September 13, 2020 - Evan Luebbe

WWE SmackDown 9/11/2020

September 13, 2020 by Evan Luebbe

Heyman’s Mastery

Paul Heyman is an absolute master of ring psychology. There is a major difference to how he behaves as Brock Lesnar’s advocate (with a much more free-flowing, confident authoritative tone in his voice) and the way he conducts himself as the “special counsel” for Roman Reigns (with a more subservient attitude and he pulls back on the reins of his level of authenticity). The reason Paul is doing this is very strategic; it is Mr. McMahon’s primary goal to orchestrate a scenario where Heyman can do some of the talking while Roman acclimates and becomes comfortable with the idea of cutting heel promos.

Hopefully, this will evolve to the point where it can be more of a 60:40 split in favor of Reigns doing the bulk of the talking (this is the ultimate vision – so The Big Dog can one day captivate the WWE universe in the same way John Cena did on a regular basis not too long ago). Jey Uso is currently serving as a placeholder as Reigns opponent in order to buy time for The Fiend, as this is somewhat of an incubation time right now in order to transition The Fiend into the top babyface on SmackDown.

WWE fans might have to imagine that the company will look to keep The Fiend out of Hell in a Cell simply to avoid stirring up negative memories for the WWE universe of The Fiend’s debacle inside the Cell in 2019 against Seth Rollins. Personally, I thought the match was solid, but it was horribly received by nearly everyone else. As wrestling fans, we need to remember and respect the fact that the performers are always busting their asses to entertain us – so we need to be appreciative of that. We couldn’t do any better, so we need to simply appreciate what they have on any given night – it’s going to fluctuate some nights and not be as good, and the performances will be fantastic other nights. This is an unpredictable phenomenon happening in real-time, which is one reason it is so appealing.

In other news, even though WWE just started the ThunderDome presentation format for SmackDown on FOX less than a month ago, Mr. McMahon is reportedly already preparing for the future of WWE after ThunderDome. WWE is currently preparing for the WWE universe to return for live shows around early November (right around the time of the Hell in a Cell Pay-Per-View on November 1).

McMahon is currently looking at finding an outdoor venue in the state of Florida to hold all WWE events for the foreseeable future (possibly a minor-league baseball stadium). WWE would begin with about 10 – 20% capacity of fans and increase the number by a small amount every week to acclimate the WWE universe to having fans in attendance at every show again. The end goal is by WrestleMania 37 (which is scheduled to be held at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, home of the Los Angeles Rams) in late March 2021, the general public in the United States will be fully comfortable moving on from this pandemic.

WWE NXT 9/8/2020

September 13, 2020 by Evan Luebbe

The Prince Reclaims his Kingdom

Finn Balor became the third two-time NXT Champion in the 10-year history of the brand. One of the primary reasons Triple H decided to put the title on The Prince after the unexpected and unfortunate shoulder injury sustained by Karrion Kross was that the black and yellow brand experienced its most intensive period of growth (arguably) with Balor as its primary champion in 2015 – 2016.

Once upon a time, Balor spent three years on the main roster from 2016 – 2019. His greatest accomplishment occurred shortly after he first arrived, becoming the first-ever Universal Champion in a match with Seth Rollins at SummerSlam 2016 (Finn defeated Roman Reigns on the road to earning an opportunity at the first Universal Championship). Unfortunately, this title reign was short-lived because Balor was forced to relinquish the championship the very next night due to a torn labrum.

After returning from injury about eight months later after WrestleMania 33, The Prince was never able to accumulate as much momentum behind his character as he had when he first arrived on the main roster. The 39-year-old became Intercontinental Champion on two occasions and lost his final match on the main roster at SummerSlam 2019 – beginning The Fiend Bray Wyatt’s reign of terror (somehow The Fiend is currently set to be booked as the top babyface on SmackDown since Roman Reigns is now obviously the top heel, but that’s a different story for a different day).

Balor returned to NXT in October 2019, and after nearly a year back he has reclaimed his throne for a second time. Most fans could have guessed that The Prince would become NXT Champion again because he has done about everything else there is to do on the brand, so this experiment would be a little pointless if he didn’t become champion (this time with a little more edge and heel elements to his character).

Adam Cole meanwhile has made an extremely smooth transition from being a cocky heel to a very natural babyface. Personally, I think it works best when a character starts his or her career as a heel and gradually makes the transition to a face – and Adam Cole has executed this process beautifully. Despite not becoming champion and leader of the brand, he has a very believable and mature outlook.

