Tag: Bayley

WWE Hell in a Cell 2019: Predictions & Analysis

I think it’s safe to say that this has been the longest 3 weeks in wrestling history. Seriously, Clash of Champions feels like it was months ago by this point, with NXT’s move to the USA Network, Smackdown’s move to FOX and AEW Dynamite’s debut on TNT so much has happened in the world of wrestling in such a tiny space of time that this show seems like the biggest afterthought of the lot.

I mean seriously, we only have four matches announced for the show, meanwhile, WWE have decided to focus on booking matches for the inevitable trainwreck that will be Crown Jewel at the end of the month. What blow my mind is that the two biggest matches on this card seem like really big deals in the world of WWE and yet management are treating it like it barely matters.

Still, let’s go through what matches have been announced (as I expect a handful to be added last minute) and see if we can’t predict the winners.

Daniel Bryan & Roman Reigns vs Luke Harper & Erick Rowan

There were lots of potential outcomes when this weird story of Roman Reigns being attacked by a mystery assailant began a couple of months ago, but I don’t think any of us would’ve predicted that “a big push for Erick Rowan” would be what we ended up with, and I’m including WWE’s writers in that statement. As I mentioned in my Clash of Champions review, I’m happy to see Harper back on TV, but I hate that he’s been paired up with Rowan for the hundredth time and I can’t help but feel like this isn’t going to last very long at all.

That said, I actually think this match will be a fun one to watch. Roman Reigns carried a tag match featuring Shane McMahon and an ageing Undertaker to a good quality, so I can only imagine what we’ll get when Reigns is in there with the best wrestler in the world, the most underrated wrestler in WWE and Erick Rowan. This should be quite the chaotic match which, as I constantly say, is the perfect pace for a tag team match.

As for a winner, there are a lot of aspects at play here that make it quite difficult to pick with any sort of confidence. First off, you’ve got the fact that Luke Harper’s just returned, which typically means he needs a win here to look strong, but we know all too well that Vince despises him for basically no reason whatsoever, so that could very well be off the table. It would be nice to see Rowan carry on the momentum he got from beating Reigns but I just don’t think it’s going to happen, not to mention the fact that this feud had been going on for months with almost nothing in the way of face victories, so I’m going with Daniel Bryan & Roman Reigns.

Bayley(c) vs Charlotte Flair
(Smackdown Women’s Championship)

I’m not entirely sure whether or not I’m happy about the way Bayley’s been handled in the past couple of months. She’s been getting storylines that are actually about her for once and her character’s been given a new lease of life with this heel turn, but at the same time, she seems to be unable to do anything without Sasha being around to lend a hand. She outfoxed Charlotte last month but that mostly felt like it was because we needed to stall for a month until Sasha got her hands on the title.

Hopefully this match will get more time than it did at Clash of Champions (it bloody well better given the lack of content for the show right now), I just hope creative can pull something cleverer than another dirty finish out of their back pocket because I don’t think I can be bothered with two in a row. Still, if it gets the time and a bit of freedom, I think this will be a fun one to watch.

I’ll be honest, I don’t have much of a rationale for picking Bayley to win here. It also certainly won’t be clean if she does, but I can’t see WWE letting Charlotte take a clean loss to this version of Bayley. I think having Bayley lose the title just as Sasha wins hers would sweep the rug out from under the both of them in a major way and could really stifle Bayley. Once we’ve had the draft and the brands become more sperate I think it will be ok but for now, I say Bayley needs to hold on to the gold.

Becky Lynch(c) vs Sasha Banks
(Raw Women’s Championship)
(Hell in a Cell)

I’ll be honest, I was very worried that this storyline would start to derail after the wonky finish last month but creative have done a great job of making sure that the heat to this feud only builds and I can safely say that I’m just as hyped for this rematch as I was for their first encounter last month.

I think the match will be just as good too, both of these women have put on high-quality weapons matches in the past – Sasha in the Cell against Charlotte and Becky in Last Woman Standing, also against Charlotte – so I’m not approaching this with my usual sense of dread, the pace should stay reasonably fast and the spots will be a spectacle to watch.

The key thing here is not to do another wonky finish and definitely don’t have Bayley help Sasha win. This whole feud has made Sasha look like an ass-kicker, but I’m worried that Bayley’s going to sneak her way into the Cell somehow in order to give Sasha the win, but I think that would hinder Sasha in the long run. Regardless, I think Sasha Banks is coming out with the win and hopefully, it will be clean. It’s unclear what format Survivor Series is going to take this year, but I could see them using it as a stop-gap before having a finale match to close out the year.

Seth Rollins(c) vs “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt
(Universal Championship)
(Hell in a Cell)

I’m really not sure what to make of this one.

On the one hand, Bray Wyatt is without a doubt the most popular thing in WWE right now, it’s a cool and original concept the likes of which we haven’t seen arguably since The Undertaker debuted so capitalising on it with a world title victory – especially as WWE positions themselves to move into a new era – seems like a great way to go about things. On the other hand, it seems way too soon for any of this to actually happen.

I’m optimistic for the match quality here, The Fiend has already shown that the style in which they wrestle is different and oddly compelling to watch and the addition of Hell in a Cell and all of the weapons there-in looks to only benefit the performance. I just really don’t know if I can see them winning the Universal Title this soon.

Seth Rollins still isn’t that far out from slaying the Beast and winning back the Universal Championship, while The Fiend has only had one televised match before this one. On top of that, I’m not entirely sure how The Fiend as Universal Champion would even work on week-to-week TV. Bray can, of course, do all his talking through the Firefly Funhouse but the fact is we only see The Fiend once per show when he cuts the lights and attacks, someone. It’d create this spectre of an immortal monster residing over RAW and the more I think about it the more I want to see it.

After thinking it through, I’m picking “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt to win the match, because now Finn Balor’s announced a return to NXT, I can’t see any way they could book themselves out of this where Seth keeps the title, but doesn’t actually beat The Fiend, thus, The Fiend has to win.

And that’s it! Sorry for this post being shorter than usual, but there’s not a lot I can do with only four matches to talk about. Still, thank you very much for taking the time to read this, let me know what you think is going to happen in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. Finally, make sure to come back on Monday for my review of the show!

WWE Clash of Champions 2019: Predictions & Analysis

Am I the only one that feels like Summerslam was just a week ago? I don’t know why, but it feels like this PPV cycle has gone past really quickly, a feeling that was probably aided by having three major non-WWE wrestling shows a couple of weekends ago, which means that a lot of people are going to be drawing comparisons.

