Evan Luebbe

Reigns Character Change

Perhaps the time has come for Roman Reigns to finally undergo a character repackaging post-leukemia return. If I were handling the operations of WWE, the character repackaging would’ve taken place right after WrestleMania. This is probably contributing to the reason why WWE is losing viewers from its weekly TV shows, and the solution to this problem will not be found with Vince McMahon inserting a “wild card” rule to give him an excuse to overexpose Reigns. This may cause fans to revert back to the way they behaved towards him for the last several years up until just a few months ago – by greeting his entrances with boos. It may be helpful if a personal touch was added to his character.

He could come out on Raw or SmackDown and cut a few heartfelt promos with a personal touch and that would surely deepen his connection with the WWE universe. Vince McMahon cannot be afraid to evolve his character, because the way I see it, it will only help the WWE product. All Vince has to do is look to the past to find evidence of this working – Stone Cold Steve Austin evolved; John Cena evolved. There’s a reason he’s not known as the Dr. of Thuganomics anymore.

Lesner’s Cash-in

Stephanie McMahon is reportedly upset that Paul Heyman didn’t inform the WWE universe in advance of Lesnar’s cash-in. It makes no sense to be upset, however, because the whole point of the Money in the Bank contract is to add `the element of surprise’ to WWE programming. A surprise cash-in (and unfortunately a probable win by Lesnar) will get a massive pop from the crowd before the reality of having a part-time Universal Champion for a while longer sets in. No one knew Edge, Dolph Ziggler, or Seth Rollins were cashing in either, and those were some of the greatest moments in WWE history. The goal of cash-ins should be to hit the WWE universe like an RKO Outta Nowhere.

Alexa Back on Top

Lars Sullivan and Alexa Bliss stood out most to me this week, even though they both appeared on the “B” show SmackDown Live (for now, I’m assuming that it will be presented as the flagship show starting in October of this here when it switches networks to Fox).

WWE, to be honest, has always given Alexa Bliss favorable treatment since she debuted on the main roster nearly the three years ago. Maybe they feel somewhat bad that they discounted her abilities to a degree in NXT, because she never even had a Takeover match. It can’t be argued, however, that she has absolutely proven herself as a five-time women’s champion (with an opportunity to make it six). She may even wind up winning the SmackDown Women’s Championship from Bayley, since Bayley does not seem like a long-term champion. It is absolutely nothing against her, but she just isn’t quite as powerful as Alexa.

It’s been almost a year since Alexa, who was originally slightly favored to win the Money in the Bank contract based on prior booking, was champion (she lost the Raw Women’s Championship to Ronda Rousey at SummerSlam last year), and she also won the same title from Bayley at Payback in April 2017. This would also be a great way for her to come out of her concussion issues which have largely kept her out of action since September 2018. These concussion issues are slightly concerning though given how young she is (only 27 years old). Corey Graves also has to be losing it.

Lars Sullivan was also quite impressive last week. He is surprisingly very good on the mic (much better than Festus, better known as Luke Gallows now, or Snitsky, which is more the level of skill that was expected, at least by me). He should have a squash match at Super Showdown against Lucha House Party and continue his dominance. After this, however, he should look to enter a rivalry with a top-level superstar, maybe even someone like Roman Reigns, after Roman’s pointless and boring feud with Shane McMahon, which by the way is wasting all the momentum Drew McIntyre had coming out of WrestleMania.

Old-School Feel

There was a very old-school type vibe given off by the Super Showdown event in the way the event was paced because nothing felt like it was rushed (WWE is guilty of this at times as they continue to expand as a business). The Saudi Arabia government has to be slightly disappointed that a Brock Lesnar cash-in didn’t happen because that would have had major implications on the future of the WWE for at least several months.

The reason that the time between WrestleMania and SummerSlam is to be valued is that events within the company start to lose a little bit of steam, which then gives younger up-and-coming superstars the opportunity to gain momentum by connecting with a crowd to show what they can do physically in the ring.

One of those up-and-comers I’m talking about is obviously Mansoor, who made his in-ring debut in NXT not too long ago. His victory in the 50-Man Battle Royal, which was heavily emphasized as being the largest in WWE history, will surely accelerate the trajectory of his career. This was very well thought out by WWE to have a superstar from Saudi Arabia win the event. It may even improve WWE’s presentation to the contrary of Saudi Arabia, who is giving them a very lucrative deal to be able to put on these events. Mansoor could become like a version of Ali. Sadly, this would most likely mean that WWE would have to let go of one of these two men because their look is nearly identical. I guarantee, however, that whichever one of these men gets released by WWE will go on to have success with some other organization in the wrestling industry.

