#this would be another year without Sheamus on the card

[queenielacy]

I know there is no story behind this and it really doesn’t make sense storyline wise but Randy vs Sheamus would be a banger at Wrestlemania.

[placetobenation]

When it comes to this year’s Survivor Series, things look great at the top.

We’re all excited to see just how The Undertaker will give his Final Farewell and just how will the WWE present it to us. It’s rumored that we could have guests like Kurt Angle, The Godfather to be joined by Triple H and Shawn Michaels. The Phenom deserves a proper send=off! 

Outside of the traditional 5-on-5 matches, it’s champion vs. champion across the board. Roman Reigns vs. new RAW champion Drew McIntyre has that big fight feel. Asuka vs. Sasha Banks, although we’ve seen it before on multiple times, is still very good no matter the venue. Plus, The New Day and The Street Profits looks really good on paper and actually has some history lately with Big E supporting his teammates from across the show on SmackDown. I wonder if we get a heel turn for TSP and they end up beating up Big E at some point. Not really feeling the Sami Zayn vs. Bobby Lashley match as there’s no real consequence and no real heat between the two.

As for those elimination matches, both have done nothing in the build-up to their respective matches. It’s been all about how Team RAW hates each other. What a difference a year makes as one year ago, we were all excited about how Team NXT would fare across the board against RAW and SmackdDown. This year, do we really care which side wins? Not me folks. All of the bickering has left me disinterested as I’m sure the WWE will try to force some kind of Lana survives angle only to be dropped through a table again.

We’ll have predictions later, but for now, here’s the updated card:

The Undertaker’s Final Farewell

WWE Champion Drew McIntyre vs. Universal Champion Roman Reigns

RAW Women’s Champion Asuka vs. SmackDown Women’s Champion Sasha Banks

RAW Tag Team Champions The New Day vs. SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Street Profits

United States Champion Bobby Lashley vs. Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn

5-on-5 Women’s Survivor Series Elimination Match (RAW – Nia Jax, Shayna Baszler, Lacey Evans, Peyton Royce, Lana vs. Ruby Riott, Bianca Belair, Liv Morgan, Bayley, Natalya)

5-on-5 Men’s Survivor Series Elimination Match (Keith Lee, Sheamus, Braun Strowman, AJ Styles, Riddle vs. Kevin Owens, Jey Uso, King Corbin, Seth Rollins, Otis)

Dual Brand Battle Royale (Kick-off Show)

"I'm nobody's joke."

#WWENXT @LEONRUFF_ @RealKingRegal @ArcherOfInfamy pic.twitter.com/oD0UqkJRe7

— WWE (@WWE) November 19, 2020

Star of the Week:

Leon Ruff – Why not?! In the past two weeks, Ruff’s won two matches over Johnny Gargano and the North American Championship to boot! He’s stood up to Damian Priest and shown he’s more than just a jobber. Well done Leon!

RAW

RESULTS

Asuska, Dana Brooke, Mandy Rose defeated Shayna Baszler, Nia Jax & Lana

RAW Tag Team Championship Match: The New Day defeated Cedric Alexander & Shelton Benjamin to retain titles

RETRIBUTION defeated Braun Strowman, Riddle, Sheamus & Keith Lee

Bray Wyatt defeated The Miz

WWE Championship Match: Drew McIntyre defeated Randy Orton to win title

HE DID IT!!!!!@DMcIntyreWWE is once again #WWEChampion! #WWERaw pic.twitter.com/XtVtVSGeZG

— WWE (@WWE) November 17, 2020

Monday Night RAW was all about the main event folks. Putting the title back on Drew McIntyre, as we’ve said before, is a good move. Randy Orton earned his win at Hell in the Cell, but Orton vs. Reigns had no feel for it. In just 5 seconds last Friday night, McIntyre and Reigns already felt like a heavyweight fight. They have history in the Royal Rumble. And they have the look of two big behemoths battling for one night and one night only (for now). I ilke it. I love it. I want some more of it. Good move for Survivor Series and for Monday nights beyond. Now, where does this leave Orton for Survivor Series? Also, I am digging the McIntyre/Sheamus vibe with their backstage vignettes. I wonder if Sheamus is lulling his old friend to sleep only to turn on him for a title show?

WHAT A MATCH!#WWERaw #TagTitles @TrueKofi @AustinCreedWins pic.twitter.com/zAeN1DdFxb

— WWE (@WWE) November 17, 2020

Now, outside of The New Day’s title defense of the RAW Tag Team Titles, the rest of RAW wasn’t really that good.

RETRIBUTION vs. Team RAW was just a waste of time and I’ll be ecstatic that we don’t have to hear about captains and who doesn’t like each other between Keith Lee, Sheamus, Riddle, AJ Styles and Braun Strowman any more. I have no rooting interest in any of it. The same can be said on the women’s side of Team RAW as well. Enough of Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler against Lana. YAWN! And now they drop Dana Brooke & Mandy Rose for Lacey Evans & Peyton Royce. Does nothing for me either way, although Evans is an upgrade, not that they’ll do anything with it, though.

.@LaceyEvansWWE and @PeytonRoyceWWE have been added to #TeamRaw at #SurvivorSeries.https://t.co/2FCVGuwtUM

— WWE (@WWE) November 17, 2020

Another Angel Garza vignette. Why?! Ditto for Jeff Hardy and Elias dredging up the whole car angle again. It wasn’t believable then. It’s not believable now. Move on!

NIGHT NIGHT!#WWERaw @WWEBrayWyatt @mikethemiz pic.twitter.com/WhpvW2D5UR

— WWE (@WWE) November 17, 2020

Bray Wyatt vs. The Miz was kind of just there. How quickly we forget that The Miz hated Wyatt/The Fiend for being in his daughter’s room, right? If nothing else, we got a really cool Alexa Bliss flip over John Morrison. Speaking of Bliss, I guess we finally have the kick-off of the Bliss/Nikki Cross feud.

NXT

RESULTS

NXT North American Championship Match: Leon Ruff defeated Johnny Gargano by DQ to retain title

Blindfold Match: Dexter Lumis vs. Cameron Grimes went to no-contest

Candice LeRae & Indi Hartwell defeated Kayden Carter & Kacy Catanzaro

KUSHIDA defeated Arturo Ruas

Ember Moon & Toni Storm defeated Dakota Kai & Raquel Gonzalez

Timothy Thatcher defeated August Grey

NXT Women’s Championship Match: Io Shirai defeated Rhea Ripley

Ladies Night. War Games. OMG! NXT worked on every level this week.

W A R G A M E S !

#WWENXT #NXTTakeOver #WeAreNXT pic.twitter.com/dZE1HXpAo1

— WWE NXT (@WWENXT) November 19, 2020

THIS IS AWESOME

,

,

x INFINITY #WWENXT #NXTWomensTitle @shirai_io @RheaRipley_WWE pic.twitter.com/ktlfcwFtIj

— WWE (@WWE) November 19, 2020

Wednesday night was on fire at Capitol Wrestling Center. Kudos to the women’s division that stole the night! Io Shirai and Rhea Ripley absolutely ripped it apart in the main event in another NXT classic championship match where both ladies come out strong and Shirai looks unstoppable at the top. Adding to that, we got the announcement from Shotzi Blackheart that War Games is coming December 6th. It looks like we’ll get Candice LeRae, Indi Hartwell, Raquel Gonzalez and Dakota Kai against Blackheart, Ember Moon, Toni Storm and TBD in what is shaping up to be an amazing match. BTW: Moon and Storm are everything Dana Brooke and Mandy Rose whould be on RAW. I can see them being future tag champs if the WWE wanted to go down that route. They are that damn good! Another good showing too for Kayden Carter & Kacy Catanzaro. Losing to LeRae & Hartwell is nothing to be ashamed of as they’re getting better each week.

Toni Storm & @WWEEmberMoon working together. We love to see it.

#WWENXT @RaquelWWE pic.twitter.com/Scf4U1gYw9

— WWE (@WWE) November 19, 2020

The cat, @FinnBalor, is BACK… and LOOK who he dragged in with him. BOOM.

#WWENXT @AdamColePro @theBobbyFish @KORcombat @roderickstrong pic.twitter.com/wRMsEMBpsC

— WWE (@WWE) November 19, 2020

On the men’s side of War Games, NXT Champion Finn Balor returned to close the show. But, when Baor was challenged to bow down his title to Pat McAfee and his new crew – The Kings of NXT, Balor brought out the returning Adam Cole and the rest of The Undisputed Era. Chaos closes the show as McAfee takes a wicked stiff shot to the face from Cole to end the night. TUE are veterans of War Games and it should be interesting to see how McAfee, Oney Lorcan, Danny Burch and Pete Dunn fare in their debut in the cages! It’ll also be interesting to see if McAfee actually gets into the match or if there’s a fourth member coming to join The Kings of NXT.

Elsewhere, good for Leon Ruff! Good to see him standing up to both Johnny Gargano and Damien Priest as he hangs on to this title when Priest clocks him to give him the DQ win, a DQ finish that actually works for the storyline, unlike so many of the DQ finishes on RAW and SmackDown.

We all could’ve done without the Blindfold Match between Dexter Lumis and Cameron Grimes. But then again, we told you that was coming last week and we’re glad it’s over!

KUSHIDA still rocks. Tommaso Ciampa vs. Timothy Thatcher will be a physical beating for both men.

Finally, who is the “she” that is coming according to BOA?

SMACKDOWN

RESULTS

The New Day & The Street Profits defeated Sami Zayn, King Corbin, Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode

Last chance Survivor Series Qualifying Match: Natalya defeated Tamina

Murphy defeated Seth Rollins

Daniel Bryan defeated Jey Uso

Good to see The New Day and The Street Profits playing nice before their Survivor Series match. No shortage of bravado on either side, but they put it aside for an opening 8-man tag team victory over Sami Zayn, King Corbin, Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode. Good match to kick things off, but they continue to misfire with Big E. Otis gets the nod to join Team SmackDown. Meh. Would’ve rather seen Big E get the nod. Looks like he’ll be limited to have some type of invovlement in the tag team match.

#TeamSmackDown is STACKED!#SmackDown #SurvivorSeries @itsBayleyWWE @RubyRiottWWE @YaOnlyLivvOnce @NatbyNature @BiancaBelairWWE pic.twitter.com/KeETofOmM0

— WWE (@WWE) November 21, 2020

Nice to see Bayley trying to unite the SmackDown Survivor Series women’s team now that it’s complete with herself and Natalya being added Friday night. I agree with Corey Graves. The SmackDown team looks stacked in comparison to Team RAW. Natalya’s match with Tamina was a snoozer though.

"@DMcIntyreWWE you will always be my favorite #2."@WWERomanReigns has been on

tonight.#SmackDown pic.twitter.com/qE2cIFdcvn

— WWE on FOX (@WWEonFOX) November 21, 2020

Less continues to be more when it comes to Roman Reigns. Perfect placement of course with Roman at the head of the contract table. Even when faced with a challenge from another show, WWE Champion Drew McIntyre, it’s still the same message. Reigns is THE CHAMPION and your tribal chief – the head of the table. All the arrogance continues to flow with a line of love. “You will always be my favorite #2” will live in WWE history as a great line from Reigns to McIntyre. It’s going to be a war come Sunday night between these two! Now, that’s good business for everyone.

Murphy vs. Seth Rollins put forth a good final chapter as Buddy finally gets the better of his former mentor, the Messiah. Murphy’s Law says Rollins is in for some time off after Survivor Series to welcome the birth of his child with Becky Lynch. It’s a good time for a break and to see what’s next for Murphy, Aalyan and the rest of the Mysterio family. I did think the celebration was cut short, maybe due to time constraints.

"I told you to watch your back, Banks! I just checked, and Boss Time is OVER." – @CarmellaWWE

@WWEAsuka isn't the only Superstar @SashaBanksWWE should be worried about. #SmackDown #SurvivorSeries pic.twitter.com/0kXjNFKkl4

— WWE (@WWE) November 21, 2020

SmackDown had a little too much talking this week, but it did get all of the main stars together from both shows to hype the PPV, which, at the end of the day, is the main job of the go-home show – give me a reason to want to watch the PPV. In that vein, it worked. It was kind of odd having Asuka just watch as Carmella beat Banks down in front of her though. Doesn’t help Asuka to help her and it moves forward Carmella’s story to take Banks out for a title shot after Survivor Series. So, for that reason, it worked on both fronts.

Jey @WWEUsos sends @WWEDanielBryan through the announce table!! #SmackDown pic.twitter.com/YVpMrjOwzH

— WWE (@WWE) November 21, 2020

Daniel Bryan is a national treasure! Returning to face Jey Uso in a hard-hitting main event, Bryan again saw himself going through a table. Uso tried to make Bryan see there was nothing personal, but of course it’s all personal with family business. But, in true babyface form, Bryan gets his revenge with a sweet rollup for the victory. Could we get Bryan vs. Reigns up next for the title when Uso couldn’t get the job done? Sign me up!

Parting Shots:

So, will we really get The Rock vs. Roman Reigns at the Main Event of WrestleMania 37? The only way it happens is 1)it has to fit into The Rock’s schedule 2)there has to be fans. We would all love to see the fight for who’s truly at the head of the tribal table and just watching to see Reigns believe he is on The Rock’s level would be interesting. But, no fans = no match. No need to waste it with no in-person reaction.

It’ll be interesting to see how the WWE changes the look of ThunderDome when it moves from the Amway Center in Orlando to the spacious Tropicana Dome in Tampa. Going from a 20,000 arena to a indoor stadium will create different opportunities visual and could lead to letting in fans if the COVID-19 pandemic allows.

Survivor Series Predictions:

WWE Champion Drew McIntyre vs. Universal Champion Roman Reigns has a funky finish. Either it goes to a no-contest or Reigns wins via DQ with Randy Orton and The Fiend involved.

SmackDown Women’s Champion Sasha Banks defeats RAW Women’s Champion Asuka

RAW Tag Team Champions The New Day defeat SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Street Profits

United States Champion Bobby Lashley defeats Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn

5-on-5 Women’s Survivor Series Elimination Match – Team Smackdown (Ruby Riott, Bianca Belair, Liv Morgan, Bayley, Natalya) defeats Team RAW (RAW – Nia Jax, Shayna Baszler, Lacey Evans, Peyton Royce, Lana) with Bianca Belair surviving

5-on-5 Men’s Survivor Series Elimination Match –  Team Raw (Keith Lee, Sheamus, Braun Strowman, AJ Styles, Riddle) defeats Team SmackDown (Kevin Owens, Jey Uso, King Corbin, Seth Rollins, Otis)

Coming up this week:

RAW: Survivor Series fallout

NXT: The Road to WarGames continues Kevin Owens guest commentator

SmackDown: Survivor Series fallout

Thanks for letting us share our thoughts! Shoot me an email at jcrowe567@gmail.com. We’d love to hear your comments and suggestions! You can also check out my blog, The Crowe’s Nest as we delve into more pro wrestling, sports entertainment and the World of Sports. My apologies ahead of time – I AM a Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins fan! If you’re not down with that, I’ve got TWO WORDS for you… NEW ENGLAND

[wham-bam-thank-you-jam-wrestling]

WWE Love (Smackdown Edition)

I'm watching the June 18th episode of WWE, the one that opens with "No Chance in Hell" blasting from the arena PA system and Vince McMahon himself walking to the ring with that still all-too-familiar strut that just screams "I'm a scared little boy who has spent the past 70 odd years trying to convince myself I'm a man".

In case you've missed it, there has been a lot of drama happening in the WWE of late. I'm not going to get into any of that now, suffice to say that none of it is good.

What I am going to do right now, is zag when the rest of the world is zigging and list a bunch of aspects of the WWE product that I am really enjoying right now.

More of this sort of thing, please.

Montez Ford - Not only is he a bonafide main-eventer in waiting, but he is also going to bring something brand new to the main event scene with his combination of charisma and athleticism. The wholesale theft of The Rock's catchphrase a few months back, as well as the weak, pious-man Twitter game aside, the dude is a STAR.

Pat McAfee - this man is a pure delight. His energy, his idiosyncratic delivery, his one-liners and references. Not everything he contributes is a home run (wrong sport, I know), but he adds so much to the presentation of WWE Smackdown that I don't think I could get through the 2 hours (including commercials) without him.

Xavier Woods - I'd like to believe that this man is also on his way to the very tip-top of the card and the WWE universe. Alas, that appears extremely unlikely. If we could give him a sustained push at some point, that would be great. The New Day have remained crazy over for a long, long time despite the, at best, inconsistent booking, yet Xavier Woods is the only one of the three who still hasn't sniffed a solid singles run. And he is the best promo guy in the group! Give a him a chance WWE, just do it confidently, unlike how you treated Kofi and Big E.

Butch - the Brawling Brutes trio, as it is currently presented, is a bad idea that is going nowhere. Sheamus, despite being a big lad who can still go when given the right opponent and enough time to work, is apparently not someone WWE is going to get behind again. Ridge Holland is green, in and out of the ring, and just doesn't inspire any kind of reaction. The former Pete Dunne, however, is playing his part as well as he possibly can, given the material, and is someone I would love to see given a solid 15 minutes with a quality opponent on a premium live event

Also, a quick shout-out to Sheamus's music and entrance. I think it's great.

Sami Zayn - I'm not gonna lie, I started writing this one before he even appeared on screen. There is a guy on the other WWE show for whom you can pretty much copy and paste the next few sentences, but we'll get to him another day. In the meantime, it's been said by pretty much anyone and everyone, Sami gets it. He understands his character better than anyone, he elevates bad material, and he can tell you the story that needs telling without leaning too heavily on cliche and the standard pro-wrestling tropes. Plus, maybe not to the same level as 10 years ago, but he can still put on a banger between the ropes.

