Just FF to the fight, that’s what they got right this time.
I myself marked out on the Ricochet vs. Ivar match. He looked like his former LU alias Prince Puma, taking on a much larger opponent and amazing everybody with his feats of strength in addition to his agility. I’m guessing they’ll at least throw him a bone and have him win the AtG BR.
Hope not. Winning that means he’ll never do better in WWE.
This past Saturday night (actually Sunday morning) was the last call at Tim White’s World Famous Friendly Tap. It’s really been Jerry’s Friendly Tap for the past 14 years but Jerry maintained the wrestling/sports theme of the bar the whole time. New owners are taking over and the wrestling memorabilia is being taken down. One year ago Tim’s friends and family celebrated Tim’s induction into the WWE Hall of Fame there in another memorable night. For nearly 30 years the Friendly Tap has been my retreat from a world gone mad. To call it friendly is an understatement, I’ve never met such wonderful people who accepted me into their world when I moved to Rhode Island. Not all of them were wrestling fans, Tim had many friends and a wonderful upbeat spirit that became ingrained in the essence of the place. Many wrestlers visited the bar, several WWE spots were filmed there and many wrestlers visited. Tim was one of a kind, loved and respected in and out of the wrestling world. Some boxer named Muhammed Ali is going to be inducted into the HoF this year, he’ll be joining great company alongside my friend Timmy.
WWE’s parent company is being taken private by the investment firm that owns AMC Theaters, Long John Silvers, Skype, and Airbnb.
Fingers crossed, because this sounds like one of those “raid their assets, transfer our debt to them, then spin them off to juice our 2nd quarter earnings statement while they go out of business” type buyouts vulture capitaoists are so fond of.
If it is going to happen, I just hope Vince lives long enough to see his baby destroyed by his own greed and hubris. Preferably from a jail cell.
The first two episodes of WWE Speed dropped today on Twitter. It’s a concept in which matches are contested under a three-minute time limit. It’s starting with an eight-man tournament to determine the first WWE Speed Champion.
Ricochet battled Dragon Lee, and “Big” Bronson Reed went up against Cedric Alexander. I shouldn’t have to tell you who won those matches.
Well, we’ve got just three days to go until the very first 100% McMahon-less Wrestlemania, so here’s my match predictions.
Night 1
-
Main Event: The Rock & Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes & Seth Rollins - if Cody’s team wins the Bloodline is banned from ringside for the night 2 main event, if the Bloodline wins the night 2 main event is contested under “Bloodline Rules”. The Bloodline wins, probably with Rock getting the pin on Rollins, and possibly with Rollins turning on Cody at some point so as to ratchet up the tension for night 2.
-
Women’s World Championship: Rhea Ripley (c) vs. Becky Lynch. I’m gonna give this one to Becky.
-
Intercontinental Championship: GUNTHER (c) vs. Sami Zayn. Could go either way. GUNTHER has almost singlehandedly made the IC belt seem like a legitimate title again and I don’t ever want to see him lose it, but Sami getting the win here would be a great moment for his character and a natural conclusion to this part of his story; two years ago he was in a comedy match with the Jackass guy, and now he’s gonna be a top title holder.
-
Jey Uso vs. Jimmy Uso. Jimmy wins to keep the Bloodline looking invincible looking into Night 2.
-
Ladder match for the Undisputed Tag Team Championship: The Judgment Day (c) vs. Awesome Truth, DIY, New Day, New Catch Republic, & A-Town Down. DIY, New Day, and NCR are the ones who have a chance of winning this one, and I’d mark out hardest for NCR, but I’m gonna say Judgment Day retains.
-
Bianca Belair, Naomi, & Jade Cargill vs. Dakota Kai, Asuka, & Kairi Sane. Jade gets the pinfall victory for her Wrestlemania debut.
-
Rey Mysterio Jr. & Dragon Lee vs. Santos Escobar & Dominik Mysterio. I’m gonna say Dom pins his dad, but Dragon Lee is probably gonna be the star of this match.
