Pay-Per-Views

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.

Last year’s edition was fantastic because it produced multiple indelible memories – partially because it took place just a couple days after SmackDown’s premiere episode on FOX. The main event got people talking the most about the state of WWE, because the HIAC match between Seth Rollins and The Fiend was not received well at all (on a personal note, I thought the match was somewhat clunky. Seth couldn’t see because of the red light in the arena, but otherwise it was pretty good. The WWE universe needs to remember that the superstars are giving their absolute best to entertain. So be appreciative rather than being overly critical).

Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks both gave unbelievable performances to open the night in the second ever women’s Hell In A Cell match (Sasha competed in each of them and showed plenty of raw emotion in both). Randy Orton also got a victory against Ali that will most likely get lost in the annals of WWE history (Ali didn’t even have his first name), but this was quietly a great match because of the innovation. Both men treated that match like it was their final match. One year later, they are both in much better positions as Orton is now WWE Champion for the 14^th time and Mustafa Ali is leading RETRIBUTION.

Hell In A Cell 2020 will be the second edition of the event with three matches inside the Cell. The other time this happened was in 2016 (Roman Reigns vs. Rusev, Seth Rollins vs. Kevin Owens, Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte Flair in the main event). Technically, Chris Jericho snuck into the Cell with Owens to assist him in picking up the victory and retaining the Universal Championship. This was arguably the best stretch of Jericho’s career (when he put people on “The List of Jericho”) for the entire calendar year of 2016 through the spring of 2017 (Jericho is now experiencing success with another company).

Respect to Drew McIntyre – he has been a fantastic WWE Champion through the pandemic

This year’s Hell In A Cell emphasized quality over quantity with only six matches (the three primary matches were absolutely the ones in the Cell.

The main event captured the attention of the WWE universe and told a story as well as any WrestleMania main event, and to this point it is the highlight of Drew McIntyre’s career. But the biggest news is that Randy Orton won his 14^th world title (three more to break Flair’s record), and his 3rd inside HIAC. The Viper has had the best year of his career (particularly on the microphone). Orton’s in-ring work is great as always simply because he is naturally gifted from a physical standpoint, likely because wrestling is basically written into his genetic code dating back to his father and grandfather.

Randy’s historic 2020 was in a way launched by the return of Edge at the Royal Rumble in January. These two men have so much continuity and comfortability with one another – it’s almost 2^nd nature. The emotions behind Edge’s return after nine years and two next surgeries were the pivotal starting grounds for the greatest year of Randy Orton’s career, because Edge is essentially his brother (I know I would feel that way if my brother returned to join me in doing what we both love after nine years).

Drew McIntyre has absolutely earned my respect (as if he didn’t have it already). McIntyre delivered one of the greatest HIAC performances of all time in his first appearance inside the Cell. The high spot when he fell off the side of the Cell took fans back to the 2014 edition of this event when Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins both fell off the side through the announce table. The one thing Randy Orton had not done in seven career matches inside Hell In A Cell is go to the top of the structure. The primary reason McIntyre himself specifically asked to do this high spot was to pay tribute to Shawn Michaels, who also took this same fall off the side of the structure in the first-ever Hell In A Cell match in 1997.

In addition to Randy Orton, McIntyre has also had a truly historic year and easily the best of his career. About the only thing Drew hadn’t done in 2020 was what he did this past Sunday: deliver a truly historic performance inside Hell In A Cell (the only thing he was unable to do was get the victory). 2020 for McIntyre started with a Royal Rumble victory in January, followed by winning the WWE Championship from Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 36. Between April and August, he defended the title against the likes of Seth Rollins, Bobby Lashley, King Corbin and Dolph Ziggler. In August at SummerSlam, McIntyre got another clean victory against Randy Orton (he also defeated Orton a month later in an Ambulance match).

For McIntyre, this calendar year in 2020 is somewhat reminiscent of Brock Lesnar’s first full year in WWE (from the day after WrestleMania X-8 in 2002 through WrestleMania 19 in 2003). In that span, Lesnar defeated The Rock in a WWE Championship match at SummerSlam; McIntyre did the same thing against an established superstar in Randy Orton. Lesnar experienced a great Hell In A Cell encounter with The Undertaker; McIntyre did as well with Orton again. Lesnar won the 2003 Royal Rumble match and went on to win the WWE Title from Kurt Angle (even though Angle was originally supposed to keep the title for a few more months; however, it didn’t work out that way due to Angle’s neck issues); McIntyre also won the 2020 Royal Rumble and also won the WWE Title in the main event of WrestleMania 36 from Brock Lesnar – it’s funny how history continues to repeat itself.

It was simply time for Orton to win number 14 – it’s been over three years since Randy was WWE Champion. The last time Orton held the WWE Championship was in 2017 when he won the title from Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania 33 in April of that year and dropped the title a little over a month later to Jinder Mahal (that was a rocky six months).

WWE was experimenting – because Roman Reigns doesn’t open a Pay-Per-View very often, he’s normally the main event. The last time he opened a Hell In A Cell Pay-Per-View was in 2016 against Rusev in which The Big Dog successfully defended the United States Championship. It was also somewhat reminiscent of No Mercy in October of that same year in which AJ Styles defended the WWE Championship in a triple threat match to open the show.

The Tribal Chief is officially recognized; Sasha Banks and Bayley are now free to evolve into the next stage of their careers

This was an emotional way to start the night. As Jerry “The King” Lawler pointed out, Roman was channeling his inner Scar (Disney’s The Lion King) and cemented his spot at the head of the table. This laid the groundwork for the faction which will most likely take form in the coming weeks featuring Reigns as a mob boss of The Uso’s. Another facet of this match which is important to point out is that it was extremely unselfish on the part of Roman Reigns to volunteer to go first on Sunday and open the show so that Drew McIntyre could hold the main event spot – which is something he needed to cement his legacy even quicker.

This virtually guarantees that McIntyre will be launched into the perennial main event position on the card almost immediately. Roman may have thought to himself, “I don’t necessarily need to main event this Pay-Per-View again in my fourth HIAC match. It’s even Uce’s second time in the Cell (2017), but this is Drew’s first time so I will do everything I can to make it special for him.”

