Birthday Weekend Recap (9/22/16 - 9/25/16)

Thursday (9/22):

• For my actual birthday, we treated it like a regular day. Go to work and then go home.
• Earlier in the week, Vince bought 2 new dresses at EVER and a necklace at Old Navy at Town Square for me to wear for my birthday weekend.

Friday (9/23):

• Met with my Auntie Auring, Auntie Francine, Uncle Bobbit, my mom and my dad at Buffet@Asia for dinner.
• WE ARE NEVER EATING THERE AGAIN. That was suppose to be the nicest location with the better food quality over the other Buffet@Asia locations and it was just horrible. The food was blah. The food stations were poorly maintained, and they even had plastic plates and bowls out.
• My auntie Auring got the staff to surprise/embarrass me with a plate full of crappy coconut cake squares with a lit candle as the 2 waitresses sang to me. I got an envelope from my auntie with cash in it.
• After that, the clan all left for The Cannery to find a club to dance in. Vince and I went to Lowe's.

Saturday (9/24):

• We went to Vince's parent's place to drop off the truck early in the morning and it turned into home improvement day.
• Their washer was leaking so Vince had to help his dad. Then we went to Ferguson to buy shower faucet stuff, then to Floor & Deco to return stuff, then to Home Depot, and to Lowe's again. By the time we got home, it was 2:30. We had a short break to get ready before the 4 pm dinner at Gen.
• Aside from Josh, everyone was freaking late. Christine and Michael had trouble finding the place. Joel and Pam ran late (as usual), and Andrew and Joanne couldn't leave until their house viewing was done. We didn't eat til after 4:30 pm. Still, we all had fun and ate heartily for 2 hours. It's a good thing I brought cash because I covered Josh, Joel and Pam who forgot to bring cash.
• After dinner, Tanisha and her daughter Nix met up with us at our house and we had an official housewarming after dinner. We all just gathered around to talk and stuff.

Sunday (9/25):

• Went to Smith's to do some grocery shopping before heading to the Lion Habitat Ranch. I paid extra for the hand feeding for any lion.
• Awesome little side note: I was wearing my Dirty Deeds shirt and one of the staff members recognized it. He came up to us and talked to us and said that Dean Ambrose was here last year. He wasn't sure if it was him but the Tapout logo on his shorts gave it away and he took a picture with him. He said he just showed up out of the blue and no one else recognized Dean besides him. He also said he was there with his girlfriend who does Talking Smack (Renee!), and they wanted to see the cubs. He also mentioned Ryback and other local celebrities like David Copperfield and Britney Spears stopping by too. But he kept going on and on about how weird it was to see him show up out of nowhere, so it sounds like he made this guy's day :D
• I had to wait a bit for the trainer to get the food ready for the hand feeding. One of the staff members suggested picking Jesse, who's one of the male lions who makes a lot of growling sounds when he's hungry (that sounds nice). While we were waiting, one of the other lions in the cage turned around and pissed right at the crowd. One couple who actually got peed on practically shoved Vince out of the way.
• Vince has a video of me feeding raw meat balls to Jesse through through a plexiglass barrier. It was pretty scary to be that close to a full-grown lion O_O
• Went home to make some Spicy Coconut Chicken curry and watched Clash of Champions. To be honest, I thought the overall PPV was decent. The matches were great but I didn't agree on most of the matches' endings and shenanigans. New Day retained using Fracesca. Sheamus vs Cesaro's final best of 7 match ended in a ref stoppage after a pretty long and grueling match (both guys came out great btw), Reigns defeats Rusev to become the US Champion. And Owens retains thanks to Jericho and Stephanie sending out a second ref at the last minute to distract Rollins. Owens freaking won but the focus was on Rollins vs Stephanie. It honestly felt like RAW on Sunday. One major positive was seeing TJ Perkins' official PPV debut with an awesome new theme song.
  
  

What to expect for Monday Night RAW & Smack Down Live!:

Going to be honest here, I've actually stopped watching RAW a few weeks ago. I'll watch a few matches based on the east coast results but I'm not investing myself to watch from 8pm - 11 pm anymore. Conversely, I've been watching all of Smack Down and watching the wrap-up show, Talking Smack. So considering that I just described Clash of Champions as another episode of RAW, I can't bring myself to watch it live tonight. I'm bias but I'm more eager for Smack Down and their next PPV, No Mercy, since it has a better build.

"You deserve it!": Monday Night RAW (6/20/16)

For the first time in a long while, a babyface champ - a genuine underdog with organic and consistent fan support - graced Monday Night RAW. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose (that sounds really good to say) was greeted with "You deserve it" chants before addressing the WWE Universe. He talked about hard work pays off. Ambrose wondered aloud that if Seth Rollins is "The Man," Roman Reigns is "The Guy," does that make him "The Dude?" The crowd agreed and Dean liked it and said call me whatever you like but call me "Champion." Reigns comes out amidst boos to congratulate Ambrose and reminded him of his rematch clause. Then Rollins comes out amidst cheers screaming that he beat Reigns so he gets a rematch clause. Interrupting Shane O Mac sets up Reigns and Rollins as the main event, where the winner will face Ambrose at Battleground next month. The results can be found here.

This was an enjoyable Monday Night RAW, although more time was spent on promos again and there was less time for the wrestling matches. They also addressed the upcoming Raw/Smack Down Draft, which will take place when Smack Down goes live on 7/19. To further emphasized how important this draft was, the first match of the night with Zayn and Owens showcased why these bitter rivals needed to be separated. Zayn got a win but Owens continued to beat him down after the match ended and even when they came back from commercial break. There was also the addition of the RAW and Smack Down podiums on top of the ramp, meaning WWE will be welcoming back a number of former general managers vying for the position for each brand. Hell, even John "People Power" Laurinitis returned before Shane told him that he would be running Smack Down.

The one segment I was not happy with was the women's division, where for some reason, Charlotte is defending the title against Paige. It wasn't a 3-minute squash match but it felt poorly paced and was full of botches, notably from Dana Brooke. Paige loses to Charlotte and all of a sudden Sasha Banks shows up, coming to her aid to chase off Charlotte and Dana. Look, I like Sasha but I hate that they kept her away from TV for a long time and now she's gunning for the title again. Meanwhile, poor Becky Lynch is getting beaten up by newly turned heel Natalya.