Night 2
-
Undisputed WWE Universal Championship: Roman Reigns (c) vs. Cody Rhodes. Cody absolutely has to win this match. Either he finishes the story now or his character becomes rudderless and aimless much like he was in the later half of his AEW run. The Bloodline will get involved, because they always do, but this time he’ll be prepared for them and he’ll bring it home.
-
World Heavyweight Championship: Seth Rollins (c) vs. Drew McIntyre. If Rollins goes into this match as a face, then Drew wins. If Rollins turns on Cody on Night 1, then he retains.
-
WWE Women’s Championship: Iyo Sky (c) vs. Bayley. Bayley wins this one. Bonus points if she comes out with her vintage theme and the Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Men.
-
United States Championship: Logan Paul (c) vs. Kevin Owens vs. Randy Orton. (Fun fact: This’ll be Orton’s 19th Wrestlemania.) I’m gonna say Owens wins this one so we can get the belt off of Paul and move him on to the feud with Bad Bunny that everyone’s been wanting to happen.
-
LA Knight vs. AJ Styles. I’m gonna give this one to Knight.
-
Bobby Lashley & the Street Profits vs. Karrion Kross & the Authors of Pain. You can tell how little attention I’ve been paying to the weekly shows lately because I didn’t even know AOP was back. Is Paul Ellering with them too? I’m gonna give their team this match.
This show is just 13 matches across two nights, which makes it the shortest Wrestlemania card since they went to two nights, and the fewest matches overall since Wrestlemania 32 (which you may remember as a godawful show where the heels won every single match in an attempt to force the crowd to cheer for Roman Reigns, which STILL didn’t work). Hopefully that means they’ll give all of the matches enough time and not have to rush them after padding out the runtime with commercials and promos and skits and celebrity guests. Should be fun.
My predictions.
-
Main Event: The Rock & Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes & Seth Rollins - if Cody’s team wins the Bloodline is banned from ringside for the night 2 main event, if the Bloodline wins the night 2 main event is contested under “Bloodline Rules”. The Bloodline wins.
-
Women’s World Championship: Rhea Ripley (c) vs. Becky Lynch. Rhea retains.
-
Intercontinental Championship: GUNTHER (c) vs. Sami Zayn. Zayn wins the belt and Gunther moves on to contending for the world championship.
-
Jey Uso vs. Jimmy Uso. Jimmy wins.
-
Ladder match for the Undisputed Tag Team Championship: The Judgment Day (c) vs. Awesome Truth, DIY, New Day, New Catch Republic, & A-Town Down. I’m gonna say, Awesome Truth win the belts.
-
Bianca Belair, Naomi, & Jade Cargill vs. Dakota Kai, Asuka, & Kairi Sane. Jade gets the pinfall victory for her WrestleMania debut.
-
Rey Mysterio Jr. & Dragon Lee vs. Santos Escobar & Dominik Mysterio. Dominik pins Rey. I agree.
Night 2
-
Undisputed WWE Universal Championship: Roman Reigns (c) vs. Cody Rhodes. Cody wins despite interference from The Bloodline.
-
World Heavyweight Championship: Seth Rollins (c) vs. Drew McIntyre. Drew wins the belt.
-
WWE Women’s Championship: Iyo Sky (c) vs. Bayley. Bayley wins.
-
United States Championship: Logan Paul (c) vs. Kevin Owens vs. Randy Orton. I’ll give the win to Orton here.
-
LA Knight vs. AJ Styles. I’m gonna give this one to Knight.
-
Bobby Lashley & the Street Profits vs. Karrion Kross & the Authors of Pain. The Final Testament wins. And yes, Paul Ellering is back, too.
