The Daily Chinlock

Sunday Mornings with the Nitro: 5/15/2022

Paul “The Nitro” Skivers

Welcome to this week’s edition of Sunday Mornings with the Nitro and we thank you for joining us. I want to talk about the top news story of the week and that is Roman Reigns making a speech in basically saying that he is cutting back on his schedule to a part-time schedule. This means that he will not be at most of the television and live events. With that be announced, I want to take a look at the pros and cons of this decision as far as the WWE is concerned, so let us begin with the Pros.

Pro: Roman Reigns will lengthen his career in the ring by wrestling fewer matches. This would mean that Roman will have more time to heal himself mentally and physically and not suffer from burnout like any other superstar that would be in this position. Also, he will be at his best during the big matches on television or pay-per-view events.

Pro: The anticipation of seeing Roman Reigns on the card will excite the fans as to seeing what happens when Roman shows up and wrestles at the event. Whenever Roman is announced to be at the show, it will be more likely that the fan will tune it on television or going out and buy a ticket to see him live.

Pro: Roman’s absence will make the roster work harder to be the next in line to face Roman. The increase in competition will be the driving force behind some of the potential matches that will get the fans about that particular wrestler and whether he has a chance of beating Roman for the title.

With the pros of this decision, there are cons that are also part of the issue. Let us take a look at the cons of this decision:

Con: Who will be the superstar to step up and will it be a good idea in hindsight. We have seen how “creative” has dropped the ball in certain situations and go with the old stand buys that are hoping to make it work again. However, this is a direct telegraph to the fans in the message that they have no one on the roster who can pose a legitimate threat to Roman and boost the attendance at a card.

Con: The balance and marketability of an event on pay-per-view or television show can determine whether the fans pay attention to the product or not, even if Roman is or is not on the card. If the card sucks to the audience and the stars are not bringing enough interest to the audience (ex. Kevin Owens vs. Ezekiel) for investing into the product, then why pay attention at all?!

Con: The integrity of the Unified Universal Title will be in jeopardy. With Roman going part-time in his schedule, the integrity of the title would be in jeopardy. I believe in the 30-day rule, where a champion must defend his title at least once in a 30-day period. Unfortunately, the WWE do not prescribe to that rule and will have a Universal title match once every 4 months. In my opinion, this will lower the integrity of the title and make it a secondary title like the US Title where the fans take it for granted.

Now, I would like to hear from you. Are you on the pro side or on the con side of this issue? Is this a good decision for Roman to go part-time in his schedule? You can make a comment below this column. With that in mind, that will do it for this edition of Sunday Mornings with the Nitro. Until next Sunday Morning, have a great week everyone!

Sunday Mornings with the Nitro: 5/8/2022

Paul” The Nitro” Skivers

Welcome to this edition of Sunday Mornings with the Nitro. Thank you for joining us and Happy Mother’s Day! This week, I want to focus on New Japan Pro Wrestling and the forbidden door pay-per-view in June with AEW that is now sold out. I feel that this will be bigger than when New Japan worked with Ring of Honor at Madison Square Garden in 2019 that was also sold out on WrestleMania weekend and her are several reasons why the Forbidden Door pay per view will be bigger for New Japan Pro Wrestling as far as their US spotlight.

AEW is the top wrestling organization in the US and being that New Japan is the biggest in Japan, this is a great pairing. AEW has major recognition by the fans throughout the US and will feature New Japan more prominently throughout Dynamite and Rampage. They have already featured New Japan talent on their show as Ishii competed in an Owen Hart foundation tournament qualifier match and no doubt will be more of these stars will be on television.
The roster of both organizations could provide some intriging matches including Okada vs. Punk and Danielson vs. Naito. Unlike the previous outing in MSG, there is more opprotunities to have a real well rounded card that will get the fans attention. They are extremely interested in the card before the matches are announced by the fact that the show is all ready sold out.
The worldwide exposure to the US Media will be huge as podcasters, writers and media of Pro Wrestling will devote a great deal of time and energy in promoting this event and the press junkets for the event will be huge. In essence, the New Japan show on AXs TV will draw in more ratings and possible ventures would open for more of NJPW prescence in the US for a long time.

