#big e and roman is going to FUCK at survivor series

[jasvvy]

#bloodline #new day #big e #roman reigns #xavier woods #kofi kingston #the usos #big e and roman is going to FUCK at survivor series

[dalekofchaos]

My hopes for WWE & AEW in 2021 and things I hope changes  for WWE and AEW in 2021

Hopes

WWE

Roman Reigns stays dominant and reigns supreme as the Tribal Chief

Keith Lee wins the Royal Rumble,  joins The Hurt Business and brings the WWE Champion to the Hurt Business

Naomi returns and joins The Hurt Business and dethrones Asuka to take home the gold

The Hurt Business DOMINATES Raw

Bianca Belair wins the Royal Rumble and dethrones Sasha Banks at Wrestlemania

The Riott Squad win the Women’s Tag Team Champions

Unify the men’s Tag Team Championships 

Unveil a new Title and give us WWE’s very first Television Championship. It should be styled similar to the NWA and WCW’s TV belts, but on the sideplates it should include USA and Fox on the plates. Shelton Benjamin or Ricochet should be the TV Championship 

Big E reigns supreme as Intercontinental Champion and finally gets to face Roman for the Universal Championship at Wrestlemania 38

Rhea Ripley gets called up and goes to Smackdown

Mercedes Martinez dethrones Io Shirai and becomes NXT Women’s Champion

Karrion Kross reclaims the NXT Championship

Anyone but Johnny Sameface as NXT North American Champion

Queen Of The Ring. The amount of female talent available on Raw, SmackDown, NXT and NXT UK is quite something. It's clear that this is the richest women's division in WWE history. They really should do something with all those workers. The 'Mae Young Classic' tourneys have been fine, but people would trip over themselves to see a fully-fledged 'Queen Of The Ring' epic staged across multiple nights. If booked correctly, this tournament could help establish a new contender for top titles. If she isn't Champion by then(though she should be) the perfect person to become Queen Of The Ring would be Bianca Belair! Bianca Belair would have unparalleled credibility for her 'StrongEST, FastEST, ToughEST' mantra if she whipped a bevy of skilled workers to become the first 'Queen'. WWE could also get creative by linking the event in with Charlotte Flair's nickname and spinning off into a feud between her and the winner afterwards.

Form Full-Time Female Tag-Teams and keep them around. The Women’s Tag Team DIvision is a mess. Keep creating makeshift Tag Teams and breaking up established tag teams and your tag team division is dead. The current champs and their predecessors haven't even been "proper" full-time duos - Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler were shoved together awkwardly in the summer, and they've since been replaced by the unlikely Asuka and Charlotte Flair combo. This cannot be allowed to continue. It's damning that WWE don't have more fully-formed pairings ready to go. The Riott Squad are perhaps the only actual twosome who are presented as a tight-knit collective weekly. Other than that, who is there? Considering the belts have been around for a few years now, that's unacceptable. The IIconics split, so did Sasha Banks and Bayley, and the scene is littered by 'odd couple' tandems like Mandy Rose and Dana Brooke, Lacey Evans and Peyton Royce, and Billie Kay teaming with the likes of Natalya or Tamina when it suits.

Ensure NXT is treated like a proper third brand rather than a quasi-development league for Raw and SmackDown. NXT has been on USA Network for over a year now, but it's still very much behind both Raw and SmackDown as a priority. Need proof? Look at the way Keith Lee was handled when he was "called up" after SummerSlam 2020. The former NXT Champ had to start all over again, and he's had several teething problems on Monday nights. It'd be nice to see WWE move away from positioning NXT as a 'feeder' for the other two shows. Changing someone's gimmick when they leave makes the brand look less-than, and there's simply no need for that anymore; NXT should be an equal to Raw and SmackDown, not a development league. Sadly, it still comes across as that. Lee's stop/start plight and the (mis)fortunes of others like Aleister Black and Ricochet should be a lesson to WWE. Some workers are better off rocking the black and yellow, not the red or blue.

AEW

Darby Allin becomes AEW World Heavyweight Champion

Adam Page costs Kenny the title and Page gets revenge and DESTROYS Kenny

MJF destroys the inner circle from within and when Jericho realizes what just happened, that’s when MJF and Wardlow destroys Jericho

Which is when we get a Sammy Guevara babyface turn and we get MJF vs Sammy

Arn Anderson turns on Cody

AEW’s Four Horsemen is formed. MJF, Shawn Spears and FTR with Tully and Arn managing as the JJ DIllon mouthpieces

Darby Allin and MJF feud for the title

The Women’s Division is improved. The girls get more time to shine on Dynamite. Your champion actually appears(shocking, I know) and build feuds and stories for your women’s division. There’s still some time to do what’s right for your women’s division, but the only thing that remains to be seen, does the powers that be of AEW even care?

