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Strange Things In Wrestling This Week with Marc Madison for 06/16/2017

By Marc Madison • Published 16th June 2017
TJR Wrestling

Welcome to the newest edition of Strange Things In Wrestling This Week with Marc Madison. Once again, this column won’t try to hit you with the unvarnished truth about questionable booking decisions about why some people are going over others. That isn’t our role here! What we do is hit fans with different topics and try to understand their value. Or something like that. What we will do, however, is explore some of the things that caught us off guard this week, and why they stood out. They aren’t intended to confuse or have you lose sleep at night, and if they do it’s completely coincidental! Or maybe we’re psychic. Anyway, we would rather get you to think about why some of the most minuscule moments stood out, and have you ponder why certain things were noteworthy, and hopefully make you smile in the process. You can anticipate something outside normal online wrestling culture when it comes to this (generally) bi-weekly column.

This week’s edition includes a surprising hashtag about a current WWE superstar, a return of a personal favorite ongoing storyline between two of today’s WWE stars, transgressions among friends, a costumed bear wrestling, and one wrestler unintentionally acting like a sitcom character from the 1990s. We won’t speculate on the nature of the Kurt Angle ‘personal situation,’ because after all, it is personal, nor will ask how Peter Rosenberg gets to be host Bring it to the Table. Without further ado, here are Strange Things In Wrestling for the week of June 12th – 16th.

Alicia and Noam give new meaning to raising ‘data usage’

It feels as though the Alicia Fox and NoamDar relationship is in many ways the backbone of Strange Things in Wrestling. Whether it’s the basis of their relationship that is strange or the actual pairing of the two of them, Strange Things in Wrestling wouldn’t be the same without them. Thankfully, we endured another dose of strange, as Alicia Fox and NoamDar appeared on Raw for a match that was as strange as the lead up to it. This time around, Fox was apparently home recovering from an injured neck. However, while she was recovering, she was having a Facetime video chat with NoamDar before his match. So Dar and Cedric Alexander crossed paths while Fox was on the phone. Alexander had said that he was done with Dar and Fox, but it seems as though she isn’t finished with him. After the commercial break, Alexander and Dar were set to face-off in the ring, but it seemed that the focus was to on Fox badgering Dar over the phone, while he was on his way to the ring and while he was in the ring. Why didn’t hang up? Because Alicia told him not to do it. However, when he put the phone down and turned around to face Alexander, he was immediately hit with the lumbar check and pinned for the count of three. Was it a strange way to use all involved? Certainly. Is strangeness expected at this point? Without a doubt.

Wyatt mentions transgressions during promo.

We here at Strange Things in Wrestling try to hit you up with the important news. The facts and details that are often overlooked, for a number of reasons. Information is crucial to us, and we intend to make readers aware of items in which they may be interested. OK, they may not be interested, but each edition is a bit of a shot in the dark. This time around, there is word that has circulated that Bray Wyatt’s wife has apparently filed for divorce. It’s a sad state, as the alleged reason is infidelity on the part of Wyatt. Sure, that can happen, as Wyatt spends a great deal of time away from home. However, trust is paramlunt, and if you don’t have that then you have nothing. The person that Wyatt is rumoured to have been having relations with is current WWE ring announcer JojoOfferman. Fans may wonder if this is something that could have been seen coming for some time. Are his growing dreadlocks a Jojo influence? Maybe. Or maybe just a coincidence. However, the strangest point of all of this wasn’t the actual rumor, but Wyatt in a promo deciding to accuse Rollins of ‘transgressions’. Now he may have just been acting cute, or maybe it’s a case of the pot calling the kettle black, we don’t know. The strangest part is that the Wyatt/Rollins feud could actually go in directions that weren’t the original plan for the two.

The one bear that wishes this was a fairytale!

