Tag: Daniel Bryan

WWE Elimination Chamber 2019 Predictions

I’ve never really liked having a PPV between the Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania. Sure, in the attitude era it would actually wrap up long-running storylines and set things up for Wrestlemania that actually felt important; but nowadays it just forces some half-assed storylines where everyone knows the outcome before they’ve even begun. So this year we’ve got two of them…Ok then.

That said, even when an Elimination Chamber is predictable it’s usually quite fun, so having two of them on the show (one of which for a brand new championship) gives at least some part of the show exciting stakes; not sure that can be said for the rest of the card, however.

Let’s take a look at it then shall we? I think we shall, here are my predictions for WWE Elimination Chamber 2019.

Braun Strowman vs Baron Corbin
(No Disqualification)

How quickly we revert to old habits.

When WWE came out and spouted out about it being a new era with new matches and new faces, I was one of the voices saying “give it time”. I felt they needed a month or so to end all the current storylines and tie up loose ends before moving on. Yet here we are in February, and Corbin, Drew & Lashley vs Braun “and friends” is still a thing we apparently need to deal with.

Quite frankly, this match shouldn’t be longer than a minute, as I don’t really think anyone wants to see it go much longer, matches like the Cruiserweight Championship shouldn’t be bumped to the pre-show in order to make room for this bollocks.

Oh yeah, Braun Strowman will win here, because he needs some sort of win after he got the wind taken out of his sails before the Royal Rumble before both mean likely end up in the battle royal at Wrestlemania.

Bobby Lashley(c) & Lio Rush vs Finn Balor
(2 on 1 Handicap)
(Intercontinental Championship)

How the mighty fall…

Remember as little as two months ago where the IC title was the most hotly contested title in the company? Fun times. As it stands now though, the prestigious title sits upon the shoulders of arguably the most boring wrestler in the entire company. That being said, Balor is talented enough to get at least a decent match out of Lashley, and with Lio Rush being in the mix as well, it’ll be a great opportunity for him to show off the awesome stuff he can do on a big stage.

As for whether the title will change hands, it’s a bit of a coin flip but I doubt it. Balor’s got to pick up that title, either before or at Wrestlemania, but we’ve already had some quick title changes and WWE don’t generally like letting babyfaces win the title on their first shot. So I’m going with what I feel is the safe option and pick Bobby Lashley & Lio Rush to win here.

Buddy Murphey(c) vs Akira Tozowa
(Cruiserweight Championship)

I’ll be honest, out of all the people in that Fatal 4 Way from the Rumble, Tozowa was not the one I was expecting to get a singles feud.the one hand, I want to say that they’re just spinning their wheels until Wrestlemania, but at the same time, I have absolutely no idea what the plans for Wrestlemania could possibly be. I don’t really see anyone on 205 Live that could be that a big a deal for a Wrestlemania match.

I’m sure this match will be pretty good, but I’m not expecting anything that special, especially since it will probably be bumped to the pre-show yet again. As for a winner, Buddy Murphey to retain seems like a pretty solid pick, Tozowa’s time has been and gone, it’d take a lot to build him up again in my eyes.

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

Ok, this has gone too far.

I wasn’t happy about Miz and Shane beating The Bar, but once it happened I could live with it, but if Miz and Shane beat The Usos, I may actually blow my lid.

I decided that once they won the title, I’d give the story a chance to breathe and show what it’s really all about, but over the past month, there hasn’t been a hint of anything interesting with the two of them. This was something I didn’t want to see in the first place, and I really don’t want to see any more of it.

Having said all of that though, I really don’t see them losing the titles here. The Usos have been in the Smackdown Tag Title scene for such an extended amount of time, with very small breaks and I really can’t see them going back to that well just yet. So, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Shane Mcmahon & The Miz retain their titles, via some form of dirty finish, just to give this story some form of intrigue.

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

Ronda Rousey, next question.

Seriously though, two years in a row now, Ruby Riott has got a title match in a situation where there is absolutely zero chance she wins. WWE is already going so hard building the Ronda, Becky, Charlotte storyline that there is absolutely no way that Ronda is losing that belt anytime before Wrestlemania.

The match will hopefully be pretty good, but I am fully confident in saying that Ronda Rousey will win.

Nia Jax & Tamina vs Naomi & Carmella vs Absolution vs The Riott Squad vs The IIconics vs Sasha Banks & Bayley
(Elimination Chamber)
(Women’s Tag Team Championships)

This is such a weird one to predict because honestly, you could make a good case for any of these teams to win. So let’s go through them all and analyse their chances, shall we?

Naomi & Carmella – This is pretty much the only team I can’t make a solid case for. It feels like a really thrown together team that exists for sole purpose of filling a spot in the chamber. I’m sure we’ll get a dance break or something fun like that, but I don’t imagine they’ll last very long and I certainly don’t expect them to win.

The IIconics – In my heart, this is the team I want to win, and while it’s possible, I seriously doubt it. These two will probably be the heels that dominate the early sections before getting eliminated in a big “shock”.

The Riott Squad – Part of me wants to say that these guys have a chance because of Ruby getting murdered by Ronda earlier on in the show (plus Sarah Logan is an awesome person), but I seriously doubt that’s the case. The whole Riott Squad have been getting the shaft since the moment they showed up on the main roster, which is tragic, but it’s the way it is so I don’t think they stand much of a chance.

Absolution – Weirdly, I do feel that these guys stand a small chance in this match. I don’t quite know why, but Mandy Rose has been such a central focus Smackdown this past month that I feel like it’s got be leading somewhere right? Then, I gave it a second thought and realised it’s probably just going to lead to Naomi pinning Mandy Rose and being the first ones eliminated.

