Blog Archives
If You’ve Ever Wanted To See Paige, Becky Lynch & Charlotte Dance To Ginuwine’s ‘Pony’ Then Today Is Your Lucky Day
Good one Miz. I challenge @kevineffinskaff & @WWETheBigShow to #JustKeepDancing. Let’s see it big man! @ConnorsCure https://t.co/NTpc6tCS1y
— PAIGE (@RealPaigeWWE) September 16, 2015
This video is part of the ‘Just Keep Dancing Challenge’, which was started by Braylon Beam, who credits dancing with helping him get through his chemo treatments. Having to put ‘6 year old’ & ‘chemo treatments’ in the same sentence is pretty much as bad as it gets, so it’s nice to see celebrities helping out and maintaining awareness of this cause. Naturally the WWE got in on the action, because there isn’t a cause that they won’t try and help out. The latest superstars to join the movement are Team PCB, Paige, Charlotte and Becky Lynch, and they go with an old school classic: ‘Pony’ by Ginuwine. As a side note, Becky Lynch is my JAM right now.
-Ryan
The Main Event Of NXT TakeOver In October Will Be Bayley vs. Sasha Banks In A 30 Minute Iron Man Match
It’s @SashaBanksWWE vs. @itsBayleyWWE in an #IronMan Match in the MAIN EVENT of #NXTTakeOver! http://t.co/pppQwgfrXk pic.twitter.com/eM9hGqRUAb
— WWE NXT (@WWENXT) September 11, 2015
In what might end up being the peak of the NXT Women’s division, NXT Women’s champion Bayley will take on Sasha Banks in a 30 minute Iron Man match in the main event of NXT TakeOver in October. I honestly cannot remember the last time (or if it ever happened) that the women were the main event of a big time show like this, and I couldn’t be happier about it. Guys like Kevin Owens and Samoa Joe and Sami Zayn have the name appeal, but what HHH, Sara Del Rey and all the NXT women have done over the past few years is remarkable. Great matches, great storytelling and most importantly competitors that love and respect pro wrestling and give it their all every time they’re in the ring. I don’t know if they can top their match from TakeOver Brooklyn, but I’m excited to see them try.
-Ryan
WWE Hall of Famer Jimmy ‘Superfly’ Snuka Has Been Charged With The Murder of His Girlfriend From 1983
WWE – High-flying wrestling legend Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka got pinned one last time Tuesday — with a 32-year-old murder rap.
The Fiji-born WWE Hall of Famer was jailed on $100,000 bail in Lehigh, Pa. – a stunning fall from grace – in the 1983 death of girlfriend Nancy Argentino, 23, of Brooklyn.
“We never found justice in all this time, but it’s better late than never,” the victim’s sister, Lorraine Salome, 60, told the Daily News.
Prosecutors say Snuka fractured the slender Argentino’s skull during a day of abuse, then failed to call for help for at least 12 hours — and perhaps a full day.
Snuka was arrested four months before that for dragging Argentino by her hair down the hallway of an upstate New York hotel. In that incident near Syracuse, it took sheriff’s deputies and two dogs to get the wrestler under control.
“The next time the violence happened, it was too late,” Salome said at her Brooklyn home. “She was gone and everybody was in shock.”
The sister hopes the accused killer never gets a day’s rest.
It’s been a tough summer if you’re a WWE Hall of Famer and it’s one of the more bizarre summers I can imagine as a wrestling fan. Coming out of WrestleMania 31, WWE was literally on an all time high. They put on one of the best shows ever, the WWE Network numbers were sky rocketing and NXT was taking over the world. Now we’re in September, and between the untimely deaths of Roddy Piper and Dusty Rhodes and the racism/murder scandals of Hulk Hogan and Jimmy Snuka, it’s a really weird time to be a wrestling fan. Of course the Snuka murder is something that has been speculated on for decades. His girlfriend died under mysterious circumstances back in 1983, and he was the only one who had been with her that night. He was somehow never charged, but now it looks like his past has caught up with him. You’re innocent until proven guilty, but whenever you’re arrested 32 years after a murder, it’s usually because they have some kind of evidence on you. Let’s try and keep pro wrestling out of the headlines for awhile, OK guys?
