J. Edwards

1 minute ago, air_raid said:

As a kid I wanted Crush to be WWF Champion. I was wrong.

I think having the big bad knocked off at Mania was, and always is, the right call, as opposed to splitting an audience. They gauged fan reactions to Lex or Bret as the next hero at the Rumble, you just didn't promote babyface vs babyface in singles on PPV in 1994.

Really. I hated Crush. Even as a babyface. You are right yes. Over coming Yoko was Brets mountain to climb and feel good story. The same should be said of Cody. Roman is his mountain to conquer and hopefully this is the eventual route they go down. Not everything major has to happen at Mania but I feel it just makes more sense. 

3 minutes ago, air_raid said:

Run that by us again?

The main event. As a kid I Felt it should have been Lex v Bret instead of Bret v Yoko. Bret getting his win back from Yoko was understandable but Lex v Bret would have been the bigger match possibly.

Is it a coincidence that they seem to have this problem every decade with Wrestlemania or are WWE simply that lazy they think a triple threat for our main event of an anniversary mania is the the way to go.

Messed up at 10 when it should have been Lex v Bret, although the mini “tournament” was great at the time.

20 was arguably done well in the end but Benoit’s main beef was with Heyman on smackdown so was a strange swerve to suddenly challenge HHH

Wrestlemania 30. We all know the mess that was

Now here we are again. Cody, Rock and Roman. We could argue that this year is a bit less cut and dry as Cody has business on both brands, but there is potentially a triple threat again on both sides of the coin in Cody/Rock/Roman and Seth/Sami/Drew. 

It makes more sense for the threeway on Raw than it does for the smackdown side of things

What if Cody’s “just not at Wrestlemania” means that he is expecting to face the Rock after bringing in Rocky to start dismantling the bloodline at Elimination Chamber by taking the title there and we get Cody v The Rock at mania and perhaps Roman shoehorns himself in for a triple threat.

Im just not sure what Cody does other than this and clutching at straws that the WWE has some intricate plans rather than pushing Cody aside unless he uses his title shot at Elimination chamber 

Now they have passed on Sami (and rightly so unfortunately. It just wasn’t the right time) I’m all for Roman keeping at least one of the belts through Mania. I have no idea how they do that without making it obvious Cody will be winning though. Getting Roman to 1000 days as champ and then Jey removing the final belt from him would be perfect in my opinion.

Thought it was absolute madness opening with the mens rumble but in hindsight it was the right decision. Gunther was the absolute star and is going to be a main eventer soon in a Rumble that really plodded for me. Someone mentioned it earlier and said rumbled are becoming very formulaic and paint by numbers. New entry comes down, hits a few big moves and we await the next entrant to do the same. Some nice spots and the right winner but we all knew that anyway.

Bray v Knight was awful. Bizarre to see spooky Bray performing in a completely over sponsored match under bizarre lights. His Fiend run was hampered by these strange light matches and can’t see how he or creative has learned anything from the past mistakes. Ending was ok and intrigued where it goes next.

Bianca v Alexa wasn’t great either. I don’t buy Alexa as a credible threat to anyone. Her offence is weak and contrived and runs the ropes like shes not wanting to break a nail. Not interested in the spooky stuff one bit and looking forward to Bianca moving onto a more hard hitting opponent to bring out the best in her.

Women’s rumble just highlighted how little people care about the womens division right now. Bar Becky, Asuka and Rhea there was little reaction. Don’t know if its WWE’s fault for barely highlighting a lot of these women on weekly tv or that the majority of them are just rubbish im not sure. I get the impression a lot of the women are happy to just be employed so they have a platform to boost their instagram numbers and have no interest in actually getting better at wrestling but thats just my opinion. Definitely the right winner and a match with Rhea v Charlotte or Biana will be a belter.

