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)

WrestleMania 31: The Intercontinental title ladder match

The treatment of the Intercontinental Championship in WWE has become something of a running joke among fans over the past few years. The way the championship has been treated in the past few years has diminished its value in the eyes of the fans thanks to it being traded between wrestlers in meaningless title changes and often times completely ignored or forgotten.

For example, take the current Intercontinental champion – Bad News Barrett. He was on the shelf from late June 2014 and returned to TV in January 2015. In his first match back, he defeated Dolph Ziggler for the IC title. That right there is a red flag – why would a returning wrestler get a shot at the IC belt and why would he be booked to win it? If you remember, it was in a 2-out-of-3 falls match where The Authority beat down Dolph prior to the match, so the title change was mired in shenanigans from jump.

Next, Dolph never got a rematch. If the belt is important and WWE wants fans to view it as important, why would the former champ NOT want or get a rematch? Makes no sense.

On top of that, Barrett has looked ridiculously weak since returning and winning the IC belt. Let me run some numbers by you.

Since returning and winning the IC title, Barrett has wrestled 39 times (including live events). Yet out of those 39 matches – he’s only won 12. If you take away live events, he’s only won FIVE TIMES. This is the Intercontinental Champion, the guy who is supposed to be a step below the World champion, who is supposed to be the gatekeeper to the main event scene, has been made to look like an utter chump while holding (what is supposed to be) the second most prestigious title in the company.

And this is only the most very recent IC title champ situation, not even touching The Miz’s several one-day reigns with the IC title or the forgetful reigns of Big E (currently a jobber) or Curtis Axle (currently a jobber – an entertaining jobber, but still a jobber).

But lately, thanks mainly to Dean Ambrose, the Intercontinental Championship is being built back up a little bit. It’s not in the greatest position yet, but it is slowly becoming more important again.

Initially, I had designs on running down the entire WrestleMania 31 card, but I think I’m going to stick with analyzing a few matches – namely the IC title ladder match and the Bray Wyatt vs. Undertaker match (in another article). The entire WrestleMania 31 (aka WrestleMania Play Button) card is so adjace, it physically pains me to think too long on the rest of the matches so I’m only focusing on the ones that interest me.

But the Intercontinental Title ladder match has the chance to be one of the brightest spots on the card – for a few reasons.

It’s a ladder match

Obviously, the stipulation alone means that we’re in for a crazy, physically intense and enthralling contest. WrestleMania has a history of epic ladder matches (Shawn Michaels/Razor Ramon, WM11; Edge/Christian vs The Dudleys vs The Hardys, WM2000; or the first Money in the Bank match at WM21) and this contest has all the elements needed to be seen among those memorable matches. Not much else needs to be said about why a ladder match with those six (spoilers - seven) wrestlers could steal the show.

The competitors

Right now, six men are entered in the ladder match – Bad News Barrett, Dean Ambrose, R-Truth, Luke Harper, Dolph Ziggler and Stardust. On Smackdown this week (spoilers) Daniel Bryan announces that he is also taking part in the match.

Now before you go crying “Burial! Bryan’s being buried!” – hear me out.

In the far away land of Japan, lives a wrestler named Shinsuke Nakamura who wrestles for New Japan Pro Wrestling. Nakamura has held the biggest title in New Japan – the IWGP Heavyweight Championship – numerous times, but is currently the IWGP Intercontinental Champion. Nakamura is one of the most popular wrestlers in the company but he is also one of the most prolific IWGP IC champions of all time. He’s brought a great amount of prestige to the title and many view it in just as high regard as the IWGP Heavyweight championship. Nakamura's matches are exciting and fast-paced and he has an odd yet magnetic charisma to him. Does that sound like anyone else you know? (I was alluding to Bryan but it could also describe Ambrose as well)

Dean Ambrose (left) bearing a striking resemblance to Shinsuke Nakamura (right).

 

It's not outside the realm of possibility that Daniel Bryan (or Dean Ambrose or Dolph Ziggler) could accomplish the same thing with the WWE IC title if given the chance. If WWE isn’t on the pulse enough to have one of their most (if not most) popular stars in the World title picture, let him use that popularity and starpower to raise the profile and status of the IC title. Who knows – maybe one day WWE fans will view the IC title the way New Japan fans view the IWGP IC title.

But let me not forget the man who kicked off the current drive among so many stars to win the IC belt – Dean Ambrose.

It was, I think, after the blizzard episode of Raw that Dean Ambrose had the sudden desire to win the IC championship and has been on the warpath to take it from Bad News Barrett. When he didn’t win it from him at Fastlane he did the next best thing – he took it. But throughout all his actions, it showed a desire and reverence for the IC title that so many champions before him never displayed. It wasn’t just another prop and he didn’t take it for granted – Ambrose has gone out of his way to take possession of the title one way or another, which is more than you can say many former champions have done to possess the title

Which brings me to my last point…

The build

Ever since Ambrose has begun hounding Barrett for the IC championship, more Superstars have joined the hunt as well. Ambrose was the first to steal it from Barrett but it’s resulted in R-Truth stealing the belt numerous times and handing it off to other contenders, as well as seeing former champions like Dolph Ziggler and Luke Harper join the hunt as well. Stardust eventually stole the title and now, former WWE champion Daniel Bryan is in the mix too.

I’ve heard lots of people complaining that this isn’t helping the profile of the title – that the constant stealing of the title and hot-potatoing it around only make it seem like a joke, like it’s the Hardcore title of the Attitude Era. But I would argue the opposite.

How long has it been since this many Superstars at once have shown interest in the IC title? How long has it been since this many Superstars have been fighting it out to try and get their hands on the IC title? It may seem a little too zany for some, but the fact alone that 7 different guys (including former World champions) have been battling over holding the IC belt and will fight in a ladder match to win it is, hopefully, the beginning of presenting the IC title as something important and worthwhile.

You could even say that the IC ladder match has had more of an interesting build than the WWE World title match between Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns. Every week, multiple guys are at odds with each other over holding the IC title, going out of their way to take possession of it and are willing to take part in a dangerous ladder match to win it. While the World title picture literally only has Lesnar and Reigns in it and those two have barely faced off or made mention of the other. Paul Heyman is practically the only person advancing the World title picture at this point (and I’m hesitant to call it a feud because Brock is barely ever there and Roman seems to have no desire to be the champion, outside of having won the Rumble).

It goes without saying that the Intercontinental Championship ladder match at WrestleMania 31 is the match I’m looking forward to the most. Outside of featuring all the wrestlers I really want to see, it promises to deliver some of the most exciting action on the entire card.

In other words, if you can’t get excited for this match and you don’t see the hope for a better future for the IC title after WrestleMania 31, you may want to reevaluate why you’re a pro wrestling fan.