Evan Luebbe

WWE RAW 12/7/2020

Congratulations to Becky Lynch on giving birth to Roux – she and Seth Rollins are parents! This means neither of them will be able to be quite as committed to WWE as they have been over the last several years – I’m guessing

Don’t be surprised at all to see The Fiend take his storyline back up with Roman Reigns at some point in time, even if that point is not for another year. This is the feud in WWE right now – and for the next several years – that most likely has the potential to make the most money for the company, so it is definitely on the back burner. Mr. McMahon is simply waiting for the time to be right and for everything to line up perfectly. One could make the argument, however, that the time is right now. Randy Orton got the upper hand in his story with The Fiend last week, so it only made sense for Him to get the upper hand this week.

The best part of the event involving Bray Wyatt this week is what did not happen rather than what did happen. Alexa Bliss was kept off the show this week so The Fiend had the ability to stay true to his character and do what he does best – be menacing by delivering Mandible Claws (this time to Randy Orton).

A potentially interesting idea is for WWE to orchestrate an entire episode of Monday Night RAW in which Randy Orton abducts Alexa Bliss early in the go-home edition before the TLC Pay-Per-View and some sort of event involving the abduction can occur as RAW goes off the air to set up the build for TLC. This would take up an entire edition of the program (Vince Russo suggested the idea last week. He is no longer a WWE writer and hasn’t been for quite some time, but this idea might have validity).

WWE might finally be on the verge of having established two top guys who are almost completely accepted by the WWE universe and have the ability to carry the company through difficult times (right now might qualify as a difficult time with the pandemic) in the form of WWE champion Drew McIntyre and a heel Universal champion Roman Reigns (who is primarily focused on ensuring the future of the business). The fist bump at Survivor Series 2019 between Keith Lee and The Big Dog was a precursor to what was to come in 2020 with Roman Reigns’ character after looking at the event in hindsight.

The writing is on the wall for Drew McIntyre and Sheamus to collide in the future (most likely before Mania) – whether this is an extended storyline lasting several months or just a one off, it will be an absolutely fantastic match. Sheamus hit McIntyre with a Brogue kick this week but the two friends quickly made up by putting WWE official Pat Buck through a table – this storyline will intensify next week.

Drew McIntyre appears to be on a collision course with Sheamus, while AJ Styles (Jackass and The Beanstalk as The Scottish Warrior coined them – AJ and his bodyguard Omos) is serving as a filler between Drew’s match with Roman Reigns and The Celtic Warrior (which might take place at the Royal Rumble. If this is indeed the case, then the feud might commence as soon as right after TLC. There is a Feasible Way, Keith Lee could also be added to this story down the road as The Limitless One has also been established as a friend of Drew McIntyre. Even Jinder Mahal could ultimately be included as the fourth man in a battle of friends (assuming he returns from injury within the next few months).

Big future for Elias potentially under a new Gimmick

Jeff Hardy took a loss to Bobby Lashley this week (not exactly sure right now what WWE is planning to do with Riddle – book him to begin a verbal go-around with Lashley or tag with Hardy). Jeff Hardy got a victory against Elias last week in a Symphony of Destruction match. This makes sense for WWE to book Hardy strong, because at least as far as I know the company is still planning on changing Hardy’s entrance music back to “No More Words” which he had back in 2009.

However, on the surface it seemed a really perplexing finish as it hurt Elias (who is about a decade younger than Jeff Hardy and needed the momentum more), but this might be the start of a gimmick change for him. Elias claimed on social media that when he got electrocuted by the amplifier last week, his ability to play the guitar was saved but he had an epiphany as to what his purpose in life was. He also referred to himself as extraordinary Elias.

New Day – Hurt Business RAW Tag Team titles will likely be booked for TLC next week; it’s quite possible we could see new champions crowned and The Hurt Business could add more titles to their collection in addition to the United States championship; MVP has experienced a pretty good amount of success since returning to WWE at the Royal Rumble

Kofi Kingston had two matches – one against Shelton Benjamin and a second match against Cedric Alexander, and it made sense because Kofi has incredible stamina. Xavier Woods got the win on November 30 over Cedric Alexander. Kingston beat the 45-year-old Benjamin this week and also lost to Alexander. That means The Hurt Business has won two out of three singles matches against The New Day, all the more reason to think they might become RAW Tag Team Champions come TLC (the match hasn’t been made official yet but it’s only a matter of time before that changes).

This was very strategic booking by WWE to give Cedric Alexander both victories over each member of The New Day over the past two weeks considering he is so much younger than Shelton Benjamin and is clearly one of the primary pillars of the future.

Braun Strowman injured his knee at WWE Survivor Series 2020. The injury comes at a rather unfortunate time as he was scheduled to challenge WWE champion Drew McIntyre for the title at WWE TLC. Fortunately, the company was able to successfully pivot and slot AJ Styles into that position. This shows evidence of the depth of the WWE roster – Drew McIntyre and AJ have unbelievably never had a match, and it’s rather unbelievable this rivalry has not been explored in the past. Thankfully it is now that McIntyre is WWE champion because this match is almost guaranteed to be a classic

Another theory is that Samoa Joe might make his return to the ring in 2021 – possibly even at Royal Rumble after being an excellent member of the commentary team on Monday Night RAW for the past nine months to date. He might return on SmackDown to challenge Roman Reigns for the Universal championship, because Joe has stated in the past that he has no familial connection to the Anoa’i family despite being Samoan.

Joe could tell Roman that he does not view him as the Head of The Table – very simple beginning, but even John Cena made his entire career off of extremely simple stories like that. Samoa Joe is 41 years old and, based on his work in the ring in the last couple years, he has at least four or five more excellent years ahead of him in which he will be capable of giving more than adequate performances (this is speaking objectively, maybe he has an injury no one knows about yet).

