WWE Shuffling the Deck With Character Changes.

A lot of people are getting some new hats in WWE coming out of Raw on Monday. A lot of shuffling of the deck is being done both by creative and by the fan base. Let’s start with the one that we all saw coming and was the most needed and that would be Paige.

Why they felt the need to wait to pull the trigger that took so long is beyond me. This was obvious from the night that A.J Lee returned to the WWE. This is perhaps the most obvious change and has the potential to be the most successful in my view. Paige was made to be a heel you see it in the aggressive nature that suits her move set. This is like a reset for her after a horrible start on the main roster and a forgettable first run as Diva’s Champion.

The beat down of A.J followed by mocking her skipping was just an excellent start to heel persona. This is who she always should have been from the beginning.

Another NXT alum, that didn’t take out of the gate, is getting a reset in Xavier Woods. He now has approached Big E and Kofi and looks like he is starting the Nation of Domination 2014. Which calls to question can you be the Nation of Domination in 2014?

The thing that does excite me about this is Kofi Kingston being a part of a heel faction.

Kofi is a good solider and always been a baby face and never been a problem in WWE. I want to see him get an honest shot as a heel run. I am not sure if this gimmick will be able to work and it does seem like a very reactionary move by WWE. In response to some poor press about their record in terms of minorities. It reminds me of when the WWE created the “Right to Censor” in response to criticism from a parental group.

Still I like Kofi and I do like Big E so I am hoping this is a vehicle to help them get over but I am very suspect if it will actually happen and work. We are just at the very start of this so will see how it goes.

Bray Wyatt and his real life brother Bo Dallas both seem to be in the land of Tweenerville. Bray seems to be really getting over and WWE is already testing the waters having Bray do some media recently with Between the Ropes and a few other places. This seems a sure sign they are testing the waters for a face run for Bray Wyatt.

While Bo Dallas on Raw was paired against Damien Sandow in a weird pairing but Bo Dallas has a lot of growing fans that BO-lieve in Bo. It probably is less likely we see Bo become a face as WWE still should keep him as a heel even if his fan base grows.

While Rusev and his push and expected rematch with Jack Swagger maybe on the ropes after a media backlash over the promo Lana cut at Battleground which in all honesty was tame and really made no direct mention of the tragedy in Ukraine. Like I said over on the Between the Ropes post show for Battleground, I felt all four performers had earned the right to continue this program.

Also feel bad for Cesaro who I wrote a few days ago seems to have been left for dead.

Miz has a new coat of paint on his tired persona. I buy Miz as a Hollywood star as much as I do John Cena. The other thing they seem to have in common is endless chances to be successful. Lots of changes in the WWE landscape but the constants remain the same and that is the former members of the Shield, John Cena and for whatever reason Orton and Kane. Oh and of course the returning Brock Lesnar who never changes except he seems to get bigger.

 

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Raw Notebook: June 23rd Washington D.C

It was a Raw that offered a few highs and a lot of head shaking moments. It started with a bang so much so that my mom was hooked to want to watch something. Mom is not a wrestling and rarely watches. Still the idea of Stephanie McMahon in a match was enough to hook her into wanting to watch. How this came about was Steph was about to fire Vicky and instead gave here the option to have a match against her.

The tease of Stephanie wrestling has been used in the storyline with Daniel Bryan as well as they have been teasing a match with her and Bri Bella. I think come Summerslam we may get that match or we at least should. As for last night I was not buying the fact Stephanie would wrestle something she hasn’t done in over a decade at least. I would be proven right as Stephanie would come out and send three random divas led by Alicia Fox. The match would not be in the ring but it would have pool of mud or muck and whoever would be thrown in it would be the loser. If that was Vicky she would be fired.

Vicky would manage to get all three divas thrown in the muck but Stephanie in high heels went for a Harley Race Knee sort of missed it and just shoved Vicky in the muck. She was fired but than would take Steph and throw her in and right before she did Steph would have a funny line about thinking about Vicky’s retirement. Great stuff and cool send off for Vicky who came out to them music of her husband Eddie Guerrero.

Funny that was the angle in the show I liked best and it had nothing to do with Money in the Bank Pay-Per-View this Sunday.

Bo Dallas streak continues with a win over Titus and he is now 9 and Bo and has a Bolack Eye not sure how that happened.

As much as I knew he wasn’t going to win the match with Dolph and Bad News Barrett was the best thing that happened in the ring all night long. Ziggler to his credit always gives his all no matter what spot he finds himself in. For that he deserves a ton of credit.

