January 9, 2021 - Evan Luebbe

A New Babyface Star On The Main Roster

January 9, 2021 by Evan Luebbe

Damien should debut on the main roster any time now after New Year’s because Mr. McMahon wants to create a new babyface star on the main roster

According to multiple reports, Damian Priest was scheduled to debut on SmackDown on New Year’s Day in the main event segment with Kevin Owens and Roman Reigns and get involved in that storyline as Kevin Owens’ friend, but it was scrapped at the last minute. Dave Meltzer claimed on Wrestling Observer Radio that Reigns and Owens were at least partially responsible for the angle being scrapped. Reigns feels there is no point in adding a “random person to the main event mix.” Priest well likely be headed to RAW instead.

Meltzer stated, “WWE had decided this idea that we need to make stars on SmackDown… we need new babyface stars. It’s kind of like somebody asked, who can be the next new babyface in NXT that can come on the main roster,” and the guy was Damian Priest. So they had a story where Damian Priest was supposed to be Kevin Owens’ best friend (similar to how Chris Jericho was back in 2016 – 2017) and he’s helping him against Roman Reigns and Jey Uso. In fact, they were going to do a tag match on the show Friday night and Damian Priest is there and Randy and all that. Kevin Owens said essentially that it makes no sense for him to be my best friend, what do we have in common, why would he be my best friend, we can do it but why is he my best friend? Roman Reigns agreed and since it’s Roman Reigns, it was nixed. I don’t know where Heyman stood on it but, it was nixed.”

It is encouraging to see that Roman Reigns and Kevin Owens were treated, at least in this scenario, so leniently and were given some form of creative freedom. No superstar has ever had that level of pull regarding creative direction aside from Stone Cold Steve Austin (who earned the trust of the boss many times over throughout the years. He orchestrated his own heel turn in 2001. It was not as successful as he predicted, but it was a massive step in terms of earning Mr. McMahon’s trust).

Regardless of this situation surrounding Damian Priest, he likely participated in his final NXT match at the New Year’s Evil event in which he took a loss and put over Karrion Kross. This match had a similar feel to Matt Riddle’s final match in NXT in June when he made his departure by putting over Timothy Thatcher. Based on this result, Priest might be expected to make his debut on the main roster.

AEW Dynamite 1/6/2021: New Year’s Smash

January 9, 2021 by Evan Luebbe

Just as AEW did with Fyter Fest in early June 2020, New Year’s Smash will be held across the first two episodes of Dynamite in 2021. Chris Jericho was on commentary for Night 1 of this event. Jericho was pretty damn good on commentary when he first started doing it with Tony Schiavone and the initial months of the pandemic at QT Marshall’s gym, but he has improved exponentially albeit with a small mishap on December 30 (emotions were extremely high so it can be excused). Rest in peace Brodie. Many people are better because you graced this earth for 41 years.

Kenny Omega and The Elite are revolutionizing professional wrestling by partnering with Don Callis and Impact

Kenny Omega might be the greatest and most innovative World Champion in the history of the wrestling business – for any company, in any part of the world. His subtle character evolution since Dynamite began in October 2019 has been spot on tied to his relationship with The Young Bucks going through the various ups and downs like a brotherly relationship. This week it came to fruition that The Elite will align in 2021, because after all, they are a family (everyone can resonate with that).

Omega’s relationship with Hangman Adam Page also didn’t necessarily dismantle. Each man just wanted different things at this point in their careers. Omega was made to be a World Champion; Page more so wanted validation and to achieve a moderate amount of success, but his character knew full well – at least subconsciously – that there was a ceiling to the amount of success he could achieve and keep his sanity.

The on-screen relationship between Kenny Omega and Don Callis, and for that matter the working relationship between ATW and Impact, was most likely planned well in advance and is just now coming to light because Kenny and Callis are essentially like an uncle and nephew. In the 5.5 weeks since Omega won the AEW world championship, he has unleashed an extremely arrogant side of his character that has never been seen before. It took a while for his character to get to this point, but it is thoroughly entertaining now that it has.

No one would have anticipated that the release of The Good Brothers, Anderson & Gallows, from WWE in April right after WrestleMania could have been the best thing for their careers nine months later now that you have aligned with The Elite. This was probably in the works when they were negotiating their contracts. I’m assuming that’s why they were so excited about signing with Impact.