Get a new title design for the Women’s Championship. It looks like a toy for a child. It’s plastic, not gold.  It should be as big and beautifully designed as the men’s titles. It should be as big as the NWA’s title or even the WWE’s title. The title is symbolic as to how AEW treats it’s own women’s division and that needs to change with a fresh new design.

Sign Thunder Rosa. It may not fix everything with the women’s division, but it gives you your needed star power. Tony Khan should be begging on his hands and knees to sign Thunder Rosa in 2021 after her time with the NWA is up, his women’s division is getting their asses kicked by what his EVP refers to as a “developmental brand”

If you can’t sign Thunder Rosa. My solution is Push Anna Jay and  Britt Baker as the top face and heel of the women’s division and either of them dethrone Shida.

Changes

WWE

Leave whatever that monstrosity of a creative team they have for RAW is. Let the Wrestlers dictate what they want their characters to be. Ditch the scripted promos. Let promos feel organic and real. Let the wrestlers be characters who feel real and genuine. Get rid of a “Creative” that isn't creative and let the wrestlers be creative and let them be free of terrible creative.

Get rid of the Gimmick PPV. WWE has ruined gimmick matches by turning them into themed PPVs. none of these matches are organic or special anymore. The matches themselves are great but are booked to fit a theme of a pay-per-view, when they should be used organically at the height of feuds. no one cares about the name of PPVs, so i don’t understand why WWE does this. the only one that actually works is MITB, because it makes sense as storylines reset after Mania.

Scrap the Brand Warfare/Brand Supremacy. WWE should scrap the tired brand warfare format at Survivor Series and move away from Raw vs. SmackDown completely. Booking around a calendar has become company law in WWE over the past decade or so. Perhaps McMahon always formatted things this way really, but it's more glaring now that gimmick bouts like Elimination Chamber, Hell In A Cell and Money In The Bank have their own pay-per-views. Survivor Series, with it's played out Raw vs. SmackDown vibes, also needs a rethink. "Brand warfare" is boring now, and it has been for several years. Although 2020's event was fun, it's nonetheless true that the month-long build to Survivors feels like a repetitive slog fans are forced to sit through every November. Hopefully, 2021 will change that. It is possible to book traditional elimination bouts without some sort of false show loyalty - WWE did this almost every single year until the first brand split in 2002. Their over-reliance on Raw vs. SmackDown is plain lazy. Survivor Series should be revolved around great rivalries between stables/factions. It’s really not that hard. Or at the very least if there IS a Smackdown vs Raw themed Survivor Series, at least add a damn reward. Give the brand a head start in the Rumble,, give the winners of the match number one contenders for their brand’s respective titles or ANYTHING better than just “brand supremacy lol”

Get rid of the 24/7 title. It has run it’s course. R-Truth is funny, but even he can’t make it work anymore.

Stop. Breaking. Up. Tag Teams. Stop killing your Tag Team Division. For the love of god just stop!

Cut Akira Tozawa’s ninja bullshit. It’s not funny, it’s annoying

Kill Retribution. It’s complete garbage. It has been consistently terrible ever since Retribution began. Mustafa Ali cannot save Retribution, he’s trying but no one can save it. 

Stop the 50/50 booking

Stop rewarding Nia Jax, the living botch machine for injuring her fellow wrestlers

Stop pushing Lars Sullivan. Absolutely no one wants him. 

They should cut raw to 2 hours because 3 hours is unbearable

Stop the overreliance of part time wrestlers. I don’t want to see Goldberg being pushed at the expense of today’s talent and I don’t want to see Goldberg period. I don’t want to see Brock Lesnar return at the expense of today’s talent. I don’t want to see Legends return. Push your current fucking wrestlers and make stars. You idiots!

Do not rush Becky Lynch back to the ring, she just had a baby. I read the reports that Vince wants Becky back by Wrestlemania. That is a terrible decision

Stop killing pushes because Vince changed his mind

Enough with “creative has nothing for you” if your “creative” has nothing for a certain wrestler, then they are not creative. Either let the wrestlers appear on the show or release them if you don’t want them anymore, it’s simple as that.

Do. Not. Put. The. Title. On. Goldberg. Goldberg should not have beaten Bray Wyatt's 'Fiend' for the Universal Title at Super ShowDown in February - that was a huge mistake, one that set Bray back and felt totally unnecessary. In 2021, WWE should outright avoid any temptation to repeat the trick and give ol' Billy another go-around with one of the top titles. If anything, Goldberg's only purpose should be to play victim for a quick Roman Reigns squash. Get through that elusive match then turn Bill into a company ambassador. He doesn't need to pretend it's still 1998 all these years on.

