November 29, 2020 - Evan Luebbe

WWE RAW 11/23/2020

December 6, 2020November 29, 2020 by Evan Luebbe

The Fiend has unfinished business with Randy Orton after Orton took the WWE title from him over three years ago; Alexa Bliss establishes herself as a dominant presence in the Women’s Division after fooling Nikki Cross and convincing her to let her guard down

Randy Orton will finally begin his rivalry with The Fiend which has been hinted at for a month, starting immediately after Randy captured the WWE championship from Drew McIntyre for the 14^th time. Ironically, Randy Orton won his 13^th WWE championship from Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania 33. It was an extremely intelligent decision by Vince McMahon to orchestrate for Orton to drop the WWE championship before this rivalry officially got going. The Fiend Bray Wyatt tends to not have a positive impact on the character development of the superstars he is working with when a title is involved – just ask Seth Rollins. The only man who has feuded with The Fiend over a major WWE championship – the Universal championship – and legitimately benefited in terms of character development is Daniel Bryan. The Fiend is in The Undertaker territory in the sense that there is a certain supernatural aura to his character, therefore he doesn’t necessarily need a title around his waist to be relevant.

This has been a fantastic story in the way it has progressed and ultimately come to fruition for two reasons.

The Fiend attacked Randy Orton a few weeks ago on RAW when he was still WWE champion, signaling that Mr. McMahon was thinking about potentially starting a feud between them over the WWE championship, but he wisely went against it.
In the Firefly FunHouse, Bray Wyatt has been subtly foreshadowing the beginnings of a rivalry with The Viper over the past six or eight weeks by showing with regularity vignettes of Sister Abigail’s cabin burning down about three years ago who – who started that fire? Randy Orton when they were in the midst of a rivalry over the WWE championship after being aligned as a tag team for a combat short time.

He never forgets. The Friendship Frog segment this week on Firefly FunHouse was setting up this rivalry to have a platform to springboard off. Friendship Frog also happened to have the same birth year as Randy Orton.

The Fiend’s presence has also leaked into the Women’s Division with Alexa Bliss. WWE will need to be careful and treat her in this incarnation exactly as Bray is treated. This means that she does not need a title around her waist to be relevant either – there is now a supernatural presence to her character exactly like there is with Him.

I thought The Undertaker was wrapping up his career when I first got into the wrestling business given his age. I thought it might be a very poetic ending to his career to call it quits at WrestleMania 28 in 2012 (which I attended in Miami, Florida). I am extremely grateful now to have gotten to see this man work for a decade. The way he decided to end his career was the most ideal way possible – combining every incarnation of his character throughout 30 years. There very well may never be anyone who creates that type of aura and supernatural mystique again, so it was a pleasure to see the original version.

Lana is receiving opportunities in WWE after about seven years of paying her dues; opportunities do not come by magic, but are rather the result of doing the right thing consistently over a long period of time

Say what you want about Lana, but her booking over the last couple of months has been unbelievable. Personally, I have never been much of a fan of her, but she has gained a lot of momentum in my consciousness. Once Mr. McMahon made up his mind quickly and decisively to the point as far as getting her over as a major babyface, it was an extremely effective idea to orchestrate for Nia Jax to put her through a table 9 weeks in a row. This portrayed Lana in a sympathetic light. She went on to get a couple different championship opportunities over the next several weeks and became the sole survivor for the RAW women’s team at Survivor Series.

Mr. McMahon preparing for the future with Riddle and Keith Lee as well as simultaneously living in the present with AJ Styles

AJ Styles will most likely get the victory in the triple threat match next week and get the opportunity to face off with Drew McIntyre for the WWE championship for a couple of reasons – the first being that he has by far the most experience. Riddle and Keith Lee both have extremely bright futures, but for now they are both still too new to the main roster – neither of them has even one year of experience. AJ has been on the WWE main roster for several years and spent his prime years in Japan, among other places. He is also in his 40s, so he may not have many years left to take advantage of the opportunity to work with Drew McIntyre (who has publicly stated that he would like to one day work with The Phenomenal One).

It’s great that two people from the new wave in WWE are getting such a bright spotlight so early in their careers in the form of Keith Lee and Riddle. These two guys have just been introduced in the company in the last couple of years. Lee was put over by the 44-year-old Bobby Lashley, and Riddle by the 42-year-old Sheamus.

The Celtic Warrior may look even better than he did over a decade ago when he first debuted on the WWE main roster. This kind of performance is somewhat expected from Riddle given that he is 8 years younger and is just entering the prime of his career. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I figured Sheamus’s career was over after WrestleMania 35 when he was forced to take a break from WWE to take care of the spinal stenosis issue he had for years.

