Tag: Daniel Bryan

WWE Wrestlemania 35: Every Match Ranked

Well! That sure was something. It did get exhausting at points, but I really enjoyed this Wrestlemania, it didn’t have any of those deflating losses that draw down a lot of other Manias of late and I think it was structured in just the right way to make it very hard to get bored.

Not everything was great of course, but coming away from the show I feel that the bad was heavily outweighed by the good, and this was certainly the best Wrestlemania we’ve had since 31 as far as I’m concerned.

“But Ryan”, I hear you ask, “Where can we find an arbitrary and subjective ranking of all sixteen matches on the card?” What an oddly specific question, however, you’re in luck, as that’s exactly what I have for you right here, let’s get into it, shall we?

16 – Triple H def. Batista
(No Holds Barred)

I don’t think this is going to surprise anyone, is it?

I’ve said it so many times before, so I’m not going into detail on it again, but a slow-paced weapons based match with nothing but high spot after high spot is my least favourite kind of match, and that’s exactly what this match was.

There were a couple of cool looking spots, like Triple H pulling out Batista’s nose ring with some tweezers and a good old fashioned table break, but there was a whole lot of nothing between all of it. Batista ended up getting in very little offence, and the one time he did get close to win, there was absolutely no drama in it because there was no chance Triple H was losing this one.

I don’t think anyone was expecting anything that great from this match, which is good because we didn’t get it, (aside from a ridiculously over the top Triple H entrance of course). By the same token though, nothing stupid or nonsensical happened during the match, so I guess that’s a good thing that this is a bad as it got.

15 – Baron Corbin def. Kurt Angle
(Kurt Angle’s Final Match)

I told you so.

This match was fairly similar to Triple H vs Batista in that it was fairly slow and boring, except I enjoyed this just a little bit more, since there was actually some decent back and forth between the two men, and they aren’t just ambling about trying to set up a spot that ends up not looking all that impressive.

I know people are going to be pissed off about it, but like I said in my predictions I think Corbin winning was the right choice. No-one would’ve benefitted in any way from Angle winning, and while I doubt anything big is on the horizon for Corbin, at least he’s going to be on Raw every Monday for the next while and stands a chance of getting something out of winning.

Not to mention, it’s not like this has sullied Angle’s legacy. For one thing, if anything had done that is was the awful matches he’s been having on Raw and Smackdown for the past month, and for another, when people think back on Angle’s career, they’re not going to be thinking about this match. They’ll be thinking about all the awesome stuff he did from ’99 through ’06, and losing to a dude in a dress shirt isn’t going to spoil that.

…much.

14 – Braun Strowman wins the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal
(Kickoff Show)

Thank God for that.

While I’m happy about the result, this may have been the most boring ARMBAR to date, and that includes the one where the final two were Jinder and Mojo. Several people were eliminated within seconds of the bell ringing, no-one really got much of a chance to show off their stuff aside from Braun and the comedy stuff wasn’t all that funny.

Andrade eliminating himself has got to be one of the worst eliminations in the history of the ARMBAR and doesn’t protect him, it makes him look like a total idiot. I’ll admit I laughed when one of the SNL guys (don’t know his name, don’t care enough to look it up) brought out his “therapist”, but everything after that was super predictable, and I never really found myself actually enjoying what I was watching.

13 – Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins def. The Revival(c)
(Raw Tag Team Championships)
(Kickoff Show)

Oh for fu-

I’m trying not to hold the result against this match too hard, but seriously? If WWE are still trying to convince The Revival to stay they’re doing an awful job of it, having them lose to a guy who’s the whole gimmick is that he always loses is the kind of pit I never thought I’d see The Revival in, but here we are. Even if they win the titles back on Raw, it doesn’t matter, the damage is done.

The match was fine but didn’t really have much excitement to it, The Revival very much wrestled like they knew they were going to lose and decided they didn’t give a shit anymore. It was still solid but lacked the polish that we’ve come to expect from The Revival, and even Ryder seemed like he was phoning it in a little bit.

The finish was fine (and honestly, the only finish this match ever could’ve had), but it didn’t really surprise me, it just caused me to sigh. It wasn’t anything awful but was exactly the kind of match you think of when you think “pre-show tag match”, so it wasn’t anything great either.

12 – Samoa Joe(c) def. Rey Mysterio
(United States Championship)

Finally.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved the result of this match, but given that it went under a minute, it’s hard to put it any higher up.

Samoa Joe winning was absolutely the right result, the United States Championship needs a dominant champion like Joe to pull it out of the ditch it’s been in for the past year, and this was the perfect start. If you ask me, have him squash guys while defending the title week in and week out on Smackdown, while having slightly longer matches on PPVs, and that US title will have it’s prestige back in no time.

