Search This Blog

Showing posts with label WWE Survivor Series. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WWE Survivor Series. Show all posts

Friday, November 29, 2024

It's The Let's Watch Some Wrestling WWE Survivor Series/ WarGames Preview!

 

Good Morning!

It’s Friday morning as I’m sitting down to write this. The house is still asleep since my wife had to stop in to the emergency animal hospital she helps manage, and I slept in after cooking a massive Thanksgiving meal for the two of us and our buddy. So, leftovers for the next week or so it is! And not just any leftovers: the best idea from one of my favorite TV shows of all time, interpreted by one of my favorite YouTube cooks. It’s Thanksgiving Balls!





That’s right. As Shawn Spencer says, “It is an entire meal of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, string beans, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and an Andes mint rolled into a ball, battered, and deep fried.” A whole-ass Thanksgiving dinner, deconstructed and re-constructed into a handy little ball. And while Psych had a tendency to make up some outlandish foods without giving the viewer much background -- quatro quesos dos fritas, for example -- this is one that the internet was nice enough to prepare a recipe for. I’ve made them in the past, and I’ll be sure to post some pics of the glorious final product.


As for the week, I understand that many folks have a tough relationship with Turkey Day. It can be hard to deal with family for any number of reasons, and pressure to do what one is “supposed to” can really wreak havoc on the nerves. I ain’t here for all that! We run a low-key household, where we welcome anybody to eat and watch Mystery Science Theater and generally just relax. It’s been especially cool to have friends who just moved out here get to enjoy a meal or two with us before they gain a foothold and establish their own traditions, whether that’s with their own families or chosen ones. I just like cooking, eating, and watching robots make fun of movies on Thanksgiving. I’m a simple man that way.



The WWE Survivor Series/ WarGames Preview!

First things first here: I don’t really like the whole “Survivor Series as WarGames” gimmick. WWE went through all the trouble of getting rid of the contrived Hell in a Cell pay-per-view only to do the same thing with WarGames -- force a narrative so that a pair of big matches have to happen for a gimmick match at a gimmick show. And don't get me wrong, Survivor Series was that same thing before it was turned into Triple H’s new baby. But it at least made a little more sense, as teams were generally like-minded individuals, and the matches weren’t of the Blood and Guts variety.


The Fed considers Survivor Series to be one of its “Big Four” shows, although I would say that we hadn’t had many consequences for this big show for years, until recently. Before WarGames, the tacky “Raw vs SmackDown” storyline popped up every November, with superstars briefly becoming incredibly loyal to the brand they wrestled on, just long enough to squeeze a few matches out. But it was the format that I liked! Sole survivors, multi-person tag team elimination format, loose alliances with cool team names. 


Give me that over lousy builds for matches that are way too high-stakes for the storylines. I get it for the Bloodline vs Bloodline thing, that’s just an ongoing feud where every match at this point seems like it’s worth adding a stipulation. But the women’s WarGames match this year stands out for its slapdash construction. And yeah, WWE had to pivot away from Jade Cargill when she got injured, slowing the breakup of our women’s tag team champs. But it’s still a very flimsy set of good guys, teaming up to bring down the champs of both main shows plus some flunkies. And there’s no real stakes, either. You win, you celebrate, you move on. No championships or number-one contenderships are on the line…although there is still a Money in the Bank briefcase in play. We’ll get to that in a bit.


But I digress! The women assembled for this year’s WarGames match include some of the best in recent WarGames history, IYO SKY and Candice LaRae in particular. Bianca Belair and Rhea Ripley are top-tier superstars, and if this match somehow leads to a match between the two of them while Cargill heals up, all the better. And Bayley, well…we love Bayley. I’ve heard some talk that folks would like to see her turn heel again, but I think it’s too soon for that. She had a bummer of a championship run this year, and her theme music and character motivations are crap, but she’s still great in the ring. I just don’t feel like giving up on one of the greatest babyfaces in recent history for a quick bump in crowd noise is necessary -- at least not yet.


So let’s get into this preview. Aside from the two big WarGames matches, we’ve got three championships on the line on Saturday night as well. And since I enjoyed doing it, we’ll do the WWE 2K24 simulations alongside my own predictions. There’s a little hiccup in that the game can only handle eight wrestlers in the ring at a time, meaning our Survivor Series matches will have to lose a member of each team. I tried to pick the person who will have the least impact for their team in terms of outcome and storyline. 


I benched Candice LaRae for Team Evil - Women’s Division, because even though she’s probably going to have a bonkers spot in the real life match, I think she’s the least likely to influence the finish of the match. She also threw off the balance between champs and pals, so she’s out. For Team Good (no relation) I pulled Naomi simply because she isn’t in the game, and I forgot to download her when I was assembling this roster. Sorry, Naomi, although I do see stuff happening with you down the road!