All of the four horsewomen in WWE – Sasha Banks, Charlette Flair, Becky Lynch, and Bayley – have now competed inside Hell In A Cell. This was Sasha Banks’ third appearance but her first victory in the demonic Cell. Maybe this time Sasha will be able to hold the SmackDown Women’s Championship past her first defense – Sasha has never successfully defended a Women’s Championship on the main roster in WWE.

It was simply time for the storyline between Sasha and Bayley to come to a conclusion because it has lasted for well over three years on the main roster and dating all the way back to NXT. It is simply time for both women to move on to the next stage in the evolution of their WWE characters. Both women proved exactly why they are invaluable to the company (particularly Sasha, who delivered arguably the best match on the show for the second straight year).

Getting more sympathy towards Otis; Lashley – Lesnar rivalry; Jeff Hardy – Elias disqualification

I could have guessed Miz might use an underhanded tactic to win the Money in the Bank briefcase for the second time in his career (2010), but I never envisioned it would be because Tucker turned on Otis. Mr. McMahon is such a vehement supporter of Otis – as evidenced by the new entrance – that one might think Vince McMahon would do anything to get Otis over. When thinking about it from a reverse psychology standpoint, it makes complete sense because this will make Otis an even more sympathetic figure. It will be extremely interesting to see exactly where Otis goes from here – Tucker as well (he’s definitely not aligned with MC M.I.Z. and Johnny Drip Drip, as Corey Graves likes to point out).

Bobby Lashley dominated as expected against SLAPJACK of RETRIBUTION (Shane Thorne from NXT, although Mr. McMahon views the main roster as a separate universe entirely from NXT). RETRIBUTION needs to start picking up victories soon – Mustafa Ali cannot buy time forever with his great promo work.

I am still holding out hope that Bobby Lashley will one day feud with Brock Lesnar (even though The Beast is currently not under contract with WWE). Lashley is on pace to become a main eventer in WWE sooner rather than later – and that money feud might be too much for McMahon and Lesnar to pass up. It seems unlikely right now but never say never with WWE.

The result of the Elias – Jeff Hardy match was fitting so neither man had to take a loss. Since WWE is so committed to pushing Jeff Hardy, and with Elias having just returned a couple of weeks ago, neither one of them could afford to take a loss right now. Elias is more of a star for the future, and Jeff Hardy is a priority right now because he only has a few years left of being a top-level superstar considering he is 43 years old. Hardy missed last year’s edition of this event, and the year before that in 2018 he participated inside Hell In A Cell for the first time in his career – essentially the one thing Hardy had never done.

“The Prince” Finn Balor retains his title; Kyle O’Reilly gives an unbelievable performance; Ridge Holland lays the foundation for his first major feud in NXT and his emergence as a major building block for the brand

Nights like these are precisely the reason Finn Balor returned to NXT about a year ago; for matches like these. He proved yet again why he has earned his spot at the top of the card in NXT. I immediately go back to his classic matches with people like Kevin Owens and Samoa Joe. I remember them like they happened yesterday.

Balor’s primary job as a champion – along with the WWE Champion Drew McIntyre and the Universal Champion Roman Reigns – is to elevate other superstars to his level, because his own dream of being champion has obviously already come true. Therefore, being a champion in WWE carries with it the responsibility of being extremely unselfish and being willing to put others over. Balor did an effective job of giving Kyle O’Reilly the most significant spotlight he has ever received in NXT over the past three years. Finn also sustained a broken jaw in two places in one of the hardest-hitting matches in NXT’s history, so the champion will be off TV for about six weeks as he heals. Fortunately, he should be able to talk at limited capacity by the time this is posted.

O’Reilly has mostly been a tag team guy as part of The Undisputed Era along with his partner Bobby Fish. However, Fish is getting a little older and therefore it might be time for Kyle O’Reilly to begin exploring his future as a single star. Also, who can forget the end of the NXT Title match in which Ridge Holland brought O’Reilly’s buddy Adam Cole out to the ringside area – presumably after attacking him – laying the foundation for Holland’s first major feud in NXT. Holland could be one of the primary focal points of NXT for the next several years – he’s a legitimately tough man who played rugby throughout Europe for years before ultimately signing with NXT in 2018. Unfortunately, Holland suffered what looks to be a very serious knee injury on NXT TV this week, so his big push will be delayed.

In other news, when Adam Cole turned babyface at Takeover: 30 in August of this year, the entire Undisputed Era underwent the same character change as their leader. This makes sense for continuity in the storyline. In general, people’s perceptions of reality are very malleable – because two months ago I would have told anyone that I could never envision this group turning face because they were such great heels just two months ago.

Candice LeRae may be onto something in her heel presentation, but Johnny Gargano is a better face; Io Shirai is right where she needs to be; Damian Priest is budding into a gem; Ember Moon may want to change her character to gain more momentum in her second run in NXT

Despite the fact that she took a loss to Io Shirai for the NXT Women’s Championship, Candice LeRae appears to have found her niche as a heel. This was a brilliant story to tell because it’s easy to forget that Shirai defeated LeRae in a number one contender’s ladder match back in April. Candice resonates more with the NXT universe as a heel than her husband Johnny Gargano. Johnny fits so much better as a phase simply because he resonated so profoundly with fans in that role first. Gargano might have more success in his career whenever WWE decides to orchestrate for him to revert back to his face incarnation – while his wife may be onto something with this heel character. Maybe there can ultimately be some sort of tension that escalates between the couple.

Johnny Gargano’s presentation right now may not necessarily be ideal (although it’s not bad by any means – just experimenting with what works), but the presentation of Damian Priest is spot on right now – this guy is a massive superstar in the not-too-distant future (considering he’s already 38 years old). In terms of look and in-ring style, he is very similar to the face of the entire company Roman Reigns, which is very fortunate for Damian. A long-term storyline between these two in the coming years could be absolute money.