As for the match itself, it’s understandable that it went this short, since the number of matches required at least one or two to be squashes, and Rey’s recent injury may have made it a necessity, but I hope we get a full-length match later down the line, because I think it could be really good.

11 – Roman Reigns def. Drew Mcintyre

WWE just doesn’t seem to understand Drew’s strengths.

Drew is the kind of guy that is best when he’s running around murdering dudes and a breakneck pace, this match should’ve been somewhat in the style of Lesnar vs Goldberg from a couple of years ago, where it’s about 10 minutes of them going back and forth hitting each other with big hard-hitting moves until one of them couldn’t stand anymore.

Instead, we had Drew holding Reigns to the mat and “wearing him down” for the whole thing until it was time for Reigns to make his comeback. It had just enough to keep me somewhat engaged, with some tense spots on the ropes and some well-timed kick outs which Reigns is great at, but I feel it could’ve been so much more.

I was somewhat surprised that Reigns got a pretty mixed reaction on his entrance after how he’s been in recent months. Maybe it was just casual fans who don’t know what’s been going on and still think booing Reigns is the default, but really I think it’s time that we just cheer the guy. I get you’d rather see other guys get the spots he does, but he’s a pretty good wrestler these days and by all accounts, he’s an amazing person in real life, so let’s just stop relentlessly booing him for no reason now, yeah?

I’m sure my words have fallen on deaf ears, but I tried.

10 – The IIconics def. Sasha Banks & Bayley(c), Nia Jax & Tamina, Natalya & Beth Phoenix
(Women’s Tag Team Championships)

IIIIIIIIIIIIIICONIC!

Have your Kofimanias and Becky chants all you want, this is the win that made me the happiest all night.  The IIconics are just so entertaining at what they do and are up there with the best in terms of wrestling ability so I’m over the moon to see them get these spots, hopefully, this reign lasts more than 2 days.

That said, the match itself was fairly underwhelming, maybe it was because we’d already had a very good 4 way tag match on the show, or maybe it’s hard to make an exciting match when 75% of the participants aren’t known for high spots or taking risks, but something about this just didn’t click for me. It thought everything was fairly standard and vanilla, with the match moving at a fairly predictable pace, and attempts at bigger spots leading more to confusion than anything else.

The only thing I really enjoyed about it was the way in which The IIconics one, taking advantage of being the right place at the right time and nothing more. Granted, 4 ways tend to have a base level of excitement that they will always be (hence why this match is as high as it is), but it really didn’t do much to go beyond it.

The IIconics won though, so who cares how good the match was?

9 – Finn Balor def. Bobby Lashley(c)
(Intercontinental Championship)

Demon Finn needs more Wrestlemania entrances because that looked cool as fuck.

This match was just a glorified squash, so I can’t put it too high, but I think it was much more entertaining than the US title squash earlier in the night. This had a small about of back and forth to keep the momentum of the match going for the full 4 minutes, and it also had some pretty impressive spots to boot.

Lashley’s apron spear looked brutal, and I wish more of his offence was in that style because he could be a really entertaining wrestler if he did that more often. On the flip side, we saw a rare display of power from Finn Balor because that Powerbomb to Lashley was such a good feat of strength. Things like that are what you need to give The Demon more mystique because that really made it feel like Finn is stronger when he’s the Demon.

Once again though, I really don’t want to see this match anymore. This is clearly as good as it’s ever going to get, now it’s time to let Finn run and have great matches with everyone on whichever show he lands on post-shakeup.

8 – Tony Nese def. Buddy Murphey(c)
(Cruiserweight Championship)
(Kickoff Show)

So not only are they forced onto the kickoff show, they’re forced to open the kickoff show when there’s all of about 26 in the arena, great.

Ultimately, I think the middle of the list is the best place for this match, because while it didn’t have anything amazing in it, it was an extremely solid match, with several enjoyable moments throughout. Nese’s baseball slide to the outside, where he took Murphey’s legs out from under him at the same time was a very satisfying thing to watch, and generally the chemistry the two of them had made for a match that I had no problems sitting through.

Nese winning was actually quite the surprise to me, mostly it’s my own fault for not knowing what Nese’s finisher looked like, but also I didn’t really expect him to win, I always got the feeling that WWE loves Buddy Murphy (because he’s great) and that this thing was gonna last a little while longer, however I can’t argue with the decision and I do now wanna watch 205 Live this week to see where this all goes next; so it’s mission accomplished really.

7 – Carmella won the Women’s Wrestlemania Battle Royal

Well, this was a surprise.

Not so much the result, but the fact that the match was actually pretty damn enjoyable, it really seemed like everything was working against it. It has Asuka being dumped in it after losing her title, Lacey Evans not even being in the thing, and all of 16 competitors it really seemed like this thing was doomed to suck.