AEW

Leave the overabundance of spots just for the sake of spots and enough with the false finishes. Jim Ross was right, like it or not, the spots for the sake of spots and the false finishes need to end. This is my major problem with AEW and why I can’t stand The Elite in general. Everyone just needs to  get their shit in. Everything looks fake. No one can look strong or credible and we have to see garbage Indy wrestlers and the spot monkeys make everything look fake and phony. The champions never look credible and everyone is on the level of job guys. This needs to change

Stop leaving your Women’s Champion off the show. It is downright insulting how dirty they are doing Hikaru Shida. She deserves as much time to shine as the other champions deserve.

Stop putting the NWA Women’s Champion as more of a priority than your own Women’s Champion

Enough with Brandi. Why is the women’s division given absolutely 0 screentime and barely anytime to develop their stories, but Brandi is ALWAYS THERE! Everything has to be about her. When a feud between Cody and Shaq was close to happening, of course it had to be about her. She’s turned heel/face as much time as the Big Show. I’ve grown tired of Brandi Rhodes. Stop shoving that attention whore down our throats. WE GET IT! You wanna be Stephanie so bad!

Enough with Cody’s big dramatic midlife crisis entrances. We get it, you wanna be Triple H SO BAD!

Stop the petty bullshit shots at WWE. It was fun at first, but it’s getting annoying. This is Eric Bischoff giving away the results and “That’ll put butts in the seats” level of petty bullshit. AEW had the fucking nerve to tweet a fan’s post saying they did a better tribute for Brodie Lee than WWE. HE JUST DIED! AND YOU ARE MAKING IT ABOUT YOUR FUCKING RIVALRY? GROW THE FUCK UP!

#WWE #AEW #Roman Reigns #Bianca Belair #Keith Lee #Naomi #Ruby Riott #Liv Morgan #Shelton Benjamin #Ricochet #Big E #Rhea Ripley #Mercedes Martinez #Karrion Kross #Darby Allin #MJF #Chris Jericho #Sammy Guevara #Wardlow #Shawn Spears #FTR #Dax Harwood #Cash Wheeler #Hikaru Shida #Thunder Rosa #Anna Jay #Britt Baker

[cousinmarcustalkswrestling]

The Five WWE MVPs of 2020

5

Asuka

It feels like WWE views Asuka as a skilled utility player instead of one of the elite talents in their company. There’s a level where that’s disrespectful and indicative of their problems, but also with a company this size it’s not the worst idea to have an elite talent bounce around different positions. No matter what was going on, Asuka approached her role with the same quirky intensity and she was a joy to watch throughout the year. She gave Becky Lynch two great matches to further legitimize her year long title reign, then had one of the best moments of the year when Becky announced her pregnancy and relinquished the title to her. She became the main opposition to the Golden Role Models in the summertime and had great matches with both Bayley and Sasha. She even gave a lot to a motivated Zelina Vega in their Clash of Champions match. Very few people are ready for Asuka.

4 

Drew McIntyre

Talk about bad timing. Imagine the biggest moment of your professional career happening at the biggest show of the year without any fans there. McIntyre had probably the biggest starmaking moment of the year when he eliminated Brock at the Royal Rumble. But instead of the epic showdown they should’ve had at Raymond James Stadium, they had a 4 minute finisher fest in front of no fans. Ay it is what it is. But even with the up and down quality of Raw throughout the year, not an iota of blame can be placed on Drew. His charisma and strong talking was on display nearly every week and he never really had a misstep the entire year. He had a great match against Seth Rollins at Money in the Bank and an underappreciated brawl against Bobby Lashley at Backlash. His Orton feud suffered from Orton problems and a stupid title switch, but their Ambulance match was great. His epic clash against Roman Reigns was one of the best matches of the year and he ended the year with a great TLC match against AJ Styles. Great job, Drew!

3

Bayley

DING DONG!! WHAT A YEAR!! Bayley really didn’t have a lot of quality opposition for her Smackdown title all year. Lacey Evans just isn’t at that level and booking didn’t put enough effort behind her feuds with Naomi and Nikki Cross. But it didn’t matter because Bayley (with Sasha) was a one woman army of entertainment this year. She was brash, enthusiastic, and almost maniacal in her heeldom. Honestly, she didn’t even need a murderers row of talent and great matches to get her over, just put a microphone in front of her and let her go. Once her and Sasha won the tag titles, they were given free reign to go to all three shows and they were the clear highlight of the company in the Summer. Her match against Asuka on the July 5 Raw is one of the best TV matches of the year and shows how refined her heel game has become in contrast to her being one of the best pure babyfaces in history. Her attack on Sasha added a brutal edge to her character and it resulted in two of the best matches of the year. Her booking post Sasha has been a little so-so, but she’s begun a fun feud with Bianca Belair to carry over into the new year. Great job, Bayley!