-Ryan
5 Stars From Last Nights #RAW
Raw was live last night from Tampa, Florida, and compared to the last four or five shows, this wasn’t WWE’s best effort. It’s hard to put on an entertaining shows every week, but when you retread all the matches or feuds from your last pay per view two weeks ago, you shouldn’t be surprised when people think it’s crap. Seth Rollins is pulling double duty at Night of Champions, Nikki Bella has a new #1 contender for her Diva’s title and Xavier Woods has a beautiful head of hair. Let’s get to the 5 stars from last nights Raw!
1. Sting
Sting opened Raw with a promo, and it worked for one main reason: he got right to the point. He doesn’t necessarily have a beef with Seth Rollins, but he wants the WWE title, the one major championship that not only has eluded him, but that he’s never gotten the chance to fight for. Sting isn’t some guy looking for his 20th title shot before he retires; he’s looking to add another notch to his belt, and if he’s going to finally debut in the WWE, why not get a title shot too? The Authority continue to make no sense, as not only do they grant Sting a title shot at Night of Champions, but they also grant John Cena a rematch for his US title as well. Cena’s argument is that ‘all the titles must be on the line at NOC’ but they’re THE AUTHORITY. They make all the rules. Stephanie McMahon could have easily just said ‘actually John, no. You’re not getting a shot’, but instead, Seth Rollins has to pull double duty. Logically it makes zero sense, but I’m assuming Cena wins and Rollins beats Sting so Cena can prove he’s better than the WWE Champion and Sting in one night.
2. Kevin Owens & Cesaro
These two had a great match at Summerslam, and they continued to show their in ring chemistry last night as well. My only problem with the match was what the point of it? It was a great back and forth match with a logical ending, but what was the point? Did Cesaro really have to lose to Owens again? I’m all for pushing Kevin Owens to the moon, but it wouldn’t hurt to build up multiple guys at the same time. Summerslam happened and Cesaro lost, so that’s done, but don’t throw him out there again and again just to lose. Pretty soon we’ll be back at square one again with Cesaro, and all that momentum he had after the Cena matches will be gone. You don’t want every match to end in a distraction or count out or DQ, but throw my man Cesaro a bone once in awhile. As for Owens, he’s looked great on the main roster lately, and he’s getting decisive wins without looking like a cool bad guy. He’s an opportunist with a mean streak, and as long as he stays 1,000 miles away from John Cena I’m ok with it.
3. Braun Strowman
Speaking of guys getting solid pushes, Braun Strowman had his debut match against Dean Ambrose, and while he doesn’t get a clean win, he comes off looking like a superhuman powerhouse. My eternal hope is that Wyatt uses Strowman to strong arm his way to a title match (any title. I’m not picky) but for now it’s not a bad idea to show just how monstrous Strowman is. I wouldn’t mind a little variety here, as you don’t want him to beat up Ambrose and Reigns every week, but this segment accomplished what it set out to, which is to showcase Braun. He’s a little shaky in the ring and he overdid it a little bit with the monster voice, but when you’re his size and you have Wyatt and Harper by your side, you’re pretty protected. The WWE doesn’t need Strowman to have 25 minute classics, they need him to be the monster that he is. It’s an old school kind of build, especially the no sell of the chair shot, but I love it. There’s an absence of supernatural in today’s WWE, so here’s hoping the Wyatt Family gets to run with this for awhile.
4. New Day
First off:
Xavier Woods looks like Michelle Obama #RAW #WWE pic.twitter.com/1NRFCBiCgw
— Riz. (@johncenaAm) September 1, 2015
That hair deserves its own bronze statue. It’s no trombone version of ‘New York, New York’, but it’s still beautiful, and my favorite part of the New Day grouping is that they switch things up every time out. Sometimes they skip and clap, sometimes they sing cover version of songs with a trombone, and now they’re trying to preserve tables in bubble wrap. They are the E in WWE because they’re entertaining as hell, and they’re also great in the ring. You can argue that the Dudleyz getting a non title win is kind of silly, but it does set up an interesting triple threat possibility at Night of Champions. The PTP still have a rematch coming their way, and the Dudleyz have done nothing but win since their re-debut. I wouldn’t hate an old school TLC match at Night of Champions, but I’ll settle for any variation of a triple threat at this point. As long as Big E gets to dance I’m in.
