Braun Strowman. He is a monster with the face of an infant. He is squashing jobbers smaller than Duane Gill.
I think we can all agree (for once), WWE is churning out some quality television programming. We are getting the matches we wanted a year or two ago. We are seeing matches we never thought we would see. We are seeing things we thought WWE would not want us to see.
For starters, when the draft split took place, Stephanie McMahon took yet another spill down the ring stairs, and Shane McMahon had a priceless look on his face. She might be a tough McMahon, but she has got to stop wearing the extra-high heels. This is what, third or fourth time she’s tripped on the ring stairs, on live television.
We watched Roman Reigns take the fall, in the literal sense as he is pinned following the double-stomp finisher by Finn Balor. This means, at SummerSlam, Roman Reigns mopes from the locker room as we watch, what could possibly be a SummerSlam main event fans want, since Daniel Bryan vs. John Cena in 2013. Side note, in 2014, we did want to see Brock Lesnar Suplex the crap out of Cena, we did not really want the match. In any case, Finn Balor will face off against Seth Rollins for the newly minted WWE Universal Championship.
I think this is a ridiculous name for a championship. Why not go old school and call it the WWE North-Atlantic Championship, or the WWE Global Championship? Universal? Does this mean the title will be defended on Mars? The Moon? Cybertron?
Oh, and Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Orton? Don’t care. One will not enhance the other. This is a novelty/gimmick bout, and no one is stupid. They wrestled before, no one cared then, no one cares now.
Finally, Dolph Ziggler is back in the title picture, winning a six-man match to become the number one contender to face Dean Ambrose at SummerSlam, for the WWE Championship.
I know what many of you are thinking, this is two-years-too-late, and Ziggler vs. Ambrose just doesn’t have that “main event” feel it would have.
But it does. You just have to realize it. Ziggler is a former World Champion. Remember when he cashed in on Alberto del Rio in New Jersey a few years ago and the arena lost their minds? Since Ziggler got injured and lost his main event standing, it is reasonable to feel some of his novelty wore off. But the guy has not lost a step. He’s still in his prime and still can go the distance. Take Ambrose, the guy we wanted as WWE Champ and thought it was a matter of time until he lost it, is holding it longer than we thought.
WWE is listening, and WWE realizes the future is not with John Cena, Randy Orton, Roman Reigns, or even Brock Lesnar. The future is with the top-tier of the mid-card who fans, for years have been begging to see in the main event. Granted that tier is pretty crowded and it will take some time to rotate everyone through. But I can promise, Cesaro, Owens, Styles and others will get their chances to claim a major championship.
We saw Rhyno show up and gore Heath Slater, and saw promos for American Alpha and SHELTON FREAKIN’ BENJAMIN on SmackDown Live. I have not see Shelton in years, to be honest, I have not followed up on him since his departure. There is talk of many other former wrestlers being brought back. This is good, because many of whom we held similar feelings for during their time. Personally speaking, I would love to see Benjamin and Charlie Haas reunite, even for a short time, to see them have a series of tag team matches with American Alpha. I feel as though it would be watching mirror images wrestle. Yes, wrestle.
Other names include Goldberg (due to recent legends deal and WWE2K17 deal), Curt Hawkins, a guy who was never appreciated during his WWE run; Carlito, who needs to form a three-man stable with Primo and Epico before Vince gets bored of the Shining Stars and hands them Future Endeavored t-shirts.
One thing confuses me. At Battleground, Zack Ryder lost to Rusev in the United States Championship match. Fine. Then, Mojo Rawley bolts out to save his Hype Brother. But, both Ryder and Rawley are on SmackDown, while the Bulgarian Brute and his hot piece of lady Lana are on RAW. Was Mojo Rawley meant to start a feud or was it a one-off to have a staredown, which honestly I do not think anyone cared for. Even Rusev no-sold it.
Lastly, I want to talk about Sasha Banks. Having her win the Women’s Championship on RAW was fantastic. I don’t care what the dirtsheets say about the “real reason” why Charlotte dropped the belt. The match was pay-per-view main event material, the crowd reaction was fantastic, it was indeed, the right day, the right time, the right moment. They will have another match at SummerSlam, and I expect it to be no less than exciting. It was the right moment, because big title changes do not need to be saved for the pay-per-views/WWE Network events. This is to get us excited to watch regular programming and sets a standard to expect better quality matches from the Divas on RAW and SmackDown… Except when Eva Marie shows up. Primus save me I hate her guts. She will get heat, I am sure of that, but even on NXT the chants of “you can’t wrestle” were comparable in volume level to the booing of Roman Reigns.
Lastly, the Cruiserweight Classic. Amazing shows. I don’t read spoilers. I love watching indy wrestling on a WWE program. Why? Again, WWE is gaining awareness of the future of the wrestling business. This is what fans want to see, and we are getting it. The only aspect which concerns me, is the sudden shelling out of contracts to many of the participants, likely to be drafted over to NXT, but will this hurt the NXT homegrown talent and overcrowd their roster as well? How long can Samoa Joe and Austin Aries, decade-plus wrestling veterans sit down in the minor leagues with all these new upstarts?
I mentioned Heath Slater before. Not sure if he’s getting a push or still the butt of many jokes. Curtis Axel joins him by being dubbed “Mr. Irrelevant.” Wow, way to kill a career. For a time I enjoyed watching Axel, but after a while, his promos were grating and he does this “crazy” bit which I find myself ignoring completely.
SummerSlam is going to get very interesting.
