December 20, 2020 - Evan Luebbe

WWE SmackDown 12/18/2020

December 20, 2020December 20, 2020 by Evan Luebbe

Roman Reigns and Kevin Owens dominate SmackDown at the beginning and at the end; KO wraps up the night by taking a terrible beating from The Tribal Chief

Roman Reigns and Kevin Owens dominated the beginning and the end of the night. The Head of The Table delivered a beating to KO (with the assistance of Jey Uso) because he would not acknowledge Roman as the Head of The Table. This may or may not lead to a potential feud between Uce and Owens beginning immediately after TLC. There is also the possibility that Daniel Bryan will begin a rivalry with Jey Uso after TLC. This might be a smaller-scale rivalry which takes place on SmackDown for several weeks if WWE decided to go this route, because there are reportedly plans in place to have Daniel Bryan challenge Roman Reigns for the Universal title at Royal Rumble.

Back to TLC, one other possibility is that during the match at Pay-Per-View between Reigns and Owens is the possible return of Bill Goldberg to cost Roman the Universal championship. Rumors have been circulating that Goldberg might make his return at TLC to set up a WrestleMania 37 encounter with the Head of The Table. This would obviously be a rematch of sorts – Reigns and Goldberg were originally scheduled to headline the 36^th edition of this event in 2020, but those plans were put on hold when Reigns made the decision to put his family first and take several months away from WWE to care for his newborn twins (which is extremely commendable because Roman gives so much of his life to WWE. It’s nice to know he has his priorities straight).

Sasha Banks is the face and The Standard in the women’s division for right now, but it won’t be long before Carmella takes over that role at least for a little while

Carmella is an absolute star in the making with her new character that is extremely authentic to her. Personally, I don’t resonate with it a whole lot, but that doesn’t matter. I respect her character, because it’s authentic to her and that’s the reason it’s going to get over. If she can become a champion with an inauthentic character, she’s virtually guaranteed success with an authentic character.

She will most likely not win the SmackDown Women’s Championship this Sunday because Sasha Banks still has too much momentum on her side, not to mention at only 28 years old Sasha still has much more to accomplish in her WWE career. However, it won’t be a very long time before Carmella is champion yet again.

Perspective on the Bayley – Belair result.

It seems over the past several months, WWE has had a propensity to book 1 or 2 rivalries that seem like they will only at show up at the next Pay-Per-View event, and the match occurs on the go-home edition of SmackDown; this week was no exception.

The Street Profits retained their SmackDown Tag Team Championships against Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode. The challengers do have some momentum on their side, but maybe not quite enough yet to challenge for the titles. However, Montez Ford’s wife Bianca Belair was not so fortunate against Bayley. This might have been the most interesting match of the night, because it was somewhat of a perplexing finish, but it can be understood with perspective.

Bayley is still relatively young (even though she has been on the main roster for several years now), so she will most likely be turned into a massive star in WWE, and she is already one of the top stars in the women’s division – on any brand. On the other hand, Belair will also have a similar fate to Bayley and become one of the cornerstones of the women’s division in WWE, but she has many more years ahead of her to make this happen. Bayley does also, but she is already a pretty darn big star in the company and WWE has decided to use this opportunity to make her an even bigger superstar.

Results like this in WWE are sometimes nice because they give fans an impetus to think about what the company is thinking in the booking process and it gives one the opportunity to put oneself on the same wavelength as far as thought patterns go. The result is perplexing at first, but you think about that enough and it starts to make sense because you put yourself on the same wavelength.

The intention of the pairing of Chad Gable and Otis might be to formulate Gable into a bigger star and gradually assimilate him into more of an integral role in WWE – because this alliance certainly is not doing Otis any favors. The big man was much better off with Tucker and Mandy Rose earlier in the year, so this may be a way to subtly integrate Chad Gable into the mix while his presence is on the back burner in the collective minds of the WWE universe.