As it stands, I think this looks like a really good card. There’s a couple of matches that I don’t think will do anything special, but I can honestly say I’m looking forward to seeing most of these matches, which shouldn’t be as hot a take as that’ll probably be.

Regardless, there must be winners and I shall attempt to predict them.

Roman Reigns vs Erick Rowan
(No Disqualification)

This whole story has felt like creative have no idea what to do with Roman Reigns until October.

Given that the original plan (as far as we’re told by the dirt sheets) was Roman vs Daniel Bryan at Summerslam, it definitely feels like creative have had to suddenly find ways to extend the story another two months and this is what we’ve ended up with. Almost every week something new and weird will happen that entirely feels like it was thought up the day before the show (or maybe later if Vince keeps rewriting shows like we’re told he does) and now we’re left with this match which feels largely pointless.

If this is a sincere attempt to try and put a bigger spotlight on Erick Rowan and make him a bigger star then I’m all for it, but I highly doubt that’s what this is. I know Rowan attacked Bryan and disavowed him on Smackdown, but this whole thing still feels like a master plan by Bryan to absolve himself of the crime and it’s only a matter of weeks until he’s revealed as the true culprit. I’d be happy to be proved wrong on that, but as it stands this match just feels like a stop-gap en route to the real money match in Roman vs Bryan.

I don’t think anyone would disagree with me when I say Roman Reigns is winning this. I can’t see what the plan is for Reigns past this feud with Bryan, but the upcoming draft could throw anything I say up in air regardless.

Drew Gulak(c) vs Humberto Carrillo vs Lince Dorado
(Cruiserweight Championship)

This entire year on 205 Live it’s seemed like just a matter of time until Humberto wins the Cruiserweight Championship and Gulak is the best person for him to win it from to complete the story, but I’m not sure tonight is the night.

As much as he’s spent most of this year being built up, Humberto hasn’t had any major wins against big stars of the division, especially not recently. His story lost a bit of steam going into the summer and now it’s being recovered out of nowhere and it doesn’t quite sit right with me. If this were still a one on one match then I would’ve been tempted to pick Humberto regardless, but then Lince Dorado was added and things became a lot clearer for me.

Like any Cruiserweight title match, especially multi-man ones, this is going to be great fun to watch, regardless of where it gets dropped on the card. Dorado and Carrillo are very exciting to watch and are great at the fast-paced action and as Gulak is perfect in the role of taking choice opportunities and occasionally slowing the match down for a greater impact, so I’m looking forward to seeing this one play out.

That said, I’m confident that Drew Gulak is going to retain the title here, probably by submitting Lince Dorado. As I’ve said, it’s only a matter of time until Humberto Carrillo wins the title from Gulak, but giving him a good looking defeat, where he doesn’t take the fall, might be a good way to get his story going again.

Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross vs Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville
(Women’s Tag Team Championships)

The thing with this match is that I love all four of these wrestlers and it’ll probably be a fairly entertaining match, but I’m just not even slightly excited to see this match. That may in part be down to the fact that we’ve already seen it on Smackdown a couple of weeks ago, but I think the main reason is how crappy the women’s tag team titles have been treated since being taken off of Sasha & Bayley back in April. I know things are getting better but over 4 months of shoddy treatment isn’t going to be wiped away so quickly.

Plus, you could argue the shoddy treatment isn’t going to end anytime soon. Granted, any title that Alexa Bliss holds stands to get at least some level of credible treatment, but I honestly think that the only reason this match is even on the show is because of the “all titles will be defended” gimmick of this PPV.

As such, it makes this one quite easy to pick. Rose & Deville have already got a win over Bliss & Cross in a non-title match which means they haven’t got a chance of winning the titles here. Not to mention that a quick title change like this wouldn’t do any favours for titles that are looking to regain credibility. I’m an extremely big Sonya Deville fan so it pains me to say this, but Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross are walking out of this one with the titles.

Shinsuke Nakamura(c) vs The Miz
(Intercontinental Championship)

The Miz should always be a heel.

Don’t get me wrong, when he first turned against Shane McMahon it was great, he was getting consistent TV time and cutting fantastic promos while putting on great matches every week, but once he stopped feuding with Shane, all of that stopped. When Miz gets a chance to be on TV he tends to put on a great show, but those opportunities have been few and far between recently, it feels like creative don’t know how to book The Miz as a face and I can’t say I blame them, he’s a character that’s so perfect as a heel it’s hard to think of him any other way.

As long as this isn’t a squash match then I think it’ll be a fun watch. I’m not optimistic about the amount of time it’s going to get and it’ll almost certainly end in interference from Sami Zayn because Zayn & Nakamura is a pairing now which…ok I guess? But even if we don’t get a very long match, what little we get should be enjoyable.

I went back and forth on picking the winner for this one a little bit because, on one hand, there’s the fact that Miz is very close to topping Chris Jericho’s record with the Intercontinental Championship and given recent events, I’d imagine WWE would quite like to do just that. However, in the end, I’ve decided to go with Shinsuke Nakamura to retain instead because there’s absolutely nothing worthwhile in The Miz as Intercontinental Champion right now, I’d much rather it stay on Nakamura so this story with Sami Zayn has a chance of actually going somewhere.

AJ Styles(c) vs Cedric Alexander
(United States Championship)

Hm, well I guess there was always going to be one match that was made at the last possible minute.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure this is will be a great match if it gets more than 5 minutes on the show (which based on the number of matches, seems unlikely) but I just don’t have the capacity to care about a match that started being built 4 days ago. With any luck, this will end up being a big chance of Cedric Alexander on a big stage so people can start to properly get behind him, like with Ricochet.

Unfortunately, there’s almost no chance he’s winning here. As I said, this match had its entire build on Monday and this is one of those matches that wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for the gimmick of this show being that every title would be defended. It’s possible that this title gets a shock change to balance out almost all of the other titles being retained, but Alexander wouldn’t hold the title for very long if that happened, so I’m playing it safe and sticking with AJ Styles to retain.

The New Day(c) vs The Revival
(Smackdown Tag Team Championships)

Well there you go, all it took for The Revival to be taken seriously is a tenuous link with Randy Orton that will be broken the moment Orton & Kofi’s story demands it.

As this story has been entirely intertwined with Kofi & Orton’s, it’s hard to say anything unique about it. It’s nice to see The Revival being treated as a threat but it’s going to end as soon as they lose here and Orton dumps them, then there’s The New Day who are great, but I honestly forgot they were tag champs until seeing the card for this show.