2

Roman Reigns

Forget everything that happened before Summerslam. He was in a terrible feud with Corbin and then he was set to face fucking Goldberg at Wrestlemania before he went on his COVID vacation. He returned at Summerslam looking super jacked and super mean. On the Smackdown between Summerslam and Payback, Roman revealed his partnership with Paul Heyman and I knew we would be getting something special from there. Roman’s cousin, Jey Uso, becoming #1 Contender for the Universal Title unleashed the Tribal Chief and he’s been a blast to watch ever since that moment. He’s a brutal dictator driven by the survival of his family which is completely dependent on his success and his reign as Universal Champion. He and Jey had two of the best matches of the year that were driven by Roman’s determination in Jey acknowledging him as the Tribal Chief of the family.

Roman really deserved this character. For the years and years that he was treated with inexplicable scorn from “fans”, he deserved to have a character arc that is treated with tremendous care and precision. Every segment involving him shows perfect characterization in how he reacts to whats going on in his world like members of Jey Uso’s survivor series team not respecting him or Kevin Owens having the unmitigated gall to have no fear in challenging him. In the ring, Roman is a brilliant blend of the vicious Shield Roman and the more dynamic Big Dog Roman. He’s brutal and mawling, but he’s still a tremendous seller and never looks unstoppable. His interpromotional match against Drew McIntyre was one of the best matches of the year and just a great display of two great modern talents locking horns and his TLC match against Kevin Owens is one of the best one on one TLC matches we’ve seen. He’s on the run of his career and we should be grateful. I acknowledge you, Roman, I acknowledge you.

1

Sasha Banks

The year started very weird for Ms. Banks. She didn’t participate in the Women’s Royal Rumble and she was absent from the Elimination Chamber card. She was just kinda floating along being Bayley’s primary support until it felt like creative actually flipped the switch and decided to A) give them more time to be the hilarious obnoxious tag team of the year and B) subtly show Sasha constantly saving and sacrificing for the team to build to an inevitable break up and feud. This rub really breathed life back into Sasha’s career which wasn’t dead at all, but was too stagnant for a talent of her caliber. They captured the tag team titles and spread their ridiculous heel joy all over the company, even returning to NXT where Sasha showed some instant electric chemistry with a future star in Shotzi Blackheart.

 The moment everything changed was the Monday Night Raw where Sasha issued a challenge….to Raw Women’s Champion Asuka. It instantly became one of the most highly anticipated matches of the year and it was Sasha’s first solo PPV match of the year. On the way to that, she returned to NXT and had a banger with the NXT’s top dog Io Shirai. They main evented that night and to date is one of only nine nights where NXT defeated AEW in total viewers. Despite the terribly booked finish, her Extreme Rules match against Asuka was one of the E’s best straight up wrestling matches of the year and ended with her as Two Belt Bankz. Her world came crashing down as she was once again unable to successfully defend the title and lost it right back to Asuka. The Golden Role Models also lost the women’s tag titles and after an unsuccessful rematch, it finally happened; Bayley snapped and assaulted her best friend, attempting to break her neck and end her career.

 Their split instantly made Sasha the biggest babyface in the company and everything from that point seemed like good old fashioned catharsis from being held back and misused through the years. She ended Bayley’s year plus reign as Smackdown Women’s Champion in one of the best Hell in a Cell matches in history. For the first time in her main roster career, she successfully defended her title and defeated Bayley in one of the best TV matches of the year. At Survivor Series, she finally cleanly defeated Asuka in a great champion vs champion match and she ended the year by having Carmella’s best match ever at TLC. This final quarter of the year was just all around tremendous for her as she had classic matches, exorcised some of her booking demons, displayed her aptitude for making anybody look great in the ring and even outside of the subjective realm of wrestling, becoming one of the primary reasons for Smackdown’s ratings surge and arguably the face of the company. This was the year of the boss, where the E finally realized the star that they had and put the power of the machine behind her. The sky is truly the limit.

#wrestling #wwe #2020 #drew mcintyre #sasha banks #roman reigns #bayley #asuka

[pitayatea]

imma write down my prediction for clash of champions so that way i dont lose them and also i have proof that im awful at predictions k great

alexa bliss and nikki cross vs fire and desire for the wwe womens tag titles:

as much as i want a fire and desire title reign, ESPECIALLY because i want to see them explore their dynamic more and i want that representation with an lgbtq champ,,, its gonna stay in crossbliss because,,, c'mon,,, its alexa. alexa stans dont attack me i actually like alexa

PREDICTION: bliss/cross retain

drew gulak vs humberto carillo vs lince dorado for the wwe cruiserweight championship

before anyone attacks me: i dont want 205 live. i dont have it in me to watch so much wrestling content so 205 live is what i skip. plus, it comes on too late for me during school nights so,,, im just gonna go with the current champ retaining.