Gunther - Just don't screw it up, WWE. Keep the title on him until Wrestlemania at the very least and give him some class competition.

Brock Lesnar - Just to be clear, I am not referring to the booking on Brock Lesnar, of which I am not a fan. I get that he is a monster and needs to be booked as such, but there is a way you can accomplish this without making every other wrestler on your roster not named Roman Reigns look like a complete and utter piece of trash. But Brock has a physical charisma that is undeniable and is still, 20+ years removed from his debut, a talent you can build a company around.

That's all I've got at this stage. Let me know if you agree or disagree with any of these. Let me know if you think I've missed something. And let me know if you'd like to see more of this or if you'd like to see a little bit of WWE Hate instead.

Cheers

[gcdllins-blog]

2018 Extreme Rules Predictions.

Pre Show:

Andrade Cien Almas vs Sin Cara: This is a easy squash match for Almas in my opinion. Sin Cara hasn’t been relevant since I don’t know when and Manny is one of the best talent on the roster. Sucks it’s a pre show match but I don’t think there is any chance we will see Andrade lose here.

The New Day vs Sanity: They NEVER let Sanity win....anything? I don’t see the point of this match honestly outside of the WWE wanting to squeeze the popular trio of the New Day onto the event. This is one of those I want Sanity to win situations but it’s a safe bet to assume New Day will come out on top.

Main Card:

Alexa Bliss vs Nia Jax (  WWE Raw Women's Championship ): I’m among the large population of people who think that Ronda is going to interfere in this match, probably giving Alexa a chance to jump in and hit Nia with a chair shot, roll-up pin or something. Setting up a triple threat match between these ladies at SS. It’ll be your typical Alexa and Nia match with Alexa coming out the winner due to Ronda’s interference.

AJ Styles vs Rusev ( WWE Championship ): With my love for both AJ and Rusev this is going to be one of the matches I’m looking forward to the most. I have a hard time believing that Rusev is going to beat AJ if Shinsuke didn’t but wilder things have happened before right? Rusev is WAAAAAY overdue for this win but I just don’t think it’s going to happen? I think AJ walks out still champion.

Matt Hardy & Bray Wyatt vs The B-Team (  WWE Raw Tag Team Championship ): Don’t know many people who really care about this feud? I don’t know if Vince and the boys thought that they would be able to strike magic twice like with what they did with Cesaro and Sheamus but this was a big fail. I don’t care who wins? I just want The Revival as tag champs which might be a thing at SS? I’m going to say Matt and Bray retain just because Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel are just used to get people wins.

Carmella vs Asuka (  WWE SmackDown Women's Championship ): This is going to be a good match. Carmella continues to improve every time I watch her and Asuka is one of the very best in the company. James Chinsworth is going to destroy this match, ofc. And it’s going to suck to see Asuka get chewed up in the Vince machine and basically be just another female on the roster, smh. I like Carmella and think outside of Alexa she’s def the next best heel the company has as far as ladies go but I def think Asuka needs this win to protect her.

The Bludgeon Brothers vs Team Hell No (  WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship ): Don’t @ me but Luke and Eric have been complete savages since been giving this legit shot and have form to become a very creditable tag team like they was in NXT. I don’t want to see what has been a shockingly great run with the belts spoiled just for a cheap Daniel Bryan pop when we all know he’s off for bigger things! A lot of people think this match will be decided by a Miz interference to cost Daniel to set up their match at Summer Slam... I would rather see that feud/match saved for Wrestlemania unless one of them will be in a title match come ‘Mania. I’m gonna side with Luke and Eric winning this match only because I wanna think that the WWE will want to look at the long term goal instead of short time. If we let the Bludgeon Brothers hold the belts to let’s say Survivor Series? It would be a good reign as champions and will make them a real legit threat for tag gold further down the lines.

Dolph Ziggler vs Seth Rollins ( Intercontinental Championship ): I think we could’ve done without the iron man match stipulation but I’m still looking forward to it. I think this match could have several different endings to it, whether Ambrose comes out in the closing minutes to help Seth score one last fall to edge Dolph out. Or Drew costing Dolph the match to set up a feud there? I’ve struggled with trying to figure out why would Dolph drop back the title to Seth tbh, I just don’t see any real reason for it? If Dolph retains we can still get Drew vs Dolph at SS for the strap which would be the perfect launch to Drew’s main roster single run. Gut feeling is telling me that Seth will win though so that’s who I’m going with. 

Roman Reigns vs Bobby Lashley: People can shit on this match as much as they want. But Roman and Bobby is going to be a whole lot of huge power spots, and probably the second most violent match on the card, Braun and KO will probably have the most lmao. If it’s the main event then great? If not, I’m fine with that too. I think it only makes sense to have Bobby win here? Nobody is going to care for Roman vs Brock pt. 1000 for the SS main event? So I’m going to pick Bobby to win here, I know this mean Roman at the moment wont have a match for SummerSlam but we ALL know Vince will find a way to get him on the card regardless.

Jeff Hardy vs Shinsuke Nakamura ( US Championship ): This might be the match of the night when all is said and done! I love myself some Jeff Hardy and think that at some point this year he will be holding gold again but nobody needs a title win more than Nakamura. He should’ve beaten Styles for the WWE Championship but a heel foreigner winning the US title is something we know Vince loves and who better to execute that role than ‘Sorry, I don’t speak English.’ Shinsuke Nakamura?

Finn Balor vs Baron Corbin: I’m tired of the disrespect that Finn and Baron both are going through. Like come on now, why is Finn not a champion right now? Why isn’t Baron a champion right now? These two are some of the companies best and they are in a pointless matches like this? I hope this isn’t a one and done kinda match between the two at least so it’s not at all completely pointless for this match to be happening but I think Finn will win here just because I don’t see too many babyfaces winning tonight.

Braun Strowman vs Kevin Owens: Can this be the main event? If we aren’t going to put the WWE Championship, the belt with the most prestige in the final slot why can’t this match be the last on the card? The steel cage is a great feature that I think will be the main reason why Kevin Owens wins this match. Why else would they add this to the match? Braun doesn’t need a cage to win, he could easily pin KO and nobody would have an issue with it. I don’t know if there will be any interference or not in this match that will allow KO the chance to snake out of the cage but I think it’s almost certain that Braun will lose.

[wrestlingisfake]

World Tag League finals preview

This will air on New Japan World Monday night in Japan, which works out to overnight Sunday/Monday in the US.  It’s the biggest show left on the schedule before Wrestle Kingdom, so if you’ve been out of the loop (like me), it’s as good a time as any to catch up.

EVIL & SANADA vs. Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa - This is the final match in the World Tag League tournament.  Evil and Sanada won the A block and the Guerillas of Destiny won B block.  The winners of this match get a pair of trophies and a title match for the IWGP heavyweight tag team championship at Wrestle Kingdom 12 next month.

This matchup is a little underwhelming because it seems like we see guys at this level fight all the time.  There’s no sense of one team rising through the ranks with a push to the top, and another team possibly playing spoiler.  I mean, I wasn’t expecting the Best Friends to go all the way to the Tokyo Dome, because that’s not how things work in New Japan.  But you could at least have them make it this far to set things up for a bigger push later.  As it is, you’ve got two teams that are considered big enough to put in key spots on shows, but not big enough to get to do anything they haven’t done before.  It feels like watching Cesaro & Sheamus vs. Gallows & Anderson in WWE.

Interestingly, Evil and Sanada are already two of the three the NEVER openweight six-man tag team champions, and that title hasn’t been defended since September.  That alone may give away the outcome of this match.  It would be strange for New Japan to go this long without booking a title match, and then skip the biggest show of the year as well (even if it is just the trios title).  It would also be strange for Evil and Sanada to win here, then lose a match to drop the trios title on their way to a bigger title match at said biggest show of the year.  So unless GOD wins the tournament, New Japan will have to get busy tying up some loose ends they normally don’t leave hanging.

Kazuchika Okada & Will Ospreay vs. Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi - Okada is set to defend the IWGP heavyweight title against Naito at Wrestle Kingdom.  Takakhashi is irrationally upset with Ospreay for some reason and they’re both going to be in a four-way for the junior heavyweight title at Wrestle Kingdom.  I would imagine all four guys will be saving their best for January 4, so this may not even be a very good preview of what you’ll get in the Tokyo Dome.  I’m thinking Okada pins Takahashi.

Kenny Omega & Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson vs. Rocky Romero & SHO & YOH - Omega can’t wrestle his Wrestle Kingdom opponent in a tag match here, because Chris Jericho isn’t around yet.  The Young Bucks (Nick/Matt) are challenging Roppongi 3K (Sho/Yoh) for the IWGP junior heavyweight tag titles on January 4.  Romero is 3K’s coach, so that evens out both sides.

The Young Bucks hold the ROH trios title with Hangman Page, but technically they use the Freebird rule to let any three members of Bullet Club defend the title.  So te-e-e-echnically the title could be on the line in this match.  But as far as I know it’s not.  Wrestling has too many titles.

The Omega/Jericho match isn’t the main event at Wrestle Kingdom but it’s kind of a big deal, so it’d be pretty wacky for Omega’s team to lose here.  I also don’t see any upside to Sho or Yoh losing the fall, so it sounds like Rocky is gonna get superkicked to death.

Kota Ibushi & KUSHIDA vs. Cody Rhodes & Marty Scurll - This match previews Cody vs. Ibushi for the ROH world title at Wrestle Kingdom, and Kushida being one of the three challengers for Scurll’s junior heavyweight belt.  I’m not sure if Cody and Scurll have officially become part of the Bullet Club “Elite” (with Omega and the Bucks), but it’s impressive how closely they’re associated with that level in such a short span of time.  As for Kushida and Ibushi, it’s worth pointing out that we had to drill down to the fourth match on the card to find wrestlers who aren’t part of any faction, which says something about New Japan I think.

I could see this one going either way, but if it was me, I’d put over Ibushi/Kushida to give them some much-needed momentum heading into their title matches.

Minoru Suzuki & Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith, Jr. & El Desperado vs.   Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano & Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI - Seven of these eight guys were in the World Tag League and came up short.  (Suzuki teamed with Takashi Iizuka, so I don’t know why he’s not in this match and Despy is in.)  Archer and Smith (The Killer Elite Squad) are the tag team champions, but they lost twice in the tournament and could probably stand to get another win in before January 4.  On the other hand, Suzuki is the NEVER singles champion and I don’t think he has a feud for Wrestle Kingdom yet, so this would be a good time for someone to pin him to lead to a challenge.  There are a lot of moving parts in this one, so it could be interesting.

Juice Robinson & Sami Callihan vs. Trent Beretta & Chuckie T. - Two more teams that competed in the World Tag League tournament.  Juice and Beretta are New Japan regulars, Sami’s just starting here, and Chuck is best known for teaming with Beretta in the US.  Of the four, Juice is probably the highest on the pecking order, so his team’s probably going to win.

Bad Luck Fale vs. BUSHI - I think this is supposed to play off of an incident from October, where Fale got distracted by Hiromu Takahashi’s cat Daryl and Bushi stole a pin.  I’d kind of forgotten about that but I guess Fale hasn’t.  Anyway, Fale is still more than twice Bushi’s size, and this time Hiromu and Daryl won’t be around to help.  But Bushi’s still got the poison mist, so you never know.  You don’t normally see mismatches like this in New Japan (at least, not one-on-one) so this could be really fun.  I mean, it won’t be fun for Bushi, he’s going to get creamed.

Raymond Rowe & Hanson & Michael Elgin & Jeff Cobb vs. Hangman Page & Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens & Leo Tonga - War Machine (Hanson/Rowe), Elgin/Cobb, Page/Yujiro, and Owens/Fale all competed in the World Tag League; Leo is the third brother of the Guerillas of Destiny, kind of filling in for Fale here.  Cobb is a newcomer to New Japan, having made a name for himself in PWG and Progress, as well as wrestling in Lucha Underground as a big masked monster guy, Matanza.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that Elgin is in the news right now over his mishandling of a sexual assault case involving a fan and a wrestler at his St. Louis promotion, Glory Pro.  That said, I don’t know if it’s going to have any consequences in New Japan, except that Don Callis will probably say something really tasteless about it on English commentary.

This match amounts to big chunky mean good guys versus the Bullet Club C-team, which spells big trouble for Hangman’s team.

Togi Makabe & Henare & David Finlay & Katsuya Kitamura & Hirai Kawato  vs. Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi & Jushin Thunder Liger - Makabe/Henare, Finlay/Kitamura, TenKozy (Tenzan/Kojima), and Nagata/Nakanishi were all in kind of the back end of the World Tag League.  Here we’ve got essentially got Makabe heading up a team of rookies (Finlay is still only barely a rung above “young boy” status) versus a bunch of old guys who work with the rookies in openers.  The finish kind of doesn’t matter but I figure Liger’s team wins for a nostalgia pop.

[theelbowdropla-blog]

Preview of WWE’s Weekend in Phoenix

WWEekend in Phoenix 

J. Tappin - 1/25

This weekend WWE descends upon Phoenix, Arizona for a number of events with all of its brands being represented. Saturday & Sunday mornings at Royal Rumble Axxess will provide the ‘Worlds Collide’ tournament, Saturday night (1/26) will be NXT Takeover: Phoenix, Sunday night (1/27) will be the Royal Rumble PPV, Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live will also be shot in Phoenix on Monday & Tuesday night respectively.

Kicking off the weekend will be the first ever Worlds Collide tournament. The tournament will be shot over two mornings but will air on tape delay on the WWE Network on 2/2. It features five wrestlers each from NXT, NXT UK and 205 Live; Adam Cole, Velveteen Dream, Dominik Dijakovic, Keith Lee, Shane Thorne, Mark Andrews, Tyler Bate, Travis Banks, Jordan Devlin, Zack Gibson, Cedric Alexander, Tony Nese, Drew Gulak, TJP & Humberto Carrillo. The tournament starts with a Battle Royal containing all 15 wrestlers, the brackets of the tournament are then determined by order of elimination in the Battle Royal - the winner gets a first-round bye. The winner of the tournament can challenge for a championship on any of the three brands being represented. This creates the possibility of some ‘fantasy’ inter-brand match-ups that can become a reality from this, like Keith Lee vs Tyler Bate, Jordan Devlin vs Cedric Alexander, Drew Gulak vs Travis Banks, the possibilities are endless.

NXT Takeover: Phoenix has put out another strong five-match card featuring four championship bouts. Taking place in the Talking Stick Resort Arena; Tomasso Ciampa defends the NXT title against Aleister Black, Shayna Baszler defends the NXT Women’s title against Bianca Belair, Ricochet defends the North American title against Johnny Gargano, Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong of the Undisputed Era defend the NXT Tag Team titles against Hanson & Rowe (c.k.a. the War Raiders) and Matt Riddle will have an actual match against Kassius Ohno.

Ciampa & Black will surely be a great main event. There’s no doubt that with the right amount of time that these two can have a classic - a potential contender for match of the weekend. Interference by Johnny Gargano is all but inevitable due to his involvement with the two - a nearly two-year rivalry with Ciampa and a feud with Black including a loss to him the last Takeover in Los Angeles. I see Ciampa winning, perhaps with the help of his former partner Gargano. It’s been well-documented that Triple H, has written the Gargano-Ciampa storyline very closely and detailed. Nobody knows what’s going to go down but if I’m booking, Gargano helps Ciampa creating a faux alliance, then screws him over at the right time and takes the NXT title from him in the process, which one would presume turns him babyface in the process one way or another.

(Image from WWE.com or something)

Baszler vs Belair will be interesting as the two don’t have a lot of experience under their belt, compared to other competitors on the card and in their division. Baszler has not yet had a particularly bad match on a Takeover show but all of her opponents up to this point have been quite proficient. It will certainly be a good test for the two and they both improve at a very impressive rate. They pair are certainly talented and the clash of the character dynamics will also do a percentage of the work in the match. Baszler probably wins this one, keeping a good heel title run going, I look forward to Shayna hopefully defending it in the future against Candice LeRae, Io Shirai, Dakota Kai and more of the stacked NXT roster.

Johnny Gargano vs Ricochet is a no-doubt sleeper and could be not only a match of the weekend candidate but one for match of the year. If you look at both of their Takeover records and the matches they’ve had its seemingly impossible that their match this weekend could be bad. Gargano & Ricochet are two of the best four on the NXT brand and this match will surely show you why. I see Ricochet retaining the North American title for a number two reasons, to establish a long reign with the newly minted title and to keep telling the story of Johnny not being able to win the big ones at Takeovers.

Strong & O’Reilly have had a track record of great tag matches since Roddy has stepped in for Bobby Fish (taking nothing away from Fish). Matches against Tyler Bate & Trent Seven, Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch and their participation in the WarGames’ match in 2018 are all bodies of work to admire. The War Raiders in their own right are a great team and Saturday night will be their first chance to stand out on their own as a tag team at a Takeover. The Raiders & the Era will knock it out of the park for sure. I can see this as being a hot opener for a stacked show with the Undisputed Era barely getting the win.

After a seven-second affair in L.A. in November, Matt Riddle finally gets the chance to properly show why he is one of the biggest gets for NXT of 2018. Ohno has become a sort of unofficial player-coach for NXT, a guy who can elevate less-experienced workers or just wrestlers that are new-to-NXT without devaluing himself. While this program with Riddle will be no exception for Ohno to put new talent over, both will be able to get their stuff in and have a great one in Phoenix.

