Tag: Seth Rollins

WWE Super Showdown 2019: Every Match Ranked

Super Showdown is now in the books and well…yeah that was about what I was expecting it to be.

I normally like to put a positive spin on these intros, but I just can’t do it with this show. It started out decent enough but once it slowed down it just ground to a halt and caused a 7 car pile up. If I’m being honest I could just have the sentence “This was boring” for almost every entry and kick back with a job well done, but I’ll try to get more out of it than that.

Let’s rank ’em then, here’s what I thought of every match from WWE Super Showdown 2019.

10 – Randy Orton def. Triple H

Honestly, it’s impressive that this match – a match I had the lowest of expectations for – still managed to underwhelm me.

This was the longest match of the show at just over 25 minutes (more than 15 minutes longer than any other match on the show) and quite frankly it only needed to be about 5. All anyone wants to see from these big nostalgia matches is for the two guys to hit all their signature moves on one another, and one to get pinned, that’s literally all we care about. Instead, whoever’s producing these matches (probably Triple H himself) decides we need almost half an hour of two guys well past their prime doing basically nothing until right at the end they hit their big moves and one gets pinned.

I actually timed it, and from the moment the bell rings it takes a whole minute for them to even touch for the first time, then it’s another minute before anyone actually does a wrestling move, and that was pretty much the pattern for the whole match. Honestly, the moment the match was over, I could not tell you a single thing that happened during it other than the opening and the finish, which by the way was telegraphed so hard, I saw it coming about a minute before it actually happened.

It’s very rare that a wrestling match makes me this bored. Even during Triple H vs Batista this year (which I hated), I was never so bored that I actively wanted to stop paying attention and watch something else. I don’t want to sound like some whiney punk, but Triple H needs to get over himself and realise all we want to see him do is the cool signature moves…and I’ll admit I have a soft spot for the over the top entrances.

9 – Lars Sullivan def. The Lucha House Party via Disqualification
(3 on 1 Handicap)

Honestly, this match should thank every God anyone’s ever believed in its not last place.

Pretty much what makes me like this match more than HHH vs Orton is that A) It’s shorter and B) It didn’t move at the pace of a snail with arthritis. Once again, I went in with low expectations and was underwhelmed, the LHP guys put in the most meagre of offences against Lars, and quite honestly Lars barely did anything in return either other than standing there and looking cross.

While the finish made the whole thing seem like a huge waste of time, it was admittedly the smart thing for LHP to do, if they then didn’t undercut it by going back into the fray after making their quick exit. I hope this is the end of this (although I have a feeling it’s not) because both sides deserve something better.

8 – Braun Strowman def. Bobby Lashley

I’m not saying this match was predictable, but I was sitting there telling my friend what was going to happen before it happened.

A match like this between two big guys desperately needs to be more than stalemates and rest holds. It needs to be explosive, take Undertaker vs Batista from Wrestlemania 23 as an example, that’s what these guys need to do, just on a smaller scale. Instead, we got Strowman running around the ring like an idiot – because turning a 90-degree corner kills all your momentum, thus making you slower – and Lashley responded with offence that felt like it had no power behind it.

I really don’t have anything else to say here other than I never want to see this match again.

7 – Shane McMahon def. Roman Reigns

Oh for fu-

WWE, it’s ok, Shane Mcmahon can lose a match once in a while, just stop, please. I just don’t understand what kind of shit anyone was smoking when this match was booked because it doesn’t help anyone. If Reigns beats Drew, loses to Shane and then beats Drew in order to get revenge then all that does is make both Reigns and Drew look weak. Reigns looks weak because he couldn’t beat Shane and had to fight a guy he’s already beat instead, and Drew looks weak because Reigns beat him twice.

Outside of that, the match was boring too. Once again most of the spots were predictable and the ones that weren’t were mostly just rest holds. Like I said in my predictions, I had a secret thought that this match could rock, but that’ll teach me to have hope.

6 – The Undertaker def. Goldberg

Well, this was just depressing.

I’ll be honest, during the first half of this match, I was actually entertained. While the transitional stuff was pretty boring, I thought they were hitting all the right notes, just going for the big moves and hitting each other very hard in the middle, then the rest of it happened…

So first Undertaker hit a Tombstone and looked like he was about to drop Goldberg at any moment (luckily he didn’t), but things got worse from there as Goldberg got busted open from…something, and after a pretty good looking spear he went for a Jackhammer and oh boy. I don’t know if Undertaker was too heavy, or he hadn’t adjusted his weight right, but Goldberg couldn’t hold Taker up and almost dropped him directly on his head on the way down. Then it came to the finish, and the pair were going for the classic, “Tombstone gets countered into the other person’s Tombstone” spot and just as they were about to complete the rotation, Undertaker just drops Goldberg, Taker then didn’t even bother trying to do another one and instead just hit a crappy looking Chokeslam for the win.

I don’t blame them for the things went wrong in this match, and watching it makes me more worried for both of the guys in the ring than annoyed that the match was bad, but I’d be lying if I said it was any good.

5 – Mansoor wins the 50 Man Battle Royal

As much as it’s not what I would’ve done, I can’t really argue with this booking decision. For one thing, it popped the crowd something fierce, I wasn’t entirely sure if they’d know who he was but thankfully they definitely knew and he got the loudest reaction of the night when he won, but there’s just one thing that would ruin this win: If he wasn’t on TV regularly from now on. Raw, Smackdown, 205 Live or NXT, Mansoor needs to actually become a regular fixture of one of these shows now or this win will do nothing for him.

The rest of the battle royal was about as entertaining as you’d expect a pointless battle royal in an overcrowded ring to be. There were a couple of fun spots, and the action picked up a little once we got down to the last few men, but it was still nothing to write home about. At least someone will likely benefit from this, which is more than can be said about the ARMBAR.

