September 7, 2019 - Evan Luebbe

Natural for Adam Cole

September 6, 2019September 7, 2019 by Evan Luebbe

We ended last week with Keith Lee and Dominik Dijakovic redefining what was possible for men of their size and new NXT Tag Team Champions. I believe they are the first team to ever win the championship on three occasions. Now all that needs to be done for The Undisputed Era is for Roderick Strong to take the North American Championship off the waist of the Velveteen Dream and The Undisputed Era will finally be draped in gold. This could be a great way to introduce NXT to the USA Network.

It was an excellent effort on the part of Jordan Myles, but he simply could not get it done against Adam Cole Bay-Bay. On a serious note, he’s not quite ready to be Champion, but he made a legit statement and it was a fantastic idea by Triple H to give all the talent at the WWE PC this opportunity. It has gotten to the point in Adam Cole’s title reign where it feels natural to think of him as the NXT Champion, which is always the goal in WWE.

Roderick Strong definitely made a statement in his quest to receive another opportunity for the NXT North American Championship by burning Velveteen Dream’s couch.

Breezango appears to be losing a little bit of steam in terms of being taken more seriously as a threat in the tag team division considering that their wardrobe and body language in the ring is still saying that they are a comedic act.

Rowan vs. Roman

September 6, 2019September 7, 2019 by Evan Luebbe

The Roman Reigns storyline has been built over the past month so that the final reveal is huge (and will probably take place on the first SD Live on Fox on October 4^th right before the Hell in a Cell Pay-Per-View). It would feel incomplete if Rowan turned out to be the man responsible for the attacks on Roman Reigns. Nonetheless, this will still undoubtedly be the biggest match/opportunity of Rowan’s career. He’d better make the most of it because he will probably never get an opportunity like this again if it doesn’t go well.

I don’t know if I’ve ever admitted this before, but I was utterly confused by Bayley’s wishy-washy promo. She is teetering on the edge of babyface territory and not quite willing to take the final step into heel territory. As a result, Charlotte Flair along with the rest of the WWE universe doesn’t know how to react. Sasha Banks has quite a bit to teach Bayley on the art of being a heel, because she is so good at it.

The developments in the King of the Ring tournament turned out to be rather shocking, but I have to admit that it has been booked brilliantly. First of all, changing Elias’ music was a great idea because it is already commanding the audience to take his character more seriously. He has brought a much more aggressive demeanor in recent weeks and this will hopefully serve to create a niche for him as a heel. It also helps him that he is quite a bit bigger than many superstars on the roster because the wrestling industry has trended in recent years towards fans demanding men and women who are more athletic and agile then they were say a decade ago. The future looks like it could be potentially brighter than it has been for the last couple of years for Elias.

Chad Gable got the most surprising victory this week. He also received a massive pop from the crowd, and this very well may do some good in terms of his booking in the future. One thing that can be said for certain is that it’s a pretty safe bet that the KOTR final match at Clash of Champions will tear the house down and it is very likely to steal the show, because you can’t go wrong if you have Baron Corbin, Samoa Joe, Ricochet, Elias, and Chad Gable to choose from.

Respect has to be given to Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross for working two matches this week on both Raw and SD Live. The team of Fire and Desire will likely be next in line for an opportunity at the Women’s Tag Team Championships at Clash of Champions because they pinned the champions. There is still not a significant amount of direction for these titles.

Slide Note: I still have not given up hope for Kevin Owens to receive a major push leading up to ‘Mania, creative just doesn’t have anything for him right now immediately following SummerSlam.

Bayley Heel Turn

September 6, 2019September 7, 2019 by Evan Luebbe

After seeing this week’s episode of Monday Night Raw play out, WWE fans can conclude that Bayley is turning heel and aligning with Sasha Banks. WWE creative is having Bayley maintain her loyalty and close connection with Sasha.

I have two main thoughts about this:

It’s refreshing to see a champion in WWE going through with a character change in the face/heel dynamic while they are in the midst of their title reign as opposed to waiting to make this switch until they lose the belt, which is usually what happens, but
I’m not sure how well this will work out because Bayley has been built up so well as a babyface.

From WWE’s perspective, you never know how a drastic change like this will be perceived until you try it out. Even though this match got a main event spot, Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross felt like an afterthought because they were not a part of the storyline that was being focused on.

The reason Baron Corbin should be a consideration to win the King of the Ring tournament is that he consistently draws passionate reactions from the WWE universe. It does not matter if those reactions are positive or negative (most of them are negative. Corbin annoys me just as much as anyone else). What matters most is that he puts butts in seats and gets fans riled up which is exactly what WWE is looking for in the end.

Samoa Joe’s push to potentially become Universal Champion needs to start very soon given that he is already 40 years old (if WWE is serious about it). It’s not too late by any means, as we’ve seen it done recently by AJ Styles at about the same point in his career. Joe is one of those guys who always seems like a legitimate contender no matter what his booking situation looks like. Anyway, a great avenue to get his push started to get into contention for the Universal Championship could be through winning the King of the Ring tournament.

We all know Ricochet is going to be a huge star, because he’s being pushed like one very early in his career.

AJ Styles was very satirical in his promo on Monday Night Raw, giving Michael Cole a little attitude by ignoring him and pointing out that the only reason Braun Strowman got a title opportunity is that he looked at the Universal Championship. I also feel I need to address the possibility of Styles being added to the Universal Championship match at Clash of Champions, which would be a fantastic idea.

This could mean the United States Championship will be put on the backburner for the next couple months, but not to worry because every trend in WWE goes in cycles. This is also a sign of just how highly AJ Styles is viewed in the eyes of Vince McMahon. I don’t know if Vince originally viewed AJ in this light, but he deeply resonated with the WWE universe from the time he debuted in the Royal Rumble match in 2016. This week on Raw, we also seemed to get virtual confirmation that The Fiend Bray Wyatt will interfere in the Universal Title match at Clash of Champions and presumably go on to challenge the Universal Champion at Hell in a Cell.

Side Note: Congratulations to Walter on retaining his WWE United Kingdom Championship against Tyler Bate at NXT UK Takeover: Cardiff. The entire event was very well done and included some excellent matches. It also had to be a nice change of pace for Cesaro working the event.

Also, I feel I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Chris Jericho winning the AEW World Championship. I need to acknowledge them because they will indirectly serve as competition on Wednesday nights to WWE (even though they don’t really want to compete with or be compared to any other company). I love what they’re doing by trying to set themselves apart and do things differently than any other company has done before. I can also name at least five of their top superstars who formerly worked for WWE.

The Fiend Universal Championship Match at HIAC?

September 6, 2019September 7, 2019 by Evan Luebbe

The Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California (which will be hosting the Hell in a Cell Pay-Per-View) may have pulled a Paul Heyman and given WWE fans a spoiler by announcing in a tweet that Bray Wyatt will be facing either Seth Rollins or Braun Strowman in a Hell in a Cell match.

Personally, I don’t think this is a great idea (it’s definitely not what I would do because Bray does not necessarily need a title to remain relevant right now) but it’s not a bad idea by any stretch of the imagination. It might be more interesting to see Wyatt go up against Strowman because of their history with the Wyatt Family (Strowman was first introduced to the main roster as a member), but WWE may not be quite ready to have Seth’s Universal Championship reign come to an end.