5. Seth Rollins
Seth Rollins, from a character and wrestling standpoint, is holding the WWE together right now. Whenever he wrestles, he has without a doubt the best match on the card, and his promos lately have been getting much better. He still takes too long to prove his point, but I have a feeling that’s half Rollins and half WWE telling him he has 20 minutes for a promo. The Rock couldn’t make a 20 minute promo good, never mind Seth Rollins. I’m also starting to root for him in this whole Authority storyline. They continue to tell him to prove himself, and while he doesn’t win every match clean, he’s still the champion, which is really all that matters. Yet The Authority continues to put him in situations like Battleground, where he had to fight Lesnar, and now Night of Champions, where he has to wrestle twice and defend both titles. The guy is getting the short end of the stick, and I’m assuming all this HHH talk is leading to a HHH/Rollins match down the line, which is fine, because if there’s one guy HHH is putting over 100%, it’s Rollins. Seth is at the top of his game right now, and the only guy he should lose the WWE championship to is Lesnar, which I’m going to assume is what’s happening at Hell in a Cell. Have Rollins lose the strap, redeem himself against HHH and then embark on his own so we see what he can do.
-Ryan
5 Stars From Last Night’s #Smackdown
Smackdown was live this week from Providence, RI, and whenever the WWE comes to town, you can be sure the Average Nobodies will be in attendance. Tuesday night was no different, and as usual, WWE put on a great live show. We got in there right about the start of Main Event, and even saw Finn Balor and Samoa Joe team up in some high quality NXT action. Let’s get to the 5 stars from last night’s Smackdown!
1. The Wyatt Family
The Wyatt Family opened up Smackdown with a promo, which is par for the course for Smackdown. But if you think I’m not going to give Bray, Luke Harper and their new Donald Gibb lookalike a star then you’re high. Having Wyatt influence people enough to join his family is such a long overdo character trait that it makes me furious it didn’t happen sooner. But it happened now, and although I’m 1000% sure that Braun is going to end up being just another obstacle Roman Reigns overcomes, my optimistic side says that this trio could finally get Bray into the title picture. It’s a goddamn shame that Wyatt has never held a belt in the WWE, especially when the IC belt is toiling away in obscurity with Ryback and Big Show punching each other for 7 minutes at a time. You’re telling me IC champion Wyatt wouldn’t have good to great matches and feuds with the Dean Ambrose/Kevin Owens/Cesaro’s of the WWE? It’d be money, and it would give the mid carders something to chase. Make it happen, WWE. Or just have Wyatt be the best character you’ve had in a decade lose every important match he wrestles.
2. Seth Rollins
Fresh off his US title win at Summerslam and beat down at the hands of Sting on Raw, Seth Rollins unfortunately didn’t wrestle on Smackdown, but he did cut one hell of a fiery promo. While most of his promos are long winded, my favorite part about the Seth Rollins character is that it comes from a very real place. Rollins does have a chip on his shoulder, he does think he’s underrated and he truly believes he’s ‘the man’. When he was in NXT, he felt that he should have been elevated to the main roster. When he was in The Shield, he felt like the spotlight should have been shined solely on him. Now that he’s WWE Champion, he believes people should bow at his feet and thank him for being in their presence. He’s sick of having his title reign questioned, and if he has to beat old man Sting to prove once again that he’s THE MAN, then that’s exactly what he’s going to do. Seth Rollins is at the top of his game right now, and if there’s one guy who can pull a main event match out of Sting at this phase of his career, it’s Seth Rollins.