The greatest match of the night was easily Randy Orton vs. Triple H. We don’t know what The Game is capable of given that he just produced a match of this quality with Batista at WrestleMania, but this is one of the best matches that Randy Orton has had in a long time (the fact that he got the victory to add to with legacy is simply icing on the cake).

This is a great example of just how important storytelling skills, as well as the timing of body language, are in the WWE. These two men are certainly not the most gifted superstars in the ring anymore (maybe they were at one time), but they had the innate ability to tell a quick story – and that is the scale of major value in the WWE.

XXV – Adam Champ Baby

The main event of Takeover: XXV was the number one reason why the WWE universe gravitates toward NXT so much, and that is because of the level of focus and attention to detail regarding the in-ring work. Each move of matches is easily better thought out and the performers pay special attention to the detail and precision with which they approach their work in the ring because they are still trying to make a name for themselves and build their reputation within WWE. They put extra effort in to make the WWE universe resonate with them and give them an adequate amount of respect for their abilities.

In terms of storyline, Adam Cole may gain even more cockiness to the point where he becomes just flat out annoying, and the entire Undisputed Era becomes turned off by it, ultimately leading to their demise.

As for Johnny Gergen, this is most likely all part of the plan for Tommaso Ciampa’s return, in which he returns to take the NXT Championship from Adam Cole and return to his heel persona, only for Gargano to regain the title. I’m just spitballing here, and I have absolutely no sources to back this up, however I do know that a storyline has already been devised for Ciampa’s return, so Gargano losing the title was probably the initial event to give the storyline momentum.

Matt Riddle and Roderick Strong had a fantastic match to kick off the show and get the crowd into it. It is very underestimated just how important the first match of a wrestling show is as it sets the tone for the rest of the show, so it’s a very big deal to be put in the #1 spot. The loss may be enough to send Roderick Strong’s frustrations over the edge and cause him to part ways with The Undisputed Era, becoming the last man to join the group and the first to leave.

As for Matt Riddle, the former UFC fighter has proven that he has the potential to be a reliable champion. He came into NXT a little less experienced than most, having gotten out of UFC in 2013 and getting into wrestling the following year, but he has proven to be a fast learner and has impressed many fans, including me. A potential retirement match at WrestleMania next year between Brock Lesnar and Matt Riddle, maybe even for the Universal Championship, would be guaranteed to be a massive moneymaker for WWE, Pitting two former UFC fighters against one another.

Congrats to the Street Profits on winning the NXT Tag Team Championships (and to Angelo Dawkins on a victory and a great performance in Game 2 of the NBA Finals. One has to admit that he looks eerily similar to Demarcus “Boogie” Cousins. I’m only kidding of course). Absolutely no one can argue that the Street Profits deserve it. They are obviously an extremely entertaining team. It’s a little bit of a strange phenomenon that the ladders that are used in NXT appear to be harder and less forgiving than the ladders that are used on the main roster.

One other topic of discussion is the fact that Jaxson Ryker appears to have been established as a force at Takeover: XXV. Maybe he could develop a rivalry which leads to a match at Takeover: Brooklyn with someone like Keith Lee. Ryker’s look has also been changed slightly to appear a little more rugged. He reminds me a little bit of Kane: we will see however if, and that’s a big if, he can have anywhere near that amount of success.

Tyler Breeze’s attitude about returning to NXT is very admirable. He views it as a lateral move within the company that many NXT fans have wanted to see for quite a while rather than a demeaning move being sent back somewhere, he has already been. He could easily view it as proof that the company does not believe in him, but it is a great attitude that he has of returning somewhere where his talent will be truly appreciated. He will have an opportunity to develop a newfound sense of aggression to his character.

As for the match between Breeze and Velveteen Dream, this was the point in the show where the crowd calmed down. This was not the most exciting match or the best performance by a longshot from Dream, but it was plenty interesting enough. The result was exactly what it should have been, as Velveteen Dream needs to be kept in a prominent position if WWE is seriously considering putting him in a marquee WrestleMania match next year with John Cena, which would indeed be awesome.

