Evan Luebbe

Becky Lynch’s Career Narrative

It might be a good idea for WWE to orchestrate for Becky Lynch to lose her Raw Women’s Championship at WrestleMania 36 to whoever her Challenger might be. She could then go for a period of months where she is booked in the mid-card or lower card, much like the way she was before she became The Man and added that to her gimmick. Fans could then start to wonder to themselves “What the heck? This girl was the champion for a year and treated as the face of WWE, and now she is almost forgotten about it? Something about this doesn’t make sense.”

The WWE universe could then start clamoring for The Man to once again reap the rewards she has worked so hard to attain. This could lead to her winning another title at WrestleMania 38 or 39. There might be a narrative attached to Becky’s career that she has been forgotten about after holding a championship for a year and has finally gotten her due after WWE management has overlooked her for far too long.

WWE Cutting Back on Live Events

WWE will be cutting back on live events, which is sure to improve the health of their performers but reduce the size of their paychecks. This combined with the company’s recent struggles in the stock market and the success of AEW – which is regularly beating out NXT across the board in TV ratings almost every week in 2020 – is putting pressure on the company to step up their game.

Andrade Missing a Month

Unfortunately, Andrade has been suspended for the next month due to a violation of the WWE wellness policy and that is why he was written off TV this week on Raw by taking a hammerlock DDT from Humberto Carillo on the exposed concrete. All I can say is hopefully this doesn’t turn into a trend, since Robert Roode also recently served a 30-day suspension for the same violation. Brock Lesnar may need to continue making regular appearances on Monday Night Raw while Andrade is out so at least one champion is present on the show (since Andrade is obviously the United States Champion).

It’s a shame too because Andrade had a good amount of momentum going and there is no guarantee that he will get it back to the same degree. He is still obviously the United States Champion, so he is guaranteed to retain it, but it’s also a shame that Monday Night Raw will be without a championship of any kind featured on the show for the next month.

SmackDown – 2/7/2020

Carmella defeats Naomi, Alexa Bliss, and Dana Brooke in a fatal four-way match to become No. 1 contender to Bayley’s SmackDown Women’s Championship

Well, that was surprising. I would’ve anticipated that Carmella was the least likely to win and become the number one contender. Naomi would have been my first pick because she challenged Bayley and told her outright that she was coming for the title. Dana Brooke might have been the second choice because she formed a small alliance with Lacey Evans, who was Bayley’s last challenger at Royal Rumble for her title.

And no one can ever count out The Goddess simply because she’s a five-time Women’s Champion in WWE. Nonetheless, Carmella is a very talented former SmackDown Women’s Champion and should put on a great match with Bayley in Saudi Arabia. It’s a massive step in the right direction for the kingdom of Saudi Arabia to finally allow women’s matches to take place. Fans would be reasonable to wonder if Becky Lynch will also be announced to defend her Raw Women’s Championship against Asuka in Saudi Arabia.

Goldberg challenges The Fiend for Super Showdown

Goldberg and/or The Undertaker seem to always show up in Saudi Arabia because the people who put on the shows typically requested that a few stars from the past are included. The Fiend will become an even bigger star than he already is if he were to take down a legend like Goldberg. This would make sense because The Fiend has attacked several legends in the recent past – like Kane and Mick Foley.

King Corbin challenges Roman Reigns… Again at Super Showdown

I was hoping for Goldberg to interrupt Corbin and make a challenge to him when Corbin announced he wanted yet another match with The Big Dog. At this point, it’s feeling a bit redundant for Corbin to be continuing his feud with Roman.

Elias defeats Cesaro

Both Elias and Cesaro have serious potential to be main eventers. Vince McMahon has one last time to propel Cesaro to the level considering he’s 39 years old. I’m confident Elias will get there because he’s still so young, but there has been a legion of fans who have been clamoring for Cesaro to get a main event push that WWE management has been seemingly oblivious to for the last several years. The support is there whenever the company is ready to pull the trigger.

Daniel Bryan defeats Heath Slater

Perhaps Heath Slater will be included in a storyline again after not being included in anything in what seems like forever. I almost got excited for a second when I first saw this and thought he might be booked to be able to hang with Bryan.

NXT – 2/5/2020

Matt Riddle suggestion

Matt Riddle may want to start taking his opponents slightly more seriously if he ever intends to get over as a major star in WWE – the kind who is worthy of facing Brock Lesnar and potentially retiring The Beast, as he has said he wants to do one day. He creates a jokester vibe and provides some comedic relief, not exactly the feel of a champion. Pete Dunne also makes the whole situation delightfully awkward because he intends to create a mood so The Broserweights are still taken seriously as intimidating competitors.