That said, when it comes to tag team wrestling, these are two of the best in the WWE, so this could be a killer match, even if it only does get ten minutes in the end. As I not so subtly hinted at above, I’m picking The New Day to retain. I just don’t see a reason to take the title off of The New Day so soon and ultimately I think the titles themselves will see a lot better treatment around their waists.

Seth Rollins & Braun Strowman(c) vs Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode
(Raw Tag Team Championships)

Nevermind going back in time and telling someone about this match, I’m still not entirely sure I believe it’s happening in the present. This has been a weird month.

So in the space of a month, not only have a random two competitors been put together as a tag team to win the titles, but another random two competitors have been put together in a tag team, beat EVERY OTHER tag team on Raw to get a title match. Then on top of that, you realise that the champions are fighting each other for a different title later on in the show and the whole title reign has essentially served that purpose and you realise how non-existant the tag team division in WWE is.

On paper, this match looks like it’d be great, but the fact of the matter is, this whole match is going to serve the Universal title match later on the show and nothing more. I know Braun keeps reaffirming how he’s determined to retain the tag titles, but that’s bullshit and I fully expect him to refuse to tag in for long portions of the match so Seth can get beaten up.

Funnily enough, though, I’m honestly not sure who’s going to win, purely because there’s absolutely nothing to be gained from Dolph Ziggler & Bobby Roode as tag team champions for just so many reasons. So beyond all logic, I’m picking Seth Rollins & Braun Strowman to retain and probably take a leak on them next Monday before vacating them.

Bayley(c) vs Charlotte Flair
(Smackdown Women’s Championship)

Oh look, I’ve picked every champion to retain so far, that’s interesting. So who’s up next? Charlotte Flair, you say? Oh dear.

If you had asked me to pick this one when it was first announced, I would’ve picked Charlotte without even needing to think about it, but a surprising amount has changed since then. Charlotte’s alignment is a bit up in the air, but she still seems to be showing heelish tendencies, the main issue is that Bayley is now a heel, which is something I really didn’t see coming but is probably a brilliant move.

I’m not the biggest fan of keeping Bayley joined at the hip to Sasha Banks, but in this particular instance, I think it could benefit here greatly since Bayley really hasn’t done anything interesting as Smackdown Women’s Champion outside of the moment she won it. It’s also created a very interesting scenario where all of the 4 horsewomen are fighting for titles, I’ve no idea if that’ll lead anywhere but it’s a very nice thing to think about.

Needless to say, this match will be great. Admittedly we don’t know how Bayley works as a heel but I can’t imagine it’ll be much different from how she normally wrestles. On top of that, Bayley & Charlotte have always had great in-ring chemistry and I’m really looking forward to watching this match play out. As for a winner, it’s a tough call because I’m fully expecting a dirt finish as I don’t see Charlotte losing clean here at all, but if this heel turn is going to be worthwhile, Bayley needs to make something of it, so she’s who I’m going with, likely with an assist from a steel chair.

Kofi Kingston(c) vs Randy Orton
(WWE Championship)

In my Summerslam predictions, I talked about the match between these two very excited and optimistically. This is not going to be like that entry.

To put it simply their match at Summerslam was awful and it’s completely killed any investment I had in this storyline. Not to mention, the storyline itself seems to have stagnated on Smackdown this past month, with things going no further than “they beat each other up every week” which can be very effective if done well, but this has been done in a way that just makes it seem lazy more than anything.

There’s a tiny part of me that is holding out hope that this match will be what I wanted from their Summerslam encounter, but that part grows smaller and smaller by the day. It’s entirely likely that this match will involve shenanigans from New Day and The Revival, partly because that’s what this whole story has focused on, but also because Hell in a Cell is next month and they need to justify it by saying it’ll keep out everyone else.

Since I don’t think this is the end of the story, Kofi should be an easy pick to retain, but I’ve picked every title to be retained so far and I could easily see Orton swiping the title, if only for a month before Kofi gets it back, especially with Smackdown moving to FOX just before Hell in a Cell next month. It’s a tough one, but the more I think about it, the more risky picking Orton seems, so yet again I’m going with Kofi Kingston to retain.

Becky Lynch(c) vs Sasha Banks
(Raw Women’s Championship)

Oh boy, I’m so ready.

I’m really excited for this match, Becky Lynch’s character has recovered from months upon months of Lacey Evans and she feels like a big deal again and Sasha is riding this big wave of momentum from her return which has hopefully revitalised her energy towards wrestling. The writing between these two has really been killing it, Sasha’s always felt more natural as a heel and the back and forth between the two of them has been really great stuff, and that’s not even counting the added twist of Bayley’s heel turn.

As we’ve seen in NXT, the in-ring chemistry between these two is as good as you’d expect it to be and this match should be a shoe-in for match of the night. There’s so much potential for where this story could go in the coming months and a really good match here will be the perfect launching platform for all of it.

That brings us to the matter of picking a winner and I’ve already said that I think this is the first in a long series, which would imply that the champion retains here but I think this case is different. Sasha Banks is riding such a huge wave of momentum and has got a brand new lease of life on her character, so I just can’t bet against her here and I think she’s going to pick up the title.

Seth Rollins(c) vs Braun Strowman
(Universal Championship)

So this is going to be what all of Seth’s feuds are from here on out aren’t they?

Much like with the build to Seth vs Brock at Summerslam, I’ve not enjoyed the week to week build for this match, but I remain hopeful that the match itself will be enjoyable. Carrying on from my earlier predictions, I think Seth will be coming into this match on the back foot after Strowman lets him take a beating in their tag match earlier in the night (it wouldn’t surprise me if they did them back to back) and the main story of the match is Strowman absolutely dominating Rollins and Rollins trying to create openings to sneak in offence and turn the tide, much like his match with Lesnar.

These two seem like they should have good in-ring chemistry, as Seth always has with guys twice his size. On top of that, you have to remember that, as much as he hasn’t done much exciting over the past year or so, Braun can be a really fun wrestler to watch under the right circumstances and with any luck, this match will serve to remind people of that fact and bolster his popularity once again.

Ultimately, when it comes down to it, I’m not struggling at all to pick the winner here, Seth Rollins is retaining his title. Bray Wyatt has already announced he’s fighting the winner of this match next month and as much as there is some good story potential in Bray vs Braun, the money match is definitely Seth vs Bray. Not to mention the fact that Seth’s only just got the title back and became the first person since Goldberg to hand Lesnar a clean loss in the process, so it wouldn’t be the best decision to have him lose the title again this soon.

And that’s it! Thank you very much for taking the time to read this, let me know what you think is going to happen either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. Finally, make sure to come back early next week for my review of the show!