For the men’s match, I had to employ different logic for who to sit. With a tag team on each team, it made more sense to bench the member who’s less likely to affect both this match, and upcoming storylines. So Jimmy Uso and Tonga Loa both were pulled for this one, and non-family members CM Punk and Bronson Reed were allowed to stay.



Bianca Belair, Bayley, Naomi, IYO SKY, and Rhea Ripley versus Liv Morgan, Raquelle Rodriguez, Nia Jax, Tiffany Stratton, and Candice LaRae in a WarGames match

As I said earlier, this match is kind of a slapped-together bit of business. Part of that is due to Jade Cargill being replaced by Bayley, but the whole bad guy team is basically together because the good guys needed people to fight, and those championship rivalries were already established. 


Aside from the constant threat of Tiffany Stratton cashing in her title opportunity, there hasn’t been a lot of excitement from the WWE women’s division. Rhea came back from an injury to resume her feud with Liv Morgan, got injured again, came back again, and just resumed that rivalry. Nia Jax has been dominant as champ, and the assembly of a team of mean girls to help her retain that title has been good for getting other talent on TV, but never really feels necessary, you know? Nia’s not a cowardly heel, she’s a powerhouse that doesn’t need to fall back on the generic tropes that most bad guys in a group use.


So what do we have? A couple champs and their pals, one of whom is worth keeping an eye on throughout this match, as Stratton cashing in is always a possibility. On the other side, we’ve got Bianca Belair learning to trust Bayley, whom IYO SKY turned on earlier this year before turning face herself. Rhea we talked about. That leaves Naomi as kind of a wild card on the good guy team. I think we’ve seen some hints that she could turn heel, as her position as the third wheel to tag champs Belair and Cargill might have birthed a little jealousy. She is a former world champion, why is she relegated to helping the tag champs retain their titles? For that matter, why was she put into a group at all? 


I kind of like the idea of Stratton cashing in mid-match. Inject some fun chaos into this women’s division. While we’re at it, let’s turn Naomi soon, too. Hell, folks have been fantasy booking her into the Bloodline for a while now. Why not bring some women into that whole storyline, too? 


My Pick: The good guys win, Bianca looks strong, some new stories begin


These matches are LONG in real life, and watching the video game version of them felt like it would be a little daunting. But the downtime between entrants is shorter, and the health bars at the bottom of the screen give enough extra information to help navigate downtime. I ran this one after the men’s, and as such plotted entries a little better. Bianca and Tiffy started things off, as I imagined Bianca wanted to show her teammates why she’s the de facto leader of their side, and Nia would want Stratton a little run down early, just in case she decides to try to cash in again. 


A regular back-and-forth between those two was ended when Raquel Rodriguez, with sledgehammer, entered the brawl. Bianca took a helluva beating until IYO ran in to help her out, but her missed dropkick to Rodriguez led to both the good guys taking extended bludgeonings from the baddies. Bianca eventually recovered, tossing Stratton into the other ring and resuming their match for a while. Raquel beat poor IYO up even more before swapping rings to help Tiffy out, and by the time Nia Jax joined in everybody was in the right ring. 


Crowding in that ring did the bad guys no favors, as Raquel “accidentally” whaled on Jax with her sledgehammer a number of times while Bayley made her way to the cage. Bianca and Tiffy really stayed paired up for the better part of the match, which feels like a programming issue but also made me want more of that matchup in a real ring. Bayley separated Rodriguez from the rest of the group, but IYO SKY’s penchant for trash can offense in real WarGames matches came true in the game, and she accidentally took Bayley out after 3 finishers would have ended the match. Nia hit a pinfall on IYO shortly afterward, and that was that. 



2k24 says: Bad guys win due to miscommunication!




L.A. Knight © versus Shinsuke Nakamura for the United States  Championship

Shinsuke is a weird guy. And I don’t just mean, like, his whole aura. I mean he’s hard to figure out. Does he still care about wrestling? His matches aren’t great, and haven’t been for some time. When he hasn’t been injured, there have been long stretches where WWE just hasn’t used him. I wonder if it’s just a case of mutual burnout -- Shin isn’t used, doesn’t like that, doesn’t put his all into his work. WWE sees that, isn’t in any hurry to use him again, doesn’t book him into anything too consequential. 


That brings us to this match, which could be viewed as filler in Knight’s championship run. Since winning the title from Logan Paul at SummerSlam in early August, Knight has defended against Santos Escobar, Ludwig Kaiser, Andrade, and Carmelo Hayes. While those matches haven’t been bad, I’ve never felt like any of his challengers have really had a chance. It’s weird to pick against better wrestlers simply because a guy says YEAUH and the crowd loses their minds, but that’s where we’re at with LA Knight. He’s still super over, despite his ring work being average at best. Plus, look at how happy he looks in the game!