It’s likely that Tony Khan wants to continue the rivalry between Kenny Omega and Jon Moxley over the AEW world title, because they are the two biggest stars he has so it makes good business sense. Moxley and Omega will most likely meet on Pay-Per-View for the first time at Revolution. This match has far too much money written on it for the company not to orchestrate, and now is the best time to do it.

Regarding the title match this week between Kenny Omega and Rey Fenix, this may not have been the match of the year, but the two men did the best job they possibly could have with the time they were given and that’s all that can be asked. Fenix has been a star in the making for quite some time and has been oscillating between tagging with his brother and chasing titles as a singles wrestler; this began during his time in Lucha Underground several years ago and has only expanded from there.

As far as the actual match, two moments in particular stood out. The first was the point dead in the middle of the match when Kenny was dumped on the back of his head by a German suplex. The second was at the end of the match when Fenix paid tribute to Eddie Guerrero with the shoulder shimmy (Eddie Guerrero has been featured before on TNT when he was with WCW in the late 90s). Those are the moments that really resonated with me, and I know they have to with many others, because I believe that all human beings are simply reflections of other aspects of myself; the same could be said for you reading this piece from me.

Fenix had an AEW World Tag Team Title shot early on in 2020 when Kenny Omega was one half of the champions and could not get it done. He lost to Omega at Full Gear in the number one contender’s tournament, and now a title match. There might be a bigger story brewing between these two men that will play out in the future. This reunification of The Elite, along with the partnership between AEW and Impact, could be the beginning of another golden age of professional wrestling; this is a great era to be a part of.

Promotion for Cody Rhodes’ and Snoop’s TV show; in addition, the talent level of Matt Sydal is highlighted

Snoop Dogg’s splash off the top rope on Matt Sydal might have been the most fun moment of Dynamite. He was getting very much into the role of coaching Cody Rhodes during the match in promotion for the Go-Big Show on TBS. Cody Rhodes looked great as always in the ring, but Matt Sydal showed AEW fans exactly why he has been overlooked for years and should absolutely be booked higher on the card. It was very generous of Tony Khan to give Sydal this large of a spotlight after many months of not being featured as heavily in the company; this man is clearly one of the most underrated performers in professional wrestling.

Christopher Daniels and Kazarian have been so consistent for so long, they have earned a title match with the best tag team in the world. The Young Bucks took a step later in the night to ensure that the story between the two teams will be easy to understand by turning heel with the rest of The Elite

Christopher Daniels is 50 years old, so it might be a now or never thing for his tag team to challenge The Young Bucks for the AEW World Tag Team Championships. Right now it does not make much sense from a character perspective since they are both clearly faces; but anymore there is such a grey area for professional wrestling characters that it’s starting to matter less and less which side of the fence you are on as a character. Daniels and Kazarian will challenge The Bucks at Revolution for the belts, but they will have their backs until then.

One reason The Bucks aligned with Omega and The Good Brothers, other than the fact that The Elite is family, was so they could become the clear-cut heels in the current feud with SCU. The roles in the story will therefore be more well-defined and it will be easier to follow; this now opens the door for SCU to become the faces in the current story which they are best at anyway.

MJF might be trying to disband The Inner Circle from within

MJF is seeking to systematically destroy The Inner Circle from the inside. Two developments in this story happened this week; the more obvious one is that Wardlow defeated Jake Hager, 2 inner Circle members battling and planting the seeds for an even bigger rivalry to manifest in the coming months. The subtler aspect was that Maxwell Jacob Friedman earned the trust of Hager by calming him down after the loss and at least appearing sincere (we all know he wasn’t. After all, he is an arrogant and entitled a**hole).

Maxwell also did a similar thing with Santana and Ortiz a couple weeks ago by consoling them. When MJF and Wardlow finally dismantled The Inner Circle in a few months, Sammy Guevara and Ortiz will be gloating in Chris Jericho’s face about how they were right, and they knew MJF wasn’t trustworthy. The male obsession with being right all the time will cause the group to break up. Santana might even get annoyed with Ortiz and that tag team might break up; that’s a big if because they work so well together and AEW takes a lot of pride in its tag division being the best in the world.

Better days could be on the horizon for the AEW women’s division; this division is not short on talent, just on character development and a little more attention to detail could be useful

AEW is heavily leaning on Shida to be the face of the women’s division, and she is showing no signs of slowing down any time soon. The women’s division overall is not in a particularly strong state, not because it doesn’t have the talent, but because the characters have not been developed as well as the men. Clearly, not as much time has been spent on the women’s side of things.