Sasha Banks & Bayley – I refuse to call them “The Boss ‘N’ Hug Connection” because that’s an awful name. They’re one of the two that I keep going back and forth on to win this match, and I think their night will go one of two ways. Either they’ll fight through the whole match and pick up an unlikely but feel good win to pay off all the struggle both women have gone through over the past year, OR, they’ll fight all the way through to the final two only to have their dreams shattered at the last second and maybe one will turn on the other.

I’m leaning towards the latter, unfortunately, although I doubt we’ll see a heel turn from either woman just yet.

Nia Jax & Tamina – Yeah, these two winning just feels right doesn’t it? I’m not really a fan of either woman as a wrestler, but I’ve kind of liked what Nia Jax has been doing character wise recently. Generally, it seems like a decent idea for these two to win here, only to be conquered by some heroic babyfaces (probably Banks & Bayley) at Wrestlemania.

I’ve gone back and forth while writing this section a lot, but in the end, I think Nia Jax & Tamina is the right choice.

Daniel Bryan(c) vs AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe vs Kofi Kingston vs Jeff Hardy vs Randy Orton
(Elimination Chamber)
(WWE Championship)

I was quite surprised that we were getting a WWE title match at this show since traditionally the Elimination Chamber has been used to determine the Wrestlemania opponent for the opposite title to the Royal Rumble winner, but I guess they want to do that at Fastlane instead.

Either way, let’s go through and look at the chances of each competitor here.

Jeff Hardy – I think it says a lot about how badly things have gone for Jeff Hardy recently, that I completely forgot he was in this match and had to look it up, even though I’m writing this on Wednesday, about 4 hours after I watched the go-home Smackdown. I’m sure he’ll do a Swanton off the top of a pod, but I imagine he’ll be eliminated pretty soon after that moment.

Samoa Joe – It feels just a little too late for Joe, unfortunately. I’m sure Samoa Joe will win a world title eventually, but I don’t see it coming any time in the first half of the year. he was quite heavily damaged by the AJ Styles feud that went on far too long, and he needs a series of CLEAN wins over high calibre opponents to build him back up. Regardless, Sunday isn’t going to be his night.

Kofi Kingston – When I heard that Kogi would be replacing Ali in the match, I didn’t really care, but then I watched the Gauntlet match on Smackdown and holy crap I want Kofi to win so badly now. He’s been in a tag team for so damn long, that I think we all forgot that Kofi is an amazing singles wrestler too, and he I hope he gets more of a chance to show his stuff here. That said, he’s not going to win, as much as I’d love for the New Day to have a world title, now’s really not the time for it to happen.

Randy Orton – Every part of my brain is telling me he has zero chance, but it’s Randy Orton, and I live in constant fear that he’s going to win the WWE Championship again at any moment. That said, they made such a big deal of Orton being the last man to enter, and I can see them arguing about it for roughly 30 minutes on the pre-show panel, that there’s no way he can possibly win.

AJ Styles – This is the only man that I could potentially see winning the title here, and weirdly, it’s the only man I don’t really want to win the title here. I’ve said this before, but I’m pretty done with WWE Champion AJ Styles, it got really stale towards the end of the run and I really don’t think there’s anyone I’d like to see him face come Wrestlemania, so he’s to hoping it doesn’t happen.

Daniel Bryan – Yeah, there’s no way that titles changing hands. I just can’t see any scenario for Wrestlemania where Daniel Bryan isn’t WWE Champion going into it. He’s the best character on Smackdown live right now (if we count Becky Lynch as being above brand right now), and he’s just got a new lacky in the form of Rowan so I don’t see that title going anywhere for quite a while.

I’m sure this match will be great, as I usually quite enjoy Elimination Chamber matches, but the result is pretty inevitable and Daniel Bryan is walking out of there with that beautiful championship over his shoulder.

So there are my predictions! Thank you very much for taking the time out to read this and sharing it around on social media would be very much appreciated. Follow me on Twitter @10ryawoo for live tweets of the event, and make sure to come back early next week for my review!

 

WWE Royal Rumble 2019 Predictions

The new year may bring some the depressing realisation of being yet another year closer to the grave, however to wrestling fans it means the excitement, anger and general confusion that comes with the Royal Rumble event.

How predictable a Rumble is, generally varies widely. Either it’s ludicrously obvious like in 2013, or completely unpredictable like in 2017, and this year we seem to have one of each. As usual the undercard seems pretty easy to call, however, the matches themselves look to be fantastic.

Rusev(c) vs Shinsuke Nakamura
(United States Championship)

Oh, this is still happening?

It’s not been officially confirmed as of the time of writing, but I imagine this will end up on the pre-show, and while these are both guys I like very much, I can’t say it deserves any better.

Rusev winning the US title on Christmas Day (which was also his birthday (which was also Rusev Day)) was a great point on that feud which felt like it had been going on forever. Instead, they decided to artificially extend the feud by having Lana take the world’s weakest bump and having it take her out of action for over a week (despite being an active wrestler herself).

The US title really needs something to save it soon because right now no-one has any reason to care about it. With any luck, someone like Almas will win it soon and make it matter again, as for now, I’m going to pick Rusev to retain here, mostly because I don’t see a reason for Nakamura to win it back any time soon.

Buddy Murphy(c) vs Kalisto vs Akira Tozowa vs Hideo Itami
(Cruiserweight Championship)

Oh hey, I remember when these guys used to have any sort of on-screen presence in WWE.

Believe it or not, I have actually been watching the occasional episode of 205 Live this month so I’m not just blindly guessing at what’s going on for once. Personally, I’ve been really enjoying Murphy’s title reign, putting on great match after great match, and I don’t really want to see it end anytime soon.

