PWInsider (A-)

PWInsider spent the window doing the unglamorous half of dirt: who was on a plane, which announce chair filled after football season, that Vince was not walking into John Cena’s last match, that AJ Styles’ Rumble night had been a planned goodbye for months, and that Danhausen was being hidden outside Chicago for a crate reveal. They told you Roman was written off to shoot a movie and that Road Dogg quit after saying it to people’s faces. When they chased a poster, Stratton/Cargill/Jax at Wrestlepalooza, they missed like everyone else. The A− is the logistics desk being right more often than it is poetry.

Fightful (B+)

Fightful’s letter is the injury and contract board. Foley to AEW, Hendry’s WWE deal, Gable back by the Rumble, Lashley out a long time, Darby cleared and wrestling a week later, Rhodes and Orton aware of the Mania plan in January. They are the outlet you check when somebody is hurt or somebody just signed. They are also the outlet that kept guessing Raw start times that never moved and booking rematches that never got booked. Trust the calendar. Side-eye the clock.

F4W / Wrestling Observer (D+)

Dave Meltzer and company will tell you why a match exists, and sometimes they are right: GUNTHER closed Cena, Jade was getting gold, Oba Femi, Joe Hendry, and Sol Ruca were being fast-tracked, Lesnar/Oba was a real Mania idea. They will also tell you Andrade had no non-compete because he was fired (he did), that Dominik Mysterio would make the Rumble (he sat until March), that Jericho was WWE-bound the week his AEW deal “ended,” and that Cena was keeping the Intercontinental title off Dominik on the way out (Dominik won it back that night). The D+ is volume plus confidence. Read them for the argument. Do not treat the finish as filed.

BodySlam / False Finish (D+)

Same desk, different name, same card. BodySlam’s page went dark and the reporting that used to live there now sits under False Finish. Same principal, not a new company with a clean sheet. In the window they pointed Oba Femi and Trick Williams at the main roster and those call-ups landed. They had Drew McIntyre walking into Cody Rhodes with a title hanging off the match, and that one paid. They also built a Fenix/Penta reunion after Andrade left and a Giulia ramp to the women’s world picture that never showed up. A new URL does not reset the book. Use them for call-ups. Do not use them for division architecture.

WrestleVotes (D−)

This letter is WrestleVotes as its own desk, inside the sample window only. After that range they joined Fightful. New dirt from that shop gets Fightful’s card going forward; this D− does not follow them across the hallway. In the window they knew when the truck double-taped, what time a Rumble started in Riyadh, and that AJ Lee vs. Becky Lynch was going on the Mania poster. They also sold a Stratton/Cargill/Jax three-way that never happened and a Cena documentary that still is not on Peacock. Operations desk, not a booker. If the sentence is a start time, listen. If the sentence is a match graphic, wait for the graphic.