The fact that Otis is not being spotlighted is the primary phenomenon being focused on, but the booking might have the intention of getting Gable over. In life, oftentimes when things go one way the universe pulls something completely out of left field that is totally unexpected (and much better), and maybe that’s what the company has planned for this storyline. Just a thought to move on.

WWE RAW 12/14/2020

December 20, 2020 by Evan Luebbe

Randy Orton setting more stuff on fire – third time in his career

Randy Orton has an affinity for setting objects on fire throughout his WWE career. He tossed Bray Wyatt – with his sweater – into a trunk and set it on fire – only for The Fiend to jump out and attack Randy. This proved to be a creative way of maintaining The Fiend’s supernatural aura even with WWE presenting Him as the babyface in this rivalry. I wasn’t super confident it would work because The Fiend was established so well as a heel, so this is great news. The first thing that came to mind when Orton did this was his story with Wyatt surrounding the WWE championship from 2017 when he burned down Sister Abigail’s cabin.

The second event involving Randy Orton setting something on fire that came to mind was when he was involved in a casket match with The Undertaker back in 2005 and he set the casket on fire. Unfortunately (inexperienced as he was at only 25), Orton nearly set himself on fire as well because when he was pouring gasoline on the casket it was also soaking his body. He stepped away at probably the last possible second – just in case there were people with fire extinguishers surrounding the stage. Fortunately, Orton was much safer about it this time, so he learned his lesson.

AJ Styles defeats Sheamus early in the night and beats up Drew McIntyre later in the night with help from his buddies. The action in WWE (particularly on Monday Night RAW because it’s three hours instead of two) typically slows down as each calendar year winds down. It will pick back up when the new year starts.

Sheamus was not booked to look particularly strong this week which is the primary job of the WWE booking team. He took a beating from AJ Styles with a chair after losing the match. The Celtic Warrior did not even come out later in the night to get revenge on The Phenomenal One. This could have furthered the friendship angle between Drew McIntyre and Sheamus. The uneven booking of The Celtic Warrior this week makes one question how serious WWE is about making a match between he and McIntyre happen in the future for the WWE championship. It’s the job of every booking team in wrestling to make the time wrestlers have / don’t have to make them look like absolute superstars (even if they are not the primary focus that particular week) so they keep momentum.

In a parallel reality, probably not too far away from here (from a quantum physics perspective), where Sheamus is the current WWE champion as opposed to Drew McIntyre and he is booked by WWE to have a match at TLC with AJ Styles, this would be a real barnburner to look forward to. Instead, in this present reality, the WWE universe is getting the opportunity to enjoy this match (for the first time) for free. There is even a possibility that a match between Styles and Sheamus could have gone down at WrestleMania 28 back in 2012 – the year The Celtic Warrior won the Royal Rumble – for the World Heavyweight championship (instead Daniel Bryan was the opponent and Sheamus knocked him out with a Brogue Kick in 18 seconds). Unfortunately, AJ was not with the company in 2012.

Styles got a victory over McIntyre’s close friend which makes sense due to the booking of AJ as the number one contender for the WWE title. The match was also extremely well-paced and none of the action felt rushed. WWE gave the two men an adequate about of time to go out there and put on a solid match, and the superstars did not feel rushed at all as dictated by their body language.

Miz read a decent bedtime story chronicling the recent history between Styles and McIntyre, although it may not have been nearly as captivating as the bedtime story Samoa Joe did a couple of years ago when feuding with Styles – Joe just has a voice that could quite possibly put someone to sleep if they are tired. John Morrison’s impression of Drew McIntyre was genuinely funny. Some of the things Morrison does are over-the-top, but this was genuinely pretty good (William Wallace-esque).

It made storyline sense for AJ to get the upper hand on McIntyre (albeit with the help of Mr. Money in the Bank The Miz, Morrison, and his bodyguard Omos) on the go-home edition of RAW before TLC because AJ most likely has no business winning the WWE title from Drew McIntyre at the Pay-Per-View. Mr. McMahon has been high on McIntyre for over a decade, and McIntyre resonates at a deep level with much of the WWE universe – or maybe that’s just me. One intriguing possibility that is considered to be a top match at WrestleMania 37 is doing a rematch between Brock Lesnar and McIntyre for the WWE championship – but this time adding Keith Lee to the mix. This would make perfect sense as The Limitless One squared off with The Beast in the 2020 Men’s Royal Rumble match (Lee was No. 13).