WWE Summerslam 2019: Predictions & Analysis

So, after a couple of months of spinning our wheels, this is the show we were spinning them for and well…I’m actually quite optimistic about this show. There are a couple of matches that I’m not particularly excited for, but for the most part, I think this is going to be an entertaining show.

Not only that, but I think the winner of a good number of these matches are up in the air a bit. Be it for good or bad reasons, WWE has managed to do a pretty good job of keeping us guessing when it comes to who’s going to be winning on Sunday. Still, let’s give it a go, here are my predictions for Summerslam 2019.

Drew Gulak(c) vs Oney Lorcan
(Cruiserweight Championship)

Match of the night incoming right here.

Drew has been absolutely fantastic as cruiserweight champion so far. Both of his PPV matches for the title this year so far have been show-stealers and his character work week to week is unparalleled. Then you’ve got a guy like Oney Lorcan, who is absolutely stellar in the ring but isn’t the most convincing of characters. He has an over the top-levels of intensity that I’ve never been able to buy from wrestlers, but like I said, he’s got a really great wrestling style that is also fairly unique compared to the rest of the cruiserweight division.

I’m struggling to pick a winner with this one though. I’ve felt for a long time now that Lorcan was going to end up with the Cruiserweight Championship at some point this year but I didn’t expect him to be in this position quite so soon. More importantly, Drew’s only just sunk his teeth into this title reign and it also feels like his story is something a bit more long term, so it doesn’t make a great deal of sense for him to lose the title just yet.

Ultimately guys like Mustafa Ali have proved that you can be a big star in the Cruiserweight division without ever winning the title and I could potentially see Oney Lorcan becoming one of those guys, so I’m going with Drew Gulak to retain here.

Goldberg vs Dolph Ziggler

Oh…Dolph didn’t go away after losing to Kofi? Alright then. Oh…he’s entering another feud with The Miz? Alright then. Oh…he’s actually facing Goldberg instead? Alright then.

I don’t really think there’s much to say about this match, losing out on Miz vs Ziggler isn’t much of a loss and it’ll hopefully be nice to see Goldberg looking a lot better than he did in June. Of course, like any Goldberg match, it needs to be short and sweet, with Ziggler bumping his ass off like he always does and Goldberg is most definitely going to win.

Finn Balor vs “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt

I could sit here and complain about how shitty Balor’s been treated since Wrerstelmania, but instead, let’s talk about how awesome Bray Wyatt’s return has been so far.

The Firefly Funhouse stuff was a stroke of absolute genius. It let Wyatt really flex those creative muscles we all knew he had and it got the fans invested in a major way. Then since showing up in person, it’s been really well done, the way the lights and music came down before Wyatt attacked Balor made for a great atmosphere and the way the lights flicked around The Fiend’s face as he appeared was over the top and cheesy in just the right way. On top of that, the promo’s Bray’s been cutting from the funhouse talking about The Feind has made it so much more creepy and creates such an interesting dynamics between the two sides of Wyatt’s personality.

Personally, I’d like to see The Demon, although I doubt we will just yet as I think they might be saving it for the eventual rematch, but either way I think the match is going to be something special to watch and it’s such a great feeling to be excited about Bray Wyatt again for the first time in a long time.

Of course, Bray Wyatt is definitely winning this; I’d call it an absolute lock. Not only is this Wyatt’s much-hyped return match, but all of the rumours are pointing to Balor taking a couple of months off following Summerslam, so there’d be nothing to gain and everything to lose by Balor picking up a shock win.

Kevin Owens vs Shane McMahon
(If Shane wins, Owens will quit WWE)

You know, Shane McMahon became a fulltime wrestler so gradually I didn’t even notice.

Honestly, this really feels like what Shane’s heel turn has been leading to ever since his original feud with Owens in 2017. We all shouted and bitched back then about how Shane was being a totally unreasonable arsehole despite being a face and we were expected to boo Owens. Now we’re two years down the line and the face/heel roles are finally the right way around. So far, Owens’ face turn has been pretty well this time around, but it’s important that they keep their foot on the accelerator over the next few months, otherwise, it will pretty quickly peter out.

I’m really not sure what this match will be like since Shane McMahon’s matches this over the past couple of years have been quite hit and miss, although this year specifically it’s been mostly hit. There’s a lot of heat behind this one too, given how everyone’s sick and tired of Shane eating up so much TV time and Owens has been a house on fire, but I could just as easily see it being a shocking squash.

Either way, I think it’s a given that Kevin Owens is going to win. If the quitting stipulation wasn’t there then I think it’d be a bit more up in the air, but when you consider that there’s no way Owens is leaving or taking time off for the foreseeable future AND he’s just starting this role as a face, it would be an incredibly stupid decision for Shane to beat him now.

Trish Stratus vs Charlotte Flair

Well, this was a nice surprise.

I know there’s a bit of trepidation towards this match and I can understand the argument that Charlotte doesn’t really have a lot to gain from beating Trish considering everything she’s already done. However, we’ve seen in recent years that Trish can still go so the match will most likely be a fun watch and considering the alternative was likely Charlotte inserting herself into ANOTHER big 4 title match, I’m quite happy with having this match instead.

As I touched on above, I think this will be a great match to watch. Trish’s small appearances in the women’s Royal Rumble have shown she’s still got the athleticism to do everything she used to and her match at Evolution showed that as long as she’s got the right opponent to help her out, then she can carry a longer match and Charlotte is absolutely the right opponent.

Of course, with any legend vs current star match, the result is pretty easy to pick, especially when the current star in question is one of the most heavily pushed women in WWE history. Charlotte Flair will come out on top in this one and we’ll likely get a sweet hug and show of respect after the match to top it all off nicely.

AJ Styles(c) vs Ricochet
(United States Championship)

I don’t think anyone’s going to complain about seeing these two wrestle again. Admittedly they’ve had quite a few matches together in recent months, but there are some combinations of wrestlers that you can just never get tired of, like Ricochet & Will Ospreay, or Ricochet & Adam Cole, or Ricochet & AJ Sty-you know I think there might be a common thread here.

Hopefully, this will pay off the wonky finish we got at Extreme Rules, although even if it doesn’t I’m sure this match will still be great as long as we don’t get the same finish again. I’ve sung the praises of Styles as a heel for a while now, but I’m not entirely convinced this run has brought anything new to the table yet. I suppose it’s a bit too early to judge, but I’m not sure a lengthy US Title reign is something that he’d benefit from, at least not as much as Ricochet.