4 – Kofi Kingston(c) def. Dolph Ziggler
(WWE Championship)

As much as I wasn’t too excited about this one in my predictions, I quietly hoped this one would be good, and it was, at least by this show’s standards.

This match wasn’t anything special, not by a long shot, and in fact, if it were on a regular episode of Smackdown it would probably still be characterised as mediocre, but thanks to the absolute sea of utter shite that came before it, I actually got a bit of enjoyment out of this one. Not much mind, but in the spots where the pace picked up I thought there was some good back and forth, unfortunately, there was a lot of Ziggler “wearing Kofi down” which is always extraordinarily dull.

The finish was also a tad confusing, I get Xavier was just getting revenge for what Ziggler did to him earlier on and I imagine that’s how they’ll justify it as a face move come Tuesday, but what really was the point in it? Was it just to set up Kofi vs Ziggler for Stomping Grounds? Because that seems hilariously redundant. What’s worse is a small thing like that opens up amazing opportunities for storylines between Xavier and Kofi, for example, Xavier could be so desperate to keep the train rolling that he’ll cheat in order to allow Kofi to retain, even against Kofi’s own wishes. WWE do this all the time, where they tease us with the possibility of something interesting, only to throw it away for something boring, so onto Stomping Grounds I guess.

3 – Finn Balor(c) def. Andrade
(Intercontinental Championship)

You know, if Triple H didn’t insist on needing 25 minutes for his matches, maybe this one could’ve been long enough to actually be awesome.

Of course, this match was at least somewhat enjoyable, these two could put on a good match in their sleep, but I really felt like this thing was hindered by a lack of time and a lack of urgency. The time thing is totally out of their hands of course, but a match like this really needed an extra 5 minutes or so of back and forth around the middle to really build to the kind of climax it was going for because the one we got fell flat a little.

I also didn’t help that the crowd seemed really uninterested in this one for some reason, despite it only being the 3rd match of the night, when Finn kicked out of Andrade’s finisher, I couldn’t believe how little reaction there was to it. It might be because this match was weirdly slow paced given the two guys involved, it just never really felt like it properly got going, even though most of the action was very solid. I guess maybe it’s the heat? Since commentary wouldn’t stop telling us how hot it was for some reason.

2 – The Usos def. The Revival
(Kickoff Show)

These kickoff show matches just keep getting better and better.

In an ironic twist, being on the kickoff show means that this match didn’t get saddled by being stupidly overbooked, and was allowed to just go out there and entertain the crowd with some simple wrestling; which on this show is a God-send. Unfortunately, it’s also the match I have the least to say about, because it was just a good wrestling match, plenty of back and forth action, a couple of exciting tags and reversals with a definitive finish, that’s really all there is to it.

1 – Seth Rollins(c) def. Baron Corbin
(Universal Championship)

And now, we pair something we always see (Seth Rollins in the best singles match of the night), with something I never thought we’d see (Baron Corbin in the best singles match of the night).

Admittedly, this is pretty much just the best match by default, but it’s still surprising to be talking about a Baron Corbin match in the number one slot. Maybe it’s because it was at the start of the show, but I really did find myself enjoying this one a decent amount. The pace was pretty quick and the tone seemed to be pretty light throughout and it told a decent, self-contained story in the match, that being the fact that Baron Corbin is too much of a prick for his own good.

Much like Corey said on commentary, Corbin has no-one to blame but himself for that loss, and it fits in so perfectly with his character that it was him trying to lord himself over officials and make himself seem more important than he is, is what caused him to lose that match; it allows him to whine and heelishly cry foul play without making Seth look weak.

Then there was the stuff that happened after the match (which doesn’t affect the rankings, but this is the only place I can talk about it) which wasn’t really what I was hoping for, but did wonders to keep Seth looking strong and keep the briefcase on Brock. I don’t know if this means we’re going to have a vengeful beast anytime soon, but it should make the eventual rematch between these two extremely heated.

So that’s it! That’s what I thought of every match from WWE Super Showdown and, in a sentence, it was crap, let’s hope Stomping Grounds can pick up where Money in the Bank left off later in the month. Until then let me know what you thought of the show on Twitter @10ryawoo and make sure you come back this time next week for my rankings of every episode in Doctor Who Series 2!

WWE Money in the Bank 2019: Every Match Ranked

Hmm, alright then.

This was definitely the most mixed WWE PPV of the year so far. It had some really good point, but it also had a fair share of it’s weird/bad moments too, so I’d understand if you came away with a negative overall view of the show, but personally, I still thought it was a pretty good overall product. Granted, it didn’t seem like it for the first hour and a half or so, but once the show picked up I think it kept a pretty consistent quality.

Every match has its place, however, so let’s take a look at where those places are, as I rank every match from WWE Money in the Bank 2019.

11 – Roman Reigns def. Elias

I would’ve never criticised WWE ever again if Reigns had just turned around and smacked Elias in the mouth right then.

As was to be expected with a 10 match card, we got a couple of really short matches last night and I generally find it pretty hard to put super short matches any higher than last unless they served a real purpose (like Seth vs Brock from Wrestlemania).

So why did I rank this one lower than the other one? Because it was shorter is pretty much the only reason. Elias’ cartoonish sneak attack on Reigns made it pretty obvious this was going to be a squash too, especially when Elias came down to the ring anyway and busted out his electric guitar. As could be predicted, Reigns’ music hit just as Elias was walking up the ramp, Reigns got some payback, then he rolled Elias in the ring and 7 seconds later Reigns had won. Pretty much right on the hour for when Game of Thrones started, which I’m sure was just a coincidence but I’m going to pretend it wasn’t for comedic purposes.

