August 3, 2019 - Evan Luebbe

Palace of Positivity, Baby!!!

August 3, 2019August 3, 2019 by Evan Luebbe

SmackDown Live is officially not the house that AJ Styles built anymore. Kofi Kingston’s victory over Styles this week got me thinking that it might be more beneficial to WWE to have him retain his WWE Championship against Randy Orton at SummerSlam.

For a couple of weeks now I have been leaning towards Orton because we know what we will get out of Randy Orton as champion (we’ve seen it 13 times) and it seems like a decent time to put the belt on him because it’s been over two years since he held the WWE Championship. While this is a decent argument, after rethinking it, there is still a little more potential left for WWE to explore with Kingston as champion, for example a feud with Ali, Andrade, or most intriguingly a big clash with Big E, who has serious potential.

I know I have said all along that I didn’t see Kofi holding the title past SummerSlam, but there seems to be too much potential that WWE has yet to be explored with Kingston as champion. Yes, live event attendance is down for events headlined by Kofi Kingston, but I do not believe this is necessarily being caused by him (it was instead poor storytelling which is being addressed and rapidly improved in my opinion).

What is Dolph Ziggler’s obsession with Goldberg because it won’t lead to a potential confrontation or rivalry between the two, at least I wouldn’t imagine. What might be a great rivalry, however, is one between Ziggler and Sami Zayn because Zayn analyzes what’s wrong with everyone but himself from a psychological standpoint, and Ziggler seems to be ignorant of his own psychological issues (in storyline) and says every scenario in which a superstar achieves major success should be him and he makes excuses all the time as to why it’s not him. The Miz confronted him about this topic about a week ago and he dismissed it. Anyway, Zayn has Aleister Black to deal with right now before we get to this, but this will be a great idea for WWE to look into in the future.

Trish Stratus having one last match to finish off her career with Charlotte Flair is a brilliant idea. WWE needs to capitalize on this now while Trish still has decent in-ring ability. This match will also elevate Charlotte Flair and do for her similar to what the match with John Cena did for Roman Reigns.

Ali really impressed this week and is absolutely deserving of taking the Intercontinental Championship off of Shinsuke Nakamura. Audiences have a harder time resonating with Nakamura because he has a little bit of a hard time with the English language. He talks a bit slower because of this, so he cannot get as many words out and therefore connect with the WWE universe as much as some other superstars.

Great Storytelling

August 3, 2019August 3, 2019 by Evan Luebbe

WWE followed the massive rating increase of the Raw reunion with one of the best episodes in recent memory, in this new, edgier, slightly more sophisticated version of the Attitude Era. The last segment of the show was particularly awesome with utter chaos taking place.

I had absolutely no idea what was happening, and it was one of the greatest things I have seen on WWE TV in a long time, particularly when Cedric Alexander jumped off the platform right above where superstars make their entrances (it reminded me of the 2014 match between The Shield and Evolution when Seth Rollins jumped off that same platform to take out everyone). Mostly what might result from that altercation are SummerSlam matches between Drew McIntyre and Cedric Alexander and one between Roman Reigns and Samoa Joe.

Speaking of Seth Rollins, Brock Lesnar ensured that he wouldn’t by any means be going into SummerSlam. Seth could be seriously hurt after that F5 on the stretcher, unlike Alexa Bliss. It was also encouraging to see Seth possibly developing a new wrinkle to his character before his match with Dolph Ziggler by embracing a playful attitude backstage with the Street Profits.

Another great event that happened on Monday Night Raw was that the OC, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson were crowned Raw Tag Team Champions, meaning that now all three members of the OC are now champions. This should be great for business as it now establishes them as a dominant heel faction similar to the Undisputed Era down in NXT (a big congrats to them as it looks like NXT will move to FS1 starting in October when SmackDown moves to Fox).

It makes sense that The Usos were taken out of the spotlight heading into SummerSlam due to Jimmy’s recent predicament with law enforcement. The OC is also picking up major steam and this will open the door for new rivalries because Gallows and Anderson have not been champions much since they entered WWE (only one time).

