Tag: The Undertaker

WWE Super ShowDown 2020: Every Match Ranked

Another Saudi Arabia show is in the bag and…do you know what? I actually thought it was ok. Not great, not by a long way, but I don’t think there was anything particularly bad on the show and overall it was certainly no worse than any other B-show WWE PPV these days. The matches were still plagued with the standard problems that come with having to fly for 14 hours, spend two days running the media circuit and then wrestle in 100 degrees Farenhieght.

Let’s get to breaking down the matches.

9 – Goldberg def. The Fiend Bray Wyatt(c)
(Universal Championship)

Fine, whatever.

8 – Brock Lesnar(c) def. Ricochet
(WWE Championship)

Yup, thought so.

7 – Roman Reigns def. King Corbin
(Steel Cage)

It’s over! It’s finally over! Assuming Michael Cole didn’t lie to us about that…alright so maybe it’s not over.

Probably unsurprisingly, this match didn’t have anything interesting going on with it. What little in-ring chemistry Reigns & Corbin had has since been played out beyond the point of it being entertaining and the addition of the Steel Cage into the mix didn’t help the match quality at all. All it did was mean that every minute or so the action had to stop so one man could very slowly climb the cage only to be thwarted by the other.

Even though these two will technically be facing each other in the Elimination Chamber next Sunday, I’m just glad that we’re finally at a point where we can say we’re done with this feud. If Reigns vs Goldberg really is the plan then I actually think there could be some good stuff there, even if I would’ve preferred Reigns vs The Fiend and quite honestly, I couldn’t give less of a shit about who Corbin fights next.

6 – Mansoor def. Dolph Ziggler

Now we enter the “just fine” portion of the show, where the matches are enjoyable, but nothing noteworthy.

As far as opponents for Mansoor goes, I think Ziggler was a pretty good choice, admittedly, Dolph Ziggler as a heel seems to think that “slow the pace down and only do headlocks for offence” is the only possible way he can do it, which isn’t ideal, but Mansoor spent a pretty good portion of the match on offence and the match didn’t feel too slow.

In terms of Mansoor winning, that’s great, but like I say every time he does one of these shows, there’s no point in doing any of this or giving him these wins if you’re not going to feature him on other shows and try to build him into an actual star. I know that with this show WWE proved to us all that they just don’t want any new stars and would rather have the ones from yesteryear, but if you’re going to treat Mansoor like this big heroic wrestler, then us see him wrestle more than twice a year.

5 – Angel Garza def. Humberto Carrillo

Another match that was just fine.

I thought this match was enjoyable, it held my attention the entire way through and showed off a lot of what these guys have to offer, however, they’ve had better matches together before and they will almost certainly have better matches together in the coming weeks too.

My main problem with this whole feud comes with it’s proximity to Wrestlemania because unfortunately, it’s not a big enough match to get a one-on-one blowoff on that show, so it’ll probably end with one of them eliminating the other in the ARMBAR. I like both Garza & Carrillo, but there’s only a limited amount I feel ok with investing in both of these guys because time and time again, WWE will spend a couple of months building guys like this up, only to suddenly drop them with no explanation. I hope that doesn’t happen here, but I’m remaining cautious.

4 – Bayley(c) def. Naomi
(Smackdown Women’s Championship)

Wow, Naomi’s entrance looks like crap when she’s not allowed to wear any of the glowing stuff.

Much like many other matches on this list, it was better than I was expecting in the circumstances. I’m sure the two of them could put on a much better match if they weren’t so restricted, but I think they did a good job with the hand they were dealt. The action the match followed was still a fair basic formula, but I thought it was an enjoyable incarnation of that formula, Bayley is really finding what heel style works best for her and she was able to ground and slow the action without resulting to five minutes of boring rest-holds.

Naomi’s comebacks were kind of exciting but again, she didn’t seem to be able to do a lot of her more crowd popping moves (speaking of the crowd, they were dead silent for this one). Even though Bayley won clean, there is the element of a dirty finish in there with Bayley using Naomi’s government-mandated shirt to trap her legs, so there’s room for Naomi to claim a rematch if that’s the route they want to go down, which at this point, I think it probably is.

3 – The Undertaker won the Turwaiq Trophy Gauntlet Match

Well, the in-ring action wasn’t anything interesting, but the storytelling was pretty compelling.

