Braun Strowman
I love Braun Strowman. He has been booked very well as an amazingly bad ass monster, who the fandom can get behind, no matter the lengths he goes to in order to destroy his opponents. His feud with Roman Reigns elevated both wrestlers (even if the WWE universe won’t admit it in the case of Reigns) this year, and definitely should be a feud of the year contender. His dismantling of Brock Lesnar was a stroke of beauty and I truly think that this Sunday’s match between these two has the potential to be the match of the night if Lesnar shows up for it. I really hope Strowman wins, though the long-time wrestling watcher in me tells me that it is almost assured that Lesnar will keep the belt.
Bayley and the RAW Women’s division
I love Bayley. I’m glad she’s back. She is such a good wrestler and storyteller in the ring…and on the mic. I just hope that this match at No Mercy will be a bit of a soft reboot for her.
She deserves so much more than what they are giving her right now. They’ve turned her from a jovial hugger who, when in the ring, kicks major butt with ferocity and determination, to a sad-faced, mulling victim of bullying and that’s so sad, I don’t even know where to begin. I think the creative team of NXT had her character down just right, as they have with so many wrestlers in the past. But once she got to main (as with many wrestlers today), their creative team almost completely ruined the awesome progress that was started in developmental. I don’t know if it’s because they just want to put their own two cents into the character or what, but they are failing miserably. I honestly don’t think they’ve ever heard the wise saying, “You don’t break what works” because they have certainly broken the gimmicks of a lot of wrestlers who have recently moved up to main. Hell, it’s getting to the point that as a long-time wrestling fan, it feels granted to me, as if the creative team revels in creating crappy dialogue, and nonsensical storylines for the amazing roster that they have.
I just hope that going forward they will have better stories for all the wrestlers of the Women’s division to chew on, instead of what they are doing with them now, especially Bayley. Bayley should never be booed!!!
Reigns/Cena feud
The whole Reigns/Cena verbal back and forth is garbage in my opinion. In today’s WWE, there are very few wrestlers who could hang with Cena on the mic—doesn’t mean they aren’t amazing talents. Anyone in New Day could hang with him…Enzo maybe, AJ Styles definitely, but other than those I named, there aren’t many on the current roster who can hang with Cena on the mic. Hell…Owens couldn’t even hang on the mic with Cena, if Cena was going all out…and they don’t need to in order to kick butt where it counts…in the RING. Reigns isn’t a Cena type, and he doesn’t have to be. He is a “leave it all in the ring” type—the battling, bruising, brawler type of few words and many fists, and that’s ok. Hell, I prefer that to someone who talks a good game but sucks in the ring. So this verbal battling isn’t what really matters at the end of the day because if you can’t bring it in the ring, all those words are for not. Both men have the skills to have an amazing match at No Mercy this Sunday. I just hope that both wrestlers bring their ‘A’ game for this match.
Shinsuke / Mahal
Whoever decided to write this drivel that is coming out of Jinder’s mouth should be shoot beat down in the ring. There is no way in the WWE universe that this path of Jinder’s remarks and jokes about Shinsuke are what creative thought would work in this feud. If they did, they were sorely mistaken. When you have the audience of last night’s Smackdown Live chanting that he is going too far, they should know that something is wrong. These borderline racist diatribes have gone over the line more times than I care to count. Frankly, creative at WWE should be ashamed of it. I truly hope that Nakamura wins. I am so done with Mahal’s reign of being a cheap champion, who can only win a match if helped to do so. In fact, I am tired of weak and cheating heel champions as a whole, but that is another story.
Kevin Owens
I’ve already written in previous blogs about my issues with Owens in the ring so I won’t repeat them here. Last week, when Owens head-butted Vince and proceeded to beat him up, for me it may not have come off as intended—or maybe it did. In the past, beating up Vince was a bit of a rite of passage for some wrestlers who were over, or who were getting over as a heel or face. It was fun to watch the boss man getting the comeuppance he so richly deserved. For me, in this case, I saw a younger wrestler beat up and bloody a 70+-year-old man. That’s not fun for me. Honestly, it is infuriating cringe at its worst. It didn’t make me feel anger or elation at the character of Owens for beating up McMahon. It made me feel like the whole situation was wrong—just wrong in every way possible. I don’t know if that was intended or not, but that’s how I felt. The fact that they compounded this storyline with Owen’s comments last night is in my mind fruit of the poisonous tree. I just hope they have a good match so that this storyline can end. You have to give the other heels on the roster (and there are few right now, with main creative making Roode a face—really a lost heel opportunity) a chance to sink or swim now.
Well, those are my thoughts. What do you think? DO you like the current Owens/McMahon storyline? Do you agree with the path creative has set forth for Mahal in his feud with Nakamura? What do you think of the lead-up to these pay per views so far? Be sure to let me know in comments.