Another Breakout Performance from Rhea Ripley

The steel cage match in which Rhea Ripley defeated Mercedes Martinez was perhaps Ripley’s best performance to date under the WWE umbrella, although it was not the most high-profile; that distinction would go to the ‘Mania 36 encounter with Charlotte Flair (Flair is currently taking an incubation from some overexposure she received earlier in 2020).

NXT is absolutely loaded with talent on the women’s side. The men’s division has been booked better in recent times, but the women’s division has always been ridiculously consistent for the past five years. Martinez and Ripley are absolute superstars who are cultivating their personas right now.

All Day

Austin Theory is somewhat reminiscent of a young Seth Rollins both in terms of body type and personality. It’s understandable why WWE looked earlier in the year to make him a disciple of The Monday Night Messiah (albeit not for very long) because Theory is essentially a clone of Rollins. There is potential there for major rivalries down the road between these two.

It should prove to be a massive upgrade for Theory’s resume that he was afforded the opportunity to perform at WrestleMania 36 while his career is still in its embryonic stages. This kid has huge potential, however, already having become a double champion at the Evolve 131 special which aired on the WWE Network in July 2019. He may have taken a loss this week to Bronson Reed, but Theory is still paying his dues; there is a bright future there for him, however, if he wants it.

Wade Barrett simply works on commentary with his deep, authoritative voice. He might become a permanent member of the commentary team for NXT so Tom Phillips can just do Monday Night Raw and no longer need to work double duty. I’m still waiting for the first piece of Bad News.

AOP Released

September 13, 2020 by Evan Luebbe

The tag team AOP has officially been released from WWE. This was most likely partially due to the fact that one of the members – Rezar – suffered a major injury, and the team had been out for so long because Rezar was rehabbing his injury. This was unfortunate timing because AOP’s release coincided with Rezar fully recovering from his injury. He and Akam were set to return at SummerSlam and receive a sizable push by forming a rivalry with The Street Profits in the following months.

WWE Raw 9/7/2020

September 13, 2020 by Evan Luebbe

It’s always great to hear Michael Cole’s voice on commentary – filling in for Tom Phillips on his first week off in I don’t even know how long – Phillips is so consistent; I sincerely hope he enjoyed the night off. He earned it.

Randy Orton could very well be crowned the new WWE Champion on September 27 because he is doing the best work of his career

Randy Orton will face Drew McIntyre at Clash of Champions: Gold Rush for the WWE Championship on September 27, but before that time comes McIntyre gave Orton a taste of his own medicine with three Claymore’s after taking in three punt kicks from The Viper just a couple weeks ago.

The primary reason Randy is so intertwined right now with Keith Lee may be because Mr. McMahon’s plan is for Randy Orton to win the WWE Championship from Drew McIntyre at the Pay-Per-View, This could eventually lead to a feud with Lee over the WWE Title within a few months (if not immediately), creating a brand-new star in the process.

Vince McMahon’s original plan for the WrestleMania 37 main event was to have a match between Randy Orton and Edge for the WWE Title. This plan, however, got thrown off when Edge legitimately tore his triceps in The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever with Orton in June. Let’s just hypothetically say the injury takes nine months to heal. In that case, that would mean Edge could return to action in March giving the WWE creative team only a few weeks to hype up his confrontation with Orton (which took place the year before). With just a few weeks of build, the WrestleMania 37 main event would still be very good, just maybe not as good as it could be because creative would ideally need at least a few months of build to create a sufficiently compelling storyline.

Because of the unfortunate timing of this injury, 2021 may not be a good year to include Edge in the main event of the biggest show of the year (maybe it will happen again one day, but the best story cannot be told in just a few weeks. This is a long-term story, so more meaning will be added if it has another year to marinate).

Randy Orton, however, has absolutely earned the right to be included in the WrestleMania main event next year because he is doing the best work of his career in all areas. The Legend Killer looks more comfortable than ever on the microphone and he is combining that with his incredibly consistent in-ring work.

MVP’s hard work to elevate underutilized superstars since the Royal Rumble is paying massive dividends; and the primary beneficiary is Cedric Alexander

Anyone who pays attention to Monday Night Raw consistently could have anticipated that MVP would eventually persuade Cedric Alexander to turn against his tag team partner Ricochet and join The Hurt Business. There were a few subtle hints of this – like Ricochet costing the team a match or MVP talking to Cedric privately about how he should not sacrifice his career for someone who calls himself The One and Only.

