Hey, guys. So I’ve been wanting to do this for a while, but I wanted to incorporate some reviews of RAW’s and Smackdown’s just to add a little diversity into the writing, especially for those who don’t catch it. I may not be able to do this every week, but I’d like to do it when I can. Basically, I’ll just be doing a live review, going segment by segment, and ranking what I like (“best”), what I don’t like (“worst”) and things I like and don’t like in the same segment/matches (“best/worst”). Here we go!
Best/Worst: Consistency but no Continuity
The fallout from Elimination Chamber came when RAW Women’s Champion, Alexa Bliss stood side by side with Mickie James, who apparently has a new alliance formed together. Alexa came out and tore into the competition as any great heel. However, I’m not sure why Mickie would come out side by side with Alexa. If they have become friends, why? Alexa only used Mickie as a means to an end so she can retain her title inside the chamber. Mickie made it clear that their alliance would only be temporary because when push comes to shove, she would come after her and the title. In the chamber match, Mickie was eliminated well before Alexa got to enter the match, and Bliss ended up not needing her help because she defeated Bayley and Sasha on her own without her help. So why is Mickie all buddy-buddy with Alexa now?
The heel promo stuff from Alexa was hot fire as always, but WWE always falls into the cycle of not remembering storylines past two weeks and re-introducing new layers of the story without any build. At least have a backstage segment between the two after the match to explain if they’re still cool. Based on what we’ve seen, Mickie has no reason to come out with Alexa. Maybe it’s a minor thing, but it appears that Mickie is a heel now because character turns without any context is so 2017, I guess.
Worst: “I know you’re English isn’t great…”
This is the type of thing I was afraid of. While Alexa was promoting her WrestleMania match with Asuka, which isn’t even confirmed because Asuka still hasn’t officially chosen which titleholder she’s coming after (a match with Charlotte makes much more sense), Asuka came out and interrupted. Alexa then became bold and took a page out of Jinder Mahal’s playbook and mocked Asuka’s antics, but more importantly, her English. This all started last week, when WWE had Asuka do an interview in the ring, thereby exposing her…less than perfect English. One of the things WWE likes doing is exposing weaknesses in superstars to the point where people may consider it a rib.
We all know Asuka isn’t William Shakespeare, but WWE was already putting Asuka’s worst qualities on display. Asuka is an ass-kicker. She’s a talker. Yet, WWE puts her worst qualities on display for absolutely no reason. While I’m sure this did accomplish giving Alexa some heat, there are other ways to go about doing it. Jinder Mahal did basically the same thing about Nakamura, making Shinsuke look like a total goofball in the entire feud. I wasn’t offended by the segment because WWE has done much worse, but making fun of a superstar who’s undefeated because she doesn’t talk well is just sort of uninspired.
Best: BGB (Bayley Gone Bad?)
While I’m sure everyone was anticipating Sasha to be the one to push the buttons and tease a heel turn, it would appear as though it has been the hugging, loveable, inflatable tube men wearing Bayley planted the seeds by refusing to accept a tag-in by Sasha Banks. What was more interesting was that in the six-woman tag made by Teddy Long during commercial saw Bayley happily help Asuka, a figure in the impending feud between the two. This was built up from last night as Sasha pushed Bayley down from the top of the chamber pod, with the “every man for himself” mantra taking control.
While I’m sure that this was a matter of Bayley merely getting revenge, I think it is clear that Bayley will be experimenting going to the dark side. The only thing I can imagine is what kind of music Bayley will be getting. It’s been embedded in my mind that the only thing that Bayley can associate herself with is hugging little girls and being all happy and stuff. I’m down for a Bayley heel turn, as it changes the dynamic between the rivalry of Sasha and Bayley. Let’s see where it goes.
Worst: No Road To Logic
We gotta address something here. This whole “Cena has no Road to WrestleMania” narrative they are painting for John Cena of all people is the biggest pile of garbage ever. First, we have to establish what exactly Cena means by saying he has no Road to WrestleMania. Since his first WrestleMania in 2004, John has competed at every WrestleMania except WrestleMania 32. He has competed for the WWE Title or World Heavyweight Title in 7 straight WrestleManias. He has faced The Rock twice in a row. When he’s not in a world title match, he could be in non-title matches against the likes of Bray Wyatt or a mixed tag with The Miz. Hell, even when he was injured on the shelf with no set match for WrestleMania, he still managed to find time to embarrass The Wyatt Family with The Rock. So who is he exactly fooling here? Nothing short of a terminal illness will keep him off the card.
