WrestleMania 31 and the Raw after WrestleMania

WrestleMania 31 is officially in the books and I gotta say, I was a lot more entertained by the show than I thought I would be. Maybe it’s because I went in with low expectations but I was very pleased with the way WM31 was put together. Granted, there were some finishes I didn’t like, which I’ll go over below, but that’s to be expected. Still, the set was very cool and the day time setting of the show was actually kinda cool. Kept to a once in a seldom while thing, a show in full daylight like WM31 can be a great change of pace.

Also as has been in the past few years, the Raw after WrestleMania is almost as important as the annual event itself – and this year was no exception. With lots of great matches and surprises (not to mention a hot crowd), Raw from San Jose on March 30 was one of the best in recent months.

WrestleMania 31 Pre-Show

It’s weird that a 4-hour show needs an hour pre-show, since it just feels like it diminishes whatever is on it, like it wasn’t good enough for the show proper. Regardless of that, the pre-show saw Cesaro and Kidd retain the tag titles and Big Show win the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal.

Kidd and Cesaro retaining was the right choice, especially since one of the Usos is injured and the other teams were The Matadores (who only show up on TV around Mania season) and the New Day, who the fans actively hate with every fiber of their being. (I like all the members of New Day – Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods – but I can’t deny the New Day gimmick is less than pointless and they’ve done nothing with it so far.) And not to be overlooked, Natalya is killing it lately with these leather, dominatrix-type outfits.

The Battle Royal came down to Miz, Mizdow, and Big Show. Miz demanded Mizdow eliminate himself and Mizdow finally fought back and eliminated Miz. Though, this was before they thought to team up and take out Big Show. Mizdow put up a good fight but couldn’t take out the giant. I really, REALLY hope they feud Mizdow against Big Show in the coming weeks/months in a David and Goliath feud to keep getting him sympathy heat, now that a feud with Miz seems to be kicking off. Because if they just kill any kind of push for Mizdow, what was the point of having Big Show win?

Sandow, you're the real people's champion

It was cool to see Hideo Itami in the Battle Royal (and swerve everyone who thought Adrian Neville was a lock to win the spot) but I think that someone like Ryback or Mizdow should’ve won the Battle Royal. Someone younger on the roster who could use any kind of accolade to propel them forward a little bit.

IC title ladder match

The show opened with a bang with the Intercontinental title ladder match. Almost everyone in the match had a good shot of winning the belt (sorry, R-Truth) but in the end it was Daniel Bryan who walked out with the gold. His first IC title win, this makes Daniel Bryan the 26^th Triple Crown Champion in WWE history, winning all the titles he’s eligible for. Not even John Cena or the Undertaker are Triple Crown winners (both needing an IC title reign).

Then Bryan had his first title defense the very next night against Dolph Ziggler. It was a great singles match, one of the best seen on Raw in a long time. Afterward, Wade Barrett attacked Bryan and Ziggler but Sheamus ran out to make the save – only to (gasp) turn heel and Brogue Kick both Ziggler and Bryan. They’ve been teasing his return for some time now and there’s been speculation that he would turn heel upon his return and it looks like he’ll be a major contender for the IC title now too.

Seth Rollins vs Randy Orton

This was a solid match but the highlight was the finish, where Orton popped Rollins into the air while he went for a Curb Stomp, only to bring him crashing down in an RKO. Orton got the win but Rollins would be the biggest winner of the day later in the show. 

Sting vs. Triple H

“Shenanigans” is the only word that comes to mind when I think about this match. The entrances were ridiculous, to start. I didn’t really get why Sting had a band of drummers open for him. I thought a small orchestra set up like in the WWE 2K15 commercial would’ve been much better and fit his character. And the Triple H entrance…oh my god the Triple H entrance. I’m still torn about it. On one hand, it was pretty cool but on the other hand it was super cheesy. But Triple H as a Terminator made a lot more sense once the match was over.

Along with the Terminators, Triple H had soldiers during his entrance, played by (from left) Enzo Amore, Scott Dawson, Dash Wilder, Buddy Murphy, Solomon Crowe and referee Drake Wuertz.