Io Shirai is without a doubt one of the best workers in all of NXT, so it’s absolutely the right call to keep the title on her for an extended time. Now that Candice LeRae is out of the way, Shirai can move on to Ember Moon.

There have been advertisements for weeks about a main roster superstar possibly returning to NXT (a former champion). Ember Moon fits the criteria as she was NXT Women’s Champion from 2017 – 2018. Moon was promoted to the main roster in WWE in April 2018 and went on to spend the next year and a half in limbo without a lot of creative direction, before suffering a career-threatening Achilles injury in September 2019 which kept her out of action until this point. It is fitting that she would return to the brand where she experienced the most success – she was a little lost on the main roster, so it makes sense for WWE to orchestrate her return to prominence in NXT. Sometimes you need to go back a step to take two steps forward (it’s clearly working right now for Finn Balor).

The Time Splitter Kushida and Isaiah “Swerve” Scott both delivered breakout performances at Takeover: 31 – easily the best performance for both men since they both debuted in NXT (April 2019)

Velveteen Dream gives incredible performances at every Takeover (the crazy hair was a nice visual), but Kushida has led to the story significantly with some great storytelling. This match probably had the least buildup considering it was a non-title match and the storyline leading to the match just began a few weeks ago – but I give the men in the match credit for doing the best they could with the material they were given.

Isaiah “Swerve” Scott said all that needed to be said during the NXT Cruiserweight Championship match with his facial expressions – which were not too much or too little. Santos Escobar is budding into a very nice heel, although it does seem somewhat odd due to the fact that most luchadors are typically positioned as faces in WWE. But the company could be testing the waters to see how it works.

Another thing that is positive to see is that the Cruiserweight Championship has received much more focus since it was officially recognized as a title exclusive to NXT about a year ago. The cruiserweight superstars are incredibly talented – maybe they will no longer need to make transitions to the main roster like Murphy did to receive prominence in storylines.

Another excellent marketing idea conceived by Triple H and Shawn Michaels was to bring back Halloween Havoc. This idea was most likely generated from the fact that the In Your House events were already revitalized in 2020 with Takeover: In Your House in June. On a personal note, when I think of Halloween Havoc the match from the 1990s between Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio immediately comes to mind – phenomenal (no disrespect to AJ Styles) match, Rey and Eddie clearly had a special bond.

Roman Reigns had an excellent first full-length match as Universal Champion. It perfectly sowed the seeds for the storyline set to manifest in the coming months – where The Tribal Chief takes the role of a mob boss as the sole breadwinner of his family who takes immense pride in that, so much that it becomes a significant problem for his entire family. This story could serve as a perfect excuse to get the storied Anoa’i family involved in a WWE storyline again (all of them).

The Big Dog also wrestled shirtless for the first time in years, and his physique looks better than ever as Corey Graves alluded. The next logical step would be to introduce new entrance music for Roman as part of the rebranding process – because everything else about Roman’s heel presentation is new. The affiliation with Paul Heyman is serving to legitimize his character. It only makes sense at this point to go all the way with the rebranding process by introducing a completely new presentation of Reigns.

Jey Uso has absolutely proven his merit in WWE and reminded the powers backstage of his value to the company. He has, without a doubt, earned the right to stay at, or near, the top of the card for the foreseeable future. This is not a case of nepotism or SmackDown having a problem in the depth department – this is a case of Jey, and most likely his brother Jimmy as well, earning their position.

I legitimately had a strong inclination that Randy Orton would become WWE Champion for the 14^th time at Clash of Champions. It has been over three years (believe it or not) since Orton has held a world title in WWE. Four men who have been punted by Randy in the last couple months all showed up to give him retribution, helping Drew McIntyre manifest a massive second victory over Orton – one of the biggest stars ever in WWE – in two months, cementing his legacy as one of the primary focal points in WWE for the foreseeable future.

It is massive for McIntyre to retain his WWE Title two months in a row against one of the biggest stars in WWE history – one of those victories coming at the second biggest Pay-Per-View of the year, SummerSlam. Shawn Michaels did tell Randy about a month ago that Sweet Chin Music might be coming his way in the near future. The man who interfered in the match who made the most sense within the framework of the story was Big Show. Not only was he punted by Orton recently, but he also got McIntyre’s reign as WWE Champion off to a solid start by putting McIntyre over literally immediately after WrestleMania 36 went off the air.

It was a huge steppingstone for McIntyre to get a victory over a legitimate threat in WWE over the past 20 years – almost, and it was equally as unselfish of the giant to ensure the success of McIntyre – thus preserving the future of the business.

There is still a significant possibility that the trilogy of matches between Orton and McIntyre will be completed at Hell in a Cell on October 25. There is a strong chance that Randy Orton will win the WWE Championship – since he has had arguably the greatest calendar year of his career, both on the microphone and in the ring. From a storytelling perspective, Randy is simply on a different level – the storyline in the first half of the year with Edge was most notable.

Sami Zayn employed some major creativity in the Intercontinental Championship match. This storyline was a reincarnation of the storyline between Razor Ramon and Shawn Michaels back in the early 90s, Michaels, the original Intercontinental Champion, took a hiatus from WWE and Razor was crowned champion. When Michaels returned, a ladder match was booked for WrestleMania 10 in which Razor won. In the 2020 version of this storyline, Jeff Hardy was in the role of Razor – the rightful champion, Zayn was in the role of Michaels – the man who still technically had a claim to the title, while AJ Styles served as the actual wheel on the bike for now.

The WWE booking team flexed their creative muscles in this match, having Jeff Hardy take the WWE universe back to WrestleMania 33 as well as so many other nights when he has jumped off a ladder. Zayn got the victory in what was one of the most creative ways to win a match – by handcuffing both his opponents to ladders, including one of them by his own ear.

WWE is in the process of creating a narrative where the company is badly in need of the rivalry between Bayley and Sasha Banks to begin (even though the WWE knows that is not the case as the Women’s Division in WWE is arguably even deeper than the men’s division). These two women have received so much prominence from the company and have been the primary story in the women’s division for about three months now – maybe even longer.

