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Never assume, the old saying goes.
It makes an ass out of you and me.
Last night on WWE's Monday Night Raw, Cody Rhodes and CM Punk delivered an absolute tour de force segment to set up their rivalry this Saturday in the WWE Royal Rumble.
Each competitor represents the obstacle to keep the other from getting what they so desperately desire in their respective storylines.
For Cody, the chance to win the same championship his father coveted and dreamed of holding, a moment in time that could live forever in the time capsule for Cody and his family. The chance to finish the story.
For Punk, it's the moment to finally achieve the dream denied to him, one that he's publicly and privately dismissed at this point - to not just hold another WWE World title, but to do so in the main event of Wrestlemania, to enter that same time capsule and finally be fulfilled by being permanently etched into the pantheon.
I've referred to WWE's storytelling in the current era as "sophisticated nuance" on PWInsiderElite audio in recent months. It's a more mature type of storytelling, the type that not only dives a little deeper than the caricatures we'd sometimes see populate Raw and Smackdown to create more fully realized characters on our screen. It's also a strategy that allows the viewers to savor and digest the moments - a ploy that last night led to one of the best "go home" segments before a Royal Rumble on a Raw broadcast, because now, who doesn't want to see Cody and Punk go nose to nose in the ring this Saturday?
WWE basically teased the 21st century version of Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior going face to face in the 1990 Rumble, a rare babyface vs. babyface confrontation from that era. Just like then, when Punk and Cody have their interaction this weekend, no matter how limited it may or may not be, WWE has seeded their farm for future crops - and their audience is loving every second of it.
That's been the WWE way for some time now. Look at how many talents who have been resurrected or built into being far more compelling characters compared to where they were a year ago coming out of the 2022 Rumble event that saw backstage morale collapse like a crushed egg. Drew McIntyre. Jey Uso. Judgment Day. Shinsuke Nakamura. Zelina Vega. Chad Gable. Sami Zayn. R-Truth. Jimmy Uso. LA Knight. Bayley and so many others have risen upwards in popularity or in prominence thanks to that sophisticated nuance. Is everything perfect? No, it can never be, but there's no denying how successful the current direction and presentation has been for WWE.
Pro wrestling is very much about the moment at hand, athletic pop music hoping to make the consumer happy so that it sells tickets, drives ratings, moves merchandise, attracts streaming numbers and PPV buys and we're in the middle of a true zeitgeist moment for WWE, a moment that we saw play out with perfection last night with Rhodes and Punk.
The irony, of course, is that each of them were a major part at different times for AEW. Rhodes left due to what he will only refer to as a "personal issue" while still praising Tony Khan. He left AEW with a lot of people wondering what the hell happened, what next, and whether his brand had been damaged. Then, he walked about to fight Seth Rollins at Wrestlemania. Same guy, same character, same theme music and became one of the true heroes for modern day WWE fans.
CM Punk? Well, we know that story and we know how that story finished in AEW.
The thread that runs between Punk and Rhodes alike is that there was an assumption by some fans that wrote them off and discarded them forever. There were sizable groups of AEW fans rejecting Rhodes and then he was gone, but now he's blossomed into WWE's cover artist - literally - and the face of their community outreach and the bond they want their fans to have with the company. Superman had returned from Krypton.
Punk was written off by fans on social media as a broken man, someone who couldn't play well with others and who had been all but ejected from the thing he does best. Then, he walked out at Survivor Series and all that drama and anger and negativity was immediately irradiated away by the pure surge of energy and excitement of not just Chicago fans, but WWE fans seeing one of their own come "home" again - and what happened, on those same social media platforms that villainized him, Punk set WWE social media engagement records and sold hundreds of thousands of t-shirts overnight, smashing any assumptions into dust quicker then one could bellow "It's Clobbering Time!" Batman was home in Gotham City.
Anyone who thought either of these men were done, or ruined or had peaked were wrong, because they assumed.
You can't assume in professional wrestling.
There is no finite ending for it, or it's performers or it's fans.
There's always a next moment, a next show, a chance for most at redemption, not matter how dire or dark things may be in the moment. CM Punk and Cody Rhodes proved that again last night, playing off real life situations, some of which were obviously exaggerated to drive the dramatic fiction needed to grab the fans emotionally, but man, did they grab those fans, by the throat, and make them - us - all care.
Never assume.
There are people who have assumed for years that TNA, Impact Wrestling, was going to die, yet it's just had the most remarkable creative success in a long time with internal reports from sources declaring they did their best numbers in the 18-49 demo, empowered by talents who were inspired by the original incarnation of TNA that some scoffed at in its worst times and assumed would be long gone a long time ago, yet it's here, still fighting.
There are some assuming the sky is going to fall on New Japan Pro Wrestling because Kazuchika Okada is exiting, forgetting that historically, every exit means two things - the chance for other to stand up and evolve into the next star, and that every exit can always land as a prologue for an eventual, triumphant return. NJPW has been defined by lots of talents in different eras and it's on them to figure out what this next era can be. They survived after The Three Musketeers, they survived after Antonio Inoki. One has to think there's enough fighting spirit in the King of Sports to survive, even after Okada.
There are some ready to kick the dirt on AEW, even though the addition of Will Ospreay and possibly others could supercharge and freshen the company up, especially if Tony Khan does find "the feeling" again and regain some lost ground. Could it happen? Sure, just look at where WWE was in January of last year compared to now. We saw Dynamite's numbers jump last week thanks to Hook being in a main event role challenging Samoa Joe. Is he the guy? I don't know, but there's obviously at least a strong curiosity from the audience that watches AEW in him. Whether it's time to send Hook or Ospreay or Swerve Strickland to the top of the card, one hopes that AEW hits the right mix of discipline, luck and the right mix of talents and story. A little sophisticated nuance does wonders and two strong promotions on major broadcast platforms would be wonderful in a perfect world.
MLW looked to be in dire straits in some ways as it charged its attorneys at WWE, but now, post-legal settlement, it's expanded its schedule and brought in more names, some former WWE talents, some international stars, seeking to right its ship and return its focus to its own product, instead of other distractions. Can it strengthen and enlarge it's footprint? Time will tell, but they have more of a fighting chance now vs. a year ago.
How many times over the years did it appear Ring of Honor was going to die, yet as it bounced from owner to owner over the decades, it built a legacy as a place where stars go to be made, no different from the old territories many decades ago?
There's always going to be moments of success and defeat. If you've following pro wrestling long enough, you know promotions rise and fall and talents grow and stumble. That's not just pro wrestling. That's life, but through it all, one should never assume.
All things, all promotions, all talents are finite, but each moment eventually passes to the next and as long as there is oxygen in the room and fans willing to hang on, there's always the potential for the next chapter to be better than the one before it.
Remember, there were some who assumed CM Punk and Cody Rhodes at times, had passed their peak, were exiled, it was over for them, whatever the criticisms that came from the poison pen that is social media knee-jerk reactions, but last night proved one thing.
If you truly love professional wrestling, never, ever assume.
Whether it be on camera and behind the scenes, the story - with apologies to Mr. Rhodes - is never, ever finished.
Everyone loves a great redemption story. Even the ones who once declared you dead. We watched two intersect on Raw last night and man, how great was that?
Mike Johnson can be reached at MikeJohnsonPWInsider@gmail.com.
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