Angel Garza has serious potential to become the next major Latino superstar in WWE because he naturally permeates an Eddie Guerrero-type feel throughout every arena he enters

A pretty easy decision by Triple H to book Dominik Dijakovic vs. Keith Lee for Takeover: Portland.

Jordan Devlin’s bright future performing on multiple brands

Jordan Dublin is by far versatile enough as a performer to compete on NXT UK, NXT, and 205 Live. WWE will surely recognize this and take full advantage of it, because he is a once-in-a-generation talent. He made his debut on NXT in the states this week and got a victory in a fantastic match with the always reliable “Prince Pretty” Tyler Breeze.

Velveteen Is Back

The return of The Velveteen Dream totally made up for the non-finish to the six-man tag main event. Perhaps WWE considers booking a dream match between John Cena (not that it’s guaranteed that John will even be at The Show of Shows and Velveteen) since Cena has spoken publicly before about how much he likes what Dream brings to the table.

Categories NXT

AEW Dynamite – 2/5/2020

AEW isn’t quite as kid-friendly as WWE, which probably helps the company get higher TV ratings in the 18-34-year-old demographic group. The final segment of the night was a perfect example of this: WWE would never allow for one superstar to lash someone 10 times with a leather belt, but AEW did and it’s awesome.

Cody takes 10 lashes from MJF

Cody Rhodes took 10 lashes from MJF with Cody’s own belt in about the most dramatic way possible. Almost every wrestler in the back came out to get a look for themselves. Cody’s brother Dustin, along with his wife Brandi and his coach Arn Anderson, came out to console him while MJF and Wardlow did the deed. Because Cody has taken those 10 lashings and he hasn’t touched MJF, a match will be booked between them for Revolution. Revolution is AEW’s next PPV event, so long as Cody can defeat Wardlow (Maxwell Jacob Friedman’s sidekick) in a steel cage match in two weeks on Dynamite.

Jon Moxley defeats Ortiz and takes out Santana’s eye after the match to hurt the continuity of The Inner Circle

Jon Moxley had a singles match with Ortiz that went over surprisingly well, considering Ortiz hadn’t wrestled a singles match in well over a year. However, he can’t clearly hang with the best and has a very high level of charisma. Moxley got the win, as he should have heading into his AEW World Championship match with Chris Jericho. It was also genius to have him get some revenge on Ortiz’s tag team partner Santana, who cut a brilliant promo later in the night.

This might be why many wrestlers like AEW – even the top stars like Chris Jericho are unselfish and completely willing to put over younger people and give them opportunities to grow within the company rather than wanting to give all the glory to themselves.

The Lucha Bros and The Butcher and The Blade defeated Kenny Omega and Adam “Hangman” Page (Tag Team Champions) and The Young Bucks

The tag team match pitting was easily Pay-Per-View worthy (I know some people have complained about not knowing who the legal man is during these tag matches, but does it really matter – NO). It also progressed a couple of storylines. The first was that it elevated tension between The Elite and “Hangman” Page, which will most likely culminate in a heel turn for Page at Revolution on February 29. The status of The Butcher and The Blade will also be instantly elevated by being associated with a team as highly regarded as The Lucha Bros, particularly in a winning effort.

SCU gains momentum

So. Cal Uncensored picked up a victory over the Best Friends, with the always entertaining Freshly Squeezed Orange Cassidy of course, going into their AEW World Tag Team Championship match next week against Kenny Omega and Adam “Hangman” Page.

Kip Sabian defeats Joey Janela

On a positive note, Kip Sabian has been featured on Dynamite a few weeks in a row so executives are obviously planning to push him, but his gimmick may not be quite right for his personality because it feels a little forced. He is not horrible at it by any means, but it could be better. Maybe he just needs time to grow into it – many wrestlers’ gimmicks feel this way towards the beginning of their careers. Maybe I’m being a little too critical – that may very well be a possibility.

Britt Baker loses to Yuka Sakazaki and attacks her following the match

The Britt Baker segment must have been planned to get her moreover as a heel by going against her moniker as a dentist by forcibly pulling the talented Yuka Sakazaki’s teeth. It feels weird to book someone at that level to lose to a lower-level performer like Sakazaki, so there must be a bigger story with this match. It will be interesting to see the next step in Baker’s evolution as a performer.

Brodie Lee/Luke Harper Debut Impending

Luke Harper has finally been granted his release from WWE and he will make an appearance for AEW on the 3/28 episode of Dynamite in his hometown of Rochester, NY under the name Brodie Lee.