3. The Dudley Boyz Make Their Smackdown Return
I’m not going to sit here and lie directly to your face and say I didn’t pee myself a little when the Dudleys showed up on RAW and decimated The New Day. It was probably in my top 3 as far as wrestlers returning to the WWE goes (other two that i’m still waiting for are Stone Cold and Mickie James [love me some Mickie]). So when I found out the Dudleys were going to be showing off those sweet camo pants on the Smackdown that I was attending, I got the sharpie out and made a “get the tables sign” (WHICH WAS SEEN ON SMACKDOWN). Was I a little disappointed they fought The Ascension? Yeah, sure I was. Did it matter? Hell no it did not, The Dudleys were going to put one, or both, of them through the table anyway. Bonus pee in my pants for The New Day coming out with hilarious signs protesting the Dudleys reappearance in the WWE. #GiveTablesAChance
4. Sheamus Working the Providence Crowd
The WWE loves Sheamus. At first I didn’t understand why, but after a few years of matches and character changes I see it clearly, the guy is pretty much the total package. He’s big, he’s got “the look”, he speaks decent on the mic, he makes his opponent look good, has a shit ton of moves in his repertoire and he can deal with a tough crowd. On Smackdown, he had to continually deal with a hostile crowd that were chanting “You look stupid”, and while I agree with the Providence crowd, this can’t be an easy thing to deal with as a backdrop to your match. In-between giving Ambrose the beating of a lifetime, he would often look to the crowd and scream “no i’m not!”, which, if you ask me, is the perfect childish response you want from a heel. Great match by Ambrose and Sheamus.
5. Finn Balor and Samoa Joe
Samoa Joe and Finn Balor teaming up in a tag team match against the Lucha Dragons was a nice added bonus for our night at the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence. The match was great, and Balor and Joe are a formidable team going forward (more on that in a bit). Sin Cara probably isn’t going anywhere past the Lucha Dragons, but if the WWE ever lets Kalisto let loose and become another Rey Mysterio, he’s going to blow people away more than he’s already doing now. The reason I mentioned Joe and Balor going forward, and the reason why this match was especially special (new phrase) is because this ended up being one of the matches that decided what teams would participate in the Dusty Rhodes Memorial Tag Team Tournament that is going to be dominating NXT TV over the next few months. The tag team division is probably the weakest part of NXT, and that’s not a knock on the tag division, but rather it shows you how strong the rest of their show is. If you want to see the difference between NXT and WWE, just look at this move by Regal, HHH and whoever else had a hand in creating this tournament. WWE’s answer to a subpar tag division is to just run fatal four way after fatal four way tag team matches with the same teams. The only reason people are talking about the division at all is because of the wonderfulness of New Day and the PTP. Instead of doing that, NXT creates this memorial tournament, which gives EVERY NXT wrestler, including their champion Finn Balor, a chance to enter with a teammate and try to win it. Dusty Rhodes was the heart and soul of NXT, so from a real life and storyline standpoint, every wrestler on the roster has motivation to want to win this thing. We’re probably not there yet, but how awesome would it be to have a few women team up and get a couple victories? If you don’t want to see Charlotte tap out Mojo Rawley you might not have a soul.
-The Average Nobodies
The Next NXT TakeOver Special Will Be December 16th Live From London, England
If you can’t be in the UK in person to see @WWENXT take over, #NXTLondon will be LIVE only on @WWENetwork 12/16. pic.twitter.com/8K5esUiO7S
— Triple H (@TripleH) August 27, 2015
Per HHH on Twitter this afternoon, the next NXT TakeOver special will be LIVE from London, England on December 16th. Assuming they won’t be having the crowd there at 1 in the morning, the special will probably air in the afternoon here in the states on the WWE Network. You had to expect NXT would keep expanding, especially after the incredible success of last Saturday’s special in Brooklyn. The event in London will be held in the SSE Arena, which has a capacity of 12,500 people, so it should be a similar look as Brooklyn’s show. My only request is that William Regal opens the show with a 4 and half hour standing ovation.
-Ryan
5 Stars From Last Night’s #RAW
The Raw after Summerslam was last night from Brooklyn, and it had a ‘Raw after WrestleMania’ feel to it. There were a few MAJOR surprises, and we even got our main event for next month’s Night of Champions pay per view. Let’s get to the five stars from last night’s Raw!
1. Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar
It’s kind of a given that these two were one of the best parts of Raw, but as much as I hate to see Lesnar lose, the night after promos by Heyman are a thing of beauty. To say Lesnar lost in controversial fashion at Summerslam would be an understatement, and I can honestly say I’ve never seen a match end like that in all my years of watching wrestling. Yes it protects both guys and yes it sets up some interesting scenarios in the future, but I do have a problem with that being your main event, especially when Seth Rollins beat John Cena to become the first ever WWE and US Champion earlier in the night. I would have rather Summerslam gone off the air with Rollins celebrating with both belts instead of Lesnar death staring a referee. With that said, Heyman’s promo here was great, and if they’re setting up a winner take all third match where Lesnar officially retires Taker in Dallas then I’m all in. Supplementary best to Bo Dallas, who I’m pretty sure is buried under the ring in Brooklyn right now. Those German suplexes looked brutal as hell.