It wasn’t anything special to start off with, but once the field cleared a bit and we were down to a few competitors, things got pretty fun. There were many of the battle royal spots we’ve come to expect, and I really liked that they gave both Sonya Deville and Sarah Logan some time to shine because I think they’re both wonderful people, and damn good wrestlers to boot.

Surprisingly, because of the way it went down, I don’t actually have a problem with Asuka not winning. I’d rather it was Sarah Logan than Carmella sure and it seemed they’d already forgotten about that win by the time she showed up later on in the night, but the match itself was a nice little bit of fun on the pre-show, which is really what the pre-show matches should be for.

6 – AJ Styles def. Randy Orton

Well, that was pretty much exactly what I expected it to be.

I don’t have any complaints about this match, it wasn’t anything super exciting, but everything was perfectly solid the whole way through. It was slow enough to cool down the crowd after the excitement of the opening, but not so slow as to be boring, and it was just a really well-rounded match with 15 minutes of perfectly enjoyable wrestling. We even got an RKO kick out, which hasn’t happened in what feels like years.

I think its place on the card has got a lot to do with it. If this match had happened in 6th or 7th hour, then I imagine I would’ve crapped all over it for being boring but as it is, it got a really good spot on the card and made the most of it, so I really don’t have anything to complain about.

I think AJ was the right choice in winner too, granted I don’t think either man is going to be doing anything major right after Mania – they’ll probably both be in Money in the Bank but I doubt either of them will win it –  but AJ has been losing a lot since losing the WWE Championship to Daniel Bryan, so this was the best way I can think of for AJ to re-establish himself to hopefully have a solid mini-feud with whoever gets called up on Tuesday evening, which should be fun.

5 – Shane Mcmahon def. The Miz
(Falls Count Anywhere)

How does Shane keep doing this?

Seriously, I don’t understand it, by all rights a singles match involving a 49-year-old Shane Mcmahon at Wrestlemania should be awful, but with the exception of his Undertaker match, they’ve all been rather good year in and year out. This year’s match relied a little more on spectacle than the past couple, but I think that was more to the matches benefit than anything else. It started out a bit plodding, but once business started to pick up, I found myself enjoying it quite a lot.

George Mizanin will forever be a meme that will go down in wrestling history, alongside that little girl who hates The Miz and anytime Brock Lesnar pulls a roided out face. Once that was out of the way though, I actually quite liked the slower, more hard-hitting pace that this match had; it had the same style as Triple H vs Batista, but it felt to me like everything flowed better and the match was never at a standstill while we were waiting for a spot to be set up. On top of that, the actual spots themselves looked much more impressive, the finish is the obvious one, but the spot where Miz smashed Shane in the face and he went sailing over the railing onto the floor below looked so painful and was really satisfying to watch.

Normally I’d be furious that Shane won, but the way the finish played out in this match meant it made total sense. Total, random luck is the only way Shane should ever win a match where he’s not being helped and the fact that Miz did what he did instead of playing it safe is both a brilliant illustration of how this face turn has changed his character (as heel Miz would often tout the merits of how safe his wrestling style was) and added an extra layer of intensity to the feud, since it really felt like Miz was putting hurting Shane in front of winning the match.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but after watching this match, I really hope this feud isn’t over, I want to see more out of this.

4 – The Usos(c) def. Aleister Black & Ricochet, The Bar, Rusev & Shinsuke Nakamura
(Smackdown Tag Team Championships)

The flipside of the 4 way tag matches on this show,  we got a much better one when the men went at it.

Generally, I think this match was structured a lot better than the women’s one, with a feeling out process at the start before we jumped it all descended into total chaos, it gave the match a natural progression, instead of immediately becoming a clusterfuck.

Once things did start to breakdown though, the action was generally just much more entertaining to watch, with everyone getting a chance to shine as chaos reigned. The Bar continues to be one of the best tag teams out there, as they went absolutely mental spinning Ricochet exactly 42 trillion times and Sheamus turning Black’s ribcage to dust. Black & Ricochet got a whole bunch of stuff scattered through the whole match, as one of them was the legal man for very nearly the whole thing, and when everyone was hitting their finishers at the end I was having an absolute blast.

I wouldn’t have chosen The Usos to retain if I were making the decisions, but it’s definitely not a bad choice, The Usos have lowkey been the best tag team in the world for a couple of years now, and letting them have brilliant matches for the titles month after month will be a great way to showcase that fact, so bring it on I say.

3 – Seth Rollins def. Brock Lesnar(c)
(Universal Championship)

You have no idea how happy I am that I get to type that header because I was so worried.