Speaking of returns, Bray Wyatt returned with Erick Rowan and Braun Strowman. Luke Harper is still out with a serious injury. Wyatt was interrupted by The New Day, which prompted him to come up with a chant on his own: New Day... Falls. This is a very weird yet interesting match-up so if they really are going ahead with this feud, they need to find the right balance for both teams to make this convincing.

Reigns and Rollins' main event match had Ambrose sitting on commentary and man, he was on fire. He put his former brothers over and showed how fiercely protective he is of his title. "Karma's a bitch and I'm WWE World Heavyweight Champion." As for the match, it was actually better than their match from MITB, save for a failed spot where the table didn't break when Reigns tackled Rollins. The two were unable to get back into the ring before the 10-count, resulting in a draw. The crowd wasn't happy with that so Shane came out and said we still need a contender. Ambrose gets into the ring and tells Shane he'll take them both on right now. Shane admires Dean as a fighting champion and decides to set up all former Shield members in a Triple Threat as the main event at Battleground. Ambrose happily accepts and goes up to both of his exhausted brothers and starts trash-talking them. Reigns gets up and tries to talk to Ambrose, who quickly turns around hits him with Dirty Deeds, which actually scares Rollins. Rollins tries to Pedigree a weakened Reigns after Ambrose left the ring, only to be hit from behind as Ambrose hits him with Dirty Deeds too.

So on top of them finally building excitement for the draft, the big takeaway is that the "WrestleMania-worthy" Shield Triple Threat is actually happening. There's a lot of complaints that the event is being wasted on what's considered a B-PPV event. However, the brand extension is heavily hinting that Reigns, Ambrose, and Rollins might get separated, so Battleground might very well be their last time to be on the same roster together. This is going to be an interesting month for Ambrose, who's now going to shoulder the pressure and responsibilities as a WWE Champ and as the face of the company. He is going to get even more attention now. On top of that, his wonderful cheerleader of a girlfriend Renee is comfortably and proudly posting more pics of Ambrose. I'm not too worried about Ambrose if he ends up dropping the title at Battleground, I just want to see him have a good run as an official champ.

----------

HEY, SO BREAKING NEWS. 

ROMAN REIGNS WAS SUSPENDED.

HE'LL STILL BE AT BATTLEGROUND.

"Ambrose Asylum: Electric Boogaloo": Monday Night RAW (6/13/16)

This is it. This is the go-home show of Monday Night RAW. Usually go-home shows are notoriously bad for having significantly less wrestling matches, backstage segments, and promos and sadly, that was the case here - there was reportedly less than 1 hour of in-ring wrestling in the 3 hours of RAW. Still, this show did as much as it can to create hype for MITB this Sunday while also addressing the impending roster draft and brand extension. The results can be found here.

The New Day and Enzo and Cass kicked off RAW to a weird start, with Cass telling Xavier that Enzo has put his lips all over Francesca the other night. It resulted in an amusing argument full of double entendres, resulting in Xavier Woods yelling "I'M THE ONLY ONE WHO BLOWS MY GIRL!" at Enzo's face. The Vaudvillains and The Club (sans AJ Styles) would come out to argue, which lead to be the first match of the night. The New Day has reached a point where they don't need the titles anymore so there's a good chance that they're going to lose their tag team titles very soon with the brand extension coming up.

Ever since Seth Rollins' shocking return at Extreme Rules and immediately being made the main event for MITB, there was very little reason to invest in his and Roman Reigns' feud. It was hampered by the fact that Rollins was still a chickenshit heel, even though his WWE: 24 Documentary painted him as a sympathetic babyface. On top of that, Rollins and Reigns never wrestled in the ring since the announcement and their story was only explained in video packages. That task fell upon Dean Ambrose and his talk show (which was brought back by Shane) to hype up their feud. The trios on-screen dynamic was great to see again. It was an excellent segment that re-established their history as The Shield and reminded the audience why this main event is important. Even better, Ambrose presented him as a threat to both of them, saying that if he wins MITB, he could just cash in and be the new champ.

Funny enough, the match that truly feels like a main event is AJ Styles vs John Cena. There was a bit of confusion as to why there was a contract signing, despite no title being on the line. Turns out Cena presented 2 contracts for Styles to sign; Cena vs The Club (barring The Club from ringside) or Cena vs Styles. Prior to the signing, Cena talked up Styles in a respectful manner, even name-dropping PWG, ROH, and NJPW (TNA was not mentioned) from his body of work. Styles, on the other hand, said that if he had stayed with WWE, he would be the 15-time World Champion because and beat Cena's "K-Mart shopping ass." Even though Styles turned heel recently, this feud doesn't feel rushed at all. Chalk it up to Cena and Styles performance and past body of work to give his a "big fight" feel.

Speaking of MITB, the entrants all got involved at the end of RAW with Ambrose vs Jericho as the main event, Cesaro being the ring announcer, Albert Del Rio being the timekeeper and Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens on commentary. It was wonderfully chaotic after Ambrose got another win over Jericho, who wisely grabbed a ladder and set it in the middle of the ring to grab the briefcase.

There are other matches and segments that happened but it's not really worth looking into. I mean, Sheamus and Apollo was just added as another pre-show match. And the women's division was represented in another rushed match where Paige got a win over Charlotte, thanks to Dana interfering. The women's title is not on the line, it's just a 4-women tag team match. Oh, and the IC title is not on the line either because The Miz is filming "Marine 5."

So that's the card for this Sunday. Seriously can't wait to be there! I'm pretty convinced that Ambrose isn't going to win (he's never won a match at MITB) but I won't stop cheering for him.

• Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship
• John Cena vs. AJ Styles
• Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn vs. Chris Jericho vs. Cesaro vs. Alberto Del Rio in a Money in the Bank ladder match
• New Day vs. Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson vs. Enzo Amore and Big Cass vs. The Vaudevillains in a four-way for the WWE Tag Team Championship
• Rusev vs. Titus O’Neil for the U.S. Championship
• Charlotte and Dana Brooke vs. Becky Lynch and Natalya
• Dolph Ziggler vs. Baron Corbin in a Kickoff Show match
• Sheamus vs. Apollo Crews in a Kickoff Show match

WWE Extreme Rules 2016 PPV

Last night was WWE's Extreme Rules, the 2nd PPV to quickly follow Payback in the month of May. This was a more satisfying PPV than Payback and best of all, no on-screen injuries occurred! The results can be found here.

Rusev won over Kalisto to become a 2-time US Champion. RuRu came out looking like a monster heel again with his newly modified and brutal looking Accolade. I didn't think resetting him (and Lana's) character would do him any good but it turns out did.

The best match of the night was hands down the IC Title Fatal 4 Way match. Zayn and Owens' hatred for each other was the backdrop for this match, which probably wouldn't have been interesting if it only involved Cesaro and Miz. There were so many great spots, so many nearfalls, and Miz didn't look out of place at all amidst these former indy stars. I was really rooting for Cesaro to win, so I was a bit bummed when he didn't. Miz retaining makes sense because this leaves it open for other guys to go after the title and it frees up Owens, Zayn, and Cesaro.

The Asylum Match was the longest match of the night, clocking in at 26 minutes. It turns out that a short segment was cut from the show and added to Ambrose and Jericho's feud, resulting in an unfortunately long and drawn out match. I'll be honest here; I was bored watching this drag on. I didn't like that every "weapon" they grabbed was literally used once. It wasn't until Ambrose spilled thumbtacks unto the ring that it started building up. Ambrose dropped Jericho unto the tacks AND did Dirty Deeds on him to get another win. I have serious respect for Jericho, who went above and beyond to help put Ambrose over when WWE or Lesnar couldn't for WM 32. This one spot saved it from being the worst match of the night.

No, that goes to the Women's Title match with Natalya and Charlotte. Their match was actually quite good but due to the Asylum match running longer than it was suppose to, their match was shortened to under 10 minutes. Natalya looked like she was winning until she was distracted by Flair's entrance theme playing with Dana Brooke (poorly disguised as Flair) entering the ring to distract Natalya. Charlotte does the Figure 8 and forces Natalya to tap. Charlotte, Ric, and Dana all celebrate in the ring. Another title defense for the new Women's title that ended with Flair interfering.

The main event with Styles and Reigns was fantastic. They brawled outside the ring, unto the kickoff show's glass table, destroyed tables and barricades. Gallows and Anderson and the Usos showed up towards the end of the match and everyone was doing everything to make sure they're guy would win. Styles even went berserk and hit The Bloodline in the back with a steel chair. Just as Styles was getting ready to hit the Phenomenal Forearm, Reigns tackles him in mid-air with a spear for a definitive win. It was expected that Reigns would retain and he was getting showered in boos.

AND THEN CROSSFIT JESUS RETURNED

Rollins came back way earlier than anticipated, probably as quick as Cena's return (which is next Monday). He's going to get such a huge pop on Monday Night RAW. We're all cheering for a returning heel and are actively booing the company's top babyface champ. If Reigns is being intentionally built to be this kayfabe powerful, then it would make his defeat even more satisfying. There's no other person than can take him down a notch than the former champ who never lost his title.

"Extreme Payback": Monday Night RAW (5/16/16)

The go-home show for Monday Night RAW was split evenly between actual wrestling matches and promos and segments, which was effective but somehow underselling Extreme Rules this Sunday. The results can be found here.

The major highlights were:

• The Miz and Cesaro vs Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens. This was a seriously fun match that played up both of the respective heels and faces either refusing to cooperate or trying to one-up each other. This is also the first time in a long while since "Steenerico" teamed up years ago. The match ended with Zayn pinning Miz and winning the match, only to end with Owens superkicking Zayn in the face. Owens vowed to take back his title.
  
  
• Dana Brooke vs Becky Lynch. Due to Emma's badly-timed injury, Dana stepped up to carry on the feud with Becky. While I can commend Dana for taking over, it really puts a damper on Emma and Becky's feud, which was building up quite nicely from last month. And Dana, who I thought improved the most on NXT before getting injured, didn't look too confident in the ring either.
  
  
• The New Day had a time machine segment (actually it's just a giant refrigerator box with stuff glued on) to make fun of The Vaudevillains' bygone era. They briefly stopped in 2009, where Kofi emerged to his old theme song and spoke with his Jamaican accent. Kofi cried out "2009 was my best year!" before they dragged him back in and emerged in the past, where everything was black and white, where Booty-Os are named Derriere Squares, and there were no video games. The Vaudevillains ruined the fun segment and stood tall over The New Day.
  
  
• Ambrose (sporting a shiner) called out Jericho and challenged him to having a rematch at Extreme Rules, which Jericho accepted. While Jericho was doing his "Gift of Jericho" pose ("Drink it in, Deeeeeeeeean."), Ambrose said he had a gift for him as well and gazed up as a black steel cage was lowered to the ring, complete with cheesy horror music and strobe lights. Ambrose suddenly went into menacing Moxley-ish mode and introduced the first ever Asylum Match, where there will be no escape and Jericho will never be the same again.
  
  
• The Usos defeated Gallows and Anderson, because of course they would. The Usos have started dressing in darker clothes and darker face paint, which complements Reigns' current tweener persona. The most surprising part was seeing Styles finally giving into temptation and using the steel chair to attack Reigns. AND THEN PERFORMING THE STYLES CLASH ON ROMAN ON SAID CHAIR. It was a amazing spot. Which makes it all the more frustrating knowing that Styles will not be a new champ this Sunday.
  
  
• Kalisto vs Del Rio was looking like one of their usual matches until Sin Cara and Rusev got involved in a backstage segment that spilled into the ring. Del Rio won the match and quickly left as Rusev went into the ring and dominated over Kalisto. Rusev looked like a monster heel again and it was fantastic.
  