To be entirely honest, when I saw R-Truth starting off against Bobby Lashley, I thought we were in for 3 or 4 matches of Lashley running through people until Mysterio came out, but the way they turned it around and had R-Truth picking up a bunch of surprising victories over some fairly imposing heels was a lot of fun. Going through the 24/7 Championship stuff over the past year has led us all the slightly forget that Truth is actually a very capable wrestler when he wants to be and I found myself rooting for him with each victory in this match.

Then there’s the stuff with The Undertaker, which to be entirely honest with you, I thought was goofy and cheesy, but absolutely brilliant. The way the scene was set up with The OC beating down on Rey Mysterio only for that to suddenly be turned around to the OC getting beaten up. I particularly loved the way those black boots & coat stepped into frame, it was a nice variation on revealing The Undertaker outside of the usual gong hitting. It built this hype towards the entrance because we all knew it was The Undertaker, but first, they wanted to make us really want to see The Undertaker.

I doubt we’ll ever see the trophy again and it’s certainly not going to be mentioned in The Undertaker’s eventual Hall of Fame induction, but the story told throughout the phases of this match was well-done and quite enjoyable.

2 – The Miz & John Morrison def. The New Day(c)
(Smackdown Tag Team Championships)

Don’t worry everyone, the tag teams will save the day with good matches!

This is the first time since his return that I’ve actually been glad that he’s back. The stuff he’s been doing in the build to this has been fun and all, but this is the first time that I’ve been able to see the value in him returning as an active competitor in the company. It’s no secret that for the majority of 2018, The Miz was floundering as a face and once his short feud with Bray Wyatt was over, it was entirely possible that he was going to go right back to that formula, happily, his reuniting with Morrison has made The Miz as a face and interesting character again and I’m very glad they’ve won the titles.

Once again, this match was slightly slower than it probably would’ve been under normal circumstances, but I still thought it was a very enjoyable watch. Big E felt like the MVP of the match to me as he seemed to be able to keep the pace going just enough throughout the moments where it seemed like the action was dropping. Although the chair shot was a little “blink and you miss it” it’s entirely in-keeping with Miz & Morrison as characters and gives The New Day plenty of reason to get back on their feet and keep this feud rolling into Wrestlemania, where hopefully, they’ll get a chance to tear the house down.

1 – Seth Rollins & Murphy(c) def. The Street Profits
(Raw Tag Team Championships)

I really don’t understand why people seem to be down on Rollins & Murphy as tag champs, it seems to me like they’re exactly what the Raw tag division needed to become interesting again.

As I mentioned in my predictions, Rollins has slid so naturally back into a heel role and this new Farcry 5 esque spin on his heel persona has been such great fun to watch in recent weeks. Thankfully, this also extends to the matches, where I think all four guys involved got a chance to feature themselves and keep the fun rolling the whole way through the match. Rollins seems to be learning his lessons from his last heel run and is able to make himself look beatable in the ring, without looking like a total chump. This extends to Murphy too, who I’m very glad is still being treated like a competent wrestler, rather than a bumbling sidekick.

Given how little build The Street Profits had for this match, I’m very glad they weren’t just cast aside like they were no threat to the champions at all and that Rollins & Murphy had to resort to slightly underhanded tactics to win the match. I’m not entirely confident that any of the credibility gained in this match will carry over for very long into the coming weeks and months, but for this moment at least, I think this match was nothing but beneficial to everyone involved AND it was a lot of fun to watch.

So there you have it! Those are my thoughts on WWE Super ShowDown, thank you very much for taking the time to read this. Please, let me know what your thoughts on the show are, either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. Finally, make sure you come back this way next Saturday as WWE give us little time to breathe, and I’ll be covering Elimination Chamber!

WWE Extreme Rules 2019: Every Match Ranked

Extreme Rules has been and gone and I can honestly say that I had a good time watching it. This show had a whole bunch of matches that were good fun to watch and nothing fell below my expectations, many even surpassed them. Even the worst matches of the show were still ok and I think this has done a really good job of putting things in place for Summerslam.

Let’s waste no further time rambling and get right to it, here’s every match of Extreme Rules 2019 ranked.

12 – Kevin Owens def. Dolph Ziggler

I was very confused and slightly annoyed when WWE randomly added two matches to the show out of the blue about 3-4 hours before the show was set to start, but in hindsight, this was a good way to keep things rolling with Kevin Owens.