Despite making Seth my prediction, the closer and closer it got to the show the more convinced I was that Brock was going to retain, so when Heyman came out and declared that Seth vs Brock would be opening show, it was music to my ears.

It was exactly what it needed to be too, don’t get me wrong, I’m sure an extended match would’ve been great, but this got me twice as excited in a quarter the time and I loved it. Everything from the post-match beatdown to the low blow, to the triple Curb Stomp, was booked to absolute perfection, and the only reason it’s not number 1 is because it only lasted 2 minutes.

I would’ve been annoyed that Seth won because of a low blow, but A) It’s Brock Lesnar, he’s taken a low blow in almost every match for the past few years and won anyway, and B) Brock took the first cheap shot by attacking Seth before the bell, so the low blow felt more like karmic justice than Seth cheating.

Hopefully, Brock shows up on Raw, F-5’s everything that moves and then disappears off to get destroyed by Daniel Cormier while Seth puts on match of the year candidates with absolutely everyone while defending that title.

I couldn’t think of a more perfect way to open the show if I tried, and Seth Rollins once again manages to create one my all-time favourite wrestling moments, A freaking plus.

2 – Becky Lynch def. Ronda Rousey(c), Charlotte Flair(c)
(Raw Women’s Championship)
(Smackdown Women’s Championship)

Well, that sure was eventful.

People around the internet seem to be having pretty mixed reactions to this match, some say it was a massive disappointment that is the result of awful booking, while others say that it was an enjoyable match that was dragged down by everyone watching being exhausted and a slightly botched finish. I fall into the second camp.

Sure, this match wasn’t quite what it was hyped up to be, but it was still a great match that I had plenty of fun watching. It is worth mentioning the length of the show though, as much as it doesn’t bother me I am admittedly in the minority there as it was clear that the crowd were just too exhausted by hour 7 that there was no way they were ever going to be able to give this the reaction it deserved.

That said, WWE didn’t exactly help them to get excited. If the match had gotten an extra five minutes or so, they could’ve spent some time building up to a big climactic finish, and the crowd would’ve sensed that and reacted to it. Instead, we got a sudden roll-up win that was ever so slightly botched by Rousey making it look like it wasn’t the planned finished (the current report from Meltzer is that it was the planned finish, but Rousey lifted her shoulders when she wasn’t supposed to).

However, focusing on the positives, there was a lot to like in this match. For one thing, it really did have that big fight feel and spectacle that you’d expect from the main event of Wrestlemania, and when they were staring each other down at the start I really could feel the excitement in the air. There was also plenty of great psychology throughout the whole thing, with Becky and Ronda constantly going for the arms of their opponents while Charlotte spent an extended period of time working over Ronda’s leg which was great.

The table spot looked quite brutal if you ask me, and was in fact enhanced by the fact that the table didn’t break as it gave it what felt like a harder impact. Becky and Ronda staring down before the final exchange was a great moment too, and it did genuinely feel like the climax to this almost year-long story.

Would’ve I have liked it to be a bit different? Absolutely, that’s mainly why I’ve dropped it to second, but am I upset by what we got? Not in the slightest, I thought that this was a really good end to one of the better Wrestlemanias of the modern era, that said, it wasn’t the pinnacle of the night…

1 – Kofi Kingston def. Daniel Bryan(c)
(WWE Championship)

Come on, was it ever going to be anything else?

You take a competitor as hungry for success as Kofi, a story that was built organically by the fan’s love for Kofi, a heel champion as hated as Daniel Bryan, and a WWE Champion that does everything he can in the ring to make his opponent look amazing and also happens to be one of the best wrestlers in the world, and this match is exactly what you’d expect the result to look like.

This match took the fundamentals of a WWE world championship match and performed them to perfection. There was a constant back and forth between the two men, and they were constantly speeding up and slowing down the pace of the match as it was necessary for that moment in the story, because the story is exactly what this match was all about.

The idea of Kofi’s struggle was central to this entire performance, with Bryan constantly there to beat Kofi down time and time again just like he had been week after week since Elimination Chamber. That moment when Bryan was stomping on Kofi’s face only for Kofi to do the same thing to Bryan minutes later is perhaps the best way to illustrate this. Every single move in the match seemed to feed back into the story, building the emotional weight constantly until it was all able to come out at the finish.

Speaking of the finish, man what an emotional moment, after watching Kofi overcome every struggle that was thrown his way for his whole life in order to finally reach the pinnacle of his career and watching Big E and Woods be able to celebrate with him was just magical. I’m stealing this quote from many many people online, but this is why we put up with all the shit in WWE because when a story like this comes together in just the right way, it’s something truly unrivalled in terms of emotion and entertainment.

