Randy Orton won the first ever Firefly Inferno match by setting The Fiend on fire and proceeding after the match to burn The Fiend’s carcass. This event will most likely write Bray Wyatt/The Fiend off WWE television for the next six weeks until he pops up again at Royal Rumble on January 31 and could possibly win the whole thing.
Bray Wyatt has been involved in an Inferno match before with Kane in his debut match on the main roster at SummerSlam 2013, but no one was set on fire in that match. Randy Orton stayed completely true to his character throughout this rivalry with The Fiend so (not to say it’s over because it’s probably not thankfully) by wholeheartedly embracing the heel role.
Fortunately, WWE got creative and found a way for Orton to be able to embrace the creative role he is most comfortable portraying while simultaneously leaving the essential core elements of The Fiend’s aura alone and adding another element of supernatural appeal. WWE has earned some serious applause for this creative because it’s working to absolute perfection.
This was reminiscent of the 1998 inferno match between The Undertaker and Kane – because no one had ever seen anything like that back in the day, and similarly, no one has ever seen anything like someone being set on fire on WWE television. This is another example of innovation from WWE during the pandemic. The way the company decided to orchestrate this would not have ever been possible with fans (because the stands were on fire). The company has found numerous innovative ways to do things in the past year.
Bray Wyatt is an extremely creative dude, so he functions best when the proverbial creative shackles are off and he is free to explore the nuances of his character. He is always several steps ahead of his audiences in terms of his character development, so the next step could mean the end of The Fiend – it certainly looked to be the end – if someone is set on fire, it might not be very believable to bring that character back. Wyatt was sending out a couple tweets emphasizing the circular nature of life, perhaps signaling a potential return to his original cult-leader character. Bray provided a little bit of foreshadowing to this – if this is in fact the case – in the Wyatt Swamp Fight with Braun Strowman back in July at The Horror Show at Extreme Rules (this is also when Wyatt aligned with Alexa Bliss).
Alex McCarthy of TalkSport is reporting that USA Network (WWE’s longtime cable partner) has made the higher-ups in the company aware that they would like WWE to present a slightly darker and more violent product, similar to the way things were done back in the Attitude Era. The event on Sunday with Randy Orton and The Fiend but have been a precursor to that more edgy product and what it might look like in 2021.
WWE experienced its lowest total in viewership for Monday Night RAW for 2020 a couple weeks ago, and a few years ago the viewership number was nearly twice as high. Cable as a whole is probably dying, and it most likely will not exist in a decade, but this number is still concerning. Nearly all cable programs have experienced a decline in viewership in the past few years – and COVID is not a factor in that because ratings were declining even before.
The Viper was definitely the right man to do this little experiment with as he has seen the WWE product at its best and at its worst, when the product was edgier back in the day and when it was at its most PG – so he has a significant amount of trust to be intuitive enough to know what will work and what won’t. WWE is also in a ratings War right now with AEW, and the latter company appears to be winning having beaten NXT on Wednesday nights pretty regularly for the past year – and even beating all three hours of RAW in terms of viewers one week several months ago.
Roman Reigns walks out the same way he walked in; with his cousin at his side and his Universal championship raised over his head. It was a brilliant and brutal match with great storytelling
The result of the Universal title match was rather predictable, but the way WWE decided to go about it was interesting to say the least – primarily because it was so brutal (and uncomfortable at times). Just another testament to how spot-on Roman Reigns is becoming as a heel and the undisputed Head of The Table. Kevin Owens still has to be sore a week later.
These two men are plenty used to main-eventing Pay-Per-View for the Universal championship. Who can forget their Royal Rumble 2017 encounter when KO was champion (with Chris Jericho locked in a shark cage above the ring) right before the Festival of Friendship. Roman has a plethora of experience taking bumps from Kevin Owens, so he knew full well that he was in for a physical match (Seth Rollins also proved this firsthand by taking a bump from Kevin off the WrestleMania sign earlier this year to give the Prizefighter his first WrestleMania moment). The promo work between Kevin and Roman has been off the charts – I would have absolutely zero problem if this rivalry continued.
The very beginning of the match was nostalgic because of the fact that KO snuck behind Roman to start the match – you know who else used to do that often was Stone Cold Steve Austin. Owens is obviously not nearly as big of a star as Austin was, but he gives off a similar vibe with that “crossing the boss” mentality – the rivalry not too long ago with Shane McMahon was a great example.
I was hoping in the back of my mind that someone would interfere in the match to give Owens the opportunity to win because he never stood a chance against Roman Reigns in a one-on-one contest. It could have been Goldberg? There have been rumors in the wrestling world that Roman Reigns may be booked to face Bill Goldberg at WrestleMania since it was originally planned to happen at the same event this past year, but those plans were canceled with Roman deciding to put his family first and take care of his newborn twins. Bill Goldberg potentially interfering in the match at TLC could have provided the perfect impetus to get the rivalry going again between the Head of The Table and Goldberg – but again, this might not be the route WWE is going.
To continue the thinking, this would have made sense for another reason – Goldberg defeated Kevin Owens for the Universal championship a month before WrestleMania 33 in 2017 (where Goldberg would ultimately drop it to Brock Lesnar who held the title for over a year). Now to prove to Kevin that Bill Goldberg never truly had any hard feelings, assisting Owens to win the title after a somewhat disappointing latter half of 2020 would have been a rather poetic way for these two superstars to finish their story.
