411’s WWE Unreal Episode One Report: New Era

-I have been looking forward to this show since it was announced. I know some aren’t fans of WWE docs, but I love them and will always be up for recapping them. All five episodes dropped this morning, and they are all roughly an hour long. I have a good chunk of time before work this morning, so I am going to try to get as many done as possible. Let’s get to it with my full report of WWE: Unreal Episode One!

-Since this is Netflix, we have a TV-MA rating. No censoring F Bombs here!

-We start with HHH telling us that in this business, everyone has a million names, and his name is Paul Levesque, but nobody called him that until a few years ago. He goes over how some people call him Hunter, H, Trips. He goes over the premise of the show and says the business is more complex than people understand. It is a 7-day-a-week, 365-day-a-year business that has a million things to figure out. They have John Cena coming back for a retirement run and Superstars all over the place, plus young talent everywhere. “Everyone wants a spot, but there are only so many available.” He says they are going to lift the curtain and show things we have never seen. They will show how the story unfolded before our eyes.

-Show opening!

-We start in Atlanta, GA, with Cody Rhodes at home, and he greets his wife and daughter. This is just before Christmas, as Cody and his daughter put a Shawn Michaels gingerbread man ornament on their tree. Cody tells us his real name, Cody Runnels, and then his wrestling name. We meet Brandi Rhodes next, and she says that their daughter thinks her dad is a professional dancer. That’s cute! Cody says it’s not the worst parallel, and he is good with that as they show slow-motion shots of Cody working in the ring. “For my daughter, I’ll be the best dang dancer I can be.”

-Cody tells us his role in WWE is the Undisputed WWE Champion. He gets to be one of the most authentic wrestlers of the era. HHH says Cody is the closest thing they have right now to a pure baby face. That is hard because being a bad guy is easy. He talks about how fans turn on that and think nobody can be that good. We see them meeting backstage, and Hunter drops a bunch of F bombs as he tells Cody to be as white meat as can be.

-Brandi goes over the differences between being a wrestler and WWE Champion. Oh wow, we get Impact footage. That relationship is paying off! Cody talks about being the face of the company, and it makes his heart skip a beat. He always wanted to be that, but didn’t know if he could.

-We move to WWE HQ in Stamford, CT, as HHH is talking about the Netflix debut on Jan. 6th. We go to the writer’s room and meet Ed Koskey, SVP Creative Writing, and he talks about HHH’s role, and we get a montage of HHH as a wrestler. He understands the bigger picture of storytelling and brings that to his office role.

-HHH says with Cody, the bigger the star, you have to provide scarcity. They have to know where everything is going long-term way in advance. HHH says they break things down into seasons, and we see a calendar going over his point. The biggest story lines revolve around their biggest stars, and chief among them is Cody Rhodes, but they also have the retirement of John Cena.

-Here’s John Cena, and he goes over that his wrestling and real names are John Cena. He talks about wrestling being in his family, and wrestling was a hobby. He says he would do this for free, but he physically can’t do this anymore.

-Back to the writer’s room as we meet Johnathan Baeckstrom, VP Creative Writing, and he says they don’t have half a dozen heels to throw out there and feed to them to Cody and Cena. They are going over the idea of Cena getting attacked on his first night back and being saved by Cody. HHH isn’t sure if that’s the best idea. We see the whiteboard with the matches set up for the RAW on Netflix debut.

-We head to Florida and meet Rhea Ripley, who shows off her taxidermy collection. A two-headed duck! Her name is Demiti Bennett, but everyone knows her as Rhea Ripley. Rhea is a goddess name, and Ripley comes from Alien, so she put them together. She is from Australia and was too young to try out for the WWE the first time, but they came back years later, and the rest is history. She says Rhea is her times 10. “Kind of scary, but attracted to her at the same time.” It’s all the sides of her that she doesn’t like to show in her everyday life. She is Demi until her music plays.

-HHH says when her music hits, it is a moment with the crowd, and says she can be the biggest star in the company for years to come. Reah shows off her dogs, and they are all so cute. Give me all the animals on this show!

-Rhea catches us up on the feud with her and Liv Morgan. “We have been feuding for three years.” She goes over the story with Dom and how it wasn’t supposed to be a relationship story, but they ran with it. They cover Dom’s turn at SummerSlam, and I was there for that.

-We jump back to April 8, 2024, where Liv attacks Rhea backstage and the injury happens. Rhea says the trip into the wall destroyed her shoulder, and Liv kept going at it. “Please, someone, get her off me.” CM Punk checks on her and shows the knot in his shoulder from where he injured himself years ago. Rhea had the option of surgery and a scar or no surgery and a massive lump in her shoulder. She went with the no surgery option for now, as she can always go back and get it done. It meant being back in 3 months vs. 6 months, and she was good with that choice. HHH consoles her and tells her not to freak out, as they will make something great out of this. He tells her this is a physical business, and it happens to everyone. Ah, Papa H!