(Image from FOX Sports Asia)

It happens nine times out of ten but I’m expecting to enjoy the Takeover card more than the Rumble as it is a much shorter, all-killer show compared to the main roster’s shows that are almost always well over four hour shows that are very rarely all-killer. The Rumble matches themself are always fun and interesting but two of those running for 50 minutes plus another five matches on the main card indicates a real long show. Not to forget about the two hour pre-show which has two matches on it as of this writing. Takeover being head & shoulders above the Rumble is just an expectation and I would enjoy being proven wrong because Takeovers are never bad shows.

The Royal Rumble show takes place in the Chase Field baseball stadium. It has the two Rumbles on the main card as well as five championship matches. Two more championship match take place on the pre-show. The prelim matches see Buddy Murphy defending the Cruiserweight title against Kalisto, Hideo Itami & Akira Tozawa and Rusev defending the United States tiel against Shinsuke Nakamura.

The main card has the men’s & women’s Rumble matches, Daniel Bryan defending the WWE title against AJ Styles, Brock Lesnar defending the Universal title against Finn Bálor, Ronda Rousey defending the Raw Women’s title against Sasha Banks, Asuka defending the SmackDown Women’s title against Becky Lynch and Cesaro & Sheamus defending the SmackDown Tag Team titles against the Miz & Shane McMahon.

The four-way for the Cruiserweight title will very likely be super-well worked but the heat all depends on how much of the audience has made it into the stadium to see the match. All four guys are remarkable in the ring and should have a killer match, it’s a shame that these matches are sort of hidden on the pre-shows and the 205 Live weekly program that not nearly enough people watch. I believe there’s a way that the Cruiserweight division could get more over if it was spread across SmackDown & Raw and the champion can have the ability to appear on both brands and compete, or even just keep the division on Raw, but that’s a subject for another article. I wouldn’t expect a title change on a prelim match but stranger things have happened.

The angle with Rusev & Shinsuke has been underwhelming at best. It was good to see Rusev get the U.S. title at the tail end of last year but apart from that the writing of the story itself has been lackluster. WWE missed the peak of Rusev’s popularity by over half a year, one would argue that he should have won the U.S. title when he was in the four-way at WrestleMania, when the 70,000+ were chanting ‘Rusev Day’ as the show went on the air, instead he was pinned in that match by Jinder Mahal. The declining year that Shinsuke has had really shows when you look at where he was at last year’s Royal Rumble show in Philadelphia - winning the Rumble match itself, to a year later challenging for the U.S. title on the pre-show. The next/best thing that could be done with Nakamura at this point would be to have a substantial babyface turn and potentially challenge Daniel Bryan for the WWE title at WrestleMania for a dream match.

The Miz & Shane McMahon story is presumably going to end with a match between the two at WrestleMania. Whether any headway towards that begins at the Rumble or in the following weeks remains to be seen, however, despite the failed attempt in 2013, there’s definitely more chance of Miz getting over as a babyface this time around. Whether this be due to how he comes across on his reality T.V. show with his wife, or his ability of late to procuring sympathy from the audience when he was getting rejected by Shane, despite the goofiness of the angle it’s interesting to see if they’ll make any major changes to Miz’s character, while Shane as of late has been on the fence between heel & babyface.  One good thing about the match is that it’s something different to seeing Cesaro & Sheamus defend the titles against the Usos or the New Day.

After getting booked like shit for most of 2018, Asuka finally feels like a killer again. Unless the plan is for Women’s titles to be unified, she probably will win this match. There’s little to no chance that Banks is beating Rousey for the Raw Women’s title. Banks & Bayley seem to be the favorites to be the first Women’s Tag Team champions. For the direction for what will start at the Rumble into the WrestleMania show there are two possible options:

Asuka beats Becky (perhaps via shenanigans), Becky enters the Rumble and wins, Becky faces Ronda & Charlotte (later added to match) for the Raw Women’s title at WrestleMania. Asuka takes on another challenger at Mania

Becky beats Asuka, still enters the Rumble as SD Women’s Champion and wins the Rumble, Becky faces Ronda & Charlotte (later added) in a triple threat to unify the Women’s titles at WrestleMania.

It’s no doubt that with Ronda’s imminent departure from WWE after Mania that Charlotte should be in the match as well, so the Becky & Charlotte who will stay on for the long haul can both get mileage out of being the first women to main event WrestleMania. Charlotte Flair getting into the match can be easily done with a match at the Elimination Chamber or Fastlane show where she beats Becky in a bout stipulated so that she gets into the Becky vs Ronda match if she beats Becky one-on-one/non-title. The unification of the Women’s titles and the introduction of a single set of Women’s Tag Team titles could be done in preparation for a possible all-Women’s weekly T.V. show (which I would call Thursday Nitro, a piece about this coming soon).

(Image from those marks at whatculture)

Daniel Bryan has been doing the best heel work of his WWE career since his turn and title win on the 11/13 edition of SmackDown last year. He has played a character that really is a version of himself, spreading awareness of how the WWE Universe is killing the environment and consuming meat that’s flooded with chemicals. Basically he is playing up the vegan/activist of him for his character, and being a dick about it. Because Bryan playing an amplified version of himself, it makes the character look believable and the character looking believable makes it easier for fans to invest in the angle and take him seriously. Because everybody has known forever that Daniel Bryan is a vegan and cares very much about our planet. What Daniel Bryan says in his promos for the most part are facts and things he believes in. It is things like this that makes it hard to boo Daniel Bryan in this incarnation, he is pretty much WWE’s version of Al Gore in An Inconvenient Truth, except he is a whole lot more obnoxious about it. AJ Styles is put in a tough position facing this sensational and engaging character, but lucky for him his talent alone is something to be in awe of and he can play a babyface just fine. If Bryan’s title program was with a less engaging talent the reaction scales would probably tip completely in Bryan’s favor.

(Image from ABC 15 Arizona)

Finn Bálor is not beating Brock Lesnar on Sunday, but he hopefully will push Lesnar to the edge and lose valiantly. Bálor will get thrown around by the much bigger Lesnar for the first two-thirds of the match but Finn will make a comeback that will get the people on their feet until he’s put away with an F-5 or two. Despite it’s ease, this formula for the match has proven its worth in Lesnar’s clashes with opponents like AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan. The logical course for Lesnar & the Universal title after beating Bálor is to defend and drop the title to Seth Rollins, who should win the Royal Rumble match.

Somewhat-continuing on from the section about the Women’s Championships, the winner of this match will either be Becky Lynch or Charlotte Flair. Lynch is more likely as she will need to be pushed to be taking the place of Ronda Rousey who is reportedly leaving WWE after WrestleMania and winning the Rumble can be a big part of this push. Whether she enters as a champion or not it will still be a good surprise as she has not been announced as a participant in the match. 23 of the competitors have been announced, which is basically the whole of the Raw & SmackDown’s women’s divisions. This leaves it certain that we will see surprise entrances from either NXT or Legends or both.

The men’s Rumble is perhaps the most interesting match on the show, the general consensus is that Rollins is going to take it but Vince McMahon can always change his mind at the last second. Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre or Braun Strowman seem like the only likely winners at this point. Only 20 official entrants have been announced so hopefully we see some surprise entrants from NXT and a legend or two getting in the match like we’ve seen in the past. The best possible result of the Rumble would be Seth Rollins winning from an early entry in the match. Rollins is even a good fit for the type that wins the Rumble from the #1 or #2 spot, as he has been displayed as a workhorse in the last year. Elements of the in-ring work of Shawn Michaels, Rey Mysterio & Chris Benoit can be seen in things Seth Rollins does today, all the more reason to book his Rumble win this way.

(Image from sportskeeda.com)

The ‘Road to WrestleMania’ begins at the Rumble on Sunday. A lot of angles going towards Metlife Stadium on 4/7 will start to take shape at the PPV and Raw & SmackDown on the nights following. There will be a handful of great matches this weekend. Johnny Gargano vs Ricochet, Brock Lesnar vs Finn Bálor, Asuka vs Becky Lynch and Tomasso Ciampa vs Aleister Black are all can’t-miss, as well as a couple of others.

Raw & SmackDown will also be pivotal as the fallout from the Rumble will spill into those shows. These will be shot in the Talking Stick Resort Arena.

Expect a review of Takeover & the Royal Rumble show to come in the middle of next week.

[denise8691]

WWE star Sheamus can't wait to have a blast in Belfast

The SSE Arena is the venue for another huge night of wrestling and the Irish star of the show is looking forward to having the craic The SSE Arena is Raw this Saturday night as the WWE juggernaut storms in to Belfast with a Superstar stacked card of mammoth proportions. Post-WrestleMania, the flagship Monday night show's roster may have lost grapplers such as Charlotte, The New Day, Chris Jericho and Rusev in the Superstar Shake-Up, but it has gained a host of huge names and bodies that will grace the Odyssey this weekend, with arguably the best line-up Belfast has seen in some years which includes Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins The Miz and Alexa Bliss. One man who has stayed firmly on the red brand is Dublin's own Sheamus, and speaking to Belfast Live from Rome before heading home for the weekend, the Celtic Warrior is revelling in his current spot on the card with tag team partner, and former foe, Cesaro. "Last year, Cesaro and me, we had the best-of-seven series against each other and we didn't know where that was going to go," said the former WWE and World Heavyweight Champion. "We had a lot of stuff to prove, I'd come off the back of this League of Nations thing that had died on it's arse a bit and he was coming back from injury and felt he was going to be pushed but wasn't going anywhere. They put us in the series to give us the opportunity to go in there and steal the show and we did. "The last match, everyone was in to it, there was a slow build and it told a great story and then we ended up tag partners, where at the beginning we didn't get on, we didn't like each other but we made it work and we eventually won the tag team titles off The New Day to end their longest tag team run. "It's been a lot of fun. We've been really lucky with and we're having a lot of fun with it. We don't know where it's going or how long it will last but I like to live in the moment, you never know what's around the corner so enjoy what you have when you have it." The pair have entered in to a feud with the legendary Hardy Boys, Matt and Jeff, who returned to the WWE at WrestleMania last month in Orlando, Florida, and so far their bouts have been as hard hitting as they come. "Honestly, when the Hardys made their entrance at WrestleMania, it was like an Undertaker return, their music hit, I got goosebumps all over my body, their were 80,000 odd fans going bananas. Standing in the middle of that, it's hard to describe, it was incredible. "To me, it helped make it one of the best matches on 'Mania, especially with the ladders and the spectacle of it. I'm pretty sure we stole the show." Sheamus was involved in one of the biggest 'Mania moments of this year's event, being the victim of one of Jeff Hardy's infamous Swanton Bomb's from the top of a twenty foot ladder, which as you would expect, wasn't a move without its risks. "When he landed on me, I took his heel to the side of my head. I went home looking like a panda bear, with two black eyes, but that's what it's about. I thrive on pretty much being the toughest Superstar in the WWE, no one comes close. I'm not afraid to take a licking and give one back. "I'll tell you who else is tough, Jeff Hardy is tough as nails. I kicked his tooth out (at Sunday night's Payback event) and he still kept going. It is what it is, it's very physical entertainment, people don't understand it, but when get in there with someone like me or Cesaro, you realise just how physical it is." The UK loops of the WWE tours are among their most popular and with a rise in popularity in the wrestling in the UK and Ireland, not just with the American juggernaut but with local companies like PWU, OTT and ICW as well as the return to television of World Of Sport, it's peak time for wrestling and wrestlers over here. Sheamus is in no doubt that the WWE has played a huge part in that growth. "I think it shows just how great the Irish are and how well the WWE has done being shown over here in the last few decades, because these are guys, myself included, who have grown up watching WWE and gone to live shows as fans, so you can see now that it's been a huge influence. "It's really resonating now. People think that the product now isn't anywhere near the Attitude Era. Now, I loved the Attitude Era but this era we are in now is better. I said this in a lot of articles around WrestleMania and lots of people said "Oh, Sheamus, that's not right" but the Attitude Era was great, it was marketed to teenagers and it had swearing and a lot more use of profanity and stuff. "Now we're a PG product, were in the world of family entertainment and I think right now, we're in a great era that people are going to look back on. I've a lot of time for the Attitude Era, it was great for what it was but it doesn't compare to anything we have today. It doesn't come near, I don't care what anyone says. "Everyone's motivated, everyone is pushing hard and the amount of shows we're doing, the number of countries we're doing - the company is doing better than it ever has." And in Belfast on Saturday night, Sheamus will be looking to send the fans home happy, whether they cheer or boo him (more likely the latter) as he normally does when he performs at The Odyssey. "I have great craic in Belfast. Last year I remember singing Molly Malone in the ring, it was great craic. I'm looking forward to it on Saturday night, we'll have a blast and maybe I'll belt out another tune, I don't know yet. "Either way, it's going to be a lot fun, our roster is stacked with a lot of top guys, so it means it's going to be great craic." Link: http://www.belfastlive.co.uk/sport/other-sport/wwe-star-sheamus-cant-wait-12988023#ICID=sharebar_twitter

[geektified]

New Post has been published on http://www.geektified.com/2017/04/18/the-raw-expose-welcome-to-monster-mash-monday-starring-braun-strowman-the-big-show-4-17-2017/

The Raw Exposé: Welcome to Monster Mash Monday Starring Braun Strowman & The Big Show (4-17-2017)

By: Keila Cash

  Hello everyone and welcome to another installment of The Raw Exposé. Tonight’s episode of Monday Night Raw emanated from the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio. The Raw and SmackDown Live rosters were infused with fresh blood after the Superstar Shakeup last week. With the tables reset heading into the spring and summer months, did Raw’s first full week with a revamped roster pay dividends or did they experience a case of buyer’s remorse?

  Elsewhere, Braun Strowman destroyed Roman Reigns in epic fashion last week. Did Reigns channel his inner John Cena by making a miraculous recovery or did the new Big Dog lick his wounds as Strowman continues his path of destruction? The answer to these questions can be found throughout this blog. Without further ado, let’s dissect tonight’s episode of Raw in no particular order.

    Braun Strowman kicked off Raw by gloating about how he put Roman Reigns out of commission after his classic backstage beatdown last week.

  Kurt Angle burst Strowman’s bubble when he announced that Reigns would be well enough to face Strowman at Payback in two weeks. Strowman vowed that it would be Reigns’ funeral and demanded that Angle give him competition or else. Angle didn’t give him a clear answer which caused Strowman to storm backstage as the opening segment came to an end.

  This was a good way to start the show. Strowman was smug and gleeful during his promo, but the crowd reaction was mixed. Logically, he should be booed out of the building but Reigns is a lightning rod when it comes to getting de facto heel heat. It’s refreshing that an actual heel gets booed for being an evil and irredeemable human being for a change.

    I love Chris Jericho’ Lite Brite scarf. It’s so fetching.

  Samoa Joe defeated Chris Jericho when he made Jericho tap out to the Coquina Clutch in a solid match. Jericho had a few hope spots, but the outcome was never in doubt because Joe wasn’t going to lose his first match on a random episode of Raw.

  It won’t be business as usual when Samoa Joe faces Seth Rollins at Payback in two weeks. Joe reminded Rollins of his debut the night after the Royal Rumble. He wanted Rollins to remember his ligaments tearing apart in his knee. That was business, but things would get very personal at the PPV because Rollins defeated Triple H at WrestleMania and put Stephanie McMahon through a table as an added bonus.

  Rollins told Joe that payback’s a bitch as the segment came to a short and sweet end.

  I guess Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows vs. The Golden Truth is canceled as Strowman attacked Goldust and R-Truth backstage. Braun Smash! Braun Crush!

  Big Cass’ Ohio State Buckeyes shout out didn’t go over too well with the Columbus crowd. Tough room. In all honesty, the joke was pretty lame.

  Anderson and Gallows defeated Enzo Amore and Big Cass when Anderson pinned Enzo after dropping him knee first into the top turnbuckle. The finish was a little ugly as it appeared that the referee didn’t complete the three count. Enzo’s shoulders came up, but I never heard the ref’s hand hit the mat. Perhaps there was some kind of miscommunication, but the fans were not ready for the finish based on the tepid reaction after the match was over.

  The match was fine, but Enzo playing the babyface in peril was tiresome in spots. Big Cass took control down the stretch and had the match won until the fluky finish. This was a case where both teams gained nothing by facing each other which is a shame considering the talent involved.

  The Miz and Dean Ambrose’s feud from earlier this year has been re-ignited thanks to an explosive episode of Miz TV.  Miz talked about how he looked and acted like a WWE Superstar while Ambrose wore cheap clothes which afforded him multiple opportunities on SmackDown Live last year.

  However, Ambrose was a blimp on this year’s WrestleMania card while Miz and Maryse were front and center. Miz called Ambrose lazy and complacent which has prevented him from breaking the glass ceiling in WWE.

  Ambrose had a great rebuttal as he explained that his outward appearance didn’t matter because his heart said it all. His love for professional wrestling had no limits. He was willing to shed his blood, sweat, and tears in front of 20 or 100,000 people. After all, Ambrose defeated The Miz to win the Intercontinental Championship to kick off the year in style.

  Maryse got in Ambrose’s face and called him a street rat. Aladdin reference for the win! She talked about how the man makes the championship and called Ambrose a boy which added insult to injury.

  Ambrose told Maryse to hold his mic as he removed several items from his leather jacket before folding it up neatly. Miz went on a tirade about how Ambrose made the IC Title a joke while Ambrose chucked the jacket at Maryse before attacking Miz.

  Maryse hit Ambrose from behind with the microphone which allowed Miz to set up the Skull Crushing Finale. Ambrose wiggled out of the move and was about to drop Miz with Dirty Deeds, but The Hollywood A-Lister made a quick escape as he and Maryse scurried up the ramp.

