December 23, 2019 - Evan Luebbe

Triple Threat Number One Contender’s Match

December 23, 2019December 23, 2019 by Evan Luebbe

WWE and Bruce Prichard (Executive Director of SD) have opted to book a number one contender’s match between the newly shaven, American Dragon looking Daniel Bryan, The Miz and Baron Corbin. Bryan should earn the title opportunity because the audience cares about his story with Bray Wyatt/The Fiend more than either of the other two men.

Miz is playing the role of a supporting character in Daniel’s story, and Corbin has no connection with The Fiend – he simply wants a Universal Title opportunity as another perceived steppingstone in his career after defeating Roman Reigns, the top guy in the company.

When the three men first made their entrances on SD, I figured WWE might be choosing to book a fatal four-way match at Royal rumble for the Universal Title, because Vince McMahon has not orchestrated many multi-person championship matches recently.

Heavy Machinery and The Revival were the perfect two teams for WWE to book for the Miracle on 34^th Street Fight this year. The match typically involves food – and Otis obviously loves food – and The Revival is in the process of settling into a new role in WWE as a comedy act.

The New Day are by far the most consistent act in WWE (Xavier Woods gets a pass since he is rehabbing a ruptured Achilles tendon). They are simply always doing something in WWE – usually elevating the tag team division (Kofi Kingston’s six month-long WWE Championship reign was a nice change of pace).

WWE fans must be inclined to believe that the time to start getting impatient is now regarding the push of Braun Strowman. He’s like a way more athletic version of Big Show and has been on the main roster for well over three years.

At some point, the WWE universe must wonder what is keeping WWE from making him a top star. Is Vince McMahon that concerned with his character? Who knows, but I kind of feel for Strowman at this point.

Dark Order Finally Established

December 23, 2019 by Evan Luebbe

The opening match of the night kicked off Dynamite in a great way with no commercials. The final episode of 2019 had a stacked card and brought a Pay-Per-View atmosphere. The night was booked very well overall. The Young Bucks could have afforded to win, but that’s neither here nor there. SCU is an excellent tag team deserving of being put over.

The emphasis on wins and losses is significantly helping AEW create a sports-style presentation. The commentary team of Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone and Excalibur is providing excellent pacing and context to the action and fostering a comfortable feeling for fans when they tune in to Dynamite.

Chris Jericho is excellent at whining and making excuses. What he did this past week reminds me of a throwback to what he was doing about 10-12 years ago with his suit and tie. It’s also very smart on the company’s part to let the story surrounding Jon Moxley breathe.

The only question mark I have is: Since Dark Order is going to get a main event push, it seems hard for fans to wrap their brains around why AEW needs to create cult-like factions. The Nightmare Collective seems a little redundant at this point.

It’s nice Kris Statlander’s strong booking continues, and I almost forgot Riho was women’s champion. She has been away from TV far too long.

Rhea the Champion

December 23, 2019 by Evan Luebbe

NXT’S product mirrored that of AEW Dynamite during the first segment of the night, however, NXT did it a little better. It’s not that the quality of these two matches was drastically different, it’s just that the opening match on NXT felt like it carried a little more weight since the NXT Championship was on the line. The limited commercial interruptions also made it feel like a Takeover match.

Adam Cole is more than worthy at this point to be champion. The return of Johnny Gargano is much appreciated as NXT is clearly a lesser product without its heart and soul.

Rhea Ripley winning the NXT Women’s Championship and ending Shayna Baszler’s oppressive 14- month-long reign as champion was clearly the highlight of the night. Baszler has been women’s champion for most of the past two years, so it was time for a change. The 23-year-old Ripley will be a welcome change of pace to the women’s division in NXT. Baszler may get a call sooner rather than later to move over to the main roster because she’s done about everything there is for her to do on this brand.

Damian Priest clearly has a higher ceiling than Killian Dain and was hampered in the scenario by 50/50 booking.

New Year, New Decade, Same WWE

December 23, 2019 by Evan Luebbe

One thing I have loved about following WWE throughout the past decade is that storylines and products are still basically the same – superstars rotate, management changes and storylines shift but… there’s a “consistency” to it that is oddly comforting.

The storylines that will take Raw into the new decade are: The relationship and possible marriage between Bobby Lashley and the narcissistic Lana (it appears the WWE creative team is transitioning Rusev away from this storyline so he can move on), Becky Lynch’s obsession with redeeming herself after discovering that Asuka has her number, Humberto Carillo, Andrade and Zelina Vega.

