Author: thestrongstylesmarks

NXT Takeover: New York Predictions

Wrestlemania weekend is quite the beast nowadays, with this year’s Wrestlemania looking to be the longest WWE show of all time, it’s in danger of wearing out its audience before the show’s even begun. However, the night before Mania we get to not worry about that for a few hours and watch what is arguably one of the most stacked cards in NXT history.

You don’t need me to tell you how geat Takeovers always are, but this one has a lot of intrigue to it thanks to a lot of storylines moving in directions I don’t think any of us were expecting. In part thanks to Ciampa’s injury and also thanks to sudden call ups.

So, we’ve got five matches which all look like they’re going to be amazing, so let’s get to predicting them.

War Raiders(c) vs Aleister Black & Ricochet
(NXT Tag Team Championships)

This match is arguably the easiest to pick on the whole card, purely because of what else is going on over on the main roster right now.

With Black & Ricochet having pretty much already left for main roster, this is quite clearly designed to be their farewell match. That said, this should be far from a phoned-in performance. We’ve seen all over the place for the past couple of months that these two seem to work really well as a team, granted they don’t quite gel like you’d expect a team to, but their offensive styles seem to complement each other quite well in the ring.

Meanwhile, War Raiders have always been great, and I imagine Black & Ricochet will give them a run for their money, but ultimately War Raiders will win, and Black & Ricochet will ride off into the NXT sunset together.

Velveteen Dream(c) vs Matt Riddle
(North American Championship)

The North American Championship seems like quite a weird one now I’m thinking about it because I don’t think we’re ever really going to get that long a reign with someone holding it.

While NXT veterans like Dream and Gargano have held it recently, for the most part it seems like it’s going to be used for people who are hot new stars on the scene, but aren’t ready to be thrown up into the NXT title scene just yet, which is exactly where Matt Riddle currently stands.

I like both of these guys, and I think Dream is going to have a field day when it comes to taunting, mocking and imitating Matt Riddle, but I’m not entirely sure if these two guys styles will mesh properly. They seem like two very different wrestlers to me, but I have faith that this one will at least be a fun match to watch.

As much as I’d love Velveteen Dream to hold onto this title for ages (mostly so he doesn’t have to go to main roster), it would be a bad idea for Matt Riddle to lose here, so I’ve got to go with him to pick up the title.

Pete Dunne(c) vs WALTER
(United Kingdom Championship)

I don’t often feel very patriotic, but when I look at these two…just wow.

Pete Dunne has been the lone constant in the WWE for the past couple of years, with almost 700 days as UK Champion, putting on amazing title defence after amazing title defence, it’s going to be very difficult to see with without a title over his shoulder anymore. I hope he eventually makes it to main roster and isn’t stuck in NXT UK forever, but for now, I’m going to enjoy it.

As much as I love Pete Dunne and wish he could remain UK Champion forever, Walter has to win here. NXT UK can’t really move forward in its current state, and I feel a new champion who doesn’t reign seemingly forever would be a good idea to help that along. Granted, I doubt Walter will lose the title very quickly once he has it, but having Pete Dunne at the top for so long hasn’t really done the UK scene many favours, even if he is amazing.

Shayna Baszler(c) vs Kairi Sane vs Io Shirai vs Bianca Belair
(NXT Women’s Championship)

Turns out this one is a really hard pick.

Generally, in a multi-person match for a title like this one, it’s generally a safe bet to say that the champion will retain because them losing the title in a multi-man would be a bit underwhelming.

That said, I can’t help but feel like it’s Baszler’s time to drop the title and move on from NXT before the summer. It’s inevitable that Duke & Shafir will get involved, although I imagine they’ll be easily repelled, but if I say that Baszler is going to drop the title, who to?

Kairi Sane seems like the easy choice, but we’ve already seen Sane & Baszler fight a lot and I don’t really feel like Sane needs the title right now. Bianca Belair could work, but I don’t think Belair could reasonably get away with beating Baszler in a one on one rematch, and she certainly can’t out heel Shayna Baszler to win. So what about Io Shirai? Well, there really is no tangible reason for her not to win the belt here, just for some reason I’m not feeling like it’s going to happen. I know she’s been around for a while now, and her winning the belt opens up opportunities for great matches, but it just feels like it’s too soon for me, and I can’t quite put my finger on why.

I’m going to take a risk and say Shayna Baszler is going to retain, hopefully, to lose the belt to Io Shirai in a one on one match at the next Takeover.

Johnny Gargano vs Adam Cole
(NXT Championship)
(2 out of 3 Falls)

Match of the year, right here.

I don’t think there’s any debate over whether or not this match will be good, Gargano doesn’t even know what a bad match is and Cole has shown time and time again that he can hang with the best. The real debate here is who’s going to win.

I think my head might be messing with me a bit because I desperately want Adam Cole to win, and it seems obvious that Gargano will win since Cole wasn’t even supposed to be in the match, but I like to think NXT storylines are more complex than that. Sure, logic dictates Gargano wins, but the NXT writers could quite easily change the storyline on the fly.

You also have to consider that it seemed Gargano was originally planned to be joining Ricochet & Black on main roster until Ciampa got injured, so maybe that will happen anyway past Wrestlemania? However, The Undisputed Era has done pretty much everything there is to do in NXT, and they feel like they’re about to leave as well, and while I’d love to see it, I’d argue Cole doesn’t really need to win the NXT title to be seen as a big deal on main roster.

While I would be entirely happy if Cole won, I think Johnny Gargano will finally win the big one here, probably losing the first fall thanks to the Undisputed Era before overcoming the odds to win the gold.

