Evan Luebbe

Christmas Day 2020

Big E is a 2x Intercontinental champion, and it looks like he has done the inner work necessary to become the most authentic person of himself and embody his own energy. While E is IC champion, perhaps Sami Zayn could do some work with Kevin Owens; they work so well together, and Kevin has seemingly wrapped up his storyline with Roman Reigns for the Universal championship. This would be fitting as both men have just lost title matches.

The push of Big E has been a slow burn over the past 8 years that has required some serious patience. Roman Reigns, who debuted on the main roster about a month earlier and was chosen as the next phase of the company after John Cena, had more of a direct path to the top. The Shield lasted for less than two years and his rise to the top of the company started immediately after that. Big E had roughly a two-year run on the main roster which included an IC championship reign. The New Day was incredibly successful over six years before splitting in October for E to officially begin his singles run again.

After feuding with Sheamus (and coming out although rivalry looking strong) back in August, one could have conceived that it would make the most sense for WWE to continue that momentum of E by booking him in a title feud immediately following this. However, Vince McMahon decided to wait a few months before orchestrating for E to win the Intercontinental championship for the second time in his career. No one will forget this title victory because it took place on Christmas. While he has already accomplished this once before in his career, this was still an excellent idea because it has been a very long time since Big E was a singles competitor (most kids under 10 years old don’t even remember). He will still absolutely weighing many world titles throughout his career, and this second run with the Intercontinental championship will serve to remind fans of why he has earned it over the years (Patience is a virtue).

The match between Daniel Bryan and Jey Uso was one of DB’s better performances of 2020 (excluding Pay-Per-Views). Jey Uso has also become a top-level main event superstar on SmackDown; his brother Jimmy will instantly be thrown into that same position when he returns from injury in January or February and joins The Bloodline with their cousin Roman Reigns giving orders as the Head of The Table.

Back to Daniel Bryan, he appears to be in an excellent place in life – nothing appears to be weighing too heavily on his consciousness right now. He is in a transitional phase in life in which he is wrapping up his full-time WWE career and looking toward the future where his family is the top priority. This man appears to have an excellent conceptualization of his priorities in life. His family is at the top of the list, and everything else just kind of falls into place.

Even though Bryan is looking toward the future and what that may bring with two kids and a wife to take care of, for now he is 100% focused on accomplishing the one thing he has never done in WWE, and that would be to win a Royal Rumble match. Back in 2015 – the year Roman Reigns won it – the entire WWE universe was clamoring for Daniel Bryan to get the victory. The two men would meet again in the main event of the Fastlane 2015 the following month before Roman went on to face Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 31 (Seth Rollins walked out of that event with the WWE World Heavyweight championship after cashing in his Money in the Bank contract). Bryan captured the Intercontinental championship for the first time in his career

Riddle’s contract extended with WWE for the next several years – almost 4 to be exact

According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Radio, Riddle’s current WWE contract, which expires in August 2021, has been extended for another three years at $400,000 per year with a $50,000 bonus for every Saudi Arabia show he works. This will lock him up for the foreseeable future with WWE as he made his main roster debut just six months back (on the SmackDown immediately following the Backlash Pay-Per-View in June – The Original Bro made his debut by defeating AJ Styles on June 19).

Riddle is on track currently to challenge Bobby Lashley for the United States championship at Royal Rumble. Riddle is one of the best in-ring workers in the entire company in terms of stamina, so this match might serve to open some eyeballs as it pertains to Bobby Lashley’s current reign as United States Champion (and hopefully convince the WWE universe to perceive it with the legitimacy). In other words, the match might steal the show. It might also prove that Riddle is ready for a higher spot on the card on Monday Night RAW if all goes well. Riddle’s Spiccoli-inspired character from the movie ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’ will be gracing our televisions for years to come.

Some Superstars are shaken mentally

Some superstars are shaken mentally after being called to RAW/SmackDown and experiencing adversity regarding the ability to get over

Several WWE superstars have been called up to the main roster from NXT only to not be booked properly and therefore have either lost all momentum or, much of it. Many of the superstars (Lars Sullivan comes to mind) have experienced exorbitant amounts of success nearly everywhere they have gone, so all the sudden when they are told no or just have difficulty getting over they do not know how to respond because they have never been presented with a situation like this. Many of them have experienced “mental health issues” (such as panic attacks as with Lars Sullivan in 2019).