It’s not entirely clear what Reigns is going to be doing over this summer so it wouldn’t surprise me if this feud kept going for another match at Super Showdown, although they’ve got to fill out the numbers in that 50 man battle royal somehow.

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

Apparently, all the referees were just completely blind tonight.

So, the current story is that this match was cut short once Joe started bleeding quite heavily thanks to a broken nose, which I’m fine with, the wrestlers’ safety should always come first after all, but I’m not a huge fan of the way they did it.

Sometimes, when they have a “botched” finish like this, where the referee doesn’t see something and ends up declaring the wrong winner, it makes sense. The situation of where the competitor was compared to the referee means you can believe that the ref might not have been able to see the ropes or a shoulder off the mat, but there was really no excuse on this one. Not only was the referee looking almost directly at it, but Joe’s shoulder could not have been higher off of the mat by the time the three hit.

Not only that, but it’s been established in recent years that in a situation like this, they will show the replay on the arena screens, or a second referee will run down and correct the mistake of the original referee, which only makes things all the more confusing in situations like this where that doesn’t happen. The commentators can clearly see it right in front of them, and they’re literally 10 feet away, can the referee not just check the video? It seems so non-sensical.

Either way, I liked the post-match beatdown, and I really hope it’s building to Dominick getting involved physically sometime soon because it’s really weird just having him stand there and watch his father get destroyed and not even try to stop Joe.

9 – Becky Lynch(c) def. Lacey Evans
(Raw Women’s Championship)

Well that was exactly what I was expecting it to be.

This is one of those matches, where I don’t really have much bad to say about it, but I also don’t have a great deal of praise to dole out either. If this had taken place on an episode of Raw, it would’ve been classed as really good, but on a PPV? It’s fine, but nothing special.

I understand, of course, Becky had to wrestle two matches, so she didn’t wanna go crazy in this one, and as much as Lacey is better than we give her credit for, she’s still got a ways to go before she cracks that upper tier of brilliant matches. As I’ve said, this match was perfectly serviceable, but there really wasn’t any moment that stuck out to me as being particularly great or awful. I do think it was a bit short though, I know Becky’s got to wrestle two matches, but you couldn’t have let this one go just a little bit longer? The finish felt way too sudden.

Hopefully, Lacey Evans fades to the back of the line for a little bit, partly because I want to see Becky face a variety of opponents on Raw, but also as much as she lost pretty decisively here, her stock has been raised by competing in a high profile feud with Becky like this; a lot more than walking up and down the ramp every week did at least. That raising of stock for Lacey would almost certainly be undone if she had to take another loss from Becky-Not-Actually-2-Belts-Anymore-Hope-You-Didn’t-Buy-That-Shirt.

8 – Bayley wins the Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match

With the exception of the finish, there really wasn’t much to be excited about in this one.

For one thing, it went really short for a Money in the Bank ladder match going a mere thirteen minutes, which was shorter than both World title matches and the same length as Shane vs Miz, which takes away from a lot of the drama and excitement you can get out of the match. Secondly, there was a real lack of big and impactful spots throughout the match. Naomi’s stuff was fun, and the matrix dodging of ladders was something we haven’t really seen before, but none of the ladder spots we saw here were anything worth shouting about.

Carmella’s “injury” also didn’t really seem like the best touch, partly because it was pretty obvious it wasn’t real and also because they drew almost no attention to it barring a couple of quick cuts when there was a split-second break in the action. I also don’t really feel like anyone outside of the winner got a chance to really shine during the match, Ember Moon’s eclipse from a ladder was awesome but when you take a look at the rest of the match she’s basically a complete non-factor for most of it.

All that said, I really liked the finish. Sonya literally carrying Mandy to the top of the ladder looked great, and it was only made better when Bayley sprinted up the ladder and stared at Mandy will all of hell’s fury behind her eyes. It felt like such a cathartic character moment for Bayley, like after all the crap she’s been through for the past two years she’s finally had enough and won’t let anyone take her opportunity from her. Honestly, that finish alone pulled this match up a whole place.

7 – Tony Nese(c) def. Ariya Daivari
(Cruiserweight Championship)

Well, wouldn’t you fancy that? When you give the cruiserweights a chance to shine, they actually shine.

It’s at this point that I realise I actually like this show a lot more than I thought I did, because from here on out I pretty much only have good things to say about the matches. Once again, the cruiserweights got their once in a blue moon to put on a killer match on the main show of a WWE PPV, and while it wasn’t as good as Murphey vs Ali from Survivor Series last year, it was certainly still a great match to watch.

Daivari played a great heel, but not one that looked weak and had to cheat every 5 seconds despite what his character seems like. The action kept up a pretty fast pace throughout and there were almost no wasted motions between the pair. It never quite reached that higher gear of amazing spots and intense back and forth, but it certainly outperformed your average WWE PPV match, and proved that Tony Nese is a legitimate champion.

I’m not entirely sure what’s next for Nese, but there’s no shortage of opponents for him on 205 Live. If Nese carries on having these great one-and-done feuds with the whole 205 roster, he’ll be a very good champion indeed.

6 – Shane McMahon def. The Miz
(Steel Cage)

I know, I’m as surprised as you are this was good.

I honestly don’t understand how this happened, it’s one of the most boring stipulations in WWE, with a non-wrestler and a wrestler who doesn’t do well in hardcore matches, and somehow it was great. My world has been torn asunder.

Shane plays such a good heel in matches like this that it’s a wonder he was ever a face, to begin with. The way he sprints up the cage wall at every available opportunity adds this sense of urgency to the whole match and creates a great dynamic where The Miz is desperately trying to ground Shane and keep him down at every opportunity because Shane won’t hesitate to make a break for it if he has the chance.