Assuming WWE books Reigns to hold onto the Universal championship through ‘Mania 37 and hold the title for a full calendar year, maybe WWE could book Joe to make his return to in-ring action the night after ‘Mania and begin a long-term feud with the Head of The Table through the summer of 2021 – culminating at SummerSlam. Another option is to book these two men to face each other at WrestleMania 37 – possibly in the main event. Big E would be another possibility as Roman Reigns’ opponent for WrestleMania 37 – two years after his New Day brother Kofi Kingston took the WWE championship from Daniel Bryan at the Showcase of The Immortals in 2019 at MetLife Stadium.

Categories RAW

NXT Takeover: Wargames 12/6/2020

2020 is the first year since 2015 that NXT will go through with a Takeover event in August on SummerSlam weekend followed by two more – one in October and one in December. In 2015 there was Takeover: Brooklyn – the first one – followed by Takeover: Respect in October and Takeover: London in December. Bayley and Sasha Banks headlined the first two and Finn Balor was defending his title in the main event in London with Samoa Joe (we were missing the NXT champion Balor in this year’s Takeover: Wargames). In addition, Sunday night had to be a proud moment for Wade Barrett professionally as it was his first Takeover as a member of the NXT announce team.

The Undisputed Era reminds Everyone of why they are the Leaders of NXT

The Undisputed Era proved exactly why they are the best and most over act NXT has to offer right now – and likely the greatest four-man group in WWE since Evolution:

  • Triple H – the man who runs NXT with Shawn Michaels and has done so since the brand’s inception in 2010
  • Batista – Hollywood movie star nowadays
  • Randy Orton – one of the greatest WWE superstars to ever do it and is having one of the best years of his career in 2020, and;
  • Ric Flair – living legend and 16 – time world champion.

Adam Cole is the undisputed leader of The Undisputed Era – that’s not up for debate – but Kyle O’Reilly has established himself as the clear-cut No. 2 in this group. His most notable, preset accomplishment is how he was pushed recently and received an NXT championship match two months ago at Takeover: 31. He had an outstanding performance in that match. Meanwhile, Roderick Strong and Bobby Fish (the oldest member of The UE) are on the back burner – not forgotten about, just not at the top of the priority list right now.

Pat McAfee is so incredibly captivating as a character in wrestling – as such a supremely arrogant heel, but at the same time he is so good at everything and you can’t help but like him. He comes into his second ever match and the first thing he does is land a perfectly executed moonsault which looked somewhat reminiscent of Kurt Angle (how he would seemingly hang in the air). McAfee was strategically paired with three other superstars who could use a slight boost in the charisma department.

All three of them are great in the ring – Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch (particularly the former) are extremely hard-hitting and go at 100% speed with everything they do, and Pete Dunne was in need of another dimension to his character rather than just “the guy who breaks fingers.” In addition to Io Shirai earlier in the night, Pat McAfee got the honor of being trusted to perform the high spot of the match off the top of the cage as there has been one in every Wargames match over the past four years.

Damian Priest is almost guaranteed at this point to become a main event caliber superstar after hitting the two-year mark since he was signed by WWE in October 2018

Damian Priest might be in the clear now to become a top-level main eventer in WWE – possibly one day rivaling Roman Reigns – if he continues on his current path. I have a theory that, when a superstar gets signed by NXT, if he or she is not at least a massive superstar in the eyes of the NXT audience after two years – they don’t even need to be promoted to the main roster after two years, just be over with the NXT universe – they probably won’t ever become a major star in WWE. Take Tommaso Ciampa for example, he is still in NXT after four years, but it took him less than two to get massively over – same with Johnny Gargano.

Keith Lee and Riddle were called to the main roster earlier this year after signing with NXT in 2018. Damian Priest is at the point where he was signed to NXT about two years ago, and he is massively over, so this bodes well for his future in WWE. His breakout moment in NXT came at Takeover: In Your House in a match with the current NXT champion Finn Balor.

Johnny Gargano is a 3-time North American champion – the only multi-time North American champion in NXT history to date – he might have been a little better as a babyface but he is being portrayed as a pretty decent heel too. The story of Johnny Gargano’s character is somewhat similar to the transition WWE is making right now with The Fiend Bray Wyatt on RAW. Triple H did such an excellent job establishing Johnny Gargano as a face and did a complete 180 with Johnny’s character earlier this year. Now Mr. McMahon is seeking to do the same character flip with The Fiend by turning him face and showing a more human side after establishing him as a supernatural heel.

Austin Theory was also introduced as one of the three Ghostface characters that helped Johnny win the title after not doing much of anything for a couple months in NXT. Maybe Theory could possibly become a lackey of sorts to keep the North American championship on Gargano for the foreseeable future, before ultimately turning on Johnny and beginning a championship program.

Despite being so undersized, Leon Ruff did not look out of place at all in the North American championship match with two men much bigger. He was nearly injured during the match by Damian Priest (albeit unintentionally). The former Evolve superstar might have a legitimate future with NXT.

The NXT women’s division is easily the place where the women in WWE are flourishing. Triple H and Shawn Michaels are handling the character development of all the women in NXT extremely well by giving them lots of wiggle room to be their authentic selves. If you ask me, the storylines involving the women on the main roster are just a little too dramatic (that’s purely an opinion, not a fact).

Io Shirai was responsible for creating the biggest moment of the Wargames match for the second straight year, this time by jumping off the top of the cage with a trashcan over her head this year (she did a moonsault off the top of the cage last year). The 2020 women’s Wargames match was perhaps missing a shocking character change like the NXT universe experience last year when Dakota Kai turned heel on on Tegan Nox.

