Rhodes’ gutsy performance
Heading into last Sunday’s Hell in a Cell show, it was announced that Cody Rhodes had torn his right pectoral muscle.
While it would lead to surgery, Rhodes made the choice to wrestle at Cell in the main event against Seth Rollins inside the Hell in a Cell structure.
It would have been understandable had Rhodes decided to not wrestle, but when he was told he could not do any more damage to the injured area, he decided to wrestle.
My hat’s off to Rhodes for his effort, and it is a career-defining moment for him.
One thing to look at is if the injury will derail Rhodes’ upcoming storylines.
He was the heavy odds-on favorite to win the Money in the Bank (MitB) briefcase championship contract, and the belief here is that he would have announced he was going to challenge the champion at WrestleMania.
Depending on the severity of Rhodes’ surgery, he could be out of action for up to six months.
It has been announced that Rhodes’ pectoral muscle was completely torn off the bone.
If Rhodes misses the July 2nd show, he will be all but a lock to win the Royal Rumble in January to earn the Mania title shot.
Punk also injured
Last Friday on Rampage, AEW champion CM Punk announced that he will also have surgery and will not be able to wrestle.
He had surgery this week on his foot and AEW will not strip him of the title.
It will crown an interim champion that Punk will eventually face upon his healthy return.
New AEW title
A few weeks ago, we looked at AEW having more titles on the way.
Wednesday evening, AEW announced the All-Atlantic championship had been created and is coming soon.
Sports and pro wrestling
This week’s crossover between pro wrestling and sports took place at Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and the Golden State Warriors.
For those familiar with the series, the Cs lead 2-1 going into Friday night’s Game 4.
While there were numerous situations in the game that could be covered, I will take a look at something that happened before the game.
I was there live, so I am not sure if this was visible on TV or not.
During the national anthem, Boston star Jayson Tatum stood at the end of the Celtics line, opposite the team bench.
Standing next to him? His son Deuce, who sits in the front row with Tatum’s mother at every home game.
It reminded me, in the world of pro wrestling, the countless times that wrestlers would go to their kids in the front row and hug them, or even have them walk to the ring like Shane McMahon did with his kids at WrestleMania 32.
This Week in History…
In 2005, WWE ran its first ECW PPV.
The show was considered the best of WWE’s ECW shows.
In 2007, WWE issued a press release pertaining to Vince McMahon’s limo being blown up on Raw the previous night.
WWE was going to move forward saying McMahon died in the “attack,” but the storyline was dropped within a week when news broke of the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide over the coming week.
This week’s question
Is the situation between AEW and MJF real? Bobby, Connellsville.
Last Wednesday on Dynamite, MJF gave a blistering promo towards AEW’s Tony Khan, and it had the wrestling world taking.
Since then, all recognition towards MJF has been removed from AEW, including merchandise, as per edict from Warner Bros., the company who runs TBS and TNT.
To answer your question, I think the situation is part of the show, but that Warner Bros. is truly upset.
I think things will smooth over eventually, setting up a hot return by MJF.
For those not familiar with MJF, he has said in countless interviews that he misses the days when he was a young fan and many fans thought wrestling was more real with numerous real-life storylines.
I think this is what MJF is trying to accomplish, to get fans buying that this whole ordeal is legit and not part of the show.
Email questions/comments to powerhousehughes@gmail.com or tweet them to @BillHughes_III.