There was so much back and forth between these two and the chemistry between them seems to be so tight at this point I honestly don’t think they could put on a bad match. We had plenty of exciting spots, like Miz catching Shane off of the coast-to-coast, Shane falling from almost the top of the cage flat onto his back, the figure 4 where Shane almost escaped, and the Skull Crushing Finale onto the chair where Shane got his foot on the ropes despite the fact that there’s no rope break in a cage match. Well ok, maybe not that last one.

I’m also ok with the finish because it makes Shane seem lucky without making Miz seem stupid, and I imagine we’ll probably see one more match between the two at some point over the next month to wrap things up. I hope so anyway because this feud has been surprisingly good the entire time.

5 – Charlotte Flair def. Becky Lynch(c)
Bayley def. Charlotte Flair(c)
(Smackdown Women’s Championship)

I’ve lumped these two together since there’s not enough to write about them both individually, and they run into each other pretty heavily.

I honestly didn’t think they were going to do the matches back to back like this, but the way everything turned out really made the best of that situation. Charlotte looking super pleased with herself was a great touch as she came out, and it was clear she didn’t want to give Becky a moment to recover after the first match.

So this match was only about five minutes long, but it worked for the story that they were trying to tell, it lasted long enough that you thought Becky was going to be able to pull a fast one on Charlotte, only for Lacey Evans, who we all forgot about, to give Charlotte the advantage and hit a big boot (which completely missed, but let’s ignore that) to win the match.

Charlotte winning the title here made it so that I think we all instantly knew how this was going to end. A quick beatdown on Becky followed by Bayley’s music hitting and the crowd full on exploded at that moment. Considering it feels like only a few months ago she was being booed out of arenas for being scared of a stick, I’m so glad this move to Smackdown has done her well and hopefully, this reign lasts longer than 48 hours and she gets a chance to put on great matches defending the title all summer.

4 – The Usos def. Daniel Bryan & Rowan
(Kickoff Show)

The words “kickoff show” have no meaning to Daniel Bryan.

I thought this match would still be awesome despite being on the pre-show, but man, these guys really put their working shoes on. Sure, the match had no steaks and really had no reason to exist in the first place, but that doesn’t stop it from being full of exciting moments and fast-paced action from some of the best wrestlers in the world.

All four men put on some great work here, Bryan & Rowan’s teamwork continues to develop in every match they have, and honestly, it looked at points like Rowan could’ve taken both Usos on his own. Bryan, of course, did the great work he always does, grounding the Usos at every opportunity and continues to make every single opponent he wrestles look like a million bucks.

The Usos were no slouches either, they wouldn’t stop flying all over the place and doling out superkicks like there’s no tomorrow. They aren’t the team I’d have picked to win this match, but given how much fun this match was to watch, I don’t really mind. Not to mention, Daniel Bryan’s post-match promo on WWE.com could lead to a great story, so right now, I’ve got nothing but positives about this one.

3 – Kofi Kingston(c) def. Kevin Owens
(WWE Championship)

More of this, please.

I know the crowd weren’t as into this as they could’ve been thanks to the Universal title match that came before it, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that this match rocked.

It was a little slow to start, with Owens mostly playing the heel role of wearing Kofi down for a while, but once this thing got going, it told such a brilliant story. This whole year with Kofi has pretty much been a story of him absolutely refusing to say die, no matter what is thrown his way and no matter how much of a beating he takes he just won’t stay down, and that was all this match needed to run with, and Owens showed the effects of it all over his face.

Once Kofi started to come back and we got into a more back and forth pace, Owens’ performance was absolutely pitch perfect for the story of the match. Every single time Kofi kicked out or got back up he would slowly begin to lose his shit more and more, lashing out at the crowd, at the commentators and at Kofi every single time Kofi got back up. It created this brilliant sense of urgency towards the end of the match where Owens was becoming more and more vicious and trying absolutely everything he could think of to keep Kofi down, and Kofi just bided his time and waited for the opportunity to strike.

I don’t know if this is the end of the feud considering it was a clean finish, but I really hope there’s more of this to come, I think there’s so much great storyline opportunities to be had with Owens getting so unbelievably frustrated at how he can’t put Kofi away that he has to resort to some sort of drastic action, and I have the faith in the Smackdown creative team to pull it off.

2 – Brock Lesnar win the Men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match

Oh…ok.

We’ll talk about…that in a moment, but before we get bogged down, let’s take a look at the rest of the match because it was awesome.

First off, we need to give the man of the match award, and a giant ice pack to Finn Balor because holy crap he damn near killed himself in this match for our entertainment last night. Not only did he take that incredible sunset flip from the top of a ladder, onto another ladder which bounced making him land on it a second time which might be the greatest ladder spot I’ve ever seen, he also was dropped multiple times onto other ladders around the ring by Drew Mcintyre which were probably even more painful with the force he landed on some of them.

On top of that, we had Ricochet and Ali flipping around each other the whole time which was so much fun to watch, even when Ricochet was just lobbed straight through a ladder by Drew. Drew and Corbin’s partnership was a nice touch, it gave the match a back and forth and proper structure in amongst all of the chaos that was going on around the place, and even better when it inevitably imploded.

Then of course…there was the finish. I’m still not entirely sure what to make of it if I’m honest. For one thing, it made Ali look like an idiot because he could’ve unhooked the briefcase and been out of the ring by the time Brock got to him, but that’s a minor detail, the most important thing is that Brock Lesnar is the Money in the Bank briefcase holder. I’m not pissed off by this decision, and I’m not all that upset that Brock has the briefcase, however, I would’ve prefered anyone else in that match (except Orton) to win instead of Brock.