I believe it’s almost better to have at least some difficulty or adversity in one’s life (particularly early life) and to not necessarily have everything handed to you on a silver platter. Growing up with these circumstances breeds toughness, resilience, and resourcefulness that a person might not develop if they did not grow up in these circumstances. Some challenges in early life are a positive thing because it teaches kids the value of hard work and earning things (rather than entitlement).

Other WWE superstars such as Ricochet, Andrade, Aleister Black as well as Shinsuke Nakamura were former NXT champions and carried the brand before being called to the main roster but have not been nearly as successful since departing. Perhaps these superstars might want to try various nuances to their gimmicks (with approval from the creative team of course). On another note, Triple H is looking to expand the NXT brand and start building a team to operate down in Mexico much like he did in 2018 in the UK.

WWE TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs 12/20/2020

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).

2020 in a nutshell (in WWE terminology)

2020 has been an interesting year that has forced WWE along with the rest of the world to become new and different, and it has taken some getting used to. Some old, inefficient ways of doing things are beginning to fall away.

Roman Reigns has been on the best stretch of his career – finally turning heel – the Head of The Table – and becoming aligned with Paul Heyman. This comes after taking a five-month hiatus to take care of his newborn twins during the initial months of the pandemic. Speaking of Paul Heyman (Paul E. Dangerously in his earlier years), his client Brock Lesnar, who has participated in multiple WrestleMania main events with Reigns, is currently not under contract with WWE after dropping the WWE title to Drew McIntyre at WrestleMania 36. The Beast, as Paul Heyman has said, will make his return whenever he deems the time is right. This quote was completely in character, so that leads me to believe Lesnar will be back in WWE by WrestleMania 37 in 2021.

Braun Strowman was trusted to carry the company in the first several months of the pandemic after being told in January 2019 by Vince McMahon that he was not yet ready to become a major world champion. It had to feel good for Strowman to be trusted with that big of a responsibility after being told he was not yet ready a little over a year ago – full-circle moment. Roman Reigns was originally scheduled to be put over by Goldberg and become Universal champion at WrestleMania 36 before deciding to step away for several months (totally understandable). When opportunity came knocking, Strowman was ready.

WWE effectively maintained the momentum of The Fiend and he became Universal champion again at SummerSlam (even though he only held the title for a week before dropping it to Roman Reigns). The Fiend is one of those supernatural characters like The Undertaker who doesn’t necessarily need a title to be relevant in the minds of fans.

Yet another turn of the event that was pleasantly surprising was the rise of Keith Lee. He became NXT North American champion on January 22 and held the title until July when he simultaneously defeated Adam Cole for the NXT title – becoming the first ever double champion in the black and gold brand’s 10-year history. Lee would drop the NXT championship to Karrion Kross at NXT Takeover: XXX on SummerSlam weekend in August (unfortunately, Kross had to relinquish the title less than a week later due to injury), only to be moved to Monday Night RAW the following Monday. The Limitless One’s presentation is a little bit different to say the least on the main roster, but he is still viewed highly by Mr. McMahon and is set to be a pivotal figure for WWE in the future (his biggest victory came against Randy Orton at Payback on August 31.

Drew McIntyre firmly established himself as a perennial main event superstar by defeating Lesnar for the WWE championship at the Showcase of The Immortals. This was not the only major accomplishment of McIntyre in 2020 – he also engaged in a long-term rivalry with Randy Orton from SummerSlam through the month of November. This feud encompassed three Pay-Per-View events, and it ended with The Scottish Warrior becoming a two-time WWE champion. Orton has also had the single greatest year of his career, establishing himself as a presence on the mic. The rivalry with Edge has been immensely beneficial to Randy because he has developed such a deep personal connection to Edge over the past 20 years (Edge is expected to return to action in WWE sometime early in 2021 from his triceps injury suffered in June – in The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever with Orton).

Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch became parents at the end of 2020 – Daniel Bryan also became a father for the second time. Bryan is in the midst of what he is thinking will be his final run in WWE – at least as a full-time superstar (the run will presumably end at Mania. It’s great that Big E is finally getting his renewed singles push (intuitive fans knew it was coming at some point), but it was a bittersweet moment because that means he will no longer be a member of The New Day. He will obviously always maintain a rate relationship with them, but his days of dancing with them and throwing pancakes are at least mostly over (it still might happen every now and then). On a positive note, Big E’s days of being a world champion may be fast approaching.