  I am not a big fan of WWE revisiting this feud, but the mid-card scene is pretty light on star power. Until that situation is sorted out, Ambrose vs. Miz for the IC title is a fine placeholder. For now…

  Kalisto first week on Raw resulted in him being tossed in a dumpster by Strowman. Sad times…

  The Big Show body checked Strowman as he shoved him into the garage door backstage. Big Show vs. Strowman II is set for later tonight. Their first match was a pleasant surprise. Let’s hope lightning strikes twice.

  TJ Perkins defeated Jack Gallagher with the Detonation Kick thanks to an assist from Neville. The first half of the match was good as it featured fluid action throughout. However, the heat cooled off considerably after the commercial break as the crowd reaction was lukewarm at best.

  Jack Gallagher pulling a Mary Poppins liven things up as he laid out Perkins with a Thesz Press while falling gracefully to the floor with his umbrella.

  However, things took quite the turn when TJP tossed Gallagher into Austin Aries while he was watching the match from ringside. Aries got up to confront TJP, but Neville yanked Aries off the ring apron which led to the aforementioned finish.

  This was a nice way to forward the Neville-Aries feud while also giving TJP a chance to shine as a heel who is not above taking a short cut in order to pick up wins.

  Alexa Bliss became the number one contender for the Raw Women’s Championship when she capitalized on Nia Jax’s handiwork by pinning Sasha Banks after Jax laid her out with a Samoan Drop. Bliss kicked Jax out of the ring and picked up the tainted, but completely legal win.

  The Fatal Four Way match featuring Alexa Bliss, Sasha Banks, Mickie James, and Nia Jax was good. It featured solid action throughout and I loved the interaction between James and Banks. Bliss was the ultimate opportunist as she knew what battles to fight and which ones to run away from.

  Jax’s power offense was impressive and relatively safe for a change. Jax needs more seasoning in the ring and WWE’s unique approach of having her learn on the job is exposing her weaknesses instead of accentuating her strengths as a badass who needs to do very little in order to get over. It worked for Strowman. Let’s hope the Powers That Be realizes that when it comes to the presentation of Jax in the future.

  In any event, Bliss will be a nice foil for Bayley heading into Payback while the slow burn heel turn of Sasha Banks continues.

  Finn Bálor made quick work of Curt Hawkins when he pinned Hawkins with the Coup De Grace. I’m glad that Bálor’s concussion scare wasn’t serious as he was back in the ring this week. If Bálor defeated Jinder Mahal in 30 seconds or less last week, that whole forearm to the head thing could’ve been avoided.

  On a lighter note, Hawkins is aware that his sole purpose on Raw is to elevate people to the main event. Smart man.

  Quick Synopsis of Bray Wyatt’s sermon to Randy Orton: There will be hell, fire, and brimstone. Here endeth the recap.

  Chris Jericho putting The Drifter on The LIST made my night.

  Jeff Hardy and Cesaro survived the 10:30 Lull Period of Death by having a competitive one-on-one match which saw Cesaro put on an uppercut party of the highest order.

  The match was solid, but it was a bit one-note due to all the uppercuts. Hardy eventually got back on offense when he grazed Cesaro with Whisper in the Wind followed by a dropkick that sent the Swiss Superman tumbling out of the ring.

  The ending came when both men countered out of their finishes with Hardy coming out on top with the Side Effect followed by the Swanton Bomb for the win.

  The Hardy Boyz and Cesaro & Sheamus shook hands as a sign of mutual respect heading into their Raw Tag Team Championship match at Payback in two weeks. We shall see if the face vs. face dynamic holds up heading into the go-home show next week.

  The Big Show vs. Braun Strowman had another classic battle that featured baseball slides, dropkicks, arm drags, powerslams, kip-ups, chokeslams, and knockout punches. However, the biggest spot of the match took place when Strowman delivered a superplex to Big Show that sent both men crashing down the canvas which caused the ring to implode. The referee flew out of the ring as the crowd popped with shock and elation.

  The ring crew checked on all three men as various camera angles surveyed the damage. Amazingly, Strowman got up and declared himself the winner as Raw went off the air with the Monster among Men celebrating on the main stage.

  The match was a total spectacle and I loved every minute of it. Big Show and Strowman worked well together and told a great story in the ring. Whoever laid out the match did a tremendous job teasing the superplex spot. The fans were on their feet, but their instant gratification was denied which made the actual moment even sweeter when it finally happened.

  This was a great way to end the show and I must give kudos to WWE for spacing out the epic ring implosion moment over the years. Big Show has been a part of all of them and each time it feels special and out of the blue. It’s a trick that will never get old as long as it’s used sporadically. Tonight was no different.

  Overall, I thought tonight’s episode of Monday Night Raw was solid. The show was verging on being so-so until the main event salvaged things. Plus, WWE showed restraint by keeping Roman Reigns off television this week. It would’ve been dumb for Reigns to show up fresh as a daisy after Strowman kicked his ass to the nth degree. Building anticipation for their rematch was the way to go and I fully expect the new Big Dog to show up on the go-home show next week. Perhaps he should bring a bulldozer for added protection against Strowman. Safety first!

  Up until the main event, the Fatal Four Way Match featuring Sasha Banks. Alexa Bliss, Mickie James, and Nia Jax were in the running for match of the night honors. The ladies had a solid outing that might have been the best in-ring work I’ve seen in the Women’s Division since Bayley defeated Charlotte for the championship a little over two months ago. Bliss has one week to promote her match against the Hugger Extraordinaire. With her razor sharp mic work, I am confident in her capabilities to get the job done.

  The rest of the show felt stagnant in spots. Due to Dash Wilder recovering from a broken jaw, The Revival’s push is on hold which causes a bit of stagnation in the Tag Team Division. The Hardy Boyz have to be the standard bearer until Top Guys make their triumphant return. Let’s hope the nostalgia doesn’t wear off between now and then.

  After last week’s Superstar Shakeup, nothing really changed with the exception of Dean Ambrose and The Miz rekindling their feud from SmackDown Live and Bray Wyatt spewing nonsense on the TitanTron. Everything else is pretty much the same. Let’s hope the creative team shakes things up over the next couple of months because the broadcast seems a little wishy-washy outside of Strowman being an indestructible badass. Fingers crossed!

  On that note, this wraps up another edition of The Raw Exposé. I hope you enjoyed it and I will back tomorrow night with a brand new installment of The SmackDown Files. See you later, boys and girls!

[ryanonwrasslin-blog]

Wrestlemania 33 Review

RI’m going to keep this relatively short because I’ll have the full review of the week later on, but as one of my gimmicks around here is ranking things, I thought I’d put together the definitive ranking fo the matches from NXT and Wrestlemania, along with some assorted thoughts, from worst to first, and grouped together by category.

Terrible

18. Randy Orton vs. Bray Wyatt

There were a couple of letdown matches on the main card that I came into with high hopes, but nothing compares to this one. Against the right opponent each of these guys can have fantastic matches. But neither has a style that meshes well with everyone, and unfortunately it’s now clear that they just don’t have chemistry with each other in the ring that’s even 1% as interesting as their chemistry outside of the ring. I don’t know what Smackdown’s plans are, but the air really felt like it was let out of this feud last night.

17. Roman Reigns vs. The Undertaker

Poor ‘Taker. And honestly, poor Roman. The Big Dog has mostly had good matches for the last year-plus no matter what his critics might insist. But I don’t think even a wizard like Shawn Michaels or AJ Styles could have pulled something worthwhile out of the Dead Man last night. We’ve seen this deterioration in the ring really since the Mania loss to Lesnar, but ‘Taker was always able to at least give us something. Last night was dreadful and thankfully it’s the end for ‘Taker. That spot with Taker turning to putty as Reigns tried to put him into the Tombstone hurt to watch. In all honesty, he shouldn’t have gone past the CM Punk or first Lesnar match. Thank you for so many good moments, ‘Taker, but it’s time to rest in peace.

Mostly Dull

16. Dean Ambrose vs. Baron Corbin

I don’t think I’ll ever understand why this wasn’t made under like hardcore, No-DQ rules. I get that there were multiple other matches that made use of no rules, or bent the rules, but there’s always a place for a schmozzy match that battles backstage and uses lots of props and barely resembles a technical match. That’s what this needed to be. Instead, it was a perfectly okay pre-show match where, for some reason, Dean Ambrose retained.

15. Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal

Even a bad battle royal is still perfectly fine, and that���s more or less what this was. I liked the strategy involved in getting Strowman thrown out. That kind of stuff needs to happen every now and then to keep fans from complaining too much about how dumb the wrestlers are. And Mojo is an interesting choice. I can’t see a world where he’s ever even worthy of being more than a placeholder for a midcard belt, but hey, the guy is fun to have around and it takes all kinds to build a wrestling company.

Too Long By Half

14. Seth Rollins vs. Triple H

Woof. This match. Why in God’s name was this match the longest on the card and yet Samoa Joe still didn’t show up? There were basically zero shenanigans you wouldn’t see in a typical episode of Raw. If they wanted to book it this way, they should have shaved probably eight-plus minutes. And if you wanted it to be 20-plus minutes several hours into a card, you needed to do something more interesting than a typical Triple H cerebral assassin match. They’ve known this match was coming for like eighteen months, so thank God it’s over, and I’m sure that’s why they made it this epic battle, but sometimes you’ve go to realize how that sort of thing will play in-house and this crowd was not interested and neither was I. Also, I know Seth hitting Trips with the Pedigree was the money move, but how you gonna deflate the goddamned Phoenix Splash by kicking out? That 100% needs to be a Rollins finishing move going forward.

Left Something To Be Desired

13. Alexa Bliss vs. Natalya vs. Becky Lynch vs. Mickie James vs. Naomi vs. Carmella

On the one hand, the shortened time led to a frenetic pace that, this late in the show, was needed to keep the crowd from utterly dying. But on the other hand, I would have liked to have seen this get at least another 2-3 minutes so that it wasn’t entirely a spot fest and didn’t feel as much like a throwaway. They do gain points for making the right call in the end result, with Naomi being one of the best calls to win of the night.

12. Bayley vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Sasha Banks vs. Nia Jax

At some point we need to have a discussion about Bayley, right? I mean she’s not outright bad or damaging for sure, but she is just not working as well as she should be on the main roster. People want Sasha to win big, and are perfectly happy to hate the hell out of Charlotte. But this was not a good match after the fun of taking out Nia was accomplished. And if they turn Sasha tonight, I’m concerned fans are not going to be nearly as behind Bayley as you’d expect. Sasha is an amazing heel, but she’s also a brilliant character that fans respect the hell out of. 

11. SAnitY vs. Tye Dillinger, Roderick Strong, Kassius Ohno, and Ruby Riot

The mixed tag rules still leave us in such weird places. Unless the match is booked damned near perfectly, at some point it always turns into a frustrating plot point. I do wonder if NXT ever comes close to pulling the trigger on Dillinger. It almost feels like too little too late after another L.

10. John Cena and Nikki Bella vs. The Miz and Maryse

I hoped for more from this given how phenomenal the booking leading up to the match was. Instead they mostly protected Maryse, let Miz have a couple nice minutes, and then it was time for the Cena family to get their shit in and get to the real point of all of this: the proposal. Fine for what it was, but given how good 3 of the 4 in this match are in the ring, and how Maryse’s ring rust could have played into Nikki’s strong style dominance, I hoped for better.

Perfectly Fine, And That’s Okay

9. Aleister Black vs. Andrade Almas

Almas has settled in as a nice mid-card hand in NXT and a welcomer to the card, and this showed why. It was a nice match, showed off both men’s skills, and put Black over as a force to be reckoned with in the months ahead in NXT. At some point, I hope they get on the Almas train. That dude has it figured out now and needs to get something of a push.

8. Chris Jericho vs. Kevin Owens

I wanted this to be Savage/ Steamboat. I wanted it to steal the show and make it impossible to follow in every way. But this just never clicked as much as I wanted it to. That’s not to say it was bad. It wasn’t. It was a strong story of two guys who know each other’s moves so well that they constantly have the moves and counters scouted. That’s a fine story, but it needed more to really work. We didn’t quite get there, I’m sorry to say.

Fun

7. Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar

This was the best possible version they could have done of Goldberg/ Lesnar. I didn’t want another 2 minutes or less affair but asking these two to go ten or more minutes is not being realistic about what you have in them, and it’s risking the crowd turning on it. Instead, both guys got to hit their combined four moves, it told a coherent story, and was a lot of fun. Everyone involved deserves serious kudos for stretching this out to just the right length and making it as good as it could possibly have been.

6. Bobby Roode vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

This was a far better version than their first matchup. Roode is developing a nice tendency of working smart, dare I say cerebral, matches. The knee work to neutralize the Kinshasa was good, as was his ready counters. Shinsuke’s matches in WWE have all been fine, but not one has ever lived up to the man’s hype, charisma, and most of all his entrances. I hope that changes on the main roster.

5. Neville vs. Austin Aries

In terms of technical skill on both sides of the bout, this was certainly the winner at Wrestlemania. Just a well-booked, entertaining match all around. Neville continues to be both smart and devastating, and this didn’t take any shine off of Aries. Let’s do this again with these two.

4. AJ Styles vs. Shane McMahon

If I could get past the booking oddity of making Shane McMahon look on the equal of AJ Styles, this would almost certainly be the match of the night, and I can’t believe that’s something I just typed. AJ is a demigod in the wrestling ring, and full marks go to Shane McMahon for learning from the worst parts of the overlong Undertaker affair. This was fun, relatively strong from a technical perspective, and should cement AJ as a goddamn miracle worker in the ring to the decision makers at WWE.

3. The Club vs. Cesaro and Sheamus vs. Enzo and Cass vs. The Hardys (!)

I gave this match shit for using up the ladder stipulation for three team who seemed in capable of making it worthwhile. But the, things got a little bit Broken. Without a doubt the biggest pop of the night went to the freakin’ Hardys showing up at Wrestlemania. From there it turned into 11 electric minutes. Everyone got cool spots, crazy ass Jeff Hardy jumped off an enormous ladder, and the crowd lost their shit repeatedly through it all. It won’t score high by any technical measure, but goddamn if this wasn’t a ton of fun.

These Are The Actual Good Matches

2. Asuka vs. Ember Moon

It seems like I like this match more than most, even though I don’t have a ton to say. And yes, I know that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. The tag match was hot fucking fire, but this told a strong story and made both women look great. Ember is coming for Asuka, and coming soon, but Asuka’s surprise semi-turn tonight was beautiful.

1. The Authors of Pain vs. The Revival vs. #DIY

A great, possible swan swong, for what has been the best division in all of WWE for over a year. I have to think at least one of Revival and #DIY are being promoted, and honestly they both should be. I’m not sure AOP can keep this up without them, but that’s a question for another day. For Saturday night, we got brilliance from the three teams. The combo finishers, the frenemies dynamic between the two smaller teams, and AOP’s just incredible physicality. My only issue is just how much damage AOP had to overcome to win. It got to be too much when whichever Author sat in double submissions for forever without tapping, and within another minute or two was up hitting his moves. That was a step too far, and the only thing that kept it from being another all-time classic.

[dreamspeardreams]

Wrestlemania 33 Recap and Predictions

It's Wrestlemania time, so here's my recaps and predictions for Wrestlemania 33.

Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal - ArMBaR

Story: None. Even though this match is on the pre-show, I’m glad that s a lot of the midcarders are treating it as an important opportunity. Baron Corbin is in a Singles title match after winning it last year, so it has some legacy of leading to a push.

Prediction: Big Show. There’s three likely candidates to win, Braun Strowman to show his continued dominance, Big Show because it’s likely to be his last Wrestlemania and he won the first one, or there’s an off-chance Sami Zayn could win it, to feed into his storyline of going to smackdown. Most likely I see Braun Strowman taking it. Big Show will likely be the 2nd last guy, but I think Bruan will get a good boost out of the match.

Becky Lynch vs. Natalya vs. Carmella vs. Naomi vs. Mickie James vs. Alexa Bliss(c) in a Six-Pack challenge for the Smackdown Women’s Championship

Story: After Naomi vacated the title (Smackdown after Elimination Chamber), Alexa Bliss claimed it again making her a 2-time Champ. At a ‘Blissertation’, Alexa was about to reveal who she would face at Mania, when all the Women interrupted and Mickie James got confused that she wasn’t getting the opportunity. Daniel Bryan came out and made a match with Bliss defending against every available woman on the smackdown roster, which was a way to tease out Naomi’s return last night. Mostly the division has consisted of scrums and tag matches to show that everyone has animosity towards everyone else.

Prediction: Naomi. This might be a little out of left field, since a lot of people are picking Alexa to win, but I think Naomi’s first title win was a great moment, and since Orlando is her home town, they’ll likely try to recapture that moment.

Austin Aries vs. Neville(c) for the Cruiserweight Championship

Story: After Neville defeated Jack Gallagher in a fantastic match at Fastlane, Austin Aries interviewed him in the ring and Neville provoked him to such an extent that Aries attacked him. Aries then won an incredible Fatal 5-Way match to become Number 1 Contender and face Neville at Wrestlemania.

Prediction: Austin Aries. This is a tough one. Initially my gut said Austin Aries would take it, as so far the Cruiserweight championship has had a fairly quick turnaround of champions, however I could see Neville retaining here and Austin Aries picking up the win later. I think they're going to book Aries strong, as this is not only a return from injury, but also his call up from NXT and he is super over with the crowd. Either way, this match has a chance to steal the show, as these are two of the best workers on the roster, and they're both in great condition.

