Rambles about the wonderful world of wrestling.
I spend a lot of time moaning about WWE. However, when that sign goes up and we all start pointing at it, I get excited. Part of that is down to the many great shows going on around the big one, but let’s not pretend I don’t love WrestleMania. Even as it trickles into its seventh hour and pisses me off for the sixth time, there are few things I’d rather be doing. It’s ‘Mania! Let’s have fun.
Clash of Champions’ card was the dictionary definition of a brand-split PPV; full of multi-man nonsense and bad gimmicks. It had the potential to be alright, but the wrestlers would have had to work their arses off to get there. Sadly, that’s not quite what happened. Let’s dish out some stars.
The Brand Split version of Survivor Series is a weird beast. It causes people who spend the rest of the year hating each other’s guts to team up because they suddenly care about the name of their TV show. On top of that, it’s WWE openly telling you that one brand is better than the other. Does that mean we should now all give up on SmackDown? Or maybe, I should stop overthinking this stuff. Let’s dish out some stars.
Two years ago today, Charlotte Flair defeated Nikki Bella to win the Diva’s Championship. While it wouldn’t become the Women’s Title till WrestleMania the next year, this was Charlotte’s first reign and was the symbolic end of the Divas. Since then, Charlotte has gone on to become a four-time Raw Women’s Champion and it’s safe to say that on the whole, women’s wrestling in WWE is much better off, but how much better off is it?
WWE has released this news into the wild already, but, if you want absolutely no spoilers from the most recent NXT tapings, stop reading now. You stopped? Good. After over 500 days and an undefeated streak that must be around the 200 match mark, The Empress of Tomorrow, Asuka, has relinquished her NXT title. The news came at a time when she is believed to have suffered a collarbone injury, but WWE is treating it as being the set-up for her move to the main roster. Where, if they have any sense, she will do it all again.
I almost can’t be arsed writing this. WWE obviously couldn’t be arsed putting much effort into Backlash so why should I bother? This PPV (are they still PPVs? What do we call them now?) was a massive waste of time, and while the crowning of Jinder Mahal will help people to forget that, it’s still true. However, I’m nothing if not a pro with a lot of time on their hands so here is eight things I observed at Backlash.
At the start of this year, I made a decision. A decision to no longer spend at least five hours of my week plugging myself into the WWE Universe. While I would still catch every PPV, (I’m not going completely cold turkey) Raw and SmackDown were consigned to the bin, because life is quite frankly too fucking short.
I both love and hate TLC. I love it for the action it brings. I hate it for the careers it shortens. However, with SmackDown on a bit of a roll when it comes to their big shows this was much watch TV, and while the carnage was at times tough to stomach, it was also damn entertaining.
Gong. No sound will ever mean more to a WWE audience. Not the glass smashing and not the squeal of guitar at the start of ‘Cult of Personality’. Because no matter how successful The Rock or Stone Cold or CM Punk are, they are not The Undertaker and never will be.
The build up to No Mercy wasn’t exactly an easy one for WWE’s blue brand. The circus that is the American presidential debate saw them move the main event into the opening slot on the card while Becky Lynch’s injury meant a late change to the Woman’s Title match. For a show which is already quite thin on the ground, SmackDown was suddenly even shorter.
Ramblings About Wrestling 