Hey yo.

Welcome to For The Pop, exclusively on www.totallybuzzed.co.uk. Let me introduce myself and the purpose of this column in the briefest way possible. I’m Laura and I’ve watched pro wrestling since the late 90s, and just like any wrestling fan on the internet, I have opinions. While most will just use Twitter to yell them into the void, I thought I’d be more productive and not limit myself to a 280 character limit by posting them on a website instead.

As for the column, you can expect opinions on wrestling news topics of the day, shows or matches that I’ve recently watched, and everything in between. This also means my column will reference WWE, AEW, MLW, and sometimes if the stars align, other companies.

Now with so much wrestling having taken place in the last week, where to begin…

Cody Rhodes

Cody Rhodes is back and his promo on RAW made it clear *wipes tear* that he has his sights set on the WWE title. Given how emotional and feel-good Cody winning the world title would feel, I think WWE should take the audience on a rollercoaster journey getting to that moment. I realise I’m asking for WWE to have a long-term plan for a wrestler, which hasn’t felt like their strong point for a long time but picture it.

There are plenty of heels for Cody to have angles with before getting to Roman Reigns, and they’ll effectively act as hurdles for him to overcome before the company are ready to pull the trigger. You can even have a match with Roman at the midway point for the title, where he goes as close as he possibly can to beating Roman but he loses by the smallest margin. This would plant the seed of doubt in everyone’s head that WWE will ever pull the trigger on Cody being world champion. Think Jeff Hardy’s journey to winning his first WWE Championship at Armageddon 2008 or Dolph Ziggler’s world title win from when he cashed in on Alberto Del Rio. Despite Ziggler cashing in on an injured Del Rio, due to the way Ziggler had lost matches he should have won previously there was still doubt in your mind that he’d win. When he did finally beat Del Rio the pop was huge as it was like holy hell he’s actually done it. When really it should have felt inevitable that he’d hold the World Heavyweight Championship again, the moment he won the Money In The Bank briefcase.

Also, this long tease and slow build would hopefully stop fickle fans from turning on Cody as based on history, it’s hard not to see fans potentially turning on Cody if WWE hotshot the title onto him anytime soon. Just because they’ll feel like he’s effectively been handed the keys to the kingdom upon re-signing and bemoan the inevitability of the moment.

Samoa Joe

What a signing by AEW this is. AEW may have made quite a few notable signings in recent times, yet Samoa Joe hits differently for me. Every match he could possibly have under the AEW banner or ROH banner feels like it would be money, whether that be a never-before-seen match or him reigniting previous feuds from days gone past.

I’ve been trying to work out why I feel this way. As while I like Joe, I wouldn’t classify myself as a massive Samoa Joe fan, and I think I’ve worked it out.

Having Joe spend so long on my television not wrestling i.e commentating on RAW, it just seemed to fuel this want to see him wrestling as I was constantly thinking I’d rather Joe was in the ring here or how cool would it be if Joe would get off commentary and fight X. And while he did have a brief second run on NXT, it wasn’t enough to scratch that Samoa Joe wrestling itch.

So here’s hoping AEW keep the matches coming thick and fast for Joe whether that be under the AEW or ROH banner.

NXT – When in doubt…take a hostage?

What is it with NXT and kidnapping storylines? NXT may be on its third iteration at this point, but history keeps repeating itself.

This week’s NXT 2.0 ended with Joe Garcy and Harland revealing to Bron Breakker that they had tied up his father, Rick Steiner, and put him in a cage before implying they were going to “teach him” some new tricks.

Yet while this should be a “shocking” storyline, NXT sure does love a kidnapping storyline to such a point, I’m just like…standard NXT.

Does no one remember Johnny Curtis (aka Fandango) chloroforming Matt Striker, only for him and Maxine to get a hostage letter regarding Striker as someone took him out of the trunk they stuck him in???

Or how about the fact Legado Del Fantasma started from a kidnap angle as masked men took Joaquin Wilde and Raul Mendoza from the NXT car park. Granted that ended up being a ruse, but still, it started with people just being casually abducted. Also while on the subject of the NXT car park, it wasn’t that long ago that Kay Lee Rae drove off with Toxic Attraction trapped in the back of her car.

Then there’s the memorable storyline in recent times that saw Dexter Lumis kidnap Austin Theory, only for him to like the time they spent together.

So at this point, if you’re in NXT and not at risk of being kidnap, maybe you should take that personally.

If you’ve enjoyed For The Pop, be sure to follow @TotallyBuzzedUK on Twitter or/and @BuzzedWrestling on Twitter so you don’t miss the next edition. Also if you wanna come moan at me or hopefully just simply debate my opinion – then @ing either account will get you noticed. Until next time.