The heels winning instantly paves the way for four potential challengers to Io Shirai’s NXT women’s title, with Raquel Gonzales being firmly planted at the front of the line by pinning the champion Shirai (Dakota Kai has earned some of the credit for helping to be the established superstar that has assisted Gonzales in getting over in the last several months). All four of the heels would theoretically make sense as challengers to the title within the next few months, but Raquel Gonzales is the newest start to emerge onto the scene at Takeover: Wargames. The result of this match showed that the booking team clearly had the future in mind when they were considering the finish.

Ciampa wins (he needed some momentum as an established star on the brand), but Thatcher gets over and establishes a reputation similar to the one that Sheamus has developed over the years

Tommaso Ciampa faced Timothy Thatcher in what was without a doubt the most physical match of the night. Thatcher is beginning to develop a reputation for being the hardest-hitting superstar in NXT. An idea is that – whenever he gets promoted to the main roster – he could ultimately engage in a feud with Sheamus. The Celtic Warrior’s physical in-ring style would mix perfectly with Thatcher (or Sheamus could even show up out of the blue on NXT TV one week and engage in a brief story with Thatcher – maybe he could interest and an episode of Thatch-as, Thatch-can. Food for thought).

Timothy Thatcher is getting over in a big way for his wrestling style – at least in my book. He has taken losses in his last two Takeover matches – losing to Finn Balor at Takeover: XXX and Ciampa at Takeover: Wargames. We all know what to expect from Ciampa as he has been a massive superstar in NXT for several years now, but Thatcher is still relatively new as he was just introduced earlier this year, so this is a huge step in the right direction for him.

Poetic match because Cameron Grimes and Dexter Lumis have come up together

Dexter Lumis getting the victory over Cameron Grimes was definitely the right call. Lumis quite possibly could have gotten his name from the WWE creative team based on the character Dr. Loomis (Michael Myers’ psychiatrist in the Halloween films) because he presents that same sort of creepy vibe – similar to Kane.

This was Cameron Grimes’ first legitimate Takeover match. Grimes has spent the past year and a half trying to find his position in NXT, and he may have finally found it. Grimes has a loudmouth character with a very distinctive look, and it’s hilarious. Dexter Lumis is in the same boat because he signed his NXT contract about the same time as Grimes, so these two guys have come up in WWE together.

The vulture at Takeover is a foreshadowing of things to come. Karrion Kross may very well be next in line to challenge NXT champion Finn Balor at the next Takeover, or perhaps even sooner if he is indeed good to go. He won the NXT title from Keith Lee at Takeover: XXX but suffered a shoulder injury during the match and had to relinquish the title on the very next edition of NXT TV. Now he is returning to claim the title he never lost (similar to how Balor suffered a shoulder injury during the match in which he became the first ever Universal champion in 2016).

King Corbin has new Protection, and Big E has a new Entrance

King Corbin was accompanied last week on SmackDown by the returning Wesley Blake and Steve Cutler (the former Forgotten Sons). Originally this group started in NXT, and Blake and Cutler were the tag team accompanied by Jaxson Ryker. However, Ryker tweeted his support of Donald Trump for a political stance he took earlier this year, and he received some pushback from some members of the WWE locker room. The Forgotten Sons’ initial push to introduce them to the SmackDown audience was brought to a halt as a result, so WWE is in the process of starting over with the introductory push of Steve Cutler and Wesley Blake – and branding them as the backup to King Corbin in his rivalry with Murphy and the Mysterio family.

Ryker is still under contract with WWE for now, but he may or may not work more shows for WWE under that contract. It should be interesting to see the direction the company decides to take with Blake and Cutler, because they appeared to be headed for a SmackDown Tag Team Championship feud with The New Day. They were receiving a rather large push before they were taken off TV – they might have even become the team to take the titles off The New Day rather than Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura.

For the first time since wrapping up a singles feud with Sheamus on SmackDown a couple months ago, Big E participated in a singles match honoring the late Pat Patterson. He also debuted a brand-new entrance song (rapped by Wale) as well as the chalk he used during his pre-New Day stint as part of the five-count gimmick (which – one could probably imagine – is where he pins his opponents for a count of five instead of three). Speaking of this match to honor Pat Patterson, it was extremely poetic that all six men who participated in this match were former, or current, Intercontinental champions – Sami Zayn (current), Dolph Ziggler, Shinsuke Nakamura, Daniel Bryan, E, and Rey Mysterio – because Patterson was most famous for being the first ever Intercontinental Champion in 1979.

WWE SmackDown 12/4/2020

R.I.P. Pat Patterson. There is absolutely no way WWE would be anywhere near as big a production as it is without you. This is one of the few men who is more fondly remembered – at least by me – for the work he did for the business after his in-ring career was finished (even though he was crowned the first Intercontinental Champion in 1979). Patterson was one of Vince McMahon’s lead writers during WWE’s most prosperous era – The Attitude Era in the late 1990s and early 2000’s. He was essentially Vince McMahon’s right-hand man for many years and most importantly, he developed a very meaningful relationship with countless WWE superstars across several different eras. He touched the hearts and lives of so many people, which I feel should be the goal of every human being throughout their lives.

Dolph Ziggler, Shinsuke Nakamura and Rey Mysterio didn’t provide a ton of storyline continuity in this match, but it didn’t matter much because the primary purpose of it was to pay tribute to Pat Patterson. With the other three superstars in the match, a case could be made for Daniel Bryan to challenge Sami Zayn at TLC, but he might be more effective challenging Jey Uso (the new main eventer has so much momentum right now that he needs a bigtime opponent at TLC, and Bryan fits perfectly because he is already so established in the company).

