It has been another turbulent week for WWE, in and out of the ring.
We’ve seen the last PPV of the decade take place, Corey Graves cause controversy on Twitter, John Cena’s impressive PPV streak end, CM Punk have his say on Seth Rollins’ heel turn, Goldberg appear On Stone Cold’s podcast, Daniel Bryan win the 10 Year challenge, Superstars released From their contracts, AEW & NXT tie in the ratings, Chris Jericho continue his Dad-like rants, and some big Royal Rumble spoilers.
So, let’s delve into it all right now.
For a throwaway gimmick event, TLC exceeded a lot of expectations last night with a fairly decent and entertaining show. Baron Corbin survived the wrath of Roman Reigns, Bray Wyatt knocked off The Miz and The Kabuki Warriors retained their Women’s Tag Team Championship against Becky Lynch & Charlotte Flair in a terrific Tables, Ladders and Chairs Match.
There were some down points too such as there being no singles Championships on the line, despite the Universal Champion being in action. Roman Reigns taking the shine off The Kabuki Warriors to close out the show was also needless. Not a lot happened to make you tune into Raw or Smackdown this week, but was an enjoyable event nonetheless.
It was another week, another controversial comment by Corey Graves, who once again when confronted on the subject pretended it was a joke. I wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of Tazz either. Graves posted a picture of Samoa Joe and Vic Joseph, calling them the new and improved Tazz and Michael Cole. Tazz responded in kind by going in hard, only for Graves to claim it was meant in good spirits.
For what it’s worth, I didn’t see anything wrong in the tweet here. If it was intended to be a joke, I’m sure it was aimed at Corey’s broadcast partner, Cole, as opposed to The Human Suplex Machine. Whatever the case, Tazz wasn’t happy and believed Graves does everything he can to be controversial so he can get his WWE podcast over. I would pay good money to see Tazz put Graves to sleep though.
John Cena has done it all in WWE, but one stat that some may have overlooked is his impressive streak of competing for the company on PPV. For his entire 17 year career, Cena has fought on PPV at least once per calendar year. But not in 2019, meaning his impressive streak is over.
There were teases about Cena having a match at TLC, but that obviously didn’t pan out. What it shows is that Hollywood has won and Cena is officially done with WWE on any kind of basis other than the odd promo return. I never thought I’d see the day that Mr WWE would quit the ring for the movies, but here we are. What we will do without the Five Moves Of Doom?
When CM Punk is on WWE Backstage it makes for must see TV. The guy knows what to say to get a reaction, and this week was no different. When the topic of Seth Rollins came up, you could see Punk’s eyes light up at the opportunity to say his opinion on the matter. However, he was rather cordial before the final comment of claiming Rollins is not good at being a good guy and should just stick to being himself. Ouch.
There is certainly no love lost between the pair, although it could all be a work to set up a blockbuster WrestleMania encounter between the two. I can’t see that happening though. Punk is just an honest guy, who doesn’t seem too fond of Rollins. The feeling looks to be mutual. It’s a shame we will unlikely ever see these two titans of the ring square off, but we are certainly loving the verbal spats.
Arguably the best thing about the WWE Network is ‘The Broken Skull Sessions’. His interview with The Undertaker last month was sublime. While not being on the same level of interest, his interaction with Goldberg was no less special. The WCW Icon shared his feelings on Triple H, Vince McMahon and that match with The Undertaker.
He only has great things to say about Vince, which is understandable considering McMahon writes the cheques. However, I don’t think I’ve ever heard Goldberg diss Vince in any interview, so there must be real respect there. All he had to say about Triple H was that The Game is his boss. There’s definitely some differences there to be ironed out. He said he owes Undertaker a receipt for that woeful performance in Saudi Arabia. Here’s hoping he just buys The Deadman a drink, and we don’t have to sit through the pair try to not die at WrestleMania.
It’s all over. Award the winner now because no one is beating Daniel Bryan in the 10 Year Challenge. Following his return at TLC with shaved face and head, he looks exactly the same as he did to start the decade. The American Dragon is ageless. Chris Jericho may have come close to winning by being a World Champion to begin and end the decade, but he looks like he’s aged about 20 years in the process.
Now Bryan is back with his original look and still feuding with Bray Wyatt it will be interesting to see how WWE plays this. More than likely one character will be hurt beyond repair once it’s all said and done. That’s just how things work these days in wrestling. God forbid two guys get over in the same feud.
This past week WWE finally released Luke Harper, Sin Cara and The Ascension from their contracts. You’d be forgiven for forgetting the last two still worked for the company. No big surprise here, it has been on the cards for quite some time. Just interesting timing on WWE’s part. Wonder how long it will take AEW to snap the rejects up.
Sin Cara has been a joke since day one, and he will be missed by no fan. I’d very surprised if AEW went in for him. Ditto for The Ascension. I think they will go for Harper, however, and attempt to make him a big star. Good luck with that one.
The Wednesday Night Wars continue to heat up as both AEW and NXT tied in the battle for ratings this past week. Here’s hoping one of them will get a million viewers next week. All this rivalry is doing is showing to the world how unpopular wrestling has become. In my opinion, it is the fault of promoters settling for the small fan-base they have instead of attempting to grow it.
It’s become stale. NXT is fun to watch, but every story follows the same arc. AEW just seems like someone resurrected WCW from 2001. It is that bad. I don’t care what anyone says, I’d be amazed if it’s still in business this time next year.
If Jericho isn’t retweeting praise for himself on social media, then he’s dissing current WWE superstars for apparently stealing his stuff. This week, The Miz was on the receiving end because he wore a jacket similar to Y2J. I surely hope Jericho us just playing a deluded character on Twitter, otherwise it’s worrying stuff. He truly believes he is the greatest of all time, and that is just sad.
Yes, Jericho has done it all in this business and wrestled all over the world, but to even put him in the same category as Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels, The Rock, Stone Cold and The Undertaker is laughable. Hopefully Jericho sees that too. He’s had a great career, but the best? Far from it.
We end this week by reiterating the news that there will be NXT superstars at the Royal Rumble event in January competing in the mens and womens over the top rope battle royals. That’s exciting, but WWE have to be careful not to turn NXT in ECW circa 2009. Many believe an NXT star will shock the world and win one of the Rumbles, but I’m here to tell you that’s fantasy. Here’s what will happen.
The winner of the women’s Royal Rumble match will be the returning Ronda Rousey to set up a one on one clash with Becky Lynch at WrestleMania. As for the mens side of things, that’s set up for Roman Reigns to stand tall and challenge The Fiend on the grandest stage of them all. Not the most thrilling choice, but it’s going to happen. Brock Lesnar will meanwhile defend his WWE Championship against Tyson Fury or Cain Valesquez.
Gotta love WWE sometimes.
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