  
• The main event ended with Charlotte and Natalya doing a contract signing with Shane and Stephanie in the ring. Charlotte was not happy seeing that the contract officially included banning her father from ringside, so Ric had to sign as well. A furious Ric Flair threatened Shane, who said he respected him too much to try to fight back, but it didn't stop Stephanie from slapping him. Charlotte was ready to lunge at Stephanie but Nattie caught her and did a sharpshooter. Ric and Charlotte slithered away and Raw ended with Nattie holding up the Women's belt up high.
  
  

So that's that. There's still Smack Down and two house shows left before Extreme Rules. Here is the complete card:

• Pre-Show: Dolph Ziggler vs. Baron Corbin in a No DQ match
• WWE World Title match: Roman Reigns vs. A.J. Styles in an Extreme Rules match
• Asylum Cage match: Dean Ambrose vs. Chris Jericho
• Women’s Title match: Charlotte vs. Natalya in a submission match
• U.S. Title match: Kalisto vs. Rusev
• IC Title match: The Miz vs. Cesaro vs. Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn
• Tag Title match: New Day vs. The Vaudevillians

Note: I'm actually more worried for Ambrose's match than I thought. To me, it seems nearly parallel to his feud against Lesnar in WrestleMania, where it had a great buildup and a lackluster match and ending. If they're going through the effort to have Ambrose be the poster boy for Extreme Rules with a match tailored for him, he better win this match. Then again, Ambrose has been known to lose in most gimmick matches...

Weekend Recap (4/29/16 - 5/1/16)

Friday (4/29):

• Went to Wahoo's for dinner
• Went to Sports Chalet to buy some stuff from their closeout sale. Vince got a new yoga mat and I got a new blender bottle.
• Went to Vivido for some gelato

Saturday (4/30):

• Our plans today were thrown out the window. We had an appointment to view the house that Vince and I loved with his parents. His dad called about 4 hours before the appointment and said we need to cancel because it's raining outside. IT'S DANGEROUS APPARENTLY.
• We went to Seafood City to buy ingredients for Pork Belly Menudo
• When we got home, Vince's parents called back and JUST NOTICED that it wasn't raining 3 hours later and asked if we can un-cancel the appointment! Vince had them call the real estate agent, which was rescheduled for Sunday.
• Went to Sports Authority and found out they were closing this Friday. We can't buy their tiny tents yet!

Sunday (5/1):

• Did a donut run
• We checked out the house today. We saw the open house right next to it but we didn't like it. We're pretty set on this house and unfortunately, so are other people.
• We wanted to watch "Keanu" but we couldn't find the time to do it before or after the house viewing. Maybe next weekend.
• We talked about it and asked Vince's parents to put in a an offer for the house. If we get the house, I'll panic about expenses.
• Watched WWE Payback, which I'm not going to make a separate post for. I'll talk about it here.
• Watched Vince played Dark Souls 3 til I fell asleep

What to expect for Monday Night RAW:

Last night's Payback was mostly enjoyable. I say mostly because the first match of the night damn near killed the audience and the event itself when Enzo Amore suffered a concussion following a freak accident that knocked him out and basically cancelled the contendership match. Zayn and Owens unfortunately had to follow that match and they did a great job on bringing the audience back. Owens was the MVP of the night because he cut a promo after defeating Zayn, did commentary for the next match which was for the IC title (Owens appears to be gunning it for the third time), and he and Zayn's fight hilariously spilled over to Cesaro and Miz's feud. 

Other highlights include Ryback doing CM Punk's "entrance" in the preshow and basically saving Kalisto's life, Ambrose winning (finally!) over Jericho, Charlotte and Natalya's match thrown out the window to make a Chicago screw job, and Stephanie and Shane restarting Styles and Reigns main event match until Reigns officially retained. Shane and Stephanie's drama is carrying over to Monday Night RAW (with HHH out of sight for some reason), so we'll get to see how that plays out.

Weekend Recap (4/1/16 - 4/3/16)

Friday (4/1):

• I got out of work early
• We wanted to order some food to watch NXT. Originally opted for Pasta Idea, who said it would take an hour before it's ready for pick up. We got annoyed, tried to order pizza, which was too far from us, and opted to order from Pasta Idea in the end.
• NXT TakeOver: Dallas was on tonight. It was hands down the best TakeOver event ever, purely because of great debuts, shocking moments, and best of all, pure and simple wrestling. No gimmick, no stipulations, and all the clean wins and losses mattered.

Saturday (4/2):

• We looked at some houses at Central park estates. We only got to 2 of them (with the tenants showing us around). Vince's parents liked it but didn't like the HOA monthly fee being that high.
• Decided to hang out with Joel and Pam for late lunch. We ate at Hot N Juicy Crawfish
• Went to Big 5 Sporting Goods then to Lee's Sandwiches for some smoothies. Sorsha peed on Vince! Then we went to their place for a bit. Vince played The Division. It looks... ok.
• Went to Wal-Mart buy some last minute ingredients to make Pork Bell Curry before heading home.

Sunday (4/3):

• Watched ROH (3rd episode filmed in Las Vegas) and finally a glimpse of us at our seats!
• Stayed in to watch WrestleMania 32 from 2 pm to 8:45 pm. It was a decent PPV but overall a disappointing WrestleMania. I'm not even going to make a blog post about it. Instead I'll rant here!
• The Walking Dead finale was stressful. Negan and Lucille made a great debut but they left it ambiguous on who Negan kills off. We have to wait til the fall to see who was killed off. Vince and I know who it was in the comics but we're hoping the show would go a more shocking route and kill Rick or Daryl off.

What to expect for Monday Night RAW:

AJ Styles lost. The New Day (as faces) lost. Neither Sasha Banks or Becky Lynch won the brand new Women's Championship title. Shane O Mac lost. The Wyatt Family looked like goobers to The Rock and John Cena.

Dean "indestructible Iron Man" Ambrose lost in the most disappointingly short WrestleMania match of his career.

And yet I'm still going to watch Monday Night RAW. What's wrong with me.

What I expect from WWE Roadblock

THIS WILL NEVER, EVER HAPPEN.

After my immense disappointment with Fastlane, I am trying very hard to keep my expectations low for WWE's PPVs. Just once, I would like something new and exciting to happen in WWE, and it seemed like we were getting a glimpse of that when Shane McMahon made a surprise return a few weeks ago. That was also the same night that HHH took out Roman Reigns. 