Since the match itself was only 15 seconds long I can’t rank it any higher than last, but I think this and the promo Owens cut afterwards was a great way to push this new character angle he’s going for. If Owens is going to be the man to finally shut Shane up, then this Stone Cold esque anti-hero character is definitely the way to go about it, since it fits in with Owens promo style and in-ring abilities perfectly.

Was it just put there to fill some time before the world title matches? Probably, but as filler goes, it was very entertaining.

11 – Bayley(c) def. Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross
(Smackdown Women’s Championship)
(2 on 1 Handicap)

This match was fine.

I generally say this about one match every month, but this was a match that didn’t really capture my attention all that much but didn’t have any major flaws or nitpicks for me to talk about, it was fine.

I’m not entirely sure where the Alexa/Nikki storyline is going to go from here, Alexa seemed a bit miffed after Nikki lost the match for her, but she still hugged her and stuff in what looked genuine friendship as opposed to Alexa just leading her on. I feel like this story might struggle a bit without the title involved but at the same time there isn’t any more I think they can do with the Alexa, Nikki, Bayley combo in title matches and I’d much rather see Bayley move onto other things.

Perhaps Nikki gets a solo title shot on Smackdown and Alexa screws it up, either deliberately or accidentally? The only problem there is, I’m not sure how you could justify Nikki getting a one on one title shot after she took the pin in this match. I’ll be happy as long as the Summerslam match isn’t just more of the same if I’m being honest.

10 – Braun Strowman def. Bobby Lashley
(Last Man Standing)

Well, this match was better than I was expecting it to be.

I feel like if the overall show was of a worse quality I would’ve been in a worse mood and slaughtered this match, but we’ll never know since I was in a good mood when this one got underway. It was pretty much what we’ve come to expect from Last Man Standing matches in WWE, there was a lot of aimless fighting, taking occasional breaks to do big spots before ending on a huge spot.

It could’ve been really slow and plodding, but the fact that the match was constantly on the mood helped to artificially accelerate the pace of the match and make it feel a lot more interesting to watch. There were plenty of good looking spots scattered throughout and it wasn’t just one man on top the whole time, which Last Man Standing matches often can be. As for the final spot, the fall itself was a little underwhelming considering the impact made absolutely no sound whatsoever, but goddamn, I popped when Strowman burst through the wall in the final moments; yes it was cheesy and yes it was obvious, but I got a kick out of it.

I do think that the Philadelphia crowd need a higher bar for chanting “Holy Shit” though, considering they chanted it when Lashley got thrown at a soft felt wall.

9 – Kofi Kingston(c) def. Samoa Joe
(WWE Championship)

To answer my question from the predictions, this was a one-and-done for Joe.

Considering the number of matches on the show, I was surprised that almost every match got the time I felt it needed…except this one, which clearly got cut short for time. At 9 minutes 45 seconds, this was the second shortest match on the main show, the first being the 15 second Owens/Ziggler match, and this was the WWE title match.

For what it was, I didn’t have any complaints about this match, I thought these two worked well together and the match had a nice flow to it, unfortunately, the finish felt really sudden and very jarring because of how short the match ended up being. It’s clear that Joe isn’t getting a rematch after this, which is a shame, but I’ll see what the plan for Summerslam is first before poo-pooing it.

This was definitely the biggest disappointment on the night, but the match was still alright even if it didn’t get the time it needed.

8 – Drew Gulak(c) def. Tony Nese
(Cruiserweight Championship)
(Kickoff Show)

Honestly, I would’ve been fine cutting another 5 minutes from the WWE title match if it meant this got to be on the main card.

Once again I felt (as I often do with the cruiserweight title matches on the pre-show) that this match could’ve been a lot better than it ended up being if it was in a better spot and got some more time because these guys always make the most of the time they get. Both of these guys put on a really solid performance here, with a number of good spots, like when Tony was going for some form of standing stomp and Drew launched himself up off the floor to grab Nese into a roll-up.

This should definitely be the end of the road for Nese in the Cruiserweight title scene, he’s been great to watch, but there are plenty of guys like Oney Lorcan and Humberto Carrillo who need the chance to put on a great match with Gulak.

7 – Shinsuke Nakamura def. Finn Balor(c)
(Intercontinental Championship)
(Kickoff Show)

O…K?