That said, I also really love Hideo Itami and all the stuff he did pre-WWE and in NXT, so finally giving him a platform where he gets to wrestle in front of an audience that actually cares about his existence. Kalisto is long past being worth anything in the cruiserweight division, and while I like Tozowa, his opportunity had come and gone if you ask me.

It boils down to a choice between my heart and my head, and realistically it doesn’t make sense for heel Itami to take the title off of heel Murphy, so I’m going to pick Buddy Murphey to retain.

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

I don’t very often define a creative decision in WWE as “wrong”, because any creative decision tends to have some pretty sound ideas behind it and could end up leading to something great. However, Shane and Miz winning the titles here would very much be the wrong decision for this match.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad The Miz isn’t just floundering about doing shit-all until Daniel Bryan is ready to fight him again, but using Shane Mcmahon to do it really doesn’t feel like the right way to go. Miz obviously still has some beef with Shane from the World-Cup-To-Determine-The-Best-In-The-World™, and he’s obviously going to turn on him eventually, I just really hope they don’t win the titles before then.

The Bar has been looking really strong in this title reign, taking out The New Day, The Usos and AOP with relative ease and to have it end with them losing to Miz and Shane would be a disaster.

Unsurprisingly I’m picking The Bar to retain because I don’t want to imagine the alternative.

Asuka(c) vs Becky Lynch
(Smackdown Women’s Championship)

Yes please.

This is the match that I’m planting my flag in for the match of the night. The Smackdown women’s division has been absolutely brilliant ever since Summerslam and this is the perfect way to keep the ball rolling. Taking the most popular wrestler and making them fight your second most popular wrestler, it’s booking at it’s simplest, yet most effective.

As for who should win, I think it’s pretty simple, but picking who will win is slightly more difficult. Personally, I think Asuka has to retain otherwise she may as well have never won the thing in the first place. The problem is, given that a Triple Threat between Ronda, Charlotte and Becky is what’s currently on the cards for WrestleMania, I think there’s a chance WWE will want both titles to be on the line, so Becky could win it back any day now.

Ultimately, I’m going with Asuka since I just can’t see why they’d have her win the title if they were going to take it off her before Wrestlemania, especially as soon as this.

Ronda Rousey(c) vs Sasha Banks
(Raw Women’s Championship)

Remember the days when Sasha was treated as a megastar in the women’s division? Good times.

That said, Sasha has been made to look pretty damn good in the build to this match, which is quite impressive considering how much of a chump she’s looked al lthroughout 2018. With any luck, Sasha will be able to carry this momentum into the Elimination Chamber next months where she’ll probably be fighting for the women’s tag titles. Who knows, maybe she’ll even stay this level of a star for the rest of the year.

This is one of those matches that doesn’t immediately spring to mind when you think of dream matches for Ronda Rousey, but now it’s being presented to me, I’m very happy to see it indeed. I spent all of 2018 singing the praises of Ronda Rousey as an in-ring competitor and I stand by that, so I’m expecting a fantastic match here, provided no shenanigans occur.

It’s not exactly hard to pick a winner though, Ronda Rousey is going to retain for reasons that should be obvious to anyone who knows who these women are.

Daniel Bryan(c) vs AJ Styles
(WWE Championship)

While I’m sure this will be a great match and I’m happy to see it, I can’t help but be a little bit disappointed this isn’t Bryan vs Ali.

I still love Styles as much as I did when he first joined WWE, but I think I’m done seeing him in the world title picture for quite a while now. His reign was long and filled with a lot of great matches with awful finishes, so once this is done I hope to see him try something new and interesting for a little while before sniffing around a world title again.

Bryan, on the other hand, should carry that title forever. His character since turning heel has been a brilliant heat magnet that crowds seem to love so much that they want to boo him. A heel that actually gets boos for doing heelish things, crazy I know.

I’m going with what I think should happen here and pick Daniel Bryan to retain and carry that thing into Wrestlemania to have a brilliant match with literally anyone on the Smackdown roster.

Brock Lesnar(c) vs Finn Balor
(Universal Championship)

I have but one simple request, which is for Finn Balor not to die please.

There’s a lot of fear out there regarding this match right now, that all of Balor’s momentum from winning two matches in one night and pinning John effing Cena will be wasted when Brock beats him easily in about 8 minutes. I was fearful of this too until I heard the news that apparently Brock requested Finn as Braun’s replacements since he likes to wrestle the “David vs Goliath” style of match.

Hearing things like this and looking back at matches such as Brock vs AJ and Brock vs Bryan have restored my hopes that this will actually be a pretty good match.

You don’t need me to tell you who’s going to win though. You can root for Finn all you like, but Brock Lesnar is winning.

Women’s Royal Rumble Match

I thought this one would be pretty hard for me to call until I read the list of participants.

For those who are unaware, the current match that is planned for Wrestlemania is Ronda vs Charlotte vs Becky. Now obviously plans can change at a moments notice in WWE, but I know many fans (myself included) will be a little disappointed we aren’t going to get Ronda vs Becky one on one.

As for the Rumble match itself, I’m looking forward to it. I was rather underwhelmed by the inaugural women’s Rumble last year, as I thought it relied too heavily on women from the past and didn’t focus on the current stars. However there are significantly more women on the main roster this year, so we should get some effective storytelling involving modern-day stars instead of the past this year.

Normally for a Rumble, I’d got through all the people who had a chance of winning but this time around there really seems to be only one choice for me. There is still a tiny part of me that is holding out hope that Becky will make a surprise entrance and win the thing, but I’ve got to go with my head here and pick Charlotte Flair to win this.

Men’s Royal Rumble Match

I’m really excited about this one.

