There’s one world … how can there be two WWE world champions? And how can Cody Rhodes be “undisputed” when it is literally disputed by Seth Rollins and WWE itself?
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.
WWE Crown Jewel is here, but I’ve never loved the title vs. title gimmick. It has its place, sure, but I don’t think Crown Jewel’s gimmick is nearly as over as Elimination Chamber, WarGames, TLC, much less a Royal Rumble.
It is a reminder that WWE has two “undisputed world champions” — which makes no sense when you think about it for a second.
There’s one world … how can there be two WWE world champions? And how can Cody Rhodes be “undisputed” when it is literally disputed by Seth Rollins and WWE itself?
Of course, it makes sense for business and that overrides all other considerations.
But, for me, whoever loses Saturday's match spends the rest of their reign as “not the real world champion.”
I can hear people reading this going, “OK, D’Amore, but aren’t you the guy who allowed AEW champ Kenny Omega to take the TNA belt from champ Rich Swann in a title vs. title match?
Yes, I am, and that program did great business. And, if you recall, Mr. Imaginary Critic of Mine, Christian Cage beat Kenny, then defended the TNA belt in TNA, and then lost clean to elevate Josh Alexander as a super-credible world champion.
The end of John Cena’s amazing career is just 65 days away.
I think the idea Cena and WWE did — having a full final year — is a good one, but we’ve all seen the pressure WWE has been under to get this retirement year right. I guess you can be damned if you play it safe and just book good matches (like vs. AJ Styles this weekend at Crown Jewel), and damned if you take risks like the heel turn that started so red hot and then cooled to sub-zero temperatures.
For me, even though I thought the loss — and manner of the loss — to Brock Lesnar was good booking, I don’t think there’s any value in going back to Brock again. There’s nothing new to say there, and Cena shouldn’t be beating Lesnar — who is a major heel at a time WWE needs one — at this point anyway.
There’s talk Cena's final match on Dec. 13 will be against Gunther.
Gunther would be a great match, but I don’t think Cena should necessarily beat Gunther. It depends, Ric Flair lost his final match to Shawn Michaels (I know, I know — I helped promote a final, final match years later, but work with me here) and that loss was as emotionally satisfying as any win.
But … they did the heel turn that didn’t work. They beat Cena badly with Brock. Maybe giving the fans the high of a feel-good ending is the right decision after all?
WWE has a big decision here. They can take the happy ending route with John and have him go out with the W. John has earned that, if indeed he wants it. He carried WWE for two decades. He proved this year that, at age 48, he can still go, and maybe the lights dim on his career with him standing tall?
He deserves that kind of exit, one that feels final but respectful — something that lets people celebrate him rather than mourn the end.
For a generation of WWE supporters, John Cena is more than just a babyface or a hero. He’s their avatar. He’s their pride as wrestling fans … the guy they pointed to when their friends made fun of wrestling and they went, “Look at John Cena, so powerful, so smart — and look at all the things he does for sick kids.”
It is easy to be proud to be a fan of John Cena.
When he goes, whether it's winning or not, it will be a tough moment for a lot of people.
Time gets all of us, even the mightiest.
To a generation, the '80s didn’t end until HBK pinned Ric Flair. To the generation that followed them into middle age, John Cena retiring will be an emotional marker that, yes, you are now getting old too.
Over on the AEW side of pro-wrestling’s main street, there’s speculation on the internet about how long Kenny Omega will remain as an active talent. I understand fans are wondering this from a place of concern — Kenny is beloved by a huge majority of pro-wrestling fans, especially AEW fans — but Kenny Omega has earned the right to be trusted to do what’s right for him.
Whenever he retires, it will be at a time of his choosing and it’ll be the right time.
Kenny Omega may decide to wrestle for another 10 years — and trust me, his final match of 2035 will be a banger. He’s working smarter today than he every has — and I don’t mean just working around any injuries, but his insane attention to detail, his nuanced selling, his deep psychology. It’s all better than ever — and that means it is better than 99.9% of anyone who’s ever done it.
Look, Kenny himself has made no secret that he’s banged up, but he’s also working for AEW in the 2020s and not WWE or WCW in the '90s. AEW has changed the industry in many ways, but an underrated one is bringing wrestling into the 21st century is terms of granting time off and putting wrestlers’ health first. It’s not like it was for Bret Hart’s generation, where the mentality was “tough guys work hurt” and that taking time off was somehow wrong.
Kenny is someone I have a lot of affection for. I first met him around 2001 or 2002, when Don Callis introduced us backstage at a show he was putting on in Manitoba. I was wrestling on that show too. Kenny was barely 18, he may well have been 17, but the gifts he had were so obvious. The athleticism was incredible — but the creativity he already had was what made my head spin.