Shayna Baszler is without question the dominant force in the NXT women’s division and has been for quite some time now. WWE has a major attraction to these former UFC fighters, men or women. That looks to continue because Triple H is determined to make it so that WWE is viewed by major sporting organizations as a legit sport. This will benefit WWE greatly in the future and get them more time on networks like FS1, since they are moving to Fox in October. They have AEW beat in that department. Io Shirai, however, gave a very impressive performance which should bode well for her in the future. She has a much better look and feel to her in-ring style than Kairi Sane. I wasn’t sure what to make of her first couple months in NXT as Kairi Sane’s sidekick, but now that I’ve seen what she can do on her own, I have developed a liking towards her style.

Better Pacing

SmackDown was paced significantly better than Raw this week, as is the case most weeks, primarily because WWE already has Monday Night Raw off of which to build for the week. One actually felt like they could catch their breath between segments. The show started off exactly the way it should start off every week, with the WWE Champion. Kofi Kingston and Kevin Owens had a match that means really nothing in the grand scheme of things, but it was entertaining, nonetheless.

One also has to feel for Drew McIntyre and Elias to some extent because they are both talented superstars with real potential, but they are both being belittled by the roles they are currently undertaking for Shane McMahon’s benefit. This is quite frankly a waste of both men’s talents which is a shame because most people are fully aware of just how talented they are. All we can do, however, is hope that WWE realizes this and quickly shifts the storyline of both men to something more redeeming, like going after a title.

It will be very good to see Aleister Black resurface again soon on the main roster. He definitely has the capability to provide some entertaining matches. Anyone who tells you that Super Showdown will be a WrestleMania caliber event is telling a lie. WWE tried to position the last Saudi Arabia event the same way, but it did not in any way feel like a WrestleMania. In fairness, this year’s event has a better card than last year’s event. The best memory from last year might be Titus O’Neill falling underneath the ring during the Greatest Royal Rumble match.

Side Note: What is wrong with Otis? Daniel Bryan is trying to cut a brilliant promo about earthquakes in Oklahoma only to be interrupted by Heavy Machinery and Otis’ violent hip thrusting. So funny! He makes Big E look normal.

Just so everyone is aware, I will be writing about NXT Takeover: XXV (it’s unbelievable that this is already the 25th Takeover. I can vividly remember the first one five years ago, with Sami Zayn and Cesaro having what was, in my opinion, the best match.) But I won’t be posting anything next week because I will be on vacation. I will be writing again however starting on June 10.

 

2019 Prep

Some WWE superstars who won’t be in Saudi Arabia for Super Showdown are Daniel Bryan (who refused to attend Crown Jewel in November 2018 and deal with the political fallout of the assassination of a US reporter in that area), Kevin Owens (after his family asked him not to attend).

This is also at least a partial reason as to why Dolph Ziggler returned and is immediately being thrown into WWE Championship contention), Sami Zayn (Syrian heritage), and Aleister Black (religious nature of his tattoos). This will be a major blow for WWE and their Saudi Arabia shows if they will be without several top superstars for each one because they have a 10-year deal to do these shows.

Some superstars are reportedly not happy about the “wild card” rule being employed because they view it as an excuse that WWE can use to be lazy with booking, so that top stars can be featured on television as much as possible and WWE does not have to work quite as hard to constantly establish new stars and evolve as a business. Triple H should fully understand this point of view, given that back in his day he was part of a group known as Evolution (with Ric Flair, Batista, and Randy Orton).

Regardless of the reason, Dolph Ziggler is getting a title match at Super Showdown. He is doing a superb job of telling a good story with limited material and time to work. This will also give WWE fans a break from Kevin Owens vs. Kofi Kingston again. It will benefit WWE to orchestrate a different matchup at Super Showdown, given that Kevin Owens and Kofi Kingston are already scheduled for a follow-up match at Stomping Grounds, a new event, on June 23. This pay-per-view will have a somewhat underwhelming card, as quite a few events during this May – June – July time usually do, rather than exposing fans to first time ever matches and fostering excitement for the future, very similar to NXT. Matches could be done like Roman Reigns vs. Lars Sullivan or Seth Rollins vs. Ricochet. Instead, matches will be on the card like Seth Rollins vs. Baron Corbin and Roman Reigns vs. Drew McIntyre.

