Everybody wants Ambrose to turn heel

A few weeks ago, it was speculated that Ambrose would be getting a push to be the new top babyface while Cena was out. This was somewhat great news, considering the Reigns vs Wyatt program finally ended, which meant Ambrose would stop being Reigns' cheerleader. I say somewhat because it seems like Ambrose once again doesn't have anyone else to feud with. It was going to be with Randy Orton until he got sidelined with a major shoulder injury, and upcoming booking on the live events pointed to Kevin Owens for the IC Title. It looks like that's all changed when Reigns got consistently great reactions from the crowd following his victory at HIAC this week. Reigns is now Rollins' #1 contender for the World Heavyweight Championship.

And while everyone is hyped to see Rollins go against his former tag team and Shield brethren, something else seems to be developing as well. Ambrose was noticeably left out on RAW, save for a backstage segment with Reigns' before the main event. Those last few seconds where the camera lingered on Ambrose looking indifferent after Reigns' left did not go unnoticed, as evident in a slew of recent wrestling articles (all speculations of course):

From PWinsider:  

Simple foreshadowing or blatant "we know what you want, so we won't give it to you" but is Dean cryptically telling Roman, first it was Seth, then Bray, who next is going ruin your chances? Oh I know me! If this is the case who do you see put into the filler spot to challenge Seth until the ultimate Shield three way payoff? Do you see a Dean turn as to where this angle is headed? 

I talked about this a lot in the Elite section of PWInsider.com this week. They certainly left the camera sitting on Dean Ambrose long enough to make you wonder what was going through his head, although that doesn't mean he's 100% turning. The fact they teased it though, means they are trying to get the audience to wonder what could be going on...and that's a good thing. 

From Grantland:  

WWE seems complacent with Ambrose — it knows he’ll be there to step into the main event when it needs him, and that stifles him in the meantime. But the next four months will be key for Ambrose. There are rumors WWE is planning a Shield three-way match at WrestleMania, in which case Ambrose will be in a position to excel. There are also rumors his buddy-cop routine with Reigns is leading toward an Ambrose heel turn, in which case we can cross him off the Cena replacement list for the time being. 

From WhatCulture: 

There’s mounting speculation that Dean Ambrose is about to stab Roman Reigns in the back. The two have been pushed as extra friendly for months now, which is the traditional set-up for a betrayal angle. 

Furthermore, there’s seemingly nothing else for Ambrose to do on the babyface side. He didn’t feature at Hell In A Cell. He badly needs the turn to actually give him some exposure on WWE’s product. 

On both the HIAC and Raw show, he offered his support to Roman. The tease for viewers is, at Survivor Series when Reigns fights Rollins for the title, is Ambrose going to shockingly cost his friend?

Personally, I'm not looking forward to this. I would love to see him be a heel again, maybe see shades of Shield Ambrose, FCW Ambrose, or Jon Moxley. Then again, even when Ambrose is directionless and unused, there are still nice little moments that make him a great babyface. In one interview, he called himself "the loveable bad guy," and it really suits him. It all depends on how creative sets this up for it to happen as it leads to the slow build to the much anticipated (and not yet booked) Triple Threat match at Wrestlemania 32. His heel turn, should it happen, HAS to make sense.

Side note: Looks like Tonight's special Halloween edition of Smack Down is going to feature Ambrose for the main event! Even though the results were already posted, I'm still going to watch it. There was a funny end note from the F4W author who reviewed this episode:

A pretty normal Smackdown show that also had pumpkins. 

The main event was good but they should probably find something more productive for Dean Ambrose.

Personal post

I haven't done any weekend recap posts because I didn't feel anything exciting happened or is worth talking about. Then again, all of my recent posts where WWE-related so it's still a weak explanation. I feel better talking about wrestling because it's a nice escape. Anyways, I stopped doing the recaps because I was feeling a bit depressed. There's Vince's job situation and then there's my general frustration with my work and family life. I won't go into details about it but I will say that it's getting harder to stay positive.

That was, until yesterday, when Vince got some great news: He got his job back.

He's a contractor so he wasn't exactly fired or let go, they just didn't have any projects for him. This went on for 5 months and he's applied at several positions in and out Nevada with very little luck. He's a bit sad that during those 5 months, he never really got any big offers or callbacks, despite the work he put in. It greatly affected his integrity and confidence and I can't blame him. He finally gets a callback and it's from the same job that said we have nothing for you. He was the first person to be called back and he starts in 2 weeks. I assured him that it's still better than nothing. It's better than wondering what he has to do in the next few weeks. He's relieved that he has a job again but at the same time a little sad about it.

