Tag: Kofi Kingston

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.

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