Randy Orton setting more stuff on fire – third time in his career
Randy Orton has an affinity for setting objects on fire throughout his WWE career. He tossed Bray Wyatt – with his sweater – into a trunk and set it on fire – only for The Fiend to jump out and attack Randy. This proved to be a creative way of maintaining The Fiend’s supernatural aura even with WWE presenting Him as the babyface in this rivalry. I wasn’t super confident it would work because The Fiend was established so well as a heel, so this is great news. The first thing that came to mind when Orton did this was his story with Wyatt surrounding the WWE championship from 2017 when he burned down Sister Abigail’s cabin.
The second event involving Randy Orton setting something on fire that came to mind was when he was involved in a casket match with The Undertaker back in 2005 and he set the casket on fire. Unfortunately (inexperienced as he was at only 25), Orton nearly set himself on fire as well because when he was pouring gasoline on the casket it was also soaking his body. He stepped away at probably the last possible second – just in case there were people with fire extinguishers surrounding the stage. Fortunately, Orton was much safer about it this time, so he learned his lesson.
AJ Styles defeats Sheamus early in the night and beats up Drew McIntyre later in the night with help from his buddies. The action in WWE (particularly on Monday Night RAW because it’s three hours instead of two) typically slows down as each calendar year winds down. It will pick back up when the new year starts.
Sheamus was not booked to look particularly strong this week which is the primary job of the WWE booking team. He took a beating from AJ Styles with a chair after losing the match. The Celtic Warrior did not even come out later in the night to get revenge on The Phenomenal One. This could have furthered the friendship angle between Drew McIntyre and Sheamus. The uneven booking of The Celtic Warrior this week makes one question how serious WWE is about making a match between he and McIntyre happen in the future for the WWE championship. It’s the job of every booking team in wrestling to make the time wrestlers have / don’t have to make them look like absolute superstars (even if they are not the primary focus that particular week) so they keep momentum.
In a parallel reality, probably not too far away from here (from a quantum physics perspective), where Sheamus is the current WWE champion as opposed to Drew McIntyre and he is booked by WWE to have a match at TLC with AJ Styles, this would be a real barnburner to look forward to. Instead, in this present reality, the WWE universe is getting the opportunity to enjoy this match (for the first time) for free. There is even a possibility that a match between Styles and Sheamus could have gone down at WrestleMania 28 back in 2012 – the year The Celtic Warrior won the Royal Rumble – for the World Heavyweight championship (instead Daniel Bryan was the opponent and Sheamus knocked him out with a Brogue Kick in 18 seconds). Unfortunately, AJ was not with the company in 2012.
Styles got a victory over McIntyre’s close friend which makes sense due to the booking of AJ as the number one contender for the WWE title. The match was also extremely well-paced and none of the action felt rushed. WWE gave the two men an adequate about of time to go out there and put on a solid match, and the superstars did not feel rushed at all as dictated by their body language.
Miz read a decent bedtime story chronicling the recent history between Styles and McIntyre, although it may not have been nearly as captivating as the bedtime story Samoa Joe did a couple of years ago when feuding with Styles – Joe just has a voice that could quite possibly put someone to sleep if they are tired. John Morrison’s impression of Drew McIntyre was genuinely funny. Some of the things Morrison does are over-the-top, but this was genuinely pretty good (William Wallace-esque).
It made storyline sense for AJ to get the upper hand on McIntyre (albeit with the help of Mr. Money in the Bank The Miz, Morrison, and his bodyguard Omos) on the go-home edition of RAW before TLC because AJ most likely has no business winning the WWE title from Drew McIntyre at the Pay-Per-View. Mr. McMahon has been high on McIntyre for over a decade, and McIntyre resonates at a deep level with much of the WWE universe – or maybe that’s just me. One intriguing possibility that is considered to be a top match at WrestleMania 37 is doing a rematch between Brock Lesnar and McIntyre for the WWE championship – but this time adding Keith Lee to the mix. This would make perfect sense as The Limitless One squared off with The Beast in the 2020 Men’s Royal Rumble match (Lee was No. 13).
The New Day are incredibly consistent, and the demand for that quality in the wrestling business will never go away – a tag team that is established and can always be relied upon to carry the division and elevate other teams
Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods are two of the absolute best workers in WWE. No one can say they are underrated because they are Tag Team Champions, but at times WWE does not put quite as much emphasis on the tag team division. Kofi and Woods go out every night, however, with a smile on their faces and do their thing on a consistent basis and that can never be undervalued. They will be defending – and quite possibly losing – their RAW Tag Team Titles against The Hurt Business at TLC. Whenever WWE has a tag team they want to establish, the first step is beating The New Day. When there is no one else who is really standing out, the titles are usually on The New Day.
It’s an incredibly positive thing that Jaxson Ryker was featured on Monday Night RAW now that the Forgotten Sons gimmick is completely done away with. WWE has taken the first step in the right direction if the company chooses to give Ryker a push and build around him.
For now, Elias is on a path to elevate him and in the process he can become familiar with the WWE universe – hopefully it will turn into something more in the future. WWE primarily looks for commitment, dedication, and passion as Triple H has said so many times in the past.