As it stands, I’m struggling to pick a winner. Ricochet only lost his title thanks to heel shenanigans and it wouldn’t be a good look for him to be shut out of the scene after such a short reign. Then again, Styles is still fairly fresh off of a heel turn and a second clean loss to Ricochet might not be the best move. Ultimately, I think both men stand to suffer fairly equally from a loss so I’m going to look at the other side of the coin and judge who I think would benefit more from the win, which I think is Ricochet.

Bayley(c) vs Ember Moon
(Smackdown Women’s Championship)

While I’m glad it’s not Charlotte Flair, what exactly has Ember Moon done (in kayfabe) to earn this title shot? She lost in pretty quick fashion to Sonya Deville not a month ago and yet she gets the title shot because Bayley said she fancied a fight with her? Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy we get to see this match, but it’s a little confusing.

The main problem I’ve had with Bayley’s title reign so far is that, apart from when she won it, she’s been a background character in all of her stories as champion so far. When she was fighting Alexa & Nikki the focus was almost entirely on those two and their friendship and aside from one promo the week of Stomping Grounds, it could’ve been anyone in the champion role and the story would’ve been exactly the same. This story with Ember so far is going a little way to resolving that problem, but I still don’t feel like Bayley as a character is getting a chance to shine through. I’m not sure who’s feet the blame should lay at for this (probably a little of all parties) but the fact still remains that Bayley just doesn’t feel like anyone special on TV right now.

With any luck, this match will have some good character moments in it (as well as having brilliant action) which will help out both women immensely but as much as I’d like to say otherwise, I can’t see Ember walking out of this one with the title. For one thing, creative has not invested nearly enough time or energy into her as a character or a wrestler to warrant a title win. On top of that, another Charlotte Flair title challenge seems just around the corner with a win over Trish Stratus coming like a freight train and at the end of the day, Bayley can recover from a loss to Charlotte a lot better than Ember ever could.

Becky Lynch(c) vs Natalya
(Raw Women’s Championship)
(Submission)

I’ll level with y’all, I really can’t stand Natalya as a wrestler.

All of her movements in the ring seem so clunky & unnatural and the way she talks makes her sound like a robot with the most threadbare understand of emotions and voice patterns. Then you consider the fact that the only reason she’s even got this title match in the first place is the fact that the show’s taking place in Canada AND pile on a stipulation that forces the match to focus heavily on smooth technical movements and you can imagine how unhappy I am about this.

I’m not going to instantly right it off though, Becky was able to get some half-decent matches out of the green as goose shit Lacey Evans after all, so she could do wonders with someone more experienced like Natalya, I’m just not optimistic about it is all.

Oh and Becky Lynch is going to win or I’m going to tear my hair out.

Kofi Kingston(c) vs Randy Orton
(WWE Championship)

Well, it’s 10 years later than we all wanted to see this, but it’s finally here.

I’m normally very much anti-Randy Orton, I think he’s quite a boring wrestlers and an even more boring champion, but in this instance, I’m totally down for this match. The story wrote itself and creatively executed it as well as we wanted them to, it’s been common knowledge for years that Orton killed Kofi’s initial push in 2009 so this match essentially brings Kofi’s entire WWE career up until this point full circle.

I’m not entirely sure about how good the match is actually going to be though, all of Kofi’s title defences have been ok, but not great and most of them were against opponents I enjoy watching, which as I mentioned before, Orton isn’t. That said, this match has the right kind of heat behind it and when Orton’s into a story he tends to put on some pretty good performances (just look at his match with AJ from Wrestlemania this year) so there is some hope.

Last month I said that Samoa Joe was the first opponent where it actually felt like Kofi might lose the title, but in hindsight that was a stupid thing to say and this is where Kofi’s title reign could realistically end. Orton’s always been a guy who could win the WWE Championship at any moment and with Smackdown’s move to FOX just around the corner WWE might want someone more widely recognised like Orton as champion. That said, this whole story has been about Orton holding Kofi down and saying he’s not ready, so I feel like WWE would be shooting themselves in the foot a bit if Orton wins. It’s a risky move, but I’m going to pick Kofi Kingston to retain this time.

Brock Lesnar(c) vs Seth Rollins
(Universal Championship)

Talk about missing an open goal.

This seemed like such an easy story for WWE to write. NO-ONE wants Lesnar to be champion anymore and Seth Rollins is one of the best wrestlers in all of WWE right now, so surely it would be so easy to get the fans behind Seth right? Well apparently not, because damn near everyone is hoping he’ll lose on Sunday, despite the alternative being Brock Lesnar disappearing with the title for another 6 months.

I get what they were trying to do on Monday with having being beaten down again and cutting that downbeat promo, but it was far too late and all you have to do is listen to the crowd’s reaction to see how flat it fell. All that said, hopefully, this match will be really good. Lesnar’s matches with the smaller guys are always brilliant and Seth Rollins is able to work a David & Goliath story with the best of them. The main reservation I have that’s stopping me getting too excited for it is Seth’s kayfabe injury, it makes me wonder if they’re going to lean too heavily on it for the story of the match because 15 minutes of Seth selling his ribs before a sudden comeback will be really boring.

If you’d have asked me who was going to win this match the night after Extreme Rules I would’ve said Seth without even thinking about it. Since his 2 minute win over Lesnar at Wrestlemania, I was confident this was where we were headed and I’d always known Seth was going to win, but now it’s really hard to judge. WWE is “desperately” trying to make Rollins cool and that says to me that they’re going to continue to push him as the face of the company, which would imply he wins here, but it’s hard to bet against Brock Lesnar retaining.

I’m sticking to my guns and picking Seth Rollins to win here and hopefully going into the autumn Rollins can have a whole bunch of great matches like his match against Styles earlier in the year to remind us exactly why we all got behind him in the first place.

So there are my predictions! Thank you very much for reading, let me know what you think is going to happen on Sunday either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. Make sure you check back here over the weekend as I’ll be posting my reviews of both Summerslam and NXT Takeover!

 

 

WWE Stomping Grounds 2019 Predictions & Analysis

There’s always one PPV between Wrestlemania and Summerslam that feels a bit…pointless, last year it was Extreme Rules and this year it’s Stomping Grounds. Almost every match on this show is either retreading old ground or clearly just a placeholder feud until we can get the big matches we all want at the biggest party of the summer.

Admittedly, compared to Super Showdown, this show will probably be amazing and just because we’ve seen a match before doesn’t mean it’ll be bad, but there isn’t a lot of intrigue to any of the matches and that often to leads to  a whole bunch of ok, but not great, wrestling matches; or bullshit finishes.

It also seems to make the results pretty predictable, so let’s predict so that we can all point and laugh at me when I turn out to be hilariously wrong.

