October 4, 2020 - Evan Luebbe

WWE SmackDown 10/2/2020

October 4, 2020 by Evan Luebbe

Roman Reigns may be the man in WWE and the cornerstone of the entire company, but that also comes with the responsibility of knowing that it means the company is flourishing and all of the other superstars are doing their part very effectively if Roman does not need to be used as much as the primary focal point of the show. That was the case on this episode of SmackDown as some Roman Reigns was definitely sprinkled in and he did his thing – being crowned The Tribal Chief and all – but other superstars were highlighted for most of the two hours so Reigns ’presence was not too heavily relied upon.

This also makes perfect sense for Kevin Owens and his character direction because he’s a perfect example of the phenomenon I am talking about that occurred in 2002 when WWE was transitioning from The Attitude Era to The Ruthless Aggression Era. People like Triple H and The Undertaker were heavily relied upon to carry the company in its time of struggle. Fortunately, John Cena emerged as the man in WWE for about the next decade plus.

Back to this edition of SmackDown – it was a great night of in-ring action, with great matches at the end of the night in the main event and to open the show. Let’s start with the latter, as the night was kicked off with Roman Reigns giving Jey Uso another Universal Championship match at Hell in a Cell. AJ Styles would subsequently enter, claiming that Jey had not earned another title match and so would give it to someone who has – AJ. Jey went on to defeat Styles, cementing his position at the top of the card for right now – he has genuinely earned that spot.

A match between Roman Reigns and The Fiend is the endgame for Roman’s Universal Title run – The Big Dog’s fifth world title overall. This will not happen for several months – most likely at WrestleMania 37 (where there can hopefully be fans in attendance), and in the meantime, it looks like The Fiend will be busy embroiled in a feud with Kevin Owens (this means Kevin Owens will need to be drafted to SmackDown next week as part of the WWE draft).

He has engaged mostly in other people’s storylines over the past several months since defeating Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 36. This will give Owens something to sink his teeth into – there is also another layer to the story with the possessed Alexa Bliss.

Because Jeff Hardy lost an Intercontinental Championship rematch to Sami Zayn, Hardy has lost nearly all momentum in that particular storyline so it might be time for him to move on to a bigger title such as the Universal Championship. Right now there are two men who are most likely going to challenge Roman Reigns for SmackDown’s top prize (after Jey Uso of course) which are AJ Styles in the Jeff Hardy. No one, however, stands a chance of taking the Universal Title off of The Tribal Chief, except, maybe The Fiend.

Styles is simply one of the best wrestlers of this or any other generation – plus he has a little bit of history with Roman being back to 2016. WWE is very keen on keeping the push of Jeff Hardy going to keep him happy with WWE and so he doesn’t get the inclination to join his brother Matt in AEW. Jeff will also debut his entrance music from 2009 during his most recent singles run with the company “No More Words.”

Bruce Prichard did an excellent job of orchestrating SmackDown so the events at the end of the program could be traced back to what occurred at the beginning – which is the ultimate goal of every great movie or TV show. This episode featured an outstanding thread of continuity.

WWE Raw 9/28/2020

October 4, 2020 by Evan Luebbe

The pairing of Dominik Mysterio and Humberto Carillo as a tag team last week made perfect sense because Rey Mysterio – Dominik’s father – put over the young Carrillo about 3-4 months ago in a backstage interview on Raw by publicly endorsing the young superstar as one of the faces of Monday Night Raw for the next generation of WWE superstars.

Drew McIntyre has served as an extremely compelling babyface warrior WWE Champion over the past six months, the first since Kofi Kingston in 2019. Brock Lesnar was sandwiched between them from the first episode of SmackDown on FOX on October 4, 2019 until dropping the WWE Title to McIntyre at WrestleMania 36. There is always the chance that Lesnar returns to WWE at some point to recapture the WWE Championship.

Drew McIntyre issuing an open challenge for the WWE Title provided a perfect reason for Robert Roode, who has had an interesting six months, to say the least. He returned to his home country of Canada to be with family during the Covid-19 pandemic but was unfortunately unable to return to the United States due to travel restrictions. Dolph Ziggler provided the perfect segue into this segment because he has been a Raw Tag Team Champion with both McIntyre and Roode (most recently with McIntyre). McIntyre and Roode have a little history of their own from NXT when McIntyre defeated The Glorious One to become NXT Champion at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn 3 – once upon a time in August 2017.

On a separate note, “The Viper” Randy Orton cannot seem to let his issues with the legends (Shawn Michaels, Christian, Ric Flair, and Big Show) go. That’s why he is – The Legend Killer. Orton is almost guaranteed to win his 14^th WWE Championship, it’s just a matter of when Orton can drop the WWE Title to Brock Lesnar seeing that these two men have history together from SummerSlam 2016.