In the meantime, Big E can challenge Sami Zayn for the IC title at the Pay-Per-View – and most likely take the Intercontinental Championship for the second time in his main roster run. E will be able to provide a level of seriousness and legitimacy to the IC title picture that Zayn (who is established as a cowardly heel right now) simply cannot – Mr. McMahon even viewed him as a potential face of the company before deciding to go with Roman Reigns about six years ago.

Jey Uso is a new main eventer which WWE always needs because stars are not created every day that resonate with the WWE universe; Kayla Braxton is given a major opportunity; Otis shines in the main event, and Roman Reigns has created a very human character everyone can relate to

Roman Reigns is gradually introducing the WWE ThunderDome to one or two sects of this incarnation of his WWE character each week. The Head of The Table is also taking an adequate amount of time to get every nuance of his character over as much as he possibly can, so the WWE universe becomes familiar with the character and slowly resonates with it. Roman originally got the idea to portray this sort of character from the role Daniel Day Lewis portrayed in the 2002 film Gangs of New York.

Lewis’s character was so identified with his own delusions that he began to act as though his worldview was the ideal one to live by – even though he was committing what most other people would consider to be atrocities. In essence, this is all any of us are doing in this life – living by our own set of standards and we all have our own various justifications as to why our behavior is okay, when others might see it as awful. We are all human beings doing our best with the level of consciousness we are at, and constantly striving to evolve. Roman Reigns chose a very human character that everyone can somehow relate to.

The Tribal Chief has also turned his cousin Jey Uso into a top-level main event star. SmackDown has experienced its highest viewership totals of the entire calendar year 2020 in the past five weeks, in which Jey Uso has participated in the main event every one of those weeks (six including this past week). Make no mistake about it – this is the case because of Uso’s familial affiliation with Roman. Either way, Seth Rollins is not the only man in WWE who has been focused on putting over younger superstars as of late because his former Shield brother Roman Reigns has done the exact same thing over the past 2 ½ months by putting over his cousin Josh (one year younger) and making him a new main event star in WWE.

Paul Heyman graciously gave his Talking Smack co-host Kayla Braxton the opportunity to interview Roman Reigns. She did a good job overall (even though Roman and Paul didn’t think so but he apologized ) in the role Renée Young occupied for years. As a quick side note, there is also a very small wrinkle to the entrance track of Kevin Owens. Otis received the biggest spotlight he has ever received in WWE by getting the opportunity to participate in a tag team match with Kevin Owens against The Big Dog and his cousin Jey Uso – Otis also got his first opportunity in the company to interact with Roman Reigns – by taking a beating courtesy of the steel stairs.

Jey Uso’s brother Jimmy might be returning to action in WWE in about a month – this will be similar to the timing of Seth Rollins’ return from paternity leave; his wife Becky Lynch should be able to return to action not long after that – presumably to the SmackDown brand. She was a member of Monday Night Raw before her pregnancy, but Vince McMahon likes to keep couples on the same brand, so they have the opportunity to spend as much time together as possible.

Big things in store for Bianca Belair, and those big things start with knocking off Bayley

The spot WWE is intending to get to regarding the push of Bianca Belair is to position her as a top contender to the women’s title – she will most likely become champion within the next 6 – 12 months. The steppingstone WWE is positioning her to overcome before that is by defeating the woman who has been on top for most of the past two years – Bayley. The company is most likely headed towards booking a match between Bayley and Belair for TLC on December 20 – Belair should go over – at least I would expect.

Sasha Banks has to be appreciated for bringing up James Ellsworth this week. Despite that this was 3.5  – 4 years ago, there were still some fun moments to be appreciated and that’s what WWE is all about – creating moments that stick out in the memory banks of people

The rivalry between Murphy and King Corbin will likely come to an end at TLC since both men have scored one victory over the other, albeit each one was with help from the outside. Murphy was assisted by the Mysterio family last week, and this week Corbin brought out Wesley Blake (who ironically used to comprise a tag team alongside Murphy in NXT about five years ago (who can forget Alexa Bliss, so this fit perfectly into the framework of the story) and Steve Cutler to help him pick up the victory.

All the sudden the SmackDown tag team division is getting crowded. Robert Roode and Dolph Ziggler beat The Street Profits clean last week so they have definitely earned a title shot, not to mention they were also scheduled to challenge The Street Profits for the championships on Monday Night Raw before both teams were drafted to the blue brand. However, now another team is asserting that they should be in the title picture – Cesaro and Nakamura, who lost the titles in July. In my view, Cesaro absolutely needs to be WWE champion at least one time before he retires. His level of charisma is more than enough (the ripping apart of the beach ball at SummerSlam 2017 when he was part of The Bar with Sheamus.

On that night Cesaro was hyper-present, listened to what the audience was giving him and thought to himself “they’re all entertained by the ball more than me. I need to do something with the ball and be brave enough to just see if I get any reaction. He allowed the WWE universe to energetically put him on the wavelength he needed to be on.

The Roman Reigns / Daniel Bryan Ongoing Rivalry

Roman Reigns – Daniel Bryan may take place at Royal rumble 2021, but this is subject to change considering WWE has booked for this rivalry to take place several times over the past few years only to reverse the decision a few weeks before the rivalry is scheduled to begin

Daniel Bryan is currently penciled in to face The Tribal Chief Roman Reigns for the Universal championship at Royal Rumble in January 2021, but this may be subject to change. Daniel Bryan is a member of the WWE creative team (and is receiving excellent reviews for his work on SmackDown) so he has a lot of say in the formation of his storylines. This is also a massive feud that will draw significant attention to the company, so Vince McMahon as well as the rest of the WWE creative team are very carefully planting the seeds to make the story interesting. The company has planned for this rivalry to manifest on several occasions in the past few years, but they have never been confident enough in the formation of the story to pull the trigger.