Bayley was originally scheduled to have a match with Nikki Cross – her challenger from July, but when Nikki was deemed unable to compete, Bayley’s challenger from SummerSlam was rehashed – Asuka (who had already wrestled a match earlier in the night).

The Street Profits have been extremely reliable and dependable since being promoted to the main roster about a year ago. They have been Raw Tag Team Champions most of this time, and in the process have become the longest-reigning Champions since the inception of those titles in 2016. Angel Garza and Andrade should either win the titles very soon or just completely disband as a team after losing Zelina Vega as their manager.

It was not necessarily a great night for her either, losing a Raw Women’s Championship match to Asuka. Zelina will likely get another title match since she attacked the champion after the match. Vega could absolutely be champion one day – just not yet. She will develop her in-ring style, and her character, more importantly, to resonate in a bigger way with the WWE universe.

It is finally feasible for WWE to begin positioning Bobby Lashley as a prominent and emphatic force in WWE now that he has the backing of The Hurt Business. This could ultimately set up for the orchestration of a match between Lashley and Brock Lesnar at some point in 2021. WWE management is reportedly pushing for this to happen, which I am all for. From the perspective of a fan, it’s pretty unbelievable that this has not transpired yet considering Lashley has been back in the company for over two years.

However, the two men have resided in different stratospheres when it comes to their level of stardom. Lesnar has been a box office attraction since the day he walked into the company. Lashley, on the other hand, has struggled to gain that same level of momentum. WWE definitely wants this match to take place, but the company wants to do it while both stars are on the same playing field. The company would like to position Lashley as a superstar on the same level as Brock. Right now he is absolutely on the right track – being a dominant United States Champion and the CEO of The Hurt Business. His character direction is on an upward trajectory!

The Big Dog is now a 5x World Champion and a 2x Universal Champion

WWE appears to be moving full speed ahead with transforming Roman Reigns into the top heel on SmackDown. The newest Paul Heyman Guy became the WWE Universal Champion at Payback and will most likely hold the championship for a long time, since The Big Dog has never held a world championship for an extended time. This title reign might have a similar trajectory to John Cena’s run with the WWE Championship in 2006 – 2007 when he held the title for over a year (the reason Cena relinquished the title was that he tore a pectoral muscle and had to leave WWE to take care of the injury).

This makes perfect sense for WWE to put the Universal Championship on Roman for two reasons:

• It makes for a rather sudden change in storyline to draw more fans to tune into SmackDown every week to see what the face of the company will do next; and
• While the first reason is purely from a business perspective, it makes sense within the framework of the story because Roman Reigns never lost the Universal Championship.

Now from a reality standpoint, he along with the company made the decision to build the reputation of his character back up organically when Roman returned from dealing with leukemia a year and a half ago.

The Fiend should continue his storyline with Braun Strowman and Alexa Bliss, causing dissension in the relationship between them. Alexa was shown on camera during the Universal Title match (before Roman Reigns made his appearance). This was smart storytelling because The Fiend has another story to immediately turn his attention to and thus will not lose any momentum with regard to his character despite dropping the title.

Keith Lee defeats Randy Orton, and another Main Event Caliber Star has been instantly created in WWE

Randall Keith Orton has had a positive stretch recently putting over younger superstars, which is exactly what Drew McIntyre pointed out that Orton had not done very often in his career. In the last two Pay-Per-Views, Orton has cemented Drew McIntyre as a legitimate superstar in WWE at SummerSlam, and just one week later he put over McIntyre’s good friend Keith Lee as a legitimate threat in WWE immediately to start his main roster run.

This match was reminiscent of the Elimination Chamber Pay-Per-View in 2015 when Kevin Owens defeated John Cena in his debut match on May 31, 2015. Now five years later, Randy Orton did the same thing to create a new start in The Limitless One.

The only difference is that Orton will not start a long-term storyline with Lee as Cena did with KO in the summer of 2015. Instead Orton will resume his WWE Championship regulatory with Drew McIntyre – setting out a rematch to take place at Clash of Champions on September 27.

The Mysterios defeat Seth Rollins and Murphy; Some Evidence of Discord between Rollins and Murphy was also Shown

Rey and Dominik Mysterio have excellent chemistry as a tag team, which would be expected given that they are father and son. I expected Rey to look as good as he did because he has been doing this for over 30 years. Dominik, however, was pleasantly surprising. The 23-year-old looked visibly nervous at SummerSlam (that’s a good amount of pressure to put on anyone – let alone a superstar making his debut), however he looked completely comfortable at Payback and as a result he performed much better. Dominik could be a major superstar in a few years because he has a real knack for the sport.

Since Dominik’s career is still in its embryonic stage, he is still in a phase where he is heavily reliant on his father’s legacy. The next stage in his character’s evolution will be breaking out to form his own persona and signature on the business. That may be happening sooner rather than later because Rey unfortunately suffered a torn tricep at Payback (the same injury suffered by Edge at Backlash in June in The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever – Edge looked utterly fantastic in that match, showing multiple moves that have never been seen before out of him). This injury will probably mean about an eight or nine-month recovery for Mysterio.

Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler defeated the Golden Role Models for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships

The team of Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler was formed the same way most tag teams in WWE are formed – two bitter enemies who develop a partnership based on how much they don’t like the champions. Maybe this partnership will evolve into a friendship; or Jax and Baszler might go their separate ways if the storyline fails to gel with the WWE universe.

As for Bayley and Sasha Banks, a match might be orchestrated between the two women for the SmackDown Women’s Championship in the near future seeing as that’s the only championship either one of them hold right now. This will be the payoff to the long-term story WWE has been in the process of building between these women over the last two or three years.

Three brand-new singles stars in WWE were created at Payback; Randy Orton put over Keith Lee, King Corbin put over Matt Riddle, and Sheamus put over Big E

In addition to Keith Lee, WWE is also in the process of creating new stars in the form of Big E with his long-awaited singles push and Matt Riddle, the recent NXT call-up.

