Features

Strange Things In Wrestling This Month for June 2017 with Marc Madison

By Marc Madison • Published 1st July 2017
TJR Wrestling

Welcome to the latest edition of Strange Things In Wrestling This Month with Marc Madison. This monthly edition, like the bi-weekly (ish) version of the column, tackles things that happened over the past month and has already dressed itself up and is ready to dance. Possibly with Breezango, but there aren’t any guarantees on that. This edition highlights things that weren’t included in the last couple bi-weekly (ish) editions of; maybe because they weren’t deemed significant enough to be a focal point of a column at the time and have since picked up steam…or maybe we just forgot…or maybe they were so big we needed to discuss them twice…but probably because we forgot. However, we don’t want these stories to never be talked about or forgotten. We want to bring them to the forefront! Showcase the oddest, ugliest, bizarre or angriest qualities because that’s what makes them stand out. Here, we’ll dive deep into a handful of different things, stories whose strange nature is something that should be featured.

You can anticipate something outside normal online wrestling culture when it comes to this (generally) monthly edition, just like the bi-weekly (ish) edition. We may focus on a tweet from a wrestler, an image, a scenario, a match, or even a storyline. This month’s edition includes a redo of a match, a crying member of a now-disbanded tag team, cryptic tweets, and the father of a drafted NBA player appearing on Monday Night Raw. Without further ado, here are Strange Things in Wrestling This Month for June 2017.

The Do-over of the Women’s MITB Ladder Match

The edition of Smackdown Live on June 27th began with Carmella and James Ellsworth trying to plead their case for not redoing the match. They declared that Carmella didn’t break any rules because there weren’t any rules, to begin with. Daniel Bryan ‘heard’ them out, but his mind was made up. Presumably having them start off the show was just to highlight that the match was happening later on in the show. Carmella had a point, as she didn’t technically break any rules. The logic behind the redo was unusual, as Bryan said his rationale was that no one ever gave the briefcase to someone else. Um, okay? Is that enough of a reason to redo the match? Apparently so!

What seems strange wasn’t the redo, but that the rematch of a pay per view match was being done on the weekly Smackdown Live program. We understand that the match result met with some flack, but that is part of why fans watch to some extent (swerves, after all, are expected.) Why do the match on an episode of Smackdown Live when it should be a featured match on a pay per view? Having a major match on a regular television show can take away from it, as commercial breaks will inevitably be a part of the show. The banning of James Ellsworth wasn’t just to benefit those in the ring, but probably protected those in attendance from seeing him wearing that ridiculous outfit. Was the match good? Sure. Is it strange that it was on regular television? Definitely.

Enzo weeps at Cass’ anger and Graves helps Enzo?

After weeks of speculation about whom had been attacking Enzoand BigCass, we finally got our answer. Raw General Manager Kurt Angle brought out all those accused of responsibility, the returning former NXT tag team champions The Revival and former WWEchampion The Big Show. While all parties were in the ring, along with Enzoand BigCass, Angle questioned them. He first acknowledged that the Big Show probably had nothing to do with it, and then followed that up by stating that The Revival had very reliable alibis. What eventually happened was that Corey Graves cued up security camera footage that showed BigCass staging the ‘attack’ on him, pretending to have been jumped from behind.

This prompted BigCass to admit that he was sick and tired of saving Enzo and verbally disparaged him, resulting in our seeing Enzo cry, distraught at everything that Cass was saying about him. He was ultimately knocked out by a big boot from Cass. If a weeping Enzo wasn’t a bit on the strange side, how about that Corey Graves, who has never hidden his dislike for all things EnzoAmore, was actually the one to point out that Cass was guilty of attacking his ‘little buddy’. His revelation may have ultimately resulted in the team’s split, but really he helped Enzo by pointing out who was actually guilty, of the backstage attacks.

Daniel Bryan’s tweets to Cody Rhodes

Fans of WWE loved watching Cody ‘can we call him Rhodes?’ Runnels during his time in the promotion. When he asked for his release from the company last year, he traveled the world competing for promotions both prominent and relatively unknown, to re-establish and challenge himself. So when he captured the Ring of Honor World Championship at their annual Best in the World pay per view, many shared their appreciation for his accomplishment. A number of notable names both in WWE and outside the promotion sent him public congratulations for his accomplishment. One name that reached out was none other than current Smackdown Live General Manager, and former Ring of Honor World champion, Daniel (Bryan Danielson) Bryan.