The first time this feud between Reigns and Bryan was explored was in February 2015 at the Fastlane Pay-Per-View(during the buildup to WrestleMania 31 – Reigns’ first encounter with Brock Lesnar). This was the year The Big Dog won the Royal Rumble match despite the fact that the entire WWE universe was displeased with the result – everyone was rooting for the returning Daniel Bryan to win. As a result, a number one contender’s match was booked for the following month.

The most recent mention of booking this rivalry to take place was during the summer of 2019. There were rumors that a Roman Reigns – Daniel Bryan match may take place at SummerSlam that year. A couple of weeks before the event, WWE decided to wait on booking this blockbuster match. The company felt the timing was not quite right to build a story with a sufficient amount of continuity – perhaps because Roman Reigns had only been back in WWE for about six months after taking a hiatus due to the return of his leukemia.

WWE RAW 11/30/2020

The booking of The Fiend takes an interesting turn; he is now being booked as a babyface – most likely so that Randy Orton can remain in the role of a heel in which he is most comfortable

Mr. McMahon has decided to do a complete 180 regarding the booking of Alexa Bliss and The Fiend Bray Wyatt by changing their roles to make them the babyfaces in this feud while positioning Randy Orton as the ‘master heel’ with a long-term plan for how he will go about systematically attacking The Fiend mentally. I don’t love it, but I am not necessarily opposed to watching how this will play out. It’s difficult to completely reverse the narrative of The Fiend when WWE has built the narrative so well of Him being a monster who has such a supernatural aura. Now the more human side of the character is beginning to be explored – people cannot be judgmental because the entire story is far from over.

This rivalry is being revisited after 3 ½ years when Randy Orton burned down Sister Abigail’s cabin. He would ultimately go on to take the WWE championship from Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania 33 after winning the 2017 Royal Rumble match. Orton was a follower of Bray Wyatt and a member of The Wyatt Family – and they were even tag team champions for a few months – before The Viper revealed that befriending Bray was the essential piece in his master plan all along to become WWE champion. The primary intention of the story is to further the character of Randy Orton and portray him as an even more sinister threat in WWE.

AJ Styles is the new No. 1 contender for the WWE championship, and after getting the victory in the triple threat match he subsequently made an effort to grab the WWE title off Drew McIntyre to more easily become WWE champion for the first time in two years

Regarding the No. 1 contender’s triple threat match for the WWE championship, Keith Lee is primed and ready to be a perennial superstar in the near future – maybe just after WrestleMania 37. His entrance, however, may have been better in NXT – the song he rapped himself. There was so much originality in that entrance, and singing his own lyrics was good enough for John Cena so why not do the same for Keith Lee. He also has a victory over Randy Orton in his back pocket from August 30 at the Payback Pay-Per-View.

Riddle may require a slight gimmick change if WWE wants to position him as a legitimate threat to the WWE championship. It is a very positive thing to see Riddle make his entrance last, so that gives away the fact that the company is intending to push him in the future. There is not much at all Riddle is not capable of in the ring as he has the physical ability to put together a great match with either a big guy or a small guy. He also picked up a win over AJ Styles in his debut match on SmackDown in June 2020 immediately following the Backlash Pay-Per-View.

The WWE championship match at TLC between AJ Styles and Drew McIntyre could be an instant classic – McIntyre has talked in the past about how Styles was one of the men he was looking forward to competing against for the WWE championship in the future. Some sort of event involving AJ’s bodyguard might transpire to further his WWE character at TLC – at least he talked this week on Monday Night Raw. After winning the triple threat match earlier in the night, AJ made an effort to help The Miz cash-in his Money in the Bank contract albeit unsuccessfully.

Meanwhile Sheamus is looming in the background for now as a future challenger to Drew McIntyre’s WWE title (which he will be for certain in the coming months, maybe even as soon as the Royal Rumble. For right now, WWE is seeking to lay the groundwork in order to build the story between the two men. Speaking of WWE creating stories out of Drew McIntyre’s friendships, a story could very well be built in 2021 between McIntyre and Jinder Mahal (who will be returning from knee surgery).

New Day dropping the RAW Tag Titles to The Hurt Business at TLC?

Since the story between The New Day and The Hurt Business continued this week and has been going on for several weeks in a row – Cedric Alexander and Xavier Woods met this week in a singles match which Cedric won – it seems at this point as if the writing is on the wall for a RAW Tag Team championship match to be booked for TLC between these two teams. It appears as though The Hurt Business is on pace to capture the titles. These will be the first titles either Cedric Alexander or Shelton Benjamin have held in quite some time.

The WWE Women’s Division is arguably Healthier than Ever, or not, Depending on your Perspective

The company is beginning to suffer from the same phenomenon they were suffering from earlier this year, and that problem is that all the opportunities in the women’s division are being given to just four or five women. There are many more competent women in WWE, but the opportunities are not being spread out, and the women’s division as a whole is suffering because of it. The five women WWE is building the entire women’s division around currently are Asuka, Lana, Nia Jax Shayna Baszler on RAW and Sasha Banks on SmackDown (and the women’s division in NXT is absolutely loaded). But at the end of the day WWE is Vince McMahon’s company and he has the right to do whatever he wants. There are so many women who could possibly be pushed – there is not a bad option. (I prefer to take the stance that WWE is doing better than ever in terms of the state of the women’s division).

