WWE SmackDown 7/31/2020

Bray Wyatt clearly has the most creative character in WWE; there are so many different facets and layers to it. There is a cult leader Bray who resides in a swamp, the entirely separate saga with Sister Abigail, who has taken on a mythical presence of her own; and then there is The Fiend – probably the most genius creation ever in WWE. One can sense that Wyatt puts a significant amount of creativity and thought energy into his character, which is very respectable.

What I would take away from the conclusion of Friday Night SmackDown when The Fiend gave the Mandible Claw to Alexa Bliss is this: Bray is planning to turn Alexa into the living embodiment of Sister Abigail – because she has a look akin to the way Sister Abigail has been portrayed to look like in the past (articles have been written about how this might happen in the future – with Liv Morgan playing Abigail. Morgan would be good, but Alexa is absolutely perfect for this character in the next stage in her evolution with WWE).

There was a hint that this was the direction in which WWE was going at The Horror Show at Extreme Rules on July 19 when Braun Strowman had a vision of Alexa – who he’s always gotten along with – and she was telling him to come home. Perhaps Bray/The Fiend had already gotten a little bit in her head by that time. There is significant depth to this story, and that has to be appreciated – well done, Bray Wyatt/WWE creative. (who I’m still thinking is Universal Champion – and will wrap up a program with The Fiend at SummerSlam by dropping the title to him)

To add yet another facet to this story, the fact that Alexa might become the living embodiment of Sister Abigail may contribute to her disbanding her team with Nikki Cross. This could segue toward Nikki becoming a singles wrestler and ultimately winning the SmackDown Women’s Championship.

So Alexa Bliss becoming the human embodiment of Sister Abigail with The Fiend would benefit not only she and Bray Wyatt in the immediate future, but it would also to further the careers of several other superstars like Nikki Cross, Braun Strowman and maybe even Roman Reigns down the line. This is exactly the type of long-term storytelling with significant depth that the WWE universe has been clamoring for in the last several years. It simply takes several of years long-term stories to pay dividends.

The Fiend is similar to The Undertaker in the it’s never a bad idea to put a major world title on him, but his character is so compelling by itself that he doesn’t ever necessarily need a WWE or Universal Championship. Someone else could have their career be impacted much more by having a title.

This is finally Big E’s time to shine as a singles competitor after 8.5 years of grinding on the main roster, and almost 6 years with The New Day (although E has been Intercontinental Champion before). This man has taken a very unselfish route in WWE and has absolutely earned the right to be a champion. This was a good way to get the train rolling by getting a victory over The Miz (by using the submission that has quietly become his signature).

AJ Styles put over Gran Metalik in a huge way by just being in the ring with him. AJ is still easily one of the best wrestlers in the world at 43 years old, and he has to be significantly respected for carrying the “workman’s title” at this age when he has already done virtually everything.

AEW Dynamite 7/29/2020

There was a lot of positivity that transpired on the July 29 Dynamite event, Matt Cardona (formerly Zack Ryder) made his surprise debut in AEW after being officially released from any contractual obligations with WWE on July 15. In an interview with Chris Van Vliet a couple months ago, he informed wrestling fans that he was told about his WWE release in April (right after Wrestlemania). Cardona expressed that he was simply happy to be free to experience his prime years in wrestling with whatever company he chose (although he is extremely grateful for his 15 years with WWE). Matt just turned 35, which is usually the time in a wrestlers’ journey for them to peak in terms of both understanding the psychology of appealing to wrestling fans along with obvious physical maturity; testosterone is a much slower acting hormone than estrogen.

Ricky Starks also stood out because he showed a significant amount of charisma on the mic, and it also grabbed the audience’s attention when Darby Allin put thumbtacks through Starks’ back. Something about this visual instantly grabs the attention of whoever is watching. A picture is truly worth a thousand words (as Cody experienced on July 22).

There was a lot of continuity with the exact time and people with whom Cardona debuted. He was the self-proclaimed Internet Champion of WWE in 2011 – and Warhorse is essentially the 2020 version of that because of his immense following on social media.

The Dark Order is receiving a significant amount of attention by becoming affiliated with three prominent tag teams – including having a match with the AEW World Tag Team Champions Kenny Omega and Hangman Adam Page. This comes after The Dark Order took a back seat on Dynamite for a couple months after Double or Nothing. This was when Mr. Brodie Lee last received an AEW World Championship match against Jon Moxley (which he obviously lost – Moxley is still Champion, but Maxwell Jacob Friedman had something to say about that).

I had no idea Mr. Brodie Lee was quite this talented on the microphone because he unfortunately never got the opportunity to talk very much in WWE.

The women’s division in AEW appears to be hitting its stride after a process that lasted about five months to establish its stars, but they now have an abundance of capable women in the ring who are also familiar to the audience.

MJF stood out from the rest of the pack on July 29. Tony Khan might want to strap a rocket ship to this 24-year-old “prodigy” as MJF calls himself and see how high the company can go with Maxwell Jacob Friedman as the face. It takes a certain aura which cannot be taught to be able to command an audience like that at such a young age.

That was the biggest stage MJF has received since Revolution on February 29 in his grudge match with Cody (despite the fact that it was not the main event of Dynamite or the top of the hour segment). This kid might be able to draw more than Jon Moxley simply because he talks more; I personally have always been more of a fan of heel champions because they tend to draw more interest and get people talking more about the product.

If MJF does indeed become AEW World Champion, and if I were Tony Khan I would happily consider it, his career would take a similar trajectory to Randy Orton in WWE. Randy became the youngest World Champion in WWE history in 2004; turns out he lacked the maturity necessary to be a champion at the young age of 24. Nonetheless, even if MJF doesn’t win the title right now, he will still be a many-time world champion over the next couple of decades. He is the perfect man to play the Maxwell Jacob Friedman character so convincingly.

As far as this particular segment goes, it was absolutely genius to orchestrate for MJF to conduct this segment as if it was a political press conference (State of the Industry Address), especially given that there is an election scheduled to take place toward the end of 2020 (Dictator Jon is almost guaranteed to get over just like Chris Jericho a few weeks ago calling himself the Demo God).

WWE Raw 7/27/2020

Drew McIntyre retained his WWE Championship against Dolph Ziggler as expected and will most likely go on to hold the title for several more months – could be until at least January at the Royal Rumble 2021. In the meantime, Randy Orton will be a great challenger for McIntyre because a match like this at SummerSlam could put him over the hump to help legitimize his WWE Title reign. Randy Orton always has the ability to do that for opponents because he is so well respected and has been featured on WWE TV since 2002 (he is probably the most respected and legitimate opponent for anyone in WWE aside from Brock Lesnar in WWE right now).

While I am predicting McIntyre will retain against Orton, never count Orton out. He has not received a title opportunity in almost a year when he faced Kofi Kingston at a couple Pay-Per-Views around this time in 2019; and Randy has not actually been WWE Champion in about three years when he lost the title to Jinder Mahal at Backlash in May 2017.

It was very encouraging to see that July 27 was the first time it was actually palpable that Dominic Mysterio had a firm grip on the attention of the WWE universe. They were invested in what he was doing, and Seth Rollins also gets credit because he did the bulk of the talking (it is the heel’s job to get the audience invested, and Rollins and Mysterio both did an excellent job; this is massive for Dominic because it is the first time he has really gotten through to the audience.

Kairi Sane was officially written off TV this week so she can return home to Japan to be with her husband. She may not be gone forever, just for now. She seemed to be gaining a significant amount of comfort in the ring before her departure.

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