A BEASTLY ERROR

Here we are again my friends and as I’m hoping to bring you what will be the final Review Corner in our history next week concerning the book can currently see as our background, from the writer whose interview you read a few months back, this week we’re going to take a brief look at one of the major issues surrounding WWE this week. I say a brief look because this week I’m uber busy with certain things. The first being a date your Wrestling God has with a certain beauty on Saturday. It’s my first date in a long time and though I have to take a near three hour coach trip to Leeds and stay the night, I think it will be well worth it. Plus, I have other projects on the go so let’s get cracking.

Sometimes in wrestling, you get three or four things to talk about a week. This time however I’m going to concentrate on the subject of Seth Rollins vs Brock Lesnar at Battleground for the WE World Heavyweight Championship. And I’m going to see if I can’t change your mind as to why this is a bad idea all around.

When Seth Rollins cashed in his Money in the Bank contract at WrestleMania and curb stomped Roman Reigns to capture the title, it was always a given that WWE were have Brock Lesnar hunt a rematch for his gold seeing as he wasn’t actually pinned. We knew that was coming. We also knew that Brock Lesnar was on a part-time contract which meant it was unlikely he would stick around after WrestleMania to get that shot. It transpired that WWE conjured up the storyline that Brock Lesnar was indefinitely suspended until further notice. This gave Lesnar the excuse to go home and await the next agreed upon date in his contract. Not only that, but it gave Seth Rollins a chance to establish himself as Champion before taking on his greatest ever challenge.

However, the latter didn’t happen. Since WrestleMania, Seth Rollins has been as good as buried by WWE on weekly television. Losing matches to people who no other Champion would ever consider looking at the lights for. He’s lost to J and J Security. I mean come on. When a Champion loses to two retired wrestlers then he’s surely hit the bottom of the barrel. Away from that, when he hasn’t been losing to anyone and everyone, Seth Rollins has been needing help to win pay-per view matches. The overall impression is that Seth Rollins couldn’t do it on his own and whilst that is what WWE wanted us to believe so he could vanquish Brock Lesnar single handily, it has put Seth at a disadvantage in his career.

There are other ways WWE could have gone about this. Had Seth Rollins been allowed to win matches on Raw and Smackdown and gone unaided in his victories on pay-per view then he would have built an undefeated aura which would have suited his feud with Brock Lesnar perfectly. On a technicality, Brock Lesnar is unbeaten in ten months. Imagine the hype that could have followed. The unbeaten Champion against the unbeaten challenger who hasn’t been pinned in a WWE ring in nearly two years. It would blown the box office apart. That is if Seth Rollins had posed a challenge to Brock Lesnar. At the moment he doesn’t.

At the sheer mention of Brock Lesnar’s name he quakes in his boots. He backed away from Lesnar like a coward on Raw last week and seems to need The Authority to back him up. It’s no wonder fans jeer him. He’s been treated shoddily and made to look like a weakling. However, had Seth Rollins nailed Brock Lesnar with the title and driven him into the canvas with a Curb Stomp last week, then that would have been something to back up his claim that he can defeat Lesnar.

The last thing I don’t agree with is the setting for the bout. Battleground is a b-list event. It doesn’t warrant an A-list main event. Surely WWE should have dragged this out until SummerSlam where the bout would have capped the biggest event of the summer perfectly. Now, if WWE are planning a rematch when Seth Rollins defeats Brock Lesnar which he has to otherwise it’ll make him seem worthless if he loses the gold back to Lesnar on his first try, then WWE will have stripped all the magic from the bout. This should be a one time thing and it should have happened where the world was watching. Not at Battleground.

Seth Rollins vs Brock Lesnar could be the match of the year. In fact it may even come close. But at Battleground it won’t get the audience it needs to thrive. For me, this is shoddy booking by the company just obtain a large number for an event which never usually gets one. I hope that on July 20th, that Vince doesn’t regret what will surely be a spurned chance.