In a big surprise, the DX appeared (Billy Gunn, Road Dogg and X-Pac) to try and help Triple H but it wasn’t long before nWo (Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash) hit the scene to even the odds. Then from nowhere, Shawn Michaels appeared to Sweet Chin Music away any hope Sting had of winning. I thought it was an odd move to sign Sting and push this months-long angle since Survivor Series only to have him lose but it made more sense once I heard JBL yell, “We win again!”

It’s very apparent Vince put this whole angle together as one more “up yours” to WCW – WWE won the Monday Night War and refuse to let anyone ever forget it. I don’t know what Sting will do now but I’d hope he stays around. Coming into WWE to have one match and lose doesn’t seem like a great way to end your career. But Triple H being a Terminator made more sense after he won, seeing as how WWE likes to rewrite the past and kill any threats to their dominance that they possibly can.

AJ Lee and Paige vs The Bella Twins

I don’t remember a whole lot from this match, other than Paige’s awesome new pentagon ring gear and the Bellas losing. It didn’t make much sense for this tag match to exist – shouldn’t it have been a title match with all four of these Divas competing against each other? Granted, it would’ve been a pretty terrible four-way to shove into the barely 6 minutes they got at WM31.

The six-Diva tag match the next night on Raw was really great though as Paige, AJ and Naomi faced The Bellas and Natalya. Teaming Natty with the Bellas doesn’t make much sense but hey, anything is better than her feuding with El Torito.

Rusev vs John Cena

United States Championship

Rusev’s entrance was easily one of the best visuals of the entire night. Rusev in a tank?! It couldn’t get any more perfect for the Bulgarian Brute, the Hero of the Russian Federation.

And though I would’ve liked to have seen Rusev win, I think he still looked pretty good in defeat. Everyone knew that Cena was going to win because CENAWINSLOL. I just hope that Rusev’s previous year of domination is enough to propel him forward and that his current friction with Lana will pass because they work really well together.

The Rock and Ronda Rousey vs Triple H and Stephanie

I don’t remember the impetus for this segment (I think it was for Trips and Stephanie to gloat about beating Sting? Maybe?) but eventually The Rock interrupted them and he got a much better reaction than he did at the Royal Rumble.

What I do remember from this segment is that Steph slapped The Rock who said he doesn’t hit women but he knows someone who does – and brought in UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey from the front row into the ring. The Rock beat down Trips and Rousey gave him a judo throw. Steph tried to slap Rousey who immediately realized she had made a huge mistake. Rousey showed restraint and didn’t obliterate Steph or rip her arm clean off, unfortunately.

I’ll be really interested to see where this goes. Rousey is a huge fan of pro wrestling, has appeared on WWE segments before (at Summerslam I think) and has been seen at PWG before. But I don’t think she has any training so it will be interesting to see what her involvement is going forward. I’m assuming this was just another way to promote the new Fast and Furious movie which she and The Rock are in but here’s hoping for more Rousey in WWE.

Bray Wyatt vs The Undertaker

This is another match I’m really split on. On one hand, I think Bray did a great job in the match itself but an even better job carrying the feud itself, since Taker didn’t show up until WrestleMania itself. There’s also the sentiment that just being in there with Taker makes him look better.

Although, I don’t subscribe to that feeling. In my eyes, Bray should have won that match. He carried the entire thing going into Mania and if he had beaten Taker, would have legitimately been seen as the new “Phenom,” the new supernatural entity in WWE. But he was booked to lose and because of that, looked even more foolish for wasting his time for so many weeks calling out Undertaker only to lose.

Bray has had enough adversity in getting to the top of the card without losing matches he really should have and needed to win. Losing a feud with Cena and getting the Family taken away from him has really hindered his advancement. He won a nothing feud with Ambrose and had he defeated Taker, would’ve immediately been seen as a main event player. But now he’ll have to pick up the pieces all over again.