As always thank you very much for taking the time to read, if you enjoyed then please share it around on social media and make sure to follow me on Twitter @10ryawoo for plenty of thoughts about what’s going on throughout Mania weekend. Tomorrow will be my predictions for Wrestlemania, and then in the days after I will have my review of both Takeover and Mania, so stay tuned!

10 Times a World Title Changed Hands Between the Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania

As we continue our travel along the winding road to Wrestlemania, there is often one thing that is a complete certainty, none of the major championships will be changing hands.

Coming out of the Royal Rumble WWE begin the process of advertising their big main events to sell tickets, and as the media starts to promote them more and more in the build-up, it’d be a pretty bad idea to suddenly change a marquee match simply for the sake of shock value.

While this holds true for the most part, sometimes (ten times to be precise) there are outside circumstances or storyline plans that trickle over into the months between the two major events, and the result is that we get a shocking title change only a month or so out of the granddaddy of them all. So I thought it’d be interesting to take a look at all the times this has happened, the circumstances surrounding them, and what came of them come Wrestlemania.

Shawn Michaels – Vacant – Bret Hart – Sycho Sid: 1997 (WWF Championship)

One of the most talked about moments in Shawn Michaels career is what kicks off this list.

Going into Wrestlemania 13, there were big plans for a main event match between Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart in a rematch from their Wrestlemania 12 Iron Man match, with the plan being for Michaels to return the favour and drop the title back to Bret Hart, however, it was not to be.

Thanks to a knee injury that Shawn claimed had been nagging him for a while, he was forced to vacate the championship over a month out from the big event. There are many that claim this injury wasn’t as bad as Michaels made it out to be and just didn’t want to drop the title to Bret Hart due to growing real-life heat between the two.

Shawn would drop his infamous “Lost my smile” promo and disappear from our screens for a good few months. This left a WWF Champion sized void in the plans for Wrestlemania, so a Fatal 4 Way match was made between Bret Hart, The Undertaker, Stone Cold and Vader, in which the Hitman would come out victorious.

It wasn’t to last though, as thanks to interference from rival Stone Cold, Bret Hart would lose the title just 24 hours later to Sycho Sid. Sid would carry the title into Wrestlemania 13, where The Undertaker would defeat Sid to claim his second WWF Championship and grow the still very young streak to 6-0.

The Rock – Mankind – The Rock: 1999
(WWF Championship)

Two years down the line, the landscape of the then WWF was vastly different, the Attitude Era was in full swing, and with it came a whole host of quick title changes.

Mankind and The Rock had been feuding for the WWF Championship ever since The Rock and Vince Mcmahon had pulled a repeat of the Montreal Screwjob at Survivor Series 1998 to give The Rock the title. Mankind had claimed the title for himself the following December with an assist from Stone Cold (and turning the tide in the Monday Night Wars in the process), only for The Rock to take the title back at the Royal Rumble in the infamous I Quit match where The Rock went way over the top with chair shots and used a recording to win the gold.

This led us to the first ever Halftime Heat event, that took place 7 days after the Royal Rumble and aired during half time of Superbowl 33. This featured the only ever empty arena match for the WWF Championship where Mankind would win the title for the second time by pinning Rock with a forklift that seemed to have a camera strapped to the underside for some reason.

This epic feud would eventually come to an end on the February 15th 1999 episode of Raw where a ladder match between The Rock and Mankind would end with The Rock picking up the gold in an extremely brutal hardcore match. Sadly for The Rock, he would once again experience a short reign as at Wrestlemania 15, The Rock would lose the title to Stone Cold Steve Austin, with Mankind acting as the referee.

Kurt Angle – The Rock: 2001
(WWF Championship)

Due to the nature of the road to Wrestlemania, most of the title changes that are highlighted on this list tend to have some series of shenanigans or storyline justification surrounding them, to heighten drama going into the grandest stage of them all. So it’s quite weird to see a title change as clean cut as this one at this time of year.

This title change is exactly that, however, since at No Way Out 2001 The Rock would take the WWF Championship from Kurt Angle a chaotic match, with a couple of shenanigans throughout, but had a fairly clean finish. This would mean that The Rock would carry the WWF Championship into Wrestlemania X-7 to face off against Stone Cold in their legendary main event. Where Austin would famously shake hands with Satan himself, turning heel and aligning himself with Vince Mcmahon in the process.

Edge – Triple H: 2009
(WWE Championship)

These next two form a little bit of a two-parter, as both took place at the No Way Out Pay-Per-View in 2009.

Edge carried the WWE Championship into the Elimination Chamber that night, after winning it from Jeff Hardy the previous month at the Royal Rumble, however by the end of the night, things would look very different. The WWE Championship Elimination Chamber match kicked off the night, with Edge being in the unfavourable position of entering the Chamber first, against the man he beat for the title, Jeff Hardy.

A mere three minutes into the match, however, Edge would go for a spear, only for Hardy to catch Edge into a small package, pinning him and eliminating him from the match, losing the WWE Championship in the process. What followed was a fairly entertaining chamber match between the remaining five men, ending in an exciting one on one between Triple H and The Undertaker, with the king of kings eventually coming out on top.

Triple H would carry the WWE Championship into Wrestlemania 25 where he would face Randy Orton in the world’s most boring match, retaining the gold in the process.

John Cena – Edge: 2009
(World Heavyweight Championship)

Edge wouldn’t stay without world title gold for long though, as we would find out later that same night.

Once again looking at No Way Out 2009, this time we’re taking a look at the main event, an Elimination Chamber match for John Cena’s World Heavyweight Championship featuring, Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio, Kane, Mike Knox (no, I don’t remember who he is either) and Kofi Kingston. Sadly for everyone’s new favourite wrestler, Edge would make a surprise appearance during Kingston’s entrance, laying Kofi out before locking himself in the pod, taking the spot in the match.

