This Week in Wrestling 2023 Week 6

Brian Damage

It’s Saturday and today we have ’This Week in Wrestling’, the 6th entry of 2023. Today Brian looks at the art of a really good promo and how that can make all the difference in selling a match to fans and shares all the best wrestling content from this week.

The Power of the Promo

I admit that I am not an avid viewer of Monday Night Raw in recent years. Three hours is just too long to invest in a show that has no real significance. It simply doesn’t flow as easily as Smackdown, Dynamite and other shows that are an hour or two hours maximum. Also, up until recently…the shows simply weren’t all that great. With that said, I happened to watch his week’s episode of Raw and it honestly flowed so much better than usual. Which is a great thing, so kudos to Triple H on that. There was one thing that really stood out on this past week’s show and that was the fantastic promo between Paul Heyman and Cody Rhodes.

Now it is really no surprise that Paul Heyman can deliver great promos. He has been doing that for many years now. Usually, it is Heyman who carries others on the microphone and guides us to different emotions. In this particular case, Cody was up for the challenge and kept on pace with Heyman making this, in my personal opinion, the best WWE promo of 2023 so far. It had everything you could ask for and took the fans and viewers on a rollercoaster of emotions. If you haven’t watched it yet, I really do encourage fans to find it and listen…it was that good. Wrestlers from all over, whether they were from WWE or elsewhere praised the promo on various forms of social media.

This might just be Cody’s “Hard Times” moment. Cody has had decent promos and some real stinkers in the past, but this one seemed to hit on all cylinders. It told a story, peeled back the curtain, both Heyman and Cody at different points were seen fighting back tears. It very well could have been an act, but it seemed authentic and that made it better. Promos have been overused in wrestling, especially in WWE, where there are countless promos and most seem generic at best. This one was special. It really sold the Cody Rhodes/Roman Reigns match at Wrestlemania. It also made many forget about the Roman Reigns vs. The Rock that was heavily rumored for months.

I do have two critiques about this promo and it has nothing to do with the content itself. First of all, I think it should have opened Raw instead of seemingly being held towards the end of the show. As I stated before, three hours of wrestling or sports entertainment is a long time and whether you are a casual fan or diehard fan…there is burn out after three hours. Secondly, I think the promo could have been done after the Elimination Chamber pay per view. It sorta bypasses that show and already looks ahead to Wrestlemania in Los Angeles. That is an injustice to Sami Zayn, who really earned this main event show in his hometown of Montreal. Zayn was a big reason that the Bloodline storyline has been so good for months now.

Other than that, the promo was still fantastic in my opinion and deserves the praise it has so far received.

Get Well Soon and May You Have A Speedy Recovery Jerry Lawler

Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler suffered a stroke earlier this week. Thankfully, it has been reported that doctors expect him to make a full recovery. That is amazing news considering his age and all. No doubt the King has 9 lives considering he already survived cardiac arrest a few years back as well.

Photo Gallery

The rumored WWE Hall of Fame Class for 2023

Cool artwork

This is a real magazine cover (Kinda looks like the late Dino Bravo)

A recent Randy Orton citing

Ric Flair’s granddaughter Morgan (Megan’s daughter)

Nikki Cross cleans up nice

Big John Studd’s son and Andre the Giant’s daughter

Barry Horowitz still looking jacked!

Cheryl Roberts and daughter back in the 1980’s

Breakfast of Champions!

Mount Rushmore of Luchadors

AEW’s Leila Grey

Rhea Ripley

Tay Melo

Candice Michelle

Cassie Lee

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Video Gallery

Here is a compilation of the late, “Leaping” Lanny Poffo’s WWF poems.

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