Brock Lesnar vs Roman Reigns
WWE Championship

Before Mania, everyone thought Reigns was a lock to win since it seemed like Brock was on his way back to UFC. But with the announcement on ESPN that he was staying in WWE, telling who would win this match became a lot more cloudy.

Brock started out this match brutalizing Roman, hitting several F5s and numerous suplexs, taking Reigns to Suplex City. But Roman stayed in it. And despite his efforts, the crowd still hated him. Hated him like you wouldn’t believe. Then something glorious happened. Seth Rollins cashed in.

In a WrestleMania first, Rollins cashed in his Money in the Bank contract. The match turned into a triple threat and with Roman and Brock both beaten down, Rollins was able to Curb Stomp Reigns after he had speared Brock and Rollins pinned his former Shield teammate and tag partner to become the WWE World Heavyweight champion.

The night after on Raw

After a better-than-expected WrestleMania 31, the Raw crowd was red hot. We saw the debuts of Kalisto as part of the Lucha Dragons (winning an 8-man tag match with New Day against Kidd and Cesaro and The Ascension) as well as Adrian Neville, who appears to have lost his first name. I can’t get over how stupid it is that his name is just “Neville” on the main roster and will continue to complain about it for weeks to come (maybe forever if they don’t give him back his first name).

Sheamus also came back and went full heel almost instantly, though it’s fair to say that his new haircut was enough to tell everyone that he’s not gonna be a face anymore.

Brock Lesnar wanted his rematch against Seth Rollins but Rollins said no…and Lesnar absolutely lost his mind. He tore up the set, pushed the announce table on JBL and Booker T, F5’ed Michael Cole and then F5’ed a cameraman twice. Stephanie suspended Brock indefinitely (to no doubt write him off the show for a few months) but I could see this as the beginning of a face turn for Brock as he fights against The Authority and their champ, Seth Rollins.

Dean Ambrose had a really good match for the US title against John Cena but ended up losing. Whether it’s the US or IC title, I just hope Ambrose is the next guy to win gold because he really deserves it.

And the Raw crowd HATED Roman Reigns. Like, even more than the crowd at WM31. Reigns was in a 6-man tag with Randy Orton and Ryback against Rollins, Kane and Big Show. The crowd was the least into this match of the entire night and proceeded to chant anything they could think of (namely NXT related chants), did the wave (which the cameras watched for a while instead of the match) and chanted “Please retire” at Big Show. But here’s the thing – a few mere minutes after chanting at Big Show to retire, they wildly cheered him for beating down Roman Reigns. That’s how much people hate Reigns – THEY WERE CHEERING BIG SHOW.

Lots of other stuff happened too on Raw but this is running way too long and I can’t remember everything so that’s it for now. Here’s hoping that WWE can build on this momentum into Extreme Rules and that Reigns doesn’t just immediately get another match for the title at Extreme Rules (he doesn’t deserve one either – he won the Rumble, got his shot and lost), though I’m almost certain he will.

(Gifs and images were found on r/SquaredCircle and /wooo/ or from Twitter. Also, the panorama at the top was by a Reddit user whose name I took down to give him credit then lost - sorry.)

WrestleMania 31: The main event debacle

I’ve really tried to restrain myself from talking about the build to the Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar main event of WrestleMania 31 (aka WrestleMania Play Button). And I’ve held back from talking about it because it’s been so spectacularly bland, bordering on bad.

But after the end of the March 23 Raw, I can’t hold back anymore. And if you watched Raw, you know why. If you didn’t – check out this .gif from www.wrestlingwithtext.com.

That is how Raw ended last night, with Roman and Brock having a tug of war over the WWE Championship, like they’re two kids fighting over a toy they both want to play with.

Are you serious, WWE? THIS is how you present your two biggest badasses, the guys main-eventing the biggest show of the year, the guys who, by definition of being in the main event, should be the biggest draws on the card?

And it’s not just that the imagery was bad (because it was) but it didn’t fit with either guy’s character.

