My Breaking Point

If you read this blog over this past year and a half, you have probably noticed how conflicted I've been about WWE's main roster. Despite having the most talented roster in company history, the product is the worst it has ever been in my opinion — and I watched through John Cena's entire reign of terror. 

Although I knew the product was at its worst, I still hung on. There are still a bunch of talented wrestlers in the company. There were a couple storylines that I actually enjoyed. There was still hope — or so I thought.

I can confirm that after almost 16 years of watching, WWE has finally broken my resolve. I no longer have the will to watch a product that so vehemently despises its audience. It's not worth wasting my time, money, and brainpower on a wrestling show booked by an out-of-touch lunatic that has no desire to change with the times.

So what got me to this point? What made this rabid wrestling fan turn on the company that got him into pro wrestling in the first place?

Well, it was the main event of Hell in a Cell 2019. Seth Rollins was set to defend his Universal Championship against "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt in the titular structure. 

Leading up to this match, Wyatt's Fiend persona was built up to be a movie monster. This meant he was both physically unstoppable and psychologically terrifying. In fact, The Fiend's mask looked to be inspired by horror movie classics and he carried a lantern made of his former self's severed head. The aesthetic was there, his debut match blew everybody away, and he was used sparingly to build the mystique. There was no way in hell WWE could have screwed this up.

Long story short, they did. And in glorious fashion too.

Objectively, Seth Rollins vs. The Fiend was a good match. Hell, it was an excellent match. 

Built around making The Fiend look absolutely indestructible, the match did its job to perfection. Rollins literally hit The Fiend with everything but the kitchen sink — and The Fiend kept kicking out. Fifteen plus curb stomps, kendo stick shots to the ribs, multiple weapon shots to the head, nothing could put The Fiend down for the count. 

Then the ending happened. 

With The Fiend's head buried under a ladder, steel chair, and metal toolbox, Rollins decided to take a sledgehammer to his opponent's cranium. Before swinging the sledgehammer, the referee stepped in to tell Rollins that "This is not who you are". After a minute of inner turmoil, Rollins used the sledgehammer to strike The Fiend's head. As Rollins made contact with the pile of weapons, the ref called for the DQ — in a fucking Hell in a Cell match where there are no rules!

While the ending was horrid, the post-match was even worse. As chants of "AEW", "Restart the match", and "Refund" rang through the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, The Fiend would resurrect to attack Rollins. This attack ended with The Fiend applying the Mandible Claw as fake blood poured out of Rollins like a fountain. 

At that very moment, the entire mystique, terror, and wonder surrounding The Fiend dissipated as I began to laugh. Not the reaction you want for your horror movie monster. 

The Fiend officially jumped the shark. And with that, I officially jumped ship.

I've been angry at WWE booking before. Hell, I lived through the 2014 and 2015 Royal Rumbles, Brock Lesnar's stranglehold of the Universal Championship, and the insufferable Roman Reigns push. In fact, you can look back into the archives of this very blog to find most of them. 

What makes this one different is WWE isn't the only game in town anymore. Look at NXT, AEW, New Japan, Stardom, Impact, PWG, or many others around the globe. There is a promotion to satisfy any fan of professional wrestling. 

So, I'm done clogging up my time to keep up with supposed "big leagues" when it doesn't satisfy me anymore.

The Last Report?

Over the past month, I've been doing a lot of thinking about this blog.

Like I mentioned before, I restarted The Silver Report as an outlet for my writing. I wasn't getting much of a chance to write in my job, so I thought it'd be best to do some on my own. While my intentions were more for self-improvement, I enjoy writing, especially writing about topics that I have a passion for, such as professional wrestling.

But ever since WrestleMania (maybe even slightly before it), I've found that The Silver Report was feeling more and more like a job instead of a creative outlet. And I didn't want that to happen. I wanted it to be a place for me to experiment with my writing and to have fun — not feel like I'm still on the clock.

Add in the fact that my list of wrestling to watch is growing at a rapid rate, one man just doesn't have enough time to watch all that wrestling along with work, a social life, and other hobbies. It was hard enough to watch all of the New Japan tournaments in 2018, but they seem to be getting longer each year. For example, this year's Best of the Super Juniors tournament had a good 30 matches more than last year.

Plus, the horrid post-WrestleMania output from WWE's main roster has me completely rethinking how I follow the main roster while keeping my sanity. I think only watching the PPVs and catching the highlights fo Raw and Smackdown from podcasts and YouTube clips might be the best.

So, what does this all mean?

Well, I'm going to take a hiatus from writing here on The Silverdome. I don't know how long it will be. In the meantime, I'm thinking of ideas to retool the writing style of this blog to provide as much content without working me to the bone.

With that said, I would like to thank everybody who has read The Silver Report, clicked on my social media posts about it, and shared in this passion with me. I hope it brought you some enjoyment and helped broaden your view of professional wrestling.

Must-See Matches of May

Before I end this, I wasn't going to skip out on a Must-See Matches for May. Considering I'm about halfway through the Super Juniors, I'll update the article with any other must-see matches from the tournament.

