Shayna Baszler – The Strong Style Smark

WWE Fantasy Booking: A Better 2020

So I’ve never tried my hand at fantasy booking before because I think there are people out there on the web who do it better than me (looking at you, Mr Blampied), but this was a fun idea I came up with, so I’m giving it a go.

Every year when we look back on the year that was in WWE, we see a lot of glaring errors they made, and we wonder what could’ve been. So I thought, hey, let’s try and analyse what should’ve been in 2020. Obviously, this will be heavily influenced by what I did & didn’t like, so I may make some choices you disagree with, but that’s why this is fantasy.

I’m not going to be rebooking every single storyline that happened in the company in 2020; I don’t have the time or energy for that. So instead, my goal here is to run through the year focusing on the major things I would change, explain a little bit about why and see where the company would be at the end of 2020 had they done things my way. As such, if I don’t mention something, it’s safe to assume I’d just leave it the same as it was.

Now some rules:

– This is just going to be rebooking of Raw & Smackdown’s storylines from 2020

– While injuries are often a ‘wrong place, wrong time’ thing, it can be a bit uncomfortable to book around these things, so I’m going to say that any injuries that happened in 2020 still happened and lasted for the same length of time.

– Finally, I’m keeping any/all NXT call-ups in the same place they happened in real-life because changing that would potentially change NXT storylines, and I don’t want to touch that.

With that established, let’s start this booking with…

January

So we’re all on the same page at the start; here were the champions in WWE at the start of 2020.

Raw:

WWE Champion – Brock Lesnar

Raw Women’s Champion – Becky Lynch

United States Champion – Andrade

Raw Tag Team Champions – The Viking Raiders

Women’s Tag Team Champions – The Kabuki Warriors

Smackdown:

Universal Champion – The Fiend Bray Wyatt

Smackdown Women’s Champion – Bayley

Intercontinental Champion – Shinsuke Nakamura

Smackdown Tag Team Champions – The New Day

24/7 Champion – I’m not dealing with this title, and you can’t make me

Truth be told, in January, there isn’t all that much I would change. Rumble season is always a bit quiet where the titles are concerned, and 2020 was no different. The Fiend vs Daniel Bryan feud was reaching its peak. Meanwhile, on the women’s side of things, Bayley was having an ok feud with Lacey Evans and Becky Lynch was having a brilliant feud with Asuka.

There were two title changes in January that I would like to undo, though. Firstly, The Viking Raiders lost their tag titles to Seth Rollins & Buddy Murphy. At the time, I saw this as a good move as Rollins’ story was starting to heat up, but with the power of hindsight, I can see that it went nowhere, so I’m just not doing it. Instead, I’d prefer to keep the titles on the Raiders for an exciting Wrestlemania feud. Secondly, Shinsuke Nakamura does not lose the Intercontinental Championship to Braun Strowman. Strowman ended up being a transitional champion to get the title from Nakamura to Zayn, but A) Braun Strowman should not be a transitional champion, and B) I think there’s a far more exciting way to get the title from Nakamura to Zayn a little later down the line.

As for the Rumble matches, I’d keep the men’s rumble EXACTLY the same. The 2020 men’s rumble was utterly brilliant, and I don’t want to change a single thing about it, including Drew McIntyre’s win. Truth be told, I’m not going to be changing much about Drew McIntyre’s story in 2020 because I really enjoyed most of it. On the women’s Rumble side, the only thing I want to change is the winner, which will be Shayna Baszler. Charlotte winning the Rumble was a good excuse to kick off her feud with Rhea Ripley, but it was ultimately unnecessary. Charlotte could just show up in NXT one week, and it’d have the same effect, maybe even better, because it’ll be a surprise. On top of that, you have the immediate shock factor of Shayna showing up on the main roster and winning the Rumble, which means you don’t have to waste an Elimination Chamber building her up.

February

First thing’s first, the night after Royal Rumble, Shayna Baszler immediately announces that she’s coming for Becky Lynch’s title at Wrestlemania. This is a feud that should’ve got far more intense than it did, and I want to start building it straight away. This first month should be this “anything you can do, I can do better” competition between Baszler & Lynch, where both women try to assert dominance in this game of one-upmanship. I’ll go into more detail with that when we get to March.

Next, it’s time to head to Saudi Arabia for Super ShowDown and oh dear…

Truthfully, this wasn’t actually that terrible of a show (at least, compared to other Saudi shows WWE have done); it just had one or two majorly terrible things that happened during it. Firstly, Brock Lesnar squashed Ricochet. I’m actually not changing this, I’d just make the match a little longer and let Ricochet get a tiny bit more offence in. Nothing major, just…something. Also, now The Viking Raiders are still tag champs, I would have them retain the titles over The OC. In real life, this was a match between Rollins & Murphy and The Street Profits, but I’m saving The Street Profits for a little later.

The show also saw the start of The Undertaker vs AJ Styles feud, and I’m going to change that because the way they did it here was DUMB. Instead of having The Undertaker show up, win a match he wasn’t in and then leave the trophy behind, AJ Styles is going to win the trophy. Then, on Raw the next week, Styles will show up with the trophy, he leaves it on the ramp during his match, then, at the end of the match, The Undertaker’s gong hits, the lights come down, ‘lightning’ strikes the trophy and it shatters. From there, you can build the story pretty much as it was; I just think this is a better way to start it.

The big one, though, arguably the biggest mistake WWE made the entire year, was having Goldberg beat The Fiend to win the Universal Championship. This was a terrible idea for all kinds of reasons, and I’m not going to waste time going over them all here. But, all you need to know is I’m reversing that result, and in this world, The Fiend beats Goldberg and retains the Universal Championship.

March

Thanks to the stupid Saudi show being in a stupid place on the calendar, we kick March off immediately with Elimination Chamber. This will be a meaty one; we’ve got a lot of Wrestlemania matches to set up.

First up, the Intercontinental Championship. In real life, Strowman faced Nakamura, Zayn & Cesaro in a 3 on 1 handicap match, Zayn got the pin, won the title, and both Nakamura & Cesaro were just fine with that for some reason. So, I’m making a few changes.

Firstly, as I said in January, Nakamura never lost the title to Strowman in this universe, so he goes in as the champion. Secondly, rather than being a 3 on 1 handicap match for the title, it’s a Fatal 4 Way, Nakamura vs Zayn vs Cesaro vs Strowman. This means the heels can still team up to take the monster down, but you can have fun with their conflicting egos. The finish of this match will involve Nakamura & Cesaro teaming up to take Strowman down, like, REALLY putting the work in to topple the monster. They smash him with finishers, ending with a double-superplex from the top rope, wiping out all three men. At which point, Zayn slides in the ring, pins Strowman and wins the title. This gets the title on Zayn as I want and can start to give us cracks in the skin of The Artist’s Collective, as Nakamura would naturally be pissed Sami stole his title.

Next, the Raw Women’s Championship. Since Shayna Baszler has already won the Rumble, this will be for the title instead of a Wrestlemania match. Baszler essentially goads Lynch into putting her title on the line in the Chamber as part of their game of one-upmanship that they’ve been locked in since the Rumble. The participants will be mostly the same as they were in real life, except I’ll swap out Shayna for Becky, as Becky’s the champion, and Asuka for Kairi Sane because…well, I felt like it. Becky obviously retains, but Shayna attacks Becky after the match and here is where we ramp up the brutality and intensity of this feud going forward.

Finally, we’re going to have ourselves another Chamber match to determine The Fiend’s Wrestlemania opponent. The six men I’d put in this match are Roman Reigns, Jeff Hardy, Kofi Kingston, Baron Corbin, Sheamus & John Cena.

Now here, we have to make an awkward decision.

If I was booking like WWE was at the time, I would have Roman win, but I’m sitting here in 2021, and I know that the COVID-19 pandemic will become a lot more severe and force Roman to miss Wrestlemania. So do I book with the power of hindsight? Or do I act like I would’ve if I was in the moment, not knowing the effect COVID would have on Wrestlemania? Given that this is fantasy booking and most of what I’m doing is with the power of hindsight anyway, I’m going to say that I do book knowing the effects COVID will have.

As such, the winner of this match is John Cena.

April

It’s Wrestlemania time! And this show is going to look pretty similar to the real thing, just a few tweaks.

First up, Roman Reigns. Now, as I’ve already addressed, he missed Wrestlemania due to being vulnerable to COVID. However, since he didn’t pull out until a week before the show, WWE would still book him in a match, which is why I’d book Roman vs Goldberg, just not for the title, as The Fiend still has that. Then you can do the same thing that happened in real life where you substitute in Braun Strowman and have him beat Goldberg instead.

After keeping the Raw Tag Titles on The Viking Raiders for a few extra months, here is where they fight The Street Profits. The story to this could’ve been great, and the match would’ve been even better as The Street Profits never beat The Viking Raiders in NXT. You can still do the weird skit stuff after Mania if you want, I thought most of it was pretty funny, but the build to this should be serious, and the match will hopefully be great. The Street Profits will win the titles and do what they did in real life for the rest of the year.

Next, the United States Championship, and this is a bit of a weird one. Andrade actually missed Wrestlemania because of an injury, which surely means I can’t have him around, right? Well, I’m actually going to break my own rule here. Andrade’s injury only kept him out of action for a couple of weeks, and it didn’t seem to be that serious. So, I think it’s fair to call it a ‘wrong time, wrong place’ kind of injury, and with what I’m booking, he’ll be in a different place at a different time and hopefully won’t get injured. Which is good because I’m booking a Fatal 4 Way match with Andrade, Angel Garza, Humberto Carrillo & Rey Mysterio. Andrade had been involved with all these guys by the start of 2020, and it’s a shame it never led to anything interesting, so I’m getting something good out of it here. On top of that, Andrade is going to retain.