Categories RAW

WWE RAW 11/23/2020

The Fiend has unfinished business with Randy Orton after Orton took the WWE title from him over three years ago; Alexa Bliss establishes herself as a dominant presence in the Women’s Division after fooling Nikki Cross and convincing her to let her guard down

Randy Orton will finally begin his rivalry with The Fiend which has been hinted at for a month, starting immediately after Randy captured the WWE championship from Drew McIntyre for the 14th time. Ironically, Randy Orton won his 13th WWE championship from Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania 33. It was an extremely intelligent decision by Vince McMahon to orchestrate for Orton to drop the WWE championship before this rivalry officially got going. The Fiend Bray Wyatt tends to not have a positive impact on the character development of the superstars he is working with when a title is involved – just ask Seth Rollins. The only man who has feuded with The Fiend over a major WWE championship – the Universal championship – and legitimately benefited in terms of character development is Daniel Bryan. The Fiend is in The Undertaker territory in the sense that there is a certain supernatural aura to his character, therefore he doesn’t necessarily need a title around his waist to be relevant.

This has been a fantastic story in the way it has progressed and ultimately come to fruition for two reasons.

  • The Fiend attacked Randy Orton a few weeks ago on RAW when he was still WWE champion, signaling that Mr. McMahon was thinking about potentially starting a feud between them over the WWE championship, but he wisely went against it.
  • In the Firefly FunHouse, Bray Wyatt has been subtly foreshadowing the beginnings of a rivalry with The Viper over the past six or eight weeks by showing with regularity vignettes of Sister Abigail’s cabin burning down about three years ago who – who started that fire? Randy Orton when they were in the midst of a rivalry over the WWE championship after being aligned as a tag team for a combat short time.

He never forgets. The Friendship Frog segment this week on Firefly FunHouse was setting up this rivalry to have a platform to springboard off. Friendship Frog also happened to have the same birth year as Randy Orton.

The Fiend’s presence has also leaked into the Women’s Division with Alexa Bliss. WWE will need to be careful and treat her in this incarnation exactly as Bray is treated. This means that she does not need a title around her waist to be relevant either – there is now a supernatural presence to her character exactly like there is with Him.

I thought The Undertaker was wrapping up his career when I first got into the wrestling business given his age. I thought it might be a very poetic ending to his career to call it quits at WrestleMania 28 in 2012 (which I attended in Miami, Florida). I am extremely grateful now to have gotten to see this man work for a decade. The way he decided to end his career was the most ideal way possible – combining every incarnation of his character throughout 30 years. There very well may never be anyone who creates that type of aura and supernatural mystique again, so it was a pleasure to see the original version.

Lana is receiving opportunities in WWE after about seven years of paying her dues; opportunities do not come by magic, but are rather the result of doing the right thing consistently over a long period of time

Say what you want about Lana, but her booking over the last couple of months has been unbelievable. Personally, I have never been much of a fan of her, but she has gained a lot of momentum in my consciousness. Once Mr. McMahon made up his mind quickly and decisively to the point as far as getting her over as a major babyface, it was an extremely effective idea to orchestrate for Nia Jax to put her through a table 9 weeks in a row. This portrayed Lana in a sympathetic light. She went on to get a couple different championship opportunities over the next several weeks and became the sole survivor for the RAW women’s team at Survivor Series.

Mr. McMahon preparing for the future with Riddle and Keith Lee as well as simultaneously living in the present with AJ Styles

AJ Styles will most likely get the victory in the triple threat match next week and get the opportunity to face off with Drew McIntyre for the WWE championship for a couple of reasons – the first being that he has by far the most experience. Riddle and Keith Lee both have extremely bright futures, but for now they are both still too new to the main roster – neither of them has even one year of experience. AJ has been on the WWE main roster for several years and spent his prime years in Japan, among other places. He is also in his 40s, so he may not have many years left to take advantage of the opportunity to work with Drew McIntyre (who has publicly stated that he would like to one day work with The Phenomenal One).

It’s great that two people from the new wave in WWE are getting such a bright spotlight so early in their careers in the form of Keith Lee and Riddle. These two guys have just been introduced in the company in the last couple of years. Lee was put over by the 44-year-old Bobby Lashley, and Riddle by the 42-year-old Sheamus.

The Celtic Warrior may look even better than he did over a decade ago when he first debuted on the WWE main roster. This kind of performance is somewhat expected from Riddle given that he is 8 years younger and is just entering the prime of his career. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I figured Sheamus’s career was over after WrestleMania 35 when he was forced to take a break from WWE to take care of the spinal stenosis issue he had for years.

He has come back better than ever and is likely to be a crucial figure in the company for the next decade. He has delivered incredible matches over the past couple of months with superstars like Big E, Riddle and Kofi Kingston. The only accomplishment the former 4-time world champion, Royal Rumble winner and Mr. Money in the Bank has left to check off the list is becoming an Intercontinental champion. Sheamus is still capable of delivering extremely high-quality matches and is one of the most physical superstars in the company – when you were in a match with him, you know you are really going to feel it the next day.

New Day Deliver a Fantastic Match in their Second Title Defense in Two Weeks

Speaking of Kofi Kingston, he overpowered an injury as The New Day defeated The Hurt Business in what was probably an even better match than the night before at Survivor Series. This was a case of Kofi’s body telling him no but his spirit saying yes. Kofi Kingston gave the standout performance this week for The New Day, but it’s still impressive that Xavier Woods is back at 100% at all after coming back not very long ago from a ruptured Achilles tendon and being away from the ring for almost a year.

Adam Pearce is significantly growing into his role as an authority figure on WWE programming – not even necessarily because he has done anything differently, but the WWE universe has just had more time to grow accustomed to his mannerisms and demeanor on screen. The segment involving Braun Strowman in which Pearce was trusted to give his opinion on the matter was a significant transition in the right direction. Adam Pearce is beginning to earn the trust of people within the inner workings of the business after a few months of consistently being featured on television because the WWE universe has become familiar with his presence.