Riddle got a victory over King Corbin, establishing The Bro as a legitimate star on SmackDown and a champion in the future. Corbin, however, will be a Universal or WWE Champion in the near future because of his excellence in portraying the heel persona. King Corbin already has all the accolades he needs; he is just waiting along with WWE for the right time to pull the trigger. It was actually in the original plans for 2022 make Corbin Universal Champion by now. Originally, it was in the cards for Roman Reigns to win the Universal Title from Bill Goldberg at WrestleMania 36; after holding the title for a while, Reigns would have lost his title to Corbin.

Meanwhile, Sheamus put over Big E, a very unselfish move by the 42-year-old. Big E is currently on the steady climb to becoming a top star in WWE. It was reported a few weeks ago that Mr. McMahon made the difficult decision to make Roman Reigns the face of the company over Big E in 2014. This decision came down to these two guys, and Mr. McMahon clearly made the right choice (Big E has an adequate amount of perspective on this and is on the right path right now).

Bobby Lashley, the CEO of The Hurt Business, takes the United States Championship from Apollo Crews

Lashley won his second championship in WWE since returning to the main roster in April 2018, and his first in over a year. Hopefully Bobby’s rivalry with Brock Lesnar will come to fruition in the near future (it needs to happen soon if those plans are in the works, because both men are in their 40s).

Apollo Crews might need to be off TV for a couple of months to let his character incubate for a while before ultimately returning with a new creative element to his character.

The Big Dog is back, and The Fiend is Universal Champion – Completing his Rivalry with Braun Strowman

Roman Reigns stepped away from WWE for several months starting a few weeks before ‘Mania in March primarily to ensure that his newborn twins would have a healthy father – which is extremely respectable. Many WWE fans were hoping that he would be able to return in time for SummerSlam (the second biggest Pay-Per-View of the year next to WrestleMania. As it turns out that’s exactly what happened, and it would be safe to assume that Reigns will go after the Universal Championship – since he was scheduled to face Bill Goldberg at WrestleMania 36 for that title before COVID-19 hit and threw a wrench into the entire world. We are all in the process of changing the way we operate on a day-to-day basis and establishing new norms – not necessarily a bad, just a new normal.

As for the Universal Title, Braun Strowman received an unexpected opportunity in a run with the Universal Championship in place of The Big Dog, and he delivered in a big way over the past four months by showing the most charisma and character development the WWE universe has ever seen out of The Monster Among Men. It was expected that The Fiend would win the Universal Title from Braun because The Fiend/Bray Wyatt is by far the most captivating character on SmackDown – FOX right now. This should be the first of many world championship runs for Strowman as he performed much better in that role than anyone could have expected.

Mr. McMahon’s plan for Roman Reigns’ return as far as what his character is going to be is for The Big Dog to bring more of an “edge” to his character (that’s what WrestlingNews.co is reporting). Fans have been clamoring for a heel turn for Roman’s character for years – it may not be a completely traditional heel turn, but it will be extremely nice to see WWE allowing Roman to show more of his authentic personality rather than trying to force-feed the WWE universe a character that is not completely authentic to him. Roman has proven over the past eight years that he doesn’t need a whole lot of guidance anymore – as long as Mr. McMahon gives him a basic outline of what he wants The Big Dog’s character to be, Roman can do it and has earned the trust of the boss.

This semi-heel version of Roman Reigns will be reminiscent of the later Shield days at the very end of 2013 and the first half of 2014 when Roman was getting on the fast track to be “The Guy” (this was ancient history, before any of the WWE universe turned on Roman and they all absolutely loved what he was doing because it felt authentic). This is the key to building a character that will consistently get over in WWE. Roman’s new shirt says everything one needs to know about what his new mentality will be: Wreck Everything and Leave. This was the original plan for the direction of Reigns’ character right after he beat Goldberg at WrestleMania 36, but those plans were put on hold when Roman decided to take a few months off and focus on raising his newborn twins (which is very commendable).

In addition, a happy birthday goes out to Vince McMahon, who turned 75 years old on August 24 (an important episode of Monday Night Raw also aired on that night, with some major storyline development). All of us as fans need to express our appreciation to Mr. McMahon for bringing the world of WWE into existence. Even if not everyone completely agrees with the direction all the storylines go, it would not exist if it were not for Mr. McMahon. Thank You and Happy Birthday!

Drew McIntyre is cemented as a legitimate Superstar and Leader of the Company after defeating Randy Orton for the WWE Championship

So Drew McIntyre was claiming that Randy Orton never reached down and to pull younger superstars up to his level by putting them over, which is true to a certain degree. Orton has not done this very often throughout his WWE career. But it cannot be refuted that he absolutely did this at SummerSlam by putting over McIntyre, who has gained the necessary maturity and perspective throughout his journey in wrestling to become grounded in his own energy.

This is exactly the kind of victory McIntyre needed to establish himself as a legitimate threat in WWE. Now he has legitimate victories over probably two of the top three stars in WWE at the two biggest shows of the year – in the same year. However, a scenario easily could have been executed where Randy Orton wants his 14^th world title (Ric Flair could have returned at SummerSlam to distract Drew McIntyre and help Orton win the WWE Championship. No one would have expected that because Orton obviously punted Flair on Raw, albeit WWE smartly went the safe route and orchestrated a power outage caused by Retribution to ensure Ric’s safety by not making the 71-year-old take that bump. This could have been great storytelling had WWE decided to go down that route, but McIntyre defeating Orton is great in its own right).

The actual match was fantastic with great pacing. This is easily the greatest match Drew McIntyre has been involved in since he became WWE Champion. Randy Orton has a special ability to elevate the game of anyone he steps in the ring with, and his next task will be to do the same thing for Drew McIntyre’s good friend Keith Lee at WWE Payback.

Seth Rollins defeats Dominik Mysterio in a somewhat Lopsided Match

Dominik Mysterio looked a little timid and somewhat nervous in his first WWE match. It’s totally understandable – you’re a 23-year-old kid and you are performing at the second biggest WWE Pay-Per-View of the year, in the ring with a veteran like Seth Rollins who has been doing this for about 15 years. You were also the son of a living legend who is right next to you at ringside. I have never been in that position, so it’s not fair to cast any sort of judgment. I have seen Dominik execute better frog splashes before (like back in November 2019 at Survivor Series when his father had a WWE Championship match with Brock Lesnar), so I know the kid has it in him to do much better but it just wasn’t his night.