Jumping over to Smackdown, we have Sami Zayn vs Daniel Bryan for the Intercontinental Championship. So, after Zayn stole the title from Nakamura, The Artist’s Collective looked to be falling apart, but Zayn managed to win them back over, albeit things are still uneasy. Zayn then carries on doing his thing, which eventually causes Cesaro & Nakamura to abandon him, meaning they’re not in his corner for this match. This means that we get to have Zayn vs Bryan with absolutely no outside shenanigans, yes please. I’m also going to change the result and give the title to Daniel Bryan. Sami Zayn would leave the company for a few months because he didn’t want to put himself at risk of COVID. So once again, I’m using the power of hindsight to make sure he doesn’t have the title when that happens. Plus, it means Daniel Bryan gets to do great wrestling with the IC title for a few months.

For the Universal Championship, The Fiend defends against John Cena, which will be exactly how it was in real life. The Firefly Funhouse match was a creative masterstroke, and I want to keep it exactly the same. The only difference will be that there’s a title on the line, adding that wrinkle of Cena’s potential 17th world title. When it’s all said and done, The Fiend retains.

The only thing left that I’m going to change is Becky Lynch vs Shayna Baszler. For one thing, it should go longer than EIGHT pissing minutes. Lynch main-evented the show last year, and you’re not even going to give her 10 minutes to work with the next year? Piss off with that; this is a 15-20 minute match. Secondly, and this one is obvious, Shayna Baszler wins the title. With the power of hindsight, we know that Becky wouldn’t be able to defend her title anymore anyway due to getting pregnant, but even if you pretend you don’t know that, it’s so clearly the right move. Shayna’s run of dominance in NXT is one of the best things to ever happen to that brand – which REALLY saying something – it absolutely blows my mind that Vince can’t see anything in her for the main roster. Baszler is MONEY, and she is holding that Raw Women’s title well past the end of 2020 in my universe.

That’s it for things I would change, all the other results I’m keeping just the same.

May

Now we’re past Wrestlemania, things need to cool down a bit, and we can start to lay out some plans for the rest of the year. The first port of call for which is Money in the Bank.

In an ideal world, we would be building to a Shayna/Lynch rematch for this show, but as I’ve said, Lynch is pregnant by this point, so that’s off the table. So instead, Lynch just disappears after Wrestlemania, maybe showing up one week to make her announcement, because that was a lovely moment. With that off the table, though, I’m just going to go for Baszler getting to look extremely dominant, beating both Liv Morgan & Ruby Riott in a triple threat match.

On the title defence front, Daniel Bryan’s first post-Mania feud will also be a triple threat, as Shinsuke Nakamura & Cesaro team up on Bryan to get back the title Zayn stole from them. However, they will be unsuccessful. Then, with the Universal Championship, The Fiend, having erased John Cena from WWE, is going to start dismantling all our other heroes too. Jeff Hardy calls out The Fiend but deeply regrets it come Money in the Bank when The Fiend wipes the floor with him.

Not every championship is staying put, though, as Andrade’s reign with the United States Championship is coming to an end, and here’s where I feel a little cruel. In real life, Apollo Crews was the man to take Andrade down, but that’s not who I’m having it be. It’s not because I think Crews was a bad choice; he was a good champion. There’s just someone I’d rather have the title and could be built up even bigger with it around his waist. That man is Aleister Black.

What we’re all looking forward to, though, is the Money in the Bank ladder matches themselves. Keep the entire premise of the match the same, although it was a bit too silly for some, personally, I loved the weird fever dream that was the cinematic Money in the Bank match last year. As for the winners, on the women’s side, I’m keeping that the same and having Asuka win. However, as Baszler is the champion in this timeline, Asuka will hold onto the briefcase for a little while rather than being handed the title straight away.

On the men’s side, it’s not going to be Otis, that was shit, and I’m not giving it to The Miz either because 2021 proved that it was entirely pointless. Instead, I’m going to give it to Bobby Lashley. Lashley’s run with the US title in the latter half of 2020 with The Hurt Business was terrific, but I can’t give him that title for this rebooking due to some plans I’ve got in place, so he can run with the briefcase instead. Plus, when the time comes for the cash-in in February 2021, things are much more straightforward, with Lashley taking the title from Drew straight off the bat, rather than using The Miz as a middle-man.

June

Straight out of the gate in June, Cesaro & Shinsuke Nakamura will win the Smackdown tag titles from The New Day. This happened in July in real life, but I’m pushing it forward a month. No real reason, I just wanted Cesaro & Nakamura to have a longer reign. That’s not the only title change, though, as AJ Styles is going to beat Daniel Bryan to become Intercontinental Champion, and this is where the IC title roughly falls back into the same path as real life.

The Fiend will continue to murder our heroes, this time Kofi Kingston is up on the chopping block. I don’t want this to be too dominant a victory, as Kofi deserves better than what he got at the end of his 2019 WWE title reign, but he will ultimately be vanquished by the Eater of Worlds.

Over on Raw, Lashley having the MITB briefcase means he can’t fight Drew at Backlash, so I’m going to pull a quick substitution and put Kevin Owens in against Drew here instead. He won’t need to turn heel for this; you can keep it face vs face pretty easily. I know this leads to Owens taking a big loss, but given that WWE were doing absolutely nothing with him around this time anyway, I’d argue this is still better.

Aleister Black’s first major feud with the US title can be with Apollo Crews because I feel bad about taking that title reign away from him. You know that match these two had on the Raw after Wrestlemania? The one that went 20 minutes and was really bloody good? Yeah, we’re just going to let them have that match at Backlash instead, and everyone will probably enjoy that.

With the Raw Women’s Title, Baszler will continue her run of dominance against Natalya. However, after the match, Asuka will come out with the briefcase and declare that she will be cashing in…at Summerslam.

July

One of the more uneventful months now, as we’re mostly biding our time until Summerslam.

On Raw, Aleister Black will defend his US title against Ricochet, playing off how they came onto the main roster as a tag team, and it’ll hopefully be a great match, not to mention a new one. The Raw Women’s Championship scene is going to heat up a bit too, with Asuka’s cash-in looming on the horizon, Baszler will defend her title against Kairi Sane. These two made magic in NXT, and I’d love to see some of that on the main roster, plus Sane & Asuka’s allegiance keeps Asuka at the forefront of the action in the build to Summerslam, as well as teasing Asuka vs Kairi, which would be a match people would want to see. Unfortunately, Kairi isn’t going to win, as she would retire from in-ring competition around this time. Hopefully, this was a worthy sendoff for her. Certainly better than Nia Jax almost killing her.

Over on Smackdown, Styles defends his IC title against Daniel Bryan, and we’re starting The Fiend vs Braun Strowman feud at last. One of the main problems with that feud in real life is that it just dragged on forever. They fought at Money in the Bank, then they forgot about it for a month until Bray suddenly showed up again, and they kept going for another couple of months. I’m shortening it by waiting until now to start it. You could do the cinematic match that happened in real life, but I thought it was crap, so I won’t. Instead, I’m going to have this be similar to the Money in the Bank match from real life, with the funhouse version of Bray fighting Braun instead. The only difference here is Bray will retain, but you can get some spooky shenanigans involved, so it’s not clean.

August

Summerslam time, and here I’m actually changing quite a bit.

First up, Retribution. As much as I think the whole idea of this faction is a bit naff, I’m going to do my best to improve it. I’ll keep most of the things about their introduction the same, but fuck those masks and fuck those stupid codenames. Let them be the same people they were in NXT; just give them more of an aggressive edge. Additionally, have them only show up on Raw, but DON’T give them contracts because that was DUMB. Just keep them as a presence that could strike at any moment and wreck Raw week in and week out.

At Summerslam, Aleister Black will be defending his United States Championship against Cedric Alexander, and this is where Retribution get involved in the show. During the match, Mustafa Ali’s music hits, and he comes down the ramp. Everyone’s a little confused as to why until Retribution jumps the barricade and storm the ring. Once they’ve taken Black & Cedric out, Ali gets in the ring and stands at the head of the faction as they all unmask themselves. We actually get to see their faces, and all of them, Ali, Dijakovic, Dio Madden, Shane Thorne & Mia Yim, stand in the ring until being chased off by security. More on this next month.

Elsewhere on the card, Jeff Hardy wins the Intercontinental Championship from AJ Styles. Again, keeping this the same as in real life, but let’s actually put it on Summerslam because that just feels better. Bayley continues her run as Smackdown Women’s Champion, but she’s not getting involved with Asuka in this timeline. Sasha & Bayley still win the women’s tag titles, but Sasha doesn’t get her hands on the Raw women’s title, and at Summerslam, Bayley will be defending against Alexa Bliss.

Shayna Baszler vs Asuka is up next, and this is another point where I feel bad about the decision I’m making. Asuka’s run as Raw Women’s Champion in 2020 was great for the most part, and she absolutely deserves it, but this really is Shayna’s year. Shayna shouldn’t take a loss until at least Wrestlemania 37 in this universe, so she will retain her title over Asuka in this one.

The main event goes on as it did in real life, ending in the exact same way with Roman showing up and laying waste to everyone.

But wait! That’s not all!

For some strange reason, WWE booked another PPV a week after Summerslam, so I’ve got to book that too.

Randy Orton vs Keith Lee is up first, and I’m making a slight change in that this will now become a number 1 contender’s match for Drew’s WWE title, which Lee will win, as he did in real life. I want to keep the Drew/Orton feud, but I think it went on too long, so I’m breaking it up in the middle here with Keith Lee instead.

Secondly, Bayley & Sasha lose their tag titles, as they did in real life, however, Baszler & Nia Jax aren’t a tag team in this universe, so I’m putting the titles back on The IIconics because…it’s The IIconics.

Finally, Roman Reigns wins the Universal title from The Fiend. I know it’s unceremonious and not a great end to The Fiend’s title reign, but Reigns’ run in the latter half of 2020 was SO good, and I don’t want to change any of it.

September

The Intercontinental Championship gets firmly back on the path it had in real life now, with Sami Zayn returning and winning the title at Clash of Champions. The only change I’d suggest is maybe throwing Daniel Bryan into that ladder match too. Not required, but it might be fun. Drew McIntyre vs Keith Lee will be a great match, but Drew will ultimately retain. This serves more as a launching platform for Keith Lee than anything else; it would be a bad idea for him to win the title so soon. I’d have it be clean and let Orton attack Drew after the match, but if you wanted to protect Lee, you could have Orton spoil the match. Shayna Baszler will pick up a feud with Nia Jax now and wrestle circles around her with ease…that’s all I have to say about that.