Agreed 100%. Every time I look at Cody I get flashbacks to Luger from SummerSlam 93. I was having a discussion with a family member last week about this wrestlemania. What I said to him was “WWE is always looking for its next face. The next bruno, hogan, austin, Rock etc… Cody is right there I see him as being in that elite group. But he needs the championship. He’s not the undertaker, he’s not so supermassively over on his own that the belt almost becomes superfluous. Cody needs the validation.”
I was pretty worried last year after he lost that we were going to have another situation where all his heat just bled away. I don’t think they’ll make that mistake again. Especially with Vince gone. Thank f****** god.
The MITB suitcase is still an angle, right? I can see Joogement Day losing the tag belts and Punishment Martinez, I mean Damian Priest cashing it in to get the belts back.
Seth takes beating, and the pin by The Rock in the tag match. Cody comes out of it healthy and earned his stipulation.
Drew beats Seth due to the previous night’s beating.
Jey helps Cody win the Title!
But, wait…
DUSTY FINISH, the decision is reversed and still champion, Roman Reigns!
Awkwardness at first but yes, Jey is still Family.
This is how you can continue Cody’s story and the Bloodline.
A Dusty finish in the main event of Wrestlemania? That’ll go over about as well as the time they ended a Hell in a Cell match with a DQ.
Cody needs the belt. Roman doesn’t.
A Dusty finish at WrestleMania would make me laugh my ass off. At first, and then I would realize how much damage it would do. That would absolutely kill all of the heat Cody has right now, because it would send a sign to the fans that the company is not serious about pushing him. Which goes counter to everything we’ve seen from him over the last couple of years. They’ve got something special here, and I think, at least I hope, they realize that.
Also, I didn’t mention it above, but one of the stipulations is that if Cody fails to win the championship, he can never challenge for the world title again. That stip really boxed him into a corner in AEW since it meant he was basically doomed to the midcard, and I don’t want to see history repeat there.
I can only think of one other WM main event that didn’t end on a pinfall or submission (Hogan vs. Sid at WM8, which was a DQ due to Papa Shango interfering for some reason) and that’s widely regarded as having been a bad idea.
I vaguely remember when that happened. I don’t really follow aew very closely. I do listen to the Cornette podcasts, that’s mostly how I follow what goes on there. Thinking back on that it makes me wonder if that was the original plan or something changed?
I remember back at WrestleMania 16 when triple h won, and it was the first time a heel had walked out of the main event at wrestlemania with the belt. There was a fair bit of controversy about that at the time. Generally speaking I feel like wrestling is best when it’s kept simple. The heel can go over at WrestleMania, but it shouldn’t be that common.
And thinking on the dusty finish thing again, as thematically ironic as that would be, I think that that actually might work in a couple of years once he’s more established.
Well, Bronson Reed has won the AtGMBR, joining the likes of such future hall of famers as (checks notes) Baron Corbin, Mojo Rawley, and Madcap Moss.
His career is doomed, ain’t it?
Probably. I’ve never understood the point of that battle royal. I love that it keeps Andre in fans minds around WrestleMania season. But they never do anything with it.
And just because I can do it relevantly now, I think Baron Corbin might be one of the most boring wrestlers I’ve ever seen. I cannot stand him.
I understand why they did that stipulation. Cody was one of the co-founders of AEW and he was widely seen as the face of the brand before Tony Khan started taking a more hands-on approach. By excluding himself from the world title scene he was making sure he wouldn’t fall into the trap that countless generations of wrestler-bookers have done of building the entire promotion around themselves and their families (e.g. the McMahons, Kevin Nash in WCW, Verne & Greg Gagne, the von Erichs in World Class, Jeff Jarrett in TNA, Inoki in New Japan, the Poffos in ICW, etc.)
The downside, of course, is that once you’ve definitively ruled your character out from EVER being world champion, it limits their ability to be a main eventer. (Ironically enough, if Cody had stuck around in AEW for another month or two, the ROH buyout would’ve happened and they could have made him ROH champion without breaking the stip.)
Dragon Lee is out, Andrade is in as Rey’s tag partner for tomorrow.