Dominik’s character and the moment are a little too reliant on the legacy of his father. WWE might want to have him break out and develop his own persona by perhaps joining Seth Rollins in a heel turn and becoming a disciple alongside Murphy.

Asuka defeats Sasha Banks for the Raw Women’s Championship; Bayley keeps the SmackDown Women’s Championship

It doesn’t make much sense at all why WWE would book Asuka in two title matches on the same night when there are a plethora of other women on the WWE roster who have more than enough credentials to fill that spot. Asuka absolutely has earned a spot in one of the women’s championship matches, but not both.

It’s fine for Asuka to take the Raw Women’s Championship off of Sasha Banks, but the WWE universe is growing tired of Bayley being the SmackDown Women’s Champion for most of the last year and a half. She’s incredibly talented, but fans just want a fresh face as champion.

Mandy Rose defeats Sonya Deville in a Loser Leaves WWE match; A Match with many Underlying Layers and Stories

This match arguably had the most backstory of any match on the SummerSlam card, because one of the participants went through a legitimate crisis in her personal life very recently. Sonya Deville legitimately had an intruder break into her home recently and attempt to abduct her – unsuccessfully. The match at SummerSlam with Mandy Rose was originally supposed to be a Hair vs. Hair match, with the loser shaving her head (similar to WrestleMania XX when Molly Holly got her head shaved by Victoria).

However, Deville will be obliged to appear in court soon to settle the abduction dispute, and her lawyer advised her that it might not be such a good idea to appear in court with a shaved head. Instead WWE made the decision to do a Loser Leaves WWE stipulation, which will accomplish the same goal. It will give WWE an excuse to have Sonya off TV for a while so the company can repackage her character and introduce her in a couple of months as someone brand-new. Deville has blossomed in the last couple of months by delivering excellent promos on the microphone and showing that she is very comfortable in front of the camera.

The Street Profits successfully defended the Raw Tag Team Championships against Andrade and Angel Garza

The Street Profits have been entertaining and charismatic tag team champions who can do a little bit of everything in the ring (Montez Ford has ridiculous athleticism and Angelo Dawkins – who is from my hometown of Cincinnati – has proven over the last couple weeks that he is very capable). The whole is much greater than the sum of its parts with this team – neither one of them stand out by themselves, but they mesh together in a perfect way.

Angel Garza and Andrade, on the other hand, have serious potential to be a modern-day version of Eddie and Chavo Guerrero. Garza is doing a good job of embracing the lethario element of his character, but Andrade needs to find himself as a character more and develop a more authentic sense of charisma that will appeal to the WWE universe.

The WWE ThunderDome had an incredibly successful second night on-air – this will most likely be something that will work for the foreseeable future during the era of the pandemic and perhaps even longer. This might turn into the new normal for WWE as the primary way to bring entertainment into people’s homes.

Side Note: Keith Lee will be a fantastic addition to Monday Night Raw after dropping the NXT Championship this past weekend. This is a very exciting addition because no one has ever been called up to the main roster this quickly after dropping the NXT Title – a few have come close, but it’s never been this quick. WWE is striking while the iron is hot with Lee, and he will fit right in on Raw no matter what he does, with his level of presence and the fact that he commands everyone’s attention whenever he does anything.

The Horror Show at WWE Extreme Rules

WWE has titled this PPV Extreme Rules since 2010. Typically, the company likes to change the name of a particular event every 10 or 15 years to keep it resonating with younger members of the WWE universe. This mid-July timeframe is typically the slowest point of the calendar year for WWE because everyone in the company is gearing up for SummerSlam; 2020 is no exception. Fortunately, WWE is doing well with the pandemic – with this new landscape for businesses, every company is having to come up with creative ways to profit during this time.

One creative concept WWE has used to great effect is the practice of filming matches in different locations as if the match were taking place in a movie (The Undertaker’s Boneyard match with AJ Styles comes to mind). Bray Wyatt has been involved in two of these matches that were filmed like a movie – the Firefly FunHouse match with John Cena at WrestleMania and this Swamp Fight with Braun Strowman. Neither of these matches played like a normal match (the NXT Championship match at Takeover: In Your House between Velveteen Dream and Adam Cole had a typical pinfall finish) – both finished in a way that was not typical, but it looked like Wyatt definitely had the upper hand at the end of both matches.

Return of The Fiend

It will be particularly interesting to see how WWE chooses to present Wyatt and Strowman going forward – because the Swamp Fight on July 19 was technically a Universal Championship match. The WWE universe has to remember the original plan from the beginning of the year was for Roman Reigns to be Universal Champion right now. Vince McMahon, Bruce Prichard, Kevin Dunn, along with everyone else who helps in the creative process definitely has earned applause for having the ability to pivot and make Strowman’s run with the Universal Title much better than anyone could have expected.

Drew McIntyre finishes the Chapter of his Career surrounding Dolph Ziggler

It was a good idea for WWE to do a program, even if a short one, between Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler to capitalize on the amount of history they have (the two men have spent the better part of the last two years in storylines together). However, Dolph never had a legitimate chance to win the WWE Championship. McIntyre has all of the physical ability and the level-headed demeanor to be able to handle the responsibility of being WWE Champion and hold a primary space in the company for a long time.

Women’s Championship Matches

Sasha Banks could be Raw Women’s Champion because WWE is prominently featuring both she and Bayley. Nikki Cross is also absolutely on track to be a Women’s Champion in WWE, but just not quite yet – she needs just a little more experience.

Both Seth Rollins and Rey Mysterio played their respective roles very well in the Eye for an Eye match.