Categories RAW

WWE Survivor Series 11/22/2020

Emotional Night with The Undertaker

The Undertaker always remained in character on-screen until the very end, which was extremely poetic because he has been so committed to it for over 30 years and the character is an ingrained part of Mark Calaway. The Deadman also remained consistent to his character away from the cameras for nearly his entire career. It’s only in the last year that he has opened up and showed other facets of his personality – meaning pieces that are authentic to Mark Calaway. It had to be a tough night for Mr. McMahon as well because he views The Undertaker as basically a son. 30 years is an awfully long time – the only other wrestler I could possibly think of who has lasted quite that long is Chris Jericho, who is now with a different company. Before that, it was nice to take a stroll down memory lane with the presence of many different legends who were extremely close with The Undertaker throughout the years. I will not say much about this segment because I personally feel this was more of an emotional segment, and emotions get kind of watered down if they are discussed too much. It’s something one has to be at least virtually present for and to just feel.

Congratulations on 30 amazing years in the business! Rest In Peace Undertaker!

Taker was so poetic in his last match, combining all three elements of his character throughout the last 30 years. His match with AJ Styles in that Boneyard somewhere in Orlando, Florida will go down in history as the first-ever of its kind – more history for The Undertaker!

Reigns and McIntyre deliver a Match that will go down as an instant Classic in WWE History

These two men delivered the match of the year in 2020 – it’s not even a match of the year candidate but just plain old match of the year; there will not be a match greater than that the rest of this year. The WWE universe made this match what it was because there are such an intense emotions surrounding these two superstars. McIntyre was also officially cemented as a superstar head and shoulders above everyone else except Roman Reigns. He will always be Roman’s favorite no. 2 – the babysitter for a belt as Paul Heyman called him.

To begin the match, Drew looked like the favorite in the match if someone was watching who had never seen WWE programming before simply because of the fact that he is a little bigger than Reigns. As the match went on, one could easily figure out that Roman was The Big Dog at the Head of The Table. Jey Uso also earned his position back in the Anoa’i family after being temporarily kicked out by his cousin – after his Survivor Series team took a clean sweep – by creating a distraction and allowing Roman Reigns to get the victory.

Miz gains momentum early in the night

Since The Miz won a battle royal to begin the night, it seemed concealable for him to cash-in the Money in the Bank contract. However, given that Roman Reigns and Drew McIntyre gave what will most likely go down as the match of the year in 2020, it was very positive for the WWE universe to be able to appreciate that match as a standalone segment. Otherwise, it would have made perfect sense for The A-Lister to cash-in at Survivor Series.

Dominik Mysterio almost got that sizable spotlight at just 23 years old, but he might need a few years to gain the adequate level of perspective on life to become equipped with the necessary tools to be able to handle the responsibilities of being a top champion one day in WWE. This might be a case where Vince McMahon is playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers – Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Undertaker recently discussed this phenomenon.

Traditional 5-on-5 Survivor Series Elimination Matches

First, the storytelling in the women’s five-on-five match was far superior to the storytelling in the men’s match. The events in the women’s match were centered around the primary intention of getting Lana over as a babyface and making her a primary focal point as a sympathetic figure on Monday Night RAW. At this time one year ago she was in the midst of being portrayed as a heel getting massive heat nearly every week for her affair with Bobby Lashley (in storyline).

The return of Charlotte Flair is also a major possibility in the upcoming weeks on Monday Night RAW – after suffering from overexposure earlier in the year by being featured on all three brands in WWE each week in addition to suffering an injury and having to undergo surgery. She has been keeping busy with a few other projects.

Jey Uso did not begin the night in good fashion – he let his cousin down as well as the entire family as well as the WWE family. Roman let him know about it with an excellent promo. There were plenty of unexplored rivalries and possibilities down the line in this match between various superstars. These traditional Survivor Series matches are always extremely entertaining because the superstars always get a significant amount of time because there are 10 of them competing, so there is no concern about fatigue.

The New Day introduces their Gears of War 5 Ring Gear (they have introduced about every creative combination imaginable)

2020 has not been a fantastic year for the world in general, but it’s been fantastic to the Street Profits. They have been RAW/SmackDown Tag Team Champions since March, dominating every tag team imaginable. Their level of charisma simply cannot be matched, and the vertical leap Montez Ford gets on his Frog Splash may only be rivaled by Rob Van Dam back in the day. The team he and Angelo Dawkins make up is definitely greater than the sum of its parts, because neither one of them stood out that much in NXT as singles competitors. It’s always great to see people matched together and make the most out of seemingly nothing.

People can learn a lot from the care-free attitude of these guys. They are both getting the most out of their lives because they are having fun constantly with the process of life. You are going to be here anyway – why not enjoy it. Don’t stress about little things either – they will work themselves out with time. Meditation is an extremely helpful tool with this – all you do is sit still and observe your thoughts – no one can tell you how to do it because there is no right or wrong way.

Back to WWE – perhaps Big E can now turn his attention to furthering his singles run. A couple months ago, he was on a roll getting several victories over people like Sheamus, John Morrison and The Miz. Hopefully E can get back to that now and feud with someone who is in need of an opponent – Murphy immediately comes to mind as he just completed a long-term story to write Seth Rollins off TV for paternity leave which should come to fruition either this week or next.

The CEO of The Hurt Business Dominates Sami Zayn and looks Great Doing It

Bobby Lashley was fully expected to completely dominate Sami Zayn (at least by me), and that is exactly what happened. Lashley is being booked exactly as someone might expect given his army ranger background and business-like approach to his career in WWE. He did not reach his full potential in his first go – around with WWE from 2005 – 2007, having had just one WWE championship match. After years of bouncing around between different wrestling promotions as well as Bellator, Lashley finally found his way back home to WWE.