But what if he does lose here? What if Shinsuke feels like proving himself and we get a longer feud and some good matches out of this budding rivalry? Nakamura has only been back for a few weeks now, and it would be a bit weird to have him lose immediately after re-introducing him. And he’s made some good points about LA Knight in his promos: if the US title is Knight’s identity, a decent story could be built around Knight needing to win it back, maybe even turning heelish to do so. It’s more interesting than Knight being the lesser guy in rivalries with guys who always seem to have better matchups floating around while they’re also engaged with Knight. So why not? Let’s be bold here.


My Pick: Shinsuke Nakamura wins, even if only to drop the title back to LA Knight in the near future.

2k24 says:




LA Knight retains, which is probably more likely even if it is a little boring. 



Bronn Breakker © versus Sheamus versus Ludwig Kaiser for the Intercontinental Championship

Sheamus and Kaiser have gone back and forth for weeks now, interfering in each others’ matches when they aren’t fighting directly. So it makes sense to just toss them into a match with Bronn together, although I don’t get why Breakker gets punished for these other guys being idiots. 


Regardless, I can’t imagine this plays out any differently than it has for the buildup to this match -- Sheamus and Ludwig negate each other, and neither walks away with a championship. Bronn should be able to have some fun with the double-ring setup that WarGames provides, though. Maybe all that extra running room results in a super spear for the ages? Who’s to say!


My Pick: Bronn retains, and Sheamus and Kaiser continue their feud.

2k24 says:




Shockingly, Ludwig Kaiser! The little guy managed to sneak a win by taking advantage of Bronn Breakker’s hubris. Bronn laid Kaiser out inside the ring before annihilating Sheamus with a spear near the announce table, but then the champ decided to pose and clear off the table for a big finish. While he was doing that, Sheamus recovered and slid into the ring, right into a possum pin for the quick 1-2-3. Bronn was locked in an animation, and wasn’t able to slide back into the ring to try to break up the pin until it was too late, and his elbow drop to kaiser was just a second too slow. Unlikely, but that’s why we sim the games!




GUNTHER © versus Damien Priest for the World Heavyweight Championship

I think WWE has done a good job with this feud despite it feeling really predictable. Priest isn’t winning here -- I think we can all agree on that. But when the former leader of the Judgment Day (non-Ripley division) won the match that scored him this title shot, I know a lot of us sighed and just figured we were killing time until GUNTHER gets into a real program with a real big deal superstar. However, the narrative of the champ questioning himself, and seeing what happens to his confidence as a result, has made for a few weeks of interesting TV. At least they’re trying.


Priest is always improving, which is a little weird to say for a guy that has been wrestling as long as he has. I think he’s got a lot going for him, too -- the whole “bisexual Undertaker” label is a little much, but he’s definitely got a rockstar vibe working for him. People seem to want to cheer for him, but putting him back into a feud with GUNTHER this soon doesn’t really help him. We know he’s not winning, and while the TV has been good, it’s had less to do with Damien and more to do with GUNTHER and, to a lesser extent, Ludwig Kaiser.


I’m interested to see where both of these guys go after this show. GUNTHER has a number of challengers waiting in the wings, and Priest’s solo face run should get some more time before anyone declares it a success or a failure. But for the purposes of this preview, decent match, GUNTHER wins, we move on.


My Pick: GUNTHER retains

2k24 says:




The same! HOWEVER, it should be noted that Ludwig Kaiser was manager for this match. I didn’t know that when you pick Kaiser to manage GUNTHER, there’s a lengthy cutscene with Ludwig doing the ring announcing for the champ! It’s a cool little Easter egg in a game full of them. Ludwig also directly contributed to the win, distracting Priest several times throughout the match. After hitting a Razor’s Edge that could have won him the match, Damien got into a shouting match with Kaiser that allowed GUNTHER to lock a sleeper hold in, allowing him to retain in a much closer match than I think we’ll see on Saturday.



Roman Reigns, Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso, Sami Zayn, and CM Punk versus Solo Sikoa, Jacob Fatu, Tama Tonga, Tonga Loa, and Bronson Reed in a WarGames match

This match has been so, so well set up that I am willing to forgive the whole forced nature of WarGames for it. Of course, when you have a single narrative that’s been running for the better part of three years, weaving its members into any kind of match isn’t too difficult. However, the addition of CM Punk and Bronson Reed, and by extension Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre and Paul Heyman, has really put the outcome of this WarGames, and the direction of the story to come, into question. I legit have no idea if there’s a turn coming, although I did notice that Paulie was looking a little like a Solo Sikoa tribute in his red shirt and black jacket the other night. I haven’t seen spoilers for the taped SmackDown that airs tonight, and while I can’t imagine too much will happen before the PLE, you never know what little bread crumbs might be dropped.


