This is On The Road Again, my weekly look into The Road To Wrestlemania. Here you’ll find opinions on matches as they’re confirmed (not teased, speculated, or rumored), and opinions on what else is to come from the WWE as we build to the show of shows.
We have four and a half weeks of build to April 6th, Wrestlemania XXX and the card is a little…well, let’s look at it.
Confirmed:
Brock Lesnar vs. Undertaker: This match could be great, truly. I’m not particularly a fan of Lesnar’s, but I can see the value of this match. Lesnar actually appears to be a contender to end the streak, and that’s what it’s about isn’t it? Ending the streak. Lesnar could give him a good run for his money and they’ll give us a great show, for sure. With Heyman in Lesnar’s corner though, I feel like something about this match isn’t going to be…on the level.
Bray Wyatt vs John Cena: Cena is gonna superman back from his knee “injury” to play the hero of the day to Bray Wyatt’s eater of worlds. I love this because the Wyatt’s have put Cena in believable “danger” and it’s causing some people to actually wonder if he’ll come out on top at Wrestlemania. We’re in for a dark year if Bray stomps on Cena like he’s been doing the rest of the roster the last few months. He’s a fabulous heel and cuts promos like it’s an art form. Typically you shout at Mean Gene or Renee Young that “so-and-so thinks he’s better than you and that’s not okay so let’s settle this! so on and so forth.” But Bray Wyatt narrates the demise of his opponents with a silver tongue and makes the character of Bray so believable that some of us let ourselves believe that this man is actually here to destroy the world.
Batista vs Randy Orton:
Someone in creative fell asleep at the wheel when they let this happen. I have a new found appreciation for Orton as a wrestler, but putting him up against Batista is fucking dull with hot dog skin and stomach tattoos. I get it, Batista has a movie coming out, the best way for wrestlers to guarantee their movie gets seen is to be seen on what they’re known for for a little while, and since it’s ‘mania season, yeah why not. “Yeah, why not?” is not a reason to book a Wrestlemania main event. “OH HELL YES!” is how you book a main event. With these two guys in the ring together, you might as well put out yoga mats so they can take naps with all the time they spend on the mat. Something tells me this isn’t this matches final form. Something is going to change it to make it the “OH HELL YES!” Main Event it should be.
But as for confirmed matches…this is what Wrestlemania is right now. We can be sure there’ll be a rematch for the tag titles since The Usos just won those off of The New Age Outlaws. But I see a long reign for The Usos with those belts, but we’ll see if it gets added to the card.
There’s also the possibility of Daniel Bryan vs HHH which I’m willing to bet they’ll drag all the way down to the Raw before the big show. My best guess for other matches are Cesaro vs Swagger. Reigns/Rollins vs Harper/Rowan and maybe even an NXT match to open the show. But that’s just what I see unfolding.
Check back later this week for Episode 2 of The Cheap Seats, and next week for another trip down the road to Wrestlemania!
So, last night’s NXT ArRIVAL was marred by some because WWE oversold the show. If you arrived late, or even early in some cases, and didn’t get a wristband when you were supposed to, they made you wait till all the wristbanded fans got in and seated and if there was open seating after that, then you got in.
Unfortunately, there was no seating and Full Sail student volunteers that were on crowd control were losing control of themselves. The guy in charge lost his cool and snapped at the angry crowd telling them there was no promise of a refund, but they’re giving them free tickets for upcoming events and bringing out talent for them to interact with. Still unsatisfied they were given full refunds too.
Events get oversold, it happens. Whether it was unprepared and unpaid Full Sail students or Soulless WWE drones doesn’t matter. The swag should’ve been enough. On the other hand, they could’ve done more to make sure they didn’t oversell by 200 tickets+.
That said and out of the way, WHAT AN EVENT!
Let’s go, spoiler free, match by match and get some of these thoughts off my mind.
Cesaro vs Zayn IV was easily one of the best matches I’ve ever witnessed. Sami Zayn’s ring presence is bar none. His body flops and flails are spectacular and not to understate his talent at all, he’s a god damn acrobat in the ring. And what can I say about Cesaro that’s not already been said a thousand times about him? Not much. Everything they say about this guy is true and he can go back to the main roster now and continue to dominate in WWE. Sami Zayn is ready for Monday Nights and ready for a high profile rivalry with Cesaro. They have all the makings of a classic rivalry and they’re two guys at the absolute peak of performance and to not put these guys through every test of strength imaginable is a crime. Iron Man Match, Cage, Hell in a Cell, Ladder, TLC, I don’t care I want to see these guys fight forever. FOR EVER. Kudos to them for taking my advice and hugging it out at the end too.
Mojo Rawley is the next Paul Heyman guy. He’s big, he’s a little bit not all there, and he’s insanely powerful. He’s no Brock Lesnar but in the future he’ll give some of the company’s best a run for their money. As for CJ Parker, I could take or leave him right now. Neither of these guys are really ready for Monday nights, they’re not even ready for Superstars, they’ve got a ways to go still, BUT the potential is there. Mojo’s “I stay hype!” gimmick is fantastic and would mesh well with some of the PG-era crowd. Parker, needs to drop the Moonchild thing…the hippie act is weird and unsettling.
Paige and Emma are a an absolute and pure god damn testament to what women’s wrestling was and what it’s going to be. The current “model divas” are not fighters. They’re pretty, they give girlfriends something to watch (Total Divas) and give the rest of us a guaranteed pee break. You get Emma or Paige in the ring together again, or with AJ…we’ll have a real women’s division and none of this…friendship spin spot crap. Side note; Aksana is a goddamn hazard to these girls can we send her back to NXT?
Tyler Breeze, now, being there I didn’t get the gorgeous experience that WWE Network viewers got. Apparently there was an infinite loop of Tyler Breeze entering the ring all the way through the main event, which just sounds pleasant and beautiful to me. And then, of course, there’s Xavier Jackson, who might just be one of the best dancing gimmicks on the…nevermind. The bell doesn’t even ring and a fucking wall of flesh comes stomping out with his sexy ambassador/manager and then, of course, Rusev crush. That’s not a spoiler, this is what he does. Rusev crush. Much to my dismay I was not able to get a “YOU ARE AWESOME” chant riled up. People legitimately don’t like Rusev, and that’s fine because he doesn’t make himself likeable. I’d love to see Rusev become the next Meng.
For a ladder match featuring the man that gravity forgot, I was hoping we’d see a Red Arrow off of the ladder, sadly we didn’t. However we did get to see a brutally fought ladder match where the title felt like it was legitimately earned. I love both of these guys. Neville brings me back to the high flying antics of the cruiserweight division in WCW and Bo Dallas is the most unlikable nice guy heel I’ve ever seen since Kurt Angle. The best part of the night was trolling the marks and rooting for Bo.
All in all, this was an unprecendented and epic night for both NXT and WWE. The fans make NXT what it is and it is the most FUN to go sit and be a part of. I had promised live tweets but didn’t come through due to my phone dying before the show even started. However, we’re gonna keep going to these and these things will happen in the future!
Check out NXT ArRIVAL available now on WWE Network and don’t forget to worship your Bo-ssiah.
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