In closing, I am looking forward to Forbidden Door in June and there is a strong possibility that there will be more ventures of NJPW in the US in the near future. It would be a welcoming sign for wrestling fans worldwide. With that in mind, that will do it this week for Sunday Mornings with the Nitro. Thank you for joining us and we will see you next Sunday Morning. Have a great week.

Sunday Mornings with the Nitro- 4/24/2022

Paul ” The Nitro” Skivers

Welcome to this edition of Sunday Mornings with the Nitro. Today, I want to do a brief column on two new columns that is coming to my website-www.saturdaynightwiththenitro.com on May 8th. They are as followed:

Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down- Mondays: This column will look back at the week in wrestling and I give 4 wrestlers the thumbs up and 4 wrestles thumbs down. They will be based on whether their actions warrant a Thumbs Up for something good and productive or Thumbs Down for something bad or detrimental to wrestling. It does not matter if it moves their career forward or backward, it is how it affects the overall outlook on pro wrestling.

2. Halftime Thoughts- Wednesdays: This column is where I give random thoughts on what is going on halfway thru the week and give my thoughts on the matter. The deadline for these thoughts will be Wednesday Morning, which will cover Smackdown, Rampage, any pay-per-views with AEW or WWE and Raw.

These columns will only be available on my website, but I will continue to write this column here on the Daily Chinlock and it will also be available on my website-Nitro Connection.

With that in mind, I will not be having a new column next Sunday as I will be attending the Drydene 400 Nascar Race at Dover International Speedway. I will be back in two weeks with a new column. Until then, thanks for joining us and have a great week!

Sunday Mornings with the Nitro- 4/17/2022

Paul ” The Nitro” Skivers

Welcome to another edition of Sunday Mornings with the Nitro. Thanks for joining us and today, we have an interesting happening that I would like to discuss and that is the war between the fans of AEW and the fans of the WWE Universe. It is an interesting feud as the fans themselves are getting the push, because they are the ones that pay the bills of the wrestlers that they cheer for by attending the shows. Believe it or not, this is not the first time that this has occurred and we have to go back to 1999 with ECW.

In the spring of 1999, ECW was on national television on TNN and were on a roll and the fans were always one of the main reasons for watching. However, the fandom was taken to the next level when the fans of New York starting to chant “Philly Sucks”. Of course, Philadelphia fans had to respond back with “F&^&%$$ New York”. This has tremendous heat as the New York fans looked down on the blue-collar fans of Philadelphia and felt that New York has the best fans in the world. Meanwhile, the philly fans hated New York as they were the headquarters of sports entertainment and overinflated egos. This situation lasted only a few months with no real winner booked and that was a missed opportunity by ECW.

I would never see that type of feud again until the day Cody Rhodes decided to leave AEW for WWE and the same elements came back again, but it is now between two organizations. Apparently, the AEW fans want Cody to fail to prove that they were right all along, and they feel that the WWE is “sports entertainment” and is too much of a joke to be taken seriously. It also does not help that Vince McMahon tries to wrestle in a match at 75 years old at WrestleMania this year. Meanwhile, the WWE Universe feels that AEW is an “outlaw mud show”(reference comes from Jim Cornette) and is a dumpster fire of an organization who uses former WWE stars to get a rating and have no real talent.

I feel that this is a unique situation and both companies can use to their advantage with small angles where a wrestler says something about another organization’s fans and off to the races we go. One thing to keep in mind is for the organization to keep an eye on the fan’s comments so taht it does not go too far to the point of being obscene and offensive. If this is done right, then it would be an asset for more fans to attend the live events and watch their television shows each week. We will see what happens if they continue with this route.

With that in mind, that will do it for this edition of Sunday Mornings with the Nitro. Thanks for joining us and we will see you next Sunday Morning. Have a good week.