Since then, Ambrose has stepped up and was granted one final title shot, getting the audience more invested in this sudden feud than the ongoing storyline with Reigns vs HHH. It was enough for WWE to quickly rebrand a special house show in Toronto into the network exclusive, WWE Roadblock. Ambrose even did another sit down interview with Michael Cole, where he said he owns this company. The very thought of Ambrose winning the title from HHH will seriously change things up at Wrestlemania.

And it is so damn transparent that nothing is going to change. Again.

Ambrose is just a placeholder until Reigns returns from surgery, and it gives the fans a babyface to cheer for instead of cheering HHH, the heel champion. They won't do a title change in a network exclusive, and WWE will not radically change their card to accompany Ambrose in the title match. PWTorch noted that Ambrose is only popular now because Reigns is absent and if the fans really wanted change, they would do so, much like how Wrestlemania 30 had to change to have Daniel Bryan pull double duty and end the event as a champion.

TL;DR: I expect nothing to change. That's not going to stop me from rooting for Ambrose.

"The face of your company": Monday Night RAW (3/8/16)

Last night's Monday Night RAW felt like a go home show, with a face standing tall at the end. It was more of a go home show before Roadblock, the network exclusive special taking place in Toronto this Saturday. Compared to last week's leap year episode, this show was thankfully enjoyable and exciting. There were some mixed reviews for this show, which is understandable considering they were focusing on Roadblock and Wrestlemania. The results can be found here.

There were a few great moments here. The first was Kevin Owens vs Neville in a non-title match. There were a few great spots from both Owens and Neville - with Neville even pulling off a Phoenix Splash from the middle rope! - but he lost to Owens via roll up. Owens has been clamoring for weeks that he doesn't have any opponents for Wrestlemania, which strangely excluded Ambrose or invoking a rematch clause, but last night saw a surprise return from an old foe, Sami Zayn. They really are destined to do this forever.

The best match of the night came from Y2AJ vs The New Day for the Tag Team Championship. It was ridiculously exciting and fast pace. AJ was at his freaking best here and so was Big E, who not only countered Jericho's Codebreaker but effortlessly reversed it to do the Big Ending and win the match and retain the title. After the New Day left the ring, AJ and Jericho were left in the ring. And it finally happened; Jericho turned heel and did the Codebreaker on AJ Styles. He did it 2 more times and even grabbed the Y2AJ shirt he wore earlier and stuffed it in AJ's mouth. Suddenly his behavior towards Ambrose and Reigns from Night of Champions last year made sense. He wasn't trying to start a feud with Ambrose, he was being a sore loser. Losing to AJ in their 2 out of 3 matches and then losing again as a tag team was the final straw.

And finally, my guy Ambrose. He's been on fire the last 2 weeks. He cut a pretty lengthy, angry, and passionate promo about coming away as the new champion after March 12. Once again, it's creating excitement and making Wrestlemania look less predictable when someone as volatile as Ambrose is set for a match against Lesnar and is getting a title shot against HHH in the network special.


Unfortunately, there has been a consistent pattern with Ambrose whenever he goes after a title: he cuts a great promo, he looks good and/or stands tall at the end of the go-home shows, and when the main event rolls around, he loses. That's what happened at Survivor Series and Fastlane, so I stopped getting my hopes up that Ambrose would win again. He is currently the placeholder for Reigns until he returns to action, possibly after Roadblock. WWE won't let anything change their plans for Reigns' coronation at Wrestlemania. For now, the fans are getting what they wanted to see after the Royal Rumble: Ambrose vs HHH for the title, Lesnar vs Wyatt, and quite possibly Owens vs Zayn.

Interesting to note, Busted Open on SiriusXM had a very heated debate about Ambrose just now. They've maintained that they don't buy Ambrose as a main eventer RIGHT NOW due to the booking and injuries. They don't hate him either but he hasn't done anything yet that can elevate him to that top tier RIGHT NOW. And I have to agree with them. As I told Vince, this is not a push, this is WWE in panic mode and it's very transparent. For now, booking decisions aside, I'm just enjoying all the exposure Ambrose has been getting.

YEEE! YEEE! YEEE! YEEE!

"Thanks": Monday Night RAW (2/29/16)

Last week's RAW saw Brock Lesnar beating down Dean Ambrose, who demanded a street fight match for Wrestlemania, HHH literally beating Reigns to a (fake) bloody pulp, and also the surprise return of Shane McMahon. It seemed like WWE was going into a new, gritty, and unpredictable direction on the road to Wrestlemania. And then we hit a "Roadblock."

Literally.

The previously named "March to Wrestlemania" Toronto network special was abruptly changed to Roadblock as of last night. Along with the name change, the main event also changed from HHH vs Roman Reigns vs Sheamus to... HHH vs Ambrose for the WHC. Let me repeat that: Ambrose, who lost at Fastlane to Reigns to be the #1 contender for the World title, was given a title shot by HHH, in what is basically a televised house show 3 weeks before Wrestlemania.

RAW was unsurprisingly terrible and disappointing in comparison to last week. Aside from the great interactions with Ambrose and HHH in the opening segment, Stephanie's incredible promo, and the ending segment with HHH beating Ambrose, a majority of the matches just happened. The results can be found here. The wins and losses didn't mean anything or didn't make sense. Why did Ziggler lose to Miz? Why did Kalisto (current US Champ) lose to Del Rio? Why did Owens (current IC Champ) lose to The Big Show? And how the hell did Sasha "pass out" from doing the sunset flip on Becky, resulting in a double-pin?! 

It doesn't make sense for WWE to focus on building up for a network special again. They did the same thing last year for the Brock Lesnar tour, where Big Show suddenly had to look strong a week before the Madison Square Garden network special before predictably losing to him. Ambrose vs HHH sounds great but it makes no sense for Ambrose to start going after HHH when he's already in a feud with Lesnar. So after this special ends in a predictable manner next Saturday, then they'll resume building up for Wrestlemania 32, which still only has 3 confirmed matches. Nothing has been announced for the Tag Team, Divas, US and IC titles yet. How they're going to sell the remaining 30,000+ Wrestlemania tickets is beyond me.