Now, we pick up the Retribution thread again. The idea around this group should focus on what Ali has touched on a lot online recently about them being ‘underutilised’ wrestlers. Here, you can use the established identities of the group’s members to enhance this story. Dijakovic was constantly passed over in NXT for guys like Keith Lee. Shane Thorne was never given a proper opportunity to get off the ground, and Dio Madden was cast away from Raw commentary as quickly as he arrived. These aren’t complicated motivations, just use the character-building you already have right in front of you.

Anyway, after they ruin the US title match at Summerslam, Cedric runs off to join The Hurt Business while Aleister Black sets his sights on the faction. Once again, Retribution DO NOT get given Raw contracts. They are an outside force that is wrecking the shows; why would you ever hire them? They demand contracts from Adam Pearce, but he refuses them time and time again, so their antics get more violent, one week they’re actually on the brink of cutting the power and taking Raw off the air in the middle of the show when Black comes in and chases them off with a surprise attack.

This is the only time Black gets one up on the group, as after this, Retribution focuses solely on Black. Black wants to fight them, but Pearce won’t let him because “it’s too dangerous” or something like that, but Black won’t be deterred. Eventually, Black goes over his head and gets Vince involved, who makes a match, Aleister Black vs Mustafa Ali for the United States Championship at Clash of Champions. Ali forcibly adds the condition that if he wins, Retribution gets Raw contracts. Pearce pleads with Vince to not do that, but Vince blows him off with a cocky attitude because “no-one’s ever beaten me at this game before”.

So at Clash of Champions, Ali beats Black, wins the United States Championship and contracts for Retribution. On Raw the week after, Pearce can go to Vince and be like, “what do we do now?” to which Vince is like, “that sounds like a you problem”, and peaces out of there.

We’re not quite done in September yet either, as I’m booking Sasha Banks vs Bayley for Clash of Champions. While I think this feud was great, it was a bit disappointing that we only got one match out of it. So instead of having this feud weirdly skip this show, this is where it starts, and Sasha wins the title straight away. This might seem like an odd choice, but here we can play up the story of Sasha being unable to defend her titles, and that’s where the drama comes from in the Hell in a Cell rematch.

October

Heading into the final quarter of the year now, and here’s where my changes start to wind down. The rest of the year is more about seeing through all of the stuff I’ve already set up rather than bringing in anything new.

The major thing that happens in October is the draft, and while I did think about rebooking it, the more I thought about it, the more of a nightmare it became, so I’m keeping it as is. I’m including the New Day splitting up in that too. I still think it was a bad decision, but Big E has really started to flourish as a singles competitor (again) throughout the start of 2021, so I’m keeping him on that course.

Looking to this month’s Pay-Per-View, Hell in a Cell, and things are looking pretty similar. Banks & Bayley can still have their Cell match. Only Sasha will now be going in as champion. I think this will be better because the feud will have had more time to reach the kind of heat that would require the Cell, plus you can centre the story around Banks not being able to defend her titles. Banks will win, and she can carry on as she did in real life from now on. On the Raw women’s side, Shayna Baszler defends her title against Mandy Rose. Not much to say here, Shayna retains.

The US title scene heats up now as Retribution is going to get involved with The Hurt Business (now with Cedric Alexander) as they did in real life. However, this time, Retribution will not lose and be made to look like fools every week. The central point of the feud for this month is going to be Ali vs Shelton Benjamin for the US title because Lashley’s got the Money in the Bank briefcase. The match will play out at Hell in a Cell, and there should be a lot going on around ringside for this one. Everyone in both factions should be getting involved. Said chaos leads to Benjamin getting caught up in the crossfire, and Ali gets the win. It’s not a clean win for Ali, but he should be able to hold his own in the match against Benjamin. I feel the need to specify this because, let’s be honest, in real life, Ali would be booked like a chump, and I don’t want that.

Finally, Drew vs Randy happens inside the Cell, as in real life. However, because of our detour with Keith Lee, people won’t have seen this match twice already and will hopefully be more up for it. The key difference here is that Drew is going to retain. I don’t know if WWE made plans and then changed their minds when they gave the title to Orton, but it seemed really dumb for Orton to win the title, only for Drew to get it back a few weeks later. This way, Drew gets to keep one continuous run as champ and doesn’t go into Survivor Series off the back of a huge loss.

November

Survivor Series time, and hey, you know all those Champion vs Champion matches? FUCK ‘EM! They’re gone. I’ll keep the men’s & women’s 5 on 5 tags as they are so you can still sell the show on the Raw vs Smackdown aspect, but the champion vs champion matches are horrible and pointless. Never mind the fact that everyone (including the characters) forget about them the moment the show ends, but it just makes one of your champions look weak, and that’s really dumb. The only change I’ll make to the tag matches is that Bianca Belair wins and is the sole survivor because that thing with Lana pouting like a schoolgirl then winning by accident was crap.

What to do with all these champions who now don’t have matches, though? I’m glad you asked. Sami Zayn can defend against Apollo Crews because they had a mini-feud around this time. Sasha Banks can defend against Tamina because, why not? Might be fun. Shayna Baszler will continue her run of dominance by blasting through Mickie James; haven’t seen her in a while. Roman can have a one and done match with Rey Mysterio because I think it’d be great, and Drew can start his program with AJ Styles a month early, with a regular match here, before getting more hardcore for TLC.

That just leaves Ali. He and Retribution are going to continue their feud with The Hurt Business. Initially, Cedric steps up to be the next to challenge Ali, but MVP says no, he wants this dealt with, and he wants it dealt with now, so Bobby Lashley challenges Ali instead. Unfortunately, it doesn’t go well. Once again, the two factions go at it at ringside during the match, except this time, it’s Cedric who accidentally knocks Lashley. Ali takes advantage and once again gets away with the title.

December

Our final month of the year, and straight away, I have to say that on the Smackdown side of things…nothing changes. The Banks vs Carmella feud gave us a good match, Big E winning the IC title on Christmas day was great, and the Reigns vs Owens feud was brilliant. Smackdown was really good in December, a streak it’s still somewhat keeping up now, so I don’t want to change any of it.

Raw is a different story, though. The Drew/Styles feud will keep ticking along, leading to a TLC match, only hopefully with more build now, and also there is no cash-in because Miz doesn’t have the briefcase.

While I’d love to end this on some massive high for Baszler’s title reign, it doesn’t really need one. This whole year since Baszler won the title has just been about letting her have good matches and getting dominant wins over a HUGE variety of opponents to solidify her as a main-event star for years to come. There are a bunch of different ways you can go heading into Mania 37 with Baszler. Charlotte vs Baszler would be a money match, Rhea Ripley vs Baszler would have great story potential as Rhea was the one to unseat Baszler in NXT. You could even have Baszler face off against Fiend-ified Alexa Bliss if you want something new and weird. However, this booking is just about 2020, so for now, Baszler defends her title in a chaotic tables match with Nikki Cross.

The Raw tag titles! Haven’t talked about those for a while. In real life, The New Day lost them to The Hurt Business at TLC; that isn’t happening here. The New Day are essentially going to get caught up in the war between Retribution & The Hurt Business. Both teams will try to take the titles from The New Day, but the two factions keep screwing each other over. This culminates at TLC with a triple threat tag match, The New Day vs Dio Madden & Dominick Dijakovic of Retribution vs Shelton Benjamin and…Bobby Lashley of The Hurt Business.

What’s Cedric Alexander doing? I hear you ask. Well, after Cedric accidentally cost Lashley his match for the US title at Survivor Series, The Hurt Business have been a bit pissed off at him. MVP essentially tells him, “you’ve made this mess, you clean it up”, and Ali vs Cedric for the US title is set for TLC. Additionally, because of how chaotic the fighting has got between the two factions, Adam Pearce decrees that the extra members of each faction are banned from ringside. To enforce this, he also states that if Retribution interferes, Ali will be stripped of the US title, and if The Hurt Business interferes, Lashley will be stripped of the Money in the Bank briefcase.

The Raw tag title match goes on first, and that is won by Retribution after Dijakovic pins Shelton Benjamin. Ali carries this momentum into his US title match. However, Ali underestimates Cedric, and they have a very even match. It comes down to the wire, but with the pressure on, Cedric pulls it off, wins the US title from Ali and is welcomed back with open arms by The Hurt Business.

From here, we should separate these teams and bring an end to the feud because it’s been going on for a while. Retribution can focus on defending their tag titles, first in a rematch with The New Day and then wherever, while Cedric can be the golden child of The Hurt Business for a bit. Lashley will be cashing in his briefcase to win the WWE Championship come February, so it doesn’t hurt him one bit to take a loss at TLC with a feud that would’ve hopefully made Raw a lot more fun to watch in the last quarter of 2020 than it was in real life.

8 Times the Wrong Wrestler Won the Royal Rumble (and who should’ve won instead)

While the Royal Rumble is always an exciting time of year, and generally, the match itself is always enjoyable regardless of the winner, sometimes it can be hard to get around the fact that Rumbles are by and large remembered by their winners. This is fine for the most part, but there have been a few instances throughout history where thinking back, the winner seemed somewhat disappointing in the grand scheme of things.

Sometimes, when a Rumble winner is initially disappointing, it’s turned into an interesting story, and the whole thing works out in the long run, but that isn’t always the case. Thankfully, the 2021 Rumble winners seem to be excellent choices; however, in these instances, we’re going to discuss today, the person who won the Rumble either didn’t need it, failed to make any kind of impact in the long run, or was just a horrible choice compared to an alternative.

However, I’m not going to point out problems without suggesting solutions, so I will also cover who I believe should’ve won the Rumble match instead of the real winner, and we can have some fun speculating.

8 – Bret Hart & Lex Luger – 1994

A draw. The match ended in a draw.

Granted, the Rumble was still in its early days back then, so they could get away with more experimental stuff, but could you imagine how pissed off we’d all be these days if the Rumble ended in a draw? We’d be outraged and would mock it for decades to come, yet we all just seem to have accepted this one.