I feel like last year’s euphoric win for Nakamura has restored my faith in the Royal Rumble match, even if what happened after wasn’t amazing. Even bad Rumble matches are fun to watch for the most part and I’m feeling pretty confident that this years will be a good one too.

While I think Drew Mcintyre does have an outside chance here, realistically this match is between two men for me:

John Cena – It’s generally never a good idea to count Cena out of any match like this, but this year, in particular, I think he’s one to watch. There isn’t really any of note on Smackdown right now that Bryan could face at Wrestlemania, and personally, I’d really like to see him fight Cena.

Cena is the antithesis to everything Daniel Bryan has been preaching these past few months, add onto that Cena’s 17th world title reign, their previous match at Summerslam 2013 and whatever drama is going on over on Total Bella’s and you’ve got yourself one hell of a story right there.

I’m fairly certain Cena vs Bryan will be the match at Wrestlemania, but I don’t think Cena’s going to go through the Rumble to get there.

Seth Rollins – You have no idea how badly I want this to happen. Seth Rollins has had arguably the best year of his career this year, putting on the best match of almost every major show he’s been on this year (TLC excluded). In process of making the Intercontinental Championship the most hotly contested title in WWE last year, he also built himself up to be the only man who could really take down Brock Lesnar in Roman Reigns’ absence.

Getting a Rumble win under his belt would be a fantastic way to go full steam ahead into Brock Lesnar and have a brilliant run with the Universal Championship, taking on all comers until the summer at least. It seems the most logical choice to me, and I really want to see it happen, so Rollins is the man I’m picking to win this year.

That’s all folks! Thank you very much for reading these predictions, follow me on Twitter @10ryawoo for live reactions to the Rumble on Sunday and NXT: Takeover on Saturday, and stay tuned for my review of the Rumble early next week!

WWE TLC Tables, Ladders & Chairs 2018: Every Match Ranked

The final WWE Pay-Per-View for 2018 is finally in the bag, and we’ve had this crazy year topped off with a show that was really…..ok.

While there wasn’t a match on this show that I can say I hated, but I didn’t feel the show was as good as I thought it would be when I read the card. The amount of matches really made the show drag a little, especially towards the end. However the focus of the show seemed to be in the right place, so it made for a decent night.

Now let’s talk about the matches themselves, as I rank them from worst to best.

12 – Carmella & R-Truth def. Jinder Mahal &      Alicia Fox
(Mixed Match Challenge Season 2 Final)

Not a whole lot to say about this one really…

I haven’t watched any of the Mixed Match Challenge this year, so I don’t really have any investment in what happened here. I prefer Truth and Carmella to Jinder and Alicia, but that’s mostly just by default. More to the point, there wasn’t anything noteworthy about the match either.

There were a couple of minor slip ups, but aside from that it was a pretty standard match that wouldn’t feel out of place on Raw or Smackdown. I know most people are digging the “Dance Break” thing, but I hate it with all my being, and of course the Singh Brothers were around so they had to go ahead and make it even stupider.

I’m glad Mella & Truth won, but I’m not looking forward to Truth being #30 in the Royal Rumble, or the “comedy” sketch on Tuesday about their trip to WWE’s head offices.

11 – Elias def. Bobby Lashley
(Ladder Match)

Gimmick matches on the pre-show now? A bit weird, but alright.

I’m not sure that the guitar thing was really necessary for this match, it could’ve quite easily have just ended in a pinfall and I don’t think it would’ve made much difference. I know it was unlikely Elias was ever going to pin Bobby, but if you were just going to have Bobby lay Elias out immediately after the match anyway then what’s the point in even having Elias win?

It’s not like either of these men are about to compete for a title, and they’re certainly not in the running for Royal Rumble winner, so this whole thing was ultimately pointless. The match was at least somewhat entertaining, with some nice versions of spots we’ve seen in every other ladder match since the dawn of time.

These two men don’t really have the greatest about of chemistry together, so I really hope this feud doesn’t continue any longer.

10 – Natalya def. Ruby Riott
(Tables Match)

Who knew “tables with pictures on them” would be one of the major stories on this show.

I feel bad putting this match this low, because there was actually some stuff to like about it, but the overall story didn’t really draw me in at all. I liked all the stuff with the Riott Squad taking the bullet for Ruby in a couple of spots to make sure she didn’t lose, it was a nice way to make their present felt without having them directly hinder Natalya.

The main problem I had here was how slowly these two would set up every single spot. It wasn’t just the table spots either, even Natalya locking in the Sharpshooter felt like it took forever. It was a little bit annoying that the tables were so obviously pre-cut, but I guess you didn’t want a situation like Hell in a Cell 2016, where the women are too light to break the table when they fall on it.

It was a perfectly serviceable match, with nothing amazing to draw me in, and buckle up, because I’m going to be saying words to that effect a lot in this review.

9 – Rey Mysterio def. Randy Orton
(Chairs Match)

Please, no more chair matches.

I think that this was the only match on the show that was actively hindered by the stipulation, chairs matches just don’t really seem to work as a concept. For one, all it really is, is a no DQ match where the ring is surrounded by chairs, but more importantly it means that every single major spot has to involve chairs in some way.

There’s only so much you can do with a steel chair and while they’re good in small doses, basing a whole match around them gets old fast. While there were a couple of fun spots, including a rather nasty looking one where Rey went arse first into a chair, but nothing particularly outstanding, and although I didn’t hate this match, I can’t help but feel it would’ve been better without this stipulation.

8 – Dean Ambrose def. Seth Rollins(c)
(Intercontinetal Championship)

Oh….well ok then.

I really don’t understand what it was about this match, but it just didn’t click. The placement on the show probably didn’t help, being the second to last match on a show this long pretty much guarantees a worn out crowd, and they were almost dead silent the whole time.