Drew McIntyre retains the WWE championship and continues to provide stability in an unstable time
Miz cashed-in his Money in the Bank contract unsuccessfully – this WWE title match between Drew McIntyre and AJ Styles was Phenomenal until then. The Miz cashed-in to make it a triple threat match – the only time I can recall a Money in the Bank cash-in occurring that turned the match into a triple threat was at WrestleMania 31 when Seth Rollins executed the Heist of The Century by cashing-in on Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns, ultimately winning the WWE championship. Roman was originally scheduled to win that match and become champion, but the decision was reversed due to the negative reaction he was getting in 2015.
The Miz became the first superstar in WWE history to successfully become WWE champion by virtue of the Money in the Bank contract and to also unsuccessfully cash-in (10 years apart). Miz won the contract for the first time in 2010 and held the contract until December, ultimately cashing-in on Randy Orton to become WWE champion, holding the title through WrestleMania 27 where he defended the WWE title against John Cena. The unsuccessful attempt was this Sunday.
As a result of this, the WWE championship will stay on Drew McIntyre for the foreseeable future. He has earned it as he has provided the company with some semblance of stability in this unstable time of the pandemic. McIntyre has become very relatable to the WWE universe and cemented himself as a main eventer during the most unique time in WWE history – he revealed his authentic personality on Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions.
For one topic, Drew discussed how Randy Orton helped him along in his career in a similar way The Rock did for Austin (obviously not the exact same way because The Rock was 26 years old when he started working with Austin – Stone Cold was the older one). In the case of Drew McIntyre and Orton, Randy was five years older so this most likely benefited McIntyre exponentially because Randy had the ability – and finally the willingness – to teach him the ropes and nuances he has learned over the last 18 years in WWE that make a match great. The Scottish Warrior has an extremely gracious attitude toward the business in general, and he has the mentality to go with his gut more than ever when he is in the ring (talking or wrestling).
Sasha Banks and Carmella are thriving on SmackDown in terms of storytelling and the opportunities are being spread around, while Charlotte Flair’s return and the continued presence of Asuka (now as a double champion) monopolizes RAW
It’s a great thing that Sasha is so inspired by Eddie Guerrero. Eddie was a truly special human being – he embodied the two primary qualities I try to exhibit every day. He always gave his all to be 100% present in everything he did and also to give 100% of his energy to it. He devoted all of his time and effort towards getting the absolute most out of life for himself as well as everyone else – at the end of the day that’s all anyone can ask of themselves in this life.
Carmella is not necessarily ready yet to carry the women’s division on SmackDown because she just returned to TV two months ago. However, that is the trajectory she is on, so it won’t be long before that is a reality if she continues on this path (with assistance from Reginald, or James Ellsworth 2.0). On the other hand, Sasha Banks can now be considered a real champion – because not only has she successfully defended her title on TV but now she has defended it on Pay-per-View which she has never previously done. She will most likely hold the SmackDown Women’s Championship until Mania.
Another interesting thing that happened at TLC in the Women’s Division was the return of Charlotte Flair. WWE could have waited on this until Royal Rumble, but it makes perfect sense to bring The Queen back now. She teamed with Becky Lynch last year at this event to challenge for the Women’s Tag Team Championships – who did they challenge? One member of the champions was Asuka. So she defended a title against Charlotte last year and is her partner this year – continuity. It does feel like WWE is monopolizing all of the title opportunities – at least on RAW – to the top two or three women.
Maybe another superstar ShakeUp is in order because the opportunities feel more spread out on Friday’s. Lana is unfortunately injured, and there don’t appear to be any legitimate plans for Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler. More than anywhere else, the women’s division is thriving in NXT.
New RAW Tag champs – The New Day is established in their careers to the point where they can put other teams over and create new stars
The Hurt Business finally won the RAW Tag Team Championships from The New Day after trying unsuccessfully to take the titles several times. It’s smart that Cedric Alexander is the member of the team spending most of the time in the ring because he is still young enough to where he has the potential to be molded into a bigger star at only 31 years old. On the other side of the coin, we already know what Shelton Benjamin is for the most part at this point since he is in his mid-40s. The reason The New Day is still together is because there needs to be at least one team who is established enough to put other teams over to continue the division.
Before the main show even started, there was an eight-man tag match featuring Daniel Bryan (just a filler for the night, but this is his final singles run in the company. It’s almost guaranteed WWE has big plans for Daniel Bryan for Mania – starting with a possible Universal title match at Royal Rumble with Roman Reigns), Otis and Chad Gable (they still have a weird partnership that gets harder to read every week. Gable wants Otis to be intuitive, but he’s not telepathic). Big E (this is a small step In the right direction – his singles push has taken a long time to get going but he just needs to let go and trust the process a little longer. E has done exactly that for 8 years. He made his debut at TLC 2012 helping Dolph Ziggler defeat John Cena in a letter match for the Money in the Bank briefcase – so I am very confident he has the ability to be patient).
Against King Corbin (with his knights Wesley Blake and Steve Cutler), Cesaro (needs to become WWE champion before retiring), Nakamura, and Sami Zayn (always something to say! Don’t be surprised if he gets involved with Kevin Owens again sometime soon as their rivalry will probably never end until they retire – they just work so well together).