WWE really thinks its fanbase is stupid and has the memory recall of a squirrel eating a nut. History has shown us time and time again that all Cena has to do is come out, emasculate a superstar or demand a match because he’s John Cena and they’re not, and he gets any match that he wants. If John were to come out and interfere in tonight’s Roman/Lesnar faceoff and demand that he be inserted into the match, he’ll get the title shot. Why? Because he’s John Cena, that’s why. Hell, Cena contradicted himself in the same segment by challenging The Undertaker. All he has to do is call someone out, and he will more likely than not get what he wants.
So let us not pretend that Cena won’t be going to WrestleMania. And seriously, if John Cena doesn’t have a Road to WrestleMania, what about everybody else in the Elimination Chamber match not named Roman Reigns? It’s not like they had a clear path to WrestleMania either. Whether it’s a match, a special guest referee spot, a run-in or what have you, Cena will be there. He’s John freaking Cena.
Worst: Bray Wyatt’s Officially Gone Insane
Well, I’ll be candid. Wyatt’s been off his rockers for some time now. However, I’ve never really seen Bray so visibly unorthodox. Bray came out and laid waste to Heath Slater and Rhyno because the RAW Tag Team Division is pretty one tag team and a collection of other guys with nothing better to do.
Have you ever seen Bray fall flat on his back and spazz out like he did before hitting a Sister Abagail? After the beatdown, Bray proceeded to kneel in the corner of the ring, looking like a homeless guy who looks surprised that someone delivered him some food, and rambled about shutting Hardy’s eyes closed or whatever. This feud has to continue because god forbid we don’t get a feud featuring two guys laughing maniacally at each other. These two have no chemistry, the crowds, for the most part, don’t care about either man and are destined for the most broken pre-show match ever. It’s all about the silver linings I guess.
Best: The Miz “MIGHT” be the greatest in WWE right now
The Miz is always awesome, but he is probably the greatest example of character growth WWE has seen in a while. Think about it. The Miz started getting exiled from the SD locker room for eating fried chicken near JBL’s locker room. He was then put into a WrestleMania main event slot, beating John Cena and looking like the biggest fraudulent main event superstar WWE has ever crafted. Over the years, however, he has developed himself into arguably WWE’s most reliable all-around performer in the company. He has put over other superstars, has cut some seething promos and is good for solid matches as he works a style that is believable and has prevented serious injury for him. You want him in a WWE studios movie? You got it. You want him to promote a video game? No questions asked. Need him to do mainstream media outreach for WWE? Say no more. Need him to hold your most prestigious mid-card title for 6 months. Child’s play. The Miz has just become so well-rounded a WWE superstar can get and he continued to show why tonight.
The Miz came out and cut another one of those promos that makes you wonder how he ever was the superstar he was before. Critiquing management up top, primarily Kurt Angle, for jeopardizing his Road to WrestleMania and accurately citing the fact that he was punished for winning his qualifying match, The Miz cut a promo that was heelish, but truthful. He placed emphasis on Kurt saying that the holder of the IC Title “MIGHT” have a match at WrestleMania, which is borderline insulting. Perhaps the most truthful thing he’s said is how he has made the IC Title the most prestigious title in the past year. Is he lying? Think about it. We will be lucky if we see the Universal Champion once every month.
Two weeks in a row is a bonus. Both tag team titles and women’s titles have only felt important on occasion, the US Title had frequent title switches and the WWE Championship was held by 3MB MVP Jinder Mahal for six months. While The Miz didn’t have any five-star matches or anything like that, no other superstar has elevated the title he’s holding more than him. He’s been in WWE for 12 years, and he’s becoming somewhat of 2016’s version of Chris Jericho. A seasoned veteran that is continuously finding ways to improve himself, and we should be appreciative of how far he’s come.