It was somewhat brutal and uncomfortable to watch which was the intention. Even if Mysterio’s career does continue (and there’s a good chance it will), it could be a perfect and unselfish way to go out if he put over someone who is already a big star in WWE like Rollins. Mysterio could allow Rollins to retire him at SummerSlam 2020, or WWE could choose to wait until WrestleMania 37 (cross your fingers the WWE universe will return for that one in Los Angeles), similar to the way King Corbin ended Kurt Angle’s career at WrestleMania 35.

Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura seem to be bringing the best out of each other as performers

This holds true both physically and in terms of personality because the vibe feels loose between the two wrestlers. Both men are comfortable working together and trust one another – one can feel that off of them. That’s why Vince McMahon intelligently opted to make them SmackDown Tag Team Champions, bringing The New Day’s eighth tag team title reign in WWE to a close. This means that Mr. McMahon’s vision for The New Day of making them 10-time tag team champions is 80% complete.

WWE had two options with Matt Riddle:

• Book him in a match with King Corbin at The Horror Show at Extreme Rules so Riddle can quickly move on to a program for SummerSlam in which he wins the IC Title from AJ Styles. The company decided not to go in this direction, but it was still an option.
• Go right into a program between Riddle and Corbin at SummerSlam while still leaving the door open for an IC Championship rematch between Matt Riddle and AJ Styles. That looks like the plan at least right after the Pay-Per-View, but the plan is always subject to change in WWE because there are so many moving parts.

This is an exciting time in WWE. The foundation is being laid for many storylines that will culminate at WrestleMania 37 in late March 2021 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. However, for many superstars their storyline for Mania has not even begun yet.

Before getting to the PPV I will discuss the quality match between Daniel Bryan and AJ Styles. AJ won the Intercontinental Championship on the go-home episode of SmackDown on FOX. It was a surprise to me that Styles won this match because in theory, the entire storyline was set up perfectly for Daniel Bryan to win his second IC Title and become a real workhorse champion. This would almost revert back to his ROH days as throwback to the disposition that made wrestling fans originally fall in love with him. My theory is that Styles got the victory so WWE could give him the accolade of having held every singles title in WWE. He would then be one step closer to becoming a grand slam champion. AJ will probably hold the Intercontinental Championship for about a month or two before losing it to Bryan, because it makes much more sense within the framework of the storyline for him to be IC champion right now as opposed to a heel Styles.

The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever

It was very surprising that WWE decided to promote the match between Randy Orton and Edge as The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever. It put a lot of pressure on the two men to make it a great one. Orton and Edge were not even scheduled to work Backlash originally. This match was going to take place at SummerSlam. However, with no Lesnar, no Reigns and no Becky Lynch, Vince McMahon was searching for star power to hold the audience’s attention during this period.

As far as living up to the expectations of putting on The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever, Orton and Edge put on an absolutely beautiful match. It was probably the best possible job they could have done given global pandemic circumstances. The match even surpassed my own personal expectations. I knew full well Randy Orton had a performance like this in him. But where I was really blown away was with the performance of Edge. He honestly the performance of a lifetime – and at 46 years old! It might honestly be The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever simply because it took place in this era in which the pace of matches is so quick, and superstars need to constantly think on their toes.

One of the most recent “greatest matches” I have seen in WWE took place at Money in the Bank 2015 between Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose (who is obviously in AEW now) and tearing it up as the World Champion. The point is that matches as great as the one between Orton and Edge don’t happen that often, so they are to be cherished and they should remind wrestling fans exactly why they love pro wrestling.

Drew McIntyre retains his WWE Championship against Bobby Lashley, partially due to interference from Lashley’s wife Lana

I love Lashley and am rooting for him to become WWE Champion one day, but now is not his time. Drew McIntyre has absolutely earned the right to be WWE Champion for an extended period and to carry the company.

As far as the match goes, this is exactly what a championship match should be – two freaks of nature going at it (and neither one of them is named Brock Lesnar). Both wrestlers are ridiculously athletic and intense. Lashley will probably call off his marriage to Lana in the coming weeks in favor of sticking by MVP and just focusing on wrestling, while McIntyre turns his attention to his next challenger.

Braun Strowman retains the Universal Championship against Miz & Morrison

Strowman is becoming a very good placeholder for Roman Reigns. It feels like Braun is in a natural position for his character right now and he is comfortable in the position.

A future contender for the Universal Championship in all likelihood is Jeff Hardy. Despite the fact that he took a loss to Sheamus at Backlash (and WWE took some criticism for creating a storyline based on Jeff’s history with drugs and alcohol), the company is still intent on giving Jeff Hardy a major push to close out his career. This is primarily to show him just how much he is valued and partially to keep him away from AEW (because his brother Matt is there now experiencing success).

Asuka and Nia Jax are both counted out so Asuka is still the Raw Women’s Champion

Interestingly, Asuka has experienced a shift in her character over the last month or so from annoying heel to pure babyface. I have a couple of theories / reasons for this:

• Becky Lynch significantly elevated Asuka’s status by inferring on TV that she was the best woman in WWE – or the world for that matter; and, Becky Lynch is so credible now and beloved by millions. I think I speak for everyone when I say we hope her pregnancy goes very smoothly.
• Asukka is significantly aided in getting over as a base by working with a great heel in Nia Jax. Nia is so intimidating that the only way she could believably be a face is in a rivalry like the one she was in a couple years ago when she became Raw Women’s Champion working with her real best friend in Alexa Bliss.

Edge Injured & Heyman Fired

There are two other shocking pieces of information. To begin, WWE backlash was taped during the week prior to the airing of the event. Edge isn’t sure exactly when during the match, but at some point, he tore his triceps. Unfortunately, this means he will be out of action for at least several months after having just got going after nine long years away from the ring. He has only had two matches since returning – both against Randy Orton.

Paul Heyman has also been let go from his role as executive director of Monday Night Raw. To my knowledge, he has not been fired from the company, but rather he is just not running Monday Night Raw. I don’t know about anyone else, but I am extremely sad to see him leave this role. In my humble opinion, he was doing a significantly better job in this role than anyone has done in a very long time. Heyman has the innate ability to forge positive relationships with superstars dating back to his ECW days, making the creative process fun and collaborative. The WWE universe will most likely see him when Brock Lesnar makes his next appearance – as the mouthpiece for “The Beast.”