The Miz and Maryse vs. John Cena and Nikki Bella in a mixed tag-team match (or a “Will John Cena propose?” match)

Story: I’ll be entirely honest, I can’t remember what kicked off this feud, but the brunt of it has been Miz berating Cena for being a part-timer, for being corporate Robo-Cena and for not really loving Nikki because he hasn’t married her, as well as Cena using Nikki to advance his brand. Maryse is angry at Nikki for apparently stopping her from getting into WWE for a few years. A lot of what Miz has been saying is pretty true, and the rumour is that John Cena will propose to Nikki after they win the match, which will only serve to provide credibility to Miz’s statements. The promo’s that have been delivered here, are brutal, with sharp barbs being flung, Cena called Miz a ‘pussy’ and implied that he was ‘firing blanks’ or ‘had nothing down there’. I’m super interested to see how the story of this match turns out.

Prediction: John Cena & Nikki Bella. There is no chance in Hell that Miz and Maryse win here, this is the closest thing to a lock on the card. Really interesting for me is 1) How will the match turn out, I’m hoping it won’t be a squash match and Miz will get in some offence. 2) Will John Cena propose? I hope he does, as the irony will be nice for the smarks, but also it will make for a nice Wrestlemania moment. I’m also really excited for the video package for this.

The Undertaker vs. Roman Reigns

Story: This story probably has the least build, as WWE is relying on the two huge names involved to sell the match. Roman eliminated Taker from the Royal Rumble, and after Roman beat Braun Strowman at Fastlane, Taker has appeared a few times and Roman eventually challenged him to a match. On the Go-Home RAW, Taker had some cool video packages, but Roman has been somewhat uninspired for the course of this feud. Roman has also been talking about retiring the Undertaker, and given Taker’s condition, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this.

Prediction: Roman Reigns. Even if this isn’t Taker’s last Wrestlemania, I still think Roman will win here in order to give Roman a rub of some sort. I think this could be a good match, but this should have happened a few years ago, and Taker should have put Roman over even in his loss. Roman is going to get nuclear heat from this, so hopefully his character goes somewhere more interesting after this match, there’s a lot of possibility.

AJ Styles vs. Shane McMahon

Story: After Randy Orton refused to face Bray at Mania, even though he won the Royal Rumble, there was first a Battle Royale, which was ‘tied’ by Luke Harper and AJ Styles. They then had a 1v1 match, which AJ won, and once Randy turned on Bray, he and AJ had a 1v1 match to determine who would face Bray, which Randy won. Even though Shane was in support of AJ facing Bray, due to his winning two qualifying matches, AJ went ballistic at Shane that he didn’t have a match at Mania, putting Shane’s head through a car window. Last week Shane Coast-to-coast’ed AJ from the ring to the announce table, and now they have a match.

Prediction: AJ Styles. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for Shane to win here. AJ is likely going to RAW in the post-Wrestlemania trades, so AJ beating Shane is a good way to set that up. Apparently they’re building a Rollercoaster for the Wrestlemania set, so Shane might have a spot from that, but I really hope not as he’s too old to be doing that. AJ should beat him with in-ring expertise, he is the best wrestler in WWE after all.

Seth Rollins vs. Triple H in an Unsanctioned match

Story: Back in August, after Finn Balor had to vacate the title due to injury, there was a Fatal 4-Way Elimination match with Big Cass, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns and Kevin Owens. After Cass was eliminated, Triple H showed up and pedigreed Roman, rolling Seth onto him for the pin, then turned on Seth, pedigreeing him and handing the title to Owens. Seth spent a little while trying to get the title back, but once he couldn’t capture it, he started to call out Triple H himself (they botched this storyline a little by leaving it too long). He showed up at TakeOver: San Antonio and was escorted out by security. On the next RAW, Triple H dropped a fantastic promo, Samoa Joe debuted and legitimately injured Seth’s knee. Seth has been working hard to get a match, but was unable to be cleared (in kayfabe), leading to Triple H and Seth signing a ‘Hold-Harmless Agreement’, meaning that Seth cannot sue Triple H if he is injured again in this match (however, it’s unclear if this applies to Triple H as well?) and now we have an ‘unsanctioned’ match at Wrestlemania.

Prediction: Seth Rollins. I think this will be a battle of the pedigrees, both Triple H and Seth taking multiple before going down, and Seth fighting through his knee to put Triple H down. I could see Joe showing up to help Triple H and Seth getting a decent rub from a loss, but I think having Seth win by fighting through an injury makes a lot more sense.

Enzo and Cass vs. The Club (c) (Gallows and Anderson) vs. Cesaro and Sheamus for the RAW Tag-Team Titles in a Ladder Match

Story: Cesaro and Sheamus took the tag straps from the New Day at Roadblock: End of the Line, The Club took them at the Royal Rumble, and Enzo and Cass won a Number One contender’s match to face The Club at Fastlane (which they lost). This has been a decent build, but without a whole lot of story. Most of the feud has been about the straps, without much personal feeling interjected in it. Whichever way this goes, this should be a pretty good match.

Prediction: Enzo and Cass. Although they haven’t been booked very strong, they nearly took the titles at Fastlane, and taking the titles in Florida, where NXT is located and they gained their popularity would make sense. If they don’t, I see the club retaining and Enzo and Cass taking the title at Summerslam in Brooklyn, but changing the champions gives Enzo and Cass something new to do and keeps the scene fresh.

Nia Jax vs. Charlotte vs Bayley(c) vs. Sasha Banks for the RAW Women’s Championship in a Fatal 4-Way Elimination match

Story: The main story leading into this has been Bayley vs. Charlotte, Charlotte retained at the Royal Rumble, Bayley won on RAW and retained at Fastlane to break Charlotte’s PPV winning streak (Yet another of the dumb storyline decisions made at Fastlane). Sasha beat Bayley to inserat herself into the match, and Nia beat somebody to get herself in. Charlotte has been calling Bayley ‘just a fangirl’, Sasha has been telling Bayley that while they will still be friends, she will take her title, and Nia has been attacking everybody.

Prediction: Bayley. This is a hard one to pick. It feels too early for Nia Jax to win, Charlotte winning without her PPV streak doesn’t make a lot of sense and Sasha winning more or less necessitates her heel turn, however it’s a better story for Bayley to win, and Sasha to turn the next night on RAW. That said, I can easily see any of these Women winning the match, based on where WWE wants the story to go from here. Bayley makes the most sense, I think, but everybody has a good chance, and this should be a pretty fun match.

Dean Ambrose(c) vs. Baron Corbin for the Intercontinental Championship

Story: After Corbin eliminated Ambrose from the Elimination Chamber, they had a small fight. In Baron’s attempt to get a shot at Dean’s IC title, he crushed Dean with a forklift. Dean came back and distracted Baron by standing on a similar forklift during Baron’s match with Randy Orton, causing him to lose after taking an RKO. Ambrose then accepted Corbin’s challenge and Dirty Deed’s’d him. The rivalry between these two has been very physical, and I expect the Wrestlemania match to be the same.

Prediction: Baron Corbin. Corbin is finally ready for a title run, and he needs it to solidify his push as the strong guy on Smackdown. This fight should probably be what Ambrose vs. Brock Lesnar should have been last year, very physical, maybe some ref bumps to allow for weapons (as this isn’t a No-DQ match). It’ll be good ti finally see Corbin get a title run, and Ambrose is more entertaining chasing a title.

Kevin Owens vs. Chris Jericho(c) for the US Championship

Story: This is the match with the longest build on the card. At Battleground, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens had a fantastic match, which was preceded by a highlight reel where Jericho and Kevin Owens teased an alliance. At Summerslam, JeriKO teamed against Enzo and Cass, and won in an upset at the time. Once Kevin won the Universal Championship, Jericho started referring to them both as the Universal Champion, and helped him win multiple matches against Seth Rollins, including Hell in a Cell. In return, Owens helped Jericho takes Reigns’ US title. At the Royal Rumble, Jericho was suspended in a Shark Cage, and still helped Owens win against Roman Reigns by dropping Knuckle Dusters down to him. At RAW two weeks before Fastlane, in Vegas, Triple H pulled Owens aside before Chris Jericho’s Festival of Friendship (this is one of the best segments they’ve done in years, find it online). At the Festival, Owens turned on Jericho. Jericho then distracted Owens to cost him the title to Goldberg at Fastlane. The next night on RAW, coming back to a massive face pop, Jericho challenged Jericho to a match at Mania, and Owens agreed if Jericho put the title on the line. Since then, Jericho has exposed the real Owens (as a Jericho mark when he was young) and Owens has said that Jericho was never a friend, only a tool to keep the title.

Prediction: Kevin Owens. Firstly, Jericho has been helping Owens win all of his matches for months, and Owens has been accused of not being able to win matches on his own. To win a title without help against Jericho, the man who helped him for so long, is a testament to Owens continuing strength. Jericho is also going on tour for a while, so having him retain would mean the US title isn’t around for a while. Lastly, Jericho will likely soon retire from wrestling (in the next few years, probably not next month). Lately he has been doing all he can to put over younger talent, and not only will this put over Kevin Owens in a large way, but Owens will gain a lot of heat due to Jericho’s popularity.

Goldberg(c) vs. Brock Lesnar for the WWE Universal Championship

Story: This is the biggest story going into Wrestlemania. At Survivor Series, Goldberg shocked absolutely everybody by demolishing Brock Lesnar in 1:26. In the Royal Rumble, Goldberg once again demolished Brock Lesnar, eliminating him as soon as he got into the ring. Brock Lesnar challenged Goldberg to one last match at Wrestlemania, and after Goldberg took Owens’ title, this match is now for the Universal Championship. Paul Heyman, on behalf of Brock, also congratulated Goldberg for winning against Owens since it makes Lesnar’s inevitable win at Mania that much sweeter, before Lesnar F5’ed Goldberg, who was holding onto the belt for dear life. I am far more interested in this match now than I was previously.

Prediction: Brock Lesnar. Goldberg isn’t likely to do more matches after Wrestlemania, Brock Lesnar getting his revenge for humiliation at Survivor Series and the Royal Rumble makes sense, and from there whoever faces Brock Lesnar gets a huge rub. Goldberg retaining doesn’t really make any storyline sense, and the rumoured Lesnar vs. Reigns main event for WM34 also makes sense for this.

Randy Orton vs. Bray Wyatt for the WWE Championship

Story: After Randy’s loss to Brock Lesnar, Bray confronted him. After a few matches, Kane got involved, and eventually Orton turned on Kane saying “If you can’t beat em, join em” to side with Bray Wyatt. Along with Luke Harper they won the tag-team titles, before losing them to American Alpha due to Luke’s dissatisfaction with Randy. Randy and Luke had a match, which Randy won, and led to Luke being kicked out of the Family. Randy and Bray stayed a strong team until two weeks or so after Elimination Chamber Randy appeared on the Titantron at the Wyatt compound, and burned down Bray’s house, along with Sister Abigail. This is where the story started to falter. Bray claimed that by burning the physical body of Sister Abigail, Orton had released her full power into him, however he still fought a fairly evenly skilled Luke Harper (he won, but the match should have been a squash) and Randy later stabbed Sister Abigail’s grave with a Crucix(?), on the go-home Smackdown.

Prediction: Randy Orton. As much as I would take any other results on the card to see Bray win, I don’t think it’s likely in the slightest. This story had a lot of potential to be very interesting, and at every turn WWE has again taken the boring route. Randy turning on Bray came out of the blue, Bray could have planned for it (they were teasing this earlier on), but apparently Bray just trusted Randy the whole time. Bray gaining Abigail’s (and Satan’s) full power was a cool idea, but turned somewhat goofy, and hasn’t been displayed at all. Likely Randy will end the match with one RKO (outofnowhere), but it should take at least 5 or 6 to take Bray down if he has the power of Satan in him. This is the match I most hope to be good, but that I think will be the most disappointing. Not bad, just probably a bit sloppy.

I think this Wrestlemania has the potential to be a fantastic show, but additionally it could go wrong in a lot of ways. Personally, I’m a little disappointed we aren’t to be getting the Smackdown Tag Team Championships at Mania, as the Usos and American Alpha put on a great match, last week, and there’s probably a fine spot on the Pre-Show for a rematch. What are your thoughts, do you agree with my predictions? Let me know below and I’ll be back with recaps after Wrestlemania.

[placetobenation]

What better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day than with a little vengeance, right?

NXT takes over the PPV landscape Sunday night with its latest edition of TakeOver: Vengeance Day, highlighted by the NXT Championship match between Finn Balor and Pete Dunne. That alone should be worth the price of admission and maybe we’ll get Edge standing by as an interested bystander. But, in addition, they’ll crown the winners of both men’s and women’s Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic plus Johnny Gargano defending his North American Championship against KUSHIDA which could steal the show. That is of course, unless Io Shirai doesn’t steal it first!

We know the card will deliver as it always does! Less is always more as far as the number of matches when it comes to NXT. Gives it room to breathe.

Just think about it, it’s a card that’s without Karrion Kross, The Undisputed Era, Tommaso Ciampa, Timothy Thatcher, Candice LeRae and the tag team champions, Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan, among others.

NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day – Updated Card

Dusty Rhodes Men’s Tag Team Classic Finals: Grizzled Young Veterans vs. MSK

Dusty Rhodes Women’s Tag Team Classic Finals: Ember Moon & Shotzi Blackheart vs. Dakota Kai & Raquel Gonzalez

NXT North American Championship Match: Johnny Gargano vs. KUSHIDA

NXT Championship Match: Finn Balor vs. Pete Dunne

NXT Women’s Championship Triple Threat Match: Io Shirai vs. Toni Storm vs. Mercedes Martinez

Star of the week:

WWE's Nia Jax trends on Twitter after screaming 'my hole!' during match https://t.co/15cdcHNT9H pic.twitter.com/Q4fMI6T4h4

— New York Post (@nypost) February 9, 2021

Nia Jax – No, not for being the best, but for being one of the best moments on WWE television this week. It was a moment more memorable than anything Jax has done in the ring in months.

RAW

RESULTS

AJ Styles defeated Jeff Hardy

The New Day defeated RETRIBUTION (T-BAR & SLAPJACK)

Lacey Evans defeated Charlotte Flair by DQ to win RAW Women’s Championship Match vs. Asuka

Damian Priest defeated Angel Garza

Keith Lee defeated Riddle

Tables Match: Lana defeated Nia Jax

Naomi defeated Shayna Baszler

Non-title WWE Championship Match: Drew McIntyre vs. Randy Orton ended in no-contest

Welcome to the WHY edition of Monday night RAW.

Why did we need Shane McMahon out to help Adam Pearce announce that Drew McIntyre would defend his WWE Championship inside the Elimination Chamber against Sheamus, AJ Styles, Jeff Hardy, Randy Orton and The Miz?

"I think at a different level than you. You're content with being awesome? I'm not. Did that 20 years ago … I NEED to be champion!" – @EdgeRatedR to @mikethemiz #WWERaw pic.twitter.com/aqqyFRmjeJ

— WWE (@WWE) February 9, 2021

Why is Edge so damn good? Rhetorical question as he now waits until after Elimination Chamber to make his WrestleMania decision. Edge schooling The Miz was priceless and on point!

The Queen has SNAPPED, forcing this match into a DQ!#WWERaw @MsCharlotteWWE @LaceyEvansWWE @RicFlairNatrBoy pic.twitter.com/rov45KVOkz

— WWE (@WWE) February 9, 2021

Why did we need another DQ finish? This time with Charlotte Flair beating up Lacey Evans, giving Evans a title shot against Asuka. Not sure that helped anyone out there.

Why is Angel Garza being wasted in a squash match against Damian Priest? And why does Priest need Bad Bunny with the distraction to beat him? That of course, is another rhetorical question. Excellent piece of business right there for sport entertainment.

Dialing 1-800-HURT BIZ!#WWERaw @fightbobby @RealKeithLee pic.twitter.com/uwUlceEFJV

— WWE Universe (@WWEUniverse) February 9, 2021

Why is the WWE so transparent putting Keith Lee up against Riddle when we know it’s only going to lead to a triple threat match against Bobby Lashley for the US Title? Storyline aside, Lee vs. Riddle was very good.

Why did we get no build-up to a tables match between Lana and Nia Jax? Yes, they should’ve had the match, but give me at least some time to make it worthwhile.

Why haven’t we been giving a “Oh, my hole!” t-shirt from Nia Jax and why does the WWE feel the need to edit that amazing moment, trending Worldwide, out of the RAW replays? Use it my friends! It actually made Jax entertaining for a moment and made her our star for the week. At least they made amends Friday night!

Payback!

#WWERaw @DMcIntyreWWE @RandyOrton @WWESheamus pic.twitter.com/NGR5b6Qwd7

— WWE (@WWE) February 9, 2021

Why do we need yet another no-contest in a RAW main event? This time McIntyre vs. Orton goes nowhere with Sheamus’ predictable interference.

Why is there no Miss Alexa Bliss?

In the end, RAW could’ve been a very entertaining show if not for some missteps.

NXT

RESULTS

Dusty Rhodes Men’s Tag Team Classic Semifinals: MSK defeated Legado del Fantasma

Xia Li defeated Kora Jade

Dusty Rhodes Women’s Tag Team Classic Semifinals: Ember Moon & Shotzi Blackheart defeated Candice LeRae & Indi Hartwell

KUSHIDA defeated Austin Theory by DQ

Dusty Rhodes Men’s Tag Team Classic Semifinals: The Grizzled Young Veterans defeated Tommaso Ciampa & Timothy Thatcher

Our favorite move is back, y'all… and this time it's off the ring apron!!!

