Rambles about the wonderful world of wrestling.
This weekend WWE will bring us their second Live Network Special, this time airing from Madison Square Gardens. It’s a packed card of wrestling matches which looks like it will deliver in the ring, but the event as a whole just feels a bit… random. The last few weeks have been spent building up to it and yet does anyone truly believe that something monumental will happen here? Surely not even WWE thinks the fans believe that Big Show has a chance of pinning Brock Lesnar?
Night of Champions is a strange PPV this year. On one hand it feels like a big deal. Seth Rollins will compete twice and Sting is fighting for the WWE Title, something we never thought we’d see. However, the rest of the card is same old, same old. Rusev and Dolph Ziggler are still plodding away in their never-ending feud and Neville will probably beat Stardust again. As usual, WWE are approaching the end of the year stuck in a bit of a rut. Which is probably not the way to entice you into reading this preview.
Being funny is hard. Being funny for two hours, is very hard. That’s the challenge laid at the feet of Trainwreck from the start and, like most Judd Apatow films, it is probably around half an hour too long. However, it does manage to be funny. A lot of which is due to a star making performance from Amy Schumer, who is also the first person to write a film that Apatow directed who is not called Judd Apatow.
For the first time in a long time, WWE seem to have decided to make Summerslam a big deal. Always seen by the fans as one of the bigger events. Recent years have failed to live up to those expectations. There have been some big moments, Lesnar demolishing Cena for example, but the event has always felt a few notches below Wrestlemania. This year it feels different. Not only has the show been expanded to four hours, but we have a huge main event and the kind of celebrity participation that is usually reserved for the biggest show of the year. Summerslam feels like a big deal and what goes down this Sunday, could well shape the WWE all the way up to Wrestlemania.
Battleground is very much a B + PPV. Coming just ahead of Summerslam, it is one of those classic middle of the road WWE shows, which is more likely to set up Summerslam than do anything spectacular itself. However, with rumours swirling last week about who might show their face. Battleground suddenly became a lot more interesting to a lot more people. So let’s have a look and see exactly what went down. Unsurprisingly, this will contain spoilers.
Money in the Bank always manages to be one of the better WWE events. The Money in the Bank matches tend to deliver and in the past we’ve had iconic moments, like CM Punk walking out with the WWE title. However, this year we came into the event just two weeks after Elimination Chamber and such a short build meant that outside of a select few feuds, mainly Cena and Owens, a lot of the build was lacking and felt rushed. However, WWE was still able to scrape a decent show out of it.
We all like to moan about wrestling. I myself do it on a regular basis. We particularly like to bash the WWE. If you were to go by forums and Twitter, you would believe that they were at an all time low. However, that’s not actually true. In fact, I would argue that WWE is actually in the middle of a golden period.
It’s hardly revolutionary to claim that WWE need to cut back on the number of PPVs they do (although with the Network they can’t really be called PPVs now), however Payback was one of those shows that reinforced that point. The post Wrestlemania season is always a bit flat in WWE, as they take the foot off the gas after the ‘Showcase of the Immortals’ and you can’t help but feel that the long-term implications of Payback are, well nothing.
Extreme Rules felt like a show from a jaded company that was stuck in a slump. Something which is almost impressive, considering it comes just a month after one of the best Wrestlemania’s of all time. Overflowing with unneeded gimmick matches and the kind of juvenile humour which only Vince could laugh at, it once again came down to a few of the WWE’s great roster, to save the show.
Watching Wrestlemania as a UK fan is a strange experience. While our American cousins have a normal evening in front of the TV or for a lucky few thousand in the stadium, we have to stay up to four in the morning on a Sunday evening combating sleep. Some years that feels like a huge mistake. As time trickles by and WWE piss you off with their ridiculous decision-making, you can’t help but think of a night in bed rather than on the sofa. Yet, every now and then the stars come together and WWE knock it out the park, last night was one of those occasions.
Ramblings About Wrestling 