PREDICTION: gulak retains

shinsuke nakamura vs the miz for wwe intercontinental championship:

okay, i dont get WHY they have interbrand championship matches like this bc you know whos gonna win. esp with the draft being soon, they arent gonna have nakamura drop the title to a raw superstar. if they do, theyre stupid. draft miz back to smackdown if you want him to be ic champ.

PREDICTION: nakamura retains, preferably without help from sami

aj styles vs cedric alexander for the wwe united states championship:

CEDRIC. MY BOY. PLEASE WIN YOUR FIRST MAIN ROSTER TITLE. I BEG YOU.

PREDICTION: alexander defeats styles to win the belt.

roman reigns vs erick rowan:

why is this on this payperview. why couldnt yall wait til hiac??? imagine a no dq or a hiac match between this two.... smh wwe, smh.

PREDICTION: reigns defeats rowan

the new day (xavier woods and big e langston) vs the revival (scott dawson and dash wilder) for the wwe smackdown tag team titles:

see my prediction for miz/nakamura. next.

PREDICTION: the new day retains

kofi kingston vs randy orton for the wwe championship:

if randy wins we riot

PREDICTION: kingston retains

bayley vs charlotte flair for the wwe smackdown womens championship:

okay. first, im a charlotte stan. send me hate asks if you wish, but im a hardcore stan. id love for her to win another title,,, but not now. not this soon. shes won two titles this year. let someone else stand in the spotlight. plus i rly want the baysha survivor series match oop-

PREDICTION: bayley retains

becky lynch vs sasha banks for the wwe raw womens championship:

if becky doesnt lose the title tonight then she doesnt have a viable competitor for the title. who is more fitting to take the belt from her than sasha banks, arguably the only other female star who comes close to being as hyped as becky right now. plus, it strikes me as odd if becky is in all of the smackdown fox promos but no other raw superstar is,,, i think shes gonna get drafted to smackdown so,,,

PREDICTION: banks defeats lynch to win the title

seth rollins and braun strowman vs dolph ziggler and robert roode for the wwe raw tag team championship:

i hate this match i hate it so much i dont even fucking care about it let ramen hair and porno stache win it and drop it the next night so an actual tag team can hold the titles

PREDICTION: ziggler and roode defeat rollins and strowman to win the titles

seth rollins vs braun strowman for the wwe universal championship:

seth is gonna retain. they arent gonna have him drop it a literal month after he won it again from lesnar. plus, its so much more impactful if wyatt wins against rollins for the belt than strowman,,, no offense to any braun stans out there. i do think itll be a screwy finish tho - maybe a dq or something.

PREDICTION: rollins retains

#wwe #clash of champions #wwe predictions

[leaveharmony]

So we had ourselves a nice little house show. 

Sadly I couldn't find Asuka's figure at Toys Toys Toys beforehand & Hot Topic had no new rasslin' shirts in since last time; we did however end up buying New Day funko pops.  Kinda.  In that mum & I both wanted a Kofi so we went up w/ two of them, and then it was cheaper to buy three so I went back and grabbed a Xavier and I still feel terrible about leaving E behind lol

The INCREDIBLY IRRITATING emergency alert system actually went off at the Eaton's Centre while we were there, I guess they thought there was a fire or something but they didn't evacuate the place, just kept pulsing this ungodly loud BEEEEEEP every 3 seconds or so.  We took an accidental wrong turn into another tax bracket trying to get to the Bay to check for Betsy Johnson stuff, I guess they've sandwiched Saks 5th Avenue between the Bay and the rest of the mall.  I've never actually seen “Alexander McQueen” written anywhere in meatspace before.  We walked by a $3000 handbag, and I was afraid to breathe too hard.

They've fixed whatever it was needed fixing down by Exhibition Place, so the streetcar delivered us right outside the doors of Ricoh instead of like three blocks away, which was unimaginable luxury after last time.

Ricoh is a great venue, the only tricky thing about it is there's way less space for merch booths, so, there are really only 2 for the whole building & it's like a really patient mobscene trying to get near 'em.  We only succeeded at the end of the night.

- we kicked off w/ the Golden Truth & Sin Cara facing the rather motley assortment of the Shining Stars, Jinder Mahal and Bo Dallas, of all people.  I think it was Jinder who got on the mic offering to graciously let the other team take a forfeit, R-Truth explained they had a partner but they were “stuck in traffic,” (Eva?) so you knew how this was gonna go from the off.  lol.  Of course the faces got kicked around until Big Show arrived near the end of the match.  Or rather, Big Show arrived and caused the end of the match.  

