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.

"FOLLOW THE BUZZARDS": Monday Night RAW (1/18/16)

The go-home show of RAW was, as expected, terrible. There was very little story progression, title matches are just now being added to the Royal Rumble card, and worst of all, it was all centered on Roman Reigns again. Even a last minute surprise with the Wyatt Family standing tall as the show ended doesn't help.

As usual, I'm just going to pull some choice quotes from other websites that reviewed RAW as well.

From AV Club: 

It’s hard to even know where to start with this week’s Raw because it’s abysmal. There’s almost nothing of value or interest across three hours of programming, and that’s not an exaggeration. 

From F4W:  

The entire show was built around the main event. Certainly it was strange to see the Wyatt Family, who have been on the backburner ever since the Undertaker/Kane feud at the Survivor Series, finish off the go-home show to the Royal Rumble standing over the company's top babyface. But beggers can't be choosy at this point.  

From Prowrestling:  

Overall, Raw delivered good final hype for the Rumble match, but it failed to make good use of the time allotted to promoting the other matches on Sunday’s show. 

There are a few highlights here:

• Becky and Charlotte's storyline, where Becky insulted Ric Flair and got him to accept Becky's challenge on Charlotte's behalf and putting the Divas Championship title match on the card. Becky is quickly gaining momentum as the true babyface Diva and she's so freaking adorable.
• The New Day holding a funeral for Francesca, Woods' trombone. I honestly didn't watch this segment but somehow, the Usos got a title shot.
• Not really a highlight but a representation how Tyler Breeze has been handled since joining the main roster
• Also not a highlight but seeing Big Show (as a face) taking out Social Outcasts (as heels) was infuriating
• Ambrose and Kalisto vs Sheamus and Alberto Del Rio as a live 50/50 booking. Rusev lost to Reigns earlier while Sheamus and Del Rio (with Barrett at ringside) won against a current IC champ and former US champ. Reigns AND League of Nations need to look strong for their match on Smack Down. Also, Owens was on commentary and didn't do anything to Ambrose after the match. Both of them will be on Miz TV on Smack Down.

Everything else was about Reigns. From the opening monologue with Jericho, to the commentary talking about the odds that Reigns has to overcome during other matches, to a silly segment with Vince McMahon and Stephanie announcing that Reigns is the #1 entrant to the Royal Rumble, to the ending segment with Jericho, which was originally only going to have Heyman and Lesnar on his Highlight Reel show until Reigns was added at the last minute.

There are only 2 possible outcome for Royal Rumble this Sunday: Reigns retains or Reigns loses and uses his rematch clause, regardless of who the new WWE Champ is. It seems like WWE is focusing on Fastlane to be the definitive PPV that sets the road to Wrestlemania, so let's see how that goes.

LUCHA! LUCHA! LUCHA! LUCHA!

Weekend Recap (1/15/16 - 1/17/16)

Friday (1/15):

I finally got Henri (Witch Doctor Mojo)!

A video posted by sheila antonio (@sajcfan) on Jan 15, 2016 at 11:45pm PST



• A few days ago, My mom called me and said my dad was in the hospital. He's on a machine that helps him to breathe but she assured me he was fine. A few days later, my uncle tells me that my dad is on life support, which was completely different from what my mom told me. After doing a lot of phone calls and follow up, my dad is now doing ok and recovering. I'm just baffled at my mom's weird decision to "not bother or worry everyone" and say what happened to my dad. 
• We ate at Sweet Tomatoes and then played the new patch of Diablo III with Dan and Corinne.

Saturday (1/16):

• We ate at GEN with Josh, Tanisha, and their daughter Phoenix. It's this all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ restaurant with great meat selections and tasty Macaroon ice cream sandwiches.
• We bought ourselves new hoodie jackets. I bought myself a red hoodie to wear underneath my leather jacket, just like a certain someone did for a few appearances last year.

Sunday (1/17):

Meanwhile at Walmart...

