Superstar Sagas

It was a smart booking decision by Triple H and Shawn Michaels in NXT to turn Johnny Wrestling heel, and to do it gradually rather than abruptly, for two primary reasons:

• It gave fans time to acclimate so that Johnny could make it a rather seamless character transition, and;
• It serves to provide a new wrinkle to the seemingly never-ending rivalry between Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa.

Gargano was a massive babyface for such an extended amount of time that Triple H and Shawn Michaels had essentially no choice but to make this transition gradual. No one would view it as being plausible if it happened on a dime. He developed edge to his character and incorporated the wearable aspect over a period of a few months, and it worked very well. The NXT universe was willing to accept Gargano’s term and found it to be very believable.

Tommaso Ciampa has also essentially turned face for the first time since his DIY days as a tag team champion with Gargano. This is very possible given the timing of a reunion of their team at Worlds Collide. This switch in roles for the two men will give fans a reason to remain invested in their story as I can’t even count at this point how many matches they’ve had over the last three years. Gargano and Ciampa can finally meet at WrestleMania weekend like they were scheduled to do last year but couldn’t due to the unfortunate timing of Ciampa’s neck injury.

WWE may want to consider orchestrating the return of Mustafa Ali on the March 6 edition of SmackDown on FOX and announcing him as a last-minute entry into the Elimination Chamber match on March 8. Ali is deserving of this because not only is he an extremely talented performer, but last year he was originally booked to be in the Elimination Chamber match for Daniel Bryan’s WWE Championship. Those plans were derailed when he was attacked by Randy Orton and suffered facial injuries.

Ali was replaced in the match by Kofi Kingston, which started KofiMania and gave Kingston the necessary momentum to win the WWE Championship. The rest is history. Nonetheless, it would be a nice accomplishment on Ali’s resume and contribute to the narrative of his WWE career.

Samoa Joe has experienced some bad timing as of late when it comes to injuries. In September 2019 he broke his thumb causing him to miss about three months of action. He returned around Christmas time and was good for about a month and a half before he suffered a concussion on an episode of Raw. This caused him to miss another few weeks. He returned to action just recently and had a match on the February 17 addition of Raw, competing alongside Kevin Owens and The Viking Raiders to take on Seth Rollins and his disciples.

After that, apparently Joe filmed a WWE commercial and suffered a head injury while going through a table. I wish him nothing but the best in his recovery. Hopefully he isn’t forced to miss WrestleMania. If this were to happen, it would be the third year he has missed ‘Mania in the four years he’s been on the main roster.

Joe missed WrestleMania 33 due to a legitimate injury and was good to go for 34 but was not used because he had just recently returned from injury. That, and Vince McMahon did not know how to adequately use him. The only WrestleMania he has competed in was last year, defending his United States Championship at the time against Rey Mysterio. Even then, it was not as good a match as it could’ve been because Mysterio was hampered due to an injury he suffered before the event. Timing is everything.

Seth Rollins has fully committed to his Monday Night Messiah character. He is digging his heels into making it the best it can be. The WWE universe is starting to get a feel for the nuances of the character which have a religious element to them. He is portrayed to be a bit delusional and narcissistic in that he thinks of himself almost like the second coming of Jesus Christ. This is sure to get an emotional response from fans since people worship Jesus – there is a large attachment to this type of figure.

The Monday Night Messiah is very akin to an updated version of the character Mordecai. This character may have gotten over decently had Kevin Fertig not been in a bar fight; there were big plans in store for him.

Fertig pitched the idea for the character’s plan to John Laurinitis and Vince McMahon. They both loved it. The plan they devised in 2004 was to build the aura and mystique of Mordecai for an entire year leading up to a match at WrestleMania 21 against The Undertaker, maybe even potentially ending his streak, which was at 12 – 0 at that time. The bar fight, however ruined those plans. The Undertaker faced Randy Orton at WrestleMania 21 in Los Angeles and handily got the victory.

Rusev is engaged in contract negotiations with WWE. Vince McMahon would reportedly like to keep him, but maybe he wants something WWE is not willing to give him. Otherwise these negotiations would probably be settled. This is possibly the reason he was kept off TV on February 3rd.

Former NXT Champion Shayna Baszler is reportedly set to make her debut on Raw soon (definitely before WrestleMania 36). This will give her a chance to adequately build for a confrontation at the biggest show of the year with Becky Lynch. Meanwhile, Ronda Rousey will in fact return to WWE and it’s a matter of “when” not if, because she is under contract until WrestleMania 37 and 2021.  WWE fans should not expect her to return on a full-time basis again. She is not willing to necessarily put her family through that again.

Because Shayna and Ronda are such good friends from their days in UFC together (in part two of the Four Horsewomen of UFC), the WWE universe shouldn’t be surprised if Ronda Rousey ends up playing a pivotal role in Baszler’s match and potential title win at ‘Mania.

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

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

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

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

Lio Rush played a massive role in getting Bobby Lashley over during the first part of his second stint in WWE with his excellent work on the microphone. Rush’s in-ring ability is also some of the best in the entire company (as seen this past week on NXT) despite only being 25 years old.