-Back to WWE HQ in the present day, and CM Punk is working out in a gym. He says he has done this his entire life, and he can’t say it’s any harder since he is older. The landscape is changing so much, and it excites him. He goes over his various names: CM Punk, Punker, Cookie Monster, Pepsi Phil, Black Phil, but his government name is Phil Brooks. “It’s a white accountant’s name.” We see indie footage of Punk’s early days, and he says he has a Hall of Fame career that he can put up against anyone. He talks about never being in the Main Event of WrestleMania. He talks about clashing with HHH when they were both main roster talent. HHH then becomes office, and Punk had the idea, “fuck you. You can’t tell me what to do.” HHH says Punk never let him assist and would attack him. HHH would leave angry, and they had a relationship where neither trusted the other. We get footage from The Pipe Bomb as Michael Hayes says this was Phil Brooks saying things he wanted to through CM Punk.

-Punk left in 2014 (I was at The Rumble where his last match was) as he needed to get off the hamster wheel. He was worried they were going to work him until he died. He needed those 10 years to heal from a lot of things. He mentions they had conversations over the years to come back, but nothing stuck. HHH felt that how Punk communicated with others needed to change, and he brings up a conversation they had. His thought was “still the same dude. Won’t work.” During the last conversation they had, they both realized they were each different, so let’s give it a shot.

-Back to Survivor Series 2023 and Punk’s mind-blowing return. I have watched that video so many times, and that’s not counting all the in-house footage from fans. We see the backstage stuff where Punk and HHH destroy the internet with their photo together, pointing at each other. Punk thinks his role now is as the player-coach coach and we see him and Rhea taking a picture together at WWE HQ. He knows he has years of experience that a lot of people don’t and he has made a lot of mistakes and can help the younger kids. We see him sitting next to Jacob Fatu and tells him, “I love you, Jacob.” Awesome! Jacob loves him back and celebrates when Punk agrees to take a picture together after they are done.

-We are at the RAW Premiere Promotional Event at WWE HQ. Punk talks about the importance of being in the Main Event of Mania. He then says there will only ever be one first Main Event of RAW’s debut on Netflix, and he has that spot with Seth Rollins. Punk says Rollins sounds like CM Punk from years ago.

-Punk says their history goes back many years. We see Tyler Black’s photos, and Punk says Rollins came to him and asked to be trained for free. This was all part of a sit-down interview the two did at RAW, so this was in character. Back to WWE HQ as they come face-to-face to hype their match, and Rollins calls Punk a “bitch.” They nearly get into it on stage, and Rollins walks off, saying it’s his night. We are 19 days away from the RAW on Netflix debut.

-HHH wants to talk about Gorilla Position. He says years ago, when TV production became a thing, Gorilla Monsoon would sit near the curtain and time and control things. HHH says the show is now run from there. Bruce Prichard is here and says it is the most important place in the building as it controls everything. Each one is slightly different depending on the arena. We get a breakdown of who sits where. HHH and Bruce share one table while Billy Kidman is timing things at another table. Sitting next to Billy is whoever produced the match.

-Chris Park (Abyss) talks about being a match producer. We meet some of the other producers: Bobby Roode, Michael Hayes (longest tenured producer), and Bruce Prichard, who is Executive Director of the Creative Writing Team. Park says he is talking to the truck and is 10-15 seconds ahead, so they catch the story they want told. He is also talking to the ref, and I will say this is pretty cool. We hear a back and forth between HHH and the ref as he checks on Jacob Fatu. They tell Braun Strowman to be careful swinging the chair around the fans. HHH then thinks Jacob pushed a fan, but realizes they are extras. Funny! The biggest thing is making sure they get the match done in a timely manner. Going heavy or short is equally bad, so Plan A and Plan B are to “hit your time.” I am sure that won’t come back up later.

-We jump to Jan 6th and the Netflix debut in Los Angeles. CM Punk has Larry (again, give me all the pets) with him as we are 10 hours from the start of the show. Punk drives to the arena and talks about the weight and responsibility he is feeling. These are the moments he thrives! He loves some adversity as it is a good thing. He meets The Rock backstage, and they check on each other. Punk asks Rock if he wants to tag in. Ha!

-Back to Rhea, and she says the day was stressful. She had no brain cells working that day, and it felt like the biggest show of the year. She had a lot going through her mind, and she didn’t know if she had prepared enough. She didn’t sleep and doesn’t know if she is ready for this. We see that she is nearly in tears and couldn’t switch on. She didn’t know what makeup she wanted and forgot to wear the gear she had made. “We had Christmas too, and I ate a little too much. Girl problems!”