This tactic would end up paying off for the superstar that’s rated R, as he was able to convince the other participants in the match to gang up on champion John Cena, taking him out after everyone hit their finishers on him. Edge would then find himself in the final two against Rey Mysterio and eventually came out victorious, walking out of No Way Out 2009 drapped in just as much gold as he entered with.

This wasn’t to last, unfortunately, since at Wrestlemania 25, Edge would lose his World Heavyweight Championship back to John Cena, in a triple threat match along with the Big Show. Yeah…Mania 25 wasn’t really that good, to be honest.

Sheamus – John Cena – Batista: 2010
(WWE Championship)

Yet another set of changes that took place on the same night, only this time around it’s not thanks to a single man.

Entering 2010, the WWE Championship scene was in a rather strange place. It was a time before CM Punk would make his meteoric rise, the age of Orton was over and Triple H was slowly winding down the amount he wrestled on such a high profile, this meant there was a big void at the top of the card for someone to face John Cena. Then along came Sheamus.

I’ve mentioned in various articles about how Sheamus tended to win things at the wrong time and in weird ways, and his WWE title win at TLC 2009 was no different. Sheamus would defeat John Cena in a tables match to claim the title in one of the worst table matches finishes ever – on par with Big Show accidentally stepping through a table – as both men would fall off the top turnbuckle, and Sheamus would narrowly miss a table as he fell, so narrowly that it looked more like a botch than anything else.

Regardless, come February Sheamus walking into Wrestlemania as WWE Champion seemed like a very real possibility, until he ran into an Elimination Chamber featuring both John Cena and Triple H. In expected fashion, John Cena “overcame the odds” to become WWE Champion yet again, only for Vince Mcmahon to come out, announce the return of Batista, who would immediately be granted a WWE title match against the leader of the Cenation and came out victorious.

Batista would take the title to Wrestlemania 26, where he would immediately lose it back to big match John. So that was worthwhile.

The Undertaker – Chris Jericho: 2010
(World Heavyweight Championship)

The night wasn’t over, however, as in the main event of Elimination Chamber 2010, we would see the World Heavyweight Championship change hands. Not because of a random Batista appearance, but a sudden Shawn Michaels appearance.

The Undertaker had held the World Heavyweight Championship ever since October 2009, where he defeated CM Punk in the most one-sided Hell in a Cell match in history, and we were now in the midst of the excellent storyline, where Shawn Michaels was begging The Undertaker for a rematch of their classic Wrestlemania 25 bout.

The Undertaker would constantly refuse Shawn Michaels’ request, and after Michaels failed to win the Royal Rumble to face the Deadman at Wrestlemania, the heartbreak kid decided drastic action was needed. Right at the end of what was a rather good Chamber match, which included The Undertaker being set on fire by his own pyro, Shawn Michaels would appear from underneath the Chamber, superkick the unaware phenom allowing Chris Jericho to pick up the gold.

Jericho would be challenged by Royal Rumble winner Edge at Wrestlemania and successfully retain his title, before being cashed in on the very next Smackdown by the one and only, Jack Swagger.

Edge – Vacant – Dolph Ziggler – Edge: 2011
(World Heavyweight Championship)

Now time for some title changes that happened all in the same night.

Going into 2011, Vickie Guerrero had paired herself up with Dolph Ziggler during her “cougar” phase and was still mad at Edge for that time they were supposed to get married. Also at some point prior to his World Heavyweight Championship the Spear had been banned, so, since hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, Vickie used that as an excuse to strip Edge of his World Heavyweight Title.

Once this was done, Vickie would waste no time in handing the title to her boy toy Dolph Ziggler, which was a historic title reign that would last all of an hour, since Edge would win the title back later on that very same episode of Smackdown.

This title reign would take Edge through Wrestlemania, where he would defeat Alberto Del Rio until he would tragically have to vacate the title due to a neck injury that also forced him into retirement. As much as the ending of it was historic though, nothing else about this particular title change was in any way noteworthy, and just seems rather weird when you look back at it.

John Cena – Bray Wyatt: 2017
(WWE Championship)

It’s strange to think that John Cena’s most recent WWE Championship reign (the reign which tied Ric Flair’s record) lasted a mere two weeks, but that was the state of affairs we were faced with just two years ago.

The Royal Rumble 2017 was quite a weird event, with an excellent WWE title match that was won by John Cena, a cluster of a Universal Title match where Kevin Owens would defeat Roman Reigns thanks to Chris Jericho – who was hanging above the ring in a shark cage – and a sudden Braun Strowman appearance. Then we had the Royal Rumble match which, despite having about 7 potential winners, was one by Randy Orton in an extremely confusing fashion.

This left us with arguably one of the most predictable Elimination Chamber matches ever, as Randy Orton was still involved with Bray Wyatt at the time, and it was clear that things were leading to a Wrestlemania encounter. Eventually, following an extremely good Elimination Chamber match, Bray Wyatt would stand tall among his fireflies as WWE Champion for the first (and as of writing, only) time.

Sadly, it wasn’t to last as Bray would disappointingly lose the title to Randy Orton at Wrestlemania 33 in what was arguably the most boring match on the card.

Kevin Owens – Goldberg: 2017
(Universal Championship)

Oh boy.

Goldberg won a World Championship in 2017, I’m just pointing that out because I don’t think we make a big enough deal about it. It was over so quickly that it’s pretty easy to forget, but we must always remember that Goldberg won a WWE World Championship in 2017, and also at one point his son joined them in the ring to celebrate and took his shirt off for no apparent reason. Never Forget.

There was a lot of moving pieces going into Fastlane 2017, Brock Lesnar vs Goldberg had already been booked for Wrestlemania 33, and Kevin Owens had recently turned on Chris Jericho at the heartbreakingly wonderful Festival of Friendship. This left us with two big Wrestlemania matches in the works, both of which could’ve potentially been for the Universal Championship. WWE just had to make a simple choice.

