This Week in Wrestling 2023 Week 34

Brian Damage

It’s Saturday and today we have ’This Week in Wrestling’, the 34th entry of 2023. Today Brian takes a look at one of the biggest shows not only in AEW history, but pro wrestling history and shares all the best wrestling content from this week.

Why All Wrestling Fans Should Be All In

After months of talk and speculation and everything else around it…’All In’ at Wembley Stadium is finally upon us. In many ways, the card wasn’t built up all that great, but really what does it matter, when you still fill the stadium up with over 80 thousand plus fans! What makes this all the more remarkable, is that this wasn’t a WWE/Vince McMahon production. This came from Tony Khan and AEW. who were willing to take a big risk and it seemingly has paid off.

Now for weeks, I have heard a lot of back and forth arguing from both AEW and WWE fans about this event. The bottom-line is, it is good for professional wrestling as a whole to have another company do what they are doing in London on Sunday. If you are a true wrestling fan and want to see the business continue to thrive and succeed, then just be happy for the wrestlers or most of them that this is actually happening. You do not have to be an AEW loyalist or a WWE fanatic to actually just appreciate what will happen on Sunday.

Tribalism gets people nowhere…very much like politics. One side can post all the facts and figures and articles they want about the other side and it will do no good. Nobody can change another person’s mind about how they feel about a certain something they have a love for. The best thing to do as a fan whether you want to support All In by buying a ticket or purchasing the show on pay per view…is just be positive. This is without question a huge period in the history of pro wrestling, bigger than the Attitude Era and the Monday Night Wars, perhaps even bigger than the Rock N Wrestling era as well.

Forget about TV ratings, because it is all segmented with the birth of streaming and YouTube and every other way you can watch a show. Will this boom last? Probably not, so enjoy the ride as a fan. WWE needs competition and AEW needs WWE to be successful. It is what is best for business.

Farewell to The Funker

2023 has certainly taken its share of pro wrestling legends like ‘Superstar’ Billy Graham, The Iron Sheik, Adrian Street and most recently…Terry Funk. I know the term legend gets thrown a lot in terms of when someone dies, but Funk was indeed a true legend of pro wrestling. He inspired countless wrestlers over his career and while perfectly playing the role of a crazy, hardcore old man…was a true gentleman.

Funk not only was a star in the squared circle, but successfully crossed over to the mainstream of Hollywood. A man who wasn’t afraid to constantly reinvent himself to stay relevant in a very cutthroat type of business. There were many jokes about how many times Funk would retire and then comeback a few months later of his career. In a lot of ways, I will miss that and wish that Funk would make one last comeback. He did live one hell of a life and had a bonafide Hall of Fame career. Farewell Terry Funk…you will be missed by so many.

Rest in Peace Bray Wyatt

The WWE and wrestling world lost another brother as Windham Rotunda aka Bray Wyatt passed suddenly this week. He was just 36 years old. Details surrounding his death are reportedly due to contracting Covid earlier in the year which aggravated a heart issue. He died of a heart attack. Rotunda was a third generation wrestler who successfully reinvented himself several times over his career. While in WWE’s developmental system, he had gone from Duke Rotundo to Axl Mulligan to Husky Harris. It wasn’t until he and the late Dusty Rhodes created the Bray Wyatt gimmick that his career really started to take off. It made him into an attraction within WWE. From the cult like leader of the Wyatt family, to the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde personas of the host of the Firefly Funhouse and the monster known as the Fiend.

From all accounts, Rotunda was extremely passionate about the wrestling business and very creative. The build up to his WWE return was so well done, even though the pay off struggled to deliver at times.

This was a wrestler who truly had the whole world in his hands. His final words to his fans on social media before he passed…Bray wrote:

Rest in Peace young man and walk with the Fireflies.

Photo Gallery

The Wyatt Family

Rey Mysterio and his daughter

Rikishi with a brand new look

Could this be in Adam Copeland’s future?

Yeah!

This is Al Snow at age 60!

Oops!

NXT’s Cora Jade got ummm….bigger?

Exhibit B Cup

Busta Rhymes and 50 Cent get WWE titles to commemorate 50 years of Hip Hop

Awesome art

Bianca Belair

Impact’s Masha Slamovich

NXT’s Blair Davenport

Maryse

NWA women’s Champ Kamile Brickhouse

WWE backstage interviewer Cathy Kelley

Kayla Braxton

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NSFW Viewer Discretion is Strongly Advised.

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Nikki Bella (look very closely)

Catalina Hager

Jenni

Carmella

CJ Perry

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Safety!!!

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Video Gallery

Terry Funk…FOREVER!

The Best Pizza There Was, The Best Pizza There is and The Best Pizza There Ever Will Be! (Probably not…but still!)

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