If there's anything important to note here, it's the difference in the crowd reaction to the main event from last week. Ambrose got laid out by the League of Nation. HHH comes to the ring and belittles Ambrose, who quickly pops up to punch him and starts wailing on in the corner. HHH retaliates with the pedigree and angrily grants him his title shot. Ambrose then crawls up to the mic that HHH dropped on him and said, "Hey, Hunter! Thanks!" HHH then throws Ambrose on the announcer's table and starts beating him up, though not as viciously as what he did to Reigns. The entire arena was booing at HHH and cheering for Ambrose.

Once again, there's that false hope that Ambrose might actually win the title. Seeing how it's a live show and HHH's first title defense in a long time, he ain't losting to Ambrose. Then again, the same was said for the NXT Championship match with Kevin Owens and Finn Balor for the Beast In The East special, and the title changed hands there. There's a serious booking dilemma and to be honest, I really don't care. Ambrose is in main event mode and WWE can't ignore the pop and chants he consistently gets, especially last night. When Reigns returns, it's not going to be pretty.

LET'S GO AMBROSE!

WWE Fastlane 2016

So... Fastlane ended up staying the course with its main (and increasingly exhausting) storyline of Reigns vs The Authority. The main event ended predictably with Reigns pinning Ambrose to be the #1 contender for the WWE WHC. The is also the 2nd Fastlane in a row that Reigns has won to be in the main event for Wrestlemania.

The only good matches were the damn pre-show with Kalisto defeating Del Rio, where Kalisto retained, Kevin Owens defeated Dolph Ziggler, Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch defeating Naomi and Tamina, and AJ Styles defeating Jericho. The third hour was like something out of a Monday Night RAW episode where it had an Edge and Christian segment AND an unannounced Curtis Axel vs R-Truth match, which Axel won! The results can be found here.

All the talk, all the hype, all the excitement that was driven by Ambrose's inclusion - including taking the IC belt off him - felt like a wasted effort. The only interesting thing that came out of the main event really was Ambrose working together with Reigns to work 2 powerbomb table spots on Lesnar and Ambrose using a chair to take out Lesnar AND Reigns. When Reigns won, HHH appeared and stood face-to-face in the ring with him. It was noted that the boos from the crowd were drowned out by blasting HHH's music and muting the crowd mic while the crowd was shown to be indifferent or visibly booing with their thumbs down.

I thought it would be dumb of WWE to not give Ambrose a homestate win and sure enough, that's exactly what happened. Same goes to Ziggler too, and it was his home town! Anways, I'm just immensely disappointed with the outcome because my favorite didn't win but I am morbidly curious to see how Reigns (who is now kayfabe stronger than Lesnar after last night) will fare when RAW comes to the 4 smarkiest cities before Wrestlemania. Chicago, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Brooklyn, have at him.

What I expect from WWE Fastlane

It seems too damn coincidental to suddenly throw then IC Champ Dean Ambrose into the main event for Fastlane alongside with Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar. As far as I know, this will be Ambrose's 2nd time to main event a PPV in his homestate of Ohio. He was previously in the main event against Seth Rollins for Money in The Bank 2015 in Columbus, Ohio. That match had a somewhat controversial ending, where Ambrose and Rollins were both holding unto the WHC belt as it suddenly unhooked. As they fell and crashed to the mat, Rollins rolled away with the title firmly in his hands and retained, leaving Ambrose looking literally defeated.

WWE seems to be taking a very huge gamble with suddenly taking the IC belt off from Ambrose a week before their PPV. The focus has shifted from Reigns, being unusually apathetic about losing his title to The Authority again, to Ambrose opening up RAW, foolishly going after Lesnar, and even trying to pull a Dirty Deeds on an unsuspecting Reigns. The last few weeks of RAW have been pretty exciting since Ambrose's inclusion. Will WWE cave in and actually let him win this Sunday? Sadly, I would have to go with a defeated, "No."

This uncertainty and false hope might just be a way to cover up the fact that they're still steadfast with Reigns reclaiming his title and getting his Wrestlemania moment. Which is all fine and dandy, except his character has done nothing redeemable since walking out in the middle of his own title defense match last month. How can anyone root for that?

The tremendous pop Ambrose has been consistently getting since being the last man standing against HHH in the Royal Rumble, along with the dozens of exciting speculations and fantasy bookings about Ambrose winning and headlining Wrestlemania, is not going to force WWE to change the story and overall poor booking of Reigns. I'm sure the Triple Threat match will be exciting, and I'm sure Ambrose will probably find some consolation in fighting against Lesnar or going after Owens to take back his IC title. Either way, I'm going to be super salty after Fastlane and I'll probably swear off WWE for several hours before tuning in again on Monday.

----------

Probably getting my (false) hopes up more but WWEShop.com just released a new shirt for Ambrose:

Excluding the horrible back design, the DA logo looks gritty and hardcore with the barbed wire. Is this hinting something? Ambrose actually had a few new shirt designs quietly released over last few weeks. It's just odd that this one is on their front page banner.

"Nobody can do what I do"

4 months ago, Ambrose was noticeably put on the backburner and kept away from the World Heavyweight Title picture. I was worried about how he seems to have straggled behind as WWE continued to push Roman "Captain Recap Tater Tots SON" Reigns. Ambrose, however, didn't seem worried himself and was simply content with just wrestling and putting on a great show for fans every single night. Since then, a number of things have happened that have opened a new door for him:

• Seth Rollins got injured and was forced to vacate the title
• Said title was put in a tournament at Survivor Series to determine the new WWE Champion
• Reigns defeated Ambrose to become the new WWE Champion, only to lose it to Sheamus
• Ambrose became a #1 contender for Owens' IC title
• Ambrose defeated Owens to become the new IC Champion
• Ambrose retained against Owens in a Last Man Standing Match at the Royal Rumble
• Ambrose was in the final 2 and was eliminated by HHH in the Royal Rumble
• Ambrose, Reigns, and Lesnar are the main event for Fastlane, where the winner will be #1contender to face off against HHH at Wrestlemania Star
  

Looking back, it's great to see that his patience and reliability has greatly paid off and it certainly elevated his status as WWE's utility player. And now it looks like Ambrose is being put to the test again as it was announced that he, Reigns, and Lesnar are the main event for Fastlane. Putting creative and booking decisions aside, the fact that they're throwing him, the current IC champ, into the World Heavyweight Title is huge. Still, no one was convinced on the possibility that Ambrose could go against HHH, let alone headline Wrestlemania, and that he's simply there to take the pin from Reigns. His recent sit-down interview with Cole pretty much erased all doubts. 