They chose poorly.

Kevin Owens vs Goldberg was booked for Fastlane and panned out pretty much how you remember it in your head. Owens refused to get into the ring and officially start the match until eventually, Chris Jericho appeared to distract Owens, Spear, Jackhammer and 22 seconds later, Goldberg was your new Universal Champion.

Golberg also wouldn’t hold his newly won title very long, as Brock Lesnar would conquer the one who conquered the one in twenty-one and one to take the Univeral Championship. Which, in a roundabout way, leads us up to exactly where we are today, going into Wrestlemania 35.

So there you have it, all 10 times that a world title changed hands going into Wrestlemania. Thankfully we haven’t had anything as exhausting as that to deal with this year (although there is still one more week for Shane to win the title making Shane vs Miz a title match), but I hope you enjoyed this look through the past to see how it’s been done before.

If you enjoyed then please leave a like and share this around on all your favourite social media sites, and follow me on Twitter @10ryawoo as we head into Wrestlemania weekend, as I’ll have a whole lot of opinions to blurt out into the ether, and stay tuned for my NXT Takeover & Wrestlemania predictions and reviews over the next couple of weeks.

Pokemon Sword & Shield: Predictions & Wishlist

So, the cat is officially out of the bag, and the next entries in the main series Pokemon franchise have been revealed. Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield will launch in the latter quarter of 2019 and are officially the first games in the 8th generation of Pokemon.

With it, we had some key reveals, such as the brand new Galar Region, which is essentially mainland Britain (sans Wales) flipped upside down, with various style of cute English towns. We also were introduced to the brand new starter Pokemon: Grookey, Scorbunny and Sobble.

So the information we have right now is very exciting, but also quite basic, which means it’s open to wild speculation, which is always one of the most exciting times for the Pokemon community. As those of you who read my wrestling articles will know, I love to make grand predictions for what to come, only to point and laugh at just how wrong I was when I look back on them.

With that in mind, I’ve come up with a whole bunch of predictions/wishes that I have for the new Pokemon games. They’re all over the spectrum, covering large aspects of the game and some smaller ones that only I will care about, in addition, some of these are things I actually think will happen, and others are just things I want.

So let’s not waste any more time get right into it.

Prediction: Starter Pokemon Evolutions & Types

So let’s look at the obvious first, what will these adorable new starter Pokemon transform into as you take them on your journey?

Let’s start with the one I’m most confident about: Sobble.

In the trailer, it showed Sobble camouflaged as it peaks its head out of the water. Combining that fact with the look of its tail and out it walks, I think it’s roughly based off of a Chameleon, with the head of something like an Axolotl. I think its evolutions will keep going down this route, keeping the lizard vibe, with the final evolution resembling something similar to a Komodo Dragon, with a chameleon’s tail.

As such, a Water/Poison type seems to make the most sense to me, you could perhaps even give it’s later evolutions fangs so it can learn a lot of the biting moves.

Moving onto Scorbunny, I’m not too sure about this one, but I have a lot of cool ideas.

It’s a little harder to tell where Scorbunny’s going to go, the most obvious one seems like it would take the form of a Fire/Fighting route, but I doubt that’s what we’ll actually get. The Pokemon Company are self-aware enough to not go down that route again though since many fans would be at best, disappointed and at worst, angry about it. So looking at some alternatives, the two that I keep going back and forth between are Fire/Electric or Fire/Fairy.

Electric is a bit of a stretch, but I can see it’s fur getting a bit more jagged and the small amount of yellow on its ear becoming more prominent. I could also see it going the exact opposite way, and its fur gets light and fluffier, as some of the red fades into pink and we get an adorable Fire/Fairy type instead.

I also have a couple more slightly out there theories, for example, perhaps it’s wings could grow out to be massive and it uses them as propellers to become Fire/Flying? Or what if it’s white fur is actually meant to be more snowy, as it’s flame starts to burn cold and we get a Fire/Ice type instead?

There’s a huge number of ways I can see this one going and as long as it’s not Fire/Fighting, I think it’ll be really cool.

Finally, we have Grookey, and I can really only see this one going one way.

The trailer here showed us Grookey hitting a rock with a stick in order scare off Sobble, which makes me thinks that when it evolves, it will start to use sticks or logs as weapons, similar to Delphox’s wand or Gurdr’s Gurder. This would naturally end up with it being a Grass/Fighting type.

Dependant on the design, I’d be happy with this, although it would be fairly similar to other fighting monkeys in the past like Infernape and Passimian, and we did get a Grass/Fighting type just two generations ago with Chespin, although that’s never stopped them before. You could also theorise that we would have a Grass/Rock type coming, which I’d be down for, as it grows to be fast and uses small rocks as weapons perhaps.

Wishlist: Doctor Who reference

This is one that’s almost definitely not going to happen, but I’d be so damn happy if it did. Just imagine it, you’re wandering around the back alleys in the big London-esque town when you come across a mysterious blue box, and when you interact with it, it says something like “You can hear noises coming from inside…”

It doesn’t actually have to do anything, (although giving Looker some sort of interaction with it would be amazing) I just think it would be a really cool Easter egg for Whovians such as myself.

Why stop there? You could potentially have references to loads of UK based elements of pop-culture, like a castle reminiscent of Hogwarts, or a house labelled “221B” where Looker lives, just something small like that to make us British Pokemon fans squeal with excitement.

Prediction: The cover legendaries will be based on the UK coat of arms

This one is a little bit of leap admittedly since Game Freak seldom themes the legendaries based on the region that it draws its inspiration from, but I like this idea.