2. New Day
Is New Day a real thing anymore or are the best parts of my brain coming together to make me hallucinate this wonderfulness?First we got this amazing dance after they won the tag titles at Summerslam:
I could do the Big E dance, that’s how awake I am pic.twitter.com/xuAwTdltN6
— Sahpy (@sahpy4) August 24, 2015
Then they came to the ring last night to sing a cover version of ‘New York, New York’ with Xavier Woods on the trombone. I really don’t think they can get any more entertaining than they are now, but I know they’ll one up themselves. With Rusev wasting away in a stupid jealously angle with Ziggler, New Day are now far and away my favorite part of every wrestling show. The best part is they can also back up their shenanigans with solid tag team wrestling. Xavier Woods as the obnoxious, trombone playing mouth piece followed up by the speed and power of Kofi and Big E should be what the tag team division is built around. I can’t think of one team I wouldn’t want to see feud/fight with New Day, which brings me to my next point…
3. The Mother Fucking Dudley Boyz Are Back
After New Day disposed of the Lucha Dragons, they began celebrating in the ring again, which brought out BUBBA RAY & DEVON DUDLEY. If you told me I could somehow be happier while watching New Day celebrate a victory, I’d call you a liar, but then the Dudley Boyz came out and my heart and brain simultaneously exploded. The thing about tag team wrestling is that a team like the Dudley’s, who were never built around great technical wrestling, can realistically wrestle forever. They’re money on the microphone and they can put over any team in the tag team division because they’re legitimately the most decorated team of all time. Just listen to the pop from the crowd last night. It was deafening, and you know Bubba Ray has been dying to come in and reignite the tag team division, and you can have confidence that the Dudley Boyz will do it with no ego attached. They’re not the New Age Outlaws coming back to prove how much better their era was; they’re just a great tag team who wants to work with the young guys and put on some great matches. Awesome move by WWE bringing Bubba Ray and Devon back.
4. The Wyatt Family
Bray and Luke Harper lost clean as a whistle to Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose at Summerslam, so when they announced a rematch on Raw I was hoping for something different to happen. Braun Stowman was that something different. Stowman is a legitimate former tough man competitor, and even without seeing him wrestle, his size brings instant credibility and fear to the Wyatt Family. This is the Bray Wyatt I wanted all along. He didn’t have to be like the NWO and recruit every guy under the sun, but if you’re billing him as this cult leader who can persuade people with his words, shouldn’t he have some followers? Harper and Rowan were a good start, but then they disbanded them, and now it looks like the WWE is ready to take Wyatt seriously again. I don’t know if this means Reigns and Ambrose get a third guy as well or if Reigns just overcomes the odds Cena style, but I like where this is headed. Let Stowman wreak havoc on the WWE until Bray Wyatt get’s that long deserved WWE title shot.
5. Sting
The main event of Raw was Seth Rollins well deserved statue ceremony, and wrestling 101 tells you that anytime there is a structure in the ring that everyone tells you is going to be one thing, it will most certainly be something different. We already knew Rollins was going to be in the main event scene for the next decade, but his match against Cena just cemented that mindset. He was amazing, and hey, a heel cheated to win a match. What a peculiar concept. Out of that win came the statue ceremony last night, and instead of Rollins’ new bronze statue, he was greeted by Sting. Obviously there was a lot of online complaining about this, particularly about the fact that they used that big spot on Sting and not a young guy, but fans who complain about that don’t understand what’s happening. Say the WWE put Cesaro behind that curtain. From a story telling standpoint, would the reaction and subsequent match at Night of Champions have been better or worse? The answer is worse, and I’m saying that as a Cesaro fan. The WWE’s goal is to make Seth Rollins THE MAN, and you do that by beating established guys, not by beating guys who need a big push of their own. I have complete faith that Rollins and Sting will have a great match at Night of Champions, and the mind games leading up to it will be even better. Sometimes you just need to sit back and enjoy the show, and let a grown man in face paint beat the crap out of somebody.