- I was hoping for a Cruiserweight match & got my wish with Rich Swann and Neville; this is actually the third time I've seen Rich in the span of like 5 months lol.  From a technical standpoint this was probably match of the night, but, the crowd let it down a bit.  Surprising amount of support for Neville...I guess we are a Commonwealth country, after all.  He won by faking a leg injury and wolluping Rich when he turned his back.  Then he hopped sarcastically on the supposedly injured leg - I've never seen a man hop sarcastically before, but he managed it, by god.

- Next up, Sasha and Alicia took on Nia and Dana.  Nia got a very warm reception, for a heel lol.  Ppl were actually cheering for Alicia which is odd, because they booed her at Survivor Series, and that was BEFORE the dumbass angle w/ Cedric and Noam.  The Boss was of course received rapturously, as befitting her station.  Her & Foxy picked up the win.

- I think Roman and Braun were supposed to be the main event originally, but they got demoted to the pre-intermission spot.  I was laughing at a dueling pair of little boys in the audience, as one would yell LET'S GO ROMAN and the other from a few rows behind him would counter w/ ROMAN SUCKS!  Ro got thrown around like a ragdoll but picked up a DQ victory when Braun used the ringsteps.  Repeatedly.  Still not as terrible a sound as when Shinsuke hit them. :)  He & Sami were prolly tied for glad-hander of the night b/c it took him a very long time to get back up the ramp, taking selfies w/ kids and signing autographs and stuff lol.  I should have run down to the merch stands while he was taking his sweet-ass time leaving, but I wasn’t 100% sure it was the last one before the break...ah well.

- Post-intermission, we had a fatal 4 way for the tag titles.  The start was heralded by the gradual appearance of a giant inflatable box of Booty-O's; Xavier and Big E took the ramp while Kofi drove in the ice-cream cart from beside it.  Enzo & Cass were out next...the dorks were dancing to their theme along w/ Enzo.  Sheamus and Cesaro completed the challengers...at one point when Sheamus was mugging for the crowd Cesaro stood behind him w. his hand up on his head like a shark fin, mocking the mohawk.  XD  'Course then the party was over as Anderson & Gallows hit the ring.  A guy behind me loudly confessed as they did that he couldn't tell them apart & also didn't know which one was named Karl and which was namd Luke.  “Does it honestly matter?” I thought. Once everybody was assembled, Kofi briefly attempted whirling two unicorn horns like nunchucks as an intimidation tactic.  He was more coordinated with them than Shinsuke was with the bone-chucks, but, I think in fairness Shinsuke was trying to look as ridiculous as possible.  <3  Anderson ended up getting a quick roll-up-feet-on-ropes victory after E assisted in tossing Kofi out of the ring onto everybody else. AFTERWARDS, all the faces surrounded Anderson, and Cesaro swung him. Like 20 rotations, at least lol.   Then there was a brief dance party.  Enzo & Cass participated willingly but Sheamus had to be physically restrained and coerced into a brief hip-wiggling before fleeing the ring in shame (shame!  shame!).

- Bayley & Charlotte were up next.  I wish I could say it was as good as the masterpiece Charlotte and Natalya put on, but sadly not so much.  There was a tiny contingent of side-pigtailed little girls somewhere to our left, who maintained a LET'S GO BAYLEY chant for the entire match lol.  She won w/ the Bayley to Belly.  I took more pictures of them, to make up for the celebration picture Charlotte ruined with her heel ways at Survivor Series XD

- I think they saved all the canadians for the main event lol.  Team heels came out first, Kevin followed by Joe followed by Triple H.  KO is still beloved...we don't care he's a heel, he's our heel.  I gotta say, I'm much happier watching Joe when Shinsuke's literal neck isn't at stake lol.  Trips was...certainly there.  I've been casually indifferent to him for like 18 years at this point, so....  I thought they might save Finn's entry for last, but, he came out after Sami, leaving the last word to Jericho, god-emperor of Canada.  It occured to me at this point that with the exception of Trips, everybody in the ring had had at least one match with Shinsuke. :)    I just.  They're all super.  lol.  Jericho got the pin on Kev, following a vicious codebreaker.  Then he put us all on the list, which has now I believe become a list of the Friends of Jericho.  Words cannot express how much I love that guy <3

Having a bit more of a time-cusion than last time, we stayed to watch everybody leave.  They actually played Sami out twice because Finn left before he did, but Sami had wandered off to one side of the ramp hugging ppl and taking selfies lol.  I will confess to waving to all three of them as they left, though there wasn't a prayer they woulda seen.  <3