The main event was great wasnt it. Absolutely phenomenal storytelling from start to the ending that had us all sitting up shouting “hit him” at our tv’s. Sami is going to come out white hot from this as is Roman who further enhanced his mega heel status. The best thing about this is no one has a clue where its going. If Jey joined the attack i would have put money on Sami/Owens v Usos at Mania but that swerve by Jey was perfection and has thrown the whole angle up the air again. Fantastic work by all involved.

For me personally it has to result in a Sami title shot at Mania. I have no idea how they get there but Roman holding two belts is the perfect vehicle to head towards that destination so am eager to see how it plays out. One of my favourite “wrestlemania seasons” for a long time.

This years Rumble may only have two obvious options but thats what makes it so interesting for me. Sami is the option that makes perfect sense. Roman’s “your final test comes at the Rumble” was a fantastic line that throws so many scenarios about. If the Reigns/Owens match was no DQ then it would make sense for Reigns to make Sami show his loyalty by pummelling Owens for him. As its a straight up match that isn’t what I believe will happen.

It makes sense to me for Reigns to make Sami enter the rumble and stop anyone else winning. As well as the rest of the bloodline. Sami wins and the roof blows off. This then makes Reigns even more cocky as he organises a Bloodline celebration ceremony for the main event of Wrestlemania where Sami lays down for his tribal chief as the ultimate sacrifice and tribute to the bloodline.

Sami becomes torn however as others get in his ear (Owens) asking him not to give up his dream if main eventing wrestlemania and Sami becomes more and more aware of his destiny and dreams while Reigns becomes more paranoid. Something is set up for EC where it all finally blows up and Sami turns on the bloodline and becomes the ultimate face heading into mania v Reigns.

No doubt it will all play out differently but Sami winning on Saturday makes more sense than anything right now unless they are going to go down the Reigns defends both nights of Mania route.

I want to see Jey Uso as champ almost as much (not quite) as I do Sami Zayn at this point

Just finished the US Traitors. While still a good watch it fell well short of the UK version for me. The UK was a decent mix of people while the US had some completely over the top characters spoiling the enjoyment for me. That Kate for example was just horrible.

While the Traitors is an excellent concept and fantastic viewing it fails in some regards. The ultimate goal should be finding the traitors but in reality its simply lasting until the end. There should be penalties (a double murder?) for outing a faithful and rewards like no murder that night if outing a traitor. At the moment the round table is simply voting with the crowd to save yourself no matter if they are a traitor or faithful.

The format is still fairly new and I understand countries are only rolling out their first series. A few little tweaks here and there would be fantastic and improve an already quality show.

Survivor Series served it’s purpose for HHH to put his mark on the event and was fine in furthering storylines but the actual War Games matches fell short for me as am sure it did for others.

The womens match suffered not just in the match but exposes the shortcomings in the roster as a whole. War Games should be brutal. Rhea was perfect for this match but for some of the others such as Nikki and Alexa I have a hard time believing any of their offence hurts. Under normal circumstances they can get away with it but inside a cage their normal offence just looks flimsy and ineffective and hardly playing up to the brutality of the event. As poor as she is right now, Ronda could have done with being involved as in spite of her lack of ability at least she makes her offence look like its doing some damage. Have the champion on one side and at least their are some stakes involved if Ronda’s team are defeated and 5 women can claim a title shot. There was no reason for this match to happen other than shoehorning a women's war games in there.

The mens suffered similar in that there is no reason to watch until all 10 have been released from the cages. However the underlying story of Sami and his loyalties carried this match to a fine ending and one of this years greatest moments. The Bloodline story has really been the best thing in wrestling for awhile. Im eager to see where its going for sure.

I hope HHH reassesses this for next years event. Its all well trying new things but one of the main problems in WWE of recent years is having matches that mean nothing. There are no stakes, no risks, no rewards. Just matches for the sake of having them and everyone goes back into a holding pattern until the next event.

It seems like I'm being overly critical but the event as a whole was ok. An enjoyable few hours with a lovely payoff at the end. One of the better Survivor Series of recent years and it looks like at least HHH is trying ti make the event mean something again.