Welcome to The Pipe Bomb, where we discuss the latest news and events from the wrestling world, both inside and outside the ring. This week, did AEW fumble Powerhouse Hobbs and throwing Road Dogg under the bus.
Powerhouse Hobbs to WWE
With Will Hobbs reportedly taking his talents to WWE, feels like the time to question whether or not he was given an opportunity to succeed in AEW.
Powerhouse Hobbs should have won the belt instead of Samoa Joe.
From Christian and the Patriarchy to Moxley and the Death Riders to Chris Jericho and whatever he was doing, how many times has AEW put the belt and attention on a guy who already has a Wikipedia full of accolades, while the young wrestlers standing behind them don’t ever surpass them?
That entire Samoa Joe story was the laziest way to start the new year with MJF as champion.
Completely unearned.
You don’t get to leave to film a movie, a totally different, unrelated endeavor, and return to the front of the line.
That Fatal-4-Way match between Joe, MJF, Page and Swerve will always look cool on a poster, and historically, it’ll be looked back upon as a contest full of GOATs, but Hobbs should’ve beaten Hangman for the belt one-on-one.
Then MJF can sign his little contract.
Sure.
Let Hobbs squash MJF. Less than 7 minutes. A proper beating.
Oh, then Samoa Joe and Hook celebrate with him, Hobbs wrecks them all.
Next Dynamite, Hobbs starts the show walking into the ring, no backstage shit, just Hobbs and the big gold belt.
Give him a stick and let him roar about how he doesn’t need anybody anymore, in front of a live crowd. He’s a one-man machine now.
That’s how 2026 starts on fire.
He could kill Bandido next, one of the company’s biggest babyfaces.
Fuck it, kill Kenny Omega too.
I hate how conservative, risk-averse, and uninspired these modern bookers are running their territories.
Everything’s been stagnant for years.
Triple H doesn’t seem to even understand how to surprise an audience outside of mystery assailant dressed in black and returning superstar at the end of the PPV to flex on the ramp for 20 Mississippis.
The show is astronomically more interesting when the characters are climbing up and down the card, creating new enemies and grudges and partnerships and alliances along the way, making their characters have something to actually say on the mic, having just endured something, so they’re not stumbling and bumbling, remembering their generic ass “I’m the best and this Saturday, I’m going to show you!” nonsense.
MJF starts 2026 having back-to-back embarrassing losses to Mark Briscoe and Will Hobbs. His year is instantly more interesting now.
Hey, what happens when the cocky asshole who wins all his matches, stops winning his matches?
Now I’m tuning in to see what MJF AND Powerhouse Hobbs are going to say/do next. That quickly, you have two stars in must-see personal journeys on your weekly television program.
“Hey, did you see Will Hobbs and Bobby Lashley pulverize each other?”
“Hey, did you see that MJF/Jack Perry banger? Yea, I can’t believe Jungle Boy won.”
And look at that, suddenly Jack Perry has some pretty big wins over Mike Bailey, PAC and now MJF.
“Yo, they should put the National Championship on him.”
The imagination of bookers has vanished.
And perhaps they’re making short-term business decisions. As the media and television industries fold, collapse and swallow each other, leaving behind one eventual super corporation, it makes sense to keep Adam Page, Will Ospreay and Swerve Strickland in the main events year-after-year.
Whatever.
So the question remains…
Did AEW fumble Powerhouse Hobbs?
Here’s the thing: he’s going to WWE.
What black singles star has Triple H ever prioritized?
He created Judgement Day to phase out the Hurt Business.
Montez Ford competed in the 2023 Elimination Chamber. Then quietly reunited with his tag team partner and together, they’ve been phased out.
Carmelo Hayes wrestled Andrade every week for a year.
Even before Triple H took over booking, WWE NEVER wanted a black man as the face of their company, The Rock excluded.
If Hobbs believed he hit his ceiling in AEW and thinks WWE is where he’ll become a star, then he hasn’t been paying attention.
Oba Femi, their grassfed, homegrown superstar, is leaving NXT and joining the main roster. Again, WWE has historically held black men from the top of the cards. With all the investment in Oba Femi, there exists no reality in which TWO black wrestlers will be treated like big deals.
Thankfully, WWE Unreal sheds further light on the brilliance of their writing room…
OH YOU DIDN’T KNOWWWWWW (I’m dumb)
I love when WWE Unreal clips hit my timeline, Triple H greenlighting a program dedicated to making him look like the big-brained mastermind behind the most creatively stagnant television program in America.
One incredible clip dotted my I’s, Road Dogg, a Smackdown writer, seemingly having no clue what to do with Chelsea Green:
Triple H asked Road Dogg about the future direction if Chelsea Green wins the Women’s United States Title again at SNME, and Road Dogg had no clue
I understand. I don’t know.
WWE Unreal#WWEUnreal pic.twitter.com/p5gfj1OHi9
— Rahuul Bhagchandaani (@Rahuul37) January 20, 2026
If the entire purpose of this show is to make Triple H look like the smartest in the room, levels ahead of his peers, including a meeting in which Road Dogg suggests a title change with no thought on what happens after the title change, is a genius way to point all negative criticisms at his buddy.
Again, Powerhouse Hobbs is leaving AEW to be led by a writer’s room of geriatric, impudent white guys, making sure Triple H’s sparkling water is cold when he walks into the room.
My eyes are wide open, searching for a wrestling booker with a fresh idea.
It sucks for Hobbs.
He’ll get a big Royal Rumble pop. Perhaps a couple of feuds with Damian Priest and/or Sheamus or whatever but he’s walking into WWE needing bandages and medical care after scalping himself on his career’s ceiling, joining a company that treats black performers the way I treat the napkins at the bottom of a McDonald’s bag, with a writer’s room full of octogenerians who haven’t had an new, original, vibrant, exciting thought since their last porn searh.
#PrayForPowerHouseHobbs
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