Sunday Mornings with the – 4/10/2022

Paul ” The Nitro” Skivers

Welcome to this edition of Sunday Mornings with the Nitro. With WrestleMania in the books, I feel that with a week to digest everything, I want to give a few observations about the WWE going towards WrestleMania Backlash on May 8th.

With Roman Reigns being the unifies Universal Champion, the next step for the Bloodline is for the Usos to unify the Raw and Smackdown tag team titles. Unfortunately, this is going to lead to overexposure for the faction and with the competition at a subpar level these days, the angle is going to get stale by the middle of Summer. The fans are going to get a little tired of the same rhetoric each week and most of the promos will be done on Smackdown. In the end, the stock of Roman Reigns, Paul Heyman and the Usos will be going down, because you only given so much time by the fans to stay on top until they decide to move on.
With all due respect, the WWE has given up on Raw completely. Even with the addition of Cody Rhodes and the feud between Lynch and Belair, the fans do not really care for anything else that is being presented on Raw. A good example is Kevin Owens, where in my mind he became the new “Stone Cold” and had the best match with Steve Austin on Night 1 of WrestleMania to now getting interrupted by Elias … oops I meant to say Ezekiel- Elias’ younger brother?! It looks like “Creative” has made their decree through that segment that Raw is near an end and they prefer Smackdown and that they hate working Monday Nights!
Bianca Belair is in an uphill battle to bring credibility to the Raw womens division after her feud with Becky Lynch is over, because the rest of the Raw womens roster is lacking. Rhea Ripley is probably going to betray Liv Morgan and feud with her, Lacey Evans will be in a promo till the summer and then will be in the mid-card and the other ladies have not really impressed me as a contender. I hope that will change soon, but I highly doubt it.
Rhonda Rousey will beat Charlotte Flair at Backlash in an I quit match, but she will be a short term champion. She just does not have the sizzle to keep my attention as a champion. The whole MMA submission type of wrestler only has a certain shelf life of a few months before fans begin to say “Ok and…” with the thought of wanting to be entertained with something else. If Charlotte remains champion, expect Raquel Gonzalez, who was just called up to be the next contender in line for a title shot.
Finally, I feel it is time for Sami Zayn to get his release from WWE. His career has been damaged beyond control with losing the worst match of all time to Johnny Knoxville (by the way, Johnny is not a wrestler!) and it is time to go to another organization like Impact to rehab and resuscitate his career into a positive direction with respect. Otherwise, he will be a total joke in the Smackdown roster, and his time will be over sooner than later in the WWE.

With that in mind, that will end this edition of Sunday Mornings with the Nitro. Thank you for joining us and we will see you next Sunday Morning. Have a great week.

Sunday Mornings with the Nitro- The Real Road to WrestleMania- The Final Day

Paul ” The Nitro” Skivers

Welcome everyone to the final day of the Real Road to WrestleMania on Sunday Mornings with the Nitro. With this being the final day, I would like to offer some final thoughts on WrestleMania.

I have a funny feeling that the KO show with Steve Austin as a guest will overshadow Brock vs. Roman as the moment of WrestleMania this year. It is the unknown intangible of whether we see Steve Austin fight Kevin Owens in a match that would lead out of the KO show. Besides, this is Steve Austin in Dallas, Texas and I do not think that Roman or Brock will outshine the rattlesnake in his backyard.
The womens matches that will dominate the first night of WrestleMania is a golden opportunity for the women to make the spotlight their own, because of the KO show and Brock vs. Reigns is going to be the most talked about subjects Monday morning. I feel that Becky vs. Bianca and Charlotte vs. Rhonda will bring some excitement to the fans and it will be interesting to see how the matches turn out.
Celebrity involvement in this event will bring down the project unless they show some skill and the desire to treat the sport as real as they can get because the fans will see right through the fake persona and boo them out of the building.
I do not know why Ricochet vs. Los Lotharios and the Andre Memorial Battle Royal is on Smackdown before WrestleMania insteasd of putting it on the pre-game show. Also, I hope that this pre-game show is not 2 hours of complete wasted boredom. If they do, they should be ashamed of themselves for not doing a better job using less time.
On a final note, I want to congratulate all the inductees to the WWE Hall of Fame this year. Each legend has earned their right to be inducted. SO, raise a glass and wish them well on their induction.

