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.