Randy has earned major credit over the past few months for doing the one thing he has been somewhat criticized for over the course of his career – that would be putting over superstars unselfishly, the beneficiaries are people such as Drew McIntyre and Keith Lee. There is a high probability The Viper will become WWE Champion for the 14^th time at Hell in a Cell on October 25, and at the same time put an end to Drew McIntyre’s nearly 7-month long title reign – and his first.

McIntyre proved that he is capable of carrying the company for the long haul, so expect him to stay at the top of the card. He is definitely a very introverted man who contemplates his actions before actually doing anything – which is very commendable.

The route WWE is going down for the WWE Title scene goes is almost an exact parallel to the direction the company went leading to WrestleMania 36 just a year ago. That year, Kofi Kingston won the WWE Championship from Daniel Bryan at Mania 35 and held the title until October when SmackDown debuted on FOX – about the same amount of time McIntyre will hold the championship this year – WWE is essentially going back to the well of what they did the prior year.

Once upon a time, there was a trio in WWE comprised of Ricochet, Apollo Crews, along with Cedric Alexander – with Mustafa Ali filling in occasionally for Alexander. So it was only logical for Ali to take Alexander’s place when he decided to join The Hurt Business. The events on Raw this week led me to believe that this alliance will bode well for Mustafa (who did lose his first name for a while before getting back). I will stay hopeful that Murphy will ultimately get the same treatment to get the pin in the six-man tag match on Monday night. This could provide Ali with a storyline he can sink his teeth into – something he’s been in need of for a couple of years.

WWE Clash of Champions: Gold Rush 9/27/2020

October 4, 2020 by Evan Luebbe

Roman Reigns had an excellent first full-length match as Universal Champion. It perfectly sowed the seeds for the storyline set to manifest in the coming months – where The Tribal Chief takes the role of a mob boss as the sole breadwinner of his family who takes immense pride in that, so much that it becomes a significant problem for his entire family. This story could serve as a perfect excuse to get the storied Anoa’i family involved in a WWE storyline again (all of them).

The Big Dog also wrestled shirtless for the first time in years, and his physique looks better than ever as Corey Graves alluded. The next logical step would be to introduce new entrance music for Roman as part of the rebranding process – because everything else about Roman’s heel presentation is new. The affiliation with Paul Heyman is serving to legitimize his character. It only makes sense at this point to go all the way with the rebranding process by introducing a completely new presentation of Reigns.

Jey Uso has absolutely proven his merit in WWE and reminded the powers backstage of his value to the company. He has, without a doubt, earned the right to stay at, or near, the top of the card for the foreseeable future. This is not a case of nepotism or SmackDown having a problem in the depth department – this is a case of Jey, and most likely his brother Jimmy as well, earning their position.

I legitimately had a strong inclination that Randy Orton would become WWE Champion for the 14^th time at Clash of Champions. It has been over three years (believe it or not) since Orton has held a world title in WWE. Four men who have been punted by Randy in the last couple months all showed up to give him retribution, helping Drew McIntyre manifest a massive second victory over Orton – one of the biggest stars ever in WWE – in two months, cementing his legacy as one of the primary focal points in WWE for the foreseeable future.

It is massive for McIntyre to retain his WWE Title two months in a row against one of the biggest stars in WWE history – one of those victories coming at the second biggest Pay-Per-View of the year, SummerSlam. Shawn Michaels did tell Randy about a month ago that Sweet Chin Music might be coming his way in the near future. The man who interfered in the match who made the most sense within the framework of the story was Big Show. Not only was he punted by Orton recently, but he also got McIntyre’s reign as WWE Champion off to a solid start by putting McIntyre over literally immediately after WrestleMania 36 went off the air.

It was a huge steppingstone for McIntyre to get a victory over a legitimate threat in WWE over the past 20 years – almost, and it was equally as unselfish of the giant to ensure the success of McIntyre – thus preserving the future of the business.

There is still a significant possibility that the trilogy of matches between Orton and McIntyre will be completed at Hell in a Cell on October 25. There is a strong chance that Randy Orton will win the WWE Championship – since he has had arguably the greatest calendar year of his career, both on the microphone and in the ring. From a storytelling perspective, Randy is simply on a different level – the storyline in the first half of the year with Edge was most notable.

Sami Zayn employed some major creativity in the Intercontinental Championship match. This storyline was a reincarnation of the storyline between Razor Ramon and Shawn Michaels back in the early 90s, Michaels, the original Intercontinental Champion, took a hiatus from WWE and Razor was crowned champion. When Michaels returned, a ladder match was booked for WrestleMania 10 in which Razor won. In the 2020 version of this storyline, Jeff Hardy was in the role of Razor – the rightful champion, Zayn was in the role of Michaels – the man who still technically had a claim to the title, while AJ Styles served as the actual wheel on the bike for now.