Tony Nese(c) vs Akira Tozowa vs Drew Gulak
(Cruiserweight Championship)

Well here’s an interesting one.

For the first time in a long time, I’m actually quite excited by the build for this match. Nese has been saying he wants to fight Tozowa for ages, and Tozowa has really been killing it week to week on 205 Live, meanwhile Drew has completely revamped his character, becoming a much more broken and vicious man, finally getting rid of all the goofy campaigning stuff.

I find Triple Threat Matches are more consistently entertaining than Fatal 4 Ways. I think the fact that there are fewer people means you can focus in more on each of the individuals and tell a more coherent story, while still keeping in the lightning pace and out of nowhere excitement aspects of multi-man matches.

When Tony Nese won the title, I thought we’d be in for quite a long reign, as that’s generally what the Cruiserweight Championship is good at, but I honestly think his reigns already coming to an end. It’s a shame because I think there was a lot more for him to do with the title, but going into this match it really feels like this might finally be Drew Gulak‘s time. This new character he’s brought has some real intrigue to it, and there are enough faces on 205 Live now to sustain another heel reign without it feeling repetitious.

Daniel Bryan & Rowan(c) vs Heavy Machinery
(Smackdown Tag Team Championships)

Hopefully, Daniel Bryan can make something good of this.

I’ve never been the biggest Heavy Machinery fan, even in NXT I really didn’t think there was much entertaining behind them, the characters are quirky but in just the wrong way that I find them annoying and a lot of their powerful and good looking offence is hidden behind hokey crap; which come to think of it, is exactly what Daniel Bryan was saying about them on Smackdown this week.

With all that said, if any wrestler can work a match so good with them that it turns my opinion around, it’s Daniel Bryan, so I’m going to be quietly optimistic that this A) Doesn’t get bumped to the pre-show and B) Is actually fairly entertaining. I don’t think this is too hard of a match to pick a winner in though, Daniel Bryan & Rowan shouldn’t lose those titles anytime soon and it still feels too early for Heavy Machinery, thought this will hopefully help elevate them significantly.

The New Day vs Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn

A lot of these matches seem pointless, but this is here as pure filler.

It seems to me like, Owens’ refusal to go to Saudi Arabia and subsequent Dolph Ziggler replacement has messed up the pacing of the Owens vs Kofi stuff a bit. For the past month, it’s felt a lot like WWE are trying to build to another Owens vs Kofi match, but they’ve still got the Dolph Ziggler feud to get out of the way first, so this match was brought in as a bit of a proxy for this month.

That said, just because it’s filler doesn’t mean it won’t be good. New Day are still one of the best tag teams out there right now and Owens & Zayn are great competitors, I think the only problem this match will have is garnering crowd interest because there really isn’t a lot interesting behind this match.

Picking a winner in a match like this always feels a bit arbitrary, because ultimately no-one’s going to remember come next month, but if my theory is true that they’re building to another Kofi vs Owens match, then Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn have got to pick up some sort of cheap win here.

Samoa Joe(c) vs Ricochet
(United States Championship)

As far as replacements for Rey Mysterio go, I’d say they hit the nail on the head.

There’s not really a great deal of story to this match considering Ricochet only won the number 1 contendership on Monday, but this is the kind of match that doesn’t necessarily need a great deal of story to work. That said, I did find the fallout from what happened at Money in the Bank a bit weird. I get that Mysterio had to vacate the title due to injury, but I can’t remember a time when someone vacated a belt and just straight up handed it to somebody else, especially one of their rivals.

Either way, this match should be great. Joe’s great at working smaller guys and Ricochet seems to shine when wrestling the bigger guys too. As long as this match gets the time it deserves, I can see some great back and forth to this match, with both men trying to force the other to wrestle their pace to get the upper hand; I have high hopes for this one.

Interestingly, I could see this one going either way too. On the one hand it makes sense for Joe to retain, since this is a match with no build and he’s only just got the title back in the first place, but given that they had planned to take the title off of Joe at Money in the Bank and he only got it back into injury, maybe they’ll put it on Ricochet; like I said at the beginning, there really isn’t any better replacement for Mysterio. The main sticking point with me is that Joe is still the only heel singles champion in WWE right now, pair that with the fact that I think this card is going to have a lot of face wins in the big matches, I’m going to pick Samoa Joe here to even it out.

Roman Reigns vs Drew Mcintyre

I mentioned this in my review of Super Showdown, but the progression of this story makes no sense whatsoever.

Roman Reigns returned after his leukaemia scare, beat Drew Mcintyre & friends with The Shield, then beat Drew in a singles match at Wrestlemania. Roman then goes over to Smackdown – away from Drew – and ends up getting involved with Shane McMahon, and beats his toadie Elias, then thanks to the stupid Wild Card rule, Drew becomes another one of Shane’s toadies (which is also stupid, but if I picked apart every detail of this thing we’d be here all day), cost Roman his match against Shane, giving Shane McfuckingMahon a win over Roman Reigns and now in order to get revenge, Roman’s going to fight a guy he’s already beat.

It just doesn’t make any sense. For one thing, Drew shouldn’t be anyone’s toadie at this point, the dude’s got future world champion written all over him (it wouldn’t surprise me if this came before the end of the year) and this is honestly a waste of his time. Not to mention it’s a waste of time for Roman too and makes him look kinda weak since he’s not looking to get his win back from Shane.

If any match on this card is going to have some sort of non-finish it’ll be this one. Shane has been front and centre on both Raw and Smackdown for the past month and it wouldn’t surprise me if this match ended in a no contest so the segment can end with Shane standing tall, perhaps to set up a Roman vs Shane rematch. Failing that, Roman Reigns will hopefully win and both men can go away and do more interesting things.

Becky Lynch(c) vs Lacey Evans
(Raw Women’s Championship)

Kind of ironic that the background for these matches is a desolate wasteland.

I just don’t understand why, coming out of all the excitement that happened at Money in the Bank, THIS is the match they want to go with for Becky. I get there’s some justification for it since Lacey cost Becky the Smackdown title, but A) Shouldn’t Becky want the Smackdown title more than petty revenge, and B) Becky already beat Lacey clean as a whistle at Money in the Bank, Lacey shouldn’t have any ground when it comes to demanding a rematch.

Nevertheless here we are and I’m really not sure how good this one can be. Their match at Money in the Bank was fine, but Lacey’s lack of experience was on full display and I’m not sure if there’s any new direction this match could go in. As long as there are no shenanigans I’m sure it’ll be perfectly fine, and hopefully, these two have a bit better chemistry in the ring now, but I can’t see it being anything special.