-Ryan
Your Average #WWE Summerslam Preview & Predictions
WWE’s monster weekend will continue on Sunday night as Summerslam is live from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, the same venue that will host TakeOver the night before and Raw the night after. For the first time ever, Summerslam is four hours long, which is both a tribute and a sad reminder of how stacked WWE’s roster is. For as talented as they are, and as great as the matches will be, it’s still tough to think of how much better the event would be with some solid lead up writing. The show is headlined by the Undertaker/Brock Lesnar rematch and the title vs. title bout between John Cena and Seth Rollins. Let’s get to the preview and predictions!
Team Bella vs. Team B.A.D. vs. Team PCB (Divas Elimination Match)
I believe the stipulation for this match states that only one member of each team needs to pinned or submitted for that team to be eliminated. If I had to pick the most logical situation, it would be Nikki Bella getting submitted by either Sasha or Charlotte, which would finally set up some kind of Diva’s title structure. No other scenario makes any sense, and if the WWE does anything else they’re proving they don’t mind staying stagnant. The only problem with that is they keep labeling this as a ‘revolution’. Revolutions do not stay stagnant, they evolve. As great as the women’s wrestling has been, it’s also been aimless. Becky Lynch is tapping out Tamina and Sasha is tapping out Nikki and nothing is changing. The rumor is WWE is stalling for the next month until Nikki becomes the longest reigning Divas champion ever, but it’s time to shit or get off the pot. I have Sasha losing the night before to Bayley, so now all three NXT women should be hungry for the Diva’s title. If I had to bet, I’d say Charlotte gets first crack at it.
Prediction: Charlotte figure 8’s Nikki for the win.
The Prime Time Players (C) vs. Los Matadores vs. The Lucha Dragons vs. The New Day (WWE Tag Team Championship Match)
As great as the PTP have been as champions both in the ring and on commentary, I’m not pure evil, and I can’t root against the New Day (just look at that gif above. LOOK AT IT). Between the skipping and clapping on their way to ring, Xavier Woods’ ringside commentary and their general wonderfulness, New Day has consistently been the best act on WWE TV for awhile. Lucha Dragons and Los Matadores both equally have a zero percent change of winning, but they should contribute to the overall match. I’m pulling for a New Day win, and the way they’ve been losing lately, I can see Xavier Woods getting the best of El Torito and everyone else and helping his partners win back the belts.
Prediction: per usual, heart > head: New. Day Rocks.
Dolph Ziggler vs. Rusev
Rusev, along with New Day, are my favorite characters on WWE TV. Every time he talks on the microphone it’s wonderful, whether he’s giving Summer Lana a dog (named DOG ZIGGLER) or threatening to break people into pieces like a jigsaw puzzle, he always nails it. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen much of his ring ability lately, as he’s been relegated to murdering Mark Henry’s lifeless corpse for the last few weeks. That should change Sunday, and Rusev should look good, because he’s facing the human selling machine in Ziggler. Usually when WWE runs angles like this, a guy like Ziggler will come out on top, but Ziggler loses pretty much every match he’s ever in, so I’m going with Rusev. Lana keeps goading Summer and Rusev into these arguments and attacks by continually showing up on commentary for Rusev’s matches, so I kind of hope she gets knocked out by Summer. Side by side accolades while Rusev’s personalized Bulgarian flag floats down from the ceiling would make my heart explode with joy.
Prediction: Rusev.
Stephen Amell And Neville vs. Stardust And King Barrett
I think this might be the sleeper match of the night. You have three excellent talents matched up with an athletic celebrity who genuinely enjoys WWE and can pick his spots to look good. Amell is a physical freak, as shown by his quickness on Raw a few weeks ago, and he’s matched up with Neville, who I’m still not sure is a real human being. Amell and Neville are definitely going over, but I have faith that Stardust and the ‘Cosmic King’ will make the match entertaining. With 9 other matches on the card, this one should definitely stand out, and I hope Amell and Neville have a unique entrance planned. The Red & Green Arrow together is too good of an opportunity to pass up.
Prediction: Amell and Neville.