Lashley is in the process of being booked extremely favorably with The Hurt Business under the direction of MVP. This is reason to hope that one day a WWE match between Bobby Lashley and Brock Lesnar will come to fruition one day (and before they are both 60 years old as Lashley has joked).

Sami Zayn provides a fun element of possibility to the match, but no one ever thought he stood a legitimate chance against a physical specimen like Lashley. It might be about time for him to drop the Intercontinental championship on SmackDown to someone who provides a little more of a serious element to their character and has the ability to promote the business in a more mainstream manner; someone like a Daniel Bryan. By the way, it was a genius idea of the commentators to play on the history from a couple of years ago between Bobby and Sami by mentioning the vertigo ordeal.

Sasha Banks Cements her Standing as The Boss

Sasha Banks is now official at the top of the food chain in the WWE hierarchy – her victory against The Raw Women’s Champion Asuka leaves no doubt in anyone’s mind as of this moment. The feud between these two women which lasted about three months and saw them trade titles a couple of times has finally come to a conclusion.

Congrats to Roman Reigns on 8 fantastic years on WWE’s Main Roster

A massive congratulations is in order for Roman Reigns on hitting the 8-year mark since joining the main roster at Survivor Series 2012 as one-third of The Shield. All three original members have gone on to hold multiple world titles and become extremely successful. Roman was always portrayed as a character who was primed for the business and mentally built to handle the responsibility of being the potential face of the company in his NXT days for about two years before officially joining the main roster. This was of course shortly after his days playing college football as a defensive lineman at Georgia Tech.

I liken the career path of Roman Reigns to that of John Cena because he bears a similar amount of responsibility as the face of WWE that John did not all that long ago. Cena was just a couple of years younger than Reigns when he made his debut on the main roster in 2002. Cena made his debut in the summer of 2002, so he hit the 8-year mark in the summer 2010. The true Hall of Fame portion of John’s career came after this point, so the same might be true for Roman Reigns. The remainder of Roman’s career will be extremely interesting around the intricacies of how it unfolds – it will hopefully be even greater than the first eight years.

Looking back, the leukemia diagnosed about two years ago might have been the most important event of The Big Dog’s character evolution. This recent character change is easily the most authentic for Roman. It’s absolutely wonderful to see him embodying what is natural for him, because audiences gravitate most toward true authenticity.

Smackdown 11/27/2020

Jey Uso fails again to impose the will of the Universal Champion on the rest of the Roster; Kevin Owens finally being integrated on SmackDown for the first time since the WWE draft on October 9

it could have been anticipated that Kevin Owens would receive a major opportunity to shine on SmackDown this week given the fact that he was a guest commentator on NXT this week – filling in for Wade Barrett for the week and bringing the KO Show to NXT. Roman Reigns saw earlier in the night that Owens did not respect him as the undisputed leader of the locker room, so he tasked his cousin Jey Uso to beat some respect into Kevin (which largely was a futile effort because Kevin Owens is so outspoken).

Owens followed this by calling out the Head of The Table, so it seems likely that KO will be Roman’s next challenger for the Universal title on December 20 at TLC. Kevin Owens has been basically in WWE purgatory for the last eight months since ‘Mania and the rivalry with Seth Rollins, so it has to be encouraging for him to finally be incorporated into a storyline with significant meaning for the future.

Daniel Bryan to feud with Jey Uso in the immediate future before ultimately beginning a Universal championship rivalry with Roman Reigns right around Royal Rumble time in January; Daniel Bryan undertaking a backstage role in the production of WWE programming and executing the job extremely well

Jey Uso attacked multiple superstars this week, so his direction is somewhat difficult to figure out for someone who does not follow WWE programming on a regular basis. Uce attacked Otis, Daniel Bryan, and also participated in a match with Kevin Owens. He was basically fighting his cousin’s battle for him with KO, and Mr. McMahon most likely wanted to give Otis a spotlight for another week because Vince is a massive fan of Otis and what he could potentially bring to the table for the next decade in the company (he is not even 30 years old yet). In all seriousness, however, WWE would like to explore in more depth the rivalry between Jey Uso and Daniel Bryan.

As Daniel Bryan has previously stated, this run for him through WrestleMania 37 will be his final run as a full-time superstar. Bryan is transitioning into a backstage role on the WWE creative team. He is currently working on SmackDown as both an in-ring competitor as well as sitting in on headsets with Mr. McMahon and throwing himself into learning the intricacies of how WWE goes about producing its television programs. Bryan is also waiting in the Gorilla position consistently to give superstars advice on their performances.

Daniel Bryan’s fingerprints are essentially all over the production of SmackDown in the past few weeks – he also participated in a match with Sami Zayn (a ‘Mania rematch which undoubtedly would have been an unbelievable match if it were given the adequate amount of time). The company is in the process of portraying Sami in light of a delusional character.

Bryan got an opportunity to earn an IC championship match, but it looks like that will go to Big E to further his singles push by putting the intercontinental title on him for the second time, while Bryan goes after Jey Uso.

Bianca Belair also continued her ascent in the women’s division with a victory over Natalya. The EST of WWE is on pace to become a women’s champion in WWE within about 6 – 12 months. The Street Profits (Bianca is married to Montez Ford) meanwhile could not get it done against Robert Roode and Dolph Ziggler. They will most likely not win the titles in the near future, but they will serve as great challengers to the titles considering they are both former tag team champions.

King Corbin cuts a phenomenal heel promo, putting down Rey Mysterio while putting over Murphy in the ring and getting his singles run off to a solid start with a victory over a sizable name just one week after the conclusion of the long-term rivalry between Murphy and Seth Rollins. Congratulations to Seth on the birth of he and Becky Lynch’s child which should be coming in a couple of weeks.

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