Onwards and upwards…

A LOST DREAM

Before we get onto our main subject this week, namely the passing of Dusty Rhodes, I would just to talk briefly about a couple of things which transpired at Money in the Bank. I was surprised about how good the event was barring one or two bouts which let the side down, but there were some decisions which both shocked me in a good and bad way. I’m sure the majority of you watched the event, but for those who didn’t or for those wondering what all the fuss was about then let me fill you in.

It’s unusual for me to comment on an event so soon after its finish, usually we have something else to talk about. But when I’m so impressed by something or so outraged by a happening then you know me, I have to speak out about it. First off, what I’m about to say will shock some people who know how much I despise John Cena. But, after his excellent bout with Kevin Owens, I have to say that I’ve gained some respect for the leader of the Cenation. I know, I never thought it would happen either. But the way John Cena conducted himself on the night; I was actually in agreement about the result of the bout. It shocked me as much as it shocked you believe me. But thanks to the excellent lay out of a tremendous bout not to mention the edge of your seat finale, John Cena actually earned the victory rather than just being given it because he’s John Cena and as we all know, John Cena has to have some redemption regardless of what it does to other talent.

Going into this bout, I knew there was only one outcome. John Cena was always going to win. But I never thought that I’d come out of a Cena match having a new found respect for him, or that the pair would ever top their Elimination Chamber bout. But they did. In fact they blew their previous effort out of the water. Unusually, the loss didn’t hurt Kevin Owens because of what John Cena gave him during the bout. The near falls, the excellent moves and the gripping reversals all added to the drama. But there was one overriding factor which made this so good that it could possibly be the match of the year. And that was John Cena’s willing nature to add new moves to his arsenal and try something different. Kevin Owens was so good, that John Cena was forced to up his game.

It didn’t stretch to his selling, but that can be overlooked on this occasion. Because John Cena vs Kevin Owens was all kinds of stunning. Though John Cena may not have bothered selling much during the early going, his portrayal of a beaten man who couldn’t put down the contender to his throne was totally believable as was his completely believable selling of an injury when Kevin Owens nailed him with a Powerbomb on the apron. Now, because I’ve never seen John Cena sell anything as good as this as well as the awkward limp up the aisle, this leads me to believe that John Cena is legitimately injured and that he landed on his ankle wrong on the decent. If this is true, then he could be out for months. WWE could do so much with three months of John Cena free.

For now though, John Cena vs Kevin Owens in the match of the year thus far and though there has to be a third and deciding bout between the pair, there’s unfinished business there, for now, I’m happy enough to leave it at a draw. Maybe next time the pair clash, if not at SummerSlam, it will be for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

Now onto the negative, and that came in the form of the winner of the Money in the Bank Ladder Match and the winners of the WWE Tag Team Championship Match. We’ll deal with the former first. If you read last week’s blog, then you’ll have known my dissatisfaction at having four former champions in the bout in the first place. But to have one actually win the bout, it was just beyond ridiculous for several reasons. The first being that Sheamus is so unpopular that it was clear WWE only gave him the contract to bump him up the card.

It’s true that Sheamus has been languishing in the mid-card for a long time and this is WWE’s way of telling us they have big plans for him. But let’s be honest, Sheamus has become such a mid-card player that it could only do the title harm if he was to cash in this year and take the gold. Does anyone want to see Sheamus as champion? I don’t. His matches have become rather predictable and as far as I can see, he has nothing left to bring to the table. WWE should have given the contract to Roman Reigns or Neville. Either man could have done so much more and though WWE will make Roman Reigns champion at or by WrestleMania 32 because his story is clearly the man who came close but never managed to achieve, there were other ways Roman Reigns could have won the contract and still had his feud with Bray Wyatt.

