Here’s what matters today in wrestling 👇
TOP STORY 🔥
Image Credit: AEW
I hope everybody enjoyed the brief respite they got from AEW media rights speculation, because here we go again. I guess we can’t be surprised by any speculation surrounding Warner Bros. Discovery at this point, given they’re on the verge of a merger with Paramount Skydance that should close by the end of 2026. Or it might not happen. AEW’s current deal with WBD runs through 2027 with an option year for 2028. There’s already been rumors that the option year won’t be picked up, and I would think that any property currently linked with WBD that has an option year wouldn’t feel too great about getting picked up given the impending merger or non-merger or whatever the heck is going on.
WWE is apparently using this uncertainty to their advantage during negotiations with their wrestlers. I guess when you’re asking people to take fifty percent pay cuts, it makes a lot of sense to tell them that the competition won’t be around in a couple of years. TKO executives like Mark Shapiro are happy to float the possibility of WWE programming airing on WBD-affiliated stations in the future. WWE feels confident about this, and given TKO’s existing UFC deal with Paramount that costs a lot of money, it’s tough to blame them.
We’ll know a lot more about AEW’s media rights future in eighteen months. Until then, AEW will have to focus on putting on the best shows possible that appeal to the most viewers possible. I feel like I’ve typed this before on a couple of occasions.
WRESTLING HEADLINES 👊🏽
•Brock Lesnar Returns On WWE Raw, Attacks Oba Femi
Image Credit: WWE
I said here a few weeks back that Brock retiring after WrestleMania was the perfect way for him to go out. As we all know, things rarely end perfectly. Given that SummerSlam is happening over two nights in a football stadium in Minneapolis, WWE’s going to need every big gun they have to draw the kind of house they can brag about. Doing it without Brock Lesnar was never much of an option. Filling that stadium on two nights still won’t be easy, but Brock vs. Oba will help. If there’s one request I can make, it’s that Brock uses the dump trucks of money that TKO is giving him to invest in pants that don’t tear whenever he F-5s somebody. Dude, we know you can afford decent clothing. Stop it.
Image Credit: WWE
As a rule of thumb, I try not to hold wrestlers’ personal beliefs against them. Example: AJ Styles always rated high with me as an in-ring performer. I get the feeling that if we ever sat down and discussed politics, religion or anything other than wrestling, we wouldn’t agree on much. I can still put that aside and recognize him as one of the best wrestlers of the twenty-first century. It’s tougher in this day & age where we know more about wrestlers than fans in the 1970s & 80s could ever imagine, and with a company that’s dead set on appealing to the side of the political spectrum with all the money & power.
Charlotte Flair, The Miz, Chelsea Green, Trick Williams, Jimmy Uso, Jey Uso, Bron Breakker, and Tiffany Stratton are set to appear as part of the latest sportswashing extravaganza put on by a government involved in questionable endeavors across the world & in their own country. Some of them are probably excited, others are probably reluctant. Speaking out either way probably isn’t the smartest thing for their employment status, especially when they’re being told that their most viable option for employment in their field other than WWE won’t be around in a couple of years. I won’t judge them, but I also won’t blame you if you want to. We still have the right to do such things, at least for now.
MORE MUST-READ LINKS FROM 411MANIA
→Hall's WWE Raw Review 5.18.26
→Nobody is Ready for Asuka to be Done
→Revisiting Larry Csonka's Reviews of AJ Styles Matches
It’s always a highlight of my year to look back through Larry’s work and present some to new readers in a new light. He left us too soon, but he also left us with a lot to remember him by.
Thanks for reading,
– Steve Cook