Steve Cook takes a look at the wrestling news of the week and gives you his Hot Takes in response!

I’ve noticed something interesting over the past few days while reading wrestling news & the reaction to it. My reaction seems to be different from most of the reaction I read.Weird, isn’t it? Well, maybe not. I have a different opinion on most things than most people I know. One of the approximately 45,875 reasons I’m still single.

I feel like it’s been a long time since I did the whole “react to wrestling news” thing, so let’s bring it back this week! Let’s call it my Top 5 Wrestling Hot Takes and see how it goes.

5. I don’t think Dean Malenko leaving WWE is a bad thing

Malenko was as solid an in-ring hand you could find during the late 1990s. He’s spent the last eighteen years working with WWE as a backstage agent/producer helping the Superstars put matches together. You would think his departure meant the company would fall off the map with the way people were talking about it last week.

I don’t see it that way. Let’s face it, eighteen years is a long time for any agent or producer. WWE has been bringing in tons of veterans for backstage jobs lately, so the writing was on the wall for guys like Malenko & Arn Anderson. I think we can all agree that WWE could use some new voices in those positions.

I’m not sure which matches Malenko was responsible for producing. We rarely know these things, which is why I always feel weird judging who’s good backstage & who isn’t. Just because somebody was a great worker doesn’t make them a great mind. Reportedly, he was the agent for the Michael Cole vs. Jerry Lawler match at WrestleMania 27. If I was in charge, I would have immediately fired whoever put that poop show together, so Malenko would have been out of the company a lot sooner.

4. I don’t think The Revival are worth $500,000 per year

At least, not in the current pay structure. With WWE bringing in that new money from the Saudis & the networks next business quarter, I’m all about giving it to the wrestlers and increasing salaries across the board. If everybody’s getting a pay increase & $500,000 becomes an average salary for a WWE Superstar, then sure, give the Revival the money.

This isn’t so much a knock on the talents of Dash Wilder & Scott Dawson as it is WWE’s usage of tag teams. Are you going to tell me Raw’s tag team division would be that worse off if two other people were in the Revival’s slot? It’s going to take more than “WATCH THEIR NXT MATCHES” to sell me on that, especially when the only time they get to do NXT-style long tag team matches is on house shows that nobody attends. You could put anybody in the Revival’s slot and get the same value out of them.

Patrick O’Dowd: #SaveTagTeamWrestling

I know, I know. There was a big stink raised about how these guys wanted to be released a few months ago and agreed to stay if WWE proved they cared about tag team wrestling. I don’t see much evidence that that has happened, other than approximately $2.5 million ones for each guy over the next five years.

3. PCO needs to stop trying to kill himself

I don’t watch a whole lot of Ring of Honor these days. The product seems impossibly cold. The ownership is reprehensible even by pro wrestling standards. I see & read things here & there, but most of it just doesn’t interest me.

PCO is an interesting cat. The 51-year old former Quebecer & Amazing French-Canadian recently made a return after an absence of several years. He tore his way through the indy scene & now appears for ROH as part of Villian Enterprises. He & Brody King won the NWA World Tag Team Championship at this weekend’s Crockett Cup. Two things from that show garnered my attention:

-The Briscoes wrestling the motherfreaking Rock N Roll Express
-This spot that PCO apparently does every damn match

Nobody:

Absolutely nobody:

PCO:

😱 #CrockettCup #HonorClub

➡️ https://t.co/L56LqIm2Tw | https://t.co/0TMqQRB6Ou pic.twitter.com/f3fIot0qy1

— TDE Wrestling (@tde_wrestling) April 28, 2019

Like…why? I probably hate apron moves more than anybody with a rasslin’ column, this takes that stupidity to a whole new level. Does the guy have an insurance policy he’s trying to cash in? Just stop.

2. I haven’t really noticed Sasha Banks’ absence from WWE television

We’ve seen plenty of Sasha Banks articles here at the Chairshot lately. Most of us are very fond of the Legit Boss & think WWE should do whatever it takes to keep her a happy, productive member of the roster. There’s no doubt she’s as talented as there is on WWE’s women’s roster.

With that being said…have you noticed her absence since WrestleMania? I haven’t. It would have been nice to have her around to feud with the Iiconics, but at least Asuka & Kairi Sane are a team on SmackDown Live now. Bayley has moved over to that show and seems at least as productive there as she was during the last year with Sasha.

You know what Sasha would probably be doing right now if she was around? Getting Lacey Evans ready to take on Becky Lynch. It’d help Evans’ cause, but man would people online bitch & complain about it. WWE could definitely use Sasha, but not having her around isn’t the end of the world.

1. Bray Wyatt will make this Firefly Funhouse thing work

I wasn’t watching Raw as it happened last Monday night. The Stanley Cup Playoffs were still going on at the time. It was fun following the show on Twitter though, allowing the WWE Universe to guide me through things and let me know what was worth watching. One of the most divisive segments was the return of Bray Wyatt as a children’s TV show host.

I saw people losing their everloving minds over this. They thought it killed Bray as a performer & rendered his future drawing power useless. They saw it as another sign of Vince McMahon’s senility kicking in. I was looking forward to watching it just to see how big a trainwreck it was. Turns out that I liked it!

You can’t tell me that this isn’t a natural evolution of Bray’s persona. Why wouldn’t a wannabe cult leader turn to influencing the minds of the youth of America? It’s a better plan than trying to get fellow WWE Superstars to join him. Plus, Bray has the delivery & creativity to make this sort of thing work. Maybe he won’t be a future Universal Champion, but he can be a character that we still remember twenty years from now. Which is more important in the grand scheme of things?

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