Paul Heyman (who has been carrying the whole feud since the Royal Rumble, speaking for Brock and trying to put over Reigns at the same time) had LITERALLY just finished talking about how much Lesnar loves being the champion and how he wouldn’t stand for anyone trying to take the title from him, likening taking the title from him to trying to take his wife, take food from his table or rename is children.

So what happens?

Reigns comes down, takes the title out of Lesnar’s hands and Lesnar does NOTHING. He looks bewildered and grabs the title and they both tug on it and the show ends. That’s it.

In keeping with Brock’s character, he should have been FURIOUS that Reigns had the gall to not only grab the title and hold it over his head. But to take it out of Brock’s hands and raise it over his head TO BROCK’S FACE? Lesnar should’ve have pummeled Reigns for that. Lesnar should have eviscerated Reigns for that. Lesnar should have suplexed Reigns through the ring for having the nerve to take the title out of his hands.

But none of that happened. Nothing at all interesting happened.

And it made Reigns look bad too because he’s supposed to be the face, the good guy you want to look up to. They’ve been trying to build him up as some unbeatable badass who doesn’t take crap from anyone and who wants to prove that he is the best. So what does he do? He snatches up another man’s property and tries to show off. Cause I guess that’s what faces do now?

Because let’s make it clear, if not for Vince and company’s undeniable love for Roman and need to make him their new top star, there’s no reason it would be believable he could compete with Brock Lesnar. Sure, he’s a muscular dude but that’s about where the positives for Roman ends.

Brock is a former NCAA Division I heavyweight wrestling champion. Brock is a multiple time WWE Champion. Brock is a former IWGP Heavyweight Champion. Brock is a former UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Roman? Roman played on the practice team for the Minnesota Vikings, Jacksonville Jaguars and Edmonton Eskimos before being release, is a former one-time WWE Tag Team Champion and won the most recent Royal Rumble after entering near the end of the match. That’s about it.

On what planet could Reigns conceivably contend with Brock in any shape or form? The answer is “Planet McMahon.”

Just for reference, this is how the final Raw before WrestleMania 30 ended:

Now that is excitement. Each guy looks like they are fired up to compete at WrestleMania and each guy looks like they have a legitimate shot at winning, especially Daniel Bryan who is beating the hell out of everyone after weeks of being humiliated by The Authority.  Whereas the final Raw before WrestleMania 31 ended with two guys having a tug of war over the championship belt.

What’s really upsetting is that the rest of Raw last night was pretty good. Dolph Ziggler had a great match with Daniel Bryan; every guy in the IC title ladder match looks like they have a chance at winning; Paige and Nikki Bella had a really good Divas title match; Bray Wyatt delivered another great promo while carrying the feud with The Undertaker. Almost everything about Raw was good – except for the last 30 seconds (and the chicken fry ad and El Torito pinning Natty).

People have been complaining about Reigns’ ultra-push for some time now and while I’ve tried not to hop on board the rage train, I can understand the sentiments. People don’t want another John Cena character who constantly wins and overcomes the odds despite situations where he shouldn’t possibly come out on top, yet this seems to be exactly what they’re doing with Reigns.

On top of that, several interviews have come out recently where Superstars basically say “Get over the Roman Reigns hate, he’s going to be here for a while” which makes fans feel ignored and disregarded – that the WWE already has their mind made up about a guy that a portion of their audience is not sold on at best or completely hates at worst.

On top of that, Reigns has been giving interviews that effectively say “I don’t care what the fans think, I’m going to make money regardless.” And that’s basically a direct quote (http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/548453-roman-reigns-talks-fan-backlash). When Reigns says things like that, it only makes the haters more upset because here’s a guy that WWE wants to be THE guy, the top face. The WWE’s argument for why you shouldn’t like Lesnar is “He’s a mercenary who only cares about the money!” While at the same time, Reigns is saying the EXACT. SAME. THING.

Really, this all comes back to a point I made in an earlier column – that the WWE still treats fans like clueless rubes who believe wrestling is real when in reality, fans are smarter and wiser to “the business” than ever. WWE acts like fans will love what they tell them to love despite the fact that there’s a growing contingent of fans who will likely soon be former fans because they feel like the WWE ignores them and their opinion.

