February 2, 2020 - Evan Luebbe

Premature WrestleMania Preview

February 2, 2020 by Evan Luebbe

Daniel Bryan deserves to have a marquee match at WrestleMania 36 in Tampa Bay after receiving so much audible fan support at Royal Rumble. However, he is currently not penciled in for any match, although some fans would love to see him go one-on-one with The Fiend one more time. That spot will go to Roman Reigns as Vince McMahon looks to perch him atop WWE’s totem pole once again, and the Royal Rumble winner Drew McIntyre will obviously be challenging Brock Lesnar and hopefully defeating him.

Unless WWE fans began clamoring for Daniel Bryan the way they did in 2014-15, Bryan will not be placed into a title match at ‘Mania. The silver lining however is that WWE does have a history of listening to the WWE universe if they incessantly let the company know over a period of months just how much they would like for certain superstars to be pushed. This was evidenced at last year’s WrestleMania when all three major babyfaces walked out as champions in Becky Lynch, Seth Rollins, and Kofi Kingston.

Bottom Line: The Yes! Movement is still as strong as ever in 2020 after starting in 2013.

Alexa Bliss is one of the few viable options other than Sasha Banks to face Bayley at WrestleMania 36 – this time as a babyface of course; she hasn’t played this exact role before at such a big event. This would also make sense in the storyline because these two women feuded last summer over the SmackDown Women’s Championship.

Alexa also brings an experience factor into the equation, being a five-time Women’s Champion in WWE; since McMahon might trust her a little more in a spot as big as this knowing she has been there before. She’d no longer be that extremely green 25-year-old first-time champion like she was at her first WrestleMania back in 2017.

Speaking of the major women’s matches at WrestleMania 2020, at least as of this moment, Becky Lynch is expected to defend her Raw Women’s Championship against Shayna Baszler. This makes total sense since Lynch assaulted Baszler after their triple threat match with Bayley at Survivor Series. There are also no more NXT ties for Shayna after she dropped their main title. The woman she dropped it to, Rhea Ripley, will also reportedly be challenged for her NXT Championship at the biggest show of the year by Charlotte Flair, which will give NXT a much-deserved spotlight to elevate the brand.

Otis Has a Date with Mandy

February 2, 2020 by Evan Luebbe

Braun Strowman has finally won a singles title on the main roster afternoon the 3 ½ years – rejoice! Vince McMahon may not be quite sure what direction to take Shinsuke Nakamura after losing the Intercontinental Championship to Strowman. The former Royal Rumble winner has been a leaf in the wind for the past few months with no legitimate storyline – he has instead been doing Sami Zayn’s bidding with Cesaro.

The dog food element in the six-man tag team match between Roman Reigns and The Usos and King Corbin, Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode was a bit much for me, but not everything is going to resonate with all WWE fans. It’s a major positive that Reigns and Corbin will be able to move into their primary programs for WrestleMania season as we are now on the road to the biggest show of the year; the feud has also run its course since October.

Perhaps no one is very certain how WWE’s fifth Saudi Arabia event will go. Many superstars who are at, or near, the top of the card have refused to go back to Saudi Arabia to perform again – either due to political issues they have with certain events that have transpired over there; or for others it is due to the travel issues they had in getting back from the last Saudi Arabia event, causing them to miss the November 1 episode of SmackDown. NXT filled in fortunately and drew a big rating.

Based on that, I don’t know if we should look forward to the event or not on February 27. Let’s cross our fingers and pray that all goes smoothly on this trip.

Alexa Bliss is noticeably improving in terms of selling for her opponents in the ring. Her facial expressions during matches are drastically improving so that she shows more emotion and thus connects with the WWE universe more. This was on full display this week in her tag team match with Nikki Cross against Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville (which Bliss Cross Applesauce won, indicating that they are gaining momentum in the women’s tag team division.

Winners of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic

February 2, 2020 by Evan Luebbe

Triple H and Shawn without a doubt made the right decision in booking The Broserweights to win the Dusty Cup. Matt Riddle and Pete Dunne were clearly the most over team getting strong reactions, but this was not the only highlight of the tournament.