As you can see pictured above the UK coat of arms features a shield in the middle, with a Lion (England’s national animal) on one side, and a Unicorn (Scotland’s national animal) on the other, so what better to base you cover legendaries off of?

The Lion is admittedly a bit problematic since we had Solgaleo in generation 7 which was also based off of a Lion, but we had two sets of Dragons in a row from gens 4 to 5, so it’s not like they haven’t done something similar before. In addition to this, if you were a bit creative with the typing and made it something like Electric/Poison, you’d be able to create something pretty unique looking so it wouldn’t be too much of a worry.

As for the Unicorn, I like the idea of upgrading it isn’t a Pegasus, to give it a secondary type of flying, however, I’m a little stumped for the primary type. Fairy seems like the obvious choice, but I’m looking for something a little bit more creative like that. The next one I jumped to was Water since we haven’t had a Water-type cover legendary in quite a while and you could quite easily explain it in law why it’s a water type (Maybe it’s responsible for it raining in the UK 99% of the time?).

That would create the issue that one of the legendaries is 4x effective against the other, which could be an issue, so maybe Fairy/Flying is the more likely type, I think Water/Flying would be cooler.

Wishlist: Gyms based on various English landmarks

Since we now know that Gyms are coming back (and at least one is going to be based on a football stadium), why not throw in other English landmarks to theme your gyms around.

The London Eye would be a great place to have a gym, with teleport pads going between each of the cabins until you fight the gym leader in the very top pod. It’ll probably have to be a normal type gym for it to make sense, but what a setting for a gym battle.

You want a steel type gym? Easy, just look to the abandoned steel mills in places like Sheffield, you could quite easily create a multilayered building where you’re walking over the metal walkways in a maze in order to reach the gym leader.

The one that I desperately want to see the most though, is one based on the London Underground. I don’t really know what type it would be (perhaps ground?), but I love the idea of a gym puzzle where you have to navigate a train network like the London Underground. Imagine Elesa’s Gym from Black and White but bigger. Making people read a simplified version of the tube map and navigate their way to the gym leader, battling trainers on the platforms, or maybe even on the trains would be a really fun time, and I hope we get something like it.

Prediction: The evil team will be based on cockney Victorian gangsters

Not really sure how likely this one is since there’s a whole bunch of things that the evil team could be based on, but I like this idea the best.

The evil team grunts are often presented to be bumbling idiots the whole time, and imagine how much funnier that will be if everyone involved has cockney accents while looking like they’re supposed to be somewhat high class. I’m imagining a design fairly similar to that of The Rooks in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate or the Peaky Blinders,  with flat caps and thick jackets who just go around roughing people up and causing trouble for the local Bobbys.

The admins and leaders could then be based on notable British criminals (real & fictional) with visual designs reminiscent of Moriarty, The Kray Twins or Jack the Ripper (without the chainsaw) being personal favourites of mine. As for what their goal would be, revolution seems like the easiest one. If we make the Elite Four themed like a monarchy then the evil team’s goal could ultimately be to overthrow them using the powers of the legendary Pokemon and establish their own government.

So there you have it! There are my predictions and wishes for Pokemon Sword and Shield. Let me know what you thought, and give me your own suggestions @10ryawoo on Twitter since like I said, this is always a very exciting time to be a Pokemon fan. I’ll see you next time.

WWE Fastlane 2019: Every Match Ranked

I don’t really know what to make of Fastlane.

There was a lot of good wrestling throughout the night, and even a lot of good story beats too, but it had a really big flaw. That flaw is this: With the exception of Becky vs Charlotte, you could’ve taken this entire show, put it at any point on the year, and it would’ve had the same overall impact. Almost every match on the show was fun, but none of it matters in the long run, which is a pretty bad thing for the last PPV before Wrestlemania.

10 – The Bar def. Kofi Kingston
(2 on 1 Handicap Match)

This is was a hard one to place for me, because the match was total crap, but the story surrounding it was extremely interesting.

WWE have done a really good job here on capitalizing on Kofi’s new-found momentum. Giving everyone that false hope of putting him in the WWE title match only for a bait and switch (even if it did seem rather obvious) was a good beat to hit, and gives him the motivation and fire Kofi needs to burst out and properly start to fight back.

As for the match itself, it’s pretty nothing. As expected The Bar just dumped on Kofi for way too long, to the point where it just felt like they were filling time. It also didn’t make sense that The New Day waited as long as they did to come out, even if they did get jumped on the way.

Ultimately though, the match itself isn’t important, because it created all of the motivations necessary for the story to move forward in the next month.

9 – Asuka(c) def. Mandy Rose
(Smackdown Women’s Championship)

Pretty much the epitome of a nothing match.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with this match, it wasn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination, but there was also nothing special about it. Mandy and Asuka fought for a good 10 minutes, then some small shenanigans happened so Mandy lost. Perfectly fine, but I can’t say anyone will remember it in a couple of weeks time.

The shenanigans with Sonya were kind of weird, but not enough to get any kind of real hatred out of me for it. It happened, it probably won’t go anywhere in the long run, and that’ll be that.

I really don’t know where the Smackdown Women’s title scene is going for Wrestlemania, but it needs to be more important than this.

8 – The New Day def. Shinsuke Nakamura & Rusev

Well, this was fun.

This is a step up from the Asuka vs Mandy match because this also held no consequence, and it didn’t really have anything notable about it, but the pace on this match was much quicker and it generally became much more fun to watch.

I generally think that Tag team matches on the pre-show are usually the best because there are plenty of easy and fun things you can do in a tag team match that provides pretty much exactly what a pre-show match needs to do, I’d like to see them more often, instead of the Cruiserweight Championships.

I did also set the seeds for later on in the night with the Kofi stuff, so that helps it out too.