People have made it clear they don’t want Roman Reigns at the top of the card and that they don’t want him to the championship at WrestleMania 31. If they had let his career grow organically, work his way up the card and gain momentum by creating a solid base of wins, undercard titles and exciting feuds, the fans would be a lot more willing to accept him at the top of the card. But that’s not what’s happened. He came out of The Shield angle where it was clear the other two members were more talented, yet he is pushed the hardest. He continued to win and win and win for some reason, bouncing in and out of feuds with no real beginning or end and within a year of going solo, he’s in the main event of WrestleMania.

If Roman Reigns actually wins at WrestleMania 31 and walks out with the championship, I just hope they’re ready for a reaction similar to, if not more vicious  than, what happened at the Royal Rumble. Which would look something like this…(from www.wrestlingwithtext.com)

WWE in 2015 – The Road to Wrestlemania

It’s 2015, WWE fans, and with the Royal Rumble on the horizon, the company is gearing up to head into the annual “Road to Wrestlemania.” Now is the time for the biggest, most impactful storylines of the year to be set up, with the Rumble itself usually used as a catalyst for these stories. In this article, I want to take a look at the most recent storylines in WWE and how I see them playing out heading into Wrestlemania.

The Main Event – The Authority and the WWE World Heavyweight Championship

Last week on Raw, rather than see Seth Rollins Curbstomp Edge onto the Money in the Bank briefcase, John Cena agreed to bring back The Authority – Stephanie McMahon and Triple H.

It was a strange series of events, for a number of reasons. 1 – Couldn’t Cena have saved Edge without agreeing to bring back The Authority? I mean, he was able to slide in and spear Rollins before he stomped Edge after agreeing – couldn’t he have done it beforehand? 2 – What was the point of having The Authority gone for just a couple of weeks? They lost power at Survivor Series on Nov. 23 and brought back Dec. 29 – what was the point? What, Trips and Steph wanted the holidays off?

Not to mention that bringing them back so quickly totally negates Sting’s appearance. Not only does his confrontation with Triple H at Survivor Series no longer have any meaning, but why wasn’t he there on Dec. 29 to stop them from coming back? If it mattered so much to him to stop them the first time, why didn’t he come back to help Cena or Edge?

But I’m getting off topic – I’ll get to Sting in the next point. Right now, I want to stay focused on The Authority and the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

This week on Raw, Triple H announced that Seth Rollins would be part of the championship match at Royal Rumble with John Cena and Brock Lesnar – which doesn’t make sense, seeing as how he’s the MITB holder. If he can have a title shot whenever, why does he need to actually be in a title match? Makes no sense.

Obviously, Rollins is only in this match so that Cena doesn’t have to lose cleanly and allow Lesnar to continue carrying the belt into Wrestlemania. Unless Rollins cashes in after the match is over, but I really don’t see that happening.

(If you ask me, Brock should have dropped the belt a while ago. He’s an attraction on his own and doesn’t need to be champ. It’s not like he’s doing much to elevate it in the eyes of casual or non-fans. Brock should be the new monster to beat at Wrestlemania, like Undertaker was.)

This means that Brock will carry the title into Wrestlemania and face the winner of the Royal Rumble which I will get to after we take a quick detour back to…

“The Vigilante” Sting

No one (especially now) is quite sure what WWE’s overall plan is with Sting. Having his appearance at Survivor Series negated now but The Authority being reinstated after only being gone for a matter of weeks, where does Sting fit on the card?

The consensus online is that Sting should face Undertaker at Wrestlemania 31. The two men were the biggest stars of WWF and WCW in the early 90s and are active in the same company for the first time ever. Sting vs Undertaker would be a huge attraction, sure to be fascinating to new fans as well as older fans from the pre-Attitude Era. The only question would be how to set this match up but with several months until ‘Mania, that wouldn’t be hard.