He has come back better than ever and is likely to be a crucial figure in the company for the next decade. He has delivered incredible matches over the past couple of months with superstars like Big E, Riddle and Kofi Kingston. The only accomplishment the former 4-time world champion, Royal Rumble winner and Mr. Money in the Bank has left to check off the list is becoming an Intercontinental champion. Sheamus is still capable of delivering extremely high-quality matches and is one of the most physical superstars in the company – when you were in a match with him, you know you are really going to feel it the next day.

New Day Deliver a Fantastic Match in their Second Title Defense in Two Weeks

Speaking of Kofi Kingston, he overpowered an injury as The New Day defeated The Hurt Business in what was probably an even better match than the night before at Survivor Series. This was a case of Kofi’s body telling him no but his spirit saying yes. Kofi Kingston gave the standout performance this week for The New Day, but it’s still impressive that Xavier Woods is back at 100% at all after coming back not very long ago from a ruptured Achilles tendon and being away from the ring for almost a year.

Adam Pearce is significantly growing into his role as an authority figure on WWE programming – not even necessarily because he has done anything differently, but the WWE universe has just had more time to grow accustomed to his mannerisms and demeanor on screen. The segment involving Braun Strowman in which Pearce was trusted to give his opinion on the matter was a significant transition in the right direction. Adam Pearce is beginning to earn the trust of people within the inner workings of the business after a few months of consistently being featured on television because the WWE universe has become familiar with his presence.

WWE Survivor Series 11/22/2020

December 1, 2020November 29, 2020 by Evan Luebbe

Emotional Night with The Undertaker

The Undertaker always remained in character on-screen until the very end, which was extremely poetic because he has been so committed to it for over 30 years and the character is an ingrained part of Mark Calaway. The Deadman also remained consistent to his character away from the cameras for nearly his entire career. It’s only in the last year that he has opened up and showed other facets of his personality – meaning pieces that are authentic to Mark Calaway. It had to be a tough night for Mr. McMahon as well because he views The Undertaker as basically a son. 30 years is an awfully long time – the only other wrestler I could possibly think of who has lasted quite that long is Chris Jericho, who is now with a different company. Before that, it was nice to take a stroll down memory lane with the presence of many different legends who were extremely close with The Undertaker throughout the years. I will not say much about this segment because I personally feel this was more of an emotional segment, and emotions get kind of watered down if they are discussed too much. It’s something one has to be at least virtually present for and to just feel.

Congratulations on 30 amazing years in the business! Rest In Peace Undertaker!

Taker was so poetic in his last match, combining all three elements of his character throughout the last 30 years. His match with AJ Styles in that Boneyard somewhere in Orlando, Florida will go down in history as the first-ever of its kind – more history for The Undertaker!

Reigns and McIntyre deliver a Match that will go down as an instant Classic in WWE History

These two men delivered the match of the year in 2020 – it’s not even a match of the year candidate but just plain old match of the year; there will not be a match greater than that the rest of this year. The WWE universe made this match what it was because there are such an intense emotions surrounding these two superstars. McIntyre was also officially cemented as a superstar head and shoulders above everyone else except Roman Reigns. He will always be Roman’s favorite no. 2 – the babysitter for a belt as Paul Heyman called him.

To begin the match, Drew looked like the favorite in the match if someone was watching who had never seen WWE programming before simply because of the fact that he is a little bigger than Reigns. As the match went on, one could easily figure out that Roman was The Big Dog at the Head of The Table. Jey Uso also earned his position back in the Anoa’i family after being temporarily kicked out by his cousin – after his Survivor Series team took a clean sweep – by creating a distraction and allowing Roman Reigns to get the victory.

Miz gains momentum early in the night

Since The Miz won a battle royal to begin the night, it seemed concealable for him to cash-in the Money in the Bank contract. However, given that Roman Reigns and Drew McIntyre gave what will most likely go down as the match of the year in 2020, it was very positive for the WWE universe to be able to appreciate that match as a standalone segment. Otherwise, it would have made perfect sense for The A-Lister to cash-in at Survivor Series.

Dominik Mysterio almost got that sizable spotlight at just 23 years old, but he might need a few years to gain the adequate level of perspective on life to become equipped with the necessary tools to be able to handle the responsibilities of being a top champion one day in WWE. This might be a case where Vince McMahon is playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers – Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Undertaker recently discussed this phenomenon.

Traditional 5-on-5 Survivor Series Elimination Matches

First, the storytelling in the women’s five-on-five match was far superior to the storytelling in the men’s match. The events in the women’s match were centered around the primary intention of getting Lana over as a babyface and making her a primary focal point as a sympathetic figure on Monday Night RAW. At this time one year ago she was in the midst of being portrayed as a heel getting massive heat nearly every week for her affair with Bobby Lashley (in storyline).

