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

Welcome to the latest edition of Strange Things In Wrestling This Month with Marc Madison. After a month’s hiatus, this (intended to be) monthly edition makes a triumphant return, and similar to the bi-weekly (ish) version it tackles things that happened over the past month, things that may have been missed, forgotten or initially ignored. We want to bring these events to the forefront! We showcase the odd, unique, quirky or possibly bizarre qualities of events in wrestling 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.

You can anticipate something outside normal online wrestling culture when it comes to this (generally) monthly edition. We may focus on a tweet from a wrestler, an image, a scenario, a match, or even a storyline. In this month’s edition, we tackle why Winnipeg’s best is having an apparent difference of opinion, even though one used to look up to the other because that didn’t seem to make much sense. We also look at a reported high that fans likely didn’t anticipate, championship belts being used as wonderful drink coasters, a star in the Cruiserweight division frustrated with his loyal subjects, and why we really have to be sure separate your recycling, composting and garbage. And more! Without further ado, here are Strange Things in Wrestling This Month for October 2017.

Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho…the battle for Winnipeg?

It is always fun on social media to see talent communicate with one another and rib each other, all while trying to educate fans at the same time. However, every once in a while, talent will engage in an exchange that blurs the lines between storyline and reality. This month an exchange took place where two prominent wrestling talents took part in a social media sparring match that focussed on who is the better wrestler, and who may be overrated. Former WWE champion Chris Jericho, who has been actively touring with his band Fozzy, engaged in a war of words with current New Japan Pro Wrestling United States champion, and fellow native of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Kenny Omega.

It seems to have started when the two were both complemented by fans and compared to one another, but Jericho was sure to assert that the comparison was wrong as he stood above Omega. Comments went back and forth between them, going as far as to compare how their matches were valued, with Omega noting his matches were often rated 4.75 stars and above we aren’t sure of the legitimacy of this ‘feud,’ but it has definitely been fun to watch. Who really is the stupid idiot, worthy of making the list? Maybe these men are on a collision to face one another, but that still has yet to be determined.

Highest quarter ever??

This past month WWE reported to its stockholders that it had its most profitable quarter to date. While they may have reduced costs in certain areas, like original programming and pyro, and raised the number of dates for live events, evidently that led to the company proudly boasting some of the best numbers in the company’s history. On the surface, this appears odd because there have been recent departures from the company, and the current WWE champion has made a less than memorable impression with fans. It is certainly a strange series of events for the numbers to be what they are when the content being produced on a regular basis has come under criticism.

Some may think that the company’s numbers are where they are, but perhaps if popular talent such as AJ Styles or ShinsukeNakamura held the championship they could have led the company to even higher numbers. However, putting aside speculation that the numbers could be even higher, they already are the highest they have been. This couldn’t have been something fans had ever predicted since the WWE Universal Champion isn’t regularly seen. Of anything that could have been predicted about WWE over the last three months, reaching their highest ever return didn’t seem possible.

I wear my championship in the club!

At times he can be loud, other times he can be confident, and then there are the moments when EnzoAmore talks and people get tired of listening. We could easily say that there are tons of reasons why that is. It’s not just that he has the gift to gab, he’s given the opportunity to showcase how much he has to say even if it’s complete nonsense. Sure, he is the guy that doesn’t do much against someone bigger than him, even as he tries to talk any guy down to size. More times than not, he has his a** handed to him. However, that doesn’t stop him from talking; someone has to punch him in the mouth in order for him to stop.

A recent story came out regarding Amore that shows he does more than playing his character, he seems to live his character. He was quoted by TMZ while at a club, wearing his Cruiserweight championship; according to Enzo, he wears it all over the place. So, he wears his championship where the music blares, dancing is the activity of choice, and alcohol flows freely. Do we fans believe it? Possibly. Do many fans not really care? More than likely. We mention it here because the fact that this was a headline is quite strange indeed.

Nevilled out

At one time he was the man that gravity forgot and later would ascend to the throne of king of the cruiserweights. However, after losing the Cruiserweight championship, Neville’s booking appeared to go in a different direction. He had shown he was clearly head and shoulders above everyone else in the division, gave scathing promos, and defended that title time and time again, ultimately walking away from each challenge as the champion. Yes, he lost the title to AkiraTozawa, but he regained it the very next day.

Where things seemed to go sideways was after he lost the title to EnzoAmore, who he is clearly better than in the ring in every possible way imaginable. While the details are sketchy, as they often seem to be, Neville was apparently unhappy with the direction of his character and walked out. There is no argument that Neville has been so good that he should be a focal point as part of the main Raw roster, rather than being relegated to a division that is so often given short shrift. This made our list as his departure is a strange one to see because he is so talented and had come such a long way both in his booking and the freedom he was given to develop his character both in the ring and on the microphone.

Compacting Braun in and out

He is a Monster among men, but this past week something unusual befell BraunStrowman. He has stated on more than one occasion that he isn’t finished with someone, and if you don’t believe us just ask Roman Reigns. At this past month’s Raw only pay per view, TLC, Strowman, along with TheMiz, The Bar and Kane squared off against Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, and Kurt Angle. For this handicap match to work, it was almost a certainty that something would happen to cause egos to collide. This was the case with Strowman, as he was beaten and battered by the rest of his team members, and in the process, he was disposed of.

Wrestlers taking someone out isn’t the strange part, it was how Strowman was eliminated that was the strangest thing. With the assistance of the remaining members of his team, Kane picked him up and put him into a garbage truck and had the operator turn on the compactor. This left fans with the belief that he was going to be crushed in the process. After a week of being ‘compacted,’ Strowman emerged (from a different truck) to show that he isn’t finished with garbage trucks. We presume that Duke ‘The Dumpster’ Drose was probably the one who saved him. OK, the chances of that last comment being true are about as likely as Strowman being hurt in the compactor.

So ends this edition of Strange Things In Wrestling This Month with Marc Madison. October is when Halloween takes place, and when we Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving. They say that the strange things come out at night, especially when they wear spandex or some other form of stretchy pants. And who knew that across the wrestling world, we would see wrestlers having to fight through trash in order to make a statement.

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 hard-hitting issues in the world of sports entertainment, why that’s what everyone else does. 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 result. We want to thank Melo man for the snazzy new monthly banner, to help commemorate the new season of Stranger Things and the shadow monster. Did we miss something or should we have talked about something else in this month’s edition? For Strange Things in Wrestling This Month, this is Marc Madison saying, see you next month…and can you believe that Rudy is on Stranger Things 2?

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