There are some incredible talents like Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D. (the most established character on the AEW roster among women), Penelope Ford (impressed in a title match with Shida in June) and Big Swole, so there is hope that this trend of not focusing as much on the women will eventually be reversed but this is just the way it is right now. This is not necessarily a bad thing, it will work as out in time just like everything does in life; even someone like Kris Statlander who tore an ACL back in June 2020 will be returning in a couple months, so she might significantly help things pick up in the women’s division.

WWE RAW 1/4/2021

January 9, 2021 by Evan Luebbe

Drew McIntyre was challenged by Goldberg this week on RAW, which wasn’t a swerve by the company. The decision was made just two days before RAW on the previous Saturday because ‘they had nobody ready for anything’ according to Dave Meltzer on the latest Wrestling Observer Radio. This was also a case of Mr. McMahon overriding WWE creative, because the creative team isn’t particularly high on Goldberg main eventing the Royal Rumble event with Drew McIntyre.

After all, WWE is Vince McMahon’s company, so he has the freedom to override the creative team whenever he pleases; maybe become a bit of a Jerry Jones-type owner. There are plenty of similarities between he and Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys. Both men insist on being heavily involved in the inner workings of their respective businesses and are not necessarily content to just merely be the owner.

Roman Reigns was the most logical opponent for Goldberg next, whose contract runs through 2023 on at least two matches per year. Goldberg was originally supposed to have a match with Reigns at WrestleMania 36 but that was nixed when Roman made the decision to step away from WWE during the initial months of the pandemic to care solely for his newborn twins (completely understandable). The Head of The Table, as far as I’m concerned, should be applauded for putting his family first and having his priorities in line).

In the meantime, Braun Strowman served as the substitute for Reigns as Goldberg’s opponent for WrestleMania 36. As it turned out, some good did come of WWE’s top dog not competing at Mania – which is ironic because on the surface, that appears to be a bad thing. WWE ironically created a brand new main-event superstar, and Strowman came into his own during his four months as Universal champion.

Braun was told by Vince McMahon at the beginning of 2019 that he was not yet ready to become Universal champion. He was not 100% sure of himself – he was still thinking a little too much about the moves he made. The methodology of the business had not become implicit to The Monster.

It’s now set in stone that Goldberg will challenge McIntyre at Royal Rumble. If McIntyre were to retain the WWE championship, he would almost definitely go on to defend it at Mania, and in the process he would become nearly as big a star as Roman Reigns. On the other side of the coin, if Goldberg wins the WWE championship from Drew McIntyre at Royal Rumble (which I believe is most likely); he most likely does not have the stamina anymore, at age 54, to be a viable champion past WrestleMania 37.

Bill Goldberg is probably fully aware of this; we can look at his recent track record as champion. In March 2017, he won the Universal title from Kevin Owens (ending his reign of over six months) and dropped it at WrestleMania 33 to Brock Lesnar. Goldberg followed the same pattern in 2020 when he won the same title from The Fiend (that’s another story in itself as the booking in that match was questionable) in February 2020 and held the title until WrestleMania 36 before putting over Braun Strowman.

If Goldberg wins the WWE championship from McIntyre at Royal Rumble, history would dictate that he would drop the title at WrestleMania 37. He has followed that path the last two times as champion. This brings up the question of who Bill Goldberg would face at the biggest show of the year. That’s where someone like Randy Orton would fit perfectly for two reasons. It makes sense within the context of the story because Orton could wrap up his current storyline with The Fiend/Bray Wyatt right before Mania and immediately segue into a rivalry with Goldberg.

Second, and more importantly, Bill Goldberg has spoken about how much of an honor he would view it if he had the opportunity to work with Randy Orton at this stage in his career – because Orton is clearly working at another level right now. Orton is coming off the best year of his career in 2020, so it makes sense that Goldberg is interested in engaging in a rivalry with The Viper, and hopefully some of that positive momentum Orton has going for him can rub off on Goldberg. Goldberg worked indirectly with Randy Orton in 2003 when he was primarily feuding with Triple H. Bill Goldberg would view it as an honor to have the privilege of putting over Randy Orton as a 15-time world champion.

It is also worth noting who Goldman mentioned when asked who he would like to work with in the future. His top list was: Roman Reigns, Drew McIntyre and Randy Orton. The McIntyre program has already begun with others on the radar in the future. Some people in the business, like John Cena, do not even like to acknowledge all the hypothetical possibilities that may exist. Some people often take the perspective of “control the controllable” and to let the rest work itself out. John takes the grounded perspective of just taking what is in front of him and making it the best possible outcome.