Unfortunately, it seems to me that WWE will continue using Sting as a foil for The Authority (despite having no role in thwarting their return). My bet is on Sting facing Triple H at Wrestlemania. Sting has already attacked Triple H once and the only time he’s appeared on WWE programming so far was to get Trips (and his wife) fired, essentially. This match writes itself and if Sting/Triple H doesn’t happen at ‘Mania, I’ll be surprised.

The Royal Rumble winner

During the last Raw of 2014, Daniel Bryan made a surprise appearance, saying on Twitter that he had an announcement about his career. While many were worried he would be announcing his retirement, he instead announced that he would be taking part in the 2015 Royal Rumble.

Bryan was the man many people wanted to win the 2014 Royal Rumble (despite not being entered into the match). With the announcement of his return, he became the odds-on favorite to win…for some.

But before Bryan’s announcement, many had pegged Roman Reigns as the clear favorite to win. With his recent return, the WWE’s desire to make him look strong and his record-setting run in the 2014 Rumble, it seemed almost obvious that Reigns would secure a title match at Wrestlemania.

As much as it pains me to say – Roman Reigns will most likely win the Royal Rumble. It’d be amazing to see Daniel Bryan win it, especially since (in kayfabe) he’s practically the only person strong enough in WWE to stop Brock Lesnar. However, with Bryan only recently returning, I can’t see WWE putting him back into the title picture immediately. Plus, whoever eliminates Bryan would gain massive heel heat and create a hot feud heading into Wrestlemania. A conservative guess would be Bray Wyatt but my longshot guess would be a returning heel Sheamus.

Bray Wyatt and Dean Ambrose – What’s next?

After suffering a string of losses to John Cena (including 3-on-1 matches), Bray Wyatt needed a little repackaging. WWE broke up the Family and sent Luke Harper and Erick Rowan into singles territory while keeping Bray in the upper mid-card. His first target after returning? “The Lunatic Fringe” Dean Ambrose.

Returning in October, Bray attacked Ambrose at the end of his Hell in a Cell match against Seth Rollins and their feud has been going strong until this past Monday, where Bray defeated Ambrose in an Ambulance Match, which the announcers made it seem like would be their final meeting.

With some momentum finally on his side, it would seem like a logical choice to have Bray go after a singles title, right? Except the only face with a singles title – Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler – lost that title the same night Bray won the Ambulance Match. (Dolph was then “fired,” a point which I’ll get to next.)

This leaves Bray in a bit of limbo as there isn’t a top-tier face (or singles title) for him to go after. My guess is that he’ll stay visible on cards but not do much until the Royal Rumble, which will be used as the catalyst for his next big feud.

Dean Ambrose on the other hand, despite losing the feud to Bray, is still quite popular with the fans and doesn’t seem to have lost much momentum. A great idea for Ambrose’s next course of action would be to reignite his hatred for Seth Rollins. Those two always put on great matches and their feud didn’t have a definitive end.

How, you ask? Simple. Just as Rollins is about to win the title at Royal Rumble (or cash in his briefcase – no reason he can’t lose the match then cash in right after), Ambrose shows up and ruins everything, allowing their feud to return and flow into Wrestlemania. This way, both guys are still near the top of the card and could easily transition into a role as a World title contender.

Ziggler, Ryback, Rowan - You’re fired!

I often rag on WWE booking decisions for not making much sense – which I will continue doing right now. “Firing” Ziggler, Ryback and Rowan, much like bringing back The Authority so soon after Survivor Series, negates Sting’s return and completely diminishes not only the outcome of Survivor Series, but also Ziggler’s impressive performance as the last man standing on his team.

If you recall, the stipulations of that match were if Team Cena lost, everyone on his team would be fired. Except Cena, of course (oh and Big Show since he turned heel during the match for what feels like the hundredth time). So Team Cena won, Sting showed up to stop Triple H from interfering and The Authority got the boot.

But here we are, a little over a month later and The Authority is back and everyone on Team Cena (minus Cena and Show) are fired. So basically, the “must see” Survivor Series main event to decide the future of WWE didn’t really mean anything.