Ryback vs. Big Show vs. The Miz (Intercontinental Championship Triple Threat Match)
I’m not really into this match, and I can’t imagine many people are, but when you have 10 matches on a card you kind of have to defend one of the main titles. Ryback is the latest victim of the IC title curse, and just recently returned from an injury and a staph infection. Big Show is Big Show, what you see is what you get, and Miz is desperately trying to get this feud over, but it feels like it’s been going on forever. When in doubt, the champion retains, which is what should happen here. Maybe phase Show out and have Ryback feud with Miz, or just start from scratch and give Ryback some fresh meat.
Prediction: The Big Guy.
Randy Orton vs. Sheamus
I really hope Orton and Sheamus put their thinking caps on Sunday night, because if they don’t, the Brooklyn crowd is going to eat them alive. This is one of those matches that HAS to be placed perfectly on the card. Their best bet is to go second after a really hot opener of either Owens/Cesaro or the Divas, because if they go too late in the show the crowd will get restless and just shit all over them. These guys are both methodical, and at this point in both of their careers are only tolerable when they have someone who contrast their style. Orton is based solely off his finisher, and so is Sheamus, and all their transition moves have been seen so many times you can pretty much watch their matches with your eyes closed and know what’s going to happen. That’s not a good thing. I have no idea what’s in store for Orton, but Sheamus has been getting pinned an awful lot lately, and it’d be smart for WWE to give Mr. MITB some forward momentum.
Prediction: Sheamus
Kevin Owens vs. Cesaro
I was going to list this match as my sleeper of the night, but when everyone is expecting it to be great and it still delivers, it’s kind of tough to label it a sleeper. I believe this match should open the show, go 20 minutes, and feature both guys figuratively saying “follow that”. You have four hours, why not? We’ve seen what both these guys can do, so I say just let them both loose and have them tear the damn house down. Cesaro is my favorite wrestler, but I’ve already come to the conclusion that he’s going to lose this one. Owens is more than likely losing at TakeOver, and losing twice in the same weekend in big time matches is not really the right direction for him. Once again, WWE has booked themselves into a corner with a young wrestler after a Cena feud, so Owens kind of has to win here to get back on track.
Prediction: Kevin Owens
John Cena vs. Seth Rollins (Title vs. Title Match)
This is the match that scares me the most, as do most Cena matches, and I can’t see it ending without a schmoz. Rollins defeating Cena and owning both belts just sets us up for Cena to win them both back down the line, and Cena winning both belts at any point makes me want to vomit. All this talk about Cena elevating the US Championship is great, but has he really? Is the US Championship really any more special than it was before Mania? Say a guy like Rusev wins it from Cena and just does what he did with it pre Mania, how would that change the perception of the belt? Cena has elevated himself, sure, and he’s tried to get back in the ‘internet’ fans good graces by giving all of our darlings (Cesaro, Neville, Rusev, Owens) title shots, but he’s continually won. I’m not drinking the John Cena Kool-Aid, because I really don’t think he’s done a thing for the US belt. And now he’s back to being the #1 contender because someone broke his nose. It’s comical if you think about it, and I can’t wait for the hate columns six months from now when the WWE still hasn’t made a new star. How could they when Cena is back in the title scene every six months? I say the Authority interferes, and we have some kind of title vs. title rematch at Night of Champions.
Prediction: if Cena wins we complain.
The Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar
Will the WWE schmoz both of their main events for Summerslam? I really can’t see either of the two main events ending clean, but I guess if one of the matches had to end clean it would be this one. First off, the Undertaker should not win. Brock Lesnar is the best thing going in pro wrestling right now, and he should not be losing the main event of Summerslam so 50 year old Undertaker can get his WrestleMania loss back. The way they’ve set up this feud, it looks like Lesnar is going to win. They had the pull apart brawl, with neither guy getting the upper hand, and besides that, the other two times they’ve faced off Undertaker has used dick kicks and choke slams and tombstones to beat down Brock. I love Taker, but at this moment in time he is up against the greatest attraction in sports entertainment. Plus, Brocks owns Summerslam. I hope he suplexes Taker 5 thousand times and beats him silly with his own limbs.
Prediction: BROCK LESNAR.
-Ryan