Years later, none other than Alex Shelley — who I will die on a hill saying is, along with Sabu, the most influential in-ring wrestler since the era of Shawn Michaels — came to me and told me what Kenny was doing in Japan in DDT Pro Wrestling. Alex was so impressed, he was showing me these crazy moves Kenny had come up with.
He’s a genius, Alex said.
Alex Shelley saying another wrestler is a creative genius is like Rembrandt saying, “Hey, this kid is an incredible painter.” There’s no higher praise.
Kenny’s delivered on all of that talent and promise. And then some.
For a half-decade Kenny Omega, as much as the Bucks, has been the living, breathing embodiment of what AEW is all about. He was AEW’s first massive singles star, and his DNA is forever part of AEW’s.
As I’ve noted before, Kenny Omega’s one-man invasion of TNA (then called IMPACT) completely turned around the fortunes of the promotion, bringing in the biggest ratings on AXS TV and becoming a complete game-changer. TNA fans — the real ones already know this — owe Kenny Omega at lot.
My friend Bully Ray took some heat for saying Brock Lesnar is the smartest worker in the WWE right now...
… I think he’s one of the smartest businessman, for sure.
From the moment he arrived a quarter of a century ago, recruited away from the Olympics by Jim Ross, he was a physical phenomenon, and then he did something almost nobody else has the courage to do: He walked away.
He tried NFL and then became UFC champ. That move gave him incredible leverage. When he was done with UFC, he came back to WWE with power that no one else had, not even the John Cenas. And he used that leverage!
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Brock’s also smart to have not over-exposed himself. He keeps his appearances special. Brock shows up to work when it works for Brock. He understands scarcity builds value and that longevity depends on protecting his aura as a killer.
It can be hard for big stars to sit home and see folks tear it up and get great reactions on "Raw" every week … but Brock has to discipline to stay away and protect his character as something special.
He’s also had the right people around him. Paul Heyman hasn’t just been his mouthpiece on camera — he’s been a real-life advisor with one of the best wrestling minds in the business. And both Brock and Paul are represented by Barry Bloom, wrestling’s legendary super-agent and a master at maximizing his clients’ value.
Together, that trio — Bloom negotiating, Heyman guiding creatively, and Brock’s own physical and mental discipline — represents the ideal blueprint for running a wrestling career entirely on your own terms.
We are coming up on the one-year anniversary of our first Maple Leaf Pro event, and I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve built. Last October we went up to Windsor, Ontario with Forged in Excellence, a two-night event. Both nights sold out, and we delivered two unbelievable pay-per-view shows with our partners at Triller TV.
We had multiple Match of the Year candidates — Josh Alexander vs. Speedball Mike Bailey, Athena defending the Ring of Honor Women’s Championship against Gisele Shaw — just incredible wrestling across the board.
After that, we took a bit of time to regroup and plan out the next phase for 2025, and the big goal was to return to our spiritual home at Maple Leaf Gardens — now the Mattamy Athletic Centre.
Not only did we do that, we sold it out. Twenty-five hundred people in one of the most historic arenas in the world — not just for wrestling, but for sports in general. That event was a statement. It showed that Maple Leaf Pro isn’t just a Windsor product, it’s a national one.
We can go anywhere in Canada and deliver on a big stage.
From there, we went to Montreal and drew more than 2,000 fans again. That’s consistency. Then we ran Sacred Ground last month, which was a big step for us because it introduced a new broadcast model — putting out live events in an affordable, sustainable way and turning them around quickly for YouTube. We call them “digital house shows.”
Now we’ve got the Reena Rumble coming up, which benefits one of Toronto’s most respected charities, Arena Rumble Toronto. It’s a chance to do something good for the community while producing more great content for our channel.
As for next year, 2026, we’re already in planning mode. There’s a lot in motion, but some of it’s confidential, so I can’t give details yet. The big picture, though, is that Maple Leaf Pro has momentum. We’ve proven we can draw, we’ve proven we can produce, and now it’s about building on that success.
Until something’s official, it’s not official. You can’t take everything you see online as gospel — and that includes a WWE star getting moving to the “alumni” section of WWE.com.
Sometimes that’s done for strategic reasons — to make people think someone has left when they really haven’t.
Other times, sure, there might’ve been an impasse and a talent was ready to leave, but then they keep talking with WWE and the two sides find a deal that works.
The very fact that AEW exists — and to an extent a vibrant indie scene — gives wrestlers leverage they simply wouldn’t have had seven years ago.
When WWE believes someone like, say, Fantasmo or Escobar might head to AEW or back to Mexico, that pressure can lead to better offers or creative changes to keep them. Competition keeps everyone honest.
Category: General Sports
