Rambles about the wonderful world of wrestling.
Last year the WWE had Batista win the Royal Rumble and we saw a crowd turn on the WWE. A year on and nearly everyone, myself included, thought WWE could not make the same mistake again. Sometimes, the most obvious story is the best one and last night the most obvious, and best, storyline, was to have Daniel Bryan win the Royal Rumble. Yet, once again, WWE went with their idea of the perfect superstar and a crowd turned on the product.
The Royal Rumble is most wrestling fans favourite PPV of the year. Screw ‘Mania, although we tend to love that too, the Rumble is where it is at. While we have had disappointing Rumbles over the years, it is fair to say it very rarely fails to deliver at least couple of fun moments and it also sets us on the ‘Road to Wrestlemania’. We get to know who will be competing for the big one on the ‘Grandest Stage of Them All’. I can’t think of anymore WWE buzzwords to throw in now, so lets just get onto some of my predictions.
Last night the WWE took a step towards giving their Hall of Fame some credence in the eyes of fans, by announcing that at this years Wrestlemania Randy Savage will finally be inducted. Ignoring the fact it took his death for this to finally come about, it is a relief to fans who have known that Savage was a man who was truly worthy of such a spot. However, it doesn’t change the fact that the Hall of Fame still has some major issues, most of which stem from who is included.
Just days after putting on one of the best wrestling’s shows of the year, WWE followed up with TLC, one of the many gimmick PPVs in their calender. It was another card which looked strong on paper, even if it did include a ‘Stairs Match’, which is one of the dumbest things I have ever heard.
Slowly but surely, NXT has become one of the best wrestling programs on TV. Led by Triple H and featuring some of the best young, up and coming wrestlers in the world, it is the future of the WWE. Or at least it will be, if they don’t fuck it up. Last night they had their latest Takeover event, Revolution. These NXT versions of a PPV are some of the best shows WWE has put on this year and last night was no exception.
Last Sunday Ring of Honor held Final Battle at Terminal 5. New York. It is ROH’s biggest show of the year and I guess their equivalent of Wrestlemania or Bound For Glory. Now, I used to watch a lot of ROH, but I have to be honest and admit that in recent months I have become lax in doing so. I keep up to date with what is going on, but very rarely catch the television product, it’s a similar relationship that I have with TNA to be honest. However, with this being ROH’s big show, I decided to return and because I am like that, to also give you all my opinion on where ROH stand at the end of 2014.
Last week CM Punk finally opened up about his final months in the WWE and unsurprisingly he chose to do so on the podcast of his good friend, Colt Cabana. In a near two hour long interview, he painted a kind of terrifying picture of a company that not only sounds like the creative equivalent of a dry well, but also sounds like a rather horrible place to work. It all came together to suggest that WWE may have more problems than the average fan believed.
So last night was Survivor Series and on a whim I actually stayed up and watched it. Now for those of you based in America that might seem a strange statement, but in the UK it means a long night. It is also probably the first time I have watched a WWE PPV live (that isn’t Wrestlemania) for a long time. Anyway, below is my thoughts of the whole show, it obviously contains spoilers, so if you haven’t watched it stay away and if you don’t like wrestling please don’t bother, it’s long.
So Survivor Series is just around the corner and it may be one of the most one match Pay Per Views WWE has put on for a long time. Nearly all of WWE’s build has been focused on Team Cena vs Team Authority, with only Bray Wyatt and Dean Ambrose coming close to getting a similar level of attention (and they are a long way off in second). However, there is actually a whole under card happening as well and some of it could be alright, so here is what I expect to happen.
Last night I decided to jump on a bandwagon. That bandwagon was Insane Championship Wrestling, the Scottish wrestling promotion that just seems to be getting bigger and bigger. This was in part due to a BBC documentary they were featured in, but mainly down to the their strong roster of talent and the very YouTube friendly Scottish crowds. Last night they rolled into City Nightclub in Edinburgh, a place I never thought I would watch wrestling in, and put on an incredibly entertaining card. Rather than doing a full run down of it, I figured I’d just do a general opinions piece, which I hope is actually more interesting.
Ramblings About Wrestling 