Best/Worst: Quality Wrestling/Bad Booking/The Gauntlet Part 2
After The Miz cut his promo, Seth Rollins came out to answer somewhat of an open challenge laid out to the rest of the roster and the two had a quality match together. I loved the layout of the match, the crowd was into it, and the match had a great finish, with Seth needing to be Rob Van Dam on steroids to reach The Miz more than halfway across the ring for the finish. The match was solid, and I always love good wrestling on my wrestling shows. But here’s the problem. You just had The Miz cut a seething promo that was truthful and honest, and he laid out his case for him being the one to face Brock Lesnar for the Universal Title at WrestleMania. Yet, at the same time, you just display why The Miz isn’t going to WrestleMania by having him lose clean to Seth Rollins. It’s like a direct contradiction without anyone acknowledging it. Seriously, you couldn’t have The Miz maybe undo the turnbuckle and maybe have Seth launch Miz into it by accident for the finish to protect it?
Then, Kurt Angle, seemingly all salty about what truthful things The Miz had to say to him brings out Finn Balor to face The Miz after he had already been through a match. And here I thought the gauntlet match ended last week. While the Seth Rollins impression from last week fell a little short, he was still able to put up two straight quality matches against two quality performers. And if anyone can convince someone who’s new to wrestling how The Miz is the bad guy and Kurt is the good guy in this scenario, please enlighten me. I don’t know what the plan for the IC Title is because Braun Strowman’s name has been thrown around in dirt sheets across the Internet as Miz’s opponent for WrestleMania, but if the plan is a triple threat with Rollins and Balor, I’d be cool with that too. The three of them had a great match on RAW last year, and I’d love to see what these 3 could do at WrestleMania.
Worst: Michael Cole, Shut Up
I didn’t notice it at first, but Michael Cole was in prime 2010-2012 form as the obnoxious commentator who makes no sense. Seriously, I wanted to get up and throw my remote at the TV whenever he was speaking and for him to actually feel it. Cole was seriously getting mad at Corey Graves for defending The Miz who was unjustifiably put in two straight matches, and then Cole was laughing at him for not beating both of them in a row. On top of that, he was madder than John Cena, who isn’t a title holder and hasn’t really done anything to earn a high profile match at WrestleMania this year, doesn’t have a clear path to WrestleMania. Listening to him tonight, you wouldn’t think that Cole was the same guy who needed kneepads to suck up to The Miz when he was WWE Champion 7 years ago. Cole’s commentary doesn’t bother me on most nights, but he was especially annoying in this match.
Best: Who Are You And What Have You Done With Roman Reigns?
Roman Reigns was victorious against Braun Strowman and five other superstars in the Elimination Chamber last night, and I’m sure we were all expecting one of Roman Reigns’ signature post-big victory rah-rah-rah speeches. “I defied the odds, with everything stacked against me, but I stuck in there, I survived, and I’m going to WrestleMania…” I’m sure something along those lines is something we all expected. Instead, Roman cut the shit and nit the grit, as one of my friends in high school used to say. He wore his balls on the outside and went directly at Brock Lesnar in a swift, succinct manner. Roman Reigns is at his best when he acts like the guy we think he is down deep and not the WWE character the company expects us to bow down to. Remember when Roman was screwed by The League of Nations at TLC and then Roman Reigns beat the ever-living stuffing out of Triple H afterward? Remember when Roman Reigns told the Spanish announce team, “GET UP FOOLS, THIS IS MY TABLE NOW!”, in his first ever match with The Shield at TLC? Remember when Roman Reigns was the lone Survivor at Survivor Series down 3-1? When Roman sheds all of the John Cena-esque superhero ethos and puts on the shield of badass if you will, he can be pretty great.
While Roman falsely claimed that no one in the back was going to call out Brock for the limited RAW dates he works per year (Alexa Bliss called Kurt Angle out on that long before the Elimination Chamber PPV), he was truthful, meant every word he said and talked as if the cameras were never there. He spoke with confidence and not some compiled, conquering hero speech as we all suspected. If we saw more of this version of Roman Reigns, he may not get all the flack he does. Roman doesn’t even have to turn heel for people to like him. Just book him to be bad-ass. That’s his calling card. The most important thing in this feud is for Roman to get the fans to like him and hate Brock, and what better way to do that then mentioning how little Brock is here? Brock can be an exciting freak of nature when he’s motivated, but he’s also given off the impression that he’s only here when the money’s good. Let’s see how Roman follows up.