Raw – 2/3/2020

Ricochet defeats Bobby Lashley and Seth Rollins in a triple threat match to become No. 1 contender for Brock Lesnar’s WWE Championship at Super Showdown

Smart WWE fans know that Ricochet has virtually no chance of winning the WWE Championship from Brock Lesnar, but it’s still huge for him to receive an opportunity at the WWE Championship this early in his career. It obviously means Vince McMahon has a lot of faith in him as a performer, and that has to make him feel great. Ricochet will also work great with Brock because Lesnar typically puts on his best performances with smaller guys (take his matches with AJ Styles Daniel Bryan and Finn Balor in the past for example).

This decision also makes sense within the framework of the storyline surrounding the WWE Championship on Monday Night Raw. Ricochet came out a couple of weeks ago and had a confrontation with Brock Lesnar before the Royal Rumble, so this tells me that Vince McMahon and Paul Heyman among others had the idea of giving Ricochet a major push like this well before the Royal Rumble PPV. He obviously returned the favor with a low blow to The Beast, allowing Drew McIntyre to score the elimination of Lesnar with a Claymore kick.

The point is that at the end of the day Ricochet will serve as essentially a placeholder to keep Lesnar busy in Saudi Arabia (it’s nice to see that Brock is even scheduled to do anything in Saudi Arabia, but WWE probably needs him because so many other superstars are refusing to go). Secretly, in the back of my mind, I was personally hoping for Bobby Lashley to come away as the victor of the triple threat match and be the number one contender to Lesnar’s WWE Title. One of the primary reasons he came back to WWE in 2008 was because he wanted the opportunity to work in a match with Brock (as Jerry “The King” Lawler pointed out during the match).

Needless to say, it would have made little to no sense to have the Monday Night Messiah Seth Rollins become the number one contender to the WWE Championship because he has already beaten Lesnar and taken his title not once but twice in the last year.

Randy Orton’s Promo

The Viper said all that needed to be said without saying a single word – all he needed were well-timed remorseful facial expressions and body language – and drew a level of heat that probably hasn’t been experienced in WWE since Tommaso Ciampa turned on Johnny Gargano. The WWE universe was most likely so angry with Orton because there is some speculation that he may have legitimately injured Edge’s neck again, so his comeback may be over before it got a real chance to get started. It’s not wise to jump to any conclusions, but the concern is warranted considering the history.

Angel Garza defeats Rey Mysterio

This could very well be Rey Mysterio’s farewell tour before retiring from WWE (possibly at WrestleMania 36 and subsequently passing the proverbial torch to his son Dominic), especially since he teased his retirement several months ago. If so, it is clearly his intention to put over as many young Latino superstars as possible to contribute to the future of the sports entertainment industry. Angel Garza, Humberto Carillo and Andrade are all perfect candidates. It’s also genius of WWE to include Garza in the storyline while Andrade is serving his 30-day suspension for violating the WWE wellness policy.

Buddy Murphy & The AOP defeated Kevin Owens and The Viking Raiders

Kevin Owens gave a second straight very solid performance after losing a partner to injury for the second straight week (hopefully Ivar’s shoulder is alright). Samoa Joe sustained a legitimate concussion on January 27 and will presumably be out for at least a couple weeks.

Rhea Ripley challenges Charlotte Flair

It seems to be a matter of time before a WrestleMania clash between Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley for Ripley’s NXT Championship. This match has money written all over it, and it would also be huge for NXT to possibly acquire The Queen as its champion, even if it’s only for a few months. She would easily be the biggest star on the brand.

Liv Morgan can move on after defeating Lana

Liv Morgan will finally be able to move on from Lana and now has a more substantial and layered storyline to sink her teeth into with the return of Ruby Riott from double shoulder surgery (which is very difficult to come back from). Both stars will get the much-needed opportunity to rebrand themselves.

Asuka defeats Natalya and makes her intentions known that she will challenge Becky Lynch for the Raw Women’s Championship one more time

Asuka and Natalya had a surprisingly good match. One might wish, however, that Natalya would give matches of this quality when more is on the line – a title match, maybe. Asuka vs. Lynch for a third time is not necessary, but nonetheless it will be a welcome addition to the Super Showdown card which needs star power given that certain top superstars won’t be going.

Categories RAW

Premature WrestleMania Preview

Daniel Bryan deserves to have a marquee match at WrestleMania 36 in Tampa Bay after receiving so much audible fan support at Royal Rumble. However, he is currently not penciled in for any match, although some fans would love to see him go one-on-one with The Fiend one more time. That spot will go to Roman Reigns as Vince McMahon looks to perch him atop WWE’s totem pole once again, and the Royal Rumble winner Drew McIntyre will obviously be challenging Brock Lesnar and hopefully defeating him.