Even if Kofi loses the title on Tuesday it wouldn’t matter, because this is a moment that will forever stand in the history of Wrestlemania, and that’s something very few people will ever achieve.

So that was Wrestlemania 35! Overall I think it was a really enjoyable show, probably my favourite since 31, so I’m feeling very satisfied with all the wrestling over this past weekend indeed. As always thank you very much for taking the time to read an article as long as this one and please share it around on social media if you enjoyed. Follow me on Twitter @10ryawoo for live thoughts of wrestling and check back here every week for new opinions on both gaming and wrestling. I’ll see you soon.

WWE Wrestlemania 35 Predictions & Analysis

It’s finally time, the road this year seems to have felt longer than ever, but we’re just 48 short hours away from Wrestlemania 35. Much like last year, this card, on paper, has the potential to be one of the best Wrestlemanias of all time, although we all know how that turned out last year…

Almost every single match has the potential to be fun and memorable, and there will almost certainly be moments on this show that get played in the highlight packages for years to come.

However, tradition must still hold, and it is that time once again, to break down all 16 (SIXTEEN!) matches that are scheduled to take place on Sunday, and predict a winner for each one. So here goes, starting with…

Women’s Wrestlemania Battle Royal

I’m sure this one will be well thought out and planned considering it was announced a whopping 9 days before the show and on Twitter, not TV.

WWE seemed to skip the idea that this battle royal would actually mean something last year, handing the win to Naomi and proceeding to do precisely nothing with her for the whole year, so I’m sure we can expect just as important things from this winner’s.

If you’re trying to pick a winner, I think just picking a woman based off of a random number generator might be more effective than trying to break down and analyse it. The most obvious pick seems to be Asuka since, until Tuesday morning, she was meant to be defending her Smackdown Women’s championship on the show. That being said, I could quite easily see them bringing someone up from NXT and use this as a platform for them, Shayna Baszler, Kairi Sane or even Bianca Belair could be good candidates for that.

It’s hard to pick any of the NXT women though since we won’t know if they’re even participating in the match until it starts, so I’m going to go with the safe pick here and say Asuka will win.

Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal

Oh, who cares?

I know the ARMBAR hasn’t exactly been the most prestigious match over the past few years, but this year it seems especially pointless. Partly because until the go-home Raw, Braun and the SNL hosts are the only men who have declared their entry, but also because it means that literally only one of those two can possibly win.

If anything someone completely out of left field winning here would be the worst thing that could possibly happen, because it means you’ve sacrificed your only story of consequence in the match for, I dunno, Shelton Benjamin or someone.

I don’t think I’m going to surprise anyone by picking Braun Strowman here, hopefully, he’ll just toss all 30 men out at once and we can not waste too much time with this crap.

Buddy Murphy(c) vs Tony Nese
(Cruiserweight Championship)
(Kickoff Match)

Please put this on the main show.

Bump the IC title to the pre-show for all I care, I don’t really give a crap about that match, just find a way to get this match onto your 6+ hour main show, please. Buddy Murphy is one of the best damn wrestlers in the company, and whenever he’s been given the chance to shine on a big stage (such as Super Show Down or Survivor Series) he’s blown it away.

While admittedly Nese isn’t on the level of Ali for Murphy’s opponent, the story is definitely there, and he’s certainly a top-level performer on 205 Live. That said, I don’t think he’s going to win the championship. Murphy’s one of those champions where he’s at the point now where I always feel like he’s going to retain, whether the story needs it or not, I can see him holding that Cruiserweight title for a long time, and a big win in a great match here will arguably solidify him as the best cruiserweight champion to date.

This is another one where I’m not particularly confident because I can kinda feel the face win here, but I’m sticking to my guns and picking Buddy Murphy to walk out victorious in this one.

The Revival(c) vs Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins
(Raw Tag Team Championships)

No. Please WWE. Don’t do it.

The Revival have been putting on some of their best matches since coming to main roster since winning those tag titles (even if they are a mere shadow of their NXT performances) and I swear to the lord on high, if you have them lose Curt Hawkins, whose whole gimmick is that he’s literally never won a match, I will…write a very angry paragraph in my review…ok maybe that’s not the best threat in the world, but the point still stands.

This match is either going to be used as fodder for the pre-show or something for the piss-break in between the two main events, either way, it’s probably going to be short and underwhelming. WWE seems pretty keen on making sure The Revival stick around long enough to sign a new contract, so I imagine they’re going to be keeping the belts until a little bit after that, so I’m expecting them to retain in this one in pretty short order.

The Usos(c) vs Aleister Black & Ricochet vs The Bar vs Rusev & Shinsuke Nakamura
(Smackdown Tag Team Championships)

It’s annoying how the last-minute matches are always the hardest to predict.

