NEWS

Welcome to KB’s Old School (and New School) Reviews. I’ve been reviewing wrestling shows for over twelve years now and have reviewed over 6,000 shows. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I’ll be posting a new review here on Wrestlingrumors.net. It could be anything from modern WWE to old school to indies to anything in between. Note that I rate using letters instead of stars and I don’t rate matches under three minutes as really, how good or bad can something that short be?
No Way Out 2008
Date: February 17, 2008
Location: Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas, Nevada
Attendance: 15,240
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, Joey Styles, Tazz, Michael Cole, Jonathan Coachman
We’re on the Road To Wrestlemania and in this case, WWE is embracing the more is more philosophy. We have a pair of Elimination Chamber matches with the winners going on to the World Title matches at Wrestlemania. In addition, we have John Cena vs. Randy Orton for the Raw World Title, which should feel quite big. Let’s ..

It’s a look. There are a lot of things that come together to make a wrestler into a complete star. In addition to everything that takes place in the ring and on the microphone, there is also the physical aspect. A wrestler has to do something to catch a viewer’s eye and the look is often the best way. Changing a look can be a big deal and now we are seeing a WWE star do so again.
Last weekend at WWE Crown Jewel, Alexa Bliss and Asuka lost the Women’s Tag Team Titles to Damage Ctrl. Following the event, Bliss posted a photo of herself with all pink hair, as opposed to the blonde hair she sported at Crown Jewel. It is not clear when the photo was taken, as Bliss was back to the blonde hair on Monday Night Raw. Bliss has also been announced for the first WWE women’s WarGames match coming up at Survivor Series.
? pic.twitter.com/2MChWVPBgD
— Lexi (Kaufman) Cabrera (@AlexaBliss_WWE) November 6, 2022
Opinion: This is the kind of change that can shake things up quite a bit for Bliss, as t..

That’s another name. One of the biggest stories of WWE has been the career trajectory of Sasha Banks. Back in May, Banks and Naomi walked out on WWE, forfeiting the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles in the first place. In recent months, there has been talk of Banks returning to the company. In the mean time though, she has been staying with her training and now we can see her doing so.
A video has been posted to Twitter showing Banks training with former WWE and WCW star Juventud Guerrera. The video seems to have been filmed recently and shows Banks headscissoring Guerrera. There is no word on when or if Banks will be returning to WWE, though she and Naomi were recently returned to the WWE television signature introduction video.
She still has it. Check out Banks in the ring:
[This post contains video, click to play]
Opinion: This is the kind of thing that gives fans hope, but at the end of the day, it is all about her returning to the ring, which may not be taking place so soon. Banks i..

That’s a new record. WWE runs several events a year but some of them are specials that are even bigger than others. Some of these include WWE going overseas to run an international event. This includes a series of shows in Saudi Arabia, which have gained WWE quite a bit of revenue. The events have been increasing another number and this one is rather important too.
According to Fightful Select, WWE has sent out an internal memo bragging about the success of last weekend’s Crown Jewel event. The memo announced that Crown Jewel was now the most viewed international premium live event, with the viewership reportedly breaking seven figures on Peacock. Crown Jewel took the top spot from the first Saudi Arabian event, Greatest Royal Rumble, from 2018.
Opinion: This isn’t the biggest surprise as Crown Jewel felt much more like a WWE event which happened to take place in Saudi Arabia rather than some kind of special show. The events have become big successes for WWE, especially on the financ..

That’s a big difference. The wrestling world has changed quite a bit over the years and some of those changes have been very positive. It is interesting to see where things go year to year, but some of the differences are so staggering that it is almost a different universe. Now a rather important aspect of WWE’s financial status has undergone quite the change.
According to Wrestlenomics, the eight WWE Saudi Arabia events have generated $400 million for the company. By comparison, adjusted for inflation, ticket sales for all 38 WrestleManias combined have generated about $250 million. WWE began running two events in Saudi Arabia annually (one each in 2020 and 2021 due to the Coronavirus pandemic) in 2018.
Thru 8 events in Saudi Arabia, WWE has nearly made 2x as much revenue as they've generated from every Wrestlemania ticket ever.
? Wrestlenomics Radio is LIVE now:https://t.co/dr011xIYeU pic.twitter.com/2WbGRK1FcI
— Wrestlenomics (@wrestlenomics) November 6, 2022
Opinion: In ..

Lock them in. We are coming up on Survivor Series and this year’s edition is going to be a little bit different. For the first time, we are going to be seeing WarGames make its main roster debut in WWE. There will be two matches on the show with a men’s and women’s match taking place on the show. Now we have a good idea of what one of the matches is going to be.
This week on Monday Night Raw, WWE announced most of the women’s WarGames match. Bianca Belair, Asuka and Alexa Bliss challenged Damage Ctrl to compete in the match, with Damage Ctrl accepting. Nikki Cross became the fourth member of Team Damage Ctrl, with one more member to go. Belair and company still have two teammates to be announced. Survivor Series takes place on Saturday November 26.
Opinion: As an old WCW fan, it feels so strange to see WarGames in WWE but now we are several major steps towards it actually happening. Just having the matches announced was one thing but now we are seeing the participants getting ready t..