The match also didn’t really feel like it was a fight between two men with the history that these two have. Dean needed to be a lot more vicious, and Seth needed to have a lot more energy and fire underneath him for it to really click like it should’ve. At the end of the day, you could replace Dean and Seth with pretty much any other heel and face on the roster and the match wouldn’t have felt any different, which really isn’t a good thing.

While they did touch on the story in the closing minutes, given how badly the story’s been built over the past month and how underwhelming the match had been up until that point, it didn’t really feel earned. Part of me wants to see them try this again, but another part of me really just want them both to move on.

It sucks that, in a year where Seth Rollins put on the match of the night on almost every show, he’s down this low on the final show of the year. Let’s just hope he moves on to blow the roof of Wrestlemania against Lesnar next year and we can all forget this ever happened.

7 – Braun Strowman def. Baron Corbin
(TLC Match)

How heroic of these good guys to all team up and beat the ever-loving piss out of their boss.

When I think about how all of this went down, I feel like I should hate it, but I just can’t for some reason. Sure, Strowman probably could’ve still beaten Baron with a broken arm, but this solution make Braun seem quite smart too. It was also a pretty clever way to get them out of this spot they ended up in, where Baron needed to be out of power, but Braun was injured.

Given how crap Raw has been these past few weeks, it was kind of cathartic to see one of the main culprits put to rest, although I’m not all in on WWE using him as a scapegoat for the whole mess. Corbin’s probably going to end up fading into the background a bit more now, and Braun can move on to lose to Brock Lesnar again at the Royal Rumble, but let’s just enjoy this while it lasts.

6 – Finn Balor def. Drew Mcintyre

I never thought WWE could make me feel simultaneously disappointed and pleasantly surprised, but here we are.

I really don’t understand the rationale behind Balor winning here. As much as I’m glad to see that WWE aren’t continuing to hand him loss after loss, I really felt like this was a match Drew needed to win, especially as it seemed like they were trying to build him up. You could argue it was a protected loss since Dolph Ziggler got involved, but this is the same Drew Mcintyre who damn near killed Kurt Angle, two small dudes attacking him shouldn’t really be a problem.

The match itself did feel more like an above average Raw match than a decent PPV match, but everything in it was solid, and Dolph’s interference does at least make sense from the character’s perspective. I really feel like Drew needs to be a much more vicious heel however, he shouldn’t be using rest holds and shouting at his opponent, he needs to be trying throwing them around the ring like they’re nothing.

I really hope this isn’t the start of a decline for Drew, because it seemed like things were going so well for him up until now.

5 – Buddy Murphy(c) def. Cedric Alexander
(Cruiserweight Championship)

Well that was fun while it lasted.

It’s a real shame that the cruiserweights got bumped to the pre-show once again, after putting on two fantastic main card performances in a row, but there was a lot of matches on this show, and I can’t really say that anything else could’ve been bumped to make room for this one.

Regardless, these guys don’t care what part of the show they’re on, they’ll still put on a great match if they can. While it did feel like they toned things down a bit due to being on the pre-show, it was still an entertaining match, with lots of fun action.

One thing the cruiserweights seem to be really good at, is winning over a crowd that usually doesn’t seem to care. The crowd started out dead silent at the start of this match, and by the end they were loving it. It goes to show that even if a good portion of that crowd probably have no idea who these guys are, they’ll still invest in a match if they like what they see. If only they’d go home and watch 205 Live afterwards.

4 – Ronda Rousey(c) def. NIa Jax
(Raw Women’s Championship)

I know I’ve said this pretty much every time she’s wrestled this year, but Ronda Rousey is really good at wrestling.

Clearly Natalya trained her well or something like that, because she just seems to get it, case in point: this match right here. There really aren’t very many people on the roster who could have a match that good with Nia Jax, maybe Becky & Charlotte, but there isn’t anyone else that good.

This match really was all Ronda, pretty much the whole time, Nia seemed somehow more immobile than usual, but Ronda was still able to make it work. She sold her ass of on basically every move to make sure it felt like it had impact, and was flying all about the place when she was on offence to really get the best out of Nia.

This is probably the last time Nia will have a major role on Raw for a very long time, considering Ronda didn’t seem to struggle too much in putting her away, and then Becky laid her the fuck out after the match.

3 – The Bar(c) def. The New Day & The Usos
(Smackdown Tag Team Championships)

Please, never move these teams to Raw, never.

While this was a very good match, it did feel a bit like it was one of the victims of the over stuffed show, but, these teams could pull a great match out even if they only had 30 seconds to work it. Everyone got plenty of time to shine in this match. I’m not sure I like the whole “only two teams in the ring at once” stipulation to Triple Threat tag matches, but they generally still seem to work and I’m ok with that.

My only real worry is where on Earth do these tag titles go next? This is the problem with only focusing on these three (admittedly brilliant) tag teams, is now you need The Bar to fight someone else and there really isn’t anyone build up enough. The Club have lost so many tag title opportunities, they’re basically a joke, and Sanity kept losing their matches and have been absent for months, with the exception of one underwhelming appearance at Survivor Series. Maybe we’ll get a NXT call up, but it’s not like Heavy Machinery ever stand a chance of taking out The Bar.

I have a lot more faith in the Smackdown writers than I do the Raw writers though, so maybe we’ll get something great in time for the Rumble. Maybe.

2 – Daniel Bryan(c) def. AJ Styles
(WWE Championship)

Who knew this one would be good?…..What? Everyone?! Oh alright.

I had to rewatch this one before I wrote about it, because I didn’t really enjoy it that much watching it live. Maybe it was down to how tired it was, but I just didn’t really get it the first time around, however everyone on Twitter really liked it, so I watched it a second time the next day, and it turns out that past me was very wrong about not liking this one, because this match was great.