After spending a couple of weeks teasing an Usos vs Hardys match, the Smackdown Tag Title scene went quiet for a few weeks and I’d honestly assumed it had just been cut for time, but all of a sudden on Smackdown we just get this clusterfuck of a match announced.

It wouldn’t surprise me if this got bumped to the pre-show at some point before the show starts since we’ve already got a bigger 4 Way Tag match on the card later on, which puts predicting this match in quite an odd position. The story for weeks now has been that Vince has brought Black & Ricochet up in an attempt to make new stars, so surely having them lose here after losing to War Raiders on Friday (presumably) would be awful for them. Then, at the same time, The Usos retaining here just feels like a really easy pick to make.

No idea why The Bar and Rusev & Nakamura have been let into this match either seeing as both teams have done nothing but lose since January, but hey-ho. I think I’m gonna go with the more risky pick here and say Aleister Black & Ricochet will pick up the titles, because quite frankly if they can’t win any titles after five attempts, then why should anyone care about them ever again?

Bobby Lashley(c) vs Finn Balor
(Intercontinental Championship)

This has been such a weird way of executing this story.

I get that you wanted to tell a story where Lashley loses the title due to circumstances of his own making, but having him almost instantly win the title back, and then have him lose again in a 2 on 1 handicap match to get Balor in here seems like such a weird choice to me. It doesn’t really do Balor many favours, since Balor’s lost to Lashley one on one several times now over the past 6 months or so, and even if he wins here I’m not sure it’s going to do Finn many favours.

That said, what would do Finn a big favour is having a run with the IC title similar to Rollins’ run with the belt last year. Granted, they might not want things to seem repetitive and I doubt the reign will last as long as Seth’s did, but it would certainly help him out a lot more than anything in this feud has done so far.

I wasn’t entirely sure about this one for most of the build, I had a hunch Balor was going to win, but once it got confirmed that Finn would be appearing as The Demon at Wrestlemania (finally), that’s pretty much confirmed that Finn Balor is getting the IC title back on Sunday.

Samoa Joe(c) vs Rey Mysterio
(United States Championship)

And now we’re at the point where I’m more excited for the US title match than I am for the IC title, what a big difference a month can make.

I don’t know how much time this is realistically going to get, but I think it’s going to be pretty great either way. Mysterio’s spent his whole career wrestling giants, and Joe can do so many things that guys like Khali and Big Show could never even dream of. I really think this is going to be a fast-paced and brutal fight, which will be a tonne of fun to watch.

This could also be the opportunity the US title has been waiting for to regain some of the prestige that has been absolutely shattered since Jeff Hardy lost the title last summer and it just stopped appearing on shows. In order for that prestige to be rebuilt though, two things need to happen.

First, it needs to be on the main card. This shouldn’t be too much of a worry as I doubt WWE would dare to put Rey Mysterio on the pre-show, so I think we’re good. Secondly, Joe needs to retain, clean. One of the main reasons the US title has gone so far south in recent months (aside from never being on TV) is that it’s being tossed about like a hot potato so much. If you want the US title to start meaning something then you need a champion worth a damn who can hold onto it for more than a week, and Samoa Joe is the perfect candidate to hold it for at least a couple more months.

Sasha Banks & Bayley(c) vs Beth Phoenix & Natalya vs The IIconics vs Nia Jax & Tamina
(Women’s Tag Team Championships)

I would forgive every other mistake this show makes if The IIconics won this match.

As much as it’s awful that the Smackdown Live women’s division has been completely shafted since Charlotte won the women’s title, I’m very happy that The IIconics are getting their Wrestlemania moment, even if they don’t get to win. I’m also very happy for Beth Pheonix, she was one of those women just was just 4-5 years too early to really get the chance to shine, and even if she can’t go like she used to, I’m glad she gets to participate in a match that she would’ve dreamed to have when she was an active competitor.

Picking a winner is a pretty straightforward affair though, Nia & Tamina aren’t getting anywhere near those belts, and I doubt Beth is going to wrestle full-time past Wrestlemania, so they’re out, and while I would be over the moon if The IIconics picked up the title, this really has to be Sasha Banks & Bayley‘s moment. Whether you think that Mania will end with the horsewomen standing tall or not (I’ll get into my thoughts later), it makes the most sense for them to retain here, and hold those titles for at least one more month.

AJ Styles vs Randy Orton

Now we enter the “for shits and giggles” portion of the show.

I understand that this is a big match that we haven’t seen outside of a short Smackdown match a couple of years ago, and if Orton’s motivated it should be pretty good, but I still can’t help but ask why? Orton felt like he’d long since given up on his mission to tear down our heroes, and the general impression I’ve gotten for why these two hate each other so much is “cos indies”, which doesn’t exactly seem like a Wrestlemania feud to me.

