Bo-lievers, unite
Bo-lievers, unite
About the Broncos dominating, unexpected developments in the NFL, and some silly wrestling connections.
Here at Kanefabe, I follow what interests me. It's been liberating, not feeling the pressure to have a sports piece on a certain day or to write a weekly recap of everything in wrestling.
I admire people who work within those structures. I did for a while. But as I've tried some different formats and focuses, I've realized that's not for me anymore.
This model works best for me, where the topics vary without much rhyme and reason other than the things I notice. And I think it works best for the readers and this community.
Even with this relatively new freedom, there's still a lingering sense of obligation with it comes to certain, very specific crossover points between pro wrestling and pro sports.
Like, say, when I send an obscure GIF of a 10-year-old pro wrestling gimmick to celebrate the Denver Broncos winning their first game of the 2024 regular season.
In today's Kanefabe newsletter:
The NFL is just three weeks into the season, but already some of the results from this weekend's games felt surprising. That goes especially for some of the winning quarterbacks across the league, starting with the Bo-lievers in Denver.
Let's get into it, with some silly wrestling videos sprinkled in. I'm glad you're here. On we go.
Bo Nix, Bo Dallas, and unexpected victories
Even with all the caveats that accompany NFL analysis during the first month, the matchup between the Buccaneers and the Broncos this past weekend felt awfully predictable.
The Bucs reached the playoffs last year. They looked like a strong, well-rounded team through their two victories to open this season. They were coming home for this week 3 game.
The Broncos are rebuilding or falling apart, depending on your outlook and how much credit you're willing to give head coach Sean Payton. Their defense looked professional in their first two losses, but their offense did not. The biggest problem was the play of rookie quarterback Bo Nix.
The outcome of this game seemed obvious. Nix was in over his head, the Broncos were probably running into their strongest opponent, and the game was in Tampa Bay. The Bucs would win easily.
That was the consensus entering this weekend, the opinion held by anyone who fancies themselves informed about the NFL. The only ones on the Broncos would have to be people who were deeply convinced of the randomness in sports, people who imagined a game where the Bucs were still the good team and the Broncos were still the bad team, but random breaks and bad bounces went in Denver's favor in a fluky win.
That, or they were Bo-lievers.
Enter the GIF that I sent out as the Broncos cruised to a 26-7 victory in Tampa Bay on Sunday (contained in the video and thumbnail below).
I’m not sure that the wrestling side of this needs much of a deep dive. Bo Dallas is a wrestler. He went on a big winning streak when he made his WWE debut in 2014. It was a whole underdog thing.
Bo Dallas has always been pretty good at playing a dork. That skill, remembered all these years later, has sustained “Bo-lieving” as a meme among wrestling fans.
Nowadays, Bo Dallas wears a Halloween mask and plays a spooky cult leader named Uncle Howdy. It’s an homage to his deceased brother.
Isn’t it amazing how many branches reveal themselves from one little story? Fear not, I'm not going to go any further into the pretend cult that is terrorizing groups on WWE these days.
Anyway, Bo Nix led the Broncos to a big win.
More about rookie quarterback surprises
Expectations are so fluid that the very notion of surprises with players three games into their careers might seem silly. After all, one week ago it looked like Bo Nix can’t play. Now we’re rounding up the Bo-lievers.
Even so, I think we’ve got something cooking in Washington that might last. And while expectations were probably high for some exciting moments with quarterback Jayden Daniels entering his first season, I don’t get the sense that people were thinking he would be the rookie to thrive and win right away.
Caleb Williams was the number one overall pick, the one driving the hype machine, and the one people thought would succeed from the start. He was the presumed exception, the quarterback who wouldn’t look like a rookie.
Caleb Williams looks like a rookie. Jayden Daniels just beat Joe Burrow and the Bengals in Cincinnati. That leaves the Bengals 0-3 and the Commanders 2-1, flying high after putting up 38 points on Monday Night Football.
It’s pretty cool. But I’m sorry to say that I don’t have an old wrestling gimmick that goes with this Jayden Daniels story.
Andy Dalton is back
We are one year removed from a playoff run helmed by Joe Flacco. Remember that when people hand-wave this performance from Dalton and say it won't last.
Seriously though, it won’t last, right? The Panthers are still probably among the sorriest rosters in the NFL, something that was not true of that Cleveland Browns team that rode Flacco to the postseason. Dalton is probably the backup for a terrible team for a reason, which is to say that nobody else was interested in his services for his age-37 season.
But if this week's theme is about believing in unlikely outcomes because of all the reminders that this isn't as predictable as we would like to think it is, then it's fun to at least ponder the chaos if Dalton heats up for multiple games.
It's also hilarious to think ahead to the divisional matchups in the NFC South. Carr vs. Dalton! Cousins vs. Mayfield!
It's a division of quarterbacks who are almost good enough, each making their careers out of stringing teams along for years at a time with the empty promise that they can be the man and lead a team deep in the postseason. These poor teams talk themselves into it, and they are disappointed every time.
People know better with Dalton at this point. Somehow, they don't know better with Cousins, at least not yet. Carr is knocking on the door of the next phase of his career where he will join Dalton as a journeyman backup who can occasionally outshine the starter before the inevitable disappointment. As for Mayfield, he's in the middle of the part where the Bucs convince themselves that he can be their guy.
We already knew that the other three quarterbacks would be main characters in the NFC South. The addition of Dalton really does package things up nicely, though.
But seriously, remember that Joe Flacco was a hero on his way to the playoffs last season.
Redhead heroics and surprises
Crowd reactions are central to the success of any big moment in professional wrestling. The people coming up with the stories work hard to earn those moments. They map out stories over months and years to deliver triumphant victories or heartbreaking defeats. They set up fan expectations just to tear them down, devastating crowds with heel turns and betrayals.
Within those stories, there's also the option to seek a shortcut. The payoff might be short-lived with these choices, and it might feel lesser than the culminations of longer tales. When bookers and writers take these shortcuts, the resulting crowd reactions are sometimes referred to as "cheap heat."
In these cases, you shocked people for the sake of shocking them. You got a couple good shots of people with stunned or outraged facial expressions. But where do you go from there? Now all you've got is a flimsy story and an audience that doesn't trust you.
That's a question about professional wrestling just as much as it is other pieces of prominent pop culture. Like say, for example, the final season of Game of Thrones, which might reasonably be accused of moves to get cheap heat.
Isn't it amazing how many little branches reveal themselves from one little story? Fear not, I am not going to re-litigate the inexplicable twists and turns of the last episodes of Game of Thrones.
Getting back on topic, if Andy Dalton is one of the redheads alluded to under this subheading, who is the other one? That would be Sheamus, the surprise champion in this absurd match that is the ultimate shortcut to shock a crowd.
It's 2024. Andy Dalton is the only quarterback with a 300-yard passing game with three touchdown passes this season. That kind of feels like Sheamus winning the championship in that video. It's like some kind of cosmic cheap heat for anyone who thought they knew what would happen in the NFL this season.
Ready for some week 4 predictions?
Bo Nix, Jayden Daniels, and Andy Dalton were at the helm of three dominant victories last week. If you claim that you can make predictions with any measure of confidence this week, you are either a liar or a delusional person.
Or, I suppose, you might just be a Bo-liever.