So, not only was a major title match added to the pre-show about 3 hours before it was set to take place, but the title also changed hands in that match? This seems like a really odd decision and one that was most certainly made last-minute. I can’t necessarily say I’m against it though.

Unfortunately, Balor has been getting no TV time with the IC title this past couple of months, so perhaps this was a quick move to shake things up and get the title back in a featured role again. If that’s the case, then I think this was a great move, however, if nothing changes, then this title change seems rather pointless. That said, I’m never going to complain too much about Shinsuke Nakamura winning a championship.

The match itself was pretty good for what it was too. I was left a bit underwhelmed by Balor & Nakamura’s match in NXT, but it seems both men were working a little harder last night because I thought this was a really enjoyable affair. Maybe the constraint of the time worked to their benefit and forced them to work a faster pace, because the flow to this match was really nice and nothing over-stayed it’s welcome, not to mention the finish was genuinely surprising.

Let’s just hope this actually gets a follow-up.

6 – Seth Rollins(c) & Becky Lynch(c) def.           Baron Corbin & Lacey Evans
(Universal Championship)
(Raw Women’s Championship)
(Extreme Rules)

I’m including Brock’s cash in with this too. I would’ve put it in the header, but it was already 5 lines long.

Well, this match did surpass my expectations, but to be fair, my expectations were quite low, to begin with. My main worry was that this was going to be a standard weapons match, with a lot of slow setting up of spots that end up not being worth it and while that was the case for one spot, the majority of the match didn’t sacrifice flow and pacing for the sake of a quick shock.

I found that generally weapons were used very effectively throughout this match, as a way to put an exclamation point on the wrestling sequence that preceded it, rather than being the main focus on the match. Watching Becky & Rollins wail on Corbin & Lacey with kendo sticks was a great sight and even the tables spot was fun to watch since it was the only big spot of the match.

I also liked the storytelling of the finish, with Corbin hitting the End of Days to Becky Lynch, sending Seth Rollins into a frenzy and there’s no clearer way to say Corbin’s done with the title scene than being beaten down with chairs, kendo sticks and three Curb Stomps before being pinned. I also liked the nice touch of Lacey seeing Rollins going mental and just decided to get out of there, it’s believable for her character.

Now, Brock Lesnar.

I’m personally ok with this because I’m pretty confident that this title reign is only going to be a month long. Ever since Lesnar won Money in the Bank, I was pretty certain this is where we were headed and even since Wrestlemania I thought we were going to have to get a full-length match between Rollins & Lesnar at some point. So as long as Lesnar drops the title back to Seth at Summerslam, I don’t see any harm in him holding the title for the next month.

5 – The Revival(c) def. The Usos
(Raw Tag Team Championships)

Oh hey, I remember tag team wrestling.

This match wasn’t on the level of a Takeover tag team match by any means, but damn it’s refreshing to see a good tag team match involving these guys, especially in the Raw tag scene.

As we had all hoped, these two teams worked fantastically together, things didn’t get quite as chaotic as I would’ve liked, but this match was filled with the classic of tag team wrestling. They got a really nice balance between, slow wearing down of opponents with The Revival working their mat-based offence and The Uso’s flying about the place, popping the crowd and dolling out all of the Superkicks in the world.

I was surprised with The Revival winning, but given that this match actually got the time and respect it deserved, I’m cautiously optimistic about where this is going, perhaps some sort of stipulation variant on this match would be good for Summerslam, or even better, turn the Viking Raiders face and have them get involved in the title scene. I don’t wanna go crazy with optimism after one ray of hope, but a turn around could be very close by for the Raw tag division.

4 – Roman Reigns & The Undertaker def.            Shane McMahon & Drew Mcintyre
(No Holds Barred)

Oh hey, I remember The Undertaker.

That horrible match against Goldberg at Super Showdown must’ve really flicked a switch in Undertaker’s mind because he was on fire tonight. I think most of us expected Roman to carry the majority of the match, with Taker only coming in for the big spots and greatest hits, but Taker ended up putting in the most work out of anyone in this match and it was great to watch.

The moments between Drew and Undertaker gave me the tinglies, especially that fantastic shot where Drew appeared behind Taker as he did the throat slit gesture and Shane McMahon somehow didn’t outshine everyone. Having Elias show up was a nice little bit of continuity and the whole thing made good use of the No Holds Barred stipulation, without blowing any of the big spots for later in the night.