If I were to speculate, I think the reason this is the case is that Wrestlemania 10 ended up being a terrific show that told a pretty interesting story. However, no one ever gives a shit about Lex Luger’s role in that story. Seriously, whenever I hear anyone talk about this situation, it’s about how great Bret’s story was of wrestling Owen in the opener before coming back to defeat Yokozuna in the main event. Luger just gets completely forgotten.

Who should’ve won instead?

Bret Hart, on his own.

If you removed Luger from the occasion entirely, the whole story becomes so much better. You still make Bret wrestle Owen in the opener, and that match goes exactly the same way as it did in real life. The only difference is that you don’t have Luger wrestling Yokozuna earlier in the night, which means that come the main event, you have a fresh Yokozuna going up against Bret Hart, who not only put on a great match earlier in the night but lost.

You couldn’t ask for a better underdog story, and it would’ve added that extra layer of drama to the main event and an even bigger emotional exhale when Bret won the title. Not to mention, you don’t have to end the Royal Rumble in a sodding draw.

7 – Charlotte Flair – 2020

Truth be told, Charlotte winning this Rumble wasn’t actually that bad in the long run. Her story and match with Rhea Ripley was one of the highlights of Wrestlemania season this year, and the Rumble was a great place to start it. I just think there was a far better option on the table.

Who should’ve won instead?

Shayna Baszler.

Now, I know Baszler got her Mania match with Becky anyway, but I’d argue the Rumble would’ve been a far better way for her to get there. Consider what’s at play, Baszler entered in the number 30 spot in the Rumble that year, destroyed everyone in sight, only to get eliminated by Charlotte. It was a pretty underwhelming debut. Sure, she bounced back, but only after we had to sit through the most boring Elimination Chamber match I’ve ever seen.

If Baszler had won the Rumble, she would’ve come onto Raw with the kind of fire very few do, and you could’ve spent longer building her feud with Becky into something a lot more intense. You can still have Charlotte challenge Rhea for Mania because, let’s face it, all Charlotte would need to do is turn up in NXT and demand a match, or have Rhea show up on Raw and get in Charlotte’s face. Then, not only can you build a better story surrounding Lynch & Baszler, you don’t have to waste the Elimination Chamber on a match booked to be a complete and total snoozefest.

6 – Vince McMahon – 1999

I’m of two minds with this one. On the one hand, I can see how this Rumble win served the story, and it’s not like McMahon actually went on to fight at Wrestlemania, so what does it matter? However, I think there’s more to it than that. For one thing, this is one of the less-liked Rumbles as a whole, and I can see why it focused so heavily on McMahon & Austin that it felt like no one else involved in the match was even remotely important, other than maybe Chyna.

In many ways, wrestling fans view the Rumble as sacred. It only happens once a year (unless Saudia Arabia wants one) and to turn it into an hour-long angle like this wasn’t the best use of anyone’s time. I think this is a clear example of how wildly people’s opinion on things can change depending on who wins. The truth is, if McMahon had eventually been toppled at the final hurdle here, I think this match would be far more fondly remembered.

Who should’ve won instead?

Stone Cold Steve Austin

This one’s pretty straightforward. Austin ended up getting the title shot at Wrestlemania 15 anyway, so why bother taking us around in circles like this? It’s like the build to Wrestlemania 35’s main event, the perfect story was standing there, and it was so simple. Then, they added all these extra layers, and it took the shine off the apple, so to speak. If Austin had won this Rumble, even if you’d kept everything else the same, the match would’ve felt like a compelling story that reached the proper climax. Yes, we would’ve gone through some boredom, but it would’ve been worth it for the payoff.

Instead, we ended up with an underwhelming match with an underwhelming winner. Plus, regardless of the circumstances, it’s never a good look when the person in charge of the show books themselves to win a big match like this.

5 – Sheamus – 2012

I’ve made no secret that I’m not a big fan of Sheamus in the past. In all honesty, I like him a hell of a lot more than I used to, thanks to his work in The Bar and recently with Drew McIntyre, but for the early years of his time in WWE, I couldn’t stand the guy. I thought he was boring and not even that good of a wrestler. As such, I’ve never liked the fact that Sheamus won this Rumble.

While I do think he was one of the best opponents for Daniel Bryan at the time, I don’t think we needed the Rumble win to get there, especially when the match ended up being the 18 seconds atrocity that sent the entire wrestling fanbase into a furious frenzy for the next 3 years. While Sheamus had been building as a face over 2011, he didn’t feel like a worthy top guy just yet, and sometimes a Rumble win can serve that purpose, but this one really fell flat.

Who should’ve won instead?

Chris Jericho

The story was so perfect. Not only was Jericho vs Punk a match people were ready to pay like mad to see, but this was Jericho’s big return after a few years away from the business. Jericho vs Punk had a great build and ended up being a fantastic Wrestlemania match, so why the hell didn’t they kick it off the right way?

Well, that’s the thing that makes this sting so much. Jericho was originally supposed to win this Rumble. He was to make his surprise return and immediately become a conquering hero by winning the Rumble and challenging Punk. However, it leaked in the weeks before the event that Jericho was coming back, so WWE decided to completely change plans for the Rumble, cutting off their nose to spite their face.

WWE has never seemed to grasp the fact that just because something’s predictable doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad. It’s true that sometimes when we’re expecting one thing and get something else, it’s a fantastic thrill (see Seth Rollins cashing in at Wrestlemania 31), but sometimes things are predictable because it’s what should happen. In films, when the hero defeats the villain and saves the day, people don’t complain that it’s ‘predictable’ because it’s the correct way to round off the story in a satisfying way.

It was a stupid knee-jerk reaction to something leaking online (it only leaked that Jericho was returning, by the way, not that he was going to win) and left everyone watching feel deflated.

4 – John Cena – 2013

So you know how I just said sometimes it’s fine when things are predictable? This was a case when being predictable was bad.

After Wrestlemania 28’s main event between The Rock & John Cena was billed as ‘once in a lifetime’, it would’ve been safe to assume that the match would’ve only happened…well…once. WWE would disagree, though, as, from the very beginning, the plan was to do the match twice on consecutive Wrestlemanias. I know we’re always asking for more long-term booking in WWE…but not like that.

As 2012 progressed and Cena’s story continued to focus on his downward spiral with The Rock, only for The Rock to show up at Raw 1000 (in July) and announce that he’s going to challenge for the title at the Royal Rumble (in January), it became clear to everyone what was going on. After carrying the company on his back for over a year, CM Punk was going to get snubbed for the Rock/Cena rematch that no one really cared about or wanted to see.

This meant that everyone knew who was going to win the Royal Rumble in July, half a year away from the actual event. Now THAT is a case of lousy predictability.

Who should’ve won instead?

The Rock

Now, hear me out. While the story between Rock & Cena was boring and no-one wanted to see it, CM Punk vs The Rock was still a match that people were excited to see, and rightly so, it was a good match (even with the weird booking at the end). So, why not have that be the Wrestlemania match instead? That way, Punk doesn’t get snubbed from the main event (potentially convincing him to stay with the company a little longer), and the fans don’t have to endure a rematch from the previous year that was way worse than the first one. Hell, make it a triple threat if you’re that scared about Cena having nothing to do.

It was a simple case of WWE making their plans two whole years in advance and then refusing to budge on them when a new star rose up and took the wrestling world by storm. By all means, plan out grand year-spanning storylines, but if the times change, you’ve got to change with them.

3 – Randy Orton – 2017

The 2017 Rumble was fascinating because it was the first time in a long while where the winner didn’t seem blindingly obvious. See, as much as there are 30 participants in a Royal Rumble, there are usually only one or two realistic contenders to win the thing. Sometimes this is obvious in how stars are booked towards the Rumble, or other times it’s because the dirt sheets have already leaked what WWE is planning for Wrestlemania that year. However, in 2017, everything was still up in the air, and there was a whole host of different people who could conceivably win.

Brock Lesnar, Goldberg & The Undertaker were a heavy focus in the build, and they were all set to collide in the Rumble. Bray Wyatt was building back up after a relatively lacklustre year, and Braun Strowman was seeing momentum like never before. All of these people and more would’ve been exciting choices to set up a match for Wrestlemania. It seemed like WWE had a win-win situation on their hands because the fans would seemingly be happy with any of these choices.

Then Randy Orton won. Unlike over the past year, Orton was still a somewhat dull character in 2017, and no one had any interest in seeing him compete for a world title at Wrestlemania. Everyone knew his current partnership with Bray Wyatt was going to explode sooner rather than later, and it’s not like we needed a Royal Rumble win to make that happen. Not to mention, it wasn’t even that interesting of a storyline, and no one wanted it to be the biggest of Mania season.

Who should’ve won instead?

Chris Jericho

By FAR the most compelling story going into Wrestlemania that year was the story between Kevin Owens & Chris Jericho. They had worked their asses off all year, with both men doing the most entertaining and genuinely funny stuff on WWE TV week to week. With the Universal Championship over Kevin Owens’ shoulder, the pairing had been the focus of Raw ever since the brand split in June 2016, and their story was that should’ve been the most important one heading into Wrestlemania.

The Festival of Friendship, where Owens turned on Jericho, happened about a month following the Rumble. It was one of, if not the best TV segment of the entire decade and think how much better it would’ve been knowing they had a Wrestlemania match on the horizon. Instead of going with what was clearly the most compelling storyline, WWE destroyed Owens’ credibility by having him drop the title to Goldberg like he was nothing for a Lesnar/Goldberg rematch that, while good, did not need the title AT ALL. Jericho & Owens did get their Wrestlemania match, but it was for the US title as the 2nd match on the show, and it felt so underwhelming because the story hadn’t been treated in the way it deserved.

2 – Batista – 2014

Much like with the Cena/Rock situation, this was a case of WWE having already made their plans and stubbornly sticking to them rather than realising what all of the fans were crying out for.