The New Day are incredibly consistent, and the demand for that quality in the wrestling business will never go away – a tag team that is established and can always be relied upon to carry the division and elevate other teams

Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods are two of the absolute best workers in WWE. No one can say they are underrated because they are Tag Team Champions, but at times WWE does not put quite as much emphasis on the tag team division. Kofi and Woods go out every night, however, with a smile on their faces and do their thing on a consistent basis and that can never be undervalued. They will be defending – and quite possibly losing – their RAW Tag Team Titles against The Hurt Business at TLC. Whenever WWE has a tag team they want to establish, the first step is beating The New Day. When there is no one else who is really standing out, the titles are usually on The New Day.

It’s an incredibly positive thing that Jaxson Ryker was featured on Monday Night RAW now that the Forgotten Sons gimmick is completely done away with. WWE has taken the first step in the right direction if the company chooses to give Ryker a push and build around him.

For now, Elias is on a path to elevate him and in the process he can become familiar with the WWE universe – hopefully it will turn into something more in the future. WWE primarily looks for commitment, dedication, and passion as Triple H has said so many times in the past.

The Slow Rise of Big E

December 20, 2020 by Evan Luebbe

Big E is at a delicate transition period at this point in the history of his career because he is transitioning from his time with The New Day to what will hopefully be a massive singles run – one in which he works with Roman Reigns many times over in the next decade

Paul Heyman was featured as he is every week December 11 on Talking Smack with Kayla Braxton. He gave Big E some poignant advice about what his mentality might be for the rest of his WWE career post-New Day. Heyman told E that the first step he has taken in his revived singles run of going after the Intercontinental championship is absolutely and unequivocally the first move in the right direction towards Big E becoming a legend in WWE history (and hopefully one day being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame).

The most important sentence Paul uttered Friday night was his last. The rhetorical question, “When was the last time you saw Roman Reigns in the ring, and anybody even bothered to mention The Shield?” What Paul meant by this was that perhaps Big E’s mentality as a singles competitor should be focused on winning championships and establishing himself as a perennial world champion. It is very true that when anyone thinks of Roman Reigns, they don’t necessarily think of The Shield. That is simply just an interesting footnote in the legend of Reigns (obviously the other two members of The Shield have gone on to experience major success in their careers).

However, Reigns was with The Shield for only about a year and a half while E was with The New Day for six. Roman Reigns’ entire career history before The Shield took place in NXT, but Big E had a run of a couple of years on the main roster before The New Day even started (courtesy of Xavier Woods’ idea to start a stable that was all about the team), as Intercontinental Champion even before the group got going. Prior to that, E was the second-ever NXT champion – right after Seth Rollins – something not even Roman can claim.

Big E might be the perfect man to ultimately overturn the Head of The Table and take the Universal championship from the Anoa’i family. There are not many credible challengers to take the Universal title off Roman that are being portrayed by the WWE creative team as legitimate contenders to become champion and lead SmackDown into the future. At least that is one of the primary complaints I have been reading about – that Kevin Owens is not a believable contender right now to Roman Reigns – my question is “Who would be?” And the answer is no one, especially not in the month of December – which is always a down month for WWE anyway. The product has its ebbs and flows as does everything.

E and Roman Reigns have similar career paths in WWE because, in 2014, Mr. McMahon was down to these two men in the decision-making process as to who was going to be the next face of the company after John Cena. Perhaps at the time, McMahon asked himself, “Which of these guys resonates with me more?” The WWE universe did not agree with him for several years, but now that Roman has turned heel he is revealing more of his authentic self than ever. At this point in time, The Tribal Chief is being wholeheartedly embraced by the WWE fanbase for that very reason.