It’s always great to hear Michael Cole’s voice on commentary – filling in for Tom Phillips on his first week off in I don’t even know how long – Phillips is so consistent; I sincerely hope he enjoyed the night off. He earned it.
Randy Orton could very well be crowned the new WWE Champion on September 27 because he is doing the best work of his career
Randy Orton will face Drew McIntyre at Clash of Champions: Gold Rush for the WWE Championship on September 27, but before that time comes McIntyre gave Orton a taste of his own medicine with three Claymore’s after taking in three punt kicks from The Viper just a couple weeks ago.
The primary reason Randy is so intertwined right now with Keith Lee may be because Mr. McMahon’s plan is for Randy Orton to win the WWE Championship from Drew McIntyre at the Pay-Per-View, This could eventually lead to a feud with Lee over the WWE Title within a few months (if not immediately), creating a brand-new star in the process.
Vince McMahon’s original plan for the WrestleMania 37 main event was to have a match between Randy Orton and Edge for the WWE Title. This plan, however, got thrown off when Edge legitimately tore his triceps in The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever with Orton in June. Let’s just hypothetically say the injury takes nine months to heal. In that case, that would mean Edge could return to action in March giving the WWE creative team only a few weeks to hype up his confrontation with Orton (which took place the year before). With just a few weeks of build, the WrestleMania 37 main event would still be very good, just maybe not as good as it could be because creative would ideally need at least a few months of build to create a sufficiently compelling storyline.
Because of the unfortunate timing of this injury, 2021 may not be a good year to include Edge in the main event of the biggest show of the year (maybe it will happen again one day, but the best story cannot be told in just a few weeks. This is a long-term story, so more meaning will be added if it has another year to marinate).
Randy Orton, however, has absolutely earned the right to be included in the WrestleMania main event next year because he is doing the best work of his career in all areas. The Legend Killer looks more comfortable than ever on the microphone and he is combining that with his incredibly consistent in-ring work.
MVP’s hard work to elevate underutilized superstars since the Royal Rumble is paying massive dividends; and the primary beneficiary is Cedric Alexander
Anyone who pays attention to Monday Night Raw consistently could have anticipated that MVP would eventually persuade Cedric Alexander to turn against his tag team partner Ricochet and join The Hurt Business. There were a few subtle hints of this – like Ricochet costing the team a match or MVP talking to Cedric privately about how he should not sacrifice his career for someone who calls himself The One and Only.
Hopefully this heel turn will advance Alexander’s career in the same way it has done so for the careers of Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin (this is the most TV time Benjamin has received since his return to the company in 2017 and the same goes for Lashley who returned to WWE in April 2018). It was MVP’s primary goal with this stable to further the careers of superstars who were a bit underutilized, and while it took a few months to cultivate that presence, it’s now paying off and proving to be extremely successful.
It appears that WWE will look to keep Ricochet in the tag team division for right now. His partner, as opposed to being Cedric Alexander, will be Apollo Crews (because Apollo has nothing to do right now after losing the United States Championship) since Alexander is now a heel. I could be totally wrong about that but that’s the way it appears right now. A few weeks ago I would have said that Ricochet’s new partner after Cedric Alexander would possibly be Mustafa Ali because he has teamed with Ricochet and Alexander in the past.
Murphy takes a massive step toward forging his own identity in WWE and not being so reliant on the presence of Seth Rollins
Murphy may be ready to stand on his own 2 feet without the presence of Seth Rollins right next to him to provide legitimacy. This week was a critical steppingstone for Murphy because it showed he can cultivate his own presence and captivate the WWE universe. Maybe, once Murphy breaks out on his own officially, he will get his first name back to provide more credibility to his name.
Dominik Mysterio will be heavily reliant on the legacy of his father and the rest of his family for probably six months to a year while he builds a reputation of his own. Then when he’s ready, maybe he could turn heel and turn his back on the Mysterio family; this could open the door for him to take the Mysterio legacy in an entirely different direction.
Peyton Royce has the makings of a singles superstar according to Mr. McMahon
The reason the IIconics’s split as a tag team is reportedly because Vince McMahon views Peyton Royce as a potential superstar as a singles competitor in the Women’s Division and wants to give her a singles push to see how she fares on her own. This makes total sense because she is slightly smoother in terms of in-ring work and is slightly more comfortable on the microphone than Billie Kay. This statement is supported by the fact that Peyton recorded a victory over Billie just this week.
This is somewhat of a touching topic to write about because these two girls’ life paths have been so intertwined to this point. They both got into wrestling right out of high school and have been a tag team their entire careers, so it has to be heartbreaking to have this come to an end from their perspective. Chris Van Vliet did a great interview with Peyton on her history of how she got where she is today.
Mickie James set for her Raw Women’s Championship match against Asuka next week
One could have guessed that WWE might elect to wait until Clash of Champions: Gold Rush to orchestrate this match, but Mickie James might not have quite as much momentum as the company would like to place her in a Pay-Per-View title match. She does absolutely know what she’s doing, being a six-time Women’s Champion.
Kevin Owens and Aleister Black help Raw Underground take a massive stride forward
The Kevin Owens and Aleister Black match is by far the most high-rated match to take place on Raw Underground in its one-month history. This brainchild of Shane McMahon will take some time to pay dividends by creating new stars in WWE, but it has serious potential – it’s almost like a mixture of UFC’s The Ultimate Fighter and the movie Fight Club. Including matches with big names like this is how this new concept will gain prominence over time.
Retribution’s message is still unclear, but at least someone talked a little
This was the same frustration with The Shield in late 2012 – and that group turned out to be legendary – so I will be patient and give Retribution time to cultivate an identity. Perhaps they will do a little bit of what The Shield did in December 2012 and orchestrate a tag team match at Clash of Champions later this month or maybe a match inside Hell in a Cell on November 1.