As people left en masse there was a slightly less ridiculous line at the smaller merch stand, so, mum picked up one of the tour shirts and I ended up w/ one of Finn's - I was hoping for a Sami shirt, honestly, but at least at that booth they didn't have one and I couldn't get anywhere near close enough to the big one to even see if there was.   Even though we made it back to the bus terminal well ahead of time we actually ended up having to literally chase the bus, because mum took a bit longer in the downstairs bathroom...thankfully the driver stopped after making us run alongside the fucking thing right up to the stop sign...if there hadn't been a sign there it's entirely possible he would have just left us there, at Midnight, even though our names were on his list of passengers.  It's funny now but it wasn't funny at the time.  :/

#Oh Bo. #Rippling Abs Mahal #Swann King #Come on Little Neville #Queen Sasha #Fox Rox #The end is Nia #By hook or by Brooke #Actual adonis Roman Reigns #The New Dorks #Swiss Superbabe #Gingerbrogue #My girl Bayley #Flair for the dramatic #Troll Owens Troll #Hullo hey Joe #Amazayn #Finntastic #Little Lionheart #Rasslin' #phew that's a lot of tags

[wrestlingisfake]

Survivor Series preview

Brock Lesnar vs. AJ Styles - Lesnar is the WWE universal champion, the top titleholder on Raw; Styles is the WWE world heavyweight champion, the top titleholder on Smackdown.  Neither title is at stake.  This started out with Jinder Mahal as world champion challenging Lesnar, but then Mahal lost his title to Styles and now has to watch from backstage.

The situation with Jinder almost overshadows this match, because he was WWE’s big project (to turn a total jobber into a dominant world champion and the face of their expansion into India), and now he’s not even booked for the biggest show of the fourth quarter.  The only real hook to this match when it was Brock vs. Jinder was that WWE was stubbornly determined to protect both guys over all objections, and suddenly that’s out the window.  It makes you wonder what’s going on behind the scenes, although the only story anyone has heard is that everybody just decided Styles and Lesnar would simply deliver a better performance.

I’m not really hyped to see this because I don’t expect Styles has a chance in hell of beating Lesnar, or even coming close.  All of Brock’s matches since Wrestlemania have been disappointing, and that was with the spectacle of seeing him fight guys big enough to bully him back.  Styles is barely a heavyweight, and although WWE could book a guy that small to be competitive against Brock, history suggests that they won’t.

Raw vs. Smackdown 10-man elimination tag team match - In keeping with Survivor Series tradition, the loser of each fall is eliminated and must go backstage while his partners continue without him.  The match can only end when one (or both) teams is completely eliminated.

The Raw side is:

Kurt Angle (team captain/Raw general manager)

Triple H

Finn Balor

Samoa Joe

Braun Strowman

The Smackdown side is:

Shane McMahon (team captain/Smackdown commissioner)

John Cena

Randy Orton

Shinsuke Nakamura

Bobby Roode

It’s a pretty stacked lineup, considering all the champions are booked in other matches. The Raw side has 28 world titles between them, while the Smackdown side has 35.  Several one-on-one combinations could be considered dream matches; some have already happened and been considered very good.

The main storyline heading into this has been the increasing pressure on Angle to defend Raw from Smackdown, as his boss (commissioner Stephanie McMahon) has returned to TV to chew him out.  At one point Kurt had assigned his (kayfabe) son Jason Jordan to the team, only for Stephanie’s husband Triple H to beat Jordan up and take the spot in a show of no confidence.  It’s been heavily implied that Angle will lose his spot as general manager if his team loses this match.

Last year’s version of this match lasted almost an hour, evidently to make avoid the problem of rapid eliminations making the wrestlers look unusually weak.  This year’s lineup would probably be protected at least as much, if not more.  It would be extremely weird if, say Samoa Joe got taken out after five minutes with a clothesline or something, and he’s probably the most expendable guy in the match.  So hopefully this’ll be an epic war, to pay off the hype surrounding a month of big “Raw and Smackdown brawl all over the building” angles.

I wouldn’t count on the match setting up and story beats for the future, although it’d make some sense if Jason Jordan got involved (possibly at his own side’s expense), or for something to raise tensions between Triple H and Kurt Angle.  John Cena is technically a free agent with no allegiance to either side, so that could factor in somehow.  WWE has done shockingly little with the Strowman vs. Kane feud since Strowman was crushed to death in a trash compactor, so I gotta figure Kane will run in to cause Braun’s elimination.