And then something else happened; he got a job interview at California for a studio that does movie props. He has to drive there for the interview this Friday, which is a 4-5 hour drive from Vegas. We talked about it and Vince said he wants to go for it. This is a job where he can do 3D modeling, his top skill, whereas as his other job, he was interviewed as a 3D artist but brought in as a Flash 2D artist (it's some messed up thing that corporate does when hiring for a specific job positions and then putting them in an entirely different position).

So we went from being assured that he was going back to work in 2 weeks to now being excited for a job interview this week. Vince worked out with Dan and he'll be staying there for a day to get a bit of rest before driving out for the interview, which is about an hour away from where he's staying. This is an exciting opportunity for him.

Now I'm face with a reality check: Either Vince gets the job and we finally get out of Vegas or Vince sticks with his old job and stays in Vegas. There are obvious pros and cons here and it all depends on how this interview turns out. When Vince and I first started going out, he talked about the possibility of us leaving Vegas. I felt I wasn't ready for it, just like how I wasn't ready to leave Guam before moving here. Of course, times changed. Most of my immediate family isn't here in Vegas anymore, I graduated college and am stuck with student loan debt for the rest of my life, and I've gained enough work experience to make a hopefully decent resume. I'm pretty settled here but if we need to move, I would be excited for it.

I'm ready for surprises. Ehhh probably.

"ROMANWINSLOL": Monday Night RAW (10/26/15)

Now this was an enjoyable episode of RAW. It had direction, it had storyline progression, and best of all, it had so much wrestling. The main objective for the show was to find a #1 contender for Rollins' World Heavyweight Championship, which was way better than Rollins getting a random monthly opponent like John Cena, Sting and Demon/Corporate Kane. The winners from last night's HIAC would enter in a small tournament and the winners from those matches would face each other in the main event. Although it was damn obvious who win and get the title shot against Rollins' , it doesn't take away that a majority of the matches were refreshingly entertaining. Here are the math results:

• Roman Reigns defeated Kofi Kingston (w/Big E)
• Kevin Owens defeated Cesaro
• Team Bella defeated Team PCB
• Alberto Del Rio (w/Zeb Colter) defeated Neville
• Sheamus, Rusev, and King Barrett defeated Ryback and The Dudley Boyz
• Dolph Ziggler defeated Big E (w/Kofi Kingston)
• Roman Reigns defeated Kevin Owens, Alberto Del Rio, and Dolph Ziggler

There were 2 things I was not happy with. First was the only Divas segment that saw a reunited Team PCB vs Team Bella. It wasn't the match that was bad, it was the writing for Charlotte and Becky. They suspect Paige was the one who hurt Natalya, who hasn't been seen since the attack, but they still take her back. Team Bella won the match (Becky took the pin) and then Paige made her heel turn official by beating up Charlotte and Becky. Now that Nikki's no longer after the title, it makes sense for Paige to be Charlotte's next opponent. As much as I dislike the Bellas, Nikki has somehow come out looking great in this Divas Revolution, while Charlotte is quickly showing how much limited and sloppier she is outside of NXT. Sasha Banks, Tamina, and Naomi were not even present ringside; they only showed up for the Susan G. Komen segment. All these women need to go solo. Grouping them weekly is like Teddy Long levels of nightmare booking.

The second thing I wasn't happy with was seeing a bored-looking Ambrose in yet another backstage segment with Reigns. Ambrose gives him a pretty good pep talk, telling him to forget all the times he was this close to winning in Wrestlemania and Money in The Bank and focus on taking the World Heavyweight Championship, which is now right in front of him. One small difference between his brief segment from HIAC and last night's promo was that Ambrose was looking noticeably indifferent right after Reigns left. Was this some type of foreshadowing? Or him appearing annoyed at being flown out for another quick backstage segment? Ambrose's only in-ring appearance was for the Susan G. Komen segment, where he appeared along with a portion of the roster and the breast cancer survivors, led by Titus O' Neil. And boy, you could tell that he really didn't want to be there. I guess that rumor about Ambrose getting a push is not happening after all because they're strapping that rocket on Reigns instead.