I’ll say the bad guys win because there’s never not drama among Triple H’s good guys. It almost feels like the faces he writes are just waiting for their turn to, well, turn, because bad guys are just cooler. I don’t necessarily agree with that, but it has made for a compelling story so far. 


There are just too many moving parts on the OG Bloodline team for me to think that everything will go smoothly. Punk brings the baggage of a Drew McIntyre storyline that hasn’t necessarily finished up. Seth Rollins can say he was really thinking about joining up after being attacked, and Punk is just taking yet another opportunity from him. Heyman may still be holding a grudge against both Punk and/or Roman Reigns, and maybe he’s got another Paul Heyman guy or two waiting for revenge. Sami Zayn and Jimmy Uso aren’t even necessarily on the same page, and that doesn’t even begin to get into Sami’s forever rival/brother Kevin Owens, or KO’s relationship with Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes, too. And Roman, while playing nice for now, is only recently removed from a reign of terror that saw every show and every story revolve around his whims. On top of all that, there’s a nonzero chance that the Final Boss himself, the Rock himself, could make an appearance!


My Pick: As Dark Helmet said, “Evil will always triumph, because good is dumb.”


Solo and Roman started things off, because I didn’t realize that the entrants aren’t randomized. Whoops! That’s fine, though -- let the respective heads of the tables battle it out before their subordinates jump into the fray on their behalf. After some back and forth, Solo nailed Reigns with a spike before Jacob Fatu came into the cage. Roman made a bit of a comeback before the New Bloodliners realized they didn’t have to take turns attacking, and he was at the mercy of the two until Jey Uso popped in to even things out. Jey went right after Solo, giving me the pairing of Jacob and Roman that I really hope plays out on Saturday. 


Tama Tonga was the first to bring a weapon with him into the match, tossing a stop sign and a table in before joining. Sami Zayn took that as inspiration, tossing a steel chair and sledgehammer in, too. Things started to spread out a little more now, with Zayn and Reigns teaming up against Solo in one ring, and Fatu and Loa getting more than they could handle with Jey in the other. The addition of Bronson Reed moved everyone into the right side ring, but crowding started to make things awkward -- twice, Reed tried to put Zayn through a table only for janky pathfinding to force him to abort the attack. 


CM Punk came in last, and Bronson Reed immediately put the veteran through a table for his troubles. That victory was short-lived, though. While that was going on, Roman found Solo Sikoa once again, and locked in a submission that resulted in Solo tapping out and Roman picking up the win for the good guys.




2k24 says: OG Bloodline, with Roman choking out Solo Sikoa.

And that’s it!

Survivor Series, for all its flaws, has become the beginning of the road to WrestleMania. While the Royal Rumble is where it gets going in earnest, I think we learn a lot about who WWE thinks is “main event material” on this show. I’m hoping for strong showings for several of the participants in the matches on this show, as I really do like a lot of the talent involved. Tiffany Stratton is a superstar in waiting. Ludwig Kaiser may have lost his biggest proponent in Samantha Irving’s announcing, but he’s shown a lot of character development to go with his in-ring acumen. Priest and GUNTHER have worked together enough to maybe surprise us with some new wrinkles in their work, and Bronn Breakker could steal the show with some insane spot. 


On top of the non-WarGames matches, that main event is really going to show us where the next few months will lead. Challengers for both GUNTHER and Cody Rhodes may materialize, and undercard titles will also start to have some direction. It’s an exciting time to be a fan, and I can’t wait to see where we are after this weekend! We’ve also got Collision and Rampage on Saturday for the AEW sickos, so I’ll try to make time to watch those before putting together a weekend review of everything for the early part of next week.


Thank you so much for reading. If you liked what you saw, consider telling your friends, mentioning Let’s Watch Some Wrestling on social media, or even buying me a hot cup of coffee using the Ko-Fi button. Have a great week, and I’ll see you back here next time, dear reader. Until then, Let’s Watch Some Wrestling!


2024 Predictions

WWE Royal Rumble 2/4

NXT Vengeance Day 1/6

WWE Elimination Chamber Perth 4/4

AEW Revolution 9/11

NXT Roadblock 4/6

NXT Stand and Deliver 5/7

WWE WrestleMania Night One 4.5/7

WWE WrestleMania Night Two 4/6

AEW Dynasty 11/12

WWE Backlash 5/5

WWE King and Queen of the Ring (SSM XIV) 6/6

AEW Double or Nothing 9/12

NXT Battleground 4/6

WWE Money in the Bank 2/5

NXT Heatwave 3/6

AEW All In 6/10

WWE Bash in Berlin 3/5

NXT No Mercy 3/6

AEW Full Gear 8/9


Total Correct/Total Predictions 93.5/133


2K Predictions

AEW Full Gear 4/9



Sunday, November 17, 2024

Donald Duck, my dad, a re-introduction, and some wrestling talk on a late Sunday night



 My dad was a … weird guy. I don’t mean that in a bad way. He was wonderful. But part of why he was wonderful owed to how damn weird he was. When we were kids, my dad would read to my sisters and I. Mom would too, but when dad did it, we got an added benefit: ad-libbed story beats and voices. We adored those voices, and the stories were different every time, whether they came from Little Golden Books, Elephant in Trouble, or the Barbie and Skipper Jet Ski Adventure (probably not the actual title). 