It’s genuinely hard to pick an outcome here, because of all the chaos that is assured.  You’d figure the team with Shane is at a serious disadvantage, but a few key disqualifications or count-outs could change that real quick.  All things being equal, if Angle is going to keep wrestling here and there to set up a Wrestlemania match, it’d make the most sense for him to have his hand raised at the end.

Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose vs. Big E & Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods - Roman, Seth, and Dean dominated WWE as the Shield from 2012 until their breakup in 2014.   Shortly thereafter, Kofi, Big E, and Xavier formed the New Day and quickly became the definitive trio in WWE.  Now the Shield are back on Raw, while the New Day is on Smackdown, and we’re doing a bunch of Raw/Smackdown fights.  So we get a dream match between the two biggest factions of 2010s WWE.

The match was set up by the New Day doing a distraction to cost Seth and Dean the Raw tag team title, which iced them out of the “tag champs vs. tag champs” match on this show and effectively freed them up for this.  Roman has just recently come back from some viral infection that kept him out of the planned Shield reunion last month, so this is a pretty decent make good.  It’s not the way I’d have wanted to set up this match, but I’m glad we’re getting it.

The Shield specializes in facing ad hoc trios that can’t match them in terms of teamwork and cooperation.  They’ve rarely faced a full-time trio that can truly match them at that game like the New Day.  On the other hand, the New Day specializes in two-on-two programs with the advantage of always having a third guy providing backup.  They haven’t dealt with their opponents finding reinforcements to even the odds as much as the Shield has, so a six-man tag against a well-oiled machine could give them trouble.  I’d like to see the psychology of the match demonstrate all this, but I’m not holding my breath.  I’ll settle for Dean trying to break Xavier’s trombone or something.

Since all the plans for the Shield reunion in October got shot to hell, it’d be absolutely insane for them to lose now.  That sucks because I’d prefer a scenario where either team could plausibly win, but the New Day can be as entertaining in defeat as they are in victory.

Alexa Bliss vs. Charlotte Flair - Bliss is the Raw women’s champion and Flair is the Smackdown women’s champion; neither title is on the line.  The match was originally announced as Alexa vs. Natalya until Charlotte dramatically won the Smackdown women’s title in her hometown and celebrated with her father (who is recovering from a health scare).  So Charlotte’s on a roll and she’s clearly a company favorite with friends in high places.  On the other hand, WWE has such a weird boner for Alexa so I think she’s just gonna win.

Raw vs. Smackdown 10-woman elimination tag team match - This is the second of two traditional Survivor Series matches.

The Raw side is:

Alicia Fox (team captain)

Nia Jax

Sasha Banks

Asuka

Bayley

The Smackdown side is:

Becky Lynch (team captain)

Naomi

Carmella

Tamina

Natalya

This amounts to “all the women on Raw but Mickie James and Dana Brooke” versus “all the women on Smackdown but Lana.”  (Theoretically Paige and Nikki Bella are still out there, somewhere, but I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for them to show up here.)

Historically, women’s Survivor Series matches have suffered from being too short, too sloppy, or too dull.  However, this is probably the strongest lineup WWE has ever booked, so they could probably give us a good match.  Whether WWE will let them do a good match remains to be seen.  I suspect this is going to get 15 minutes and half the falls are going to feel rushed and pointless.

The Raw side pretty much has to win, if only to preserve the mystique of Asuka’s win streak.  (If she’s counted out here, nobody will consider it a blemish on her record, but there’s no good reason to even go there.)  You’ll notice I’m picking Raw to sweep all the matches that actually matter.

Sheamus & Cesaro vs. Jimmy Uso & Jey Uso - Shesaro are the Raw tag team champions and the Usos are the Smackdown tag team champions; neither title is at stake.  Both teams have always been good and both seem to have turned it up a little lately, so maybe that’s why they switched this from Ambrose/Rollins vs. Usos a couple of weeks ago.  Smackdown really needs something to crow about so I’m thinking this match will be one of them.  Usos win.

The Miz vs. Baron Corbin - Miz is the intercontinental champion on Raw, and Corbin is the United States champion on Smackdown.  This isn’t for either title.  Both guys suck and their only skill is cutting internet message board promos that make their opponents look shitty.  So it’s a battle of two guys who suck at everything but making each other look like they suck even more.  Hell, Dave Meltzer called this his bathroom break match.  I may go to the bathroom and take a shower just to make sure I don’t accidentally come back in time to actually see any of this.  Fuck both guys.

Enzo Amore vs. Kalisto - Amore is defending the cruiserweight championship on the pre-show, in the only title fight on the entire card.  Kalisto has already beaten Amore and dropped the title back to him, so this is the rubber match.  I’m pretty sure we’re about to be done with this feud and Amore is moving on to the next challenger, so he should make short work of Kalisto.

#wwe #survivor series #brock lesnar #aj styles