Wow, what an emotional roller coaster, eh? After the highs and lows of last week including Daniel Bryan having his Wrestlemania moment, Brock breaking Undertaker’s streak, and the untimely passing of Ultimate Warrior, I was more than happy for things to go back to business as usual. Raw started with a tribute to Warrior that brought the roster out to the stage for a ten bell salute, most often reserved for active talent. The camera panned across the stage, as a majority of the roster wore Warrior shirts, and then immediately looked to the audience to see all of the fans in Warrior masks. It was a worthy tribute to a superstar we will never forget.
After having the best week of his career, Daniel Bryan took the week off for a honeymoon with Brie Bella. Fortunately, Raw did not suffer. Monday began was the start of the tournament to decide the #1 contender for the Intercontinental Championship. I’m a huge fan of a good old fashioned tournament, and we rarely get to see them anymore *cough*bringbackKingoftheRing*cough*. Now that we’re back to one World Champion, this is the opportunity to really elevate the IC title back to where it belongs. The tourney is full of the guys who hung around the World Heavyweight Championship picture before the unification (Sheamus, Mark Henry, Del Rio). If this doesn’t prove the the WHC was anything more than a glorified IC title, nothing will. The best part about this tournament is the chance to see the Mid-Carders really show their stuff. Most of the first round matches were pretty good. Bad News Barrett vs Dolph Ziggler particularly shined out of the bunch. My hope is that we’ll see a finale of Cesaro vs Barrett. It’s a win-win situation for two guys getting pushes.
Paige came out against Alicia Fox in her first real showcase. Last week was a great moment seeing her win the Diva’s Championship, but she literally only got in one move of offense. I knew it would take her some time to win over the casual fans. All of the hardcore fans know what she can do from her time in NXT, but we’ve been subjected to Divas matches that have been mediocre at best for years. You could almost hear the crowd getting more and more into the match as they saw what Paige could do. When she put in her submission finisher in, it caught everyone’s attention. That move is vicious. I hope we’ll see a lot more of her in the future.
The story of the night was how would Triple H punish the Shield for interrupting his match with Daniel Bryan last week on Raw. After unsuccessfully attempting to get Batista and Orton on his side early in the night, he stuck the Shield in the match against mystery opponents. Midway through the night, the Shield came out to interrupt the Usos’s rematch with Ortista (just go with it), sending them reeling. The main event was the Shield against 11 of the roster’s heels (including 3MB!!). After ending in a no contest, a brawl ensued amongst the heel team and the Shield when Evolution’s theme music hit. I’ll admit I popped seeing Orton, Batista, and Triple H walk out to the old Evolution theme. I felt like I was back in 2003 when Triple H had no competition before Goldberg popped up out of the shadows. They gave the already beaten down Shield a few Batista Bomb/RKO’s before picking up Reigns for a patented Triple H pedigree. This almost feels like fantasy booking, as we rarely see two of the greatest factions of all time go at it. I can’t wait to see what they can do together at Extreme Rules.
If you’re like me, you are probably asking yourself “so where’s this leave Daniel Bryan?” Well, I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news…..
It looks like we’re getting Kane vs Bryan at Extreme Rules. Stephanie awakened the inner demons or whatever the hell makes him not suck again. Don’t get me wrong, back in 1998 Kane was the first wrestler I saw come out on Raw. I was huge fan of his all the way through the mid 2000’s. It’s just become stale at this point. Especially considering that we’ve seen Kane vs Bryan a million-bajillion times. Plus does anyone think Kane has a chance of winning? No thank you.
Here in the next month we should be seeing the debuts of Bo Dallas and Adam Rose from NXT. You need to be excited about these guys. Bo Dallas dominated NXT for about a year before finally losing the title at NXT Arrival. His character is so earnest. He’s like the guy who refuses to realize that everyone in the room hates him. His character is just a natural heel. Adam Rose just recently popped in NXT, but he’s garnered a lot of attention for having a pretty unique gimmick. Imaging if Russell Brand’s character from his movies became a professional wrestler,and he had an insane party following him everywhere he went. It’s a fun character, and I can’t wait to see it on the big stage.
I’d like to take a trip over to TNA, where this past week we saw them try to stay relevant in the world of pro wrestling. The
show started out with a battle royal to determine the #1 contender for the TNA Championship. Eric Young survived to win the match and asked MVP to let him take on Magnus for the title later in the night. Then, surprising everyone, Eric Young defeated Magnus and won the title. I don’t hate the decision to put the belt on Young. The guy has been with the company since the days of weekly pay-per-views. He’s a good worker, and he’s been put through some crappy gimmicks with TNA. The problem is, it feels like they’re surprising the fans for the sake of a surprise. There’s no build up and no story. It’s like they tried to do everything WWE has done with Daniel Bryan over the past year in one night.
The rumor mill this week is stirring with news that Sting has finally signed with WWE. Sting was very vocal before Wrestlemania that the only match he wanted was with Undertaker. It’s left to see if Taker will be retiring or if he would be up for a double retirement match with Sting at WM 31. Regardless, just seeing Sting on WWE would be a pleasure. Sting appeared on the WWE Network this week in regards to Warrior’s passing. I know this doesn’t necessarily indicate a signing, but this is the first time we’ve ever seen Sting in anything WWE related, so it’s exciting nonetheless.
Thanks for checking out our weekly column, and check back weekly for more talk about oily men grappling in a tiny square!