The main event with Owens, Del Rio, Ziggler and Reigns was pure wrestling with great spots and sequences. Just as Owens was setting up Reigns for a pop-up powerbomb, Reigns executed his Superman punch in mid-air, knocked him out, and pinned Owens. The San Diego crowd was eating it all up. Reigns has definitely earned the title shot, and it only took him nearly half a year to get better on the mic, work on his stamina, and finally connect with the fans. The only thing that I didn't like about this was that Reigns looked strong, like Super-Cena strong, throughout the night. It was obvious that he would win but at least they made it look like he earned it.

Tonights' taping for Smack Down! will have a Halloween theme and no matches have been announced yet. It might be a good thing to make it a surprise, just like the #1 contender tournament match was announced less than 2 hours before the show started. This was the first time in a long while that a post PPV RAW was actually good and I hope they keep this level of unpredictability for the next 3 weeks.

For fuck's sakes, give Ambrose something to do.

WWE Hell In A Cell 2015 PPV

Just like last month's NOC PPV, I also watched this PPV with low expectations and avoiding the dirtsheets. I also ended up enjoying it! Here are the results:

• Dolph Ziggler, Cesaro and Neville defeated Rusev, Sheamus and King Barrett|
• Alberto Del Rio (w/ Zeb Colter) defeated John Cena
• Roman Reigns defeated Bray Wyatt
• The New Day defeated The Dudley Boyz
• Charlotte defeated Nikki Bella
• Seth Rollins defeated Kane
• Kevin Owens defeated Ryback
• Brock Lesnar (w/ Paul Heyman) defeated The Undertaker
  

You know what made all these matches good? There was no screwy finish, no win via DQ, no last minute shenanigans. They all had clean wins. And best of all, they were all conclusions to these feuds, which means we're now going to see new feuds and storylines as they head towards Survivor Series on November 22.

The biggest surprise of the night happened at Cena's US Open Challenge. The Real Americans theme played, which made everyone think that Jack Swagger was answering the challenge. Instead, we got Swagger's manager, Zeb Colter making an appearance! Colter, who was a heel manager and a parody of Fox New's extreme right wing attitude, came out and talked about equality for all. He then introduced the one man who could take Cena down... ALBERTO EL PATRON ALBERTO DEL RIO. And he won against Cena clean in a somewhat lackluster finish. Is Del Rio back with WWE as a full-time performer? Is he a heel or a face? Is AAA ok with him being a champ for 2 different promotions now? We might get some answers for the next few weeks.

Reigns and Wyatt put on an all right match. It got a few brutal spots that was nowhere near the same level as Ambrose and Rollins's HIAC match last year but it was expected that Reigns was going to win this one. Speaking of which, WWE strangely went out of their way to include a very short backstage segment of an exhausted Reigns getting congratulated by drinking buddy Ambrose (who noticeably got a huge pop when he appeared on screen). They briefly talked about something that's going to happen next and they'll talk about it on RAW. Yay! Storyline progress AND random Ambrose appearance!

The second biggest surprise came at the conclusion of Lesnar and Taker's match. Lesnar was victorious against Taker, and they both were battered and bruised. The PPV seemed like it was going to end early again, as the crowd cheered for an exhausted Taker standing in the middle of the ring, until the lights went out. The Wyatt Family - all 4 members - emerged and cornered a helpless Undertaker. It didn't matter that Wyatt lost against Reigns earlier; the whole Wyatt Family looked terrifying and powerful as they beat down and abducted Undertaker from the ring. That was a great ending and an interesting cliffhanger that will make everyone tune into RAW tonight. Or at least I hope it does. Then again, this was the same thing I said after NOC, and the build after that was horrendous because they had to quickly build the MSG event. October was Brock's month. November is now Undertaker's month. Let's hope WWE stop worrying about TV ratings and focus on their storylines and superstars that will draw more attention to it.

"Make Roman look strong": Monday Night RAW (10/19/15)

The go-home show of RAW was chocked full of legends and superstars. This was WWE at its most desperate, bringing in the likes of Stone Cold Steve Austin doing an intro for Undertaker and getting interrupted by Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman as the opening segment. Unfortunately, the rest of the show couldn't sustain that energy and the rest of the 3 hours was full of 6-man tag team matches and average matches. The main event was originally set to have Dean Ambrose vs Luke Harper and Braun Strowman in a career suicide handicap match because Orton was suddenly MIA. Kayfabe reason is the Wyatt Family injuring Orton (again). Real story is Orton injuring his shoulder (again). Here is a breakdown of the matches, as summed up from /r/SC:

