NXT

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Before the Money in the Bank pay-per-view, I honestly had no clue what was going on with the WWE main roster. From the women to the men, to the Diva’s Championship belt to the WWE World Heavyweight Championship belt. Even during MITB, I still couldn’t figure out what was going on. Then, the next night on Raw, Brock Lesnar came out, and it all started to come into place.

There’s a lot to talk about, so this will be just like the NXT post- very long and very rant-y. I won’t be talking about the Divas here, but I will in another post – I’d love to start with the Kevin Owens and John Cena feud for now.

Owens VS Cena has been so great. I have loved every moment of it – I’ve loved seeing what Kevin Owens can do in the ring and at the mic and I’ve loved seeing John Cena push him more over than he already has been. I don’t hate John Cena, I never have and I never will. I’m not going to shout “Cena sucks” or be one of those major haters online. Of course though, I can understand both sides of the Cena haters and the Cena lovers – if both of them have actual reasons as to why they like him or don’t like him.

Kevin Owens really should win the United States Championship belt and go on to have a feud with Samoa Joe. It’s the best decision, in my opinion. When Sami Zayn comes back, I’m pretty sure they’re going to have him feud with Owens for the US belt. I think that was what they were going to do, honestly, was move up Zayn and Owens at the same time so they could feud after Owens and Cena were done. If anything, I think we’re going to get a Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens match at next year’s Wrestlemania- but hey, maybe I’m just really optimistic.

On another note, I have literally no clue what is happening with Sheamus and the MITB briefcase right now. I understand that the original purpose of the briefcase was to push midcard wrestlers up – Like Jack Swagger, CM Punk, Daniel Bryan. It’s so they can get their shot at the WWE Title if there really isn’t another way to get them into a WWE WHC storyline. I argue with my own point that Sheamus has already had the belt – and the worst part is that so many people talk about his title reign like a horror story. Very few people have been unsuccessful with cashing in the briefcase – Mr. Kennedy lost the briefcase to Edge in 2007, John Cena was unsuccessful in 2012, and Damien Sandow lost in 2013. Three people out of fourteen – the statistics don’t show that Sheamus will be unsuccessful. It’s a shame that I want him to be unsuccessful, I love Sheamus. He’s a great wrestler, a great performer, but him winning the briefcase is just a bad idea to me.

Sheamus being the winner of the briefcase makes no sense to me. Adrian Neville could have won, to show what winning that ladder match is all about. Randy Orton could have won and shown that he isn’t boring. Kofi Kingston could have won and gotten the chance to finally be champion. Dolph Ziggler would have gotten another great title run (He is such a great and hard worker, he deserves another run). Kane would have gotten revenge on Seth Rollins, and Roman could have gotten his revenge on Seth too. Roman, Dolph, and Neville were the safest and smartest choices – And yet they went with Sheamus. It just doesn’t make sense to me, and I hope we don’t have a moment of wrestling history repeating itself.

Now, about the Roman Reigns and Bray Wyatt feud. I really am fond of this feud, but Roman really should just barrel over Bray at Battleground. This really shouldn’t go any farther than that. I definitely do think this is kind of like commentary on the fans. What with the ‘Anyone but you’ written on the walls, – representing what the fans were saying. The eyes and mouth cut out of every picture of Roman – representing the fans complaining about how his promos were, and some fans did complain about the color contacts. The word ‘liar’ written on the wall – ‘I CAN and I WILL.’

The feud is great, but like I said, it can’t last longer than Battleground. They have two obvious options for Roman right now – Him winning the Championship, or him with a reunited Shield.

I feel like it’s obvious that Seth is going to lose the championship at Battleground – Then again, I thought it was obvious that Roman and Dean were both going to win at MITB, so I might be jinxing it when I say that. But, if Brock does win, I think that Seth is going to be rejected from the Authority. When Seth is mouthing off at the Authority, he’ll end his speech with, “There’s always plan B” and Roman and Dean appear beside him. Obviously Roman would take pity on him- He’s certainly more forgiving than Dean is. I think the fact that they just won’t let go of Seth breaking up the Shield, showing it almost every time Seth does a promo, it’s kind of obvious that if anything they’re thinking about reuniting the trio.