-John Cena is backstage signing a bunch of photos as only he can. HHH tells him the goal is that at the end of the year, he wants John to say everything was what he wanted it to be. Cena says that it will be the last page, and they all would have to mess up to make the last page ruin the previous 499 pages. HHH laughs and says there is a way.

-The Intuit Dome looks incredible, and that drone shot was sick. HHH kicks off the show, and I am still getting used to the black mat with ads. The ads are getting easier, but the black mat is still weird.

-The Rock is out after HHH and acknowledges Cody Rhodes in the crowd, for carrying the company on his back for a year. I’m sure that won’t go anywhere.

-John Cena next as it’s a run of all the past stars, but I mean, it’s Rock and Cena. John goes over the names he could face, and so far, we have gotten two of them: Cody and Punk. Guess we are still waiting on that Drew McIntyre match.

-The Rock gives Rhea a hug backstage and thanks her for carrying the company. We see Rhea trying to get into Rhea mode. She goes over spots with Damian Priest, and you can see she is just a ball of energy and nerves. She likes to go to Priest and go over everything with him. He tells her she can’t rush through everything, so be prepared to cut as “less is more.” True that! He makes a joke about not using the f bomb, and Rhea shoots back, “It’s Netflix.” Funny!

-We get footage from the match as Rhea says it has been like Groundhog Day for two and a half years. This was the blow-off between the two, and Rhea mentions it was hard coming up with something new. We get footage spliced in of Gorilla, including Billy Kidman counting down commercial breaks. HHH says it is hard to look at Rhea and not see her as the most captivating woman on their roster. Rhea gets the win and reclaims the World Title. We cut to HHH giving directions to the cameras on Rhea’s kick to the balls on Dom. HHH: “That was deep.”

-Back at Gorilla, everyone gives Rhea her props. HHH hugs her and tells her she is one of the most over people in the company, male or female. Rhea is beaming as she says it was a successful night and she is grateful to everyone in WWE for letting her live out her wildest dreams.

-Punk is backstage with GUNTHER and Kaiser, and he knows they will let him know if it all worked. GUNTHER tells him these are the moments they do it for. He tells GUNTHER about being the Main Event of Mania, and with this, he is getting what he asked for. He tells us that he has participatory anxiety, and it goes away when the red light is on and the bell rings. Then he is the boss and can do whatever he wants.

-We are up to Punk vs. Rollins, and again, we cut back to The Gorilla Position. Bruce says people had in their mind that with Netflix, they can go as long as they want. “Not true.” He says the Punk/Rollins match was great, but it was “way long.” Kidman tells Park they are already 1:45 over, and Park looks sick as he has to relay that they are going long. He tells the ref to throw out to Phil; they need to cut the Anaconda Vice spot. He apologizes to Bruce and says he is pushing them. They do cut on a buckle bomb spot, and Park knows they are going home. We get the finish as Punk counters a Falcon Arrow with The GTS, and Rollins falls onto Punk for another GTS. That gets the pin! We aren’t done as Park tells the ref to help get Punk to his feet, and they can go off the air like that.

-Park apologizes again to Bruce and says they went 2:30 long and still cut out a lot of shit. Bruce tells him that it’s fine and mentions that it was overproduced, but it was still a good show. Regal tells Park not to beat himself up, and Park just says he wants to make Bruce happy. “Is he mad at me?” Oh man, I don’t want to see Abyss like that.

-Punk says he feels better than he probably should, but he is high on adrenaline. Once he calms down, he will feel all the bumps and bruises. He wants to be that guy who is picked and put in these positions, and he was tonight.

-HHH says when that last match is done, you sit back and realize it was awesome. We see Punk and HHH hug backstage. HHH says the opportunity has never been greater for the talent to make a moment for themselves, no matter what they are given. There is an opportunity for everyone on the card. “You always have the opportunity to get to that next level.”

-We get previews of what’s to come in the next four episodes, and I won’t spoil what’s coming.

-As mentioned earlier, I was in the bag for this show the moment it was announced. It’s no secret I love wrestling documentaries, and this was right up my alley. I appreciate the hour format because these types of shows work better that way. It’s easier to digest when there is a focus and it’s building to something. As always with a show like this, WWE is still only going to let you see what they want you to see. There is a bit of them pretending like they are opening the curtain, but if it’s on camera, it’s something they are allowing you to see. I did enjoy the breakdown of Gorilla and the splicing of what was happening there with what was happening in the ring. The big moment for me was seeing Park wanting to make Bruce happy. I felt bad for the guy, but as they noted, when two guys are out there in the ring, they have control, and you can only do so much. The other big takeaway for me is seeing the men and women deal with anxiety and the pressures of getting into character and being “on” when it’s needed. This was fun, and I will try to get through as many of the five episodes today as I can. Thanks for reading!