The tournament was so well-executed as it established yet another young tag team in The Grizzled Young Veterans. The heels will be able to brag about this accomplishment in the months to come. For now, The Broserweights will be getting an opportunity to garner the NXT Tag Team Championships against The Undisputed Era at Takeover: Portland on February 16.

It was also interesting to see Tommaso Ciampa wipe his own blood on the contract for his NXT Championship match with Adam Cole at Takeover: Portland. You have to wonder if Triple H planned this or if it was purely improvisation by Ciampa; either way, the segment went over well.

Tegan Nox and Dakota Kai finally had their one-on-one encounter after the storyline with them really accelerated at Takeover: WarGames with Kai’s heel turn. Dakota is doing unexpectedly convincing work as a heel; it’s great to see.

What might be the booking strategy is for The Broserweights to win the NXT Tag Team Championships from Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly at Takeover: Portland along with Tommaso Ciampa taking the NXT Title from Adam Cole. This will nicely wrap up the short-term story of The Undisputed Era all losing their respective titles kind of all at once; this began on January 22 when Keith Lee won the North American Championship from Roderick Strong. I must say that I am sad to see The UE’s run possibly coming to an end after 2 ½ years together.

Female Face of AEW Turning Heel

February 2, 2020 by Evan Luebbe

Finally, the woman who this company is built around is being pushed like it. She is executing her de facto heel turn surprisingly well. Since she is the company’s first signee on the female side, I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see her as AEW Women’s Champion sooner rather than later (probably by summertime).

Jon Moxley may want to consider keeping his eye patch for the foreseeable future because it provides a distinctive look for him and it’s as aesthetically pleasing. Adam “Hangman” Page’s alcoholism issue is being capitalized on by the AEW marketing team in a brilliantly fun manner as well.

Cody Rhodes may be the best talker -and have the best music – in all of professional wrestling. He has such a deep understanding of ring psychology and how to work a crowd -meaning when to do certain things to get a particular reaction. He most likely got this sixth sense from his late great father Dusty as well as his brother Dustin.

We should see some new champions crowned at AEW’s next pay-per-view – Revolution on February 29, with Jon Moxley ending Chris Jericho’s reign as the first-ever AEW World Champion, and Nyla Rose probably taking the AEW Women’s World Championship from the largely absent champion as of late Riho.

Orton’s Awful Deed

February 2, 2020 by Evan Luebbe

Randy Orton sunk to new depths this past Monday night, making a full-blown heel turn rather quickly, as he perpetrated an assault on Edge’s surgically repaired neck. This sets up what will most likely be a feud with The Rated R Superstar that culminates with Edge’s first official singles match since returning to Royal Rumble.

It’s so great to see Edge return to the ring after nearly 9 years. I along with the entire WWE universe (and Edge himself) thought that was it as far as his wrestling career was concerned. It also now appears that Randy Orton’s rivalry with AJ Styles over the past several weeks has turned out to mean nothing. It seemed to be leading to a ‘Mania encounter for the second straight year which would have seemed redundant.

However, we can all give Vince McMahon a break on this one because he, the WWE doctors and even Edge had to have some uncertainty about getting back in the ring.

One very underrated element of the segment, however, was Randy Orton’s very believable promo right before the attack. He laid it all out there with his honest feelings about his longtime friend returning, who was instrumental in his ability to gain his footing with WWE.

It was very reminiscent of the way Kobe Bryant’s demeanor changed throughout the course of his life. As he got closer to retirement, he became more willing to express appreciation and gratitude toward the people who were instrumental to his development of The Mamba mentality. He epitomized this so well because he was relentlessly focused on the vision he intended to realize and bring into reality.

That was the only event of the night that appeared to have potential WrestleMania implications except Brock Lesnar F5-ing Drew McIntyre. Aside from that, January 27 was a fun episode of Raw that gave storylines time to breathe to begin WrestleMania season. There were the returns of MVP and Edge along with a stellar WrestleMania 34 rematch from Charlotte Flair and Asuka (although a disappointing DQ finish).