In the build-up to the 2014 Royal Rumble, it leaked that Batista would be returning for the match shortly after finishing filming the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie. Naturally, WWE smelt money in the waters and thought that they quite liked the idea of having the WWE Championship over the shoulder of Batista when he goes to all of those premiers and is all over the news. There was a problem, though, because the fans didn’t give a shit about Batista. They instead had their hearts set on a different, smaller, bearded wrestler.

Who should’ve won instead?

Daniel Bryan

The moment Rey Mysterio came out in the number 30 spot of that Royal Rumble, to the moment the show went off the air, the crowd booed and booed until their lungs gave out, and can you really blame them? Since last summer, people had been clamouring for Daniel Bryan to claim his place atop WWE, and over and over again, the people making the decisions told us no. They had characters tell Daniel Bryan that he wasn’t good enough repeatedly, and then the real people behind those characters would book Daniel Bryan to lose, making it seem like they were right. WWE is so needlessly combative with their own audience sometimes it’s genuinely baffling.

The fans didn’t take any of that shit, though, and essentially told WWE that we’re going to keep booing every ‘top guy’ you put in front of us until you give us Daniel Bryan. At the 2014 Royal Rumble, WWE refused to give us Daniel Bryan and stayed the course, and no-one was happy about it. What’s worse is that immediately after the Rumble, CM Punk (another star beloved by fans) walked out of the company over what we would later discover was a laundry list of horrible things that happened to him there over the years.

What’s so baffling is that making the fans happy in this circumstance was the easiest thing in the world. They were quite literally chanting Daniel Bryan’s name ALL. THE. TIME. And yet WWE decided to plug their ears and push forward because, once again, they seem to despise their own fans. The upside here is that, eventually, it worked, WWE relented, and Wrestlemania 30 ended with Daniel Bryan holding the world championship aloft. However, WWE could’ve saved themselves so much strife if they’d have woken up sooner and given the fans Daniel Bryan at the Royal Rumble.

It doesn’t end there, though, because one year later…

1 – Roman Reigns – 2015

…WWE still hadn’t learnt their lesson.

I’m not going to tease you with this one.

Who should’ve won instead?

Daniel Bryan.

Take what I said about 2014, add a year of Bryan being tragically out of action with an injury, only to return just in time for the 2015 Royal Rumble. The story was perfect. After 8 months of pain and suffering as Bryan recovered from his injuries, he stood with the perfect chance to reclaim the championship he never lost by toppling the company’s biggest monster in years in the form of Brock Lesnar.

Once again, though, WWE had made their plans, and it was time to once again bury their heads in the sand and ignore everything else going on around them. WWE decided Daniel Bryan wasn’t the plan they had in mind and completely ignored the fans for the second year in a row, instead giving us the new WWE manufactured star in the form of Roman Reigns. Once again, the fans weren’t as stupid as WWE hoped they’d be, and they saw it for what it was, a transparent attempt to try and create the next John Cena in the form of Roman Reigns.

What makes this so much worse than in 2014, though, is that this choice didn’t just deny Daniel Bryan. It actively hurt Roman Reigns’ career for YEARS. While there were many other issues with Roman Reigns around this time, I genuinely think that him winning this Royal Rumble is what made it as bad as it was. To be clear, after this Rumble, the fans booed even the mention of Roman Reigns’ name for years. People’s opinion on him didn’t soften until late 2018 when he got leukaemia, and EVEN THEN, people didn’t start to properly enjoy the man’s work until the summer of 2020.

For 5 years, Roman Reigns was this absolute toxic entity that caused the fans to immediately hate anything he was involved with. While him winning this Rumble isn’t the sole cause, I believe that if Daniel Bryan had won this Rumble instead, the fans would’ve got over it a hell of a lot quicker than they did.

And there you have it! Thank you very much for taking the time to read this post. Let me know what you think of these Royal Rumble winners and my alternate bookings, either in the comments below or on Twitter @SStyleSmark. Finally, make sure to come back here next week as it’s Wrestlemania week and I’ll be doing both predictions & reviews for both NXT Takeover: Stand & Deliver and Wrestlemania!

WWE Elimination Chamber 2021: Every Match Ranked

The first of two pointless stops on the road to Wrestlemania is behind us, and whether or not you liked this show depends on what you focus on. The majority of the matches were pretty good in terms of in-ring action, they all had something going for them. However, there were several booking decisions that I thought were either questionable or straight-up bad.

My main takeaway was the gigantic gap in quality between the storylines on Raw & Smackdown right now. Smackdown is kicking Raw’s arse creatively right now and has been for some time. If you want proof of that, you just need to look at the landscape for Wrestlemania. Smackdown has their top men’s title match sorted out in Reigns vs Edge, and while it’s yet to be confirmed, they’re pretty clearly building to Bianca vs Sasha. Then, on the Raw side, things are an absolute mess. Asuka was originally announced on the pre-show to be facing a mystery opponent after Lacey Evans was forced to pull out of the match only for it to never be mentioned on the main show, so we’ve got no idea what’s going on there. Then you have the several moving parts around the WWE Championship that could go any number of ways.

You’ve got one show with a clear creative direction and one that doesn’t know up from down, which is ridiculous considering they’re run by the same company.

Enough stalling, let’s look at the goings-on from last night.

6 – Roman Reigns(c) def. Daniel Bryan
(Universal Championship)

This was extremely disappointing.

I was excited going into this show, as I thought that there was room for some fantastic storytelling. I was hoping we would get a performance from Bryan worthy of himself from 2014, where he’d go in a massive underdog and put up a fight greater than the odds thought was possible before ultimately falling at the last hurdle. Instead, we got a match that was just…nothing, really. I’m not saying they should’ve gone 20 minutes, I’m not going to be that demanding, but would it be unreasonable to ask for 8? Not the one and a half we got.

It didn’t even tell that interesting of a story. I never at any point bought Daniel Bryan could win, so the drama of him catching Reigns in the Yes! Lock just didn’t land for me. That’s not just because I’m jaded either; take Bryan vs Lesnar from 2018 as an example. We all knew there was no way Bryan would win that match, but when he kneed Lesnar in the face and went for that cover, I BELIEVED it was possible. This match just didn’t earn that level of investment. It blew its load too early, and by the time Bryan passed out in the guillotine, I’d lost interest.

Now, if this was the start of a slow build to Reigns vs Bryan at Wrestlemania, I’d be on board with that, but given that WWE has announced Reigns vs Edge for Mania, that’s not happening. It’s not impossible Bryan gets added to the match, but I highly doubt that will happen. Instead, it’s probably going to blow off at Fastlane, wasting a money match WWE could’ve saved in their back pocket for a bigger show.

5 – John Morrison def. Mustafa Ali, Ricochet & Elias
(Winner gets added to the United States Championship Match)
(Kickoff Show)

This match is like a distillation of all the potential talent WWE has wasted. That’s the real problem with this match, the action was all good, I just didn’t care. I feel horrible saying that because all of these wrestlers are insanely talented, but WWE has pissed it all away with terrible booking over the past few years. You then hear reports that apparently Vince “sees nothing” in wrestlers like Aleister Black & Shayna Baszler, and it absolutely boggles the mind how this man even got to the position he’s in today.

Now I’ve got that off of my chest, this was a fun 4-way match, and given that the winner was always going to be the fall guy in the US title match, I think John Morrison was a good pick for that role.

4 – Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler(c) def. Sasha Banks & Bianca Belair
(Women’s Tag Team Championships)

This match was a little formulaic in several ways, but I still think it was an enjoyable watch.

I expected the rift between Bianca & Sasha to form more clearly during this match, so I was surprised to see that it didn’t really happen. I can see where the jumping-off point for it is, but the two women were on the same page and quite a joy to watch for the majority of the match. That’s not surprising given how great we know they both are, but in another time, I would love to see these two have an extended run as a tag team. Their connection feels so genuine (probably because it is), and their in-ring styles mesh wonderfully – all the more reason to be excited about the Wrestlemania match.

As I said in my predictions, the champions retaining was definitely the right call. Involving the tag titles in Bianca & Sasha’s upcoming feud would just be a needless complication, and I’d rather see Nia & Baszler do something interesting on their own at Wrestlemania. The finish was a bit odd, but it was a creative way to protect the faces. I don’t know where this thing with Reginald is going, but I’m liking it, for the time being, I only hope it doesn’t outstay it’s welcome.

3 – Riddle def. Bobby Lashley(c) & John Morrison
(United States Championship)

It happened so slowly I barely even noticed, but I’ve really come around to liking Bobby Lashley now. Ever since he stopped talking and/or kissing Lana all the time, he’s slowly been getting better and better. Now he’s this absolute destroyer of a man who wrecks everyone who comes his way, and it’s brilliant.

That said, he wasn’t the start of the show here. His dominance in the early portion of the match gave way to Riddle & Morrison really going at it around the middle. Neither of these men have got much of a chance to display their full potential since coming to Raw (or coming back, in Morrison’s case), and I think this is the best version of both these men we’ve seen in a while. Morrison played his role perfectly, although it does raise the question of how this match was supposed to go before Keith Lee pulled out.

As things got into the final sections, there was plenty to enjoy. The action had a pace I enjoy, and all three men had their ‘almost’ moments coming up the finish. MVP’s crutch being Lashley’s downfall was a nice touch and a believable way to topple someone so seemingly monstrous as Lashley. I didn’t think they would pull the title change, but I’m glad Riddle is getting something worthwhile now. I don’t know where they’re going to go with it. As long as he doesn’t immediately lose it on Raw tonight, I’ll be happy.

2 – Daniel Bryan def. Jey Uso, Cesaro, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn & King Corbin
(Winner gets a Universal Championship Match)(Elimination Chamber)

While I don’t think either chamber match last night were among the best, they were definitely still worthy versions of the stipulation. Honestly, I think you could reverse the order I’ve ranked these and still think it was reasonable. I just think the other chamber match had a better middle section.

The action in this match was pretty much all great. Bryan & Cesaro were absolutely the correct choices to start things off, and their battle kept that early portion of the match interesting. Sami Zayn was easily the star of the show early on, his stuff before the match was as great as always, and his contributions once he actually entered the match were the scheming heelish beats we’ve come to know and love from the man.