With that said, it’s hard to say what the future holds for the recently fired trio. Obviously, the firing was kayfabe and if I had to guess, I’d say they’ll be back by or before the Royal Rumble.

The only question is how. And I have one word to answer.

Vince.

Vince McMahon isn’t on TV often anymore but it was Vince who created the stipulation that if The Authority lost at Survivor Series, they would be out of power. So while it hasn’t been said straight up, clearly Vince either wants The Authority gone or doesn’t have faith in the way they’re running the show. If we can infer that, we could also infer that Vince may have issue with these firings, considering the circumstances of Survivor Series.

The other reason I believe Vince will bring them back is because he’s the only person (kayfabe or otherwise) with more power in WWE than Stephanie or Triple H. And since there was no escape clause added to the firing of Ziggler, Ryback and Rowan (like there was when The Authority lost), having Vince bring them back seems like the only logical course of action.

And if Vince were to bring them back, one of the best options in my opinion would to have them come back in a role similar to The Shield. Don’t make them dress up in black combat fatigues but have them harass The Authority’s goons in the name of justice and stand up for the others in the locker room being pushed around by Stephanie, Triple H and Seth Rollins.

But, since that would be too interesting, they’ll probably just show up in the Rumble with no explanation and start working regularly, like they never left at all.

Rusev crushed?

The WWE United States champion Rusev still has yet to lose by pinfall or submission (regardless of that fact that he’s lost by DQ numerous times). He was seemingly starting a feud with Ryback but now that The Big Guy is fired, that’s looking less likely.

Rusev announced that he will be in the Royal Rumble this week on Main Event (or maybe Lana said it) and while there shouldn’t be a problem with him doing double duty, defending the title and being in the Rumble, like I said before, it’s not looking likely that he’ll defend the belt at the Rumble.

So where does that leave the former Bulgarian Brute? Well, he’s got to lose sometime and unfortunately, that first loss will likely come at Wrestlemania. To whom, though? I think we all know who. (Need a hint? LOLCENAWINS)

But even after he losses to Cena at Wrestlemania (hopefully the US title isn’t on the line) he’s still been having great showings in 2014 and should definitely be booked as a bigger threat to the rest of the locker room in 2015.

The forgotten ones – the tag team titles and Divas title

Even before Miz and Mizdow dropped the titles to the Usos randomly on Raw a week or two ago (I don’t even remember when), I had a feeling like The Ascension would be moved immediately into the tag title picture once they made it to the main roster. With The Ascension debuting recently and the belts on the waists of a face team, it seems like just a matter of time before Konnor and Viktor are hot-shotted to the titles.

I liked The Ascension more in NXT, before the weird face paint and the oddly shaped shoulder pads. In NXT, they were just vaguely supernatural badass wrecking machines. But now they’re on the main roster, they LITERALLY just clones of Legion of Doom, Demolition, the Powers of Pain or the main similarly face-painted, jacked up tag teams from the 80s.

It wasn’t enough for them to look exactly like those teams, the WWE has gone so far as to make The Ascension reference those other teams specifically and say they’re superior. And if that wasn’t bad enough, JBL, the heel commentator, wasn’t even backing The Ascension up during their promo on Monday! How are guys new to the main roster, that the majority of fans haven’t seen before, supposed to get over when the people who are supposed to be actively working to sell the product on-air are telling us that brand new wrestlers aren’t as good?

Regardless, The Ascension still seem like the odds-on favorite to win the tag titles and if not at the Rumble, then soon.

But what of the former champions, Miz and Mizdow? Despite not liking Miz much in the ring, he’s a pretty good heel and it shows with how well Mizdow has gotten over in his role as The Miz’s stunt double. But now that they’ve lost the belts, the final days of their team seem nigh.

The break up and subsequent feud between Miz and Mizdow has been on the horizon almost since the duo got together. Once Mizdow started getting over with the crowd, it seemed like only a matter of time before they break up. Whether it’s because Mizdow is tired of the treatment he receives or Miz realizes that Mizdow is more popular, the end seems inevitable – especially now.