Dad had a full roster of characters. His best, and one of the few I’ve never been fully able to replicate, was Donald Duck. The best I can do is “boiling point Donald,” when the character went from irritated to fully irrational, just quacking and threatening anyone within earshot. My old man was able to do regular Donald speech, and I’ve never figured out how to twist my vocal cords to properly get that quack-talk. Dad did a lot of other voices, too, although most of his were just silly and not, like mine or my sister’s, celebrity based. (Ask Mandy to do her Will-Ferrell-as-Harry-Caray for you sometime.) 


Here’s why I bring this up. Have you ever wondered how many voices you can actually do? I know professionals have a roster of characters, but as a regular shmo who just does voices for kids, or when running a Dungeons and Dragons game, it’s something I never really thought of until recently. And ever since the thought popped in there, I haven’t been able to shake it. I do a lot, and while some of them are terrible (not my Morgan Freeman, though -- that one is solid) others are actually spot on. At the very least, I think they’re recognizable when I use them in games. They’re mostly exaggerated SNL-type bits, but I’m always adding more and it’s just something I think is fun to do. Just this past Halloween, I listened to Homer Simpson’s recitation of The Raven about 50 times in order to perfect the line, “Take thy BEAK from out my HEART, and take thy FORM, from OFF MY DOOR.”


Okay, actually, now that I’m thinking about it, there are two reasons I’ve been thinking about this lately. Aside from the dad thing, my lovely wife has been binging BONES and while she watches that, I tend to write or play a game on my computer in my office. But I rarely wear headphones, or if I’m listening to music I’ll just put one earbud in so I can hear if she calls for me. In the meantime, I’ve half-heard about ten seasons’ worth of Temperance Brennan’s particular cadence in her speech, and I kinda want to write a D&D one-shot that features the characters adventuring on behalf of a quirky fantasy forensic scientist and her government-appointed partner.


Anyway, my point is, I’ve never made that list of voices, and I’d probably be too embarrassed to publish it even if I did. These days the only times I ever bust out a silly voice are for games, and they are few and far between.  And given that adults have, like, lives and schedules that prevent large groups of us from meeting up for anything even close to a regular gaming session, I’ve been looking into running some kind of online game. I’ll update if I ever figure that out, but for now, I figure (as I often do) that writing and publishing it means I am at least a little accountable for actually getting it done.

A refresh/re-introduction

 Since last we spoke, there’s been (as always) a number of developments in the wrestling world as well as *gestures wildly* the world at large. While I’m not touching real world events here -- after all, a big reason a lot of us watch wrestling is for some escapism -- I would like to note that social media site BlueSky has seen a big influx in users over the past week. As such, I figured I’d do a bit of re-introduction, as far as letting people know what to expect before we dive head first into the abyss. I’m not a move-for-move recapper, although if you dig far back enough into the archives you’ll find reviews like that as I tried to figure out my online voice. 


I started writing in 2022, after leaving my auto mechanic job and being encouraged by my wife to try something from home. Soon afterward I started this blog, and was lucky enough to get a job writing for Wrestling, Inc.’s new Features department, which closed down about eight months later. The articles I wrote near the end of my run were more a product of “what was left in the hopper” than ideas I pitched, and as such I’m not super proud of listicles like “wrestlers who have large age gaps between them and their SOs” among other bullplop. However, during my eight months there I got to write about some of my favorite wrestlers, and adopted my sweet Cinnabon son, Konosuke Takeshita. And, it got me writing almost daily, something I’ve slept on recently but fully intend on doing again.


Even after that Features department closed, my editor was nice enough to recommend me to the folks at our sister site SlashGear, where I currently write an article or two a week on things like tools, cars, and technology. It’s mostly list-based stuff, but I’d like to think people find and use those lists to make informed purchases, and as such I do a good amount of research on various sites to collect and aggregate data before publishing anything. I also wrote the odd gaming review or wrestling article for a few other now-defunct sites, but for the most part this blog is where my stuff resides.

But enough about me…let’s talk about some wrestling!