7 – Sasha Banks & Bayley(c) def. Nia Jax & Tamina
(Women’s Tag Team Championships)

Tag team matches everywhere, all of them fun.

This match was pretty much exactly what everyone expected it to be, and it was quite good for it, however, it’s one of the many cases on this show where what happened after the match ended up being more important than what happened during it.

There was a lot of stuff to like about this match, with Bayley and Sasha being able to find that perfect balance between being small underdogs, but still competent champions who can easily hang with the likes of Nia & Tamina. With the finish being a little bit flukey, but also shows off the intelligence of the champions.

I’ll admit I’m a little confused by what the post-match beatdown on Beth Pheonix and Natalya means, perhaps a triple threat at Mania? Will Beth become a full-time wrestler again? It’s hard to tell right now, but the Women’s Tag title scene is looking very healthy going into Wrestlemania.

6 – Becky Lynch def. Charlotte Flair (Via DQ)
(If Becky wins, she’s in at Wrestlemania)

Told you so.

I find it really weird that this match is as low as it is because I really enjoyed it. Lynch & Charlotte could have a good match blindfolded at this point, so that was never in question, but it seemed that extra little bit of fire was in both women’s performance on Sunday.

This entire story has had a whole lot of ups and downs since the Royal Rumble, so this needed to be a pretty big point to keep things on track before April 7th. Personally, I think it achieved that, with a match that was really fun to watch, and a story beat that took away from the match a little bit, but added to the overall story.

Ronda causing Becky to win was a pretty obvious ploy, but it was obvious for the right reasons, so it’s fine. All of the character motivations make sense and it gives Charlotte the fire she needs to actually hate Rousey, since that has entirely been clear thus far, so smiles all round.

5 – The Usos(c) def. Shane Mcmahon & The Miz
(Smackdown Tag Team Championships)

*Shocked Pikachu Face*

Once again, the post-match outshone the match, although not quite as heavily here, mostly thanks to the fact that the match was great.

The Usos are arguably the best tag team on the main roster right now and Shane & Miz have become a surprisingly entertaining team to watch. Being in Cleveland meant the crowd were extremely into this one and that energy fed back into the match fantastically.

As with most tag team matches, once we got past the opening exchanges and stuff got chaotic is when things really got fun, with people flying all about the place and some crazy spots. My favourite of these spots had to be when Shane and one of the Usos decided they were going to leap at each other, before colliding in mid-air, the coordination to not only make that spot look good but to make it safe made it all the more impressive.

Ultimately though, The Miz would fail a dive and that would cost Miz & Shane the match, before the inevitable happened and Shane battered The Miz from pillar to post, in some punches that look uncharacteristically brutal. While this is going to lead to a hopefully pretty good Wrestlemania match, I’m more interested to see what kind of a heel Shane will be, obviously he’ll use his Mcmahonisms to book Miz into unfair matches, but I do wonder what angle he’ll take in his promos.

Either way, this was definitely the right step.

4 – The Revival(c) def. Aleister Black & Ricochet, Bobby Roode & Chad Gable
(Raw Tag Team Championships)

That photo right there is cool as fuck.

When you look at the show as a whole, there’s a lot of this style of wrestling throughout the whole thing and honestly, I thought I would’ve got tired of it, but these guys are able to differentiate themselves from each other enough to make every match feel different enough that I still enjoy it.

Not that this match had to try very hard to differentiate itself from the rest, with Ricochet, Aleister Black and Chad Gable you were bound to create a situation where the action never stopped for a moment. Black and Gable, in particular, had limited interaction but the two of them seemed to have incredible chemistry between the two of them in that time.

There were some incredible spots in the meantime, specifically Ricochet launching himself over the post onto everyone, as Gable tags himself in as he flies past is one of the most low-key impressive spots I think I’ve ever seen. The Revival winning feels like it was the right choice, but with the post-match beatdown it really seems like WWE really don’t want The Revival to actually be champions, and instead, just don’t want them to go to AEW. I don’t have a problem with Black & Ricochet standing tall, I feel like The Revival really should be allowed to look like they’re good at more than just hitting a Shatter Machine out of nowhere.

3 – Samoa Joe(c) def. Andrade, R-Truth, Rey Mysterio
(United States Championship)

Well, this was a nice surprise.

I complained in my predictions about the US title being left off of the show yet again, and Andrade & Rey being pushed to the pre-show, well it seems my wishes came true. Granted it was pretty much only because they realised the show would be running short, but it’s still the US title getting a match on the main show, and a rather good one at that.

Samoa Joe and Rey Mysterio were the absolute MVPs of this match, with Joe destroying everyone in the early stages with one hell of a suicide dive onto everyone and then dismantling all of his opponents one by one. Once Joe was dispatched of however, Rey Mysterio got to work and reminded everyone that in 30 years of wrestling, he hasn’t aged a day, with plenty of moves to please the eye.

Honestly, I wasn’t really expecting Joe to retain here with how much the US title has been thrown around in the past few months, but perhaps this great match is the first step in getting the title back on track.

2 – The Shield def. Baron Corbin, Drew Mcintyre & Bobby Lashley

You can make all the hot-takes you like, I still love The Shield.

People seem to be of two minds of this match since it was all just The Shield’s greatest hits, some people think this was a great thing, and other people think it was pointless. While I understand the point of view of the people who say it’s pointless, I can’t help but love it.

Yes, it has pretty much no impact on any major storylines heading into Wrestlemania, and yes it didn’t do Lashley or Drew any favours to rolled over so heavily, but this match was just so much fun that I really don’t care. With Roman Reigns’ just coming back from his leukaemia, and Ambrose potentially being gone for good in April, there’s just no point in complaining about this one, I just wanted to sit back and enjoy the ride.