The second terrible decision WWE made at Money in the Bank, was the Prime Time Players capturing the WWE Tag Team Championships from the white hot The New Day. What are WWE thinking? I mean, this is the second time this year WWE have taken the titles from a hot team and given them to someone else. In this case though, it’s clearly not going to work. Prime Time Players means so little to wrestling and the audience that there can be no good in this situation. They’re not great in the ring and it was the sleeper match of Money in the Bank. All the hard work that Kidd and Cesaro and The New Day did with the gold is about to be undone unless WWE swap the gold back quickly. It’s a poor decision, maybe the worst WWE could have made.

And finally, onto the real reason of this blog. Last Thursday, the wrestling world lost a leading light when Dusty Rhodes passed away at just sixty nine years old. Everyone knows my thoughts on deceased wrestlers and the great wrestling ring in the sky, and now it has another participant as the strains of ‘American Dream’ echo through that ever filling arena. Dusty Rhodes may have been an overly selfish booker during his time in charge of Jim Crockett Promotions and WCW, but he was one of the top ten greatest wrestlers in the history of the industry.

Over the next few weeks you’ll hear no end of good will aimed towards Dusty Rhodes so I won’t drag this out too long. Dusty Rhodes was often referred to as ‘The Common Man’. It wasn’t a bad thing. Amongst an era of steroid induced physiques and men who looked like gods, Dusty Rhodes gave us hope that to be great you didn’t have to have a good body or stunning looks. All you needed was heart and passion. In Dusty Rhodes we saw ourselves. Just a normal person striving to achieve something extraordinary. And that was the core of his appeal. Dusty Rhodes paved the way for men like Daniel Bryan. Men who didn’t have the settled upon look to be a star but certainly and the skill and the drive. Maybe, more than his NWA World Heavyweight Championship reigns, this is the greatest legacy he could have left.

“Grab a dream, hold onto it, and shoot for the stars” were the inspirational words Dusty Rhodes used to use when talking about following a dream. Those words came from a man who did just that. In the end, Dusty Rhodes was a common man, the son of a plumber who worked hard to live his dream. He was an excellent talker, an even better wrestler and now the wrestling world will be much worse without him.

Dusty Rhodes may be sadly missed, but right now, as we sit down here trying to make our lives better, he’s up there, wining and dining with the kings and queens of professional wrestling who have left us thus far. He was the true American Dream.

Thank you Dusty.

Onwards and upwards.

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY

And here we go again. The computer is fixed and we can concentrate on fixing the world of professional wrestling once more. Though I hasten to add, that fix is a long term measure and not something we can ever accomplish in a short amount of time. However, I would like to think that we’ve done at least some good in our time together and will continue to do so until we fade away.

The focus of this week’s blog is of course going to be Money in the Bank. For those who don’t realise, Money in the Bank this year is the fourth pay-per view event in the space of just one month and I think WWE have overdone it on the offerings. Less is more so I’m told and staging Payback, NXT Takeover, Elimination Chamber and Money in the Bank in such a short space of time can surely only serve to diminish the effect the company has on the medium. I mean, I’m all wrestled out and I’m someone who will sit and watch old events in my spare time. WWE really should have structured their product more carefully so they didn’t have a whole conglomeration of events in such a short amount of time.

Still, this is what we have now and Money in the Bank is set to give us our next, future, WWE World Heavyweight Champion with the victor of the match of the same name. Now, as I would with the pay-per view previews, I can concentrate on all of the participants of the bout because there are way too many. But for the first year, I don’t agree with nearly any of them. You see, Money in the Bank, and this is something I have stated before, should be for those who have never won the big prize in the company and almost every star in this match has either won the bout itself or the title at some other point in time. Dolph Ziggler, Sheamus, Kane and Randy Orton have all captured the big prize so what do WWE hope to get from them participating in this bout? The answer is simple.

WWE have put these four men in this bout, even though they don’t belong here, simply to get big names on pay-per view once again.WWE have seen that Dolph Ziggler vs Sheamus has run its course. Randy Orton has no part to play on the roster now that his feud with Seth Rollins is over and Kane, well, what can we do with Kane that doesn’t involve firing him and giving his spotlight to someone younger and more deserving. The same could be said for Big Show further down the card who will challenge Ryback for the Intercontinental Championship, but Big Show has at least had some really good matches as where I cannot conjure up the last time Kane thrived in a bout.