That’s it? There are a lot of titles under the WWE umbrella and some of them are among the most well known championships in all of wrestling. It means a lot for a wrestler to win one of them but it can also mean a lot for someone to lose it as well. This time though, someone seemed to have lost a title, though not in the traditional way. She might even be happy about it.
This week on Monday Night Raw, Nikki Cross defeated Dana Brooke to become the new 24/7 Champion. Later in the night, Cross was seen walking backstage where she threw the title in the trash without saying anything. While not confirmed, this could suggest that the title is being dropped, possibly as a call back to the WWF Women’s Title being dropped in the trash on Monday Nitro in 1995. The title had been active since May 2019.
Opinion: At the end of the day, the 24/7 Title has been around for about three and a half years but it has lost a lot of steam in recent months. The title is almost never seen on WWE TV and is r..

There it goes. WWE offers several annual traditions, many of which involve championships and shots at them. There are ways to earn a guaranteed title shot at some point down the line, but there is one that lets the challenger choose their shot whenever the feel like it. That was the case this week, but it was in a completely different way than it has ever been done before.
This week on Monday Night Raw, Seth Rollins issued an open challenge for a shot at the United States Title. Before the match, Bobby Lashley came to the ring and attacked Rollins, putting him through the announcers’ table. Mr. Money In The Bank Austin Theory came to the ring and cashed in his briefcase for a title shot against Rollins. Theory went on to lose the title shot after Lashley interfered. This marked the first time the briefcase has ever been used for anything but a World Title shot.
Opinion: It was very different, but I like the idea a lot. There was little reason to believe that Theory was going to win t..

Monday Night Raw
Date: November 7, 2022
Location: Mohegan Sun Arena At City Plaza, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Commentators: Kevin Patrick, Corey Graves
We’re done with Crown Jewel and now it is time to get ready for Survivor Series. There weren’t many developments this weekend but we get to find out where some of these stories are going on the way to WarGames. I’m curious to see who is going inside the cage and maybe we find some of that out this week. Let’s get to it.
Here are the Usos and Solo Sikoa to get things going. We see a photo of the Bloodline celebrating at the end of Crown Jewel with the Usos promising to beat New Day for the titles on Smackdown. Cue New Day to interrupt with Xavier Woods promising to get the titles back on Friday. The Usos praise New Day’s history and there’s nothing wrong with being the #2s.
Woods calls out the Usos for being coddled in a famous wrestling family, which sends Jey into a rant about the pressure that comes with being part of a legendary f..

Welcome back. We are in the middle of several changes to the WWE roster as all kinds of former stars have made their return to the company. Some of these stars have made their impact in WWE before but there are others who have not had the chance to make things go so well. It means a lot for someone to get a second chance and now another star might be getting such a shot.
Over the last several weeks, Judgment Day’s Rhea Ripley has caused problems for the OC, with the OC not being able to do anything about her. The team has promised to find someone to help them with her, but no one had appeared. This week on Monday Night Raw, Mia Yim made her return to WWE and attacked Ripley, seemingly joining the OC. No match between the teams has been set so far. Yim returns to the company after being released in November 2021. She has since wrestled in Impact Wrestling and on the independent circuit.
Opinion: You knew that someone was coming for Ripley but the question was who it was going to be. Y..

There is your explanation. Starting back in 2018, WWE has presented a pair of events in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia every year they have been able to go. The company is very well compensated for running the shows and it makes a lot of business sense, but there have been some public relations issues as a result due to some of the country’s laws. Now another one has caused a wrestler to miss the latest event.
Last week on SmackDown, Braun Strowman attacked Omos’ manager MVP, laying him out with a series of running powerslams. As a result, MVP did not appear at this weekend’s Crown Jewel event from Saudi Arabia. According to Fightful Select, MVP did not appear at the show because he is a former Muslim turned atheist, which is a violation of Saudi Arabian law.
Opinion: This is one of those situations where there is not much MVP could do to avoid missing the show so something had to be done to deal with the situation. WWE used the most logical method they had available while also tying it..

He could work. Roman Reigns has dominated WWE for over two years now, with one of the longest World Title reigns in company history. Reigns has run through just about everyone that has come in his path, which has not left him with many opponents left to come after him. WWE is going to need to look in a different direction to find a challenger and now someone is calling out Reigns.
Reigns successfully defended his Undisputed WWE Championship against Logan Paul in the main event of Crown Jewel over the weekend. Following his victory, SmackDown’s Santos Escobar sent out a tweet, saying that he was acknowledging Reigns, but when the time was right, Escobar would be coming for him. Escobar debuted on the main roster in October as the leader of the Legado del Fantasma stable.
@WWERomanReigns TRIBAL CHIEF!! Consider yourself ACKNOWLEDGED. When the time is right… I’m coming for you. ?????? #WWECrownJewel #SmackDown
— SANTOS ESCOBAR??? (@EscobarWWE) November 5, 2022
Opinion: Sure why not. W..