The Rumble seems like as good a time as any to begin the end, with one eliminating the other. (Or maybe Miz gets eliminated and wants Mizdow to eliminate himself but he won’t).

As for what’s next for the Usos or Ascension? They most likely feud over the belts…until WWE wises up and puts them on Tyson Kidd and Cesaro! (Yeah, I know that last part will never happen)

And I feel really bad that there isn’t more to write about the Divas title and it’s future but, like always, the Divas division seems even lower on the WWE’s “List of things we care about” than the tag titles.

Ever since Brie got Stockholm Syndrome and started liking her sister Nikki (you know, the one who threw her under the bus for every bad thing that happened in their childhood, made Brie her personal assistant, turned on her at Summerslam and said she wished Brie had died in the womb), Nikki won the Divas title and has actually turned into a decent worker in the ring. Granted, she’s not as good as Natalya or Paige, but she’s getting there.

But despite that, there’s been little to no lasting or tangible storyline for any Diva beyond Michael Cole recapping what happened recently on Total Divas and inferring that must be why whoever is fighting whoever in a match (because heel/face alignments don’t seem to exist in the Divas division). Alicia Fox is crazy when they need her to be, Naomi is sometimes a wrestler, sometimes a valet for the Usos, Paige is a heel or face whenever necessary and always hangs out around whoever has eyes on the title – there’s little to nothing propelling the division forward outside of someone every once in a while wanting to be Divas champ for whatever reason.

Right now, it looks like Natalya will face Nikki at the Rumble for the title and Paige has attached herself to Natty, to hopefully turn on her after Natty wins the belt.

But AJ Lee is still MIA and there’s no telling when or if she’ll be back. But even when she was around, her feud with Paige really went nowhere, unfortunately. It’ll be interesting to see if she makes an appearance at the next Divas title match, perhaps igniting a feud with the Bellas leaving Paige and Natty feud over the title.

The leftovers

The Viper

  Where has Randy Orton been? Just when it seemed like he was turning into an interesting face (something he’s struggled to do in the past), he went away to film a movie and has been MIA for months. I thought he might come back at Survivor Series to help take out The Authority (since they always seemed to favor Rollins over him) and I was sure he’d come back to stop Rollins from stomping out Edge last Monday…but neither happened.

  Right now I’d say he’ll probably come back at Royal Rumble but without any momentum or direction going into that show, it’s hard to say how the fans will react to him or which Randy Orton we’d see. And even then, there isn’t a guarantee he’ll come back at the Rumble.

The Masters of the Universe

  I absolutely love the pairing of Tyson Kidd and Cesaro. If they’re hell-bent on having Cesaro stay a heel, having he and Tyson Kidd (another heel in need of more screen time) team up is a great choice. They haven’t done much lately but on Monday, they did attack Big E so it seems a feud with the New Day is in the works. But the chemistry between Cesaro and Kidd is undeniable, their work in the ring is second to none and having Natalya as their manager, who is beloved by the fans yet constantly ignored by Kidd and Cesaro, is beyond perfect.

New Day

  It seems like there was never a plan for these guys beyond finally picking a name for their team and putting them on TV. Kofi Kingston, Big E and Xavier Woods are all really talented but stuck in “Creative has nothing for you” no-mans-land. I like their double team finishers and the fact that they’re a trio but any of them can be a tag team or go solo when needed and hopefully a feud with Kidd and Cesaro gets them all more screen time.

The Dust Brothers

  Poor Goldust and Stardust – they get no respect. Both guys are really entertaining in the ring and it’s a testament to how good Cody Rhodes is overall that he’s made the Stardust character work. But WWE either doesn’t have any idea what to do with them or any desire to push tag teams more prominently because The Dust Bros have done nothing of note lately.

  They had a great run as tag champs as Goldust and Cody Rhodes and a forgettable run as Gold and Stardust before inexplicably turning heel and getting lost in the shuffle.