Welcome back to another round of Quick Takes—a post that indulges in the topics that aren’t worth dedicating a full article to, but are still on my mind.
Each week, I try to cram in as many smaller talking points as I can via a speedier process, and I invite you to chime in with your own thoughts about these topics and anything else by keeping the discussion going in the comments below! Drop some more talking points in there for everyone to chat it up about, too!
Without further ado, let’s get into this week’s topics.
The Granddaddy of Them All is Becoming The Mommy of Them All
An unintentional running theme for The Road to WrestleMania these past two years has been pregnancy.
Even ignoring going back to Brie Bella giving birth to Birdie Joe a month after WrestleMania in 2017, last year, we had Becky Lynch wrestling while pregnant (most likely) at Mania and vacating her title afterward. This year, we had Lacey Evans having to bail from her storyline because she found out the good news a few weeks back. Now, we can add Charlotte Flair to the mix.
Andrade said in an interview that Flair was at first pulled from WrestleMania because the WWE doctor thought she was pregnant. She’s since found out that isn’t the case, but that derailed the secondary options for WrestleMania.
Isn’t it strange? Is this the universe saying something, wanting to make sure Evans vs Flair or anything similar to that is not on the card? Or has The Road to WrestleMania become an aphrodisiac? Should WWE start instituting a policy of telling people to at least try to hold the celebrating until after Mania?
AEW, meanwhile, jumped the gun with Renee Young and Brandi Rhodes in November and December. They were just too impatient to follow the pack, I guess.
Charly Caruso Arnolt
While no announcement was made to wish her well on her future endeavors, we can assume Charly Caruso is definitely gone from WWE as she’s now taken a full time position at ESPN.
I’ve been a big fan of Charly, and I think it’s a shame we have to see her go. However, I don’t blame her for going with ESPN in this scenario. That may be something she’s more passionate about and the work environment might suit her better. Also, if the hearsay is true that she’s been showing up late to work and all, maybe this has been a long time coming and both parties have been unhappy.
I don’t watch ESPN for anything, so I don’t know if I’ll ever check out anything else Charly does in her career, but I wish her the best.
IWGP World Heavyweight Championship Belt
The unified world title belt for New Japan Pro Wrestling is…well…
I’ll put it this way. If this were the design for a custom championship, I would think it was pretty neat. If this were a special gimmick title that had something to justify the more jagged V style, it could work. However, as it stands, I don’t like this and I think it’s a downgrade from what they had. That’s strange to me, as I normally don’t like rounder and more floral designs, but this is just too oddly shaped for the main belt of the company, in my mind. It gives me more of the butterfly Divas Championship vibe than it should.
AEW Loves Gambling
One of my complaints about AEW is that someone (maybe Tony Khan) is absolutely obsessed with gambling terms. Far, far too many gimmicks and stipulations are named after casino phrases to the point where I’m tired of everything revolving around that.
We have Double or Nothing, the Casino Battle Royale, the Casino Ladder Match, the Casino Tag Team Royale, the Deadly Draw tournament, and I’m honestly blanking on some others they’ve had, but it’s pretty much just gambling or the beach (Beach Break, Bash at the Beach, Fyter Fest’s set, etc).
Now, we have another gambling phrase with the house shows, which are being called The House Always Wins.
Not only is that just another boring casino name, it’s also too long of a title and not at all catchy. There are so many other “house” idioms and phrases you could use. Open House, House Call, Rock the House, Bring Down the House, or my personal pick of Rough House — Who am I kidding? We all know if they went with another name, it would be House of Cards just so they could put poker back into the mix.
What are your takes on these topics? Keep the discussion going in the comments below!