Unless WWE fans began clamoring for Daniel Bryan the way they did in 2014-15, Bryan will not be placed into a title match at ‘Mania. The silver lining however is that WWE does have a history of listening to the WWE universe if they incessantly let the company know over a period of months just how much they would like for certain superstars to be pushed. This was evidenced at last year’s WrestleMania when all three major babyfaces walked out as champions in Becky Lynch, Seth Rollins, and Kofi Kingston.

Bottom Line: The Yes! Movement is still as strong as ever in 2020 after starting in 2013.

Alexa Bliss is one of the few viable options other than Sasha Banks to face Bayley at WrestleMania 36 – this time as a babyface of course; she hasn’t played this exact role before at such a big event. This would also make sense in the storyline because these two women feuded last summer over the SmackDown Women’s Championship.

Alexa also brings an experience factor into the equation, being a five-time Women’s Champion in WWE; since McMahon might trust her a little more in a spot as big as this knowing she has been there before. She’d no longer be that extremely green 25-year-old first-time champion like she was at her first WrestleMania back in 2017.

Speaking of the major women’s matches at WrestleMania 2020, at least as of this moment, Becky Lynch is expected to defend her Raw Women’s Championship against Shayna Baszler. This makes total sense since Lynch assaulted Baszler after their triple threat match with Bayley at Survivor Series. There are also no more NXT ties for Shayna after she dropped their main title. The woman she dropped it to, Rhea Ripley, will also reportedly be challenged for her NXT Championship at the biggest show of the year by Charlotte Flair, which will give NXT a much-deserved spotlight to elevate the brand.

Otis Has a Date with Mandy

Braun Strowman has finally won a singles title on the main roster afternoon the 3 ½ years – rejoice! Vince McMahon may not be quite sure what direction to take Shinsuke Nakamura after losing the Intercontinental Championship to Strowman. The former Royal Rumble winner has been a leaf in the wind for the past few months with no legitimate storyline – he has instead been doing Sami Zayn’s bidding with Cesaro.

The dog food element in the six-man tag team match between Roman Reigns and The Usos and King Corbin, Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode was a bit much for me, but not everything is going to resonate with all WWE fans. It’s a major positive that Reigns and Corbin will be able to move into their primary programs for WrestleMania season as we are now on the road to the biggest show of the year; the feud has also run its course since October.

Perhaps no one is very certain how WWE’s fifth Saudi Arabia event will go. Many superstars who are at, or near, the top of the card have refused to go back to Saudi Arabia to perform again – either due to political issues they have with certain events that have transpired over there; or for others it is due to the travel issues they had in getting back from the last Saudi Arabia event, causing them to miss the November 1 episode of SmackDown. NXT filled in fortunately and drew a big rating.

Based on that, I don’t know if we should look forward to the event or not on February 27. Let’s cross our fingers and pray that all goes smoothly on this trip.

Alexa Bliss is noticeably improving in terms of selling for her opponents in the ring. Her facial expressions during matches are drastically improving so that she shows more emotion and thus connects with the WWE universe more. This was on full display this week in her tag team match with Nikki Cross against Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville (which Bliss Cross Applesauce won, indicating that they are gaining momentum in the women’s tag team division.

Winners of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic

Triple H and Shawn without a doubt made the right decision in booking The Broserweights to win the Dusty Cup. Matt Riddle and Pete Dunne were clearly the most over team getting strong reactions, but this was not the only highlight of the tournament.

The tournament was so well-executed as it established yet another young tag team in The Grizzled Young Veterans. The heels will be able to brag about this accomplishment in the months to come. For now, The Broserweights will be getting an opportunity to garner the NXT Tag Team Championships against The Undisputed Era at Takeover: Portland on February 16.

It was also interesting to see Tommaso Ciampa wipe his own blood on the contract for his NXT Championship match with Adam Cole at Takeover: Portland. You have to wonder if Triple H planned this or if it was purely improvisation by Ciampa; either way, the segment went over well.

Tegan Nox and Dakota Kai finally had their one-on-one encounter after the storyline with them really accelerated at Takeover: WarGames with Kai’s heel turn. Dakota is doing unexpectedly convincing work as a heel; it’s great to see.

What might be the booking strategy is for The Broserweights to win the NXT Tag Team Championships from Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly at Takeover: Portland along with Tommaso Ciampa taking the NXT Title from Adam Cole. This will nicely wrap up the short-term story of The Undisputed Era all losing their respective titles kind of all at once; this began on January 22 when Keith Lee won the North American Championship from Roderick Strong. I must say that I am sad to see The UE’s run possibly coming to an end after 2 ½ years together.

Categories NXT
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