I think this mostly because it seems really obvious what’s going to happen. I absolutely love the idea of a guy like Brock with Money in the Bank, a dude who can run you through in seconds when you’re at 100% having the opportunity to pounce on you when you’re at the weakest is a brilliant threat, and watching whoever is champion at the time absolutely shit themselves whenever his music hits would be great; but that’s not what’s going to happen.

All that’s going to happen is Heyman will announce the cash-in for an upcoming PPV, be it Super Showdown or Summerslam, that’s all it will be and quite frankly did Brock really need Money in the Bank to do that? All Brock needs to do to get his rematch with Seth is show up, throw a few dudes about and demand it, meanwhile, you could’ve given the briefcase to someone like Drew ready for later in the year.

At the end of the day, I don’t think Brock winning Money in the Bank is a bad thing, but it was certainly the worst of the present options; the match was still awesome though, so second place it stays.

1 – Seth Rollins(c) def. AJ Styles
(Universal Championship)

Oh, thank God it was good, really really good.

You have no idea how paranoid I’ve been this past month that this match was going to underwhelm and disappoint compared to its expectations, AJ Styles matches have a history of that in WWE after all, but my paranoia was baseless because this match was a sight to behold.

It was paced to absolute perfection to start with, the feeling out process lasted just long enough to get your mouth watering for them to pick up the pace and that’s exactly when they did. Watching these two go back and forth was so much fun, and seeing AJ being able to outwrestle Seth for a large part of the first half was an interesting way to tell the story of the match because it meant Rollins had to rely on his killer instinct to make a comeback.

The final 5 minutes were fever pitch and an absolute blast to watch, that Curb Stomp into Styles Clash counter was a thing of beauty, I’ve watched it so many times now and I’m still not entirely sure how they managed it so seamlessly. It was able to suspend the disbelief of the result as well because there was no way Seth was ever going to lose this match, but goddamn if I didn’t doubt that fact during a couple of the near falls.

This is everything I had hoped for both from a Seth vs AJ match and Seth Rollins as Universal Champion, if all his matches are going to be like this, we might need a separate list at the end of the year just for Seth Rollins matches because right now, this is tied with Kofi vs Bryan for my favourite main roster match of the year. Please, sir, I want some more.

So there you have it! That’s what I thought of every match that took place at Money in the Bank 2019! Having written the review now, it was actually a lot better of a show than I gave it credit for at the start, there were some weird moments, but ultimately almost every match was good to great from top to bottom.

Still, what do you think? Let me know in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. I’m away next week so there won’t be any posts, but the following Friday you can expect my rankings of Doctor Who Series 2!

WWE Money in the Bank 2019: Predictions & Analysis

Let’s not sugar coat this, WWE TV this past month has been awful.

Raw is currently the worst it’s been in a long time, thanks to the superstar shakeup being rather underwhelming and taking 3 weeks for everyone to get in the right places. Then one week later we’re told that actually, it didn’t matter because the “Wildcard Rule” means people could just come and go from either show as they please. Smackdown’s been better, with at least a couple of fun and entertaining segments a week, but it’s still not as high a quality show week to week as it used to be.

That said, WWE are yet to produce a bad PPV so far this year, and Money in the Bank is one of those gimmicks that has a fairly high base quality. Rumour is that WWE are actually planning to make a star of the Money in the Bank winner this year, rather than burying them 6 feet under like they have done for the past couple of years. The rest of the card looks hopeful too, with what will hopefully be done dream matches.

Not all of them though, so let’s take a look at them all, break down the storeys and pick a winner.

Daniel Bryan & Rowan vs The Usos
(Kickoff Show)

The article on WWE.com doesn’t make it clear if this is a title match or not, but given it’s on the pre-show, I’m going to assume it isn’t.

I could sit here and complain that the best tag team in WWE, the best wrestler in the world and his friend who’s improved a surprising amount of the past few months are slumming it on the pre-show, but honestly, I’m just thankful Daniel Bryan can still wrestle after his injury scare following Wrestlemania.

Plus, this match is still going to be great even if it doesn’t get tonnes of time. Bryan & Rowan have formed a lot of chemistry together since they began their partnership in January, and I think they were the perfect team to have carry the titles once Jeff Hardy suffered his leg injury. It’s entirely possible that The Revival use this match as an opportunity to get some petty revenge on The Usos for filming them shaving each other’s backs and making their balls itch…yeah, wrestling’s shit sometimes…

Given that The Usos are on Raw, Daniel Bryan & Rowan are definitely winning this match, whether it’s for the titles or not. If it is for the titles then they won’t lose the belts this quick to someone on the wrong show, and if it isn’t for the titles then I can’t see the newly crowned champions losing a match on PPV so soon after winning the titles.

Tony Nese(c) vs Ariya Daivari
(Cruiserweight Championship)

Guess who’s actually been watching 205 Live this past month and a half.

I decided to commit to watching 205 Live on a regular basis following Wrestlemania, and honestly, I’m glad I did it, there’s a lot of good matches on there every week and some pretty interesting minor storylines, unfortunately, I wouldn’t really describe this as one of them.

Don’t get me wrong, both these guys are great wrestlers and I’m sure the match will be just as good as the Cruiserweight Championship matches always are, but this build has been super generic in its premise. Ariya Daivari has been on a winning streak as of late, this has been rewarded with a title match and now Nese and Daivari have been passive-aggressively watching each other’s matches and staring down after every single one.

I like a simpler build from time to time, but this is just a bit too basic for my taste, especially if this is going to be what all of Nese’s title feuds are going to be like until someone like Oney Lorcan comes along and spices things up. Regardless, I’d say Tony Nese is a pretty safe bet here, he looked really good in victory over Buddy Murphey at Wrestlemania and it would be a really bad decision to have him lose the title this quick so this will be a solid defence for the new champion.