With that in mind, this will officially end the Road to WrestleMania here on Sunday Mornings with the Nitro. I enjoyed doing this series again this year and I will be doing this type of series again this summer with the Road to Summerslam. On behalf of myself, I hope you enjoy WrestleMania this year. I will be taking this Sunday off because of Night 2 of WrestleMania. I will be back on April 10th with our regular column every Sunday. Until then, thanks for joining us and have a great day.

Sunday Mornings with the Nitro- The Real Road to WrestleMania: Day 30

Paul ” The Nitro” Skivers

Welcome to Day 30 of the Real Road to WrestleMania on Sunday Mornings with the Nitro. As we begin to end the road to WrestleMania, I want to offer some random thoughts on AEW and other promotions as they enter WrestleMania weekend. Here are my thoughts:

As mentioned this past week, AEW needs to do something big for WrestleMania week and tonight is the night to hit the homerun. A surprise world title match of pay-per-view quality or a super hot bout that people want to see is the ticket to success. If Tony can pull this off tonight, then the attention of the WWE Universe will be diverted to AEW.
The NWA is doing a good job with the Crockett Cup, in which the Briscoe Brothers won and a solid world title match between Matt Cardona and Nick Aldis. However, they need to step it up a little bit more this weekend by competiting on another promotions card. This will give more recognition to fans that have not seen or cared about the NWA. it will be very invaluable for the organization if they do compete this weekend.
I am anticipating how Ring of Honor will do under new ownership of Tony Khan and the Briscoe Brothers vs. FTR will be the match of the weekend, maybe even better than Brock vs. Lesnar. It will no doubt be a strong contender for Match of the Year. Also, there will be a strong undercard around this match, so this will be a succesful relaunch of Ring of Honor and the WWE will need to pay attention.
Finally, I wish all the other promotions that are putting on cards on WrestleMania weekend all the luck in the world of putting on a good show. These promotions are putting all there energy into the cards they present and it will no doubt be a fresh alternative if you have too much of a WWE overload before WrestleMania begins.

With that in mind, that will do it for Day 30 of the Real Road to WrestleMania. Tomorrow, we end our journey by giving my final thoughts on WrestleMania. Until then, thanks for joining us and have a great day!

Sunday Mornings with the Nitro- The Real Road to WrestleMania: Day 29

Paul ” The Nitro” Skivers

Welcome to Day 29 of the Real Road to WrestleMania here on Sunday Mornings with the Nitro. Today, I want to talk about Raw last night as WrestleMania week officially began and see if it gained or lost momentum starting out the week.

Some of the good points were the intense promos from Roman and Brock as they look determined to be the Undisputed Universal Champion (yes, they leaked the name of the title on Raw as well.). Now, the match must live up to all the hype of being the “Greatest Match of All Time”. Also, Bianca Belair cutting the hair of Becky Lynch was a nice touch that lit the fuse that makes a good match great. Becky wants revenge as well as keeping her Raw Championship against Bianca, who is equally as determined to win it. Also, RK-Bro stepped up as the top team in the WWE as they beat the Usos in the main event and then took care of the Street Profits. Finally, Bobby Lashley returned and knocked down Omos for the first time ever leading to a match between the two at WrestleMania.

However, the rest of the matches on Raw were lame and uninteresting. Nothing of any significance came out of each match and were forgettable at best. Seth Rollins finally gets his match at WrestleMania against a selection of Mr. McMahon’s, in which we all sort of know is Cody Rhodes. The promo itself was lame and Seth is getting beyond annoying with his gimmick of the laughing and gesturing around like an idiot. Overall, the pace of Raw was on and off as is the crowd energy in the arena last night.