ALL ELITE WRESTLING, depending on who you ask, is either headed for the dumpster or due for a revival. The former assumption is made by fools, as the company and its owner currently have more money than God. The latter is made by hopeful folks like myself, i.e. a different brand of fools, albeit a more gentle one. I love having two major wrestling promotions around, and I simply don’t understand folks who spend their time focused on something they hate. I DO understand people who won’t watch WWE for moral reasons, and while that’s not me, I respect that position. I tend to lean more towards AEW, since it’s the first time since Lucha Underground that I’ve been into a promotion since its conception. But I enjoy both big promotions, and regularly watch Raw, NXT, and Dynamite live. SmackDown and Collision are “if there’s time” shows for me, although I’ll always watch a Simon Miller recap or listen to a podcast to catch up if I miss them when they air. I do want to continue to be married, and there’s only so much wrestling I’ll subject my lovely wife to, after all.


So all that leads us to…what’s going on at AEW now? The major storyline follows Jon Moxley and his Death Riders, aka nWo mOx. I feel like most AEW fans are enjoying this story, which makes it all the more frustrating for me that I don’t. I like everyone involved. I think I’m just over the “we’re taking over” storylines in wrestling in general. Unfortunately, I came to this realization just as AEW started theirs. 


But that’s fine. AEW has always focused more on in-ring action, and they’ve got a lot going for them in that regard. Matches featuring guys like Ricochet, Will Ospreay, Hologram, THE BEAST MORTOS, and my son Konosuke Takeshita have raised the bar on what we expect from weekly TV shows, and there’s not a week that goes by that AEW doesn’t present at least one match that I want to recommend to other fans of the sport. 


Dynamite and Collision were fun, and while the crowds aren’t the loudest the action we’re being shown is great. Shelton Benjamin and Kommander had a helluva match on Saturday, and while I had high hopes for Ricochet and Dante Martin on Rampage, it felt like they were holding something back. That’s probably for the best, though -- Rampage for the warmup, Dynamite or even a pay-per-view to really show off. 


One thing I love doing, and probably the thing that works best in keeping me blogging about wrestling, is previews. I love guessing about what’s coming next, and I also enjoy comparing my records with both better pundits than myself and the WWE2K24 game, where I’ve put together current AEW, NXT, and WWE rosters in order to run preview matches, mostly for my own entertainment. At one point, I had a whole create-a-wrestler universe full of animal hospital employees that worked with my wife, and we even did a weekly YouTube show that I won’t be linking here for shame reasons. It was a blast though, despite my less than professional (but family friendly!) onscreen presence. All that is to say, I’ll probably be running (and posting) previews for Deadl1ne, Survivor Series, and Full Gear on the Fridays before those events.


WWE continues its … I don’t want to say “trudge” or “slog” so we’ll go with “leisurely stroll” towards Survivor Series and the unofficial start of WrestleMania season. While the Royal Rumble has become the de facto beginning to many ‘Mania storylines, it’s Survivor Series that tends to showcase the performers that will take the stage on the Showcase of the Immortals. Between Full Gear and WarGames, we’ll be eating good for the next few weeks. Thanksgiving pun fully intended.


The Fed has some intrigue with its neverending Bloodline stories,  as mysterious fifth members are being teased for both the OG Bloodline and Solo Sikoa’s new version. Roman Reigns, Sami Zayn, and Jey and Jimmy Uso make up one side, while Solo, Tama Tonga, Tonga Loa, and Jacob Fatu comprise the new kids. Most folks are assuming Cody Rhodes may join up with the “good guys” while The Rock is a possibility as the as-yet-undisclosed true leader and Tribal Chief for the nü Blüdline. I think there’s a lot of wiggle room, and WWE has done a good job of keeping possible other members or distractions like Kevin Owens and Randy Orton viable as both allies or threats to either side. 


The most recent Raw saw a good chunk of the women’s roster interact during the main event, leading me to believe either a 4-on-4 is coming for those wrestlers, or we’re doing the “mystery fifth person” bit for the women as well. At the end of the show Monday, we saw Bianca Belair, Jade Cargill, IO SKY, and Naomi stand tall over both main womens’ champs Nia Jax and Liv Morgan, along with Raquel Rodriguez and Tiffany Stratton. That’s a good match there, but I’d love to see some returns to round out both teams. We haven’t seen Becky Lynch, Asuka, or Charlotte Flair for some time, and only just got a return for Damage CTRL’s Dakota Kai during that Monday show. I hope they even out both the men’s and women’s Survivor Series matches to five a side, but I guess we’ll see. 


Aside from the WarGames matches at Survivor Series, the only big match I think is set in stone is Damien Priest against Gunther -- again -- for Gunther’s World Heavyweight Championship. Gunther is almost guaranteed to retain, but they do have a little redemption to shoot for after a bit of a sloppy ending during their last match. And both guys are supremely talented, so it’s possible for them to steal the show with a good match. At least, until The Rock’s theme hits at the end of the show.

And that’s it!

I think that’s where we’ll leave this catch-up version of the blog. I’ve honestly been working on this a while, just procrastinating on posting ANYTHING. But there’s no way to start something new without putting out something old, so consider this the clean slate before we dive into three straight weeks of premium-pay-per-live-events.


