Hi, hello & welcome to News From Cook’s Corner! I’m Steve Cook, and I’d like to be the first to wish you all a Merry Christmas, or a Happy Kwanzaa, or whatever holiday you might be celebrating in the next week or so. If you’re not celebrating anything, have a good week anyway!

So this is one of those weeks where we seem to have a lot of silly drama going on in the world of wrestling. Sometimes human beings have nothing better to do than create problems for themselves and everybody around them. Problems that could be easily avoided by keeping one’s mouth shut, but in this day and age it doesn’t seem like anybody is capable of that.

Note to Darby Allin: You need to make like your mentor Sting and keep quiet. Most people are still blissfully unaware of the allegations levelled against you last year. It would behoove you to keep it that way, and not risk issues popping up by being an idiot on social media and going after Cora Jade. That girl is a cold blooded assassin, and I’m sure she can actually ride a skateboard.

One doesn’t have to have an opinion on everything.

Case in point: Sammy Guevara announced a couple of days ago that he & his longtime girlfriend broke up. I don’t personally know Sammy or his ex, so I don’t have an opinion on what happened there. Just hope everybody comes out of it for the best, as I don’t have any reason to wish them ill will.

Now, I do understand that Sammy made his relationship part of public consumption with his vlog & a marriage proposal on television. When one does these things, they open themselves up to opinion from others. Might not necessarily be fair, it’s just the way things work. Some folks who regularly watch Sammy’s vlogs and follow him on social media feel that they know him better than they really do. They see things he presents and take them a certain way, and Sammy can’t always control how people react to his productions.

When Sammy announced the split, a lot of people put two & two together and thought it was interesting how his relationship was ending around the time where Tay Conti became more featured in the vlog. Add in Tay’s recent divorce, and it became super obvious to many fans that these things had to be connected. Clearly, Sammy & Tay were doing things behind the scenes that resulted in Sammy’s engagement coming to an end. Look at how they interact on these videos and on social media! There has to be something there!

There doesn’t have to be. I have no idea what’s going on with Sammy’s, Tay’s or anybody else in wrestling’s romantic life, and I don’t have much interest in knowing. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind a bit of gossip, and if people report things with a modicum of accuracy, I’ll read about it. In general, at least in my experiences, the less I know about these things the better.

Tay deactivated her Twitter account over the weekend due to the blowback she was getting online from people blaming her for Sammy’s relationship ending. Honestly, it’s probably for the best. If I had any amount of fame I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to handle logging on and seeing all the complaints people have about whatever I’m accused to have done. Especially if it was some nonsense about what I consider to be my personal life. I don’t know what possesses people to do these things other than Mike Tyson’s quote about people being too comfortable saying shit and not worrying about getting punched in the face.

At the end of the day, this story largely reminds me of why I try to steer clear of Wrestling Twitter. Lots of creepiness going on there. I consider myself thankful that the people I interact with via social media are mostly sane.

The Kevin & Sami Show Continues In WWE

Who is a better friend to @SamiZayn: @FightOwensFight or Brock Lesnar? pic.twitter.com/fkZ9wkJtry

— WWE on FOX (@WWEonFOX) December 17, 2021

We briefly touched on the Kevin Owens/Sami Zayn contract situation in last week’s column, and it appears that WWE has retained the services of both men. Fightful reported that Owens re-signed with WWE for three years, while Wrestling Observer reported that Zayn is believed to have re-signed for a similar length. Not surprising that Owens & Zayn would remain co-workers, and it’s also not surprising that they chose to stay with WWE.

It’d be hard to argue that WWE hasn’t used Kevin Owens well for the majority of his run with company. Owens has held nearly championship available and is almost always featured at or near the top of the card. Zayn has been less successful on that front over the years, but recently he’s been featured as one of the top performers on SmackDown, with his character involved in pretty much anything of importance on the show. Sami’s political beliefs fly in the face of most of what WWE stands for, but it’s tough for one to base their financial living off of political beliefs.

Some fans were disappointed by the news, as they were hoping that Kevin & Sami would go somewhere else and have matches that get more snowflakes. To be honest, I don’t see AEW using either guy that much better than they are in WWE, since they’re a couple of the guys that can’t really complain about their usage in WWE these days. Plus, AEW has more than enough people on their roster at this point and could stand to focus on some of them.

Rok-C Tries Out For WWE

Not often do you get your flowers on your journey in this business

We don’t know the future, nor are we confirming anything but we will forever be grateful for @TheRokC_ and her impact with us

Thank you Carla, you deserve the world, and you’re destined to be one of the best.🙏 pic.twitter.com/s0EgE97sHZ

— New Texas Pro Wrestling (@NewTexasPW) December 19, 2021

WWE recently held tryouts at the Performance Center and posted some pictures on their website. Some folks noticed that Ring of Honor’s Women’s Champion Rok-C was in a number of them, which doesn’t come as too much of a surprise. She fits most of WWE’s requirements for talent these days, as she’s young & athletic. At 20 years old, I’m not surprised she would be among the first ROH talents WWE would be interested in.

Rok-C is scheduled to work for MLW on January 21 & for Impact at some point, so I would assume she isn’t signing immediately. She’d be a good signing for WWE though, definitely an upgrade for NXT’s women’s division.

JIMMY RAVE!

Jimmy Rave with one of the greatest reactions to no sold offense: pic.twitter.com/HleEXctuNt

— Trevor Dame (@TrevorDame) December 19, 2021

A little over three years ago, I wrote one of my favorite columns for this website about one of Ring of Honor’s best heels from back in the mid-2000s. At a time where it was difficult for anybody to get proper heel heat at an ROH show, Jimmy Rave never failed to do so. He was that one guy that everybody hated. Which, in that weird way of pro wrestling, meant he was very good at his job. Rave had a highly successful run as part of the Embassy in ROH, then moved on to TNA where he teamed with Lance Archer as the Rock N’ Rave Infection, managed by Christy Hemme. The team wasn’t overly successful in the win-loss column, but did have an amusing gimmick and were popular in their role. Rave made a few more ROH appearances, but spent most of the rest of his in-ring career working indies in the Southern U.S., where he’s credited for helping a lot of younger wrestlers learn the craft.

Jimmy Rave passed away last week at the age of thirty-nine. The last years of his life had been extremely tough, as he had one arm & both of his legs amputated due to MRSA. He had struggled with drug addiction for many years. Rave had mounting medical bills that some folks within the wrestling business raised money to help pay for. Chris Jericho recorded an interview with Rave not long before his death and posted it as last week’s Talk is Jericho episode.

Sometimes, there just isn’t a positive way to spin these things. Jimmy Rave deserved a better hand than he was dealt. He didn’t make the best choices sometimes, and suffered consequences that many people making similar choices don’t. You just hope that people learn from his lessons and avoid his fate.

Thanks for reading, and until next time, keep your stick on the ice.