·      AJ Styles vs. Baron Corbin has been added to the card for Super Showdown.

·      Charlotte Flair may also end up eventually breaking her father’s record of 16 world title reigns (which is co-held by John Cena). Just something to keep an eye on.

·      The New Day probably won’t achieve the record of 10 tag team title reigns as Vince McMahon set the goal for them to do so about three years ago.

·      With Kofi Kingston as the current WWE Champion and the team only being at five reigns, it’s hard to see Vince not electing to see what these three superstars could do individually.

Two good comparisons of current superstars to past ones to provide context are Baron Corbin: JBL (John “Bradshaw” Layfield and Ricochet: Rob Van Dam. The reason I would compare Corbin to JBL is that he possesses that rugged look and also because I personally foresee his career taking a very similar trajectory. He has been on the main roster for three years and, while he has had moderate success, he has not proven to be the top draw that Vince McMahon envisioned him as. He may end up winning a world title or two, but it most likely will not be for at least several more years until he has proven himself within the company without any doubt.

Ricochet to Rob Van Dam is more obvious. Ricochet can do far more in the ring than any other current superstar and is at least 5 to ten years ahead of his time, and Rob Van Dam was exactly the same way 15 to 20 years ago. They have both also worked for other companies aside from just WWE. Ricochet worked for several other independent wrestling organizations, and I first was exposed to him when he was wrestling for Lucha Underground in Southern California. Rob Van Dam made his name primarily in ECW in the late 90s before signing with WWE.

Chaotic Shows

The whole format of Monday Night Raw between 8:30 and 10:30 the past number of weeks has felt messy and disorganized to say the least. It feels like the show has been thrown together without proper planning, and this is apparently true from what I have read. Even last week, the show was still having the script written as the show went on the air. It is chaotic primarily because it’s jumping around to many different storylines with many different superstars at a rapid pace. Even so, there has to be a way to make it feel more cohesive.

It’s a little unfortunate to see the storylines surrounding the WWE Championship and the Universal Championship taking up such a significant amount of time in the show. This is nothing against Kofi Kingston or Seth Rollins, or Brock Lesnar for that matter, it’s just that if they take up this much time in the show every week, it takes away time that could be given to up-and-comers like Mojo Rawley for example.

With that being said, Dolph Ziggler is doing a fantastic job with the limited material he was given for what appears to be a very short-term storyline between he and Kofi Kingston seemingly until right after Super Showdown, since he was merely a replacement for Kevin Owens to challenge Kofi Kingston for the WWE Championship. How great of an idea was Brock Lesnar’s Beast Box? This is exactly what I’m talking about in that the WWE creative team seems to be putting all their creative energy into the primary title feuds as opposed to spreading it out and sprinkling some of their creative juice onto each storyline.

Seth Rollins and Sami Zayn put together a great match, one in which I thought it may be very possible for Brock Lesnar to cash in his Money in the Bank contract with Seth Rollins injuring his knee. The electric chair segment with Corey Graves and Sami Zayn couldn’t have been more brilliantly executed with Zayn acting irritated by every question from each member of the WWE universe and Corey Graves trying to maintain some sort of remote level of professionalism.

The history of Evolution at this point is simply tiring. I’m talking of course about the buildup to the Triple H vs. Randy Orton match at Super Showdown. The kingdom of Saudi Arabia habitually asks for matches at their events that attend to rekindle old flames from the past. Most younger fans don’t even remember Evolution. Drew McIntyre has also replaced Elias as Shane McMahon’ and enforcer, as if it really matters.

Ricochet and Cesaro were simply unreal again. We all need to keep our fingers crossed that Cesaro’s neck is all right because he is a special talent. While he is not especially athletic, he does all the little things exceptionally well. It is extremely unfortunate that Rey Mysterio will be forced to relinquish his United States Championship, and it looks like Samoa Joe will look to regain it ASAP.

As of right this moment, Baron Corbin will be getting a Universal Championship match at Super Showdown. I imagine WWE will go through with this and after the Rollins-Corbin match, Lesnar could cash in and become Universal Champion, because he is advertised to make an appearance at the event as he did last year. Corbin also helped Lesnar win the Universal Title in November at Crown Jewel by hitting Braun Strowman with the belt, so there is history between the two.