If you’re interested, I’m usually on BlueSky during Raw, Dynamite, and any other shows I catch as they air -- follow me there at elosopequeno.bsky.social if you want your feed invaded by all my bad jokes and observations -- and we’ll work on getting back to more regular posting. My hope is that I’m smart enough to realize I’m much more interested in writing about a show right after I watch it, and at least pump out an outline with some notes to make a post the next morning, if not the night of most shows. Previews will likely remain a Friday thing, rather than having Friday be the be-all end-all of posts. But we’ll see how it goes, as always.


Thank you so much for reading. If you liked what you saw, consider telling your friends, mentioning Let’s Watch Some Wrestling on social media, or even buying me a hot cup of coffee using the Ko-Fi button. Have a great week, and I’ll see you back here next time, dear reader. Until then, Let’s Watch Some Wrestling!


Sunday, November 26, 2023

CM Punk is BACK - But What Does That Mean? -A Sunday Special blog post!-

Image Credit: WWE

 Good morning! WWE Survivor Series Wargames happened last night. So did AEW Collision! And Rampage! My predictions for the Survivor Series card went five for five, although my constant hopes for a Jade Cargill debut were dashed. That’s okay, there’s always the Royal Rumble. I was, however, absolutely wrong with this one line: “It feels like WWE [was] trying to avoid CM Punk chants – and disappointment when he isn’t there – while still trying to surprise fans with Randy’s return.”


Yeah, so at the end of the show, after the RAW Superfriends picked up the win over the villainous Judgment Day and the completely-in-the-right Drew McIntyre, after the celebrations and the return of Randy Orton (and R-Truth, although he says he was here the whole time) and even the little lower-right-corner graphic that signals the end of the broadcast…after all that, we got a little pop of static and THE LOUDEST POP I HAVE EVER HEARD as Cult of Personality hit and 17,000+ fans were treated to the shocking return to the WWE of one C.M. Punk.


I’m literally watching Collision as I type this – I used Rampage as my Wargames pre-show – but my brain is so full of questions I wanted to sit down and get them all out before Monday comes and ruins all the fun with actual canon. So let’s ask some questions!

What does C.M. Punk’s return to the WWE mean to his new co-workers?

If you haven’t seen it, there was some immediate fallout from the Punker returning to WWE. Triple H talked about the secrecy involved in Punk’s comeback, and how it was basically just Nick Khan, Punk, and Triple H himself who knew about Punk being signed and snuck into the arena for his last-second appearance. 


Drew McIntyre was reportedly seen storming out of the Allstate Arena after he sold his post-Wargames wounds and headed backstage. McIntyre still doesn’t have a contract, so maybe this was just another insult to him – you know, “Oh, you have money lying around for this guy but not for me?” 


Seth Rollins had a much more dramatic reaction to Punk’s return:



So that’s fun. Are we being worked here? Man, I hope so. I do love a good work. I don’t really follow backstage drama – we’ve all suffered through working with somebody we don’t like, imagine having to do that in a job where every little comment or look gets dissected by a bunch of online sleuths. I enjoy wrestling for the overproduced soap opera of it all, and hopefully Rollins’ real-life opinions aren’t on display here, but rather a storyline for a newly-returned superstar is simply being started on the biggest stage WWE has between now and Monday night. 


Regardless of anyone’s opinions, it looks like Punk is in WWE for the near future. I, for one, welcome the chaos and the endless possibilities that one of my favorite performers brings back to the Fed.

What does C.M. Punk’s return mean to AEW?

Short answer? Not a whole lot, aside from providing some motivation. When Punk signed with AEW, that company got the biggest free agent in all of wrestling, a guy who left the business because of a bad experience with the biggest company in the game. He had a great run with some memorable matches, and many of us who didn’t get a chance to see him were given a golden opportunity to remedy that. Last year, my wife suggested we swing down to Florida for the Revolution show that featured MJF and Punk in a Dog Collar match. I was elated. It was a blast – the whole show was – and it remains a highlight of my wrestling fandom. 


But Punk left after some high-profile disagreements (massive understatement) with a lot of the talent and management of All Elite Wrestling, and many of us thought that was the end of both the Punker’s career and that chapter of AEW. The company has moved on for the most part, not erasing Punk’s existence but certainly not focusing on his time there either. I’m sure we’ll get the occasional snide comment or acknowledgement, especially once the Young Bucks return to television, but beyond that I feel like AEW’s best bet is to do what it does best – put on great matches. Storytelling could use a boost after the increased focus on MJF and Adam Cole’s long story plays out, but the current Continental Classic tournament will take a lot of TV time, meaning several good stories with the twelve guys involved should organically spring up. 