A video posted by sheila antonio (@sajcfan) on Jan 17, 2016 at 5:49pm PST



• We ate at Vince's parent's place for lunch
• Went grocery shopping. I suggested making bbq ribs in the slow cooker for our dinner this week.
• We're catching up on Breaking Bad now and we're now at the 4th season. We're rushing to finish the series since Netflix is removing it at the end of the month.
• Watched ROH, which looks like the last appearance of Maria Kanellis and Mike Bennett (both ended their contract with ROH and are now on Impact Wrestling), Christopher Daniels (and the return of Curry Man?) and a surprise appearance of AJ Styles (who was kicked out of Bullet Club and left NJPW a few weeks ago).
• I'm fucking excited and dreading Royal Rumble.

"One vs All": Monday Night RAW (1/12/16)

Last night's RAW was odd and rushed. The results can be found here. I'm really not sure what to talk about here. I actually have a lot to complain about.

There are a few highlights here:

• Notably, the first title change on TV of 2016, as Kalisto defeated Alberto Del Rio for the US Championship title! Sin Cara's injury was the weird blessing in disguise for Kalisto to finally get a push. 
• Then there's Becky finally snapping and attacking Charlotte, greatly adding more fuel to their feud. This is the first time since the "Divas Revolution" that is focusing on character progression and story building. It's quite sad that this was made possible because Paige and Sasha are currently out due to injuries.
• And finally, there's the increasingly angry Ambrose, who was more focused on busting open Sheamus' head into a pole to care that the match ended in a double count-out. After getting attacked by Owens, he ignored to be looked at by the medics, and yelled at a flustered Renee Young that he was still alive.

Those few highlights were eclipsed by a lot of weird segments and matches, especially the vague main event match hastily put together by Vince McMahon. The first ever "One vs All" was first built as having a portion of the roster go against Reigns, including his brother Ambrose. Then when the main event came, Vince and Stephanie called down all the heels - Kevin Owens, The Cosmic Wasteland, New Day, The Wyatt Family, half of League of Nations, and Tyler Breeze - to wait at ringside. And yet when the bell rang, it was Owens vs Reigns for the duration of the match. The other heels never tagged in, never interfered, and didn't even act like lumberjacks to keep the action in the ring. They were fodder for Lesnar, who entered towards the end of the match and cleared the ring of all the heels before putting the F5 on Reigns.

This feels like this should've been the go-home show. There is still one week left before the Royal Rumble. And with news still churning on the NJPW 4 possibly making their WWE debut a lot sooner than expected, it seems like WWE is frantically trying to rewrite their stories and set up new angles to Wrestlemania

Weekend Recap (1/8/16 - 1/10/16)

Friday (1/8):

• Had dinner with Andrew and Joanne at Greens and Proteins
• Tested out the antennae Vince bought for our living room TV. We got 5 channels.

Saturday (1/9):

• I made a detailed post of CES + MUSE day here on Wordpress.

Sunday (1/10):

• We stayed at home all day. I was too tired to want to go anywhere.
• I'm seriously bummed that Shinsuke Nakamura won't be at the ROH Anniversary show next month

WWE RAIDS NJPW

I was going to do a post about last night's RAW, which was actually a decent show up until the main event ending where a new stipulation changes the Royal Rumble PPV, but I need to address the big news that was happening outside of RAW: WWE has signed on Shinsuke Nakamura, AJ Styles, Karl Anderson, and Doc Gallows, less than 24 hours after all wrestlers competed in Wrestle Kingdom 10.

Who are these people? Shinsuke Nakamura is one of NJPW's top stars, right up there with Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kazuchika Okada. The latter 3 consists of the new leader (after Balor left) and founding members of Bullet Club, a major and popular heel faction in NJPW. So why is it big news? WWE spent top money to acquire all 4 talents right after a major PPV that was seen internationally. And unlike Finn Balor and Samoa Joe, Nakamura and Styles are reportedly skipping NXT and going straight to the main roster. Gallows and Anderson will most likely go to NXT to be a part of Balor Club.