Once Corbin & Zayn were out of the way is when I think things got really good. Having three faces going up against a single heel could’ve been a bit awkward, but it was paced really well and felt more like Jey Uso putting together a gameplan than overcoming any odds. The spot with Owens’ arm in the chamber door was something we hadn’t seen before and quite brutal when you think about it. This definitely feels like the end of Owens being involved with Reigns & Uso, which is a bit of a shame because he’s been terrific, but I’m also looking forward to seeing what he does next.

The final three was excellent. As much as I wanted Cesaro to win, he had a fantastic showing here. His work against Bryan was technical mastery, and he worked well (albeit briefly) against Jey. As I’ve said, I don’t think Bryan was the right pick to win, but the fashion in which he did it certainly gives me nothing to complain about. This underdog style of wrestling is what I (and I think many others) love him for, and this was just like the old days.

1 – Drew McIntyre(c) def. AJ Styles, Sheamus, Jeff Hardy, Kofi Kingston & Randy Orton
(WWE Championship)
(Elimination Chamber)

AND

The Miz def. Drew McIntyre(c)
(WWE Championship)
(Money in the Bank Cash-In)

This was my preferred chamber match out of the two purely because I thought it was more consistently entertaining.

The mix of different styles in this match worked well, and we moved through some different phases are people came in. Things were a bit slower to start off with between Hardy & Orton, but as soon as Drew got in there, things picked up significantly. Kofi did better than I thought he was going to as well, eliminating Orton, which was quite a surprise. I’m sure many of us were expecting The Fiend or Alexa Bliss to get involved with Orton somehow, so to see him just get eliminated so quickly like that was quite the surprise, especially as it would be another 15 minutes before anyone else got eliminated.

Once everyone was out of their pods, there was plenty of fun to be had. Drew facing off against Sheamus was great, and I hope they’re not done with each other yet, even if they wait until after Wrestlemania. Styles got a better showing than I was expecting too, and that spot with Omos ripping the back off of the pod was another unique thing and fit Styles well. Speaking of Styles, that finish was something else, easily one of the best Claymore kicks I’ve seen, ending things with a bang.

The main headline, though, happened after the match, where Bobby Lashley came down, wrecked Drew, which Miz used as an opportunity to cash-in Money in the Bank and win the world title. I’m slightly torn on this.

In a bubble, I’m happy to see Miz get another world title run; he definitely deserves it. However, this isn’t 2017 Miz, the best heel in the company. This is 2020/21 Miz, who has been booked like a chump for over a year. He & Morrison have been portrayed as the most ineffective wrestlers on the planet. They haven’t been able to beat anyone, even when it’s 2 on 1. It just seems like such a leap to make.

However, I’m pretty confident Miz is just a transitional champion. They showed hints of collusion between Miz & The Hurt Business, and the deal was almost certainly giving Lashley the first shot at the title. I’ll honestly be surprised if Miz is still champion come Wrestlemania, and there’s absolutely no way he’s walking out of that show with the title. I think Lashley is going to win that title soon – something I’m definitely in favour of – it’s just a matter of whether he gets it a Fastlane and drops it to Drew at Mania, or Drew gets it back at Fastlane, only to drop it to Lashley at Mania.

It’s all still up in the air and a bit of a mess, but I’m interested to see where it goes.

WWE Royal Rumble 2021: Predictions & Analysis

There are very few wrestling events that I get childishly excited about these days, but the Royal Rumble is definitely one of them. It’s been said the world over by now, but it really is true that even a bad Rumble is still a lot of fun while you’re watching it. Having two Rumbles on the same show can be a bit exhausting these days, but also screw it, it’s a lot of fun, and I always have a blast, so I don’t care.

Enough rambling, more rumbling, let’s make predictions.

Asuka & Charlotte Flair(c) vs Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler
(Women’s Tag Team Championships)

You wouldn’t know it based on how they’ve been booked on TV this past month, but Asuka & Charlotte are actually the women’s tag champs. For some reason, WWE has decided to keep them miles apart from each other this month. Each woman has completely separate stories from each other, and only tangentially got involved with their challengers for this match.

When they won the titles, I think we all knew it was just so they could break up and feud for Wrestlemania, but apparently, until they’re ready to pull the trigger on that, WWE is just going to pretend they’re not even aware of one another. I’d like to be optimistic about this match and say that it has all the right competitors to be a good one, but this match will definitely get cut short. Since the pandemic era, WWE has tried to keep their PPVs to about 3 – 3 & 1/2 hours, we’ve got two Rumbles, which are both an hour-long, then four other title matches to deal with. That means that every title match (except for maybe one) will go short, so I’m not expecting much from this one.

In terms of a winner, I would prefer it if Jax & Baszler took the titles back, but I don’t see it happening until WWE are ready to start building the Charlotte/Asuka feud, which I doubt they are just yet. So I’m going to put Asuka & Charlotte Flair to retain, even if it is a stupid idea.

Sasha Banks(c) vs Carmella
(Smackdown Women’s Championship)

This was a very odd build. For the first couple of weeks after TLC, it seemed like Banks was done with Carmella, but apparently, WWE realised last-minute that Sasha needed something to do this month, so just kept the feud going while everyone else in the division builds to the Rumble. The stuff with Reginald was pretty good if you ask me, but it didn’t do much to actually hype me up for this match, it was more of just an entertaining, but self-contained oddity.

As with their TLC match, I think this one will be good, but not very long. Banks already dispatched of Carmella with little difficulty last month, and I can’t see Carmella looking much better in this one. All I’m hoping for here is an enjoyable match that lasts about 12 minutes. In an ideal world, I’d like it to go longer, but as I’ve said, the two Rumbles mean that the other matches have got to go short.

As I’ve probably made apparent already, I think Sasha Banks is going to retain. There’s no value in Banks dropping that belt before Wrestlemania, especially not to someone that she’s already beat once before.

Drew McIntyre(c) vs Goldberg
(WWE Championship)

Here we are again…

When this match was first announced, along with being disappointed, I also had the cockiness and was thinking there’s NO WAY they’d have Drew drop the title to Goldberg after building him up all year. Then I remembered that was precisely the same thing I thought last year when Goldberg beat The Fiend for the title.

It’s one of those rare cases where, whether or not I think this match is a good idea depends ENTIRELY on the result. If Drew wins, then it will be a great way to lend him some real credibility and bolster his stock even further going into Wrestlemania. However, if Goldberg wins, then it will be a terrible idea that proves that WWE doesn’t listen to its audience and only cares about selling nostalgia rather than creating new stars from the wrestlers we actually like.

I’m picking Drew McIntyre because I have to because I wouldn’t be able to look myself in the mirror if I picked Goldberg. The worst part is, if Goldberg does in, I know that I’m not even going to have the energy to be pissed off about it, I’m just going to be disappointed.

Roman Reigns(c) vs Kevin Owens
(Universal Championship)
(Last Man Standing)

By far the best built non-Rumble match on this show, I am really quite excited to see this one.

Smackdown as a whole has been bloody great this past month, and this feud at the top of everything has been a massive part of why. The original build with Nakamura going long in the gauntlet match, only for Pearce to be forcefully slotted in the match was a great way to kick things off. In all honesty, I was kind of excited to see Roman vs Pearce, but the way they turned the story around was really well-done. Pearce pulled a fast one on Roman, which brought Owens back into the picture with a hell of a lot of fire.

From there, things have built perfectly. Reigns’ heat only seems to build week on week as he wanders around the place, getting to be cocky, snobbish and hilariously sarcastic to everyone he meets. What’s more, is when the face gets one over on him, it feels like a huge moment, like Reigns is getting put in his place, if only just momentarily. Owens’ promos about his tattoos and what this means to him have been so impassioned and genuine that you just have to cheer for him. I’ve said before about how Owens can talk so genuinely, and Reigns has turned out to be the perfect opponent for him.

This build has been so good that I briefly considered the possibility that Owens could win the title. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t make much sense for Roman to drop the title now, but the story with Owens has been so good, that it’s made me somewhat forget all of that logic. I’ve not gone all of the way off the deep end though, and I’m still picking Roman Reigns to win, I’m saying, if Owens won, I’d be pleased with it.

Women’s Royal Rumble Match

Now we get to what we’re all here for, the Royal Rumble matches, and genuinely, I’m really struggling to predict a winner for both of these. It seems counter-intuitive given that there are 30 participants in the match, but we usually go into a Rumble match with one or two legit contenders for the win, however this year…there’s so many! As usual with these, I’m going to run down the handful of participants that I think are in with a shout, and explain a bit about why, before making my final pick.

Rhea Ripley- This is the one I’d probably be the most surprised about if it actually happened, but it’s pretty clear that Ripley is done in NXT. Her debut on the main roster seems to be imminent, and what better way to make a splash than winning the Rumble? She could feud with either Sasha or Asuka, and it would be a match I’d be very excited to see, but ultimately, this is the one I’d put the lowest odds on happening.

Bayley – While the match at Hell in a Cell was terrific, I think we were all a bit surprised when the Sasha/Bayley feud ended after just one match. Immediately there was speculation that they might save the rematch for Wrestlemania. While I think it’s a definite possibility, as the months have gone on, I think it’s become less and less likely. I don’t know what else Bayley could do at Wrestlemania, to be fair, but I think WWE will want something fresh for Banks at that show.

Charlotte Flair – This is probably the most straightforward pick out of what we’ve got, but I don’t think it’s the most likely. With Asuka & Charlotte as tag champs, if Charlotte won the Rumble, that would instantly cause the break-up and the feud. The only problem is it would be quite underwhelming. This isn’t a knock on Charlotte, but she won the Rumble last year, I don’t really want to see her win it again, especially when there are far more exciting options on the table.

Alexa Bliss – This has been incredibly weird, and not all that good, but at the same time, I kind of like the direction it’s going in. It’s hard to tell what the end-game is with the Fiend/Bliss relationship. For the most part, she’s just been a pawn in the feud between The Fiend and Orton, but over past few weeks, she’s been challenging Asuka for the title, breaking out on her own. I think it would be a colossal waste if she didn’t at least get to sniff a major title feud here.