So this begs the question of whom should have been in the bout instead of these participants. There are so many to choose from, whilst Roman Reigns, Neville and Kofi Kingston are all wise choices. Though I get the feeling both of the latter have been chosen solely to provide the memorable moments. Red Arrow from the top of ladder anyone? I’m sure you have your own thoughts on who should have been in this match instead of the four previously mentioned but with Roman Reigns set to win the bout, then this is the Money in the Bank Ladder Match I would have liked to have seen. Roman Reigns vs Neville vs Kofi Kingston vs Bray Wyatt vs Wade Barrett vs Ryback vs Kevin Owens.

The last pick for many will be a contentious one because he’s still an NXT star, but things have happened with Kevin Owens over the last few months which make me believe he’s a jugganaught on the way to superstardom. You see, Kevin Owens is going to be fed to John Cena once again at Money in the Bank and whilst I have a horrible feeling WWE are going make Owens lose to Cena when he could gain so much more by defeating him, Kevin Owens could have gained so much more momentum by winning Money in the Bank and holding both the contract and the NXT Championship. Just think about it as a storyline for a moment.

Kevin Owens, now a regular NXT star on Raw and Smackdown comes out week in and week out to defeat the top stars on WWE’s roster. Siding himself with The Authority but winning bouts clean in the middle of the ring, Kevin Owens as the Money in the Bank winner goes on to Battleground, SummerSlam and Hell in a Cell to defeat John Cena, Randy Orton and Brock Lesnar clean in the middle of the ring whilst slowly supplanting Seth Rollins as Triple H’s pet project in The Authority. And then all that built up tension between Rollins and Owens spills over into who is the best wrestler. As Survivor Series approaches, Kevin Owens tells Seth Rollins to prove his worth and instead of sneaking into claim the title, cashes in-in advance and challenges Seth Rollins for the title at Survivor Series where Kevin Owens vs Seth Rollins would surely be the match of the year.

With Brock Lesnar defeated and out of the picture and clean wins over the biggest stars of the company, Kevin Owens would then also put his NXT Championship on the line in a Champion vs Champion bout. It would be massive for NXT and WWE. Pushing someone that new into the title picture that soon would bring about millions more than the current plan. And then at Survivor Series, without cheating or interference, Kevin Owens, after a stunning clash pins Seth Rollins to lift both titles with his Pop-up Powerbomb. It would be the greatest moment in two decades. Because NXT would rule the roost and holding both titles, Kevin Owens could then safely drop the NXT Championship to Samoa Joe in 2016 and move full time to the main roster.

Just think about it. Just think about what it would do for NXT talent to defeat the WWE World Heavyweight Champion for the NXT Championship. And even the knock on effect. You’re looking at instant stars here. Because whoever defeated Samoa Joe for the NXT Championship would be seen as the man who defeated the man who defeated the WWE World Heavyweight Champion and so on. It would do wonders for the business on every level and show that WWE has the future at heart. Once he’s down to one title, Kevin Owens could have been one of the longest reigning Champions on all time. People love him and this would have been a fool proof plan.

Of course, this could still happen. If Kevin Owens vs John Cena goes on before the Money in the Bank ladder match and Kevin Owens wins the bout which he should, then there would be nothing to stop WWE filming a quick angle backstage in which Triple H rewards Owens for his efforts by entering him in the bout. Even if this doesn’t happen, WWE could still initiate this storyline without the Money in the Bank contract in Kevin Owens hand. It would be massive and pardon the pun, but it would be money in the bank.

Onwards and upwards…

FIGHT OWENS FIGHT

I know that these blogs are usually up Wednesdays now, but the computer has to go in for a short fix and I won’t get it back until next week. So you lucky people have it early this week. And this time around, we’re going to take a short look at the biggest decision of Elimination Chamber, Kevin Owens’ massive victory over John Cena. Because let’s be honest, with the exception of Ryback’s Intercontinental Championship victory, everything else whilst very good, was ever so slightly predictable.