I don’t think the result of this one is up for debate, Becky Lynch needs to retain so she can go and fulfil all of the other – more interesting – possibilities that were laid forth after Money in the Bank.

Bayley(c) vs Alexa Bliss
(Smackdown Women’s Championship)

All it has to be is better than their first feud, which is a low bar if I ever saw one.

I’m not entirely sure what possessed WWE creative to relive one of the worst feuds in recent memory, but the character dynamics have shifted a bit since then, so hopefully, this will be better this time around. That said, the week to week stuff hasn’t been all that amazing, Bayley’s got a new mean streak which is great for her character, but Alexa’s mostly still the same spoiled brat she always was, and as much as I like Alexa, it’s starting to get stale.

In terms of in-ring quality, this could be one of the better matches of the night. Alexa is good enough to put on great matches with the right opponent, and hopefully, Bayley is more reinvigorated than ever when it comes to competing thanks to this new lease of life she’s been given. It could very well end up being boring, but I’m choosing to remain optimistic about this one because I don’t have much else on this show to be hopeful about.

Alexa’s one of those competitors that WWE might decide they want to put the title on at random a lot of the time, which makes me a little bit nervous about this one, but I think there are a couple of factors going against her. Firstly, there’s the fact that her medical condition is currently in a lot of question, it seems like she’s fine for the most part, but given she was pulled out of Money in the Bank last month, I’m not sure management would be comfortable with the title on someone who might have to drop out at any moment. The other is the fact that it’s Bayley’s first major title defence and a loss here would undo all of the goodwill that’s been built up around her, so I’m going with Bayley on this one.

Kofi Kingston(c) vs Dolph Ziggler
(WWE Championship)
(Steel Cage)

Why have Dolph Ziggler fight for the title if you’re going to make him seem like the world’s biggest afterthought?

Seriously, WWE are even treating Ziggler like he hasn’t even got a whelps chance in a supernova of winning this match on Sunday, they’re already looking past him to a rematch with Owens and outside of a couple of pointless wins over Xavier Woods and in tag team matches, it doesn’t seem like he’s got any sort of momentum whatsoever. As I imagined, all of the potentially interesting storyline scenarios I proposed coming out of Super Showdown didn’t come to pass, instead, they’ve just gone with the idea that Ziggler’s a sore loser, even though he totally is justified in feeling screwed.

I don’t know how good this match could be, their contest at Super Showdown wasn’t anything all that great, but the Saudi Arabia matches always tend to be worse, maybe because of jetlag, or maybe because of low morale so I think there’s still a chance this one could be good. I’m also not usually big on Steel Cage matches, but the one between Shane and Miz at Money in the Bank was surprisingly entertaining so I’m going to keep my hopes up for this one.

Like I said in my opening paragraph, there’s no way Ziggler’s winning this. I’m sure there will be some shenanigans on the outside of the cage between New Day and Zayn & Owens, but at the end of the day, Kofi Kingston is going to come away with the win on this one.

Seth Rollins(c) vs Baron Corbin
(Universal Championship)
(Special Guest Referee TBA)

We go from a heel who is completely justified in wanting a rematch, to one who really doesn’t deserve one in the slightest.

There’s no real way to slice it when you look at what happened, Corbin has no justification in getting this rematch, Rollins would’ve got that rollup if the ref had a go at him or not, he was still looking away from Seth, and we all know Corbin’s #1 weakness is rollups. Moreso than that, he’s been given the opportunity to pick his own referee, for some very vaguely defined reason, so we’ve got to deal with all this bullshit as well.

The match between these two at Super Showdown was certainly the best of the night, but that was mostly by default and while it was fun, it wasn’t on the level of what we’ve come to expect from Seth Rollins’ title matches in recent years. Not to mention, any hope I really had for this being a good match has been dashed with the promise of a special guest referee, which will no doubt lead to endless shenanigans and some sort of dirty finish. I’m really not sure who it’s going to be, but the current rumour is Brock Lesnar, which I guess would make sense and was subtly teased in the final moments of Tuesday’s Smackdown.

If that’s the case, and Lesnar is the referee, then I entirely expect this match to end in a No Contest, Brock will let them go until he gets bored, at which point he will lay both guys out and either leave or cash in his Money in the Bank contract to grab the title from Seth. That said, if it’s not Lesnar then Seth Rollins will win, probably because Corbin will end up arguing with whoever he picks and that will yet again cost him the match.

So that’s it! Those are my predictions for Stomping Grounds 2019, let me know what you think in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo, and check back here early next week for my review of the show!

WWE Elimination Chamber 2019: Every Match Ranked

Another good one! Which means WWE is already doing better than they do at the start of most years in terms of good shows.

I don’t know if I just wasn’t expecting very much, or it really was that good but coming away from this show I found myself really surprised at how good it was. Both of the gimmick matches delivered and most of the mid-card was really entertaining too. It’s the kind of thing you don’t really expect from a February PPV, but here we are.

It wasn’t all brilliant though, so let’s take a look as I rank every match from Elimination Chamber 2019.

7 – Baron Corbin def. Braun Strowman
(No Disqualification)

As much as I liked this show, it is kind of weird how it turned into Raw for 45 minutes before the main event.

I moaned in my predictions about how we’re already back to the same old crap despite being told by WWE that times are changing, and that was very clearly on display here.

I get that there’s some poetic justice to Braun having done to him what was done to Corbin at TLC, but this feud has been the most boring part of Raw since Crown Jewel and needlessly extending it like seems like a horrible choice; especially considering Braun will likely get his win back on Raw. I also don’t quite understand why Lashley cares about any of this. He’s just lost IC title and outside of a meaningless 6 man tag match on Raw, he hasn’t been aligned with Corbin since last November.

If this is going to lead to Drew vs Braun at Mania then I guess this will be worth it, but we’ve still got a whole other PPV to go before then, and I really can’t be bothered to watch this every single week for another month.

6 – Ronda Rousey(c) def. Ruby Riott
(Raw Women’s Championship)

Admittedly the real story here is everything that happened after the match, but the actual match is what gets ranked here, and it wasn’t long enough to go any higher.

I get that Ruby Riott was only intended as cannon fodder for Rousey and was never going to win, but couldn’t you have at least tried to make her look good? Rousey’s really good at getting the best out of her opponent and I really think these two could’ve put on a solid match if they’d been given the chance.