Sure, it wasn’t anywhere close to the Styles/Bryan match I had in my head, but this was the match we needed, not the one we wanted. For one, Bryan showing up as The American Dragon was unexpected, and I didn’t even realise it at first, but this dude really is something else. After his return I was starting to doubt if he really was as good as we all remembered him being, but this match reminded me exactly why Daniel Bryan is the best wrestler in the world.

He’s able to blend his fast paced crowd popping babyface style so well with his slow and methodic heel pace that he can wrestle just about any style he wants and it still feels true to his character. More importantly he’s clearly done his homework on AJ Styles, with an answer to pretty much everything he’s got, and when he does get caught, it’s not long before he gets back on top.

The perfect example of this is the finish, winning with a small package after a match like that is brilliant, it feels heelish and cheap, but really he just straight up out thought AJ Styles and won because he was the better wrestler. We’ve got so used to heel champions cheating to win, that it’s really refreshing to see a heel win, because he’s just the better wrestler and that’s all there is to it.

I’d love to see just one more match between these two to really kick things into that final gear and get that truly awesome match we all know they can put on.

1 – Asuka def. Becky Lynch(c) & Charlotte Flair
(Smackdown Women’s Championship)
(TLC Match)

Hey! Smackdown finally main-evented a cross-brand PPV! Only took 8 sodding months.

What a match this was, everything about it was just great. It started just how it needed to, they didn’t rush to get to all of the weapons spots, they started out just wrestling each other like normal and built to all of the crazy weapon spots, it allows the crowd to get a feel for the match, instead of getting worn out with all the high spots early on.

Every single spot felt like it built on the last, and they were able to set them up without slowing the pace of the match down, in many instances they made the setting up of a spot a key part of the match, so it all flowed perfectly. It’s hard to talk about the rest of this match without just listing all of the awesome stuff that happened during it, so here goes:

  • Asuka flipping Becky back first onto a ladder looked so damn brutal and rebuilt Asuka to her former glory in about 5 seconds.
  • Becky’s ladder dive was great, even if she did almost crush Charlotte’s ribcage.
  • There was a really nice catharsis in watching the women wail on each other with chairs and it made the whole thing feel so much more intense.
  • Charlotte spearing Asuka into the time keeper’s area looked amazing, and the fact that the barrier didn’t break properly actually made it seem even more brutal.
  • Then there’s the finish…

First of all, these women did a really good job of making it look like they were about to win when they weren’t. Usually in a ladder match it’s pretty obvious when someone’s not about to win, but there were a couple of moments in the last 5 minutes where I thought Charlotte had it in the bag.

However, the main article here is Ronda Rousey, who came out, pushed both Charlotte and Becky off the ladder, leaving Asuka to climb the ladder and win. Before I talk about the interference, I just want to mention how awesome a moment it was when the crowd realised Asuka was about to win, they exploded in cheers and it was beautiful to see Asuka finally get what many thought she should’ve got in April.

Does Ronda’s interference cheapen Asuka’s win? Well yes, it’s hard to argue that it doesn’t. Does this make me mad? Not really. I know a lot of people are quite upset about the finish to this match, and I feel like I should be too, but I’m just not. The match itself was so good that I don’t really mind and Ronda’s actions make perfect sense in the context of what’s been happening over the past month or so.

I’m not quite sure where all this is leading, personally I still hope it’s Becky vs Ronda and Charlotte vs Asuka II, either way it’s going to be an interesting time in the women’s division moving forward.

So there you have it! That was TLC 2018, overall it was a fairly average show, full of ok wrestling and a fantastic main event, not the greatest thing to end the year on, but certainly not the worst either.

Make sure to share this post around on social media, and follow me on Twitter @10ryawoo for more opinions on wrestling and the like. Stick around for the next few weeks as I will be starting to cover my end of year awards for both wrestling and gaming!

WWE TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs 2018 Predictions

Well, we made it, another year of WWE programming. We may have all become slightly more sarcastic and jaded, but we’re all still here. This means it’s time to sit back, relax and enjoy a weapons based show (ugh), with *checks notes* TWELVE Matches?!

Survivor Series last month only had 8 matches (including pre-show), and that show got an extra hour than this one. This will probably mean a lot of matches won’t get even nearly the time that they need, or this will be the most packed pre-show in history (they haven’t announced which ones are on the pre-show at time of writing).

So settle it, as I break down all twelve (sigh) matches on the TLC 2018 card.

Rey Mysterio vs Randy Orton
(Chairs Match)

I remember when Randy Orton would fight people from the current generation.

I know Orton’s whole thing was “The Legend Killer” but that really only worked back in ’02-’05 when he was a young upstart in the WWE, not so much when he is a legend himself. I get that he’s trying to tear down all the people the fans love, but I think it would be a much more interesting story if his goal was to prove he was the greatest legend from his generation by beating them all up.

While chairs matches don’t have a history of being the greatest, *cough*Kane vs Ryback*cough*, I think it’s certainly the least limiting of the gimmicks, chair spots tend to be very quick to set up, and can usually be implemented in a match without breaking the flow too much. Although generally the “flow” in a Randy Orton match is pretty darn slow.

I’m finding it a little difficult to pick a winner, since Randy’s been on a bit of a roll recently, even if I don’t really see much reason for him to win. Given that Rey did get a win over Orton at Crown Jewel, I’m going to say Randy Orton manages to walk away with this one.

R-Truth & Carmella vs Jinder Mahal vs Alicia Fox
(Mixed Match Challenge Finals)

Ok, I haven’t been watching the Mixed Match Challenge this year, what the hell happened?