In that same vain Damien Sandow is goes full into whatever horrible thing they have him do. On this night it was Abe Lincoln. It was still terrible but he does invest 100% into it.

Paige continues to fail to get over and is booked terrible. There was a minor tease to her turning heel as she is taking on Naomi. I think at this stage turning her heel might be a good idea and give her a fresh re-do or re-start at this stage.

Luke Harper and Eric Rowan getting their own theme music and they look primed to win the Tag-Team titles from the USO’s. If you are familiar with their work on NXT they held the tag team titles their and had a solid run with belts despite little competition. Think it is time to give them the ball.

Stardust is just not a gimmick that works. For a cheap pop last week it was funny but long term it is stupid. Why do we have to constantly stick gimmicks on Cody? What is wrong with being a young guy with legacy in the business and a really good wrestler? What a concept isn’t it? If this leads to a Goldust vs. Cody match I willing to endure it but this gimmick is so awful. Cody as he always has is giving his 100% to it so it isn’t a knock on him.

Big E Langston on the other hand just can’t seem to catch a break. A flag waving America is greatest country in the world preacher is not his thing. He tried really hard to make it comfortable.

Good Rusev and Lana promo where they were out in Washington and preached Russian superiority and in the show they saved us from the Big E promo that has gone off the rails. They finally have got this charter in a good place.

After having the field revealed for Money in the Bank Ladder Match I maintain this is a mistake and down grading the gimmick. Kofi, Dolph, Swagger, Rollins, RVD, Ambrose and Barrett make up the 7 in this match. I am sorry but I can’t buy a single member of this match being considered a real threat to be WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Which is the point to the match it may well be a fine interesting match but the point of the match is massively flawed. 
Rollins was in a match with RVD and Ambrose crashed the party and attacked Rollins which led to Rollins demanding that he was put in the match above. Triple H agreed but said if it backfired it would be on Rollins. Great crazy man promo by Dean and good match for Rollins with RVD.

As for the title match itself as I wrote about in the blog I fear this will end up with Cena winning the title. I have little faith or hope they will take a risk and go with anyone new at this point. It really is a shame that this company is unwilling to take major risks. They added Kane to the match but that adds nothing to this match.
Daniel Bryan is doing an interview on the pre-show which really doesn’t have me all that excited unless we get some clear idea of when he is going to be back. Having him cut promos is not something that I really want to see. If this was CM Punk in the same position and unable to wrestle let him talk all night long have him on commentary. Bryan on the other hand can be decent but gets over from his work in the ring.

Last week I was excited to watch ROH get a chance to be on PPV for the first time ever live. It was exciting and thrilling and compelling. This WWE PPV has none of that feeling and just seems like another typical WWE Pay-Per-View despite the promise of a new champion as a guarantee. I just am not all that excited for this event I am more fearful of what might happen.

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5 Things We Need To See Coming Out Of Extreme Rules

So Extreme Rules is almost here and we are going to look ahead to after it is all said and done what we need to have coming out of this event . Every PPV or as they are calling them now special event needs to have some reason to it for us to stay invested as fans. The first major event after Wrestlemania is usually a time to start building some new feuds and ending some old ones. We always have some new stars to get over and make look good. So with all that being said let’s look at 5 things we need to see coming out of this event. After reading this go have a listen to our podcast where we preview this event and talk the news of the week in WWE.

5. A Stronger Paige: We saw Paige from NXT make her long awaited debut on the Raw after Wrestlemania winning the Diva's Championship from A.J Lee. It wasn’t the best debut for Paige to show of her ability in the ring with a bit of a screwed up finish to the match. Adding to the problems we had A.J Lee stepping away for some time off, to move to Chicago we are told, as she has become engaged to CM Punk who remains in limbo with WWE. So instead of an A.J vs. Paige feud that many have looked forward to we get an under promoted Paige vs. Tamina Snuka match. This match not only needs to see Paige win but do it impressively in order to validate her to the larger WWE audience that may not be familiar with her work in NXT. A stronger Paige and returning A.J Lee should make for a great feud.