#WWENXT #DustyClassic @joaquinwilde_ @NashCarterWWE @RaulMendozaWWE @WesLee_WWE pic.twitter.com/9yNx7LXdhu

— WWE NXT (@WWENXT) February 11, 2021

Is it time for MSK to make their way to the top of the NXT tag team title scene? They’re just one step away now with a Dusty Rhodes Classic finals appearance!

Talk about The WAY to NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day!

IT'S A MIRACLE!!! …or not. Tough break, Johnny Wheelchair. #WWENXT @KUSHIDA_0904 @JohnnyGargano pic.twitter.com/5Q4GbkcLDv

— WWE (@WWE) February 11, 2021

Johnny Gargano first tried to weasel his way out of the NXT North American Championship Match with a fake broken arm diagnosis that William Regal saw right there. With Candice LeRae, Indi Hartwell, Austin Theory and of course, KUSHIDA, the segment was pure gold! Then, Gargano tried to payback KUSHIDA with a cheap shot in his match with Theory, only to be held at bay in an armbar by KUSHIDA and Dexter Lumis.

As for LeRae, she and Hartwell fell short to Ember Moon & Shotzi Blackheart in getting to the Dusty Rhodes Women’s Tag Team Classic Finals. Now, it’s Blackheart & Moon taking on Dakota Kai & Raquel Gonzalez for the Dusty Cup and a future WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship match.

Do not disobey Tian Sha. #WWENXT @Bigboawwe pic.twitter.com/vE8x5Ir93Q

— WWE NXT (@WWENXT) February 11, 2021

The aura surrounding Xia Li, Boa and Tian Sha has Kacy Catanzaro & Kayden Carter as interested bystanders. Supportive friends are now turned into foes. A curious angle gets better and better with Li becoming more of a badass. Great makeover!

Tick tock…….@WWEKarrionKross & @LadyScarlett_13 await @EscobarWWE on #WWENXT this coming Wednesday! pic.twitter.com/6bgJBGw84d

— WWE NXT (@WWENXT) February 12, 2021

Next week, we get Karrion Kross against Santos Escobar with Scarlett ringside. Sounds delicious! Joaquin Wilde and Raul Mendoza have already felt the wrath. It’s only a matter of time. Tick. Tock.

Loved the build-up to this Sunday’s PPV especially the vignettes for the triple threat match for Io Shirai’s NXT Women’s Championship against Toni Storm and Mercedes Martinez. Plus, the face-offs on each match at the end of the night was a nice touch! NXT does such an outstanding job of matching it feel big time for their TakeOver events.

Cameron Grimes. Kiss My Grits. Oh my! Maybe he’s the new Million Dollar Man!

For the second straight week, we get a quality tag team main event with an upset. This time, Tommaso Ciampa and Timothy Thatcher see their run come to an unexpected end at the hands of The Grizzled Young Veterans. So, it’ll be Wes Lee and Nash Carter taking on Zack Gibson & James Drake, as the GYV make it to the Finals for the second straight year.

SMACKDOWN

RESULTS

Elimination Chamber Qualifying Match: King Corbin & Sami Zayn defeated Dominik & Rey Mysterio

Intercontinental Championship Match: Big E defeated Shinsuke Nakamura by DQ

Bayley defeated Liv Morgan

The Street Profits defeated Otis and Chad Gable

Elimination Chamber Qualifying Match: Daniel Bryan & Cesaro defeated Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode

There’s no disputing the fact that Roman Reigns is the top dog, the head of the table, the number one performer right now in WWE. What I do find disconcerting though is the repeated open each week’s Friday night SmackDown. Having Reigns walk to the ring for a 10-minute promo with all talk week after week isn’t maximizing his greatness. It gets old quick. I did love that it quickly turned into Reigns turning down Adam Pearce’s request to defend the Universal Title in the Chamber just like Drew McIntyre’s WWE Championship. No need to have the same match twice. Plus, by having Kevin Owens and Jey Uso join those who qualify for the match face-off inside the demonic structure before having to face Reigns the very same night ultimately gives the Big Dog the upper hand to walk out of the PPV still the Champ heading to WrestleMania. It should also give Edge one fun night of watching.

.@SamiZayn & King @BaronCorbinWWE have punched their tickets to the #SmackDown Elimination Chamber Match at #WWEChamber! pic.twitter.com/378R8tLuZw

— WWE (@WWE) February 13, 2021

I did like Sonya Deville giving us tag team matches as a way of qualifying for the Chamber Contender match. Sami Zayn and King Corbin taking out the Mysterios was fun although I did fear for Dominik’s safety when he almost cracked his head against the announce table flying through the ropes and over Zayn. The right team went over and both should show strong inside the Chamber.

@DomMysterio35 #SmackDown pic.twitter.com/hANUFd7JP0

— WWE on FOX (@WWEonFOX) February 13, 2021

Big E vs. Shinsuke Nakamura put on a show, albeit too short for me with Apollo Crews predictable match. Shinsuke gets the DQ victory but robs us of a better match. Maybe down the road as the Big E vs. Crews feud continues.

"YOU WILL NEVER LIVE UP TO YOUR POTENTIAL WITHOUT ME!!"

#SmackDown @WWERollins @WWECesaro pic.twitter.com/vVDSGOUEfU

— WWE (@WWE) February 13, 2021

Welcome back Seth Rollins! I thought you were going down the right path. A new road. Fatherhood and positivity. It would’ve been the right path for him and the WWE. Instead, all of the SmackDown superstars surrounding the ring left him high and dry standing alone in the ring until a vicious attack on Cesaro.

Another week and another misstep by Billie Kay costs The Riott Squad a victory over Bayley. Last week, it was Ruby Riott and this time, it’s Liv Morgan going down to defeat. At what point, do Billie get the buh-bye?!

After a bit of momentum at the start, it looks like Otis and Chad Gable have leveled off a bit. This week, it’s a loss to the former tag team champion The Street Profits.

Anyone else find it odd that Montez Ford is dancing with Sasha Banks in a bit of a runway crossover? After all, Ford is married to Bianca Belair, who just may be choosing Banks as a WrestleMania opponent.

Oh no, NOT AGAIN!!

#SmackDown @NiaJaxWWE @SashaBanksWWE @BiancaBelairWWE pic.twitter.com/UtBMqFEjl5

— WWE (@WWE) February 13, 2021

As for Belair and Banks, they made interesting short work of the tag team champs. First, mocking Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler for their losses on RAW this week. Then, they actually do play the “oh my hole” line from Jax which is hilarious! Finally, they get physical with the champs. You wonder if we’ll get an Asuka/Charlotte Flair redux with Banks and Belair, champ and cohort, getting a title match soon.

#WWEChamber can't get here soon enough! #SmackDown @BaronCorbinWWE @SamiZayn @WWEDanielBryan @WWECesaro @FightOwensFight @WWEUsos pic.twitter.com/kGWylfzNve

— WWE (@WWE) February 13, 2021

Instead of fighting each other, Daniel Bryan and Cesaro teamed up to win a shot in the Chamber match which is a plus for all of us as anytime you can put those two inside the wretched structure along with Kevin Owens, Jey Uso, King Corbin and Sami Zayn, you’ve got yourselves some moments to remember coming! No disrespect to Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode, but Cesaro and Bryan deserved the spot and will absolutely shine. Even despite Cesaro being less than 100% thanks to Rollins, he still gets Ziggler to tap out! Give me Cesaro vs. Reigns please! Nice little brawl with all six Chamber members to end the show as Owens reminds us that he’s not going away.

Parting Shots:

During halftime of Saturday’s Celebrity Flag Football Game on ESPNews, Heisman Trophy-winning professional quarterback @DougFlutie pinned @RonKillings to become the new #247Champion!!!! #AndNew #CelebSweat @CelebritySweat1 pic.twitter.com/2YqwNzFOHU

— WWE (@WWE) February 6, 2021

Congratulations Doug Flutie! You’re in the record books as a former WWE 24/7 Champion! Flutie beat R-Truth at the Celebrity Flag Football Game during Super Bowl LV weekend. Sure, it only lasted for a few brief, fleeting moments as R-Truth won it back for his 49th title reign, but it’s more mainstream attention for the WWE, which never hurts.

Coming up this week:

RAW: Gauntlet Match – Winner gets last pod open at Elimination Chamber: Drew McIntyre vs. The Miz vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Sheamus vs. Randy Orton vs. AJ Styles MizTV with Drew McIntyre

NXT: Karrion Kross vs. Santos Escobar NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day fallout

SMACKDOWN: TBD – Go Home Show for Elimination Chamber

Thanks for letting us share our thoughts! Shoot me an email at jcrowe567@gmail.com. We’d love to hear your comments and suggestions! You can also check out my blog, The Crowe’s Nest as we delve into more pro wrestling, sports entertainment and the World of Sports. My apologies ahead of time – I AM a Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins fan! If you’re not down with that, I’ve got TWO WORDS for you… NEW ENGLAND

[purplesurveys]

510

What was the brand of your first ever cell phone? It was one of the Nokias with a lime green screen and Space Impact and a super ancient version of Snake. What are your 3 favorite internet sites? Twitter, YouTube, and Reddit. Do you have a favorite pair of blue jeans? Describe them. They’re skinny jeans and high-waisted. I just borrow them from my sister though so I don’t get to use it a lot. :( What profession do you respect? All of them. Have you ever been the recipient of a practical joke? Sure. My mom once pulled a joke on me when I was about 8. I told her my hiccups wouldn’t stop; she didn’t mind it first, but then she tells me about how she received a call from my school saying someone had stolen some of the eggs from the cafeteria. Now, as someone who used to buy egg sandwiches in school, I was immediately interested haha. Soon enough my mom tells me that the school claims they saw me did it, so I started to panic and beg for my mom to cover my ass. I was absolutely scared and freaking out at the mall at that point, and I just wanted to be let off the hook from this random-ass egg fiasco.

She ends her entire spiel by saying, “Your hiccups stopped, didn’t they?”

Have you ever ate something you've dropped on the floor, if so what? I eat food off the floor when I drop them all the time, but there was one instance my siomai fell onto the ground that had a gravel finish. Immediate regrets. Would you consider being an Uber driver if you needed to make extra money? Yes. How do you know when you're in love, what's the main sign? I’ve only fell in love once, but the main sign for me during the time was that I began crying over them. Like just outright emotional, and I didn’t understand why. Turns out that not-understanding is just me trying to deny it. Have you ever gotten anything autographed, if so by who & what was it? I bought an already-autographed poster of AJ Lee. I dunno if that counts. Although, Andrew DID just have a meet-and-greet with another wrestler, Sheamus, last Tuesday. He said he had a print of Sheamus’ autographed for me. I don’t know if he was serious, but it would be so swell if it’s real. Do you prefer Walmart or Target? I haven’t been to either. What do you long for? A successful thesis. If you could be a personal assistant to anyone, who would it be? BEYONCÉ What is the most important thing you can do to improve yourself? Seeing a therapist would probably be the first, most obvious way to go. What makes it hard for you to keep your focus? The internet haha. Case in point: I planned to study a 33-page reading last night, but I kept getting distrated by notifications that came in my phone. Even if I tried to turn off the wi-fi, I’d turn it back on if I wanted to check for any new messages. After three hours, I was still only on page 9. Do you think society has become too PC (politically correct)? It definitely has, and I might be the only person on this hill but I’m kind of glad it has. I don’t mind a little or a lot of political correctness. PH isn’t a very progressive country in itself and you’d be shocked to find out just how many Filipinos still use a lot of backwards terms, so it’s healthy for me to know what the inoffensive words are. What tragic love story do you relate to? I don’t know if there’s any. Has your intuition or "gut" served you well? Its definitely had its ups. Back in 2015, coming home from school, I saw my mom’s car parked in our driveway. That NEVER happens. Immediately felt sick sick to my stomach and believed a grandparent had died. Not because my mom was sick and had to go home, not because my mom had an errand to run, but because a grandparent died. It was my grandfather (her dad) who died that day. What's the longest you've ever waited in line for something and what was it? My sister and I lined up for 8 hours outside the Mall of Asia Arena for our One Direction concert. The titanium section was first-come first-served, so we wanted to go in in early. SPOILER ALERT: arriving 8 hours before the concert – for One Direction for that matter – is late as fuck. Who is your favorite model? Taylor Hill or Kendall Jenner. What have you done that is out of character for you? Be head of the external affairs committee in my org. Literally the last committee I would have had signed up for. The job is everything I hate, until super super recently. Would you rather get a gift card or a gift that someone bought for you? As long as they thought of me while getting the gift, it’s immediately special for me. Who is the most visionary person in your life & how do they inspire you? My internship boss is so cool. She’s one of the smartest people I know and she has a really snappy sense of diskarte (Filipino word that’s hard to translate; think resourcefulness or mojo). She’s seen a lot and been through a lot, and I couldn’t help but look up to her during my stint in their company. How do you handle a betrayal? Cut the betrayer/s out of my life. What do you feel strong enough to protest about? Anything that aims to support or glorify the Marcoses. What's the biggest blooper you've never lived down? We were playing Heads Up! at a family Chrismas party several Christmases ago. My category was Filipino Christmas food – and mind you I’m not super familiar with all of them because I’m generally not a fan of Filipino rice cakes. Anyway, I name every food I know one by one, and I excitedly scream out “PUTO BIMBING” and I saw every single damn relative in front of me collapse and start having seizures and SCREAMING AT ME from laughing too hard. I swear they must have laughed in my face for like 3 minutes. Apparently, the right word is ‘puto bumbong.’ To this day I still don’t know why I blurted out bimbing, I’m literally laughing so hard right now just typing this down :((((( My family brings it up literally once every couple of months or so. This blooper is probably only funny for Filipinos, but still. If you owned a restaurant what kind of food do you want to serve? Gourmet burgers. What will we find if we look in the bottom of your closet today? You would see the books I was assigned to read in school, so that includes a copy of Holes, Number the Stars, Bridge to Terabithia, etc and all of my Shakespeares. All of my AJ Lee action figures are there too, as well as my signed poster of hers. There’s a bunch of other knickknacks in there. What kind of car did you learn how to drive on? The first car I ever tried to drive was my parents’ old Mitsubishi Lancer. I only drove it once because my trial drive drove my mom crazy. I passed my driving test in a Hyundai Elantra, which is honestly such a shitty car and I nearly failed the test because I simply didn’t work well with it. I mostly had to learn with my present car, my Mitsubishi Mirage. I was going to start college and had little time to practice, so when I had to start driving myself to school, that was my practice in itself. What is the best thing you have done just because you were told you can't? Be in a healthy, long-term relationship. My mom used to tell me all the time that no one will ever love me because of how disorganized I am. She meant it seriously, so it stung for many years and also affected the way I dealt with other people. Have you ever had to go to court or testify and if so what for? Nope. Do you believe in karma? It’s fun to fantasize about, but I don’t religiously or spiritually believe in it. Are you more worried about doing the things right, or doing the right thing? Doing the right thing. I hate getting in trouble. Do you believe in the term "Mother knows best?” To some extent, yes. Who is your favorite movie action hero? I was never big on the hero narrative in movies, or any text for that matter. What is one thing you can get in your hometown you can't get elsewhere? My grandmother’s cooking. How important are looks in someone you're in a relationship with? Like, a 4 out of 10. I almost went with dating Mike because he’s really intelligent, even though I found him 0% attractive. What freedom do you feel is not really free anymore? Social media. It used to be a place where we would just post updates, share music, talk to our friends, be goofy in general; nowadays if you fuck up on a joke you thought was harmless, it’d be so easy to end you for good. Also, people would EASILY shoot you down over an opinion that’s different from theirs. I dunno, I just think that we think it’s a ginormous free space for all when really, everyone’s just kind of out there to catch our asses when they see fit. What are you most thankful for? The people who never left. Do you have any favorite talk shows or talk radio programs without music? Not really. I’m a fan of several YouTube series/specials, but I don’t follow talk shows a lot. What was the last book you read? Do readings count? I had to read materials for my Contemporary Philippines class just earlier. What's your favorite online store? I don’t remember where I bought my coloring books from, but it’s either Shopee or Lazada. What band would you love to tour with or be a roadie for? Paramore.

If you were to throw a message in a bottle into the ocean, it would say? I dunno how I feel about that. I feel like it contributes to polluting the oceans more, so I’d rather not do it even if I can come up with a witty message. Do you have common sense or do you think people are lacking in it? Hahahaha it’s here and there. Sometimes I embarrassingly lack it. What's your favorite non-alcoholic drink? Salty Cream Chocolate milk tea from CoCo. How do you feel about thrift shops or flea markets? I don’t really go to those, but something similar we have is called ukay-ukay, which sells secondhand clothes. I’ve recently been converted as a fan after shunning them for a very long time, as all my new tops have been from ukay-ukays haha. What do you like to put gravy on? Fried chicken and mashed potatoes. Have you ever gone canoeing/kayaking? Yes! I did it in Palawan. It was breathtaking to do it there.  What one thing in particular makes you feel good about yourself? Knowing where I go to school, hahaha. What is priceless to you? Dogs finding their forever homes. What do you wait for discount sales to buy? Clothes, mainly. What is one thing you know about your family history you're proud of? I have a lot of amazing ancestors who were crucial to my country’s history, e.g. I’m related to one of the women who sewed the first Philippine flag, one of the diplomats who signed the Treaty of Paris (the treaty in itself is definitely not something to be proud of, but my relative is permanently etched in history nonetheless because of this), and one of my distant great-uncles published a nationalist history book that’s still being greatly relied on in the PH educational system and academe to this day. There’s a lot to be proud of, definitely. What 3 songs will always be found at the top of your playlist? I don’t have a permanent three-song set as my favorites will always change. But right now, it would be composed of Saw You In A Dream by The Japanese House, Pool by Paramore, and Outta My Head by Khalid and John Mayer. What is the craziest thing you've ever done for someone? When I was a freshie in college, I once drove for an hour and a half to visit Gabie for ten minutes. Do you keep a budget? I have to. If you could cast a spell on someone what spell would you cast and on who? For freeloader groupmates to help out in class projects. What makes you feel rested and refreshed? Uh. Sleep? Who depends on you the most? My parents, probably. Could you ever be someone's bodyguard? I doubt it. Pretty sure anyone could break my bones easily lol. Has one of your biggest fears come true? Nope. Is there anything about the opposite sex you just don't understand? A lot of things... Have you ever let your mom or significant other fight a battle for you? I’ve allowed Gabie many times because I was always just too weak, yeah. Did you create a checklist for your ideal spouse? Not really, but when I was in high school I had a stupid phase where I wanted my future boyfriend to be a certain name, because back then I thought that name was attractive LMAAAAOOOO.