Instead, the armbar was on pretty much instantly and Ruby tapped just as quick, and before the camera even had the chance to cut away Ruby was walking to the back. Everything that happened after that point was pretty good, not quite as good as what had been going on between these ladies on Raw the past few weeks, but still pretty good. I just feel that if this was always your goal, then instead advertise a “face to face” between Rousey and Charlotte, then have Becky show up during that instead of having Ruby Riott look like a chump.

5 – Buddy Murphey(c) def. Akira Tozowa
(Cruiserweight Championship)

This match was good, but I don’t really have a lot to say about it.

That’s the problem with these matches being the pre-show really, you can only watch so many before you run out of things to say about them. Like I said this match was good with a lot of fun stuff in it, but there aren’t any headlines outside of “Buddy Murphey retains”.

Especially on this show, which ended about 15 minutes early, you could’ve quite easily put this on the main show, and some throwaway tag team match like Rusev & Nakamura vs The Club on the pre-show instead. I know that’s not the best solution, but at least it makes more sense than constantly putting these amazing wrestlers (and an entire division) on the pre-show despite often putting on some of the best matches of the night.

4 – Finn Balor def. Bobby Lashley(c) & Lio Rush
(2 on 1 Handicap)
(Intercontinental Championship)

Well, colour me surprised.

I know the way this went down seems fairly obvious in hindsight, but I was really certain Balor wouldn’t be picking up the title here, not that I’m complaining. The match itself was nothing special, but watching it actually felt quite exciting, which was probably helped by the crowd being red hot throughout the entire show last night.

As much as Lio Rush being called the weak link isn’t great considering his talent, it makes story sense that he’s the reason Lashley lost the IC title. I imagine we’ll get a one on one match where Balor retains clean at some point before Mania anyway, but this is certainly a good first step in the story.

I’m also kind of looking forward to seeing a Lashley vs Rush match since I imagine Rush’s unique style of offence will bounce well off of Bobby’s fairly generic hoss style. So actually, this move seemed to be quite a good one that will likely lead to lots of interesting stuff.

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

Yet another surprising title change! I’m starting to understand why I feel so good about this show.

I’ve bitched and moaned about the Shane and Miz tag team since day one, but I have to admit both of their Tag Title matches have been really quite entertaining to watch. Shane’s shock value stuff doesn’t really flow all that well in a singles match, in a tag team match where it can be broken up by everything the other three guys in the match can do.

This match also was able to tell a pretty good story of chemistry in a tag team, with the Usos often being able to outmanoeuvre Shane and Miz just by knowing each other way better. This also came into the finish where The Miz lost the match for his team and seemingly took it upon himself that he lost. Surprisingly it seems like there’s a lot more mileage to get out of this story and – I can’t believe I’m saying this – but I’m really looking forward to seeing what these two do on Tuesday.

Also, the titles being back on The Usos is just generally a great thing for whoever they end up facing next.

2 – Sasha Banks & Bayley def. Absolution, Nia Jax & Tamania, The Riott Squad, The IIconics, Naomi & Carmella
(Elimination Chamber)
(Women’s Tag Team Championships)

As much as I liked both Chamber matches, they were very much in two halves.

This first match had a little bit of everything throughout it. Sasha & Bayley starting off against Absolution turned out to be a pretty good combination, as the teams bounced well off each other, despite having very little experience wrestling each other in the past. As the match moved on everyone got their licks in, the best of which was – as you’d expect – The IIconics doing everything they do best.

The action picked up properly once Naomi and Carmella made their entrance and it didn’t really slow down from that point, with lots of quick action and eliminations and actual intelligence from the wrestlers in the match and all teaming up on the massive threats in Nia and Tamina.

The last 5 minutes or so genuinely had me on the edge of my seat, Nia and Tamina getting eliminated before the final two was a huge shock, and the remaining women put on such an exciting contest for the rest of the match. The drama and tension build up perfectly as both teams went back and forth, to point where they were actually able to create a moment where I genuinely thought Absolution were about to win after Sonya laid Bayley out and Mandy planted Sasha.

Eventually though, Sasha and Bayley would come out victorious and the emotion in that moment was quite heavy. The post-match interview felt genuine and heartwarming and hearing Beth Phoenix start to tear up on commentary hit me in just the right way. What a brilliant moment to kick the show off with and hopefully this will lead to something fantastic in the coming months.

1 – Daniel Bryan(c) def. Kofi Kingston, Randy Orton, AJ Styles, Jeff Hardy, Samoa Joe
(Elimination Chamber)
(WWE Championship)

Who would’ve thought that in 2019 Kofi Kingston would’ve been the most popular star on Smackdown?

This match is more obviously split into two halves than the women’s one. There was everything before the final two, and the final two of Bryan and Kofi facing off.

The first half was good, but nothing special. There were some fun highlights like AJ hitting a Phenomenal Forearm out of nowhere to eliminate Joe, followed up by a rather heavily telegraphed RKO to eliminate AJ. Not entirely sure what the point of Jeff Hardy being in there was, considering he was around for roughly 6 seconds before being eliminated by Daniel Bryan.

However, none of that really mattered by the end as Bryan and Kofi absolutely stole the show in this match. The constant back and forth that lasted for a whopping twelve minutes at the end of this match was absolutely fantastic with some brilliantly edge-of-your-seat moments. I’ve never heard a reaction quite like the one we got when Kofi kicked out of the first Running Knee, every single person in the arena was expecting the ref’s hand to hit three there and it got almost a collective gasp when Kofi kicked out.

Going into the match there was no doubt in my mind Bryan was walking out as champion, but during those final 12 minutes, I  genuinely had no idea who was going to win, and every finisher and kickout was perfectly timed. It’s these nail-biting moments that make you feel like a fan again, sure I could’ve thrown a hissy fit over there being a ropebreak in an Elimination Chamber match, but I didn’t want to, because what we were seeing was so good that why would I want to be miserable about it?

This is what Daniel Bryan being WWE Champion is amazing for, that man can elevate anyone he wrestles to a top tier competitor, of course, Kofi has to be given plenty of credit, but you’ve got to give some to Bryan too for making us all fall back in love with Kofi like we have. If we’re not going to get Bryan vs Kofi at Mania then I at least hope we get it at Fastlane, because giving these two a full 20-30 minutes could create one of the best matches of the year.

So there you have it! That’s my review of every match that took place at Elimination Chamber 2019. I really hope WWE can keep this good momentum going into the next couple months to create some really awesome moment on their shows in the first half of the year.

As always, thank you very much for taking the time out to read this, I’d appreciate it if you were to share this around on all your favourite social media sites, and of course, follow me on Twitter @10ryawoo for updates and the chance to be notified as soon as an article is posted!