4. A Strong NEW I-C Champion: We don’t hate Big E Langston but maybe we are not crazy about Big E. Jokes aside, it has been fairly clear that him retaining the I-C title is not going to be in the cards. We had all thought that new champion was going to be Cesaro and that might have been confirmed with a WWE Script making it’s way to the internet. Suddenly things changed and now Bad News Barrett is the man that sits on the verge of his fourth run with the I-C title. Rumours are that Vince McMahon himself has been the driving force behind the Bad News Barrett character so safe to say he has some support behind him if that is true. Much talk has been made of unification of the U.S and I-C titles. Dean Ambrose in a rare title defence for that U.S Title retained it on Smackdown. Regardless of this happens Barrett is deserving of having a long run with this title and maybe if he does the belt that once meant so much in the WWE can once again. I would feel more confident with Cesaro in this role honestly though.

3. Continuation of Steph vs. Bri: We have not seen Stephanie McMahon in a WWE ring in a match since 2003. This was just prior to her real life wedding to Triple H as she fought he father Vince in a match. The couple you love to hate in storyline have 3 lovely daughters and perhaps the time has come to see Steph get back in a ring. In the PG world of WWE when they script the word bitch into a program you notice. The woman dropping that B-Bomb was Bri who is married to Daniel Bryan of course. This is not the first time we have had a feud for Stephanie teased as she and A.J Lee had some interactions that made you wonder where it was heading. Some may cringe at the idea of this match with Bri and Stephanie taking place, but I say why not. If you’re looking for a mat classic this likely will not be it, but no one would expect it to be. In any case, the feud itself I like and would not mind seeing more fuel added to the fire coming out of Extreme Rules.

2. More Heroics from the Swiss Superman: As we mentioned there is a lot of circumstantial evidence this was not the plan for Cesaro for this show. When you get lemons you can be a rosebud or make lemonade. So, seeing as Cesaro is not likely to become an Adam Rose fan will go with the ladder option. Basically it seems in this 3 way it could go a few ways. It could serve as continuation of the Swagger vs. Cesaro break-up that has involved Paul Heyman and Zeb Colter. It also could lead to a program with RVD a former Heyman Guy and a legendary performer in wrestling. Ideally Cesaro should get the win in this match-up and draw some conclusion to his feud with Swagger. You could easily make that happen with Heyman screwing RVD and Cesaro getting the pin on Swagger. That likely makes the most sense to build Cesaro for what many are speculating could be a future feud with Brock Lesnar. Continuation of a Swagger feud is only holding Cesaro back. However it ends up Cesaro needs to shine in this match and build on the momentum his Battle Royal win and next night manger change has given him.

1. A Dominate Daniel Bryan: We need to see a strong first title defence for the new WWE World Champion. This feud needs to be one and done for Daniel Bryan as a feud with Kane despite the history with the two has not captured anyone’s imagination at this point. This is the Randy Savage on Saturday Night’s Main Event vs. One Man Gang type of title defence. The first for a new champion against a much large opponent to showcase he can beat the big guys. It is nothing more than that and why The Shield vs. Evolution is likely the main event of this show. We have Daniel Bryan entering a match selling an injury yet again which makes the chances of him looking dominate a bit less likely. However he entered the title match at Wrestlemania 30 with the same restrictions but was able to put on a great performance. The days of Daniel Bryan beat downs need to be less and he needs to establish his title reign as a strong champion. If he looks like anything different from that, it is a failure and does not speak well for his future as the reigning champion.
  

1(B) Bray Wyatt Words Need To Have Action: So you thought we forgot about Bray? Not at all and following Bray Wyatt's example, we will not conform and giving you 6 things in a list that is only suppose to be 5. It is important that Bray Wyatt comes out of this event not being all talk and no action. He needs to win this match or have some validation for what he has been saying. Ideally we get both to happen in his match with John Cena. This is a much better version of the feud between John Cena and Kane, that was used to fill in the gaps for Cena as he prepared for his first encounter with The Rock. Bray Wyatt just like Kane wants to expose a darker side to John Cena that he claims exists. John Cena is showing some doubt on if the fans are really behind him on this one and that is already a partial victory for Bray in comparison to the Kane vs. Cena feud. If Bray fails to get a win the only way this feud to continue with any kind of logic is if Cena some how cheats to win. Given this is a steel cage match with no real room for that to happen logically Bray needs to win. Bray may not care about his win/loss record but for the fans to believe in him they need him to win. This feud has elevated Bray to being in the conversation as one of the best talkers in the WWE. Part of being a great talker is being able to take those words and turn them into action and that time is now for Bray Wyatt.

