good. Every PPV has its ups and its downs, and frankly if you look at the past few months, usually a fairly underwhelming main event. It was oversold in the beginning and then under-promoted, which left this weird vacuum for a lot of the talent. Still, the ladies in the Battle Royal and the two tag team matches did their best to make something out of it. Those matches were hugely entertaining if not monumental. Meanwhile, Becky and Charlotte brought an easy MOTY candidate and put a huge cherry on top of my feud of the year. Moving forward, we have to choose one direction or the other. Either the women are going to be a consistent part of weekly programming, get equal time (or like, one match per hour to start) and the main event when it's worthy. Or, alternatively, we could lean into them being a separate division from the men. If we want to do this all women's thing, it should be a weekly show where they can develop these storylines, much like the cruiserweights. I'd probably prefer the first option, but I definitely want them to choose a lane and stick to it.

DeFELICE: I'll be honest, I enjoyed this show a lot more than I thought I would. I will need to go back and rewatch Nikki Bella vs. Ronda Rousey but overall, I thought it was very good. The Battle Royal was much better than it had any right to be and Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch stole the show and what was one of the most violent matches I've seen this year and that includes men and women.

As for what's next, we know that they're handing out signs at events that suggest Tag Team Championships are coming for the women, so that is in their immediate future. However, I think the WrestleMania 35 will be headlined by two women and those two women will likely be Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey.


DeFELICE: I will be watching this show, mostly because it is my job. I hate the controversy surrounding the show. All of it, Hogan, the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the lack of women, all of it is just so nauseatingly bad. That's not to say that I don't like Hulk Hogan I just don't think we need that added controversy on the show. That's not to say that I don't think this will be a great card, in fact, I think it'll be one of the most fun shows of the year if they just let the wrestlers do the wrestling and we can all do what we're supposed to do when we watch wrestling and that's escape reality. America is a torn enough place I don't need stupid issues bleeding into my wrestling show. This is my joyful time and I feel like it is just being crapped all over. More on that below.

GUEST: I will be watching. I can’t say anything that hasn’t already been said about the horrific events in Saudi Arabia, both recently and in recent history. I also think ignoring the wishes of a majority of your talent who don’t want to attend the show is an extremely poor business move. I also haven’t decided whether or not I’m canceling my subscription to the Network, as I believe that the only way to get through to any company is to hurt them financially. However, my subscription to the Network runs past when Crown Jewel takes place, and I’m not going to not watch something I might enjoy, and I also think that damaging the company damages the talent they employ. So I’m very torn on this issue, but ultimately, I think the event will be as uneventful and inconsequential as Greatest Royal Rumble was. But hey… Renee Young’s there, that’s something… right?

CHAFFIOTTE: Pass.

Listen, the only reason I even watched the Greatest Royal Rumble in the first place was that I was on medical leave at the time and frankly, had nothing else on. I don't believe we should be engaging in this manner with a country like Saudi Arabia right now, I hate that they are doing it despite Renee Young being the only woman allowed to perform, and watching wrestling at work is generally frowned upon. Sure there's the Dennis Rodman argument, that sports can be an exceptionally effective way to bridge the gap between ourselves and people who we think we have nothing in common with. While I think that's true, and we've seen it happen in the Middle East in the Alexa Bliss/Sasha Banks Match, we also have to stay true to our standards and our ethics. We can accommodate, the full-coverage gear or the breaks for prayer. To just lay down and say well that's the price of the business is gross. Make no mistake, this is about business. This isn't about changing the world, it's about the fact that Saudi Arabia was willing to pay.

Also Greatest Royal Rumble was terrible, so I'm not really worried about what I'm missing.


CHAFIOTTE: Oh is Shawn Michaels here? I kinda tune out anytime the pure nostalgia acts make their way out to the ring. Maybe it's because I don't have any nostalgia so all I see are 4 older men who all have day jobs they really should be focusing on playing dress up. I like Shawn Michaels, he's one of the greatest to have ever been in the business. But I have no interest in seeing him fight a different nostalgia act. If he's going to wrestle, put him up against a full-time star of today. That's how you create once in a lifetime moments. That gives hard-working talent matches that are special, instead of knocking them down the card so that guys who have had moment after moment can get in the spotlight once again. Bah humbug!

DeFELICE: Personally, I will never be able to understand Jordan's point of view on this. Shawn Michaels is the greatest of all time and we should be talking about him and the fact that he's being overshadowed by all of this nonsense is a damn shame and I look forward to just turning my brain off for this one and enjoying it as much as I can in 2018 because these are four of my favorites of all time and I'll be damned if I don't get a little bit of nostalgic pleasure out of this.

GUEST: I didn’t want Shawn Michaels to return, I think his send-off was perfect and he was one of the few wrestlers who was adamant about their retirement and actually stuck by it. That being said, Michaels is my favourite wrestler of all time and I can’t wait to see him in action. In fact, these are four of my favourites and it will be an amazing nostalgia moment for so many people. As for the match itself, I’m expecting what should be expected from four men with an average age of 51. I hope they keep it to a short, nostalgia-driven moment with only the key moves from each guy, before allowing whoever is going to win, win. Also, if we’re getting Michaels back, can we finally have that match with AJ Styles? Come on?