Best/Worst: I Understand It’s Black History Month, But Come On…
Exactly why are we still doing this? I understand that it’s Black History Month, but come on. I think we get the rub now, WWE. Titus Worldwide are capable of beating Cesaro and Sheamus in non-title matches. But when the titles are up for grabs, they go belly up. However, I just don’t understand. Cesaro and Sheamus have already beaten them twice when the titles were on the line, one of them being as recent last, um, LAST NIGHT. So what have they done to earn a 2 out of 3 falls match for the titles the next night? Exactly what was the plan going into tonight? Just to have Cesaro and Sheamus beat them two more times. Meanwhile, you have a team like The Revival, the only two-time NXT Tag champs ever, getting mocked by legends and watching Titus O’Neil out of all people getting match after match against the tag champs.
The match was fine because every Cesaro and Sheamus match is at least fine, so I have no problem with that, but I dare someone to convince me that next week won’t have Titus Worldwide beating the tag champs in another non-title match. The only reason why I didn’t hate it was because the match was a slight notch above average RAW quality and all four men did work hard to try and make this thing work, so I won’t fault them for that. However, ff they were trying to re-create the magic that was The Usos and New Day from last year, well, they missed the mark.
Best: Fight Fire With Elias
I was afraid that Strowman was just going to come out and stomp out Elias out of existence, but instead, we got Elias protect himself with a DQ, and using the only solution to taking out any big man, the almighty fire extinguisher. It would appear as though these two will be in a brief program with each other, and I think it’s a good way to occupy each other’s time. Elias has risen to become a serviceable WWE worker, and Braun working with Elias won’t be a demotion for him. There really wasn’t anything special about the match, but they did push something forward and gives both men something to do, so that’s something. I guess the only question now is who will have the better Instagram live promos. As for Strowman, I’m not sure why they went from him destroying Roman to end Elimination Chamber to all of a sudden being angry at Elias for no reason. Roman didn’t even address his post-match attack, so I guess that was just a case of Strowman being Strowman.
Best/Worst: The Young and The Repetitive
Triple H and Stephanie McMahon closed RAW with a promo and video package we already saw earlier in the evening. It’s as if we always need that in any promo involving those two these days. Anyways, it looks like Ronda has already become a little more accustomed to the WWE promo style. Last night she spoke as if she was giving an interview in a post-match real-life fight. Her pacing was much better tonight, and I believed WWE worked more to her strengths.
Initially, I didn’t like Ronda merely demanding an apology for Stephanie’s slap, but then she capitalized it by making a threat that I believe she could deliver, that being the threat of ripping Stephanie’s arm out of her socket. It’s probably clear after Triple H’s cheap shot that a mixed tag match between the four is what will take place at WrestleMania, and this was a solid way of moving the story forward. I just didn’t like the repetitive nature of how the segment felt, not only with the endless recaps but with literally some of the same things being said from the previous night, just in different words.
Worst: Bait and Switch
Yes, I understand that every WWE fan who purchases tickets should acknowledge that “Cards are subject to change”, but seriously, you’re going to have Heyman and others promote Lesnar confronting Reigns, just for him to no-show at the event? I suppose that plays perfectly into the story Roman was trying to tell, but I really hate when WWE does that. I’m sure, even though Lesnar in 2018 really only comes just to jump up and down like he’s going to fight a couple of times and Heyman repeat some of the same things he always does, but it just feels like a real underhanded tactic. If it’s to promote the match and make the people of Anaheim hate Lesnar, it accomplished its purpose, but if I was expecting Brock, just for Roman to tell us, “Sorry, he’s not here”, it’s good for TV, but in reality, it can suck sometimes. But in all honesty, Heyman and Lesnar’s shtick isn’t nearly as big as it used to be anyway, so no big deal, but something I thought I’d mention.
Conclusion:
Overall, I actually thought this was a solid follow-up to Elimination Chamber. We got a few matches teased for WrestleMania, we had some quality wrestling, some great fiery promos from Roman and The Miz and some continuing feuds to occupy time. Obviously, there was some bad, but I think the good outweighed it tonight. Until next time folks!