It seems that Vince McMahon likes to switch things up as far as who is running things backstage periodically. This might be to create more suspense and anticipation surrounding the WWE product. This is more of a way to get people talking about WWE. It’s not that the previous person who was in charge was necessarily doing a bad job; it’s simply a way to get more people discussing the happenings in WWE and generate more attention from the WWE universe. In the most recent case of Paul Heyman, he was actually doing an incredible job of getting nearly every man or woman on the roster who wasn’t injured a decent amount of TV time each week.

One other interesting piece of information is that Drew McIntyre may look to work with Randy Orton in the coming months. It will be an incredible learning experience for McIntyre to work with one of the greatest.

Shayna Baszler dominates the other five women in the Elimination Chamber to make her WrestleMania 36 match against Becky Lynch for the Raw Women’s Championship 100% official

Baszler is a very Credible Opponent who seems at this point to have an excellent chance at taking the Championship from Lynch

It was smart of Mr. McMillion to stick with his original pick to face The Man at Mania in Shayna Baszler. I know he wasn’t crazy about the reaction she received from the WWE universe on the March 2 edition of Raw, but she ended up getting a solid reaction at Elimination Chamber, similar to the reaction that Samoa Joe consistently gets.

When you think about it, there was never much of an alternative anyway. The leading candidate to replace Shayna would’ve been Asuka. She faced Becky at Royal Rumble in January, and in my opinion, it feels kind of redundant to book a champion to face their will Royal Rumble opponent at WrestleMania.

The Miz & John Morrison retain their SmackDown Tag Team Championship in the Elimination Chamber, although Heavy Machinery is the Team that the WWE Universe was Clearly most Behind

It’s blatantly obvious WWE wants the storyline between Otis, Dolph Ziggler and Mandy Rose to play out as dramatically as possible. Otis and Tucker are quickly being turned into full-fledged superstars. They are being given plenty of time to show that they have the ability to go deep into a match and they are showcasing their passion for sports entertainment.

The momentum Heavy Machinery is building this year going into Mania is very reminiscent of the momentum that Kofi Kingston built with KofiMania. Heavy Machinery hasn’t had an 11-year journey in WWE, but they did last an extended amount of time in a gauntlet match which they did not win (just like Kofi last year). They were also heavily supported at Elimination Chamber.

At the end of the day, it was a smart decision to keep the titles on the champions Miz & Morrison (they just won them 10 days ago). The New Day and The Usos have so much credibility at this point that they don’t need titles to be taken as a serious threat. The New Day is getting very close to the WWE record of 10 tag team championships, which would obviously cement them as the greatest tag team in WWE history.

Aleister Black defeats AJ Styles with the Assistance of a Surprise Attack on AJ by The Undertaker

An appearance by The Deadman is always a welcome sight. This attack will serve as a build for the match in Tampa between Taker and Styles. AJ is so established that a loss here does nothing to discredit him. It makes perfect sense for him to put over a new star in Black. It also makes sense because Aleister is one of the several superstars that Paul Heyman has on his agenda to push very hard on Monday Night Raw in 2020. What better way to begin that push than with the biggest victory in Black’s career thus far?

I wonder if Mr. McMahon has considered including Black in The Undertaker match at WrestleMania 36. Now that I think about it, his vision might be to have The Undertaker pin AJ Styles this year and have a retirement match for Taker next year at WrestleMania 37 in Los Angeles in which he takes a loss to The Harbinger of Fury. Aleister Black presents that same type of aura, so why not put him in that role? WWE tried to do it a few years ago with Bray Wyatt and make him the new face of fear but the company decided against it.

Braun Strowman loses the Intercontinental Championship to Sami Zayn in a 3-on-1 Handicap Match

This was the only one of Mr. McMillion’s Elimination Chamber decisions that felt out of place. He must see some sign of immaturity from Strowman behind the scenes that makes him hesitant to put a major title on him and make The Monster a face of the company. Strowman would be the man otherwise. His unique combination of size, speed, power, agility, and charisma are everything Vince McMahon typically look for in a sports entertainer.

Instead, he loses his first singles championship (which it took him 4 ½ years to win) roughly 6 weeks after he won the strap.

It might be safe to assume that Zayn’s shoulders are feeling healthier, considering that’s why he has been in a managerial role rather than a wrestling role for the last several months: good timing because it is just in time for Mania.

The Street Profits retained the Raw Tag Team Championship against Seth Rollins and Murphy

Good call here to keep the titles on The Street Profits. They have a deep connection with the WWE universe, and Rollins and Murphy at this point feel like old news when it comes to tag teams on Raw. Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins feel fresh.

Of course, some steps toward WrestleMania 36 were also taken. Kevin Owens showed up during the match and gave Rollins a stunner, which will set up a Mania clash between the two men and made Seth and Murphy lose their titles. The Viking Raiders also attacked The AOP, which will likely lead to a match between the two teams on the WrestleMania 36 kickoff show. This should be a fantastic encounter even though it won’t get a whole lot of attention.

Daniel Bryan defeats Drew Gulak

It sort of feels like Daniel Bryan put over Gulak despite beating him; for Gulak, merely sharing the ring with a superstar the caliber of Bryan (whom his style virtually mirrors) puts him on a significantly higher level in the eyes of the WWE universe. Perhaps this will be a step towards getting Drew out of a comedy role in which all he does is make PowerPoint presentations and where he could be taken as an actual threat.

Andrade has lost a little steam since returning from his suspension. It was the right decision to book him to retain his United States Championship against Humberto Carillo because Carillo is so early in his WWE run that he doesn’t have quite enough momentum yet to carry a title. However, Andrade may need to drop the title at WrestleMania so he can pivot and start fresh. There’s no doubt that the future is prosperous for Andrade, and those prosperous days may begin sooner rather than later.

WWE focused more on building toward the future with the Elimination Chamber Pay-Per-View as the company often does. It was refreshing to see, because the company focused on nostalgia acts in Saudi Arabia last month – namely Bill Goldberg.