• The New Day def. John Cena, Dudley Boyz
• Nikki Bella and Alicia Fox def. Sasha and Naomi
• Seth Rollins def. Ryback
• Rusev, King Barret, & Sheamus def. Ziggler, Cesaro, & Neville
• Charlotte w/ Becky Lynch def. Brie Bella w/ Nikki Bella
• Kevin Owens def. Mark Henry
• Wyatt Family def. "Not the SHIELD" by DQ

There was one thing I had a major gripe with, and that was the blatant endorsement for ROMAN REIGNS in his match against Bray Wyatt at HIAC. Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair were brought in just to put Reigns over with the crowd and barely acknowledged Wyatt This was a stark contrast from last year's HIAC, where Mick Foley appeared to say hello to an old friend (referring to the caged cell that was looming over the ring) and he put over BOTH Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose. Anyways, Reigns had a segment where he wanted to have a sit-down with Wyatt in the ring. He cut a promo that was less scripted was against a somewhat fearful-looking Wyatt. Here's where continuity went out of the window; Wyatt didn't even get to talk about this "prophecy" that he mentioned on Smack Down. He just showed up with Erick Rowan and Braun Strowman in their white sheep and black sheep masks, respectively. That's right, the original Wyatt Family member, Erick Rowan returned with no acknowledgement from the announcers except from the fans. Reigns proceeded to attack Wyatt with his chair and was seemingly surrounded until Ambrose ran into the ring. The main event was now Ambrose and Reigns vs. the Wyatt Family. Like Orton, Harper was also mysteriously MIA.

The Authority and Rollins are shown backstage, commenting on how Reigns is being dumb to jeopardize himself and Ambrose before HIAC. In comes Michaels with a simple solution; if Ambrose and Reigns need a partner, they can send their boy in. HHH and Stephanie were against it, saying Rollins just won a match against Ryback (his second clean win in weeks!) and that they both hate Rollins. Michaels insisted they do it anyways and to stop protecting him. Of course, this riles up Rollins, who said he'll join the 5 world-class athletes and be their partner, which garnered a MASSIVE pop outside. Nevermind that it didn't make any fucking sense for Rollins to join Ambrose and Reigns; for the second time this year since Payback, we were seeing a mini-Shield "reunion."

It was so hilarious to see Rollins and Reigns expressively riling up the crowd as they cheered for Ambrose in the ring. At one point in the match, Strowman took out Reigns, leaving Rollins to be the only one in the corner to make the hot tag from Ambrose. Rollins kept jumping up and down to get tagged in but just as Ambrose was making his way to the corner, Rollins feigns a knee injury, jumps down, and walks back up the ramp. Deja Vu. The match ended in a DQ when Ambrose resorts to using a kendo stick to take out Strowman as he did his death hug on Reigns. Post-match, Reigns came out strong as he took out all 3 of the Wyatt to rescue Ambrose (who, again, takes the most punishment in these matches) and spears Wyatt and Rowan.

Despite RAW being insanely stacked and getting a mini Shield "reunion", the go home show just didn't really do much to hype HIAC, which now fully consists of NoC rematches. Interestingly, 2 major changes were made to the card after last night. First, John Cena's US Open Challenge will be taking place there, which marks Cena's last appearance and hopefully him dropping the title to someone until his return in late December. Second, the kickoff match with Ambrose and Orton vs Harper and Strowman was pulled due to Orton's injury and Harper still being out for personal reasons and replaced with **inhales** Rusev, Sheamus, and Barrett vs Ziggler, Cesaro and Neville in a 6-man tag team match. Which means Ambrose is back to not having a match for HIAC (again!)

Personal post

Well, this was excessive.

A photo posted by sheila antonio (@sajcfan) on Oct 15, 2015 at 6:01am PDT

Wednesday night, I was suddenly hit with excruciating belly pain after I came home from work. I tried laying in bed for an hour, putting a pillow on my tummy, eating through the pain (it's cow tongue, I ain't passing that up), and even took some Advil. The pain was there but it was like rolling. It got to a point where I couldn't sleep. Vince then took me to Mountain View hospital around 3:45 am.

On a pain scale of 0-10 (to being the highest), I went with 10. It was hard to move around and walk. I had to get my blood drawn, which is not good because I'm deathly scared of needles. So I had to shut my eyes and deal with the horrible belly pain on top of getting this weird tubey thing sticking out of my arm.

Then the stupidest thing happened when I was waiting on a chair before going into the room: The pain went away. Immediately. I was so damn scared of the needle that my pain vanished.