The OC will continue to feud with The Viking Raiders while AJ Styles is busy with Randy Orton. The latter of these might continue all the way into ‘Mania season, where Orton and Styles could end up facing each other for the second straight year at the Showcase of the Immortals.

The Seth Rollins storyline is garnering much attention as expected, with The AOP as his henchman. A strong main event will be booked for the traditionally low-rated Christmas episode of Monday Night Raw featuring a United States Championship match between Rey Mysterio and Seth Rollins.

Side Note: I’ve seen Ricochet display his ridiculous amount of endurance before with other companies, so it’s nice to see WWE give him the opportunity to showcase himself. Deonna Purrazzo also got her opportunity out of nowhere, but nonetheless it’s very encouraging. Liv Morgan will also most likely be reintroduced at the very beginning of 2020.

I didn’t forget about Buddy Murphy and Aleister Black. Their rivalry has most likely been put on pause because of Black’s broken nose suffered at TLC.

WWE TLC: Tables, Ladders, and Chairs 2019

December 23, 2019December 23, 2019 by Evan Luebbe

The final PPV event of the decade was very well-done, especially considering how insignificant TLC typically is in terms of storyline development. This is because of the event’s placement right between Survivor Series and Royal Rumble. Samoa Joe could also be a mainstay on commentary.

The night kicked off on the pre-show with Andrade taking his second loss in a week to Humberto Carillo (that name still sounds suspiciously like Alberto Del Rio). Zelina Vega is reportedly going to leave Andrade and no longer be his business associate since they have recently been arguing about Andrade’s losing ways.

She will align herself with Carillo, who will dominate the main roster like Andrade never could and possibly even get a WWE Championship opportunity. But this is WWE and, Vince McMahon is an abstract thinker, so no one can ever be 100% certain what is in his mind.

TLC was officially kicked off with an excellent ladder match between The Revival and The New Day. Personally, one could’ve looked for Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder to take up the victory and claim the SmackDown Tag Team Championships from The New Day for the second time this calendar year. This could have served as fuel to the fire for the rivalry between the two teams. However, I can’t ever complain about The New Day being Tag Team Champions.

Some major respect needs to be given to Aleister Black for even being able to finish his match with Buddy Murphy with what I’m about 95% sure was a broken nose. Despite that, the work rate in this match was excellent and not hampered at all. Buddy Murphy unfortunately did not get nearly the spotlight deserved simply because of Black’s injury.

Aleister would absolutely be must-see TV if WWE were to put him in that role. He presents his character in a way that it has an underground following but a slightly darker feel to it.

The OC will likely eventually take the Raw Tag Team Championships from The Viking Raiders – perhaps even at Royal Rumble. It was also smart for creative to book the match so that no one took a pin to keep both teams looking strong. For now, The Viking Raiders are unequivocally the top tag team on Monday Night Raw, as they should be.

WWE is very wisely investing its full effort and attention into establishing Baron Corbin as the company’s top heel. He is the best I’ve ever seen at giving the audience a reason to genuinely hate him. He doesn’t do anything cheesy either like bang on the city they are in. Everything he says to get heat from the WWE universe makes perfect sense within the context of his storyline.

This is also one of the best events for Roman Reigns to take a loss, because the WWE universe will likely forget about it rather quickly because TLC is a relatively insignificant event.

I think I might love Bray Wyatt and his seemingly innocent character even more than The Feed. Miz, however, played an insignificant role in this match. A Universal Championship may indeed be in Daniel Bryan’s future – maybe even as soon as next month at the Royal Rumble.

But he should not resurrect the Yes! Movement just because he cut his hair. In this situation, he should take advice from Chris Jericho and try to come to the realization that nothing like this is ever as good in the second incarnation. Nostalgia is not necessary in this situation

For the first few weeks, Rusev seemed to be the only reason the storyline was salvageable – Lashley had no personality and Lana was just annoying. Now however, a WWE Championship may be in Lashley’s future sooner rather than later.

The fact that Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair made their entrances first for the main event was a subtle indication that The Kabuki Warriors were going to go over in the match. The Women’s Tag Team Division is stacked – and it was hurting for star power just five or six months ago. Pretty amazing if you ask me. Although, a lot more women could be featured but are sitting on the sidelines for whatever reason.

A probable Raw Women’s Championship match may be booked at Royal Rumble between Becky Lynch and Asuka since WWE can now highlight the fact that The Empress of Tomorrow has now pinned The Man in a title match at the same event two years in a row.