The Royal Rumble event this year was an excellent indicator of who was in line for major pushes throughout the year. Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss, Bianca Belair, Shayna Baszler, Sasha Banks, Bayley, Asuka, Roman Reigns, Drew McIntyre, Randy Orton, Edge, Seth Rollins, Daniel Bryan, and The Fiend Bray Wyatt were all spotlighted the most in this event, and the rest of the year ended up showing that these were the primary superstars that would be focused on. Particularly, the story involving Becky Lynch and Asuka has been rather poetic based on the events this year, which included an unforeseen pregnancy. Asuka won the Money in the Bank contract in May before realizing it was the actual RAW Women’s championship (she has been champion for most of the time since Becky announced her pregnancy.

WWE SmackDown 12/18/2020

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 36th 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

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.

Categories RAW

The Slow Rise of Big E

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.

WWE SmackDown 12/11/2020

Carmella may be a viable threat to the SmackDown Women’s Championship several months down the road but putting the title on her now would be way too early since this was her first match back after quite a while away from the ring

Carmella is in the process of establishing herself as a legitimate threat to Sasha Banks’ SmackDown Women’s title and positioning herself as a major presence in the collective consciousness of the WWE universe, and it’s largely working. As for now, keeping the title on Sasha Banks is absolutely the right way to go. Carmella is on the right path, although Sasha – for right now – is the much more established superstar. Banks may very well end up defending the title against Carmella in a rematch at TLC in nine days, but the right decision was made for the time being.

A second run with the Intercontinental title could be exactly the thing Big E needs to ultimately be propelled to WrestleMania main event status

In theory, Big E will most likely challenge Sami Zayn for the IC championship at TLC to give his renewed singles push momentum after the splitting of The New Day despite losing a match this week to The Great Liberator. E winning the IC title for a second time in his career (he won it seven years ago when he was doing the five-count gimmick) would provide a nice plateau for him to springboard off and be launched into the next tier of superstardom in WWE.

As for Zayn, there are similarities between he and The Miz in the way each of their characters are presented on WWE programming. Both are cowardly heels who will do just about anything (absence of moral compass) to retain the title. Zayn getting the victory this week will serve to make it so that the WWE universe will be wanting The Great Liberator to lose the Intercontinental championship even more come December 20 at the Pay-Per-View. If he becomes an even bigger heel right before he drops the title it will serve in the long run to make E into an even bigger star. This is exactly the reason I am a bigger fan of heels – because they have the ability to put over faces much more often and make someone’s career – which is extremely rewarding both personally and professionally.

Chad Gable and Otis are both finding their Way

Chad Gable has been an extremely underrated superstar since he first started in NXT tagging with Jason Jordan. Gable is somewhat reminiscent of a smaller version of Kurt Angle – primarily because he is also an Olympian (2012) – with a rather decent amount of charisma. He was able to shed the Shorty G moniker given to him by King Corbin in 2019, and hopefully this run with Otis goes somewhere. Meanwhile, Otis dropped the Money in the Bank briefcase to The Miz because WWE made the decision to rely on established superstars (this makes sense during the pandemic era). Otis is obviously still in the process of establishing a presence in the company.

It’s a miracle – Dolph Ziggler actually got a victory over Montez Ford for the first time in seemingly a half decade. Expect Angelo Dawkins to get the pin over Robert Roode next week on the Go-Home edition of SmackDown before TLC to create some suspense for the tag team title match.

Disagreement between two creative teams

Disagreement between two creative teams in WWE on the finish to the NXT Women’s Championship match at WrestleMania 36

Fightful Select is reporting that there were disagreements between the creative teams for RAW and NXT (RAW overruled) as to how to book the NXT Women’s Championship match at WrestleMania 36 this past April between Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley. Sean Ross Sapp is reporting that the idea of NXT creative was to book Ripley to retain the title and add Bianca Belair to the mix so Ripley could pin Belair and that way Flair wouldn’t have to take a loss.

This would have made sense for two reasons.

  • Belair was called to the main roster the very next night – and evidently she has been drafted to SmackDown (even though she made her debut on RAW with her husband Montez Ford of The Street Profits) and is on pace to become a women’s champion in 6 – 12 months.
  • She was featured in a match in March with The Queen. This was a hint after looking back on the situation in hindsight – which is always 20/20 – that one booking team was pushing for Belair to be in the match.

The RAW creative team ended up winning this battle and they got their singles match between Charlotte and Rhea, with The Queen – the established star – going over.

Not to say I’m upset about that. I like Flair, but Ripley would have used the victory a lot more – a brand-new main event star in the women’s division would have been made instantly – and before she even hit the age of 25. Charlotte is only 34 years old and still building her legacy to hopefully one day catch her father with 16 titles.

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