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

A United States title match? On a Pay-Per-View? Well I never…

After the absolute destruction of the US Title that came at the start of the year, Samoa Joe has done a pretty good job so far of showing bringing some level of prestige back to the belt. A solid defence of the title at Fastlane followed by beating Mysterio in under a minute at Wrestlemania has been great for both Joe and the title, and hopefully, that momentum will keep on rolling through Money in the Bank.

Admittedly the justification for the rematch was a little lazy, given that Rey pinned Joe in a non-title match on Raw, which we’ve all seen hundreds of times. That said, since then we’ve seen a pretty decent build, getting Rey’s son Dominick involved didn’t seem like it’d be a great idea at the time, but Joe’s promo ability and confrontations with both Rey and Dominick have done a good job of adding some animosity to the build so hopefully this one will get a bit more time than it did at Mania and we’ll get a good match.

I’m going back and forth on the winner though, because as much as I think Joe should win, Mysterio is one of those guys like Jeff Hardy, who could realistically win a secondary title at any point. The thing is, there are a lot of face champions on Raw and Smackdown right now, in fact, the US, Women’s Tag and Smackdown Tag titles are the only ones currently being held by heels so I don’t see Samoa Joe losing his title until that changes.

Roman Reigns vs Elias

Roman Reigns’ move to Smackdown is a great one as far as I’m concerned, with Seth as the Universal Champion there wasn’t going to be any room for him in that title picture for quite a while, and even though he probably won’t be challenging for the WWE Championship for a good few months yet, the mid-card on Smackdown are generally much better wrestlers who can put on great PPV matches with Reigns, and not be hurt too much by losing.

As for this feud in particular, it’s been a bit up and down up until this point. The introduction on the night of the superstar shakeup was great, seeing Vince McMahon get punched in the face will never stop being fun and using Elias and Shane as a proxy has made for some pretty entertaining promos. On the flip side, it has also brought out the worst in Reigns’ character, with him beating the B-Team two on one, despite the fact Elias was there as an extremely biased referee.

This match should be ok, Reigns is a perfectly solid wrestler and Elias is always surprisingly good on the rare occasion he actually wrestles, so as long as this doesn’t fall into the trap of spending 10 minutes of the two men “wearing each other down” using rest holds it should be pretty entertaining. Roman Reigns is definitely winning though.

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

The first of two title defences Becky will be taking part in on Sunday, this is the one where I really don’t think the result is in question.

Evans is still pretty untested when it comes to big matches in WWE. In the matches she had on NXT, she was fine, but she never had a big singles match at a Takeover and she hasn’t competed nearly enough since coming to main for us to really have an idea of what she’s like. I think she’s good enough for Becky to carry her to an entertaining match though, partly because Becky’s great, but also anyone who can have a halfway decent match with Natalya has got to have some talent behind them.

Like I said at the start though, I have no doubt about who’s walking away from this match victorious. Becky Lynch is not losing that Raw Women’s Title anytime soon, for two reasons. Firstly, there’s a good chance she could lose the Smackdown Women’s Title sometime soon, and secondly, the women’s division on Raw is pretty weak right now, and Becky needs to be at the top to anchor it until a certain Queen of Spades shows up.

Shane McMahon vs The Miz
(Steel Cage)

Who would’ve thought that this would end up being the best-built feud coming out of Wrestlemania?

I honestly don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that this has been the most interesting storyline on TV week to week the past month or so. We all know The Miz is one of the best promo guys around, and when he gets fired up as a face he can do some incredible work, and I think we all knew Shane would be great once he finally turned heel, given how hateable he was as a face. The two of them colliding each and every week has been great fun to watch.

That said, I’m sure how great of a match this is going to lead too. Steel Cage is generally one of my least favourite stipulations, and neither Shane nor Miz are wrestlers who can really benefit from this environment. This leads me to think it’s going to be full of interference from all corners of the roster, it wouldn’t surprise me if Reigns and Elias both got involved, maybe even Bobby Lashley will show up to try and screw Miz in the process. If that happens then it might be a fun watch, in a chaotic sense, because if it’s just a straight match the whole time, I don’t think it’s going to be anything to write home about.

I feel pretty confident in saying that The Miz is going to win here though, since I don’t really see any benefit to Shane winning again, even by accident. It seems to me like Shane is going to fade back into being less of a wrestler and more of an authority figure over the summer, and Miz will probably Samoa Joe’s next challenger, so Miz needs the win a lot more than Shane does here.

Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match

This lineup is quite a hit and miss one, on the one hand, there’s Bayley and Ember Moon, on the other hand, there’s Natalya. It makes it a little easier to predict (I hope), but I’m not sure if it’s going to lead to an entertaining match. There’s probably going to be some sort of crazy spot from someone, probably Ember, but a Money in the Bank ladder match needs to be more than that. Either way, let’s look at each of the competitor’s chances, shall we?

Natalya – This past couple of years I’ve gone right off Natalya as a wrestler. She used to be able to hold her own and even stand out as a competitor, but in this era of women’s wrestling where WWE has some of the best female competitors on the planet, she just can’t keep up. It’s entirely possible that Natalya will hold championship gold again before she retires, but something like Money in the Bank wouldn’t rest well on her shoulders.

Carmella – Since losing her Smackdown Women’s Championship last year, Carmella has come on leaps and bounds as a wrestler. Her character turned out to be much better suited to being a face than a heel and this turn has also allowed her to loosen up her wrestling style a lot more, without having to rely on crap like James Ellsworth to get victories; not the mention the Code of Silence is a great looking finisher. I think she’s destined to hold a championship again in her career, but given the landscape of the women’s division now I don’t think it’s going to be for a while, so she’s not picking up the briefcase here.