This is not the content Ambrose from 4 months ago. Hell, this is not even the same Ambrose from last month, where he was a chill IC champ beaming with pride. This is Ambrose in PPV mode, where he's all fired up, fearless, and loud. He's not the least bit scared about Brock Lesnar and he certainly isn't worried about his friendship with Reigns affecting his goal; which is to prove to everyone that he's one of the best in this game. That promo sold me. If WWE is going to pull the trigger on Ambrose, it needs to happen at his home town.

WWE Royal Rumble 2015 PPV

What a difference a year makes. Last year's Royal Rumble was most memorable for WWE pushing Roman Reigns, a guy who the fans felt wasn't their guy (or whoever wasn't Daniel Bryan). The PPV's outcome was so poorly received that it angered wrestling fans, and it managed to draw negative attention on the product. This year's Royal Rumble was centered around Reigns again and the results were thankfully different, making the first WWE PPV of 2016 damn enjoyable. Also, AJ fucking Styles is in the WWE.

Here are the match results:

• Dean Ambrose defeated Kevin Owens and retained the IC title
• The New Day defeated The Usos and retained the Tag Team title
• Kalisto defeated Alberto Del Rio and won the US title
• Charlotte defeated Becky and retained the Divas title
• HHH eliminated Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose and won the WWE WH title

Ambrose and Owens kicked off the PPV with their Last Man Standing match, which went on for a solid 20 minutes. This was hands down the best match of the night and Owens and Ambrose did an awesome job in just brawling it out. There were great spots and close calls but in the end, Ambrose retained. This was the best result for both of them; Ambrose remains as a tough champ and Owens, who put up a good fight, is now free to move unto bigger feuds.

Charlotte and Becky's match was somewhat entertaining with Ric Flair shenanigans up until the ending. Sasha Banks (sans Team BAD) showed up and appeared to have formed some kind of alliance with Charlotte until she did the Bank Statement on her. While the focus was on Charlotte and Sasha (who now is gunning for the Divas title), the camera totally missed Becky, who was seen sobbing at the foot of the announcer's table. 

As for the Royal Rumble itself, it was actually well paced with some surprises:
 

• The biggest surprise was having AJ Styles making his WWE debut early at the Rumble at #3. This was absolutely mind-blowing, considering that he did a Bullet Club curtain call at a a ROH show just the night before. And he was PHENOMENAL. 
• Brock Lesnar and the Wyatt Family might have a feud developing.
• Another surprise was having Sami Zayn as an entrant. Zayn and Owens immediately started brawling, picking up where they left off 7 months ago after Zayn injured his shoulder. 
• And the biggest surprise came at the end, when HHH eliminated Reigns, leaving only he and Ambrose as the final two in the Rumble. The audience was 100% behind Ambrose, the true babyface underdog, against the Authority. 

The Rumble also had its share of disappointments, like not having Daniel Bryan or Randy Orton return and wasted spots with Mark Henry and Jack Swagger. The biggest disappointment of them all was Reigns himself, choosing to stay out of the ring after taking a brutal table spot from Rusev. Ambrose and Owens were practically limping their way to the ring and they stayed in until they were eliminated. Chris Jericho was in there for nearly 50 minutes straight. And then here's Reigns returning after 20 minutes to Superman Punch Sheamus. The only time Reigns got a pop was when HHH eliminated him.

I hope WWE took note of how the the audience reacted to Reigns. No matter how much they protected him, no matter how they make him to be the babyface underdog trying to overcome the odds, it's just not working for him. The problem with Reigns is that they're quickly booking him to be a legendary superstar like Steve Austin or HBK, and not allowing him to fully develop his character. Rollins and Ambrose went off to become different characters while Reigns is still the same SHIELD guy over 3 years after their debut. Something has to change with Reigns. The McMahons screwed him over and HHH took his title. Reigns should be absolutely furious on RAW.

WWE TLC 2015 PPV

"THANK YOU ROMAN!"

If there's one thing about professional wrestling sports entertainment, when it's good, it's fucking great. The general apathetic attitude and low expectations for the last PPV of the year resulted in a pretty decent show, at least better in comparison to the disappointing Survivor Series PPV. The changes and progress that the fans wanted happened last night and that eagerness to see the fallout is carrying over for Monday Night RAW. One thing is for sure, it got a lot of people talking in a good way.

Let me be clear: TLC was decent but the buildup for some of the matches like Rusev vs Ryback, Del Rio vs Swagger, and even Team ECW vs The Wyatt Family, were poor or rushed. Even though they had a few good matches and standout moments, the PPV was just that, decent.

Here are the match results:

• Sasha Banks (w/ Naomi and Tamina) defeated Becky Lynch
• The New Day defeated The Lucha Dragons and The Usos
• Rusev w/ Lana defeated Ryback
• Alberto Del Rio defeated Jack Swagger
• The Wyatt Family defeated Team ECW
• Dean Ambrose defeated Kevin Owens
• Charlotte w/ Ric Flair defeated Paige
• Sheamus defeated Roman Reigns

First off, let me just say that I'm scarily becoming like Vince in making mostly accurate predictions. We were able to call out what the next matches would be without looking at live reports. Vince predicted that they would start the PPV strong with the Tag Team Triple Threat match. And that was a smart decision.

I was fearful of this match, mostly because there's a lot of high flyers getting mixed up with ladders and I was afraid that someone was going to get injured. Still, it was a solid match with great spots and with Xavier Woods at commentary, who did an awesome job putting all the other teams over and calling out moves like a pro commentator. Vince predicted that the Usos would win and I said New Day would retain, and thankfully, the latter happened.