The finishing sequence was great fun too, Taker sitting up will always get a pop out of me, and the sheer terror in Shane’s face as Taker grabbed his leg was priceless. I also loved Roman intercepting Drew just as he was about to Claymore Taker, the cameras didn’t catch him getting in the ring, so it was a genuine surprise that looked really good. Also, Shane McMahon didn’t get a win over The Undertaker, which is always a plus.

3 – AJ Styles def. Ricochet(c)
(United States Championship)

It’s amazing what happens when you let good wrestlers do good wrestling.

These two were always going to put on a great match and that’s exactly what we got. Styles as a heel is really good at slowing the pace of a match so he can work a more heelish style without grinding the match to a halt like wrestlers like Corbin & Mcintyre often do. Things slowed down a bit in the middle, but it didn’t last very long, since just as I was starting to get a bit bored by it, Ricochet started to make his comeback and from then on the action didn’t stop.

I probably wouldn’t have picked AJ to win if I were in charge, but I don’t necessarily think it was a bad decision. For one thing, Ricochet only lost because of the interference from Gallows & Anderson and as such it feels like this was the end of act 2 in this 3 act play, with the conclusion hopefully being Ricochet getting the title back at Summerslam. Even if this isn’t the case, I’m not gonna be too sad seeing AJ as US champion, hopefully, he can do some of the great stuff he did as WWE champ last year on a smaller scale.

2 – The New Day def. Daniel Bryan & Rowan(c) & Heavy Machinery
(Smackdown Tag Team Championships)

Wow, they really nailed the tag team action last night didn’t they?

This match was everything I was expecting it to be, starts out simple but slowly breaks down and becomes a whole lot of fun chaos. All three teams got to look really good here, for Heavy Machinery it was a great continuation of how good they looked at Stomping Grounds, even if there was never a spot where it actually looked like they might win. Bryan & Rowan did a good job of all the stuff they usually do, especially in the case of Daniel Bryan, who spent the most time in the ring in the match.

The flow to the match was there too, with it not obviously being “the time this team gets to have offence” it all sort of moved through each of the teams so seamlessly that you can’t segment the match like you can for a lot of others like this one. I loved the finish too, I really thought Daniel Bryan was going to win when he started tieing Big E in knots, but the moved wonderfully from that into Big E catching Daniel Bryan after his usual flip out of the corner. It made for a nice surprise and I’m always a fan of New Day as tag champs.

1 – Aleister Black def. Cesaro

Oh yeah, Aleister Black and Cesaro are awesome wrestlers, it’s been easy to forget that in recent times.

This match is exactly what I’d hoped it would be, 10 solid minutes of great wrestlers doing great wrestling. The whole structure of the match worked perfectly to serve Aleister Black looking good, with a big flurry of offence towards the start, until Cesaro was able to withstand it and take the fight to Black for an extended period of time before Black forced momentum to swing back in his favour.

As much as this was a showcase for Black, Cesaro also got a chance to look great as his offence looked as hard-hitting and fun to watch as always and he could easily keep pace when Black starting putting his foot on the accelerator. Once again I adored the finish, highlighting Black’s superior striking ability and that Black Mass was something else, I genuinely let out an involuntary “OH!” when it hit because it was so brutal looking, not to mention Cesaro sold it to perfection.

I don’t know what Black’s going to be doing next, but I certainly wouldn’t complain if it was another match with Cesaro, preferably longer than ten minutes so the match can ascend from “really good” to “freaking amazing”. Either way, I’m optimistic about Aleister Black’s future.

And there you have it! Those are my opinions on Extreme Rules 2019! Thank you very much for taking the time to read, if you want to let me know what you thought you are welcome in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. Make sure to join me later in the week when I shall celebrating Octopath Traveler’s 1st Birthday!

 

WWE Extreme Rules 2019: Predictions & Analysis

The promised land of Summerslam is just beyond the horizon, I can almost feel it’s warm glow, but first, we’ve got to make a stop off at Extreme Rules, a card that I’m not really sure what to make of. There are plenty of matches that have the promise to be great, but there is also a lot of the treading water that we saw from Stomping Grounds.

Ultimately I’m not going to make a call on how I think this show will be remembered because it really could go either way. It wouldn’t surprise me if we were talking about the worst PPV of the year come Monday, but it also would be surprising if we’re all pleasantly surprised like we were for Stomping Grounds.

What I can call, however, are the results of the matches, so let’s do that instead.