Dana Brooke – No.

Naomi – Naomi is someone who has all the makings of someone who could potentially carry one of the women’s divisions in WWE at some point in her career. I know she’s already been champion before, but I never felt like the creative team were fully behind her, but it certainly wouldn’t surprise me if in a few years we saw something akin to Kofi’s ascent earlier this year. Like I say though, in a few years, with Becky Lynch sitting pretty holding both women’s championships there’s just no room for her to be skulking around that scene right now.

Mandy Rose – If Asuka was still Smackdown Women’s Champion, I’d say she had a pretty good chance, but that’s not the case, so there’s not a lot for me to say. I can’t help but feel like WWE have backed the wrong horse out of Fire and Desire, don’t get me wrong I like Mandy Rose, even if she is still a little bit green, but I think Sonya Deville really has the makings of an all-time great female wrestler if they’d just give her a shot. Regardless, Mandy isn’t winning this match, because I don’t really see her being a champion anytime soon.

Nikki Cross – As announced on Thursday via WWE’s social media pages, Alexa Bliss wasn’t medically cleared to compete, and Nikki Cross is here replacement because…she sorta helped Alexa out on Monday? As far as reintroductions go, a Money in the Bank ladder match could be really good for Nikki if she’s given some time to stand out in it. Perhaps having her as the last person to be thrown off of the ladder before the actual winner climbs would be a good spot for her, and hopefully some form of story with Alexa Bliss will keep her on TV for the next few months. There’s no way she’s going to be winning this match though.

Ember Moon – Out of everyone in this match, I think this is who I want to win the most. Since coming over to Smackdown she’s been positioned perfectly for a meteoric rise in the coming months, but I’m really sceptical about WWE actually pulling the trigger on it. However, for that rise to happen, I really don’t think she needs to win Money in the Bank, it would help of course, but I think a more organic rise, similar to the one Becky Lynch saw last year would leave her better off in the long run. Ultimately, I wouldn’t be surprised if Ember won it, but it’s not what I think is going to happen.

Bayley – Time for a totally mad theory.

As much as I’ve loved (almost) every Charlotte vs Becky match, I’m at the point where I’d rather see someone else challenge Becky for once, which WWE illuded to a number of weeks ago when Becky proclaimed she also wants to face new people. In addition to this, Bayley has been made to look a million bucks since coming over to Smackdown last month, taking it to everyone she’s come accross.

So let’s put two and two together here, WWE seem to have loved pulling the “same night cash in” trick on a number of occasions, so why not do it again? Except this time, instead of making it a cheap sneak attack, have this match go on early, and once Bayley has unhooked the briefcase, she grabs a mics and inserts herself into Becky vs Charlotte, making it a triple threat. I’ll get into what happens in that match in a moment, but I personally think that would be a great way for things to play out.

Even if that doesn’t come to pass, I still think Bayley’s the one to go with here. She’ll likely announce her cash-in in advance because that’s what faces with the briefcase do, but I think it will be a good way to keep her in everyone’s minds while Becky goes off to face anyone and everyone on the Smackdown roster.

Men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match

Orton aside, I’d be perfectly happy with any of these men winning the coveted briefcase. There’s a great mix of big guys and high flyers in this match, and as previous years have shown us, that usually makes for the most entertaining of ladder matches. Ricochet and Ali are gonna try and out crazy each other which Balor & Andrade go at it, Drew & Braun try to murder each other, Orton doles out RKOs left right and centre and Corbin is also there.

Ricochet – I love Ricochet as much as the next guy, but let’s face it, he’s only in here to do some cool ladder spots. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure we’ll be raving about whatever it is he did come Monday, but he doesn’t have any real chance of actually winning the thing. It’s hard to tell where Ricochet’s going right now, which makes me worry that it’s nowhere, hopefully, a good showing here will stop that from happening.

Randy Orton – Much like Bliss in the women’s match, he almost certainly won’t win, but there’s a tiny chance he might because it’s Randy Orton. Orton is another guy who feels pretty directionless right now, he hasn’t done a great deal of anything since Wrestlemania, thanks to AJ jumping ship, so he’s just been doing what he always does between storylines which is RKOing people with no rhyme or reason until one of them gets pissy about it. He doesn’t need the briefcase to do that though, so let’s move on.

Baron Corbin – This seems very much like another opportunity for everyone and their grandmothers to mug off Baron Corbin with ladders right at the start of the match. I can’t say I’d be pissed off if Corbin won, but I certainly wouldn’t be that pleased about it. I’m sure Corbin will win a world title at some point over the next couple years – no matter how much we don’t want him to – but the Universal Title scene really doesn’t feel fit for him to drop in right now. It could look very different come November-January time, but somehow I doubt it.

Ali – I really hope Ali has a good showing here, he kicked ass in the WWE title match at Fastlane and he’s disappointingly faded back down the card a bit since then. With Buddy Murphey on the way to Smackdown as well, it’s getting a little worrying for Ali, as it’ll be really easy for him to get lost in the shuffle and have a really mediocre year, like that of Andrade in 2018. He’s not picking up the win here, but I imagine him and Ricochet will try and outdo each other and Ali will really show off his stuff.

Sami Zayn – I don’t really know what to make of Sami being put in this match in place of Braun. The way they did it was fine, Corbin and Mcintyre getting in there to take Strowman out of the picture made sense for both of those characters, and heel Sami Zayn is exactly the type of character to take advantage of it. That said, I don’t think Sami has any chance of actually winning the thing, I’m glad he’s getting a spot in a major match like this of course, but I can’t see him doing a great deal of note other than getting killed by Braun Strowman, that is if Strowman doesn’t take Zayn out before the match and reclaim his spot anyway.

