Strange Things In Wrestling (August 2022)

Welcome to the return of Strange Things In Wrestling. As a refresher, this column intends to highlight anything from the world of wrestling with odd, unique, quirky, or possibly bizarre qualities because that’s what makes them stand out.

We’ll dive deep into a handful of different things, stories whose strange nature is something that should be featured. Keep in mind – weird much like anything open for discussion is subjective. Remember, one person’s odd is another person’s completely acceptable. And I’m not saying they can’t be both; I’m just saying I really should stop talking because it’s a whole new edition full of tears, sadness, and criticism.

Typically, August is filled with a ton of flowers because it’s supposed to bring a virtual end to summer and sunshine and all that jazz. But this month, we are faced with some of the most bizait’sstories to come out since last month! This month, we have another champion having to forfeit their title kinda sorta, a returning champion calling out a previous champion for no reason that we can understand, another previous champion confusing the names of two other former champions during a promo and tons of other former champions returning to the company. All this has happened before September 4th! What happened come the week after Clash at the Castle, All Out and NXT Worlds Collide?

So sit back, pull up a bag of your favorite snacks, avoid watching The Bad Guys if you are a parent, and crack open a can of your favorite frosty beverage from the sheer oddness that resonated from this month’s edition.

-Thunder Rosa: She’s had better weeks

It was recently announced that Thunder Rosa wouldn’t be competing at All Out and, in fact, would have to forfeit her reign as the AEW Women’s Champion. But unlike most title reigns in AEW, it isn’t necessarily the end for her as champion but instead making her the champion that can’t defend her title because of an injury. So while we won’t deny she doesn’t have an injury, her time off by some is considered ”convenient.” Now, unless we buy into the online mumbo jumbo, then her injury isn’t legitimate. So let’s put that aside as the belief that if she would have competed at All Out would have seen her lose the title to Toni Storm. At least that’s another rumor.

Let’s put the injury stuff aside; Rosa was then believed to have some backstage animosity with Britt Baker (is it true or not, and that when she was called out for her injury was more because they aren’t on the same page?) We aren’t sure, but this was something else that Rosa had to face after having to bow out of All Out. Another issue that arose was that she is also rumored to be someone that was insulting and berating (pick your word of choice) the talent on the AEW Dark or Elevation programs too. Another independent wrestler said that she was also doing that to independent talent as well. It gets even odder because she operates an independent promotion herself!

Again, this could just be a bunch of bad public relations or, as it’s said ”rumors and innuendo,” but Thunder Rosa’s name has been dragged a bit, leading into All Out.

-CM Punk goes off script on Hangman Page

A move that had heads seeming scratching was during CM Punk’s return promo prior to facing Jon Moxley. Most cases would see the promo build towards the one-on-one match between the two champions. The problem was for Page anyway; he came out and addressed Hangman Page in a moment that seemed so out of place and unfitting that it did make people wonder. Now since we’re going down the rumor mill a bit, it seems that the reason for Punk going in a different direction with his promo was because of how he felt that Page had done so to him during their feud.

Whether or not that’s true, the timing of it didn’t seem to make sense. It wasn’t necessarily an ”oh, no, he didn’t just go there a moment, did he?” It’s a why…would you go there a moment when there is no feud to go to? Even more so, as it’s been said, it was a no-win for Page as he wasn’t involved in a program in the slightest with Punk, so coming out would have just disrupted the flow of where Punk WAS going to go with his promo. By Punk’s own admittance, he likely shouldn’t say some of the things he does; then again, he did take the time to do it, so?

-Dakota Sky?

While the name itself is neat, it’s more of a hybrid between two characters and a mistake that Bayley made upon her return. So as we know, WWE introduced a new faction consisting of IYO SKY, Bayley, and Dakota Kai. The trio has received a ton of time on camera, likely to form chemistry and ultimately get into a groove. Well, Bayley may not be dealing with ring rust, but on one occasion, was dealing with promo rust.

On one edition of Raw, Bayley appeared so flustered because of the audience that she, in fact, addressed Dakota Kai as Dakota Sky, which is, in fact, their other partner’s last name. Kai and SKY do sound alike; heck, they rhyme even! Mistakes happen, and we all move on but not here where we drudge up a mistake and beat it into the ground long after people have forgotten about it. Petty? Probably but we won’t do it again next month. Well, maybe.

-WWE hires ex-WWE guys

One of WWE’s biggest problems is they never seem to be original! They always manage to steal the ideas of the other guys. Not a single original thought ever seems to come to their head. For instance, that bearded Daniel Bryan run, they totally stole that idea from IMPACT, who did it months earlier with Eric Young. Then the boss that is power-hungry like Authority? Again, they completely stole that concept from IMPACT, too, with Dixie Carter! For goodness sake, guys, get it together and stop with the low-hanging fruit.

Sure, the company is suffering with earnings in the billions this year, but people have to eat! Whatever happened to creative integrity? Their latest guilt of theft? It would have to be the signing of all these washed-up former WWE guys like Karrion Kross, Johnny Gargano, Dakota Kai, and Dexter Lumis. There was a reason they were let go; come on! But as fans, we know they’ll never be the top promotion in the world if they keep resorting to these tactics!

Also, if you believed anything that was written above in the previous two paragraphs, then I have a bag of magic beans that, if you plant them, they will grow to form a beanstalk where a giant sits atop of it, waiting for his goose to lay golden eggs.

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