The D’Amore Drop is a weekly guest column on Uncrowned written by Scott D’Amore, the Canadian professional wrestling promoter, executive producer, trainer and former wrestler best known for his long-standing role with TNA/IMPACT Wrestling, where he served as head of creative. D’Amore is the current owner of leading Canadian promotion Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling.
As we guessed would happen after he dropped the title to John Cena at WrestleMania 41, Cody Rhodes will now challenge Cena for his old WWE Universal Title at SummerSlam next month.
Cody is still The Man in WWE, and while he admitted recently that he’s not going to be a babyface forever, there are still stories to be told with him as a top babyface of the company. WWE have layered in intrigue not only about the result (it seems set up to anoint Cody because Cena isn’t going to retire as champ, but John could keep it until early winter…), but also whether there’s going to be a “moment” — that thing so much of pro wrestling is about these days.
Will Cena turn back babyface at SummerSlam, after teasing it for weeks already? Well, I’d be tempted to do it at SummerSlam, if I were booking it.
SummerSlam — especially this first two-day event — is the biggest PLE that Cena will appear on in the second half of his 2025 farewell season. It’s the biggest stage for the seemingly inevitable face turn. I can envision something similar to Roddy Piper vs. Bret Hart at WrestleMania 8 all those years ago … where Piper could have beaten Hart in their Intercontinental match, only for him to have a crisis of conscience and ultimately want to try — and fail — to win the match without dirty tactics.
There are two struggles for John at SummerSlam. There’s his big rematch with Cody, and then there’s the struggle he has with himself — he has clearly been showing us he isn’t completely comfortable with who he has allowed himself to become since WrestleMania.
It’s going to be fun seeing all this play out.
This weekend my promotion, Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling, takes another big step forward with our first event in Montreal.
MLP Resurrection is, I say humbly but also as the man who signs the checks, our most talent-loaded event of the year. We will break 2,500 tickets sold — a great milestone for a company barely a year old.
At the top of the bill, AEW’s Josh Alexander collides with the hottest free agent in wrestling: Ace Austin. The match will be a classic, and we’re riffing on a storyline from TNA — that it was the X-Division Title that Josh took from Ace four years ago that springboarded him to the TNA world title and now AEW superstar status.
In the co-main, local legend PCO takes on Ring of Honor icon Dan Maff in what will be a brutal House of Pain Match. We’re very proud of the story we’ve been able to tell with these two — Maff attacked PCO in May at our Northern Rising event, but we’ve kept the heat on the feud across other promotions and a series of social media spots.
I don’t know how PCO did it, but he had real-life police officers agreeing to take part in a wild angle at Montreal airport that took many fans back to the days of the cops pulling their guns on the N.W.O., or even Brian Pillman pointing a weapon at Steve Austin on an unforgettable segment of “WWE Raw.”
The full card, which airs live on Triller TV, is:
He doesn’t nearly get the credit he is owed by insiders, but Cody Rhodes turning himself from a mid-carder with a famous dad to the biggest star in the game is incredible stuff.
His role in the formation of AEW alone guarantees him a place in wrestling history alongside his dad, the great Dusty Rhodes.
My friend Adam Copeland celebrated 33 years as a professional wrestler this week. What an amazing run — and he’s going to have a banger or two more before he leaves forever.
Of course, I’d love to figure out getting him to MAPLE LEAF PRO WRESTLING before his time is done.
Sometimes I think talent doing interviews where they talk potential upcoming stories shows just how much thought and creativity has always existed in this business.
But sometimes I hate it, and I just wish we could push that genie back into the bottle.
But, whatever my feelings, there’s a section of fans who absolutely crave it.
Fresh off last night’s entertaining 300th episode of “Dynamite,” AEW presents their biggest pay-per-view show of the year — All In 2025 — next Saturday, July 12, at the Texas Rangers’ baseball park.
It’s an amazing card — that we’ll take a deeper look at next week — but I have to wade in on all the “it’s an L for AEW” craziness.
All In 2025 will break the company’s domestic (USA) records for both the attendance — well over 19,000 — and the gate, which is going to be well north of $2.2 million.
And that’s with the get-in price at $40, so all fans have the chance to attend one of the biggest shows of the year.
Yeah, WWE is the industry leader. But to see how well AEW is doing by even being in the conversation, just look at WWE’s sister company, the UFC. There’s no real No. 2 to the UFC, is there?
It is pure tribalism to go online and argue that a $2 million gate and 19,000 fans is a fail for AEW.
If you don’t like AEW or Tony Khan, it’s OK to say so — without pretending record-setting business is somehow bad.
I get asked, so I’ll answer: The Bullet Club is the IP of New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Only NJPW is willing to license the brand out, so that’s why you’ve seen the Bullet Club represented in Maple Leaf, TNA, AEW, and everywhere else.
It is such a cool gimmick, and I think part of the enduring appeal is that it crosses from one promotion to another in a way that a D-X or even an N.W.O. (which did have a New Japan branch, of course) never could.
As a promoter myself, and having run the de facto “No. 2” promotion to WWE for a time or two, take it from me that the entire business is better off having AEW as a viable alternative to WWE.
No one — not even the most tribal hater — should doubt for a moment AEW’s existence was the most transformative thing to happen to the business since the Monday Night Wars.
Jade Cargill was a homegrown AEW star who jumped to WWE with a lot of expectations, and now she’s the Queen of the Ring and heading into a big title match at SummerSlam.
It’s time for her and WWE to deliver on those expectations.
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