The Revival(c) vs The Usos
(Raw Tag Team Championships)

I can’t believe myself.

I should be so excited about this match, it’s my favourite tag team against the best tag team and I just don’t care. The Raw tag team division has been non-existent for so long now that I can’t bear to have any optimism towards it anymore, it does have the upside of keeping the Cruiserweights off of the pre-show, but it means that I’m not even vaguely invested in some of the best talent in WWE right now.

I hope this match will be good and it has all the potential to, but I don’t think it’s going to be given the time to breathe that it really needs to be a great match. Not to mention The Revival have been treated as such a joke when it comes to the main roster that this could very well end up being a squash match.

Either way, The Usos need to win this one, because that is the only chance the Raw tag division has of being pulled out of this rutt it’s been in for all of 2019, if The Revival retain, as much as I love them, it’ll be another month of the titles barely being on TV and probably not on Summerslam at all, at least they have a chance of doing some good around The Uso’s waists.

Drew Gulak(c) vs Tony Nese
(Cruiserweight Championship)

Please, just let them be on the main show for once.

I feel like I say this every month (because I do), but it really is true that these guys are putting on matches twice as good as almost everyone who makes the main card and they deserve the spotlight. I don’t understand how you can expect 205 Live’s ratings to improve when you refuse to put them in front of audiences when they’re actually watching.

Regardless, Gulak has been great so far as Cruiserweight Champion. The Cruiserweight title is one of those titles that always seems to do way better around the waist of a heel than a face and Drew is probably the best character on the whole show right now. Conversely, Tony Nese is someone who always does much better chasing the title than holding it, so this is a much better position for him to be in going into this match.

As such, a one on one match between these two should be something great to watch, no matter when it goes on because these guys are at the peak of their performances as characters. There must be a winner though and I feel confident in saying that winner will be Drew Gulak, I can’t see how it would be to anyone’s benefit to hotshot the title back onto Nese right now, especially with people like Akira Tozowa and Oney Lorcan nipping at Drew’s heels for the coming months.

Daniel Bryan & Rowan(c) vs The New Day vs Heavy Machinery
(Smackdown Tag Team Championships)

In this week’s episode of Daniel Bryan vs The World…

As much as Big E & Xavier Woods have been doing great as the backup to WWE Champion Kofi Kingston so far this year, I think that giving them something of their own to do again was a great move, since there was the risk of both men fading too far into the background in the wake of Kofi’s title win. Heavy Machinery also made a big impact with their match at Stomping Grounds, even if the crowd turned on them in favour of their hometown boy, so keeping them in the scene like this is another good move, otherwise, all of their momentum would’ve been squandered.

I have high hopes that this match will be great, New Day are at their best when big tag team matches like this descend into chaos and they can do all of their crazy spots, meanwhile you’ve got big guys like Otis and Rowan there for the high impact stuff to really shock the crowd and then there’s Daniel Bryan, who I’ve sung the praises of enough in these articles for you to know he’ll make this match rock.

I’m actually struggling to pick a winner as well because I’m honestly not sure. Heavy Machinery winning the tag titles seems like the next logical step for their accent in the tag team scene, while I can also see all three members of The New Day holding titles all at the same time. I’m going to stick to my guns for now though and say Daniel Bryan & Rowan will retain, hopefully leading to them vs New Day 2 on 2 at Summerslam in a fantastic match.

Aleister Black vs Cesaro

Finally.

I’ve talked about how great I think Aleister Black is many times before, so as you can imagine I’m very excited to see him in a singles match on a PPV at last, even if it probably won’t be very long.

Cesaro is the absolutely perfect opponent for Black, their in-ring styles matchup so perfectly that I think these two could put on one of the greatest matches we’ve ever seen if the show was called Takeover. As it stands it’s not and I imagine this match will be quite short as a result. Cesaro isn’t very high on the pecking order at the moment, so I think it’s important to give Black a reasonably quick win over him here, then they can go on and have a 15-minute classic at Summerslam instead.

Regardless of the length of the match, Aleister Black most certainly winning this one, then we can finally get on with making this dude a world champion.

Ricochet(c) vs AJ Styles
(United States Championship)

AJ Styles is a heel now because if there’s one thing Raw needed more of, it was heels at the top of the card.

That said, I do prefer heel AJ Styles to any other AJ Styles and the character really needed a shakeup after his far too long title reign last year made us all bored of him, it just might not be the best for the product overall.