It seems a bit like the start of a joke. Ambrose, TheMiz and a Bear all walk into a ring. The strange part about that is, the joke wasn’t actually as funny as was probably intended. As many saw this past week, TheMiz was trying to find himself a tag team partner to align with, in order to face the team of Heath Slater and Rhyno. Sure, we could make jokes about eating cheese out of a can, but that just writes itself. Anyhow, TheMiz came to the ring and awaited his tag team, partner. Who would accept the offer of The Miz to be his partner? The answer was no one. It became very clear that TheMiz was living on a wrestling island made only for him and his wife Maryse. However, then carnival music was played, and coming down to the ring on a tricycle was someone dressed like a bear, chosen to be Miz’s partner. When we say chosen we say that very loosely, as his partner appeared to have little to no skill and was plodding when he was in the ring. He was armed with the…bearhug as his only move. As it ultimately turned out, after TheMiz beat up his partner he was later attacked by someone else in a bear costume. This time it was Dean Ambrose. Needless to say, it was supposed to send a message. Hopefully, the message wasn’t that they support cruelty to animals.

SamiZayn…Costanza?

There is no denying how peppy and upbeat SamiZayn is. He isn’t just the guy that is loved for his never say die attitude, he needs to develop his persona in other ways. During the latter part of his run on Raw, and now on Smackdown Live, the intent has been to make Sami almost so happy that it borders on annoying to those around him. However, to this particular viewer, his delivery this week doesn’t suggest he is annoying in the least. In fact, Zayn’s execution in a backstage promo with AJ Styles and ShinsukeNakamura wasn’t odd or weird, it was reminiscent of a familiar television character. While some may not be familiar with him, or even remember the program ‘Seinfeld’ which ran for ten seasons during the 1990s, actor Jason Alexander played a character on the program by the name of George Costanza. The character doesn’t look anything like Sami.Zayn, as he is slender and has hair while Costanza isn’t slender and is balding. So it may have been the mannerisms or the nature of how he showed such exuberance in talking about how to counter the threat of Ziggler,Corbin and Owens. However, there was a resemblance there. Now it could simply be a one off, or we could have an issue next week where Zayn tries to cut corners in order to make things easier, or claim that he used to be an architect. However, maybe those ideas would be best used at another day and time.

#DumbA**Mark

It was an interesting hashtag. In fact, it was one that seems fitting and a good way to insult who it is directed towards. This past week, former WWE Champion Roman Reigns was faced with comment after commenting on Twitter that seemed to rub him the wrong way. The criticism he was facing was over the fact that he’s been in a position that he didn’t ‘deserve.’ Some criticized his personal sacrifice, or his commitment to his craft and being the absolute best that he can be. What was strange wasn’t necessarily the hashtag, although it’s actually pretty funny; it was that he as a face he was so snarky while addressing these comments publicly. We should note that as far as social media etiquette goes, talent is measured primarily on how they address the fans. For a face to start hashtagging ‘dumba**marks’ seemed a little strange. Now, if they will be moving Reigns towards the role of a tweener, then it’s understandable. However, there hasn’t really been any definable characteristics that make him heel, which is rather odd. That said, accusing him of not making the sacrifices as others when he’s been away from his wife and children consistently do sound like a fairly dumb thing to say. With no plans or matches slated at this point for Reigns, it seems as though the only thing left to do now is spitting back at those spitting at you.

This end’s Strange Things In Wrestling This Week with Marc Madison for the week of June 16th. (That title is certainly something that would go well with something less stinky and possibly sweet.) We covered everything from why SamiZayn came across like George Costanza to why Roman Reigns thinks some fans are dumbass marks, to a costumed wrestling bear, to why Bray Wyatt really shouldn’t call the kettle black when he talks to Seth Rollins, among other stories. We once again witnessed the awkwardness of the NoamDar and Alicia Fox on-screen relationship, and villains that came together when he couldn’t have predicted it. We had a number of instances we didn’t see coming and wouldn’t have predicted at the beginning of the week, in more than one promotion.

For Strange Things In Wrestling, this is Marc Madison saying, if you catch the strange things in wrestling, be sure to always make fun of them. It is why they are there.

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