What does C.M. Punk’s return mean for the Royal Rumble?

Now we get into the fun stuff, the fantasy booking. If we are to assume that Rollins’ outburst will be rolled into a rivalry with Punk – and it absolutely should – then does that mean Punk is immediately going for a championship? If so, does he compete for Seth’s WWE World Heavyweight Championship at the Rumble rather than compete in the Rumble match? WHO’S TO SAY? 


I love that idea. I mean, despite a reported multi-year contract, Punk remains both an independent contractor and a man who can clearly get himself out of a work contract if he decides the workplace isn’t for him. Get the good matches in as early as possible. Another option is to go against Shinsuke Nakamura, who has spent the last few weeks cryptically challenging no one in particular. Punk, WWE, really everyone has said that Shin didn’t know about Punk’s impending return, so it’s just a happy coincidence that a performer like Nakamura happens to have set up a perfect slot for a quick feud with a returning Punk (or Orton, for that matter). 


So Punk doesn’t necessarily affect any BIG booking decisions for the Rumble. I still believe Cody Rhodes is the favorite to win it again, force a rematch with Roman Reigns, and finally “finish the story” at WrestleMania 40 by winning the championship. But Punk will definitely be present at the show…I just think he’ll be occupied in a storyline that keeps him busy during the Rumble match.

What does C.M. Punk’s return mean for WrestleMania?

So this is a little more complicated. Punk has often said that he wanted to main event a WrestleMania. If he were to win Rollins’ championship at the Royal Rumble, it’s possible WWE stretches their rivalry all the way out to April. A Punk versus Rollins rematch could be a worthy enough event to main a night of the biggest show of the year, especially if the two prove to have good chemistry in their first matchup. Keeping Punk special will be key – a limited schedule, advertised appearances, not putting him in a multi-man tag match every week. 


The problem lies in the fact that the upper card in WWE is STACKED right now. Cody Rhodes is expected to win his first world championship at ‘Mania, and he likely has expected to pull that off for over a year now. But the Bloodline storyline continues, meaning any combination of Roman, Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso, and Solo Sikoa could also be involved in a major match. John Cena and The Rock have often teased a comeback, and WrestleMania is the only stage fitting for either of those guys to have a return or farewell match. The Judgment Day remains relevant despite tension, and the Money in the Bank contract that Damian Priest holds remains a threat to all champions. And any number of women’s matches deserve a main event spot as well.


Despite what WWE may say – remember the Triple Main Event at one of the Sweet Saudi Money shows earlier this year? – the last match of the night is the one fans (and performers ) will remember as the main event. And C.M. Punk isn’t the kind of guy who would be okay going on third-to-last, even if it’s advertised otherwise. So unless some pretty big chess pieces are moved around the board, it’s going to be difficult to make everyone happy AND treat the fans to great go-home matches to end each night of WrestleMania. It should be a blast to see what will take shape over the next few months.

And, finally, what does C.M. Punk’s return mean for C.M. Punk?

People talk about an athlete’s “legacy” a lot, especially as they get past their prime. When Emmitt Smith went to the Cardinals, or LeBron signed with Miami, fans and journalists alike had hard opinions on what those moves meant for those performers. Was LeBron’s historical greatness lessened by his desire to play basketball with some friends, win some championships, and form a “dream team” with the Heat? Was Smith’s career somehow diminished because he wanted to keep playing (and getting paid) after the Dallas Cowboys chose to move on from him? 

I don’t think that’s the case, and I think it’s silly to think of these people in those terms. I’ll never forget watching Punk bleed just feet away from me, and getting to see my favorite performer do his thing in person will never change just because he chose to quit his job and get another one somewhere else. He doesn’t owe me, or any of us, an explanation as to why he does what he does with his life, although I’m sure he’ll give us one come Monday night. At the end of the day, that’s why so many of us love C.M. Punk – he’s a guy who does what he wants and lives his life. Sure, sometimes his way of doing things rubs people the wrong way, but as a performer he’s always willing to push himself. And since I don’t work with him, it’s not really my place to say whether he’s a great guy or not, or how his attitude backstage might affect his workplace. I’m just here to enjoy the show. Try it sometime, it makes things way more fun!


Punk has been confirmed for tomorrow’s Monday Night RAW, so I guess most of this blog will be negated by real life, but I really wanted to put something out there with some fun speculation. I hope you get a chance to enjoy the drama this week, and we’ll be back Friday to cover all the fun and all the developments on both WWE and AEW programming. Now that I’ve gotten my thoughts out I can catch up on some podcasts – “That’s Freakin Wrestling” is a favorite of mine – and get this house cleaned up. Give them a listen! And if you have any thoughts, or questions, feel free to drop ‘em in the comments section and I’ll get back to you on the weekly Friday blog.


Until then, have a good week, and Let’s Watch Some Wrestling!