What happened to AJ Styles, Charlotte, Braun Strowman, Ember Moon, Finn Balor, or any of the other awesome performers in it this year? They all got replaced due to injury/sickness? Oh…well ok then.

That said, I can’t rag on this too much, the MMC may have been an even bigger afterthought than 205 Live this year, but from the small amount of stuff I’ve seen it’s looked alright. R-Truth and Carmella seemed to have formed a pretty entertaining rapport with each other and while the “Dance Break” thing is unbelievably stupid and I hate it, I think it’s more down to me being grumpy than anything else.

I also like that they’ve actually put something tangible on the line this year, getting a guaranteed, number 30 spot in the Royal Rumble is something that really should be on the line every year, since it’s technically the best position to be in, even if it is going to go to someone who has an absolute zero chance of winning the thing.

I’m pretty confident in picking R-Truth & Carmella to win here, since they’ve actually built up pretty fun characters and seem to work really well together, as opposed to Jinder & Alicia, who can be pretty accurately described as “two people”.

Buddy Murphy(c) vs Cedric Alexander
(Cruiserweight Championship)

I’m starting to think that there may only be three people on 205 Live.

It’s really hard to tell where the Cruiserweight title goes once all this is over, because it really doesn’t feel like there’s anyone up to it on 205 Live. I imagine they’ll probably just have a 4-Way Number 1 Contender’s match, like they seem to do pretty much every month, but I’m not entirely sure it’ll work this time.

Regardless, that’s something we don’t have to worry about until Wednesday in the mean time, let’s take a look at this match. Well, it’s pretty much the same match we’ve been seeing for a good few months now with the Cruiserweight Championship. Not that the match will be mad, both of these men are very talented, but seeing a match too many times really does take the shine off of it. For example, all I do is mention the possibility of another Rollins vs Ziggler match and everyone groans collectively, despite all their matches being good-to-great.

It certainly wouldn’t surprise me if they stuck the belt back on Cedric, but I think I’m going to go with Buddy Murphy this time, since I’d like to see his run continue, just so he can fight some new people for once.

Elias vs Bobby Lashley
(Ladder Match)

Really? This one got the ladder match stipulation? Alright.

While I love Elias, I don’t really get what this face turn has done for him. Before his heel turn, he just lost to Bobby Lashley a lot, and since he’s turned face he’s….lost to Bobby Lashley a lot. It’s really hard to tell what management think of Elias, they treat him like a star all the time, but I can’t even remember the last time he actually won a match.

I don’t really know what this match is going be like, ladder spots tend to be pretty contrived and slow, and I also don’t know what either of these guys are like in weapons matches. I’m going to hold out some hope for a fun match, but I won’t be surprised if I end up crapping all over it in my review.

As for a winner, I don’t really think it matters, and while my head says to pick Lashley, I’m gonna pray to the Nine Divines that Elias actually picks up a win for once.

Finn Balor vs Drew Mcintyre

Ireland vs Scotland, as an Englishman I’m looking forward to watching them implode.

I’m quietly optimistic for this one, I love both these guys and they’ve  put on a whole host of brilliant matches in their time in WWE/NXT, I really think they’ll have the chemistry they need to put on something great…if they get more than 5 minutes that is.

I don’t really have a whole lot else to say here, and it’s pretty obvious to me that Drew Mcintyre is going to win here, since they’re really trying to build him up as a big monster to take out Strowman (and maybe even Lesnar).

Natalya vs Ruby Riott
(Tables Match)

Hm, not really sure what to think of this one.

On the one hand, it’s never a good thing when WWE uses real life tragedy in order to further a storyline, especially something as contrived as this one seems to have been. While, on the other hand, WWE haven’t actually handled this one that badly, and it’s nice to see a story in the women’s division that isn’t about the title get some pretty high-profile PPV time.

Out of the three weapons on this show, tables matches tend to be the worst when it comes to breaking the flow of a match and contrived set ups. Also they normally quite suddenly and unsatisfying.

Given the subject matter it’d look a bit dodgy for the heel to go over here, so I’m going to pick Natalya to win the day in honour of her father.

The Bar(c) vs The New Day vs The Usos
(Smackdown Tag Team Championships)

I’d complain about there not being a Raw Tag Title match on this show, but this match is pretty much all the explanation you need.

I generally don’t get aboard the bandwagon of saying which show was better all the time, because I can’t be bothered with it all really, but there’s just no case to be made for the Raw Tag division when you look at this match. All of these teams are great performers and have so much chemistry together that this match is pretty much a sure-fire win for this show.

While it could quite easily become a victim of the lack of time on this show, even a cut down version on this should still be one of the better matches on the card and it’s also quite hard to pick a winner.

As I keep saying, New Day seem to be the default setting for the Smackdown Tag Titles, and could realistically win them at any time. The Bar have had a pretty decent title run so far, and it certainly wouldn’t be a bad thing to see them keep going a little longer. However The Usos seem to me like they’re where the titles are headed eventually, and that might just happen on Sunday.

The logical part of me says to pick The Bar to retain, but I’m going to go with my gut here and say The Usos are picking up the titles.

Becky Lynch(c) vs Charlotte Flair vs Asuka
(Smackdown Women’s Championship)
(TLC Match)

Decisions, decisions, all of them interesting.

First of all, this match is going to be absolutely incredible. I know I normally dunk on weapons stipulations, but in a Triple Threat match, the pace can keep going how it should while the big spots get set up, they tend to feel less contrived and these are arguably the three most talented women in all of WWE right now.

More importantly, I really don’t mind who wins. If Becky wins, then she continues her fantastic run as champion; if Charlotte wins, then Becky’s free to win the Rumble and Charlotte can rematch Asuka; and if Asuka wins, then it means she finally gets her time in the sun and the title she should’ve won at Wrestlemania this year.