So why do we not see any mention of The Shield and Evolution? Reason for this is basically because you could have a number of acceptable outcomes to this one, without one standing out as better than another. I think regardless of who wins this feud is not finished and thus the result here is only this first step in a much larger war. It is not to say it won’t be potentially fantastic and a great match. It very well should be that. It is just that nothing NEEDS to happen here to any degree. No one in this match will be hurt by a loss and no one gains a ton from a win at this stage if this program continues on as expected.

Raw Notebook: April 21st, 2014

Another Raw in the books and the post mania hangover feels well under way. Daniel Bryan would return to T.V after is honeymoon. Something that I was unaware of at time of watching Raw, Bryan’s father had passed away over the weekend. This might explain why Bryan never ended up saying a word on the mic on this show.

Kane vs. Bryan

The effort of the WWE to get over Kane Bryan feud was tremendous. The show would start with Bryan and Bri coming out together and being interrupted by Stephanie. She sarcastically congratulates them on their marriage and suggests that Bryan should have Bri get out of the line of fire after what Kane said last week. Cue Kane coming out and Stephanie admonishing Kane before he ever appeared to not come out. He would of course nail Bryan with a tombstone which prompts Stephanie to suggest Bri should run which she does. The tombstone party would go on to steel steps. Steph call for EMT’s and Kane takes Bryan of a backboard with neck brace that he rips off. He drags a lifeless Bryan to the announce table and yet a third tombstone of the announce table. Bryan is carted off and Stephanie in the ring with Daniel Bryan’s titles and encourages the audience to cheer for Bryan. She also prior had called Kane a bastard for what he had done.

These beat down moments were highlighted throughout the show. It was an amazing effort by WWE to get this feud from out of no where over. That said for long time fans that have seen Kane come back as this monster so many times it kind of rings hallow.

Wyatts vs. Cena

Bray Wyatt continues to shine on the mic in this program. It has not exactly the smoothest program but the one consistent thing in it has been Bray Wyatt.  Bray cut a promo about remembering the first time he heard the truth how it had a bitter taste in his mouth. He would go on to say that tonight would be a create night for truth. John Cena’s fate would be in the hands of the WWE Universe they could have Cena in a one on one match with Luke Harper, or him and Rowan with the last option being all the Wyatt Family

Well the audience went for the all 3 option and Cena almost beat the odds in the match before the Wyatt’s would get Dqed and layout Cena to close the show. 

For this program to be ultimately successful Bray Wyatt must go over at the Extreme Rules event. If he doesn’t what was the point of all this?

WTF’s

• I admit I actually liked Torito (If that is how you spell it) the little bull against a 3MBed up Hornswaggle. I may need help.
• Pink Cobras and the New Divas Champion are in trouble and need help. Emma more than Paige but these girls need life preserves fast and it isn’t a pink sock puppet.
• Ryback on commentary that happened. I do agree with his assessment of Cole, King and JBL sucking. Head scratching moment this was for sure overall.

I-C Champ In Trouble

If you Big E Langston safe to say you are about to see your I-C run come to end. First they took away his Langston and now it looks like his title as well. Once again two of the best matches on the show were part of this I-C title tournament with Cesaro getting cost the win by Jack Swagger and RVD advances to the final while Bad News Barrett got the win over Sheamus.

There was a leaked script that had Cesaro listed as facing Big E at Extreme Rules but now it looks like we are heading to an RVD vs. Cesaro match and Barrett vs. Big E. I am not as excited about this as I would have been had Cesaro been the guy looking to take that I-C Belt.
The goal of this tournament was to restore some lustre on the I-C belt and I am not sure if Barrett winning the belt will bring that same push to the help restore the title. Hope I am wrong as Barrett could really make something of a great run with I-C title. He really deserves it for all he has been through and put up with in terims of some horrible creative and usage of him.

Evolution vs. Shield

This is being booked like the main event angle and the Shield laid down some epic verbal smack down. This is a passing of the torch it would appear and a well deserved one. I haven’t been crazy about how all of this is being booked but if at the end of all of this The Shield is standing tall that is all that matters.

I was happier with this week than last week allowing all three of the members to do their thing on Mic. I am convinced that all three of these guys will be stars and The Shield will be a group that lives on through WWE for years to come even after these 3 part ways.

While I was one of many that was excited to see these three breaks off on their own it has actually been cool to see them stick together for a little longer.

That is about it for Raw. The post mania glaze over is starting to kick in and I am pretty concerned with the start to the Daniel Bryan’s title run. Will see how it all goes down but this is an exciting time of transition for the WWE. It just might not be as smooth or as fast a drive as we may like. The future is bright even if the present is a bit of a mixed bag at the moment.