Therefore, I feel that Raw did not gain or lost any momentum heading towards WrestleMania. If they had a steady card with good matches along with the positive points above and less of the negative points, then they would gain momentum. Unfortunately, they missed the opportunity and can never get that back. With that in mind, that will end Day 29 of the Real Road to WrestleMania. Tomorrow, I will start to wrap this road up by having some thoughts on AEW and other promotions as they head towards WrestleMania weekend. Until then, thanks for joining us and have a great day!

Sunday Mornings with the Nitro- The Real Road to WrestleMania: Day 28

Paul” The Nitro” Skivers

Welcome to Day 28 of the Real Road to WrestleMania here on Sunday Mornings with the Nitro. Today, I want to look at whether AEW needs to do something big for WrestleMania week. I feel that they cannot hurt their momentum if they try something big like a major world title match as Adam Page defending the AEW World Title against a major contender, like MJF.

This is a good opportunity for AEW to remind the WWE universe as to why they are the top promotion and have them compare AEW to the action of WWE. Tony Khan is hoping that the WWE Universe bolts from the WWE and become AEW fans and this would be the final blow to the WWE as the universe becomes fans and going to AEW cards. This would mean more money and notoriety in the pocket of Tony Khan and AEW.

If they cannot get a World Title match, then they need to have a stacked card with a least two main event bouts that have the fans talking, like Moxley/Danielson vs. FTR or Thunder Rosa vs. Nyla Rose in a street fight or something along those lines. In this approach, AEW can continue their momentum of great action on TBS and TNT on Fridays. Speaking of Fridays, how about putting a solid match as the main event so that the fans would watch that match, instead of the WWE Hall of Fame with the Undertaker. Can you imagine the WWE trying to give an excuse for the poor viewership of the Undertaker being inducted into the Hall of Fame?

In closing, AEW needs to have a solid card this Wednesday during WrestleMania week and if they are successful, they will dominate 2022 as they did in 2021. Then, what will be the excuse of the WWE?! With that in mind, that will end Day 28 of the Real Road to WrestleMania. Tomorrow, I will look at tonight’s WrestleMania Raw and see if it gained or lost momentum to start out the week. Until then, thanks for joining us and have a great day.

Sunday Mornings with the Nitro- The Real Road to WrestleMania: Day 27

Paul “The Nitro” Skivers

Welcome to Day 27 of the Real Road to WrestleMania here on Sunday Mornings with the Nitro. Today, I want to look back at the career of HHH- Hunter Hearst Helmsley, who announced his in ring retirement this past Thursday on ESPN citing his recent health scare.

HHH was one of the most controversial and impactful wrestlers in the history of WWE. He is a multiple time World Champion, Intercontinental Champion and European Champion. Also, he was a part of the most popular factions in the history of WWE history- DX and later the Corporate Ministry.

What stood him out in the world of wrestling is his pure confidence in himself and his self-determination to be the best and you can see it in the ring when he competed. This trait also carried him to his work as EVP of talent relations for the WWE and the producer behind NXT Gold and Black, which launch the careers of the four Horsewomen, Kevin Steen, Sami Zayn, Neville (PAC in AEW), FTR and other stars that you see in the WWE today.

I feel that this is the right choice as he chose his health and family first before even trying to get back in the ring. Besides, he has nothing to prove to anyone as far as his legacy in the world of Pro Wrestling. It would not be surprising to see HHH be the first inductee into the Class of 2023 for the WWE Hall of Fame. In closing, we want to thank HHH for his great matches and his contributions in the world of pro wrestling and if you are not down with that, he has two words for ya and you know what those words are.

With that in mind, that will do it for Day 27 of the Real Road to WrestleMania. Tomorrow, I will analyze as to whether AEW needs to do something big during WrestleMania week. Until then, thanks for joining us and have a great day.