That aside, I don’t think anyone would argue with me when I say that this match will be great. Even if it does have a non-finish (which seems likely), I have faith that these two will put on a fantastic match leading up until that point. Styles is great at making the slower, more technical pace of a heel very entertaining to watch and I think it’ll contrast fantastically with Ricochet trying to burst out and flip until he can’t flip no more.

As I mentioned though, I don’t think this match is going to have a clean finish because there’s a lot of conflicting factors coming into this one. You’ve got the brand new United States Champion Ricochet, who can’t lose his title in his second defence, then you’ve got a freshly heel-turned Styles who would have all this newfound momentum taken out from under him if he loses; and they’ve already used up the “surprise roll-up” face win on Raw, so we won’t be seeing it again. It’s a tough one to pick and I think I’m going to regret this pick the closer it gets to the show, but I think Ricochet is going to come away with the win, probably by disqualification when The Club gets involved or something.

Braun Strowman vs Bobby Lashley
(Last Man Standing)

This match could very well end with one of these guys dying.

Under any other circumstances, I wouldn’t care about this match in the slightest, Strowman’s great, but Lashley isn’t a very good fit of an opponent for him, we’ve seen many times that guys equal to Strowman’s size aren’t great opponents for him. However, the combination of the stage explosion on Raw and the addition of the Last Man Standing stipulation have drawn me in.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure this match will be just as slow as any other match between these two guys, but if they keep the attitude of the stage explosion spot going, then the sheer spectacle of what these two do in this match could completely overshadow the boring in-between bits. That said, if this just ends up being a standard Last Man Standing match, then it’s gonna be boring as piss.

I don’t know who the winner will be either, because ultimately, it doesn’t matter. It’s not like either of these guys is going to be fighting for the Universal title at Summerslam, so there’s not a lot to gain for the winner. I’m going to go with Braun Strowman because WWE doesn’t seem to care very much about how many losses they feed Bobby Lashley and Strowman desperately needs something important to do.

Bayley(c) vs Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross
(Smackdown Women’s Championship)
(2 on 1 Handicap)

Well, this just got a whole lot more interesting.

All of the stuff with Nikki and Alexa over the past few months has been great to watch, it’s made Alexa seem like a master manipulator, pulling Nikki in like this, but it doesn’t do it at Nikki’s expense because when she’s challenged by other people, she stands up for herself. I don’t get the impression that Nikki’s going along with Alexa just because she’s too thick to see the forest through the trees, but because in her experiences, Alexa is the only person to actually show Nikki any decency.

That said, the turn is coming like a freight train, but I’m not sure who’s turning on who. It makes the most sense for Nikki to cost Alexa the match here and Alexa will lose her shit about it, but I personally think a slow burn would be a bit more interesting.  A scenario where Alexa loses the match but blames Nikki anyway would be a lot more interesting, or even Nikki pinning Bayley to win the title and Alexa takes all the credit.

This match is very much going to be focused on the story between Nikki and Alexa and while it could benefit the match, I feel more like it’ll be to its detriment, I’m not sure though. Speaking of not sure, I’ve got to pick a winner and I’m going to go with Bayley. As much as I think Alexa & Nikki winning the title would be interesting, Bayley needs to hold onto that title at least another month because her title reign is in danger of going down the same route as her previous one, which is not a good thing. Bring Sasha Banks out to beat the piss out of Bayley after the match, that’ll fix things.

The Undertaker & Roman Reigns vs Shane McMahon & Drew Mcintyre
(No Holds Barred)

Alright, hands up, who saw this one coming? If you just put your hand up, you’re a liar.

After Super Show Down, I didn’t think we were going to see The Undertaker again for quite a while, so I was very surprised indeed when he showed up on Raw to take out Shane McMahon and Drew Mcintyre, the only problem is, we still haven’t’ really been told why. He’s proclaimed some vague bollocks about wanting Shane’s soul and how Shane’s ego has cost him his soul or something like that, but why wait until now? And why team up with Roman Reigns? There’s no much about this that doesn’t make sense.

Originally I thought this was going to lead to some sort of Roman vs Taker rematch for Summerslam, but if every news site and dirt sheet under the sun is to be believed, we’re actually moving towards Taker vs Drew instead, which I’m very much in favour of.

