On Monday night, WWE made a familiar trek to Madison Square Garden in New York City, with the famed arena hosting one of the last few “WWE Raw’s” on the Road to WrestleMania. While MSG has always been familiar stomping grounds for WWE, it’s become even more so recently, with Monday’s “Raw” the second time WWE has run the storied arena over the last four months, and the third time in the last year. And that trend will continue for WWE and MSG come this Summer.

During the commercial breaks on “Raw,” new WWE star Danhausen announced they will be returning to the Garden this Summer for another edition of Saturday Night’s Main Event on July 18. The news, first reported last week, was further confirmed this morning in a press release, revealing that the MSG SNME will coincide with Fanatics Fest NYC Weekend, which is scheduled to take place from July 16 through July 19. Tickets for SNME will go on sale this Thursday.

The special will see SNME return to its roots, as the first two SNME specials in 1985 were held in the New York/New Jersey area. Despite that, this special will be only the fifth time WWE has run a SNME in New York or New Jersey, and only the second time SNME has taken place out of the Garden. The lone MSG/SNME special took place back in August 2007, headlined by CM Punk and The Boogeyman defeating John Morrison and Big Daddy V. The event also featured John Cena defeating Carlito in singles action, and Evander Holyfield facing Matt Hardy in a boxing match.

In today’s pro wrestling landscape, many fans and wrestlers hold different opinions on the value of “work-rate” compared to storytelling and psychology. AEW star Chris Jericho is of the belief that many wrestlers have lost sight of what’s really important, as revealed in an interview with GamesHub.

“Match quality has become so overemphasized,” Jericho said. “Wrestling is about connecting with the crowd, capturing the imagination and the interest of the people watching.”

Jericho then reflected on his WWE WrestleMania 18 match against Shawn Michaels, which he previously referred to as one of his favorite storylines. He pointed out that this match had everything he just listed, but noted that they got there because of a great storyline. According to Jericho, many of today’s highest-rated matches don’t get the same kind of engagement from the live audience. 

“A five-star match should mean the crowd is going crazy in a sold-out stadium,” Jericho stated. “You can also have a five-star match in a community center in front of 50 people, so the rating in isolation is irrelevant. It’s character, its storyline, it’s charisma. That’s what wrestling is about — it was in the 1930s and it is now.”

Jericho believes that a given star’s success in pro wrestling should depend on their connection with the audience, with the AEW star citing The Ultimate Warrior as an example of someone who didn’t have “great matches” but built a relationship with fans nonetheless.

At 55 years old, Jericho acknowledged his limited time left in the industry. However, looking at the current state of the industry, he isn’t too sure if today’s wrestlers will reach the same point of their careers. “You can already see what serious injuries do – a bad neck surgery changes everything,” Jericho warned. “The longevity may be harder to sustain when there’s so much emphasis on the physical at the expense of charisma and character.”

We’re getting closer and closer to WWE WrestleMania 42 and details are still coming together. Monday brought a flurry of announcements for “The Show of Shows,” with four matches added to the two-night event during “WWE Raw.” Earlier on Monday, John Cena posted a video to his social media to announce that he would be hosting the show.

Cena only retired in December and will be making his return to WWE already. It was an obvious ploy, confirmed by Dave Meltzer on “Wrestling Observer Live.” He stated that Cena getting hosting duties is “absolutely because of slow ticket sales.” He doesn’t know how much of a difference Cena being there will make, “but we’ll see in the next week.”

Meltzer noted that while the 3/16 sale that WWE had for WrestleMania tickets did move about 2,000 tickets, subsequent sales and lowering of prices haven’t had the same effect. He says that compared to one year ago, “they’re down 19.6 percent.” They moved after 35,000 tickets when they first went on sale, but have struggled to move tickets since then.

During “Raw”, two title matches were made for WrestleMania; a Fatal 4-way for the Women’s tag titles and a ladder match for the Men’s IC title. Seth Rollins was also medically cleared and will have a match after a surprise attack by GUNTHER.