Hopefully this heel turn will advance Alexander’s career in the same way it has done so for the careers of Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin (this is the most TV time Benjamin has received since his return to the company in 2017 and the same goes for Lashley who returned to WWE in April 2018). It was MVP’s primary goal with this stable to further the careers of superstars who were a bit underutilized, and while it took a few months to cultivate that presence, it’s now paying off and proving to be extremely successful.

It appears that WWE will look to keep Ricochet in the tag team division for right now. His partner, as opposed to being Cedric Alexander, will be Apollo Crews (because Apollo has nothing to do right now after losing the United States Championship) since Alexander is now a heel. I could be totally wrong about that but that’s the way it appears right now. A few weeks ago I would have said that Ricochet’s new partner after Cedric Alexander would possibly be Mustafa Ali because he has teamed with Ricochet and Alexander in the past.

Murphy takes a massive step toward forging his own identity in WWE and not being so reliant on the presence of Seth Rollins

Murphy may be ready to stand on his own 2 feet without the presence of Seth Rollins right next to him to provide legitimacy. This week was a critical steppingstone for Murphy because it showed he can cultivate his own presence and captivate the WWE universe. Maybe, once Murphy breaks out on his own officially, he will get his first name back to provide more credibility to his name.

Dominik Mysterio will be heavily reliant on the legacy of his father and the rest of his family for probably six months to a year while he builds a reputation of his own. Then when he’s ready, maybe he could turn heel and turn his back on the Mysterio family; this could open the door for him to take the Mysterio legacy in an entirely different direction.

Peyton Royce has the makings of a singles superstar according to Mr. McMahon

The reason the IIconics’s split as a tag team is reportedly because Vince McMahon views Peyton Royce as a potential superstar as a singles competitor in the Women’s Division and wants to give her a singles push to see how she fares on her own. This makes total sense because she is slightly smoother in terms of in-ring work and is slightly more comfortable on the microphone than Billie Kay. This statement is supported by the fact that Peyton recorded a victory over Billie just this week.

This is somewhat of a touching topic to write about because these two girls’ life paths have been so intertwined to this point. They both got into wrestling right out of high school and have been a tag team their entire careers, so it has to be heartbreaking to have this come to an end from their perspective. Chris Van Vliet did a great interview with Peyton on her history of how she got where she is today.

Mickie James set for her Raw Women’s Championship match against Asuka next week

One could have guessed that WWE might elect to wait until Clash of Champions: Gold Rush to orchestrate this match, but Mickie James might not have quite as much momentum as the company would like to place her in a Pay-Per-View title match. She does absolutely know what she’s doing, being a six-time Women’s Champion.

Kevin Owens and Aleister Black help Raw Underground take a massive stride forward

The Kevin Owens and Aleister Black match is by far the most high-rated match to take place on Raw Underground in its one-month history. This brainchild of Shane McMahon will take some time to pay dividends by creating new stars in WWE, but it has serious potential – it’s almost like a mixture of UFC’s The Ultimate Fighter and the movie Fight Club. Including matches with big names like this is how this new concept will gain prominence over time.

Retribution’s message is still unclear, but at least someone talked a little

This was the same frustration with The Shield in late 2012 – and that group turned out to be legendary – so I will be patient and give Retribution time to cultivate an identity. Perhaps they will do a little bit of what The Shield did in December 2012 and orchestrate a tag team match at Clash of Champions later this month or maybe a match inside Hell in a Cell on November 1.

AEW All Out 9/5/2020

September 13, 2020 by Evan Luebbe

It was an extremely hot night in Jacksonville for All Out, and this probably caused the performers to be – not necessarily lethargic, but simply more focused on how miserable the conditions were outside as opposed to their performance. The result was that the action was not quite as fast-paced, and while the event was very well executed it was not as fluid as normal. Think about it – when it is hot and humid outside, you are more focused on those conditions than anything else and you don’t perform very well if you are doing something physical.

Mox retains, but here comes Lance Archer

Maxwell Jacob Friedman proved he belonged in the main event scene in AEW after holding up his end of the bargain in his first Pay-Per-View main event against one of the best in the company, Jon Moxley. I have a theory on why MJF did not win the AEW World Championship at All Out – Vince McMahon made the mistake of making Randy Orton into a world champion at 24 years old when he clearly was not ready for that responsibility and did not have nearly enough maturity. Tony Khan may have decided to take a different path with MJF – who happens to be the exact same age – and let him build a little more of a reputation and experience before he becomes world champion (there is absolutely no doubt he will be many times over since he was already placed in a main event position this early into his career).