Ricochet absolutely deserves a SummerSlam match with AJ Styles and is on his way to becoming a massive star in the company.

Unpredictability in Matches

August 3, 2019August 3, 2019 by Evan Luebbe

AJ Styles brought up an excellent point last week when he said that he would like to see some “unpredictability” incorporated into matches through superstars having the ability to finish matches with any move rather than having one or two signature finishing maneuvers.

WWE would have more freedom if this were to be incorporated and there would be more creativity put into each match with this philosophy. The audience would constantly be on their toes wondering when exactly the matches would end. Audience members may be a little more reluctant to get up and get food or something because they’d be unsure if they were going to miss the end of a match, so in that sense, it may draw more eyes to the WWE product.

For example, almost every time Roman Reigns hits a Superman Punch a WWE fan knows that the match is most likely almost over but not quite. And when he hits his Spear that’s it. It might be refreshing to see him win matches with a Powerbomb or a Legdrop in the ropes. It was great to see one night on Raw about eight months ago when Seth Rollins won a match (I’m pretty sure it was against Dolph Ziggler) with a Superplex off the top rope into a Falcon Arrow because no one knew for sure whether the match was going to end.

“The Fiend” Bray Wyatt – Potential Universal Champion

August 3, 2019August 3, 2019 by Evan Luebbe

This proposal may be a little too far outside the box for WWE to go through with, but I’ll propose it anyway: what if “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt were to become the man to take the Universal Championship out of the clutches of Brock Lesnar, because it won’t be Seth Rollins (does anyone honestly think that, he would cash in the money in the bank contract and win the Universal Championship only to lose it in his first defense against the former champion. It would be awesome if it were Seth Rollins but based on history that is not likely). Wyatt will presumably go over and beat Finn Balor at SummerSlam given that Balor is preparing to take a hiatus from WWE. The creative team could use this victory to springboard Wyatt and make him an immediate title contender, facing Lesnar at either Hell in a Cell or at Survivor Series.

This may be wishful thinking, as it seems more likely that WWE would orchestrate something like a triple threat match down the road between Lesnar, Rollins and Reigns. WWE could have Roman Reigns claim to Seth Rollins that he obviously cannot get the job done against Lesnar so The Big Dog needs to be involved. Reigns also has not been in the picture for any major championships since his return due to the fact that WWE has wanted to ease him back into full-time competition. Consideration also needs to be given to Drew McIntyre.

Alexa Bliss Face Turn

August 3, 2019August 3, 2019 by Evan Luebbe

One thing to potentially watch out for is Alexa Bliss turning babyface, maybe even as soon as after SummerSlam. The reason this may be a possibility is that during Alexa’s feud with Bayley she defended herself as to why she developed such an attitude about herself. She claimed she was bullied by Bayley as well as nearly everyone else in the NXT locker room. She even went so far as to say specifically that the only person who would stand up for her was Charlotte Flair. A face turn would be refreshing for Alexa because it would give her the opportunity to have rivalries with several women who are heels, like Mandy Rose for example, that she otherwise would not be able to work with. Others like Sportskeeda have talked about this as well. She has been a heel since her debut on the main roster back in 2016 so it may be time for a change. As a side note, WWE may also want to consider doing the same thing with The Revival.

Daniel Bryan Direction Change?

August 3, 2019August 3, 2019 by Evan Luebbe

So, Daniel Bryan teased a career-altering announcement on SmackDown recently which turned out to be nothing. However, it has come to light that the announcement he was going to make maybe a move to 205 Live. This is exactly the type of thing 205 Live needs to establish itself as a top destination for superstars: An established and well-credentialed big-name in wrestling who can help elevate individual superstars on the brand as well as the brand itself. While this seems like a demotion for Bryan at first, when one looks at it from this perspective, they realize that he is a man who was truly committed to the betterment of WWE as a whole. He can also use this for himself as an opportunity to increase TV time (and Rowan potentially) and seek to get his “The New Daniel Bryan” character more over than it already is today.