When Kevin Owens walked down that aisle with the NXT Championship over his shoulder, I began to believe that events wouldn’t go his way. After all, even the most die hard John Cena fans can’t deny that the United States Champion has a reputation of breaking careers rather than making them. I just couldn’t see John Cena agreeing to lose to Kevin Owens and if he did, certainly not cleanly. Should Kevin Owens triumph, then it certainly wouldn’t be cleanly in my mind. How wrong was I for once? Well the answer to that would be very wrong. Because not only did John Cena lose cleanly without Kevin Owens having to cheat, but John Cena actually leant a hand in making his first ever star and for that he has to be complimented. Because quite frankly, I never saw it coming.

I was disheartened by the reaction to Kevin Owens on the night from the WWE faithful, there were a lot of them that didn’t seem to think Owens belonged in the same ring as Cena and showed that. This is something we will come to in a moment. But first, I would like to address the match itself. Clean, crisp and thoroughly engaging, John Cena’s selling of Kevin Owen’s moves wasn’t brilliant and at times looked laughable when he simply sprung up from moves which would have brought the house down in NXT, but overall, I can’t fault John Cena for his commitment of getting Kevin Owens over. It wasn’t only John Cena’s best match since Fastlane, but it was also a genuine shock when Owens drove Cena into the canvas with his Pop-Up-Powerbomb and covered him for the victory.

It’s not often you can say this about WWE, but this match provided a genuine shock. And for that, everyone involved deserves a huge round of applause. None more so, than Triple H. Because he stood up to Vince McMahon and quite rightly made the WWE owner see that if Kevin Owens lost to John Cena, then it would have a knock on effect to NXT and devaluate everyone Owens has ran through there. It would have made them seems flimsy. But Triple H stood up for what he believed in and it’s a sign of things to come when he takes the reigns. Maybe the future does have a place under Triple H after all. He’s someone who can see that the new blood need massive victories under their belt.

Now onto two points which give me cause for concern. The first is the aforementioned reaction to Kevin Owens, who received a worrying number of jeers from the audience when he stepped into the ring against John Cena and even more so when he pinned Cena to take the victory. It seemed as if John Cena’s fans and a majority of the WWE Universe itself didn’t agree with the result, but I have to ask myself why. Surely these people can see that the future has to be cemented now and as much as those dim Cena fans wanted their idol to prevail they must be able to see that this result is for the best? If John Cena had won, then it would have severely hurt the future of this business. They need to get into their heads that you can only rely on old hands for a certain time before a change is needed.

The second is the rematch at Money in the Bank. For me, this should have been a one off for now. Kevin Owens vs John Cena should have been a special attraction for Elimination Chamber only, a result which WWE used to propel Cena into another storyline with this loss hanging above his head. It could have opened other avenues for him in 2015, unable to get over the loss to a better talent. But WWE are once again milking the cow dry and instead of saving this for another year until Kevin Owens makes it to the main roster proper, WWE are preferring to wheel it out now.

It’s the wrong decision. Because like WrestleMania after Fastlane, presumably it’s been booked so John Cena can gain some revenge on Owens which isn’t going to do the company or the NXT Champion any good at all. If Kevin Owens looses to John Cena one week after beating him so brilliantly then it’s going to render Elimination Chamber pointless and make Owens look like a flash in the pan. That cannot be allowed to happen. WWE booked this, they’re going to have to swallow their pride and do the unthinkable which is have John Cena lose twice in a row to someone he would usually be permitted to defeat. Because if John Cena defeats Kevin Owens at Money in the Bank then it’s going to need a third match to decide the feud and we all know how that usually turns out.

For now though, Kevin Owens’ words after he defeated John Cena ring true. John Cena is the past and his time should be over. The world now knows Kevin Owens is the future and, fingers crossed, WWE are more bothered about the future than the past.  

Onwards and upwards…