It is a big shakeup in wrestling news. While fans get frustrated with WWE's product from time to time, such as not fully utilizing their most diverse and stacked roster as of late and booking their superstars poorly, they are making major progress behind the scenes that is going to really pay off in the next few years.

• They are signing on more notable indie wrestlers to their brand. Look at a small portion of their current roster; Jon Moxley, Tyler Black, Kevin Steen, El Generico, Claudio Castagnoli, Uhaa Nation, etc. They are now under the WWE brand. That's not including the indie wrestlers that have yet to make their NXT TV debut.
• They are signing on more international talents to help appeal to a broader audience outside of the US. Fergal Devitt, KENTA, Kana, and now Nakamura are covering the Japan market. They also have India and German talents at the Performance Center.
• They have a working relationship with other smaller wrestling promotions to help develop potential talent that will go up to NXT or the main roster. WWE is working exclusively with EVOLVE and there have been WWE scouts present at PWG shows looking for new talent. 

NJPW might have lost their 2 of their top stars for now but they'll be fine. Bullet Club had a major development following Wrestle Kingdom 10. Now it all depends on how WWE will pull this off. There's also a slew of injured talent that will be making their return this year, such as Rollins, Cesaro, Zayn, and Itami. WWE is going to have seriously consider a brand split with their roster.

----------

Last night's RAW was enjoyable. While there was a small development in the feuds with Ambrose vs Owens (who was amazing at commentary), Becky vs Charlotte (who officially turned heel), and a returning Chris Jericho, the most development happened with Reigns. Firstly, Reigns was put into another title match against Sheamus with Vince McMahon as the ref, where it goes exactly as one would expect. Reigns retains and humiliates Stephanie and Vince again, who then declares that for Reigns' punishment, he'll have to defend his title again at the Royal Rumble... in the Royal Rumble.

If Reigns retains, that means he wins the Royal Rumble again, and there's no way that he'll get booed at his home state of Florida. If Reigns loses, that person becomes the new champ AND headlines Wrestlemania, which is great news, except for the fact that Reigns is going to use his rematch clause to get his title back either before or during Wrestlemania. Regardless of what happens after Royal Rumble, Reigns is continously going to be booked being screwed over from the Authority while simultaneously remaining WWE's top tier wrestler (even more than Cena and Lesnar).

Reigns is over, there's no doubt about that. The problem is that Reigns is the only one getting this push.

New Year's Weekend Recap (12/31/15 - 1/3/16)

Friday (1/1):

• On New Year's Eve, Vince and I ate at Ping Pang Pong at Gold Coast casino. We usually eat at Diamond China but I wanted to try something different for a change.
• We played L4D2 with Dan and Corinne to ring in the New Year. I can't tell you how awesome it is to be just a homebody on New Year's. We're warm, we're comfortable, and we're with our kitties.

Saturday (1/2):

• Woke up early to watch "Hateful 8" at Town Square. We watched the 70mm Road Show, where they have an Overture and Intermission, making the movie run a little over 3 hours.
• Went to Fashion Show Mall and ran into Andrew and Joanna
• I attempted to cook Tinola Manok. I failed in cooking the papayas but Vince helped me out with it.

Sunday (1/3):

This is wrestling LOL. NJPW's Wrestle Kingdom 10 is off to a good start.

A video posted by sheila antonio (@sajcfan) on Jan 4, 2016 at 12:38am PST

• We stayed at home the whole day
• Watched "Making a Murderer" on Netflix. That show is fucked up.
• We played Diablo III with Dan and Corinne
• Stayed up to watch Wrestle Kingdom 10 from 11 pm to nearly 4 am. God damn, that is the best wrestling to watch for the new year. I enjoy WWE and ROH on a weekly basis but NJPW is on a whole other level.
• Speaking of which, I'm not really looking forward to tonight's RAW, especially for the main event (Roman Reigns vs Sheamus with Vince McMahon as the guest referee). I just want to see what Ambrose and Owens are up to, who else will be in the Royal Rumble, and what to expect for Smack Down! on Thursday.