If so, what were two things you wanted? He had to be named Gino (IT WAS A POPULAR FILIPINO NAME IN 2015 OK), and he had to be academically smart. This was before I realized I really really don’t like boys. Have you ever ridden on a subway or train an what did you like about it? I rode the train once when I had to do legwork for a journ class and there was no other way to get to the place than to commute. I rode with Jum because I have no idea how to commute alone. I remember liking the fact that it was cold and spacious in the train at the time I got in – then again, it was at a dead hour. I’m sure it’s nothing like that in reality. What song on your playlist gets played the most? I try to listen to all my favorite songs equally. Have you ever received a harsher punishment than you deserved? I don’t think so. Back when my mom used to ground me I used to think I was being abused and I felt so victimized lol. At 21, looking back, it turns out my rebel ass deserved to be whipped with a belt lmfao. Do you prefer sporty or academic members of the opposite sex? I prefer people I can vibe well with, regardless of their strengths and sex. Do you have to experience something to fully understand it? Yes. Has anyone in your family ever served in the military? My great-grandfather is a WWII veteran and a survivor of the Death March in Bataan. Finish the next line in your style: Roses are red, violets are blue... Why am I on Tumblr, when I still have much to do? :((( What embarrasses you instantly? Dropping stuff. Do you think you could be a firefighter, why/why not? No, but I did want to be one when I was young. Firefighters have to be insanely strong because they carry a lot of heavy stuff and...I’m just not...that. Also because I panic easily, and that’s certainly not a good thing in that line of work. Do you often read your horoscope? Never. I don’t care for mine. What current event are you tired of hearing about? Mmm I’m not sure. I kind of care about everything that’s happening in the world at the moment, especially with regard to Hong Kong. Are you a daredevil? Nah. What do you think should be censored? Homophobic / biphobic / transphobic shit. Are you related to anyone famous or historical, if so who? I already expounded on this quite a few questions back in this survey. Would you ever donate a kidney to anyone, and who? Yeah, to people I find really important. How do you encourage yourself when you go through hard times? It doesn’t last forever and I’ll be getting my own house in the next 8-10 years. Have you ever fired a gun? Nope. Do you think people, including yourself live up to their full potential? We should be, anyway. I try to. How are you different from most people? My left pinky is super crooked :( What is the main quality you think makes a great parent? The ability to apologize to your child and recognize that parents can make mistakes too. What creature do you admire for its ability to adapt? As much as I despise them, fucking cockroaches. Have you ever stayed up for an entire 24 hours, why? Nah. I just know I wouldn’t function properly if I did, and I’d be so cranky too. Who is a female role model in your life? I don’t have any. What childhood dreams have you neglected? Being an astronaut, a veterinarian, a writer, and a firefighter. How often do you reevaluate your life? I honestly don’t get the time to, which sucks. I’ve always thought of getting one of those 5-year journals that let you answer one question everyday for the next five years so that you’re able to see how much you mature in that time. It would be nice to have mini-reflections/evaluations everyday, but one copy of it is pretty expensive so I never got around to buying them. What's your favorite place just to hang out? Coffee shops. What do you have trouble seeing clearly in your mind? The future. What three things do you think of most of each day? The tasks I have to do, feeding my dog, and calculating the amount of sleep I’ll be getting at night. Would you travel to space if possible? YES. I’ve always said this has always been a dream of mine. Name a famous person you wouldn't mind for a business partner. Kylie Jenner.

[junker-town]

No Mercy 2017: The full rundown and why you should care

We’re getting two WrestleMania-level matchups even though it’s only September.

It’s only September, and fall has just begun, but WWE is acting like it’s springtime and WrestleMania is here. Now, that doesn’t apply to the entire card for Sunday’s No Mercy show, the latest RAW-exclusive pay-per-view, but the main events are huge matches we’re used to seeing at the likes of SummerSlam or the Royal Rumble or WrestleMania.

Don’t take this as some weird complaint about timing: it’s good to see WWE remember that they can attempt to entertain even when it’s “just” a B-level show, slash, even when football is on television. Let’s dive in.

Jason Jordan vs. The Miz (c) for the Intercontinental Championship

What am I looking at here? Jason Jordan is (kayfabe) Kurt Angle’s son from a long-gone relationship, and the former member of tag team champs American Alpha is getting his first real crack at a singles title. He’ll be taking on Miz, who could very well retire someday as the most successful Intercontinental champ in WWE history, and who also has not been shy about pointing out that Jordan is getting this opportunity in large part because of who his dad is. Jordan is a damn good wrestler, so that’s not true, but it feels true enough for the heel Miz to use it as ammunition.

Why you should care: Well, Miz is the GOAT, so there’s one reason. Jordan was the greatest hot tag in WWE when he was still in a tag team, and he’s recently been let loose on the singles scene, with excellent matches against some of the best in the business like John Cena and Roman Reigns. He lost both of those, but hey, Cena lost to Jordan’s dad in his (re)introduction to WWE but made an impression, and that’s what we’ve got going on here once again. Will this push result in a win for Jordan? I don’t know! But the match should be pretty great.

Enzo Amore vs. Neville (c) for the Cruiserweight Championship

What am I looking at here? Enzo Amore is the worst wrestler around unless you need someone to flop around absorbing damage looking like they’re one of those dummies sketch comedy shows used to use in place of a person when falling out a window or whatever. He joined the cruiserweights because he’s not a big guy and then, because the cruiserweight division doesn’t have enough weird bullshit to wade through, he started winning matches despite being the literal worst.

Enzo also has this championship opportunity despite being on the receiving end of a Miz promo that, in short, was “Everyone hates you and not for pretend, like we all actually hate you and think you suck and hope you die alone.” The crowd was on Miz’s side.

Enzo will take on Neville, who is perfection, not just in his abilities or demeanor but also in his likelihood of grinding Amore into literal dust.

Why you should care: One of two things is going to happen here: Neville is going to dismantle Enzo and mail the pieces to different locations all over the world as a ghastly reminder of his power and the fear it should inspire in all of us. Or, Enzo is going to win with a lucky rollup after some awful distraction despite doing absolutely nothing to deserve a victory.

Remember, too, that Enzo is supposed to be the face here, so if he does win and everyone hates it, it’s not Good Heeling or whatever. It’s just awful writing.

Finn Balor vs. Bray Wyatt in a Man vs. Man match

What am I looking at here? i honestly do not know

Why you should care: ^

Finn vs. Bray at SummerSlam was cool and all but part of the attraction there was Bray “I’m literally Satan” Wyatt getting wrecked by a guy with a demonic persona who spent 15 minutes or whatever showing Bray that the demon paint job wasn’t just a paint job, it also unlocked something deep within him that gave him an extra gear. Bray’s response to losing was, “Uh don’t you think it’s kind of unfair that you have a demon persona maybe you should wrestle me man to man oh also please forget all that stuff I’ve said for years about being possessed by the devil I’m def just a regular person.”

Finn said yes, because he is a babyface, and babyfaces don’t run from challenges even when they’re dumb. That can refer to either the challenge or the babyface, for what it’s worth.

Cesaro and Sheamus vs. Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins (c) for the RAW Tag Team Championships

What am I looking at here? Two of the top tag teams in WWE, facing off in a rematch of their SummerSlam bout that would have stolen the show if not for the main event Braunpocalypse.

Why you should care: Man y’all are demanding, did not you just see the part where I said two of the top tag teams are facing off in a rematch wherein the original match was dope as heck? Fine, fine. Rollins and Ambrose joining forces once again has been a boon to the shipping industry — no, no, the other shipping industry — and taking down Sheamus and Cesaro — who are wonderful in their own right — will cement Rollins and Ambrose as the (friendship-based) team to beat on RAW.

tl;dr: four dudes are going to beat on each other hard for our amusement and regardless of who wins, friendship will triumph

Sasha Banks vs. Bayley vs. Nia Jax vs. Emma vs. Alexa Bliss (c) in a Fatal 5-Way RAW Women’s Championship match

What am I looking at here? We were supposed to get Bayley vs. Alexa Bliss at SummerSlam, but then Bayley was hurt, and Sasha Banks won her way into a match with Bliss instead — a match she won. Then, Bliss won back the RAW Women’s Championship because Banks is as incapable of defending a title as she is capable of winning one, and Nia Jax responded to her friend Alexa’s win by dumping her on her head as a violent way of saying “I’ve got next.”

Then Emma complained and said she wanted in on the title, too, so her and Nia teamed together and won themselves insertion into this match before Nia then beat on Emma some as a reminder that their alliance was one of convenience. Bayley then showed up in her hometown San Jose aka the one place that is still cheering for Bayley, attacked Bliss without provocation, and then was placed into the Fatal 4-Way to make it a Fatal 5-Way as a reward for this act.

You know, when you write it all out like that, the most face competitor in the bunch at the moment is the heel champion, Alexa.

Why you should care: It’s going to be something to see everyone unite to try to take Nia Jax out of the equation, since this isn’t an elimination match and therefore the only successfully tested ways of stopping her won’t work here. Sasha Banks and Bayley both know she can be submitted, but no one is going to be able to submit Jax since doing so would end the match with the submitter as victor. They also can’t just pile on top of her for the 1-2-3 like Charlotte, Sasha, and Bayley did at WrestleMania 33, since again, it’s not an elimination match, and a pin means we have resolution.

Another angle to watch for is what goes on with Emma, who WWE has done their best to destroy at every turn despite her talent and connection with the crowd. Will this be her moment to remind everyone that she does in fact belong with all of the women WWE brought up after her for their “revolution,” or is she just here to eat a pin so that the ones who [extremely condescending and sarcastic voice] “matter” continue to look strong even in defeat?

John Cena vs. Roman Reigns in a who is the biggest dog in the yard match

What am I looking at here? It’s the old hotness vs. the new hotness, the crew cut vs. the long flowing hair of a prince whose arms you would feel so very safe in. Cena vs. Reigns should be a WrestleMania main event, and yet, here it is, at No Mercy, which kind of makes you wonder how much longer Cena is going to be wrestling on the reg for WWE.

Also, just so we’re clear, that’s not a real match stipulation, but it is definitely what this pissing contest is about.

Cena has won the verbal battle thus far in what has been a bunch of worked-shoot promos, but also, obviously he has: Roman’s charisma is all about the dangerous silence and mood his presence creates, whereas Cena’s is almost entirely verbal. What matters in the end is which of these dudes has their arm raised in victory.

Why you should care: John Cena is maybe the greatest WWE has ever had, and even if he’s not leaving the company soon, he is going to someday. Reigns might not be the guy who gets all the cheers in Cena’s absence, but he definitely gets reactions, and people care about him and his matches and where he is in the company. Reigns is at his best in a big match, and so is Cena, and now we’ve got Big Match John vs. The Big Dog going one-on-one. Is this the first of a series? A one-and-done, winner-take-all? No one knows for sure, but we do know that this has potential for true greatness, and that’s reason enough to watch even if you don’t particularly have a, well, a dog in this race.

Braun Strowman vs. Brock Lesnar (c) for the WWE Universal Championship

What am I looking at here? There is no one like Brock Lesnar. The closest anyone has ever come is Braun Strowman. Those statements work just as well and as accurately if you reverse the order of the names, too. And now they’re facing off against each other, where Strowman hopes to finish the job he started at SummerSlam, whereas Lesnar is hoping that he can handle Strowman one-on-one now that he doesn’t have two others to worry about as well.

Why you should care: Strowman vs. Lesnar somehow has more changing of the guard-ness to it than Cena vs. Reigns, as, like with Cena, Lesnar isn’t going to be around forever, but his opponent is crucial to the future success of the company. Strowman is the one who can be the true superstar going forward, even more than Reigns, as he’s an absolute force of nature that fans are dying to cheer for despite his status as a monster.

Plus, Strowman took a German Suplex from Lesnar and was completely unfazed. We need to see how that plays out over the course of a full match. I cannot wait.

[appleshampoo]

The Biggest Event of the Summer...?

I’m fairly sure there was a bowls tournament in Southport that was more entertaining.

So I didn’t watch the pre-show and apparently missed the match of the night - well done to the Usos.

Cena vs Corbin: This was an okay match. Cena got the win so I presume yet another title win can’t be far away - presumably it will happen when Ric Flair is better as losing his record of most championships whilst the length of a fly’s cock away from death wouldn’t look great. Where now for Corbin though? The last person to unsuccessfully try a MITB cash in was Damien Sandow so it doesn’t bode well  for the lone wolf (who needs to shave his head soon as baldness beckons).

Natalya vs Naomi: failed to ignite a very flat Brooklyn crowd - mainly because the match was nothing to write home about. Naomi is athletic and Natalya has been doing this long enough to exhibit some ring prowess but honestly the best thing about this match was Natalya’s Bret Hart inspired jacket she wore on entrance. Natalya is due a title run and she’s trying really hard to get over as a heel so let’s just let her get on with it and see where it goes.

Big Cass vs Big Show: Just horrible. Enzo’s promos don’t have the same impact without Cass by his side and Big Cass’s wrestling ability is exposed as a singles competitor - he looked a lot better when paired with Enzo but that may be due to the fact that Ghandi would look like a good wrestler compared to Enzo. As for the match, I would have preferred to do a cage-less shark dive than watch this ‘match’ ever again.

Randy Orton vs Rusev: I missed the whole match as I nipped out for a cigarette. Not sure what this did for either competitor.

Sasha Banks vs Alexa Bliss. Sasha, Sasha, Sasha F’N Banks. Quite enjoyed this. Best match so far - I know this as I can’t really remember it (I was 3 glasses of Shiraz in by this point) but don’t have any complaints. A long and distinguished title run for Sasha is a must.

Finn Balor vs Bray Wyatt. A decent match but I was distracted by my contemplation of Finn’s ‘Demon’ ring attire. Sure it looks cool but it seems like it’s basically there to compensate for his lack of charisma. Finn is a great in ring talent but he’s just not that interesting as a ‘Superstar’ which is symptomatic of the whole roster currently. Also, Bray is treading water at the moment, it doesn’t matter who he’s feuding with as there’s no back story or motivation that gets me invested in his work.

Ambrose & Rollins vs Cesaro & Sheamus: Fun, action packed match that ended with a title change. Ambrose really needs this as his singles careers has stalled for the last couple of years. I really think he needs a heel turn to enable him to cut some darker, more absorbing promos but that’s not happening so this is probably the next best thing. Anyway, probably the best match of the night for me.

AJ Styles vs Kevin Owens. Not bad but having Shane as guest referee and both competitors constantly engaging with him destroyed the momentum a bit.

Jinder Mahal vs Shinsuke Nakamura: Jinder picked up the win, botching his own finisher in the process. I understand that they’re really trying to push the WWE product in India but wouldn’t it be better to do this by showing great wrestling rather than ramming a flawed champion down viewer’s throats who’s only redeeming feature is that he happens to be from India? If I was from India I wouldn’t get behind and support someone just because they’ re from the same country as me. Nakamura’s first defeat on the main roster was for this...?

Brock vs Braun vs Roman vs Joe: The match started at an incredible pace and the momentum carried through. More of a demolition derby that a wrestling match but when is that ever not fun?

All in all pretty disappointing - not just the matches but also the constant plugging of sponsor KFC made me want to eat KFC and I couldn’t even do that as it was closed. Seeing Shaun Michaels dressed as the colonel also made me yearn to see a Shaun Michaels match - any Shaun Michaels match would have been a step up compared to the rest of this card. Sami Zayn was nowhere to be seen and that was very disappointing too.

That’s all, bye bye!

[scheduledfor1fall]

Observer Award Mid-Year Predictions

Hey, everyone. Today’s post is one I’ve been thinking about doing for years, actually; one of the things I look forward to every January, behind the Rumble and Tokyo Dome shows, is the release of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards, as decided by readers of the publication at the end of every calendar year. Much like the Oscars for instance, I enjoy being able to sit down and guess the winners, as well as look back in history and reflect on, or even dispute, winners in the past. With 2017 already half-way over and then some, I figured now was as good a time as any to try and predict who at this stage would be primed to win each award come January.

I will say, first off, that 2017 has been of the weaker years I can recall for both wrestling and MMA, at least in the past few years. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still plenty enjoyable wrestling from companies like NJPW, PWG, and other companies around the world. Even WWE has had some things going for it. But wrestling in general just seemed much more exciting to me the last few years then it does at this moment. As for MMA, I think most can agree this has been a pretty off year for UFC, without their previous draws McGregor and Rousey along, as well as a number of strange, often boneheaded moves from Dana White. That said, let’s get into the predictions:

WRESTLER OF THE YEAR: Gotta go with Okada on this one. I think some people would probably put Omega, but I actually think he was more deserving last year. Okada has been having a title reign like few others have had, with several successful defenses and numerous high-rated matches. If anyone deserves it, it’s him.