It’s either that, or Seth retains, and Summerslam there’s a Triple Threat, with Roman, Seth and Brock. Maybe Brock doesn’t win again, and we get a Wrestlemania Championship Triple Threat, with Dean instead of Brock. I’m relatively sure that Roman would come out on top in the end either way. If anything, I really do want him to. They’ve put Roman in so many good spots just to take the win away from him.

Finally, the person I choose to talk about last, is Adrian Neville. He is in my top three for favorite wrestlers right now. He’s an absolutely amazing wrestler, an amazing performer, and great at the mic. Adrian is one of the best wrestlers I’ve ever seen, especially with being so new to the WWE. I know he isn’t new to wrestling itself, but I’m still amazed by him. I truly think he was the best person to win the Money in the Bank briefcase, if not Reigns. He was fantastic in the match anyways, I think later in his WWE career they might find that ladder matches are where he does his best work – like the Hardy’s or Edge and Christian. I hope they find Adrian a solid storyline and that he can really find his place in the WWE.

Thank you for reading, I cannot wait for the Live Tokyo Event on July 4th, and I hope you all enjoy the show and have a great weekend!

Wrestlemania 26

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Overall, Wrestlemania 26 was a solid show that had some nice moments, but does not go down in the top 10 best Wrestlemania’s category.

The highlights:

– The Money in the Bank ladder match is always a blast and I have yet to see one that was not fun to watch. This year’s featured Jack Swagger, Christian, Matt Hardy, and Evan Bourne, among others, with those 4 really standing out. Bourne performed an impressive shooting star press from a ladder on to Christian that got a huge response from the crowd. Jack Swagger eventually won and got a nice reaction from the audience.

– Randy Orton, Ted DiBiase, and Cody Rhodes battled in a triple threat match that officially ended The Legacy trio and was well worked by all three performers. Orton won with an RKO to DiBiase that got the crowd on their feet cheering.

– Rey Mysterio vs. CM Punk was another good match with a satisfying ending of Mysterio getting his revenge on Punk for weeks of torment and securing the pinfall.

– Edge vs. Chris Jericho was another good match with Jericho retaining his World Title. Any time these two went head to head you knew you were in for something good.

– The most memorable moment of the night was the main event which featured a re-match of last year’s show with The Undertaker battling Shawn Michaels with the stipulation that if Michaels lost he would retire. It was not quite the match they put on last year, but it was solid nonetheless with The Undertaker going 18-0 at Wrestlemania and Shawn saying an emotional goodbye to the crowd. It was a real honor to know he had his final match in my home state of Arizona.

Now for the lowlights:

– 10 Diva tag match. The less said the better.

– Bret Hart vs. Vince McMahon. The storyline of McMahon trying to screw over Bret for a second time was unnecessary. Bret stumbled a bit when delivering his promo and seemed a little bit confused. This was not a solid match at all and seemed to be ‘over stuffed’ with the Hart family at ringside.

– Big Show and The Miz successfully defended their Tag Team Championship over R-Truth and Morrison. This is unfortunate since Morrison and Truth are excellent performers who were not allowed to shine so they could put over the current Tag Champs in a pointless match.

Overall, not a bad show, but a little uneven in the booking department.

Looking forward to Wrestlemania 27 since I do not remember seeing that show and I look forward to watching the one Wrestlemania that The Miz always brags about headlining in his current promos 🙂

Wrestlemania 23 and 24

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Wrestlemania 23 was a good show, but not quite as memorable as the year before.

We got another entertaining MITB match with Mr. Kennedy defeating CM Punk, Randy Orton, Finlay, Matt Hardy, King Booker, Jeff Hardy, and Edge. All performers did a great job and filled the match with a lot of high spots.