Side Note: It’s also encouraging to see Sami Zayn and WWE publicly acknowledge competition in the form of AEW, because their Double or Nothing event from this past weekend was wildly successful. Dean Ambrose, or Jon Moxley, has officially signed up with AEW, along with many other former WWE talents like Chris Jericho. AEW may prove to be a strong competitor to WWE once their TV deal with TNT begins in October of this year. It’s also very encouraging to see Lance Anoa’i, Roman Reigns’ cousin, making his television debut and carrying on the family legacy. Hopefully, we will all see Lance at some point in the future.

Categories RAW

Showdown Buildups & Ricochet Beating

Ricochet took a beating in the men’s Money in the Bank ladder match, so it’s impressive he could do much of anything, but the real story is Cesaro and how WWE is building him up for what one might imagine would be a major push. Maybe it could play a role in boosting TV ratings if WWE were to give deserving superstars opportunities who may not ordinarily get them such as Cesaro. There is no doubt he is one of the best in-ring performers in the company.

Fans who pay even a little attention could see Reigns vs. Shane coming from a mile away given how heavily involved Shane was in the altercations between Roman and Elias leading up to MITB. Props need to be given to Shane McMahon because he is still capable of putting on a gripping performance in matches, despite the fact that he fell to his victory against The Miz.

Speaking of Miz, WWE may be building towards a match between he and Drew McIntyre at Super Showdown, given that they had a match on Raw. Miz is also turning into a surprisingly good protagonist considering this is one of the first times in his career where he is not a heel. He briefly turned babyface in 2013 and was given the figure for leglock by Ric Flair, but that quickly fizzled out and he went back to being a heel because of his mic skills.

Mick Foley’s announcement of the 24/7 Championship was a little bit underwhelming to say the least, because in all honesty it is just an attempted resurgence of the Hardcore Championship from back in the day, which failed to garner much interest from fans. The rules were exactly the same with that championship.

Honestly, it doesn’t even matter that much who the champion is because fans will forget if it changes a couple of times every week. I like to have an optimistic point of view, but it’s almost impossible with this title, which seems doomed to fail just as the Hardcore Championship did about 17 years ago.

The last somewhat relevant Hardcore Champion was Kane when he won the title at WrestleMania X7. A TV title may be more appropriate, a championship which is defended each week on a televised show, either Raw or SmackDown, each week albeit never on pay-per-views. That would generate interest because it would be something new and different, but it would still be easy to keep track of who the champion is because people would see it defended in a marquee segment on TV each week, rather than just being defended anytime anywhere.

Categories RAW

Daniel Bryan Promo Extraordinaire

It’s great to see Dolph Ziggler resurfacing after a few months off, courtesy of a rather brutal attack on Kofi Kingston. Dolph claims it should have been him winning the WWE Championship. I stand corrected – because now there are two matches that garner interest based on history at Super Showdown.

Andrade also had a beautiful match with Ali. It’s very hard not to appreciate these two after one sees, for about two minutes, what these future champions are capable of in the ring. The roster is full of guys like Ricochet, and WWE is extremely fortunate to have right now what is probably its most talented roster ever. From this perspective, it’s a shame that the creative team is struggling this much to create good stories and make good on the fact that there is this much talent. They did not struggle like this in the Attitude Era with less talent

Vince McMahon has been featuring the women in the less prominent roles the last few weeks, surely in an attempt to increase viewership and attention on the product. What he doesn’t realize is that the women are not the problem, it’s the creative team’s lack of good storytelling. Perhaps some new people need to be hired to bring in some fresh ideas.

My God Daniel Bryan cut a great promo, and he showed why at Money in the Bank, hinting that there are major changes coming to the tag team division and that’s Vince McMahon would like for tag teams to be taken seriously as opposed to being more of a fun novelty act. Maybe this change will increase TV viewership with Daniel Bryan and Rowan spearheading this proverbial injection of legitimacy back into the tag team division.

NXT Revitalization

Hopefully, the return of Tyler Breeze to NXT on a seemingly full-time basis will be the start of Triple H sending some people who have fizzled out on the main roster back to NXT. It could be a big help to a brand that is already doing very well.

It’s also important for superstars to not necessarily view this as a demotion, even though that would be a natural thought process since they would have already competed in NXT previously. But it’s not a case of WWE completely giving up on them but instead pressing the reset button and taking some extra time in the character development process.

Categories NXT
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