Bianca Belair – For a while, Belair was the top contender for this match in my mind, and she might still be, I’m honestly not sure. After a bit of a slow start on Raw, she moved over to Smackdown, and it instantly became clear that she was a star in the making. While the finish to the Survivor Series tag match was crap, Belair was clearly the MVP of the whole match, and since she’s been feuding with Bayley, she’s been looking good week in, and week out, they even made that WWE Chronicle on her past, which is something they don’t do for just anyone.

This is a really tough choice. In my head, it’s between Bliss & Belair, and since they’re both on different brands, either one of them could theoretically win, then the other just gets their title match via the Elimination Chamber. I’ve genuinely gone back and forth several times while writing this section, but in the end, I’ve got to go with…Bianca Belair. I’m already second-guessing that decision, but I’ve got to make the pick at some point.

Men’s Royal Rumble

Truth be told, I’m actually thrilled that these Rumbles are so hard to predict because it means I’m going to be all the more invested in the match. Not having any idea what’s going to happen just gets me hyped up all the more, and that goes for the men’s Rumble as much as it does the women’s. Let’s run down the contenders.

Shinsuke Nakamura – Technically possible, because they’ve been pushing him quite hard this past month, but I doubt it’ll actually happen. It feels more to me like this is Smackdown’s way of building up more red-herrings in terms of people who could win the Rumble. They’ve been doing this with Cesaro & Dolph Ziggler too. I’m glad they’re doing it, it’s something that should be done every year, but I don’t think any of them are actually going to win.

Seth Rollins – This does depend on whether he’s ready to return after becoming a father (which is the reason I didn’t consider Becky for the women’s Rumble), but if he does come back, I’d say he has a shot at winning. While we have seen Roman vs Seth before, it was a long time ago, and the situation was quite different. Sure, they’re both heels, but you can change that a bit, since Seth will be coming off of a return, it wouldn’t be that weird to do a character shift.

Edge – I had a feeling Edge was going to be in the Rumble, but I thought they would’ve saved it as a surprise entrant. Either way, I think this is more likely a platform to sow the seeds for his Wrestlemania feud. No idea whether they want to do the third match with Orton, or maybe a marquee feud with someone like Styles, but either way, I don’t think he’ll be the winner of the thing. If he were to win, then I think Roman vs Edge would be the way to go, I just don’t see it happening.

John Cena – While reports from the dirt sheets say that there are no Wrestlemania plans locked in just yet, they are also saying that Cena is almost sure to have a match. So why not have him enter the Rumble and win it? Roman vs Cena would be a money match, even if we’ve already seen it, but I think Drew vs Cena could be one hell of a match too. The story can build around Cena trying to break Ric Flair’s imaginary world title record or something like that.

Big E – Since about Summerslam, Big E has been one of the top contenders to win the Rumble, but in recent months he’s gone down quite significantly in my odds. Now he’s got the Intercontinental Championship under his belt, I’d prefer it if he had a decent length reign with that, fighting a variety of opponents, rather than hot-shotting straight up to the world title. Not to say I’d be upset if he did win the Rumble, far from it, I just think that it’d be better for him to build for a while longer and maybe wait until Summerslam to challenge for the title.

Goldberg – So this was a possibility that I hadn’t considered until I saw it floating around online, and quite frankly, it terrifies me. If you’ve not seen it, people have been speculating that maybe Goldberg could lose to Drew earlier in the night, only to enter and win the Rumble. This would be a disaster, but I can 100% see WWE going through with it, especially with the report a few days ago that WWE is considering a ‘really scary’ finish to the Rumble that might piss off fans.

Daniel Bryan – As much as I can’t make all that solid of case for it, it just feels right. Admittedly, it’d pretty ironic that after being majorly snubbed from two Rumble wins in 2014 & 2015, that the Rumble he finally wins could be one in front of no crowd, but that’s life I suppose. Bryan’s expressed his desire to stop being a full-time wrestler over the next year – a position I think he’s more than deserving of – so I think giving Bryan one last big Mania match would be the best way to go, and a Rumble win is the perfect way to get there. Roman vs Bryan is a match that WWE has planned, but never actually executed over the past couple of years (cave for Fastlane 2015, but those were VERY different times), and they already sowed the seeds of it through November and December, it would seem weird not to commit to it now.

As I said, the case is still a bit shaky, and I’m by no means certain, but Daniel Bryan winning the Rumble just feels right to me, so I’m sticking to my guns and making it my official prediction.

So there you have it! Thank you very much for taking the time to read this. Please, let me know what you think will happen at the Royal Rumble, either in the comments below or on Twitter @SStyleSmark. Finally, make sure to come back here this time on Monday, where I’ll be writing up my review!

WWE Survivor Series 2020: Every Match Ranked

Survivor Series doesn’t really feel like a big 4 anymore, does it?

The show last night was fine, and there were a handful of enjoyable matches, but the whole thing is going to be forgotten about by the end of the week. They didn’t even bother keeping track of which show won this year, which shows you how much of a shit WWE seem to give about the main gimmick of the Pay-Per-View.

Before I start talking about the matches though, I do want to touch on The Undertaker’s final farewell, because I really liked it. I know it wasn’t much when you think about it, but it’s all a character like The Undertaker really needs. Admittedly, I’m not entirely sure why we had to sit through 10 minutes of other legend’s entrances only for them to immediately vanish and never be seen again, but this felt like the ‘series wrap’ on The Undertaker we needed.

After Wrestlemania 36, there was no indication that it was Taker’s last match until the Last Ride documentary came out in the summer, so I liked that we had this. We got that final chance to say goodbye to The Undertaker, and perhaps more importantly, for The Undertaker to say goodbye to The Undertaker. You can criticise the last few years of his career, as the man himself has, but the fact remains that The Undertaker is my favourite wrestler of all time, and is arguably the reason I’m a wrestling fan in the first place. Maybe I’ll do a longer piece about it one day, but for now, I’m glad I got the chance to say goodbye.

Anyway, onto bitching about bad booking!

7 – Team Raw (Nia Jax, Shayna Baszler, Lacey Evans, Peyton Royce, Lana) def. Team Smackdown (Bianca Belair, Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan, Natalya, Bayley)
(5-on-5 Elimination Tag)

I just don’t understand what the goal was here, no-one benefitted from the way this was booked.

The opening section of the match – before any eliminations happened – was pretty enjoyable wrestling if a little basic. It threw off the trope of one or two competitors getting eliminated early and allowed everyone at least a little bit of time in the ring. However, once the eliminations started coming, things fell apart. I don’t mind Bayley being eliminated first, because quite frankly, she took one hell of a beating leading up that point, however, then Natalya tapped out Peyton Royce with a Sharpshooter so bad that even The Rock would think it laughable. From there, the dominos kept falling as Natalya & Lacey Evans were dropped with just one or two moves each.

Then, we got inarguably the best section of the match, as Team Smackdown did everything in their power to topple Nia. Admittedly, I don’t really like how Nia was booked as a Strowman-level monster here, but it worked for this specific part of the story. Morgan & Riott trying to take her down was very compelling, and a bit heartbreaking when they eventually failed. Then, Bianca went on an absolute tear and I was properly enjoying the match again. Bianca looked like a superhero as she fought off both Baszler & Nia, and Baszler’s elimination was perfect.

But then…BUT THEN…

The finish happened, and now we have to talk about Lana because I genuinely don’t understand what the intention of this booking was. Was it supposed to make us cheer Lana? Because if it was, it utterly failed. I don’t care who’s talking down to her, having her spend the whole match stood on the stairs pouting like a pissy schoolgirl who’s just been told to tuck in their shirt doesn’t endear me to her. On top of that, her winning by accident doesn’t make me like her either. If she had just done something in that final section where she actually caused the double-countout, then it might’ve worked, but the fact is she did literally nothing and then celebrated like she carried the whole team. That’s not someone I want to cheer, and based on the story that was told up until this point, I think cheering her was what WWE wanted.

6 – Bobby Lashley def. Sami Zayn
(United States Champion vs Intercontinental Champion)

Well, this match wasn’t necessarily bad…it just wasn’t very interesting.

The heel vs heel dynamic didn’t work in this match, and I think the reasons are twofold. One was that commentary did not give us a clear narrative. They kept going back and forth on who they were presenting as the marginalized underdog, and who they were presenting as a dishonourable cheat. For the first half of the match, the face commentators were condemning The Hurt Business being around and oppressing Zayn, but as the match progressed, they changed their mind and decided that Sami deserves it because he’s a bit of a jerk.

Two was the fact that both teams tried to heel it up in different ways. Sami was being braggadocious and cowardly, while The Hurt Business was being oppressive and threatening. It meant that I didn’t like either guy and didn’t want them to win. The action in the ring was largely fine, but the match highlights the flaw with crowbarring in a gimmick PPV like this. It would’ve been so easy to avoid this problem, but because WWE already has plans in place for December, they booked themselves in a corner here and it led to a mess of a story.

5 – The Miz won the Dual-Brand Battle Royal
(Kickoff Show)

This may have been a meaningless battle royal, but it was a pretty fun meaningless battle royal.

As always with these kinds of matches, the early stages were full of short exchanges and quick eliminations, then once we started to boil down the competitors, things got more action-packed. Amazingly, almost everyone in the match got a chance to shine, Murphy went on a tear and I liked his small battle with Ziggler & Roode; Nakamura was fairly consistent throughout, making an impact when he was needed; Hardy & Elias touched on their feud again with a small exchange; Chad Gable reminded us that he’s really good at suplexes, and Dominic Mysterio was the MVP of the whole thing.

The way in which The Miz won was pretty easy to see coming, but it was still a good way to do it. Personally, I would’ve preferred to see Dominic get the win, but I certainly can’t argue with keeping Mr Money in the Bank looking strong.