I’m really not sure how good this match will be, Undertaker will definitely benefit from having to carry most of the match and I imagine a lot of it will be Shane and Drew wearing Roman down before he can make the hot tag to Taker and I don’t think that’s going to be particularly entertaining. With any luck, around the halfway point, this thing will devolve into chaos, since that tends to be when tag team matches are at their most entertaining, especially in a weapons match. That said, none of these guys are good at working fast paced matches, and a slow, plodding weapons match will be just awful.

I’m not sure who to pick as the winner though. On the one hand, how could they justify a Drew vs Taker match with Roman and Taker win here, but also I refuse to allow Shane McMahon to have a win over The fucking Undertaker. I’m gonna go with The Undertaker & Roman Reigns but I’m not all that confident about it and Shane needs to be the one to take the pin.

Kofi Kingston(c) vs Samoa Joe
(WWE Championship)

Well, now I’m conflicted…

I’m really struggling with who I want to win this match. On the one hand, I’ve loved Kofi’s reign as WWE Champion and it’s been really refreshing to have a face champion that doesn’t get the shit kicked out of him every single week, but on the other hand, Samoa Joe. I’ve wanted Joe to be WWE Champion for ages and this seems like the best opportunity we’re ever going to get, but I’m not sure I can see it happening.

Joe’s been great since starting this feud, as he always is when he’s chasing a title. That power hungry, destroyer character is always the best for Samoa Joe and for some reason chasing a major title always brings that out of him. I’m sure this match will be great too, we all know Joe can work with smaller guys fantastically, his match with Ricochet at Stomping Grounds proved that (if you weren’t already convinced). I also think this will benefit from not being a weapons match since I think both of these two guys work better with a technical style.

I’m really torn on a winner though, this feels like the first time in Kofi’s reign where I can actually see him losing the title, but I’m not sure they’d pull a title change on a B-Show so close to Summerslam, but at the same time I’m not sure if this is a multi-month feud, this could quite easily be a one and done thing for Joe and if that’s the case then he’s definitely not winning the title. I’m going to play it safe for now and say Kofi Kingston using the logic that if the title is going to change hands, it’ll happen at Summerslam, but I’m not confident in the slightest.

Seth Rollins(c) & Becky Lynch(c) vs Baron Corbin & Lacey Evans
(Universal Championship)
(Raw Women’s Championship)
(Extreme Rules)

Yes, more Baron Corbin and Lacey Evans title matches, that’ll show those Bucks.

I mean, what can I say about this feud that I haven’t already said a thousand times before over the past few months? Lacey’s getting there, but is still way too green for the spot she’s in, I still don’t like Baron Corbin, and Seth & Becky are definitely going to retain. I’ve honestly not been a fan of this pair being so forced together on TV lately because I really get the impression from them that they’d rather not be doing it. We also get stuff like that interview segment from two weeks ago, where these two people who clearly have some sort of off-screen chemistry (since, you know, they’re in a relationship) were given some of the most forced, fake chemistry type of dialogue I’ve seen on WWE TV in a long time.

The match itself could go either way, like I said about the other No DQ  tag match, if it descends into chaos early on and keeps up that pace it’ll be great and these guys have a better chance of pulling that off than the guys in the other tag match. I just don’t have much faith in that actually happening, my hatred for weapons matches is well known and I really think this is going be another slow paced match where about 5 minutes are spent setting a spot up, only for them to immediately move onto the next one. I’m holding onto the small amount of hope that it could be good though…I think.

As for a winner, there’s no question Seth Rollins & Becky Lynch retaining is easily the lock of the night. In a time like this where it’s crucial that WWE remains competitive, putting the titles on Corbin & Lacey would be the equivalent of WCW putting the title on Arquette and Russo in the year 2000, it’d be such a stupid move, and WWE isn’t that stupid.

…right?

Anyway, those are my predictions for Extreme Rules 2019! Thank you very much for reading, let me know what you think is going to happen either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. Make sure to come back here early next week for my review of the show!

WWE Super Showdown 2019: Every Match Ranked

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

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

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

10 – Randy Orton def. Triple H

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

8 – Braun Strowman def. Bobby Lashley

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

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

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

7 – Shane McMahon def. Roman Reigns

Oh for fu-

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

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

6 – The Undertaker def. Goldberg

Well, this was just depressing.

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

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

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

5 – Mansoor wins the 50 Man Battle Royal

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

These kickoff show matches just keep getting better and better.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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