It also seems pretty predictable, as much as AJ has lost matches like this before (remember Chris Jericho?), AJ’s been taken down quite a lot since losing his WWE title to Daniel Bryan, and a big win over Orton would be a pretty good way to build him up, and hopefully send him over to Raw where he can do something new.

I remain optimistic about this match, but I know that it could end up getting way too much time and stinking out the joint, but as I said I will hold onto my hope, and say that AJ Styles will beat Orton.

Roman Reigns vs Drew Mcintyre

Now, this is an interesting one.

Both men have been really good on the mic in the build-up to this match and they seem to have gone to great lengths this past month to build him up as an absolute destroyer (not having lose to both Ziggler & Balor a couple months back might’ve helped, but oh well.) and I’m hopeful that this match will rock.

I’m having quite the pickle choosing the winner though because on the one hand, it’s Roman pissing Reigns, who’s just returned from kicking cancer’s ass and this is first big singles feud. On the other hand, Drew would be quite heavily damaged by a loss here, and a win would absolutely catapult him into stardom.

Ultimately, I think I find myself leaning on the side of Roman Reigns winning, partly because it feels like the safe bet, but also because I really think this will be a big feel-good moment to kick off the show with and get the show off to a great start, but even if it doesn’t go on first, I just can’t really see Drew winning this one.

Kurt Angle vs Baron Corbin

This is probably the match I’m looking forward to the least.

I understand the choice in opponent since, given WWE storylines since Angle’s return, it does make sense, and honestly, I’m OK with it. Would I have preferred someone better? Absolutely, Cena, Bryan, hell even someone like Elias would’ve been a better choice, but am I furious that this is what we got? No, not really.

As much as I hate to say it, Angle’s farewell tour has just proved that he really can’t go like he used to. He can still wrestle circles around a guy like Corbin of course, but I get the same feeling watching Angle wrestle now that I do when The Undertaker wrestles. I love him with all my heart as a performer, but I really just want him to stop and leave the memories alone at this point.

I also don’t think this is a bait and switch, I think Angle vs Corbin will be the match we get, it will probably only be about 10 minutes, but here’s the thing…I want Corbin to win. If we’re going down this road, let’s do it properly. I don’t consider myself to have an old-school mentally by any stretch of the imagination (hell, I’ve only been a fan since 2013), but I really do agree with the ethos that wrestlers, however legendary, should go out on their backs.

Will Corbin ever be the star WWE probably want him to? I doubt it, but lets at least give it one last try, so I’m doing it, I’m predicting that Baron Corbin will win this match, and more so than that, I think he should.

The Miz vs Shane Mcmahon
(Falls Count Anywhere)

Why is there even a conversation here, it’s the Best-Wrestler-In-The-World™ versus The Miz. I mean, come on guys.

Jokes aside, I really don’t know what to make of this match. On the one hand, I’ve been wishing Shane would be a heel for ages and so far face Miz has been on fire, but I’m not sure it’s going to make for all too compelling a match.

Miz is definitely a top-level wrestler now, that much is true, but I’m not sure he’s a guy like AJ Styles that can carry Shane to a 4-star match. Hopefully the Falls Count Anywhere stipulation will do something to remedy this, making the match more about brutality than technicality, but I’m still worried that this could be quite the slog, especially if it’s placed late on the card.

I have been umming and erring a little bit about who I think will win here, but when I picture it in my head, I just can’t reasonably see Shane standing tall, it doesn’t make any sense to me at all and it would kill The Miz’s face turn dead immediately and then you risk him sinking back into the territory he was in throughout late 2013/early 2014 where no-one cared about him in the slightest, so I say The Miz has to win this one.

Triple H vs Batista
(No Holds Barred)

Wow, the Ruthless Aggression Era just doesn’t ever want to end doesn’t it?

This is another match that I think is an interesting one to break down because there are two conflicting ideas going on here. On the one hand, Batista is a big Hollywood star now, and if there’s one thing WWE love it’s pushing their multi-media stars for the whole world to see (just look at who’s in the main event this year).

Then you look at Triple H’s Wrestlemania record since Mania 29 and it shows quite the obvious trend. Triple H loses to all the young guys (Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins & Ronda Rousey), but beats the older ones (Brock Lesnar & Sting) so logic would dictate Triple H beats Batista here right? Not only that but this storyline kicked off with Batista attempting to murder Ric Flair, so Triple H is the big babyface defending one of his friend’s honour, so that should make it a lock.

So I was going back and forth on this one for a while until they went and added the stipulation that if Triple H loses, he must retire. Admittedly, Triple H does only wrestle one or two matches a year, and if he’s going to be running the company in the coming years he may want to stop wrestling, but I highly doubt it would happen with this little build and hype behind it.