4 – Team Raw (AJ Styles, Braun Strowman, Keith Lee, Sheamus, Riddle) def. Team Smackdown (Jey Uso, Kevin Owens, Seth Rollins, King Corbin, Otis)
(5-on-5 Elimination Tag)

Well, I knew Team Raw would finally pull it together in this match, but I certainly didn’t expect to see a sweep. It’s the kind of move that I thought I’d be annoyed about, but in reality, who does it hurt? The fact is, the Smackdown team really don’t suffer much from this loss. Seth took the pin voluntarily, and he’s about to take some time off anyway; Corbin can get his ass kicked time and time again, but still come back from it fine; Otis was easily the MVP for his team and only lost because it was 5 on 2, and Jey has this loss play into his story with Roman. The only person you could argue will suffer from it is Owens, but he wasn’t doing anything noteworthy anyway, so I don’t think it’s a big deal.

Once again, the action was fairly basic, but it was still good. There was a consistent pace and it allowed everyone to get a chance to shine. Splitting the eliminations between everyone meant that all of Team Raw looked to be on the same level, and while Keith Lee didn’t get to be the sole survivor, getting the final pin is definitely a good way to go about it. Weirdly, I found myself enjoying Otis’ performance the most in the match, especially when it was down to 5-on-2. However, Jey Uso also did a brilliant job as the final man.

I can’t wait to see them all start beating the crap out of each other on Raw tonight.

3 – The Street Profits def. The New Day
(Raw Tag Team Champions vs Smackdown Tag Team Champions)

Here we have ourselves an uncomplicated, high-quality tag team match.

As opposed to the mid-card titles, where the heel vs heel dynamic ruined the match, this one definitely benefitted from face vs face, as it allowed both teams to mix up their styles a bit. New Day definitely took a more heelish role in the match and I’d honestly forgotten just how good they are at it. Xavier started putting a little extra impact on his moves to make them more hard-hitting, and Kofi’s taunting from ringside was fantastic stuff.

Street Profits knew just the right way to respond to all of it though, and they turned all of New Day’s shots into comebacks for them. They spent a large part of the match getting down, but by the end, the Profits felt like a team of equal quality who completely deserved their win. As always with these kinds of matches, when it broke down towards the later stages in when the match reached its peak. The working of Ford’s rib kept the result constantly in doubt, especially when he couldn’t cover after the splash.

Having Street Profits use a different finisher worked wonders for them too, as it showed their ability to adapt when their opponents throw their plans to the dogs. After spending half the year feuding with the same teams, this was a breath of fresh air that reminded me just how amazing Street Profits are when they’re at their peak.

2 – Sasha Banks def. Asuka
(Raw Women’s Champion vs Smackdown Women’s Champion)

In my predictions, I made no secret of the fact that I wasn’t looking forward to this match due to having seen it a bunch over the summer. However, these two put a lot of work in, and it paid off because this match felt very different to the ones from earlier in the year. Part of this is thanks to the fact that Bayley wasn’t lurking to cost Asuka the match at every opportunity, but also the style they wrestled was very different.

I often struggle to get invested in technical, mat-based affairs, but putting it right at the start of the match pulled me in because of how different it felt. What’s more, is they were able to move through this phase pretty quickly without it feeling rushed. It’s the kind of thing that makes me wish more wrestlers had submission finishers, so we could get stuff like this. The match lulled a bit around the middle, but I don’t mind because things picked up again by the end. The final 5 minutes were very enjoyable and showed a big chunk of what each woman has to offer, which in Asuka’s case is very refreshing given her recent history.

As for the finish, it’s not what I wanted to see, but I don’t think it was the worst. I definitely didn’t want to see either woman tap, especially Asuka, so this seemed like the decent middle ground that didn’t harm the loser too much. It’s the product of the PPV booking WWE into a corner again, and the performers made the best of what they had.

1 – Roman Reigns def. Drew McIntyre
(WWE Champion vs Universal Champion)

In this era of smaller guys working technical, faster-paced matches, it’s easy to forget how fun it can be to watch two jacked dudes beat the piss out of each other for 20 minutes.

The match started out VERY slow, but it was slow with a purpose. The pacing and staring they did with each other created a very tense atmosphere that carried large chunks of the match. I spent the whole opening segments just waiting for the first massive strike to land, but they kept me on the hook with it for a while. The early exchanges were able to hold and build the tension into the explosion we saw later in the match. My interest did fade a bit around the middle with all of the rest-holds, but once things started to build up again, I was sucked right back in.

Once those big strikes started to land, business really picked up. Drew was absolute fire when he started his comeback, I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen the man move so fast and they did a perfect job of teasing the Claymore for about 15 minutes of the match. Despite Roman overbearing on huge chunks of the match, it always felt like a matter of time before Drew turned it around on him, and as things reached the climax, they knew exactly how to play with those ideas.

The finish seemed entirely designed to make Drew look incredible in defeat. Roman put him through a table and Speared him through the barricade and Drew still kicked out. Then Roman hit another Spear, at which point I was sure it over, only for Drew to kick out again. On top of that, they made sure to protect the Claymore like nothing else, the only time Drew hit it was when the referee got knocked from the ring, which meant Roman never had to kick out of it, which was brilliant. Jey’s interference was definitely the right choice, given the number of people that could’ve shown up, it brought a resolution to the story set up earlier in the night and gave Drew all the sympathy in the world when he eventually took the pin.

It’s the classic WWE trope of booking themselves into a corner, but then escaping it far better than anyone thought possible. Roman looks like a strong champion and Drew still looks like a near-unbeatable champion despite taking the loss.

And there you have it! Thank you very much for taking the time to read this post. Please, let me know what you thought of the show, either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. Finally, make sure to come back here this time on Friday, where I’ll be running down the best multiplayer modes in video games!

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

8 – Bret Hart & Lex Luger – 1994

7 – Charlotte Flair – 2020

6 – Vince McMahon – 1999

5 – Sheamus – 2012

4 – John Cena – 2013

3 – Randy Orton – 2017

2 – Batista – 2014

1 – Roman Reigns – 2015

6 – Roman Reigns(c) def. Daniel Bryan(Universal Championship)

5 – John Morrison def. Mustafa Ali, Ricochet & Elias(Winner gets added to the United States Championship Match)(Kickoff Show)

4 – Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler(c) def. Sasha Banks & Bianca Belair(Women’s Tag Team Championships)

3 – Riddle def. Bobby Lashley(c) & John Morrison(United States Championship)

2 – Daniel Bryan def. Jey Uso, Cesaro, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn & King Corbin(Winner gets a Universal Championship Match)(Elimination Chamber)

1 – Drew McIntyre(c) def. AJ Styles, Sheamus, Jeff Hardy, Kofi Kingston & Randy Orton(WWE Championship)(Elimination Chamber)

AND

The Miz def. Drew McIntyre(c)(WWE Championship)(Money in the Bank Cash-In)

Asuka & Charlotte Flair(c) vs Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler(Women’s Tag Team Championships)

Sasha Banks(c) vs Carmella(Smackdown Women’s Championship)

Drew McIntyre(c) vs Goldberg(WWE Championship)

Roman Reigns(c) vs Kevin Owens(Universal Championship)(Last Man Standing)

Women’s Royal Rumble Match

Men’s Royal Rumble

7 – Team Raw (Nia Jax, Shayna Baszler, Lacey Evans, Peyton Royce, Lana) def. Team Smackdown (Bianca Belair, Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan, Natalya, Bayley)(5-on-5 Elimination Tag)

6 – Bobby Lashley def. Sami Zayn(United States Champion vs Intercontinental Champion)

5 – The Miz won the Dual-Brand Battle Royal(Kickoff Show)

4 – Team Raw (AJ Styles, Braun Strowman, Keith Lee, Sheamus, Riddle) def. Team Smackdown (Jey Uso, Kevin Owens, Seth Rollins, King Corbin, Otis)(5-on-5 Elimination Tag)

3 – The Street Profits def. The New Day(Raw Tag Team Champions vs Smackdown Tag Team Champions)

2 – Sasha Banks def. Asuka(Raw Women’s Champion vs Smackdown Women’s Champion)

1 – Roman Reigns def. Drew McIntyre(WWE Champion vs Universal Champion)

6 – Roman Reigns(c) def. Daniel Bryan
(Universal Championship)

5 – John Morrison def. Mustafa Ali, Ricochet & Elias
(Winner gets added to the United States Championship Match)
(Kickoff Show)

4 – Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler(c) def. Sasha Banks & Bianca Belair
(Women’s Tag Team Championships)

3 – Riddle def. Bobby Lashley(c) & John Morrison
(United States Championship)

2 – Daniel Bryan def. Jey Uso, Cesaro, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn & King Corbin
(Winner gets a Universal Championship Match)(Elimination Chamber)

1 – Drew McIntyre(c) def. AJ Styles, Sheamus, Jeff Hardy, Kofi Kingston & Randy Orton
(WWE Championship)
(Elimination Chamber)

The Miz def. Drew McIntyre(c)
(WWE Championship)
(Money in the Bank Cash-In)

Asuka & Charlotte Flair(c) vs Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler
(Women’s Tag Team Championships)

Sasha Banks(c) vs Carmella
(Smackdown Women’s Championship)

Drew McIntyre(c) vs Goldberg
(WWE Championship)

Roman Reigns(c) vs Kevin Owens
(Universal Championship)
(Last Man Standing)

7 – Team Raw (Nia Jax, Shayna Baszler, Lacey Evans, Peyton Royce, Lana) def. Team Smackdown (Bianca Belair, Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan, Natalya, Bayley)
(5-on-5 Elimination Tag)

6 – Bobby Lashley def. Sami Zayn
(United States Champion vs Intercontinental Champion)

5 – The Miz won the Dual-Brand Battle Royal
(Kickoff Show)

4 – Team Raw (AJ Styles, Braun Strowman, Keith Lee, Sheamus, Riddle) def. Team Smackdown (Jey Uso, Kevin Owens, Seth Rollins, King Corbin, Otis)
(5-on-5 Elimination Tag)

3 – The Street Profits def. The New Day
(Raw Tag Team Champions vs Smackdown Tag Team Champions)

2 – Sasha Banks def. Asuka
(Raw Women’s Champion vs Smackdown Women’s Champion)

1 – Roman Reigns def. Drew McIntyre
(WWE Champion vs Universal Champion)