The return of Charlotte Flair is also a major possibility in the upcoming weeks on Monday Night RAW – after suffering from overexposure earlier in the year by being featured on all three brands in WWE each week in addition to suffering an injury and having to undergo surgery. She has been keeping busy with a few other projects.

Jey Uso did not begin the night in good fashion – he let his cousin down as well as the entire family as well as the WWE family. Roman let him know about it with an excellent promo. There were plenty of unexplored rivalries and possibilities down the line in this match between various superstars. These traditional Survivor Series matches are always extremely entertaining because the superstars always get a significant amount of time because there are 10 of them competing, so there is no concern about fatigue.

The New Day introduces their Gears of War 5 Ring Gear (they have introduced about every creative combination imaginable)

2020 has not been a fantastic year for the world in general, but it’s been fantastic to the Street Profits. They have been RAW/SmackDown Tag Team Champions since March, dominating every tag team imaginable. Their level of charisma simply cannot be matched, and the vertical leap Montez Ford gets on his Frog Splash may only be rivaled by Rob Van Dam back in the day. The team he and Angelo Dawkins make up is definitely greater than the sum of its parts, because neither one of them stood out that much in NXT as singles competitors. It’s always great to see people matched together and make the most out of seemingly nothing.

People can learn a lot from the care-free attitude of these guys. They are both getting the most out of their lives because they are having fun constantly with the process of life. You are going to be here anyway – why not enjoy it. Don’t stress about little things either – they will work themselves out with time. Meditation is an extremely helpful tool with this – all you do is sit still and observe your thoughts – no one can tell you how to do it because there is no right or wrong way.

Back to WWE – perhaps Big E can now turn his attention to furthering his singles run. A couple months ago, he was on a roll getting several victories over people like Sheamus, John Morrison and The Miz. Hopefully E can get back to that now and feud with someone who is in need of an opponent – Murphy immediately comes to mind as he just completed a long-term story to write Seth Rollins off TV for paternity leave which should come to fruition either this week or next.

The CEO of The Hurt Business Dominates Sami Zayn and looks Great Doing It

Bobby Lashley was fully expected to completely dominate Sami Zayn (at least by me), and that is exactly what happened. Lashley is being booked exactly as someone might expect given his army ranger background and business-like approach to his career in WWE. He did not reach his full potential in his first go – around with WWE from 2005 – 2007, having had just one WWE championship match. After years of bouncing around between different wrestling promotions as well as Bellator, Lashley finally found his way back home to WWE.

Lashley is in the process of being booked extremely favorably with The Hurt Business under the direction of MVP. This is reason to hope that one day a WWE match between Bobby Lashley and Brock Lesnar will come to fruition one day (and before they are both 60 years old as Lashley has joked).

Sami Zayn provides a fun element of possibility to the match, but no one ever thought he stood a legitimate chance against a physical specimen like Lashley. It might be about time for him to drop the Intercontinental championship on SmackDown to someone who provides a little more of a serious element to their character and has the ability to promote the business in a more mainstream manner; someone like a Daniel Bryan. By the way, it was a genius idea of the commentators to play on the history from a couple of years ago between Bobby and Sami by mentioning the vertigo ordeal.

Sasha Banks Cements her Standing as The Boss

Sasha Banks is now official at the top of the food chain in the WWE hierarchy – her victory against The Raw Women’s Champion Asuka leaves no doubt in anyone’s mind as of this moment. The feud between these two women which lasted about three months and saw them trade titles a couple of times has finally come to a conclusion.

Congrats to Roman Reigns on 8 fantastic years on WWE’s Main Roster

November 29, 2020 by Evan Luebbe

A massive congratulations is in order for Roman Reigns on hitting the 8-year mark since joining the main roster at Survivor Series 2012 as one-third of The Shield. All three original members have gone on to hold multiple world titles and become extremely successful. Roman was always portrayed as a character who was primed for the business and mentally built to handle the responsibility of being the potential face of the company in his NXT days for about two years before officially joining the main roster. This was of course shortly after his days playing college football as a defensive lineman at Georgia Tech.

I liken the career path of Roman Reigns to that of John Cena because he bears a similar amount of responsibility as the face of WWE that John did not all that long ago. Cena was just a couple of years younger than Reigns when he made his debut on the main roster in 2002. Cena made his debut in the summer of 2002, so he hit the 8-year mark in the summer 2010. The true Hall of Fame portion of John’s career came after this point, so the same might be true for Roman Reigns. The remainder of Roman’s career will be extremely interesting around the intricacies of how it unfolds – it will hopefully be even greater than the first eight years.

Looking back, the leukemia diagnosed about two years ago might have been the most important event of The Big Dog’s character evolution. This recent character change is easily the most authentic for Roman. It’s absolutely wonderful to see him embodying what is natural for him, because audiences gravitate most toward true authenticity.