Finn Balor – Balor seems like the prime candidate in this match for a whole host of “almost” moments. I imagine he’ll be much like face Dolph Ziggler was, where several times in the match, he’ll be fingertips away from unhooking the briefcase only for someone to snatch it away from him. I also think he can afford to not do a great deal of consequence in this match and still come out of it looking great. There are plenty of people lined up for Balor to face for the IC in the coming months and here would be a really good place to sow the seeds by having someone like Ali or Andrade stop him from doing it. At the end of the day though, he’s the Intercontinental Champion, so he really doesn’t need the Money in the Bank briefcase

Drew Mcintyre – If I were a betting man, this is probably who I would put my money on. As I mentioned in the intro, apparently the plan is to properly try and make a star out of this year’s Money in the Bank winner, and we’ve all known it was only a matter of time until Drew was a world champion when he resigned with NXT a few years ago. Drew really does seem like the easy pick to win this briefcase, but I’m not sure he actually needs the briefcase in order to get to the Universal Championship. All it takes is multiple months of Drew absolutely murdering dudes left, right and centre. Ultimately, I will not be surprised in the least if Drew walks out with the briefcase, but he’s not the horse I’m backing in this race, because…

Andrade – 2019 might be a “now or never” year for Andrade, not just because there are multiple reports of him being disgruntled, but also because of how he was treated throughout most of last year. He had great matches with top stars yes, but with the exception of Rey Mysterio, he lost all of them. Those matches did a great job to raise his stock and Vince is reportedly really high on the guy, but if he spends another year doing the exact same thing there might not be any way for him to recover.

If Andrade was still on Raw I’d say he didn’t have a chance, but now he’s back on Smackdown all bets are off, and Andrade could be the perfect person to hold the briefcase and eventually become champion. Andrade is a Wrestlemania main event level guy, and all it will take is management to get behind him and he’ll soar. He’s like Alberto Del Rio but not a massive douche, and about 60 times better at wrestling.

Kofi Kingston(c) vs Kevin Owens
(WWE Championship)

This is going to be the next few months, isn’t it? Us all being terrified that Kofi is going to lose the title way too soon every time he defends it.

As much as I’d wish they’d saved this feud for the summer, I can understand why they put the rush on it given Daniel Bryan’s uncertain health at the time. As it turns out, what we’ve got so far has been pretty good, I personally would’ve kept the whole “Kevin Owens as part of the New Day” thing going a bit longer, but the turn was still shocking enough to create a memorable moment and the promos in subsequent weeks have put some real fire behind this feud.

As for the match itself, these two seem like their styles will mesh really well in a high profile match like this. Kofi has proved to be the ultimate underdog wrestler this year and Owens is always at his best when he gets to dominate someone and really enjoy rubbing it in their faces. It does have a slight problem in that this feud definitely isn’t going to be a one-and-done so we could get some kind of wonky finish that really takes the wind out of the sails of the great match that preceded it, Styles vs Owens is a pretty good example of this.

While it’s entirely possible they hot shot the title a couple of times in this feud, I’m going to stick with my guns and say Kofi Kingston is going to retain for now. The moment at Wrestlemania will live on forever in the history books, but I feel like losing the title in his first PPV defence like this would undercut it a bit too much.

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

Please be the last one.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve liked almost all of the matches these two have had together, and I’m sure this will be no exception, but I’m pretty tired of seeing it for a good while. The story’s been pretty solid, and while these two are both great on the mic they’re kind of out of insult to throw at each other by this point. We know that Becky thinks Charlotte was handed everything, and we know that Charlotte thinks Becky is just a flash in the pan still, we’ve heard all these points over and over again for almost a year now, which is why I think this match needs something to spice it up.

So that’s why I’m proposing the scenario where Bayley wins the Money in the Bank and uses it to insert herself into this match. It makes sense from a character perspective because not only would face Bayley not want to sneak attack with the briefcase but since Bayley’s come over to Smackdown, she’s had a massive chip on her shoulder and desperate to prove she can still do it on her own, so what better way to prove that to everyone than taking out both Becky and Charlotte on the same night?

If that scenario comes to pass, I think Bayley will walk away the winner because they just can’t have another Money in the Bank winner lose their title match, plus it opens up new and fresh opportunities for both a Becky vs Bayley and Charlotte vs Bayley feud for over the summer. If my scenario doesn’t happen though, Becky Lynch is pretty much a lock to retain, they can’t undermine Becky’s Wrestlemania win by having her drop one of the titles back to Charlotte at the first opportunity.

Seth Rollins(c) vs AJ Styles
(Universal Championship)

I think I may be dreaming.

Before you say it, I know. Getting this excited for this match is only setting me up for a disappointing non-finish, but just let me have this one. I don’t care if almost every match AJ had as champion last year ended up performing below expectations when Seth was IC champion last year almost every one of his matches far surpassed expectations. Rollins vs Styles has been the one dream match I’ve been begging for ever since Styles came to WWE, so until it’s proved otherwise, I’m going to be optimistic about it.

The feud itself has been alright I guess, although nothing special. Touching on the two’s past was a nice little touch, but nothing they’ve said on the mic has caught my imagination a great deal. Not to mention there wasn’t really any build for the match on Monday outside of a video package, it would’ve been much more beneficial for the contract signing to have taken place this past Monday instead of 3 weeks ago, but oh well.

There is a chance that this will end in some kind of DQ, dirty finish if WWE wants to keep the feud going for another few months, but regardless of what actually goes down, Seth Rollins is walking away with the title, and he’s holding onto it for quite a long time.

So, those are my predictions for Money in the Bank 2019! What do you think is going to happen on Sunday? Let me know in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo, and make sure you come back early next week for my review of the show!

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.