Until that stipulation was added I was seriously considering picking Batista, but now I’d be an idiot to not say that Triple H is going to win.

Daniel Bryan(c) vs Kofi Kingston
(WWE Championship)

Interestingly, I think a lot of people’s opinions on the show will hinge on this match.

Much like last year, where AJ vs Nakamura disappointed most, one match seemed to cause everyone to have an overall negative opinion of the show. I know Brock vs Reigns helped too, but I think if the WWE title match had been amazing, then people wouldn’t have been anywhere near as harsh on it as they were, and this match is in the exact same position this year.

This match has all the potential in the world to be amazing, it’s between two of the best pure wrestlers in the company, and the story is arguably the most well written on the entire card (something AJ vs Nakamura didn’t have last year). If this match gets about 20 minutes and the two are allowed to go with minimal shenanigans, this could be the match of the night, even if Daniel Bryan ends up retaining.

Which brings me to who I think is going to win, I’ll get into the debate over whether all three faces can get their big wins towards the end of the article, but this is the match which I currently feel the most confident in the result of. There is still this niggling little doubt in my mind, but I believe that we’re going to get a big moment here and Kofi Kingston will pick up his first ever world championship in WWE. I don’t think the reign will be all that long, but I don’t think that matters because his Wrestlemania victory will secure his legacy for the rest of his life.

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

Boy, this one is more difficult than it should be.

Every semblance of wrestling logic I’ve ever learnt is screaming that Seth Rollins finally slays the beast and goes on to have a long reign with the Universal Championship. He was the best wrestler in the WWE throughout 2018, he had his big climactic Royal Rumble win in January, and Lesnar only has the belt again because of Roman’s illness.

The flip side of the coin is pretty much the sentence “but Brock Lesnar”, which is a surprisingly hard argument to counter. Last year we were all 100% without a shadow of a doubt certain Roman Reigns would beat Lesnar for the title, and look what happened then. If there’s anyone who will inexplicably win when it makes absolutely no sense for them to, it’s Brock Lesnar.

All that said, I really am getting the feeling now that the “Brock as the champion who doesn’t exist” era is ending, given that WWE tried to end it at Summerslam last year. So I’m going with what I desperately want to happen, and saying Seth Rollins will win this match.

Ronda Rousey(c) vs Charlotte Flair(c) vs Becky Lynch
(Raw Women’s Championship & Smackdown Women’s Championship)

What a wild ride this has been.

This storyline as a whole has certainly had it’s ups and downs as we’ve followed it since Summerslam last year, and if I were to traipse through all of it, it would take all day, so let’s review the highlights.

– Becky’s heel turn turned out to be the best thing she’s ever done in her career.
– Her feud with Rousey on Twitter turned out to be the new best thing she’s ever done in her career.
– Then Becky won the Royal Rumble, which once again turned out to be the best thing she’s ever done in her career.
– Following that, things got a bit convoluted with suspensions, Charlotte, and the Smackdown Women’s Championship getting involved.
– Finally, The go-home Raw had the most over the top, yet brilliant, segment of the whole feud.

I know some people thought it was hokey and crap, but I thought it was a great way to cap things off before Mania, since it took all these complicated plot strands that have been going on since the Royal Rumble and boiled it down to three women who just hate each other so much and desperately want to win the biggest match of any of their lives.

I don’t think there’s any question about the quality of the match, it’s going to be awesome, and will hopefully go down as one of the greatest main events in Wrestlemania history, the real question is who’s going to win.

Up until Charlotte won the Smackdown Women’s title, I was the least confident about this one, I could quite easily see Ronda Rousey walking out of this one with both the belts. However, once Charlotte got herself a title, things changed in my mind, because now it feels like Becky Lynch has to win.

I know, I’ve picked all three faces to get their big win, and the prevailing opinion is that only 2 out of 3 will, but I’m not so sure. This is going to be such a long show that if it’s structured right, then you can avoid the crowd running out of energy and give all three faces their time in the sun. I’m not entirely confident that it will happen, and in all honesty, I’m expecting at least one of them to lose, but I just can’t put my finger on which one. If you pushed me for an answer I think I’d say Seth is most likely to lose, but I still think it’s at least a 50/50 chance.

All I know for certain is, it’s made things very exciting indeed.

So there you have it, those were my official predictions for every match that is announced to be taking place on Sunday (as of time of posting). If you enjoyed then sharing it on social media would be a big help, and make sure you come back early next week for my reviews, of both NXT Takeover and Wrestlemania. I will also be live tweeting both shows @10ryawoo on Twitter if you want thoughts as they happen!

I’ll be seeing you very soon.

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!

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!