5/4/2019
Wrestling Dontaku Night 2
Evil vs. Tomohiro Ishii

5/8/2019
NXT
Adam Cole vs. Matt Riddle

5/13/2019
Best of the Super Jr. 26 Night 1
Shingo Takagi vs. Sho

5/15/2019
Best of the Super Jr. Night 3
Dragon Lee vs. Sho

5/16/2019
Best of the Super Jr. Night 4
Will Ospreay vs. Rocky Romero

5/19/2019
Money in the Bank
AJ Styles vs. Seth Rollins

5/23/2019
Best of the Super Jr. Night 8
Will Ospreay vs. Bandido
Dragon Lee vs. Shingo Takagi

5/25/2019
Double or Nothing
Lucha Bros vs. Young Bucks
Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho

The Silver Report: January 2019

As has become tradition, January starts the new year with high drama and excitement. Great matches, interesting storylines, and big news all seem to happen within January's 31 days. This January, in particular, has felt even more exciting. Thanks to the introduction of All Elite Wrestling (which I will get to in just a moment), wrestling fans are clamouring for information as rumours fly about wrestlers looking to branch out from WWE and news of major signings become a daily occurrence.

To summarize, it's a great time to be a wrestling fan as promotions jockey for your time and money by putting on the best product they possibly can. It's an even better time to be a fan of the inner workings of this industry as companies fight tooth-and-nail to secure talent and solidify their place in this new wrestling landscape.


No matter what side of pro wrestling you enjoy, we're in an exciting time as the industry stands on the precipice of another boom period.

Going All Elite

In late 2018, rumours surfaced that the Young Bucks and Cody were looking to start a new wrestling promotion off the heels of All In's success. With the financial backing of Tony Khan, co-owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars and long-time wrestling fan, this new promotion would be called All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and had trademarks set for a number of potential shows.

While these rumours were swirling, an interesting storyline was playing out on Being the Elite. One by one the cast found a mysterious timer on their phone; a timer that looked to run out on New Year's Day. Originally believed to be WWE courting the cast members, that possibility was thrown out when the Bucks denied the offer with a superkick to Triple H lookalike.

So when the clock struck midnight on New Year's, a special episode of Being the Elite was uploaded to YouTube. The episode saw the Bucks, Cody, and Hangman Page meet in front of the Tokyo Dome as the timer ran out. Once time expired, the logo for AEW appeared on the Bucks' and Cody's phones while Page revealed a logo for an event called Double or Nothing, which was rumoured to be the follow-up to All In.

Despite the sparse reveal, wrestling fans only had to wait eight days for more information as the company held a press conference in front of TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville. At the conference, Cody, Brandi, and the Bucks gave some insight into their vision for AEW including equal pay for all employees no matter gender and wins/losses having weight. Plus, the likes of Britt Baker, So Cal Uncensored, Joey Janela, PAC, and Chris Jericho were revealed as AEW's first signings.

While there are still a lot of unknowns at this very moment, the introduction of AEW into the current wrestling landscape is incredibly exciting. With the financial backing of the Khan family — who is worth more than the McMahons — AEW looks to be more than willing to spend top money on their talent, production, and marketing. Add in the fact that key parts of the company, such as the booking and talent relations, are being handled by wrestlers that know the business, it truly feels like something special is brewing in All Elite.

Source: WhatCulture

Trouble for New Japan?

When it comes to Wrestle Kingdom, New Japan knows how to deliver an incredible show. From unpredictable results to awe-inspiring matches, this year's offering was four-plus hours of wrestling bliss, bookended by two early match of the year candidates. Every title changed hands, the Elite was completely shut-out — most likely indicating the end of their working relationship with New Japan — four foreign stars got big wins, and Hiroshi Tanahashi completed his comeback by becoming the first G1 winner to successfully cash-in their title shot for heavyweight championship gold.

Despite an incredibly newsworthy Wrestle Kingdom, New Year's Dash was a rather tame show. Unlike previous years, there were no big angles or major shake-ups to the status quo. The only real surprise to speak of was Yoshi-Hashi's return from injury. Although new feuds were set in motion for February's New Beginning tour, everything felt like an extension of what was happening at the end of 2018. In all honesty, that isn't a bad thing as New Japan's booking builds over the months and years — it just felt weird.

Instead of building on the big upswing of momentum that was Wrestle Kingdom 13, New Japan feels like they're in the middle of a transition. With the Elite on their way to AEW, Kota Ibushi currently out with a concussion, Kushida leaving for WWE, and Chris Jericho's future with the company up the air, New Japan's roster has taken a considerable hit. While New Japan might be hurting at the moment, they are building for the future, especially with their foreign talent. Gedo has four men selected to be New Japan's big foreign stars in Jay White, Juice Robinson, Will Ospreay, and Zack Sabre Jr. Considering each of them had huge wins at Wrestle Kingdom and are all set to be permanent fixtures in the upper mid-card and main event scenes for the foreseeable future, they will eventually fill the current void. It will just take time.

Source: New Japan Pro-Wrestling

Must-See Matches of January

1/4/2019
Wrestle Kingdom 13
Kota Ibushi vs. Will Ospreay
Chris Jericho vs. Tetsuya Naito - No DQ Match
Kenny Omega vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

1/5/2019
New Year's Dash
Will Ospreay, Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto vs. Jeff Cobb, Kushida & Yuji Nagata

1/12/2019
NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool
Mustache Mountain vs. Zack Gibson & James Drake

1/15/2019
Smackdown
Andrade vs. Rey Mysterio

1/23/2019
NXT
Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch vs. Marcel Barthel & Fabian Aichner

1/26/2019
NXT TakeOver: Phoenix
Johnny Gargano vs. Ricochet
Tommaso Ciampa vs. Aleister Black

1/27/2019
Royal Rumble
Women's Royal Rumble Match
Brock Lesnar vs. Finn Balor
Men's Royal Rumble Match