Congratulations shouldn’t be considered anything bad; in fact, it should be celebrated. However, when Bryan tweeted his congratulations, he made mention of how he had a reign of 462 days with the ROH title. He followed up with a second tweet stating that if the historic length of his old reign is in jeopardy, then he will come after Cody. Bryan followed that up with a third tweet stating nothing more than a hashtag that read #trollingforlife. The tweets to some may be cryptic or may suggest to them that he will return to challenge Cody. However, all he was probably doing was having fun. However, it’s fun to speculate, so maybe we can start a rumor that he’s returning! On second thought, we shouldn’t. If we did that would be strange.

Big Baller Brand appearance on Raw

Here on Strange things in wrestling, we will point the rather odd or unlikely moments when it comes to wrestling. This story is unusual because it is more about basketball and publicity than it is about wrestling. On Wednesday, June 21st, the National Basketball Association held its annual draft. This year’s draft brought additional pomp and circumstance due to the presence and antics of a draft pick’s parent. For those unaware, or who were hiding in a cave this past Monday, LaVar Ball is the father of recent LosAngelesLakers draft pick Lonzo Ball. The younger Ball is a highly touted draft pick, and certainly being selected #2 overall brings with it a huge set of expectations. LaVar has gone on record as saying that the Lakers will make the playoffs this season with his son as a part of the team, and that is one of his more conservative declarations. Whether LaVar is channeling Don King or another notable promoter, he certainly has made a number of bold statements this past year about both his son and himself. He once said he could beat Michael Jordan in a game of one-on-one. (We aren’t sure if Mr. Ball has been tested for a serious head injury or not.)

The Bell family appeared on Monday Night Raw in what was a promotional opportunity, and a means to have a cross over between the NBA and WWE, providing exposure for both. Wrestling has plenty of outlandish personalities, now it appears that basketball does too…and this one doesn’t even play professionally.

Cedric Alexander gives more chances that he should

We are always willing to say enough is enough when pushed to the limit. In the case of Cedric Alexander, who was away with an injury for some time, he has come to a point where he wants to move on. When we say that, we aren’t talking about him moving on from a career in Ring of Honor or a career in WWE but from an onscreen relationship with Alicia Fox. Fans may recall that months ago, Fox and Alexander had an on-screen relationship that was supposed to be sweet and full of fun. It should have been the beginning of something beautiful, but what ended up happening was that Fox cheated on Alexander with NoamDar. This after several weeks of Dar declaring his love for the beautiful Alicia Fooooooxxxx.

Over and over since his return, Alexander would say this is the end of it and would have a match against Dar to end their feud. However, what followed was match after match was the two of them going head-to-head with no ‘end’ in sight. We are convinced that Alexander secretly still has feelings, which is why he doesn’t want it to end. We aren’t positive that Fox wants to let it go either. However, really, what we are almost assured of is that this feud has continued because creative didn’t have a storyline that each performer could move on to. A strange set of circumstances indeed.

So ends this edition of Strange Things In Wrestling This Month with Marc Madison. June is when summer begins. It manages to be both hot and cold, sometimes all at once. Who knew that across the wrestling world, we would see trolling among wrestlers online, crying over a breakup with a tag team partner, a ladder match being redone over because the result wasn’t what they wanted, a relationship that had ended never really ending because the other party doesn’t listen, and the parent of a current NBA draft pick appearing on WWE television.

As per usual, we featured some odd and unusual suspects, and social media played a major part in many of the stories. We could have talked about other things that caught our attention, but we didn’t focus on things that mattered, or hard-hitting issues in the world of sports entertainment. We are above that here with our Strange Things in Wrestling series! We hit you with the fun that comes from putting things in a blender and testing the end result. What were we talking about again? Did we miss something or should we have talked about something else in this month’s edition? Let me know, it’s important and some things shouldn’t be left forgotten.

For Strange Things in Wrestling This Month, this is Marc Madison saying, see you at the end of July…and let the massive pondering begin!

Feel free to follow me on Twitter @TheMarcMadison
Feel Free to like my Facebook page The Wrestle News Hub

Feel Free to check out my blogThe Wrestling News Hub Magazine

Also, stay tuned for The Wrestling News Hub Magazine Podcast debuting July 2017