However because of this, it makes it quite hard to actually make a prediction. I know Becky vs Ronda is the current rumour, but those can change very easily, especially before the Royal Rumble. Charlotte is one of those wrestlers that could quite easily win the title at any point and it’d make sense, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she won.

I’m not very confident in saying this, but I think Asuka is going to be the one to pull the title down from atop the ladder, and finally claim her prize.

Ronda Rousey(c) vs Nia Jax
(Raw Women’s Championship)

Another one I’m pretty in the middle on.

I feel pretty confident in saying that when Nia won this opportunity at Evoltuion, no-one thought it was going to be quite the saga that it has been so far. Firstly, Nia turned heel again, which I guess was to be expected but she’s turned so many times this year it doesn’t really feel like it matters. Then, with one swift punch she broke Becky’s face and robbed us of the Ronda vs Becky match we were all so desperate to see and became the single most hated wrestler on the face of the Earth.

So naturally, WWE did what WWE did best and fanned the flames, and made her the sole survivor of Team Raw, just to make sure that everyone hated her. I’d love to say that this was classic WWE, misreading their audience, but it really wasn’t. Genuinely hated heels are a rarity in the modern wrestling landscape, so I can’t really blame them for jumping on this chance when it presented itself.

Hopefully this match will be a fun one to watch, their encounter at Money in the Bank was really good so let’s hope that chemistry has stuck around all these months. Regardless of the story, this is Ronda Rousey, and she’s not losing that title until at least Wrestlemania, and probably will still hold onto it past then.

Braun Strowman vs Baron Corbin
(TLC Match)

There’s always one…

On pretty much every WWE PPV, there’s one match, where fans go crazy with speculation about all the twists and turns that could happen, and that’s no different on this show. People have been going crazy coming up with theories as to how this match might resolve itself.

No matter what happens, this match is going to be a short one; like, under a minute kind of short. People have been suggesting run-ins like Kurt Angle, Bray Wyatt, or Heath Slater, and while those would all be fun, I don’t think any of them are going to happen.

Corbin has already stated he’s going to win the match via forfeit and become permanent GM of Raw, so that is at least going to be teased, whether Strowman shows or not. Corbin will come out and tell the referee to start counting to ten to win the match, then one of two things will happen.

Either: at the very last second, just as the referee is about to count the ten, Strowman’s music hits, he hit Corbin with a single powerslam and that’s the end of that; OR, the referee counts to ten, Strowman doesn’t show up, Corbin becomes permanent Raw GM, and we’re all sad forever, take your pick.

As of writing this, I have no idea whether Strowman is cleared or not, so I’m going to lean-to the boring end of the spectrum and say Baron Corbin takes the boring win here, since, even if Strowman does show, there’s a chance Corbin could use heel bullshit to get his win.

Seth Rollins(c) vs Dean Ambrose
(Intercontiental Championship)

Oh please God, just let this be good.

While this hasn’t quite been the epic storyline that we’d all envisioned, it’s certainly been simmering quite nicely. They spun their wheels for a few weeks while we got Survivor Series out-of-the-way (and a little bit after that) then we were given a vague explaination about Seth Rollins’ ego being the reason Dean hates him.

It just seems like such a basic reason, there was so much more you could’ve done with it, you could’ve weaved a careful story about Dean having to emotionally deal with Roman’s illness. Or maybe suggest the idea that Dean only tolerated Seth because Roman liked him, so now with Roman gone, he can’t hold himself back. Even if you wanted to run with the whole “ego” thing, at least give some link back to when Seth originally betrayed The Shield so that this feels justified, and not like the writers didn’t know what to do with Roman gone. Despite all of that, there is a kernel of a good story in here, and if given a bit more time to grow, this could be something really good.

As long as this match is given enough time then I’m hopeful it’ll be one of the better matches of the night, these two have wrestled each other so many times over the past 4 years that we’re pretty much guaranteed a good match at the bare minimum.

When a story is just starting like this one, it can be hard to predict who gets the first victory, but given where this story feel it’s going, and the rumours of Seth vs Brock being the planned Wrestlemania match this year, I’m going to pick Dean Ambrose to capitalize on his new-found momentum and pick up the Intercontinetal Title.

Daniel Bryan(c) vs AJ Styles
(WWE Championship)

Just typing that feels good.

It’s weird how, even though we’ve already seen this match twice in the past two months, I’m still very excited to finally see it on a PPV. This whole “new Daniel Bryan” thing they’ve been running with is one of those things that would fall flat on its face with anyone else, but Daniel Bryan’s performance just makes it so entertaining to see.

If you’d ask me two months ago if a Daniel Bryan heel turn was a good idea, I never would’ve agreed with you in a million years, but goddamned if the Smackdown writing team haven’t proved me wrong. It goes without saying that this should be one of the best matches of the night (again, provided it’s given the time it needs), but I’m pretty doubtful we’ll see a clean finish.

One of the key points of Daniel Bryan’s heel turn has been the fans not deserving to see great matches, so it’s entirely possible that he’ll be deliberately trying to crap all over the match just to piss the fans off which, while effective, would be a shame.

Irrespective of any of that, Daniel Bryan is definitely going to walk out of this one with the win, no matter what he has to do. I’m not entirely sure what the endgame of this whole thing is, but my hope (and I can’t believe I’m saying this) is Bryan vs Cena at Wrestlemania, and a crooked win for Bryan would be a great way to build towards it.

And there you have it! Thank you very much for reading, if you want more opinions about wrestling and other nonsense, make sure to folow me on Twitter @10ryawoo; and make sure to come back next week for my review of the show!