 MOST VALUABLE MMA FIGHTER: As I said, it’s been sort of an odd year for UFC in terms of star power. I’d be inclined to say Tyron Woodley, though I’m not sure how many people really buy shows for him, plus his style is pretty controversial. Cormier could be an option, given his defeat of Rumble Johnson, and his part in the highest buyrate of the year with Jon Jones. My gut tells me depending on what happens with him the rest of the year, however, Jon Jones is probably the safe choice.

 MOST OUTSTANDING WRESTLER: This one has always kind of vexed me. I understand the Wrestler of the Year category covers a variety of qualities not necessarily related to workrate, but this almost seems like a cross between that award and Technical Wrestler of the Year. In any case, I’d probably go with Okada once again, but I wouldn’t mind if Omega got the nod, either. I understand Styles has won the award the last two years, as well as Wrestler of the Year, but I just don’t think he’s had nearly the number of great performances this year as he did before to warrant the win at this point.

 MOST OUTSTANDING FIGHTER: Again, not sure how this really differs much from Most Valuable. I’m really not sure who would stand out from this year, but I’d personally go with Mighty Mouse, or maybe Joanna Jedrzejczyk, just because they’ve had more successful defenses.

 BEST BOX OFFICE DRAW: Well, Jon Jones should probably get some consideration, given that he managed to pull the highest buyrate of the year for UFC. It’s probably a lock for Conor McGregor though, given the upcoming superfight with Mayweather.

 FEUD OF THE YEAR: In a year where UFC hasn’t really had that must see rivalry, save Jones/Cormier, which seemed to be more centered around Jones redeeming himself than any beef between the two, it’s anyone’s game in wrestling, to be honest. Strowman vs. Reigns comes to mind as a possibility, at least from the WWE side of things. I’d personally say either Omega vs. Okada, or Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Tetsuya Naito would be the best choices, with the latter getting an advantage due to their legendary matches this year.

 TAG TEAM OF THE YEAR: It’s an award that’s been dominated by the Young Bucks for three years in a row, so there’s always that. I would personally go with Cesaro and Sheamus, at least in terms of how much they’ve entertained me and continued to improve as a team. I think The Hardy Boyz probably have the best chance of anyone not named the Young Bucks, however, and seeing as they managed to wrestle in TNA, ROH, and WWE, as well as hold titles in each company within a matter of months, it’s really not that out there.

 MOST IMPROVED WRESTLER: Braun Strowman, hands down. At least in terms of perception, I’ve never seen anyone turn a corner quite like this. I can remember people were furious at the idea of him wrestling Undertaker at Wrestlemania 32. To go from that to being heralded as the future of the company is quite an achievement.

 BEST ON INTERVIEWS: Probably another easy one for McGregor, even though the media tour with Mayweather kind of went over like a wet fart. There’s just no one great talker in wrestling that stands head and shoulders above anyone else. I’d say John Cena and Kevin Owens are probably the best in WWE, but I think both have had better years.

 MOST CHARISMATIC: There’s a potential for Nakamura here, though I’m not sure how many people would agree with that perception. I should probably just save face and pick McGregor again.

 BEST TECHNICAL WRESTLER: I think Marty Scurll honestly deserves some consideration. It’s been Zack Sabre Jr. since 2014, however, and with his appearances in NJPW and EVOLVE, as well as the various other companies he works for, the exposure he gets gives him a huge edge.

 BEST BRAWLER: I’m not even sure. Kevin Owens? Samoa Joe? Reigns? Perhaps Strowman? I haven’t really kept up with Tomohiro Ishii enough to know if he deserves a fourth win or not, but I’d think he’d still be at the top of people’s list.

 BEST FLYING WRESTLER: Hiromu Takahashi has had some outstanding performances this year from his time as Junior Heavyweight Champion, so he’d probably be my first choice. There’s also guys like Dragon Lee and Lio Rush breaking through at such a young age. Will Ospreay won last year, but I think he’s sort of cooled off since then. Neville’s reign as Cruiserweight Champion makes him a tempting choice, but he seems to be subverting a lot of the highflying stuff, so I really wouldn’t go with him. Probably just gonna stick with Takahashi.

 MOST OVERRATED: Hoo boy. My gut tells me Reigns is a lock, but there’s always Jinder Mahal, as well. If I had to pick one, I’d say Jinder, just because people have at least acknowledged that Reigns is a solid in-ring talent, just not one they want to see as the next Cena. Jinder’s just kind of an angry looking guy who’s done about as well as one would expect him to do in his position, but realistically probably should’ve never been near the WWE Championship. Baron Corbin is also a possibility, as is Randy Orton, whose dogging of another title reign probably should be the nail in the coffin, but won’t be.

 MOST UNDERRATED: I know a lot of people will probably pick Cesaro, but I’d probably have to go with poor Luke Harper, who’s barely featured on TV despite some strong reactions earlier this year. As far as NJPW goes, I personally feel Sanada, and most of the LIJ guys in general are kind of underrated, though they certainly work well as a faction, so it’s hard to say.

 PROMOTION OF THE YEAR: New Japan. Not even close.

 BEST WEEKLY TV SHOW: Probably NJPW again, maybe NXT. Raw’s getting better, but I think being three hours probably still hurts it’s chances.

 PRO WRESTLING MATCH OF THE YEAR: Omega/Okada. Take your pick. I personally preferred their first match to their second, but it did get a higher star rating from Meltzer, so that may sway some voters. There’s been other solid matches from other companies, but I just don’t see anything touching those New Japan matches.

 MMA MATCH OF THE YEAR: I really wouldn’t know, to be honest. I’d probably have to defer to more devoted fans on this, since I’ve only really kept up with PPV’s.

 ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: I’ve been hearing good things about Katsuya Kitamura, a really jacked-up dude from NJPW who just started wrestling in March. If he gets more exposure as the year goes on, he’d probably be a safe choice. I don’t know, this award seems to be one that’s really dried up as far as many prospects go. There’s just so much wrestling to follow, that unless you’re someone like Matt Riddle who gets around on the scene, it’s just too hard to find any new stand outs.

 BEST NON-WRESTLER: I guess Kurt Angle? Paul Heyman’s kind of hit the point of diminishing returns for me, so I don’t know that I’d really pick him.

 BEST TELEVISION ANNOUNCER: Corey Graves would probably be the only shoe-in as far as wrestling goes. Mauro just hasn’t been around much, and I’m not sure anyone would be too willing to write in someone like Michael Cole or Tom Phillips, who are just kind of there to do basic announcing. I’d actually make Joe Rogan my choice, as he hasn’t really lost a step since losing Mike Goldberg as a co-commentator.

 WORST TELEVISION ANNOUNCER: JBL has earned enough malice that he’ll probably get the nod. Some might even choose JR or Josh Barnett for their performances in the G1 USA Special, but JBL seems like a far more likely choice.

 BEST MAJOR WRESTLING SHOW: Wrestle Kingdom 11 or Dominion. I actually haven’t seen much of Dominion beyond the main event, so I guess I’d have to go with Wrestle Kingdom by default. Just a stacked card. The last four matches alone would make this an easy show of the year in any year.

 WORST MAJOR WRESTLING SHOW: I didn’t hate Battleground nearly as much as everyone else seemed to, but that seems to be the most likely candidate thus far. I’d personally go with Fastlane or Extreme Rules, or even Money in the Bank as my least favorite shows this year, but Battleground will probably get the nod.

 BEST WRESTLING MANEUVER: If I had to guess, I’d say either the Rainmaker or the One-Winged Angel. The mystique around both moves, particularly in Okada and Omega’s matches together, has been something to see.

 MOST DISGUSTING PROMOTIONAL TACTIC: This has always been a strange award to me. I’ve alternated between being amused by this award, and being in favor of scrapping it. This year, it doesn’t really seem like there’s much of a clear-cut winner, unless I’m mistaken. Jinder’s title reign may very well qualify, although I guess time will tell with that one. I’d bring up the JBL/Ranallo thing, although they really didn’t publicize that much, save JBL’s comments on “Bring it to the Table.” I guess TNA’s insistence on retaining ownership of the “Broken” gimmick is probably the one I can point to as most angering to fans and wrestlers (they didn’t exactly endear themselves to a lot of people by sending a legal letter to cable providers shortly before ROH’s Anniversary Show featuring the Hardys,) so I’ll just stick with that.

 WORST TELEVISION SHOW: Raw, Smackdown, Impact, take your pick. As best I can tell, each have a good chance of winning. 205 Live also has a lot of negative feelings surrounding it, but I’m not sure it’ll really snowball into being declared the outright worst wrestling show out there right now.

 WORST MATCH OF THE YEAR: Some have put forth the House of Horrors Match as a possibility. Really, you could probably go with both Orton/Wyatt matches. The Punjabi Prison from Battleground is probably the most likely candidate given that despite being good by Punjabi Prison standards, the match still had the atmosphere of a graveyard, a rarity in today’s environment, particularly in Philadelphia.

 WORST FEUD OF THE YEAR: Orton and Wyatt, if I had to guess. Orton and Jinder’s feud has mostly suffered from being boring. Orton and Wyatt’s feud had the distinction of producing bad matches, and being stupid at the same time. Not a great combination.

 WORST PROMOTION OF THE YEAR: TNA, which would give the distinction of winning worst promotion of the year every year from 2007 to 2017. That’s 3/5 of their lifespan, I should point out.

 BEST BOOKER: Gedo. The man knows how to build up his roster, as well as put on attractive match-ups. Nobody else has really been doing that as well as he has this year.

 PROMOTER OF THE YEAR: Naoki Sugabayashi, the chairman of New Japan Pro Wrestling. I’d just like to say that I would be strongly opposed to Dana White receiving the nod this year. Not only has UFC been in a slump throughout the year, but it’s become apparent that Dana White is starting to lose whatever magic touch he had in the past decade. From the attempted sabotage of Demetrious Johnson and the entire Flyweight in the midst of Johnson approaching the most title defenses in UFC history, to the establishment and subsequent bungling of the Women’s Featherweight Championship, a title clearly meant to showcase known drug offender Cristiane Justino, White has shown a seeming ineptitude in attempting to capture lightning in a bottle as he has many times before. That, coupled with UFC’s downturn in business, should be enough to dissuade votes for Dana White. Time will tell I suppose, but that’s just how I feel.

 BEST GIMMICK: Marty Scurll or Tetsuya Naito, both of whom I feel deserved consideration for last year’s awards, seem to be the frontrunners as of now, at least from what I’ve seen. I’d personally go with Naito, simply because the Los Ingobernables faction has continued to move a ton of merchandise, making Naito an indispensable member of the New Japan roster after years of attempted pushes.

 WORST GIMMICK: My personal choice would probably be Mike and Maria Kannellis, though that’s mainly due to my personal distaste for anything Mike Bennett related. In reality, it’s tough to say. There’s several possibilities, including Jinder and Bray Wyatt, although I personally feel the gimmicks are less of a problem than the handling of them.

 BEST PRO WRESTLING BOOK: I really wouldn’t know. Although I recently read a fantastic book entitled “Lion’s Pride: the Turbulent History of New Japan Pro Wrestling,” a quick look tells me that book came out in 2015. I know both AJ Lee and Justin Roberts came out with autobiographies this year. I seem to remember AJ’s being described as powerful, though mostly focusing on her upbringing as opposed to her career, whereas Roberts’ came out around the time of the JBL/Mauro Ranallo controversy, and added fuel to the fire with stories of JBL bullying others in the company during Roberts’ tenure. Since the latter probably has more value to the average wrestling fan, I’d be inclined to go with that one.

 BEST PRO WRESTLING DVD: With DVD’s starting to become a less prevalent medium in general, I’d have to think this award may be tweaked or abandoned at some point in the future. In any case, I’ve heard very good things about Kevin Owens’ recent DVD release, so I suppose I’d have to go with that one by default.

 Well, there you have it; my mid-year picks for the Wrestling Observer Awards for this year. It should be interesting to revisit these at the end of the year, and in particular when the awards actually come out. Until then, hope you enjoyed this feature, and I will continue brainstorming new ideas for posts in the future.

[thoseguysontheradio]

MT: WWE Monday Night RAW (5/8/17) Review!

Who’s going to win the Tag Team Turmoil match? Will Finn Balor eat a carb? And will “The Drifter” drift onto RAW again? Read on to find out in this edition of, “Matt Talks!”

Dean Ambrose makes announcement on RAW

This was a fun way to start RAW. While I think it doesn't make any sense whatsoever that Kurt Angle made Ambrose the GM of RAW, it was fun seeing an energetic Ambrose play to the crowd without having to make constant references to the UK. Stephanie making Miz the co-GM was the perfect way to keep this feud going while we slowly make our way to Extreme Rules. Strowman's appearance was a strange one. There's talk that he has an actual injured arm, but they set up a match with Kalisto. All I can say is that I hope he loses to Kalisto, because it would look really bad if Kalisto ends up losed to a one-armed Strowman.

The Miz vs Finn Balor

At first, I thought it was strange that they pulled the trigger on this match so quickly, but things started to make sense once Miz reminded everyone that he is the Co-GM. I don't know if I like Miz losing, because he needs to be built up for Ambrose, but RAW, like Smackdown Live in its first year, is trying to build up these new stars, so having Balor win is smart. Balor also needs to be built up for Bray, since Bray is coming off of a WWE title reign and the "House of Horrors" match.

Alexa Bliss makes a friend

This is a natural pairing, but so far, Bliss has been booked to not really need Nia Jax, so while I want her to win through more heelish tactics in her bigger matches, I hope she doesn't use Jax to win in the future.

Mickie James vs Alexa Bliss w/Nia Jax

It seems like Bliss used Jax to win a match in the future, and the future is now. Other than that, there isn't much else to say about this match.

The Miz butts heads with Ambrose

Dean Ambrose cancels One Direction appearing on RAW. The Miz, infuriated, books Dean Ambrose vs Bray Wyatt for RAW, as he is still the Co-GM. END SCENE

Samoa Joe Interview

While it feels like Rollins vs Joe was over and done with, Joe definitely sold the rematch well in this interview, and Rollins jumping him from behind is making this look like more of a blood feud than I thought.

Kalisto vs One-Armed Strowman

I absolutely adored the opening to this match. Strowman knows he is at a disadvantage, so he pretends to throw the match to beat up Kalisto. Its sad that the match could never truly happen, because of Roman Reigns. The boos reigned (pun intended) down so hard that WWE couldn't even mute them for the taped broadcast.

One-Armed Strowan vs Roman Taped

While a Roman appearance was necessary, it definitely feels like he hijacked this Kalisto side-feud that Strowman has had going on. I know that Kalisto can never truly get the best of Strowman, but he should be able to come out of this looking okay, at the very least. Alas, at this time, "The Big Dog" stands tall, and the crowd, she boos.

Goldust tries to Braveheart R-Truth

It was a nice speech. I do wonder if these two will win. After all, Breezango are currently the #1 Contender's for Smackdown's Tag Title. While Cesaro and Sheamus make sense, they could get some real heel heat by fighting Enzo and Cass, and you can turn the Hardyz BROKEN.

Tag Team Turmoil Match

Making Sheamus and Cesaro beat Enzo and Cass in the first portion of this match was a great way to give them a ton of heel heat. After that, though, the match suffered. The beatdown on Slater and Rhyno is also good for heel heat, but the two have barely been featured on RAW since the Shakeup, so they didn't seem like competition for the two. I have to give credit where credit is due, though, Sheamus and Cesaro looked so formidable against the two, the fact that they haven't been showcased didn't even matter.

A Turmoil match may not have been the best choice of matchup for Sheamus and Cesaro's heel turn. It worked out at first, when they mercilessly beat down both Enzo & Cass and Slater & Rhyno, but once The Club came out and started beating them down, people were actually cheering for Cesaro and Sheamus! Then, as the Golden Truth came out, Cesaro and Sheamus looked like the babyfaces that had to overcome. This was a UK crowd, and because they barely get to see these Superstars in person, they were on fire regardless, but it isn't good to make Cesaro and Sheamus seem sympathetic in any way.

Seth Rollins vs Samoa Joe

Normally, I would say a rematch like this is bad, but that was pre-brand split. That was when we had the same superstars trading wins like they're Pokemon cards. Now, at least this month, the PPVs are so far apart that it makes sense that they would do this match now. It will definitely lead to more in the next month or so, and it may even seem like a bit too much by then, but I'll rip it apart then. As of right now, it was a good match between these two.

TJP vs Jack Gallagher

While I would love to see Gallagher closer to the Cruiserweight title picture, he needs another feud to build him up for another title match. TJP cheating to win may end up in a triple threat with Neville and Aries. I am definitely looking forward to that if they go for it.

Sasha Banks vs Alicia Fox

I think this was the perfect opportunity to build up Alicia Fox and make her look menacing, and I think it worked. Sadly, the crowd did not agree. I think the problem stemmed from a deflated crowd that had to deal with, what they thought, was a cool down match, right after a match that looked like a cool down as well. Putting both one after another clearly didn't work for them. I am not saying I agree, but it is what it is.

Dean Ambrose vs Bray Wyatt

This has happened a lot. Thankfully, this felt new, but not exactly because of the brand split. Funnily enough, all three of these superstars were just on Smackdown, but the interactions with the commentary team, and Wyatt and Ambrose having their own title runs, really makes this feel fresh. Miz interfering was perfect, because it makes him look like an arrogant heel and gives off that the writers get that Wyatt/Ambrose have fought a lot.

We hope you liked this edition of “Matt Talk!” Tune in next time, when Matt Talks about WWE Smackdown Live!