Friedman’s match at Double or Nothing with Jungle Boy in May caught the attention of many wrestling fans because the match had a very rhythmic flow given the fact that both wrestlers are so young and relatively inexperienced. This very well may have been one of the major signals to Tony Khan that Maxwell Jacob Friedman might be ready to hang with the big boys. He looked very comfortable and had an excellent grasp on what he was doing when he was put in a position where he was leading the match just a few months ago (an experienced wrestler like Cody can make anyone look good).

MJF is clearly most comfortable with a microphone in his hand because he has an innate ability to command the attention of an audience. This quality is so rare in such a young person. It took someone like Jon Moxley years to develop this sense of comfortability in front of a crowd, but Friedman has this at just 24 years old (and it will only strengthen over time).

It was a brilliant idea, by the way, to orchestrate the match so that MJF could connect with a Cross Rhodes at some point during the match to subtly comment on his long-standing rivalry with Cody. This started with MJF throwing in the towel for Cody in November at Full Gear 2019 and culminated at Revolution in February with a singles match between the two men. This might set up another encounter between MJF and The Nightmare down the line – maybe even a year or two from now.

A potential feud between Friedman and his stooge for now Wardlow was also hinted at because Wardlow distracted the referee in an attempt to create an opening for MJF, but instead this opened the door for the world champion Moxley to connect with Paradigm Shift (which was originally banned for the match – MJF played this up in typical heel fashion, with a walker and more).

Moxley is incredibly consistent, delivering in every scenario imaginable. AEW clearly works best for his character because the company is a little rougher around the edges and somewhat more innovative. The company will allow Jon Moxley to be more authentic to himself, which is always beneficial. Audiences will feed off that authenticity and it causes them to respond better to Moxley because they are feeling more energy circulating throughout the arena since Moxley is more invested in his character. More energy is therefore circulating throughout whatever building – or outdoor arena – he is in, cool vibrations in other words.

The man to take the AEW World Championship from Jon Moxley may be Lance Archer. This possibility seems much more plausible than Maxwell Jacob Friedman – who will be a world champion many times over, just not quite yet. Archer on the other hand has 20 years of experience in the wrestling business (he has spent the last decade in Japan), so he knows how to do everything required in the wrestling business to be a champion. The Murderhawk Monster is 43 years old, so if he’s ever going to be World Champion in AEW now is the time for Tony Khan to act on it before he is out of his prime. Archer has been built up for nearly a year (since February 2020) into a legitimate threat, and now might be the time to pull the trigger by making him AEW World Champion.

Chris Jericho puts over Orange Cassidy in the first-ever Mimosa Mayhem match

Chris Jericho has spent the pandemic months building a brand-new star in professional wrestling in the form of Orange Cassidy. Jericho debuted a new concept with the Mimosa Mayhem match by mixing The Bubbly, his own invention, with orange juice (obviously for Orange). This was very similar to 2005 when Jericho created the concept of the Money in the Bank ladder match for WWE which is still in use today.

Because Cassidy won this match, this means he wins the entire feud. Jericho won the first match; Orange won the second match in mid-July along with this one. Chris Jericho is one of the best in the business at creating new stars in the industry – and this rivalry with Orange Cassidy has created yet another one. Now it’s up to Orange to stay there. Right now, he and “Hangman” Adam Page have the keys to the future of AEW.

New Tag Team Champions after over seven months of Omega and Page

This was the longest, most seamless and well-paced match of the evening. The performers had plenty of time to do what they needed to do to tell a good story with that many layers. FTR have earned everything that is coming to them – they simply were not getting enough opportunities to showcase their talent in WWE.

It’s been an impressive run for Kenny Omega and Hangman Page (they became tag team champions in January, but the division is too good to keep the belts on one team for much longer than that). Plus, the time seemed right considering The Young Bucks kicked Page out of The Elite and Kenny Omega is now distraught over losing the titles. AEW is proceeding with the long-term story of The Elite slowly disintegrating (which we started to see evidence of starting last year, followed by what was possibly the greatest tag team match ever at Revolution at the beginning of the year).

Britt Baker and Big Swole became stars in the AEW Women’s Division with their match in Britt’s Dental Office at All Out

AEW can get away with creating innovative concepts like the Novocain shot because Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D. is a legitimate dentist, so she knows what she’s doing. AEW has really done a great job of building Britt’s character (because she was the first woman signed to the company, so a high degree of emphasis was placed on making her a star), but the characters of other women like Big Swole, Hikaru Shida, and Penelope Ford (I am not even mentioning Kris Statlander because she is rehabbing an ACL).

The AEW Women’s Division is beginning to pick up steam]; it just took a few months to develop the characters because they were all so new, whereas we already kind of knew a few of the guys (from WWE, among other places).