March 16, 2019 - Evan Luebbe

Rush Redemption & Shelton Surprises

May 17, 2019March 16, 2019 by Evan Luebbe

It’s a pleasant surprise that WWE is finally finding something productive to do with Shelton Benjamin. He is clearly one of the most talented superstars on the roster but is rarely used for some reason. I’m not questioning the decision about how often he is used, it’s just rather unfortunate to see him not being utilized a whole lot. Management surely has their reasons.

Lio Rush officially redeemed himself in the eyes of Bobby Lashley by essentially winning the Intercontinental Championship for him. This move effectively locks in an Intercontinental Championship match at WrestleMania between Finn Balor and Bobby Lashley. This makes sense because WWE has proven over the years that they really like to draw out feuds.

The situation with Kurt Angle retiring is a little bittersweet because he has always been near and dear to my heart. The entire WWE universe will be anxiously awaiting to see who his opponent is for his farewell match at WrestleMania.

I’m really not sure what to make of the Roman Reigns situation, so I’m not going to give commentary on it until it unfolds. I pray he’s ok. The second Claymore Kick he received from Drew McInyre, causing his head to collide off the rain post, was somewhat scary to watch. McIntyre went on to have a match with Dean Ambrose afterward and went on to prove that he could potentially be the top heel that Monday Night Raw is searching for to build its programming around.

Orton vs. Styles Feud Officially Personal

May 17, 2019March 16, 2019 by Evan Luebbe

The McMahon family may indeed have the heel persona ingrained into their DNA, and Shane is no exception. The feud between Randy Orton and AJ Styles has officially gotten personal. Both men dropped quite a few truths about the others’ career. Orton claimed that while AJ was wrestling for $20 a night, he was winning titles with WWE. AJ claimed on the other hand that one of the only reasons Orton ever got a job with WWE was because of his father. It’s good to see that WWE is trying to make it so that this match actually matters come WrestleMania.

In terms of the Charlotte and Becky thing: it’s not that I don’t like it, it just feels at this point like it’s been done too many times in too short of a time. The match between Charlotte, Becky, and Ronda is still a strong candidate to headline WrestleMania, and I have no problem with that. I’m just a little tired of seeing repetitive exchanges between Charlotte and Becky.

Kofi Kingston can’t get a break. He cut an extremely passionate promo asking Vince what he needed to do to earn a WWE Title opportunity. Vince responded by telling Kofi that he would have to beat Randy Orton, Samoa Joe, The Bar and Rowan in a gauntlet match on SmackDown next week. It’s also kind of ridiculous for Samoa Joe, a “dominant champion,” to be pinned already by Rey Mysterio, which is sure to halt his momentum. He can ill afford this if he may be going into a match with John Cena. I have to say that, from top to bottom, SmackDown has been the better show as opposed to Raw for several months and looks poised to do well once it moves to FOX. The show just has fewer segments that are unwatchable, most likely because there is less time to fill.

Black & Ricochet Reveal

May 17, 2019March 16, 2019 by Evan Luebbe

The plans for the team of Ricochet and Aleister Black, at least in NXT may have been revealed this week. It looks like they may win the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic by beating The Forgotten Sons, who are not all that impressive in terms of how much the fans respond to them. The situation kind of feels like WWE wanted to come up with a creative way to introduce a new superstar in Jaxon Ryker, so they figured to try and force Steve Cutler and Wesley Blake into a tag team.

Back to Black and Ricochet. They probably won’t win the NXT Tag Team Championships, because the War Raiders are excellent champions, and they probably just participated in their final round of NXT tapings before they are officially called up to the main roster for good.

It’s still so heartbreaking that Tommaso Ciampa was taken out with a neck injury, which unfortunately leaves WWE in a pickle in terms of deciding what to do with the storyline between Ciampa and Johnny Gargano. If he were a major athlete, one more major injury like that and organizations would be hesitant about signing him.

Taking on the Touchy Topic of Chris Benoit with Respect

May 17, 2019March 16, 2019 by Evan Luebbe

This is a touchy topic as the title states, but it doesn’t intimidate me. Instead, it gives me incentive to talk about it. I feel that Chris Benoit is one of the most underappreciated pure wrestlers in the history of the wrestling industry, and it’s a shame that he is not talked about more.

With that being said, it is more than justifiable as to the reason no one talks about him. A murderer cannot be glorified, even if it was partially because of repeated head trauma, which is why I’m just going to stick to his wrestling career.

Benoit made his name in NJPW (New Japan Pro Wrestling) first starting in 1986 and gaining valuable experience before heading to ECW with Paul Heyman. He earned the nickname “The Crippler” after a match with Sabu in which Sabu was nearly paralyzed. He departed ECW just before Heyman was about to strap the ECW World Heavyweight Championship on him when his work visa expired.

Starting in 1995, Benoit signed for a second time with WCW (World Championship Wrestling). It got somewhat dicey with the main booker for WCW, Kevin Sullivan, because Benoit developed a real-life affair with Sullivan’s wife in a storyline. Even when Benoit ultimately left the company in 2000, they did not really want him to go. They even tried putting the WCW World Heavyweight Championship on him, but due to disagreements with management and to protest the promotion of Kevin Sullivan to head booker, Benoit left the next day along with Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko and Perry Saturn to debut with WWF/E as the Radicalz later in the year 2000. He received major Title matches during the early part of his WWE tenure, but the feud he is most known for during this time was the feud with Chris Jericho.

He ultimately needed to take a year off due to his broken neck. The highlight of his career clearly came into 2004 when he won the World Heavyweight Championship after winning the Royal Rumble as the number one entrant. He would hold the title until SummerSlam, Losing it to Randy Orton. The final Title Benoit would win in his illustrious wrestling career was the United States Championship. He was scheduled to win the resurrected ECW World Heavyweight Championship on the night of his death, but Johnny Nitro (who later became John Morrison) was inserted in his place.

It’s unfortunate that one of the top 5 or 10 pure wrestlers in history is never discussed. As I said earlier, it’s more than understood and fully justified as to the reason why, I personally wanted to write an article and tribute to him on my blog. I’m very appreciative to have been exposed to his wrestling style thanks to the WWE network, because without it I would’ve never seen him since I was a little young when he was at the top.