Humberto Carillo was unable to take the United States Championship from Andrade, but he was able to get some payback on El Idolo by giving him a hammerlock DDT on the exposed concrete. It was also nice to see Riddick Moss for the first time since his NXT days. He should fit very well into Mojo Rawley’s current football player gimmick, as his “offensive lineman”.

Side Note: Hopefully Liv Morgan will now be able to move on to bigger and better opponents in terms of star power after jumping over the small obstacle that is Lana by earning a victory over her. And unfortunately, Vince McMahon has waited long to have Erick Rowan make his big reveal. Since it wasn’t revealed at the Royal Rumble, no one cares anymore about what’s in the cage. It’s just a nuisance at this point.

The death of Kobe Bryant should serve as a wake-up call to everyone who hears about it. It doesn’t have to mean the same thing for everyone, but it should be a prompt for introspection for every person who is affected by it. People should use this event as an instrument to help them further their own evolution as human beings. He was not just a great basketball player (although the NBA did in fact lose a legend), he openly and humbly agreed to share about half of his life with us – all the ups and downs. That’s why so many people felt so deeply connected to him, because he was remarkably human – similar to Brett Favre in that way.

Royal Rumble 2020

February 2, 2020 by Evan Luebbe

Men’s Royal Rumble Match

The 2020 Royal Rumble will go down as one of the most satisfying Royal Rumble PPV’s in WWE history because it had such a satisfying conclusion. Arguably, no man deserves to win the Royal Rumble match more than Drew McIntyre. He is a first-time winner, so it received more of a pop than say a second Roman Reigns victory. He has been working on his craft since 2001 at age 15 and was with WWE for years before being assigned to the jobber group 3MB. Finally, at 34, McIntyre has perfected his craft and is coming into his own as a performer. He is finally being allowed to showcase the flamboyance he has with his personality and that charming sense of arrogance.

McIntyre will be very easy to root for in his WrestleMania 36 match against Brock Lesnar. McIntyre has a feel-good story because he has worked so hard for so long in the sports entertainment industry, It is finally paying off. He also brings a certain level of believability to the storyline because it is very believable that a man of his size would believe he could present a challenge to Lesnar and perhaps even defeat him – which absolutely should happen. Speaking of Lesnar, he didn’t bury anyone in the rumble match either – everyone he eliminated got a larger spotlight than they would have if they hadn’t faced off with him.

The McIntyre – Lesnar WrestleMania match has a legit opportunity to be the main event and take precedence over The Fiend taking on his challenger who will probably be Roman Reigns at this point. This will provide a good amount of unpredictability surrounding WrestleMania because some people just assumed that Reigns would be in the main event this year since he has made a pretty full recovery from his leukemia diagnosis.

WWE fans – no matter how much they don’t like him – fans must acknowledge that when The Beast does decide to show up, Brock brings with him an unsettling presence. Lesnar also has a natural ability to elevate the level of star power of every superstar who enters the ring with him because of the amount of attention Vince McMahon has afforded to Lesnar in the booking process over the years.

The biggest surprise of the men’s Royal Rumble match was the return of Edge, who appears to be in unbelievable condition and plans to wrestle a part-time schedule similar to that of Brock Lesnar. This is fantastic news for Edge as well as the entire WWE universe because no one thought they would ever see him wrestle again after his triple fusion neck surgery in 2011.

Women’s Royal Rumble Match

Charlotte Flair could have easily gone her entire career without ever winning a Royal Rumble. Personally, I might have booked the narrative of her career to paint the picture that she had a knack for winning all big matches but struggled for some reason in Royal Rumble matches. This result instead paints the picture that she is attaining yet another accolade that is eerily similar to the accomplishments of her dad (since Ric Flair won the men’s Rumble match in 1992). It had sort of a predictable feel to it because Charlotte Flair is always a favorite in any match. This was somewhat of a letdown, but it was more than made up for with Drew McIntyre’s victory later in the night in the men’s Rumble.