The worst match was The Great Khali going over Kane. Khali is not a good performer and it always unfortunate when a top notch wrestler like Kane is stuck putting over someone with no talent.

The Undertaker beat Batista for the World Heavyweight Title in a great, well worked match. Both guys did a terrific job and the match was paced very well which is very important when putting together a good match.

The main event was John Cena beating Shawn Michaels via submission in a solid main event that really helped elevate Cena.

There were some good matches but overall, this was a fairly lackluster event.

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Wrestlemania 24 was a major improvement from the year’s previous show and was highlighted by another excellent MITB match, Edge vs. The Undertaker for the World Heavyweight Championship, and Ric Flair’s retirement match.

 

The MITB ladder match between Chris Jericho, Mr. Kennedy, Carlito, M.V.P., CM Punk, Shelton Benjamin and John Morrison was incredible. Every performer put their all into the match with CM Punk winning the title shot. Morrison is an incredible athlete and did some crazy maneuvers and Shelton took some bumps that were the craziest ever seen.

The final match on the card featured The Undertaker defeating Edge for the title in a great match that showed Edge was truly a main event wrestler and could help carry the biggest show of the year.

The best bout on the card though was the career ending match between Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels. Shawn Michaels was amazing as always and Ric Flair proved he is the greatest professional wrestler of all time. What he did during this match at 60 years old is amazing and proved he is a legend. It was a very emotional match with an amazing amount of back and forth action with no dead spots and Michaels winning with a superkick to Ric Flair. Flair was very emotional at the end of the match and this bout was a great way to end his active wrestling career.

Well, this will be the last Wrestlemania review for the week since the 31st installment is only a few days away and I have run out of time! I will be watching Wrestlemania 31 specials Thursday and Friday night, followed by the Hall of Fame on Saturday and of course Wrestlemania 31 on Sunday!

I will let you know how it all turns out next week!

 

Wrestlemania’s 21 and 22

 

 

 

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Wrestlemania 21 was a terrific show from start to finish. When a show begins with a match featuring Rey Mysterio vs. Eddie Guerrero (in what would be his last Wrestlemania before his untimely passing), which was simply amazing, you know it will be a good night for wrestling.

We also had the first Money in the Bank ladder match, which Edge won, which was an incredible match for something we were seeing for the first time. The other participants were Chris Jericho, Christian, Chris Benoit, Edge, Shelton Benjamin, and Kane who all did a great job with Shelton really standing out. He is an amazing athlete that I wish was still part of the WWE today.

Other notable matches were John Cena winning the WWE Title over JBL and Batista winning the World Heavyweight Championship from Triple H. A nice passing of the torch from these two legends to the young guys who would become legends in their own rights.

The best match of the night was Kurt Angle vs. Shawn Michaels. Holy s@$t was this a great match! Two of the best performers in the history of professional wrestling who had an amazing chenistry in the ring and turned in a classic. If you are a wrestling fan or wonder how could someone be a wrestling fan, then watch this match and you will understand.

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Wrestlemania 22 the following year was another great show.

Edge beat Mick Foley in a hardcore match which ended with a spectacular finish of Edge spearing Foley through a burning table. This is a match that is not for the faint of heart with a lot of extreme violence and blood which is a stark contrast from the WWE today.

A surprisingly good match was Mickie James defeating Trish Stratus fro the Women’s Championship. Both women worked hard and put on a very solid match.

The second MITB ladder match was won by Rob Van Dam and was amazing just like the year before.

The highlight though was Vince McMahon vs. Shawn Michaels in a no-holds-barred match. There is a reason Michaels was known as ‘Mr. Wrestlemania’ since he had a tendency to steal the show with his incredible athleticism. McMahon always amazes me due to the fact that he will put his body on the line and make himself look as bad as needed to entertain the fans. The abuse he took during this match was crazy and the final spot with Michaels jumping down on McMahon, who was lying prone on a table with a garbage can over his head and upper body, from a large ladder was mind blowing.

Overall, another great show that makes me anticipate the 31st installment this Sunday even more!