As for the specifics of the match, if you’ve seen Shield vs Wyatts and Shield vs Evolution, then you’ve seen everything that happens in this match, but like I said, it’s been such a long time since The Shield have had a big match like this and nothing will stop me from enjoying it.

1 – Daniel Bryan(c) def. Kevin Owens, Mustafa Ali
(WWE Championship)

Ok hands up, who saw this one coming? If you put your hand up you’re a liar.

When the bait and switch with Kofi happened I didn’t think the WWE title match would actually still be a triple threat, but I guess it makes sense since Ali was unable to get his opportunity in the Elimination Chamber last month. Ali certainly made the most of this opportunity too, we’ve always known that guy can do amazing things, but holy crap he damn near destroyed himself for our entertainment last night.

With one of the best sells for an Apron Powerbomb I’ve seen in a long time, being kicked in the face from the top rope and flying all the way to the barricade, and a goddamned Moonsault into a Knee Plus to end the match, Ali deserves all of the gold, all of the time.

The crowd were a bit fixed on Kofi not being in the match, and while there were “We want Kofi” chants the whole time, Ali certainly shut a lot of them up as the match progressed. I still can’t really tell if they’re actually going to go with Kofi at Wrestlemania, but if they’re not, I’d be very happy with Mustafa Ali instead.

So that’s it! Thank you very much for reading my review of Fastlane 2019, let me know what you thought of the show either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo, and make sure you stick around this month for all the juicy content going into Wrestlemania season!

WWE Fastlane 2019 Analysis & Predictions

Alright, let’s get this out of the way I guess.

I said last time that I don’t really think there should be any Pay-Per-Views between the Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania, but I understand that WWE need to make its money and please its shareholders and Elimination Chamber does have a unique appeal to it so I can live with it. Fastlane however, is very different.

When there were still split PPVs I could understand why there’d be two (one for each brand), but now all the PPVs are interbrand, why have two of them? None of the stories have progressed very much at all to warrant another big match, so we instead have a bunch of throwaway and makeshift feuds that everyone knows the result of. Even worse, something like this can often worsen the lengthy feuds that are either just getting started, or right in the middle, since you now have to force some big “moment” at the PPV, even when the story so far might not need it.

I can complain until the cows come home, but it’s not going to change the fact that Fastlane is happening this Sunday, and there’s a whole bunch of matches that need predicting, so let’s get to it.

Rey Mysterio vs Andrade
(Kickoff Show)

When will they stop putting these cruiserweights on the pre-show? (I know Andrade’s 209lbs, but I thought it was funny).

On the ever-increasing list of things that baffle me with regards to this PPV, we have arguably the hottest feud from this year so far, being pushed to the pre-show. Not only that, but you could’ve put the US title on either of them two weeks in a row, but instead you decide to go with Samoa Joe, which is fine, except Samoa Joe isn’t even on the damn show at all.

I get that you’ve got to have a pre-show match, but this is a fairly empty PPV so far, and these two could put on a match of the year if you let them go instead of artificially putting shackles on them by only giving them about 10 minutes when no-one’s watching. It’s like they’re not even trying to make new stars.

They’ve buried this enough as it is, so not having Andrade win here would be such a huge mistake, and potentially destroy one of your existing potential stars at a key point of the year.

The Shield vs Baron Corbin, Drew Mcintyre & Bobby Lashley

So we’re not even going to wait and build up to this one, are we?

I’m of two minds when it comes to The Shield reuniting this soon after Roman’s return. On the one hand, it seems like it could’ve been built to a lot more, with the eventual reunion being a huge moment at Wrestlemania when Seth defeats Brock. However, we’ve been through this whole “will they, won’t they” thing three times now, and since we know it’s always going to end up with The Shield reuniting, why make us sit through it again?

It does make me wonder though, if they’ve thrown them together again this fast, could they also be breaking them up just as quickly? It doesn’t seem like much of a stretch to say that Dean once again turns on The Shield here in order to have Roman vs Dean at Wrestlemania, as it was quite weird that Roman didn’t really seem to care about Dean taking the piss of his leukaemia.

While it’s possible we get a turn here, I’m going to go with The Shield since it just seems like a fairly safe bet to say that the top heels of Raw are being thrown to the hounds for a quick win to make The Shield look good.

Asuka(c) vs Mandy Rose
(Smackdown Women’s Championship)

So, now Asuka has left the shadow of the Becky/Charlotte storyline, you’ve got a big chance for Asuka to break out on her own and show her stuff going into Wrestlemania. Smackdown is filled with a whole bunch of great female athletes so you can pick from almost any of them. We’ve got Naomi, Sonya Deville, The IIconics, hell if you want a throwaway feud, Zelina Vaga would be a great opponent for Asuka. So with all the choice in the world WWE picks…Mandy Rose.

Now, I have nothing specifically against Mandy Rose. She’s yet to put on a performance that truly wowed me, but she’s certainly not a bad wrestler by any stretch of the imagination. She just really doesn’t feel like she’s the right fit for the spot, she’s had an on and off story with Naomi for a couple months where I guess she won? It was pretty vague, but she doesn’t really feel like she’s been built up at all, I get that she used cheap tactics to get the opportunity, but I feel like you could’ve spread this out a little longer and perhaps involved Sonya Deville on at least some level.

Ultimately, it all goes back to having two PPVs at this time of year so close together, there’s no time for anything to build because just 2 weeks ago Mandy was busy for the build to the Chamber match.

There are a whole host of shenanigans that could take place here, with Lacey Evans, Sonya Deville and Naomi all having some reason to get involved, but whatever happens, I’m confident that Asuka will walk away with the title.

Sasha Banks & Bayley(c) vs Nia Jax & Tamina
(Women’s Tag Team Championships)

Maybe, they should have stuck with the “Roadblock” name instead, because that’s what this match feels like.