Everyone was so excited to see Shayna Baszler, now at number 30. Everyone in the arena thought she was going to get the victory, as she was the betting favorite to win the women’s Rumble – and the WWE universe got the predictable result in the end. WWE teased the universe for as long as possible before going with the favorite to win.

A nice surprise in the match was Bianca Belair’s dominant showing during the first half of the match. Many of the women from NXT showed up, showcasing the depth of WWE’s women’s division.

The Rest

it was great to see Sheamus as he looked to be in great shape after nine months away to recover from an injury. I as well as most of the WWE universe figured that he retired because he has dealt with spinal stenosis for several years. Shorty G had a little bit of a rough night because he didn’t add much to the story – the highlight was clearly Sheamus’ return.

WWE made the right decision by having Andrade retain his United States Championship over Humberto Carillo. While Carillo makes for an excellent challenger for the title, he doesn’t have the budding superstar aura that Andrade does. Also, while Humberto has received a pretty decent push early on in his WWE tenure, Andrade has gotten a more sustained push and it’s going according to plan (he is a former NXT Champion and has been nearly 2 years now on the main roster).

In hindsight, which is always 20/20, the fact that Roman Reigns earned the victory over King Corbin in the opening match on the main card was almost a dead giveaway that he would not get a second major accolade in the same night by winning the men’s Rumble match. It feels about time for this rivalry to come to a conclusion so both men can move on to something fresh. Otherwise, WWE will be asking fans to put their energy into a rivalry they are not really feeling anymore.

The WWE creative team quite frankly seems to be unsure what exactly to do with Bayley. There was always the possibility that Sasha Banks could have won the Royal Rumble and chosen to face her friend at WrestleMania, but that obviously didn’t happen as she is injured. There is always the possibility that WWE could have Sasha Banks punch her ticket to face Bayley at ‘Mania through the Elimination Chamber or something like that, because I don’t know what other storylines WWE would be able to craft for Bayley.

It was almost a foregone conclusion that The Fiend would retain the Universal Championship over Daniel Bryan. Bryan can easily afford a loss due to how much the WWE universe has resonated and connected to his character in the past, and he will gain more sympathy.

It will be interesting to see what Vince McMahon decides to do with Bray Wyatt’s “The Fiend” persona post-‘Mania. One could envision that this is just a stage in the evolution of Wyatt’s character that he will portray for a year and then move on to something else. It is also plausible that this incarnation could continue for a few years because of how mesmerizing and distinct it is. There are also so many different layers to The Fiend’s psychological puzzle.

Doing away with the red lights during the match takes nothing away from the menacing presence of The Fiend. Some superstars – Seth Rollins in particular – have claimed that they couldn’t see what they were doing during matches with Bray Wyatt’s alter ego. The concept of a scrap match hindered the two superstars more than it added anything – which is obviously what was intended.

Becky Lynch has had many accomplishments over the last year and there will probably be entire chapters dedicated to her in books written years down the road about WWE history. She has now conquered the one opponent she couldn’t seem to beat in Asuka. The Man will now be able to be clear-headed in preparation for Charlotte Flair at ‘Mania.

Jordan Devlin Making Noise

Jordan Devlin made what was by far the biggest impact in the first official NXT Worlds Collide event. He competed in the fatal four-way match for the NXT Cruiserweight Championship and got the victory in what was the only title change the night. Very few men in the company deserve to become a champion more than he does, as it has been obvious over the past few months that he has been working very hard on perfecting his in-ring ability.

He also has an innate sense of timing that can only be developed through years of perfecting his craft. He could be one superstar to look out for as he might receive a more focused push in the coming months (it would be reasonable to anticipate he will make a move to the United States as well).

The Undisputed Era may be losing a little steam as they lost an encounter with Imperium (who may be gaining momentum). WWE may also want to think about having Trent Seven form a tag team with Cesaro since they have now both lost teeth in memorable ways in matches (just a thought for something that could eventually happen in a couple of years).