The WWE booking team flexed their creative muscles in this match, having Jeff Hardy take the WWE universe back to WrestleMania 33 as well as so many other nights when he has jumped off a ladder. Zayn got the victory in what was one of the most creative ways to win a match – by handcuffing both his opponents to ladders, including one of them by his own ear.

WWE is in the process of creating a narrative where the company is badly in need of the rivalry between Bayley and Sasha Banks to begin (even though the WWE knows that is not the case as the Women’s Division in WWE is arguably even deeper than the men’s division). These two women have received so much prominence from the company and have been the primary story in the women’s division for about three months now – maybe even longer.

Bayley was originally scheduled to have a match with Nikki Cross – her challenger from July, but when Nikki was deemed unable to compete, Bayley’s challenger from SummerSlam was rehashed – Asuka (who had already wrestled a match earlier in the night).

The Street Profits have been extremely reliable and dependable since being promoted to the main roster about a year ago. They have been Raw Tag Team Champions most of this time, and in the process have become the longest-reigning Champions since the inception of those titles in 2016. Angel Garza and Andrade should either win the titles very soon or just completely disband as a team after losing Zelina Vega as their manager.

It was not necessarily a great night for her either, losing a Raw Women’s Championship match to Asuka. Zelina will likely get another title match since she attacked the champion after the match. Vega could absolutely be champion one day – just not yet. She will develop her in-ring style, and her character, more importantly, to resonate in a bigger way with the WWE universe.

It is finally feasible for WWE to begin positioning Bobby Lashley as a prominent and emphatic force in WWE now that he has the backing of The Hurt Business. This could ultimately set up for the orchestration of a match between Lashley and Brock Lesnar at some point in 2021. WWE management is reportedly pushing for this to happen, which I am all for. From the perspective of a fan, it’s pretty unbelievable that this has not transpired yet considering Lashley has been back in the company for over two years.

However, the two men have resided in different stratospheres when it comes to their level of stardom. Lesnar has been a box office attraction since the day he walked into the company. Lashley, on the other hand, has struggled to gain that same level of momentum. WWE definitely wants this match to take place, but the company wants to do it while both stars are on the same playing field. The company would like to position Lashley as a superstar on the same level as Brock. Right now he is absolutely on the right track – being a dominant United States Champion and the CEO of The Hurt Business. His character direction is on an upward trajectory!

Smart business people always keep their eyes on their long-term vision

October 4, 2020 by Evan Luebbe

Vince McMahon has successfully created another Brock Lesnar-type figure in WWE over the past several years who has the ability to dominate his opponents in the ring and also has the ability to generate a polarizing and authoritative aura in the form of Roman Reigns. This process began back in 2015 when Roman won the Royal Rumble match and went on to face the beast in the main event of WrestleMania 31 (and Seth Rollins became known in WWE for cashing in his Money in the Bank contract at WrestleMania – pulling off what would become known as “the Heist of the Century”). Reigns would also be placed in the main event of WrestleMania 34 three years later with Lesnar.

I would imagine Mr. McMahon had to be a little tempted to turn Roman heel at some point between 2015 and 2018 because of just how vocal a small group of the WWE universe was becoming – voicing their displeasure with The Big Dog’s creative direction around his character. Mr. McMahon stuck to his original plan – it would mean so much more if WWE waited a few years to ultimately turn Roman Reigns heel.

This is what Mr. McMahon – and most smart business people understand – that: in order to be successful in whatever business endeavor one decides to undertake, a person’s long-term aspirations can never be sacrificed for whatever he/she wants in the short-term. Smart people are masters at resisting quick gratification by always thinking of their long-term vision first.

Vince McMahon took gradual steps to evolve Roman Reigns into the Tribal Chief that he is now. Instant gratification would have told McMahon to book Roman to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship from Brock Lesnar at ‘Mania 31, but Vince knew that so many more layers would be added to the story if it was extended for a few more years, and it worked beautifully. More meaning was added to the storyline when Roman took yet another lost to Lesnar at Mania three years later, and when he finally won the Universal Title at SummerSlam 2018.

Then there was the leukemia saga, which was an unfortunate and unexpected turn in Roman’s story. However, this absolutely endeared him in the eyes of the WWE universe forever. When the Tribal Chief made his most recent return to WWE at SummerSlam 2020, it was simply crazy how similar it looked to the night after WrestleMania XXVIIII in 2012 when Brock Lesnar returned to WWE to attack John Cena.

Maybe Mr. McMahon was intending to create the next Brock Lesnar all along and not the next John Cena as so many people thought. Roman Reigns did defeat John Cena in September 2017, but maybe that was just a steppingstone for Roman that made perfect sense given that they were both so polarizing along with John having been the face of WWE for about 12 years at that point in time. Vince McMahon could have thought to himself, “instead of making Cena the face of the company, what would have happened if I went with Lesnar? Now I can’t find out because I have basically a carbon copy of The Beast in Reigns, only Roman is much more committed to preserving the health of the business.”