michael dworkis looks at the week in the WWE …
Things certainly got better. Extreme Rules is fast approaching so it is of no surprise matches are being set and feuds built quickly.
The obvious main event will be John Cena defending the WWE Championship against Ryback. I really, really liked the segment between Ryback and Foley. Once again the Hardcore Icon uses his verbal magic to put over Ryback as a future champion while still degrading him as someone who turned his back on the WWE Universe. Ryback must be honored to share the ring with the Hall of Famer. Cena is Cena again, with a belt and flexes those weird looking veins in his neck to look intense. I doubt Ryback will beat Cena at Extreme Rules, but rather this will be the starting point to a long-standing feud to SummerSlam.
The Rock. The guy had a hernia people! A HERNIA! So what, he had surgery. No one else had that before? Even Michael Bay, maybe jokingly, but maybe not, said it is time for The Rock to stop wrestling and focus on his career in Hollywood. For once I agree with Michael Bay. I still think his movies suck, except for Transformers (JUST the first one) and ironically, his 1996 film, The Rock.
Mark Henry is back in mid-card hell. On WWE Main Event he beat a bunch of jobbers, and then loses by count-out to The Great Khali. The World’s Strongest Man must be doing this for the check, and because there is no other place for him to go. I feel bad, he had one significant World Title reign, and that abruptly ended. The guy has been around since 1996, and has one World Title reign. Not even a WWE Title reign. Sorry, I do not count the ECW-WWE Title as significant. Matt Freakin’ Hardy was ECW Champion.
Antonio Cesaro is another superstar spiraling down a path of doom. He lost the United States Championship in an upset to Kofi Kingston, and then for the next couple of weeks, he has been yodeling down to the ring. Either he needs to schedule an appointment with my wife for Speech Therapy, or his gimmick is about to take an ugly turn. Come on! Bring back the arrogant jerk who thinks he is better than half of planet Earth!
Team Hell No continues to be awesome and now I do not want them to ever lose the WWE Tag Team Championships. Being champions keeps them together, and losing them to The Shield (which might be inevitable), could lead to the duo parting ways. Bryan and Kane have an incredible serious and funny chemistry which I have not seen since the days of Booker T and Goldust.
The Undertaker is back! Wow, his appearance on Raw gave me chills. Every time I hear that bell toll, I get goosebumps. The crowd chants of “You Still Got It” held merit as the Deadman performed incredibly in the ring. He will be wrestling tonight on SmackDown, against Dean Ambrose. Spoilers at the end of this column.
FanDanGo gets more and more crowd support with each progressing week. What was once considered a lame and off-putting gimmick quickly turned into a hot sensation. How long will this trend continue, is up to the WWE Universe. Looking back at how Daniel Bryan and his “YES!” chants got popular, it would not shock me if Fandango stayed around for quite a while.
Dolph Ziggler is the man. Big E. Langston though … I am not sure. He was very impressive in devouring Zack Ryder, but then again, I could probably beat Zack Ryder these days (is that a challenge!?) and Langston, in order to really get over as a powerhouse needs to beat someone who is not on Barry Horowitz level.
The Swagger/Del Rio/Ziggler triangle is good. Swagger and Del Rio have an incredible match tonight on SmackDown (spoilers coming soon!) and certainly building up to a match where I have zero doubt will be an awesome triple threat match at WWE Extreme Rules. I hope Swagger can continue to roll on and Del Rio does not lose the babyface momentum he has built since making his face-turn after beating the Big Show for the World Title.
On SmackDown!, The Undertaker defeats Dean Ambrose in an incredible match. The fact that Undertaker has now wrestled in two matches post-WrestleMania tells me we have not seen the last of him yet. I would hope we get a good run from him until SummerSlam before he takes a break for the rest of the year.
Alberto del Rio and Jack Swagger have themselves a No-DQ match where they hit each other with every foreign object except the kitchen sink. I expect that object at Extreme Rules. WWE is doing a very good job of keeping the Swagger/Del Rio feud going, and I would not be surprised if at some point, Swagger wins a title, maybe the United States Championship, and then can feud with Del Rio over it. Ziggler is moving up, so I do not see him defending against Swagger and Del Rio all that much longer. Likely after Extreme Rules, Ziggler will face one, then the other at consecutive pay-per-view events, then post-SummerSlam get bigger opponents in the way of Big Show, Randy Orton, and Sheamus.
I lose to Zack Ryder for the Fictional Crusierweight Championship by pinfall. I need to work out more.