The announcement that these Women’s Tag Team titles will be defended on all three of Raw, Smackdown and NXT is absolutely wonderful news. Many are currently claiming that the NXT women’s division is quite shallow, with Baszler, Sane and Sharai are the only top-level talents, but this is the way to showcase how great the rest of the division is, by having them go head to head with Banks & Bayley and put on an amazing match with them.

However, for us to get to that land of wonder, we have a rather large roadblock in the form of Nia Jax & Tamina. They shouldn’t win the titles here, and almost everything points to the fact that they won’t, especially with a probable face off against Trish & Lita is on the horizon for Wrestlemania, but this is WWE so they might.

Either way, this match should be ok. Nia and Tamina really are among my least favourite wrestlers right now, but Bayley and Sasha are great at bringing the best out of their opponents, especially bigger opponents like these. As for a pick, I’m going with what needs to happen and say Sasha Banks & Bayley are going to retain here.

The Usos(c) vs Shane Mcmahon & The Miz
(Smackdown Tag Team Championships)

Remember when Shane Mcmahon first came back in 2016 and we were all really excited? Those were fun times, now I really just want him to go away for a while.

So far with this story, WWE have so far gone with the exact opposite of what I’ve predicted, but as I always say: If I keep bashing my head against this wall, it will eventually break, so let’s go again.

When this whole thing first started, I didn’t want Shane & Miz to win the titles, and then once they won them, I didn’t want them to lose the titles. So I don’t think I’m going to surprise anyone when I flip-flop once again and say now Shane & Miz have lost the titles, I really don’t think they should win them back.

When they won the titles, I thought we were going to get a long storyline where The Miz would use Shane to get to the WWE title at some point this year before inevitably dumping him when he outlived his usefulness, but now they’ve dropped the titles, it’s become obvious they’re going for the short term story, most likely ending at Wrestlemania.

I’m not really sure what The Usos are going to do come Wrestlemania, but I do know that they’re going to have the Smackdown Tag Team Championships around their waists.

The Revival(c) vs Aleister Black & Ricochet vs Bobby Roode & Chad Gable
(Raw Tag Team Championships)

So this is how Vince intends to “make new stars” is it?

So, Black & Ricochet have been going back forth between Raw and Smackdown for a couple of weeks beating The Revival and The Bar repeatedly, until suddenly Roode & Gable show up and put a spanner in things for some reason and now we have this match.

The thing is, Black & Ricochet have stood tall week in and week out since they showed up on the main roster, including last Monday, so wrestling logic dictates they have absolutely no chance of winning. This is the problem with bringing these four guys up at this time of year, they’re only going to get damaged by doing nothing of note (because let’s be real, the Raw Tag Team Titles are nothing of note) and then Vince has the gall to come out and wonder why he doesn’t have any superstars on his roster.

While it’s possible Ricochet & Black could pick up the win here, I don’t really think I want them to0 since the Raw Tag Titles seem like things that could hold them down instead of launching them to stardom, so I’m picking The Revival to retain.

Becky Lynch vs Charlotte Flair
(If Becky wins, she’s in at Wrestlemania)

Oh yeah, Charlotte’s involved in all of this.

I know the build to this match has been mostly brilliant so far, but I do find it quite weird how Charlotte’s been a bit of a non-factor since she was thrust into the match, mostly has a punching bag for Becky Lynch, but still.

This match is one of those ones that has an obvious result, – Becky Lynch is going to win – but it’s obvious because it’s what needs to happen. I know there’s pretty much no doubt in anyone’s minds that the triple threat is happening at Mania, but this is WWE, so I refuse to trust them. I think the best way to avoid this being such an obvious win, is to have Ronda get involved. Except have Ronda make Becky win.

Not accidentally, but on purpose screw over Charlotte so Becky gets her way in at Mania. The whole point of the story the past few weeks is that Ronda has been wanting to fight Becky at Wrestlemania, and Ronda is very much the type of character to fight ALL OF THEM to quote Asuka. Having Ronda cause Charlotte to lose here gets Becky in without compromising Charlotte’s integrity for the main event of Wrestlemania since she didn’t lose clean. There’s no downside to it.

Daniel Bryan(c) vs Kevin Owens
(WWE Championship)

So the build for this match has been pretty interesting, as it’s taken the opposite progression to almost everything else on the card.

With all the other feuds on this card, I started off pretty interested, but the build (or lack thereof) has made me not care about them at all, but with this match, I initially thought it was weird and didn’t make sense, but after this week’s Smackdown I’m pretty into it.

For one thing, Bryan vs Owens should be a brilliant match provided it isn’t hampered by WWE branded bullshit, but also I think they’ve done a pretty good job of building it given the limited time they’ve had. It was pretty weird that they inserted Owens into the match essentially by copying the women’s storyline over on Raw, but the promos that have been cut since then have been pretty fun to watch.

Owens feels like he’s got this renewed sense of vigour behind him, and while I doubt this face turn will last long, for this feud at least, it’s working. I’m not looking forward to this PPV as a whole much, but I chose to hold out hope that this match will have some good stuff behind it.

As for a winner, it’s slightly harder to pick than I thought, because of Kofi Kingston. While it wouldn’t be out of character for WWE to completely forget this Kofi story and hope everyone forgets about it, that doesn’t feel like what’s going to happen here. I’m not sure if he’ll get directly involved, but it wouldn’t surprise me if this segment ended with Kofi being involved in some way. For that to happen though, Daniel Bryan idealistically has to retain, so that’s what I’m going with here.

And those are my predictions for Fastlane 2019! Let me know what your thoughts are, either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. As always watch this space over the next week as my review of the show will be coming up early next week!