Going off from their win, I also predicted that all the heel champs (yes, even current Divas champ Charlotte) would retain their titles. And it looked like that was the trend for the non-title matches, which saw The Wyatt Family defeating Team ECW and Rusev defeating Ryback. So when Ambrose and Owens' match was coming up, I was fine with seeing another heel champ retaining their title until... until...

THIS FUCKING HAPPENED

Dean Ambrose defeated Owens via Hurricanrana to become the new IC Champ! This was truly the biggest surprise of the night. It was a long-awaited payoff for Ambrose when he first set his sights on taking the IC title away from Bad New Barrett back in January. Even though their buildup to this feud was briefly sidelined, with Owens getting sick and Ambrose siding with Reigns and The Usos, not to mention having Ambrose toss popcorn and soda at Owens' face instead of cutting a promo, this was still the only match I cared about. Overall, the match was entertaining and it even had a great moment where Owens barely made a rope break using only one finger! Ambrose was the only babyface to win a match and it was also the only title change in the PPV. This was great for both parties; Ambrose is a new champ and Owens is free to possibly go after another title and having bigger feuds.

The main event TLC match between Sheamus and Reigns was met with apathy and smark from the Boston crowd. They even chanted, "WE WANT CENA! CENA SUCKS!" and "NXT!" because they all know how the match was going to end. The match itself was quite intense, slow, and methodical, but no one was really invested in it. Sheamus was able to retain the title, thanks to Del Rio helping Sheamus up the ladder and Rusev putting Reigns in the Accolade. We were getting a repeat of Reigns looking defeated and walking away as Sheamus celebrated in the middle of the ring on the shoulders of Del Rio and Rusev. And then something miraculous happened; Reigns showed character progression.

For over 10 minutes, Reigns wrecked havoc in the ring. He wasn't just mad that he lost. He was absolutely pissed. He took a chair and started beating up on Del Rio, Rusev, and Sheamus. Several referees, Stephanie, and HHH came out to stop Reigns. HHH tried to calm Reigns down and stupidly turned his back on him, giving Reigns and opportunity to beat the hell out of him with a chair. The crowd, who was chanting for Cena earlier in the match, was now cheering for Reigns. He was finally being the silent bad-ass monster that the fans have been waiting for. And it worked. The crowd chanted, "THANK YOU ROMAN," as he walked back up the ramp, not looking the least bit sorry in taking down LON and HHH.

Now I'm eager to watch RAW tonight. The Authority (mostly Stephanie) will probably make Reigns' life a living hell to get back at him. Which is fine but they have to do a few things here with Reigns' character. Don't make Reigns talk. Don't make him cut another recap promo with a smile on his face. Make Reigns go into berserk mode and live up to his new shirt motto, "Spare no one. Spear everyone." He's not working as another John Cena or Daniel Bryan, so make him be himself. Maybe having the Lunatic Fringe as a buddy might've rubbed off on him after all.

CONGRATS, DEAN AMBROSE!

"TATER TOT SON": Monday Night RAW (12/7/15)

Waiting for changes to happen on Monday Night RAW.

Realizing it's the same old shit.

This is the go-home show? This is supposed to be the show to give the PPV a final push and make people tune in for Sunday? What seemed promising at the beginning, in the form of an unprecedented 16-Man Fatal Four Way match for the first hour, devolved into a mess for the second and third hour. There was no serious story progress and character development and motivation was all over the place. Oh, and Reigns made WWE WHC Sheamus look like a chump again, guaranteeing that Reigns will not walk out with the title this Sunday due to shenanigans. 

On a plus side, they did acknowledge that it was Dean Ambrose's birthday! Also, Popcorn Ambrose made his return and... he came off as a bigger bully than Kevin Owens. At least he got to be in the same ring with Tommy Dreamer! Dreamer threw Moxley into someone's chair 5 years ago at Dragongate.

There were meaningless matches throughout the night and it looks like everything was being rushed to create more time for the final segment of the night with Reigns and Sheamus. From the look of things, there is going to be a lot of anger and frustration from wrestling articles and podcasts for this week's RAW.

From F4W: 

This was a show booked in reverse. We got a solid first hour and it just lost steam from there. Reigns and Sheamus feels like a cold program, which anyone who watched Sheamus win the title would have predicted. I might regret writing this, but Reigns doesn't have that special quality as a main eventer. He can't carry a 10-minute talking segment and the fans don't see him as a top of the card talent. 

From RollingStone:  

They threw everything at the wall last night, from unisex unicorns and 16-man tags to some meta-insight on Lana and Neville getting a backstage pep talk from Donny Deutsch. Very little of it stuck. 

From AV Club:  

As we head into Sunday’s PPV, I feel nothing but apathy, and occasionally downright hatred. Raw is in a dire state right now, and tonight’s episode is a pretty good representation of everything that’s currently wrong with the product. 

From Prowrestling: 

WWE is in a bad place right now. It's not going to change overnight because they are relying mostly on wrestlers who were damaged because of their own parity booking. I would be understanding if the creative was good and it was just taking time for them to establish or reestablish some of these wrestlers, but that's just not the case. There's no light at the end of this tunnel.

From PWTorch:

Overall, an excruciatingly long promo exchange exposing Reigns’s weaknesses and masking his strengths to get to physicality, which seemed to cross over from a “sample of the TLC action” to basically a free meal.

The common theme with all of these reviews was not just RAW being disappointing, messy, and predictable but how the final segment with Reigns and Sheamus, the headline event for TLC, was the major low point of the show. Reigns' weakness is doing long promos and they did it to him again by making recap his rise from The Shield to getting the WWE WHC title, all while climbing up on a ladder to literally illustrate his point. And then he and Sheamus just talked and talked before getting into a brawl that went outside the ring. This was slow and boring to watch - it was noted that empty seats can be seen towards the third hour - which doesn't say much on what to expect for Sunday.

Ambrose and Owens have a contract signing for Thursday Night Smack Down. Hopefully, they'll get to do more here besides having another concession fight. Owens being out last week shouldn't be a reason for a such poor build up for their match, and I hope Ambrose isn't going to side with Reigns in another multi-man match for the final go-home show.

TEAM BAD DAY