I was subjected to an EKG and an ultrasound. The nurse said that they needed a urine sample from me (which was bad timing because I went before we got to the hospital) and they won't release me until I did. My blood pressure was low so I had to be put on an IV drip. Actually, my blood pressure was low because I was fucking scared of the needle. Even the nurse said it was just a little below average but the doctor said I needed 2 giant saline bags. My arm was cold O_O

Vince stayed in the room with me for a few hours but I eventually told him that he could go home until I got released-- which was like 20 minutes later. My pain never returned so they chalked it up to acid reflux (even though the pain occurred way before I ate dinner) and they prescribed me some Prilosec. I called up Vince and we were home by 8:00 am. I already called in at work to let them know I won't be coming in.

Just when I thought we could catch up some sleep, our apartment manager knocked on the door to remind us that they are conducting fire alarm inspections (from 8:00 am - 2 pm). That alarm was SO loud and Vince forced himself to sleep through it somehow. After the testing was done, I went to sleep.

I spent the afternoon resting, eating normally (until I saw I was suppose to be on a liquid diet. Oops.), and catching up on shows. My pain never returned. I think it was probably serious menstrual cramps. Or, as I said jokingly to Vince, it was probably because he couldn't let me fart around him. Vince was pretty worried but I'm sure he was relieved that it never got worst. The only bad news I got was that I had a fatty liver.

I can't wait for the bill to show up in the mail.

"This is room temperature saline going into your body temperature arm. It's going to feel cold." O_O This was a few hours ago. I'm home now but extremely sleep deprived.

A photo posted by sheila antonio (@sajcfan) on Oct 15, 2015 at 2:34pm PDT

"Nothing happened": Monday Night RAW (10/12/15)

This pretty much summed up the overall reaction to watching RAW last night. What should've been another week to set up storylines leading up to HIAC turned into a rehash of last week. No major story development or story progression. I tuned out for the last hour and just watched the clips online.

There was no "12 Rounds 3: Lockdown" poster sighting this week :/

Ambrose opened up RAW, which got a nice pop from the Chicago (one of the smarkiest cities in the world) and it was so good to hear him on the mic. Then Orton showed up and in one lengthy exposition, told Dean he has a match in HIAC against Luke Harper and Braun Strowman and that his partner is none other than himself. It's sort of weird to hear Orton talk this long and even weirder that he had to acknowledge that he and Ambrose don't get along with others. We already know that. The New Day came in and interrupted them, pointing out how dominant they were last week and that The Shield never did this (which got a great angry reaction from Ambrose) and neither did Evolution, The Authority, or Legacy did this (which actually got a laugh from Orton when they mentioned Legacy). Corporate Kane showed up via Titantron and decided to put the superstars into a match. Throughout the match, the duo are seen clearly trying to one-up each other until a miscommunication caused Orton to accidentally bump Ambrose out of the ring, giving Kingston an opening to pin Orton.

There's one segment I wanted to point out and that was Roman Reigns being sent out to do a very lengthy recap of how his feud with Bray Wyatt began, which was hard to watch. Reigns is great when he talks in short sentences or when he's bouncing off of Ambrose. Having to literally recap everything that has happened since Money in The Bank was too drawn out and boring, and the Chicago crowd was not having it. Sure, it drew "BORING" chants from them and he was quick to shut them down, but when Reigns went back on script, he had already lost his confidence.

I'm one of those people that's still bitter with Reigns being obviously pushed to be the top babyface. I just don't like how WWE puts other people with Reigns to get him over. He's been inseparable from Ambrose for a majority of the year because they know he won't get as much heat when he's paired up with him. I get that Reigns has great chemistry Ambrose, it's something the Shield will always have. WWE just has to stop protecting him so much. Rollins and Ambrose are clearly not protected and their fans are still loyal to them, even with all the loses and bad booking, because they can bounce back from it.

I won't talk about any other matches or segments. AV Club and RollingStone summed up the show and agreed that last night's RAW was just unbearably bad. This is baffling considering that the flagship show has been drawing historically low TV ratings weekly and they're still not doing any major changes. The go home show is next week. About half of the matches on the HIAC PPV card are Night of Champions rematches. That's nothing to get excited about, not even for this:

A fucking kickoff match. That's a spot reserved for tag teams and superstars that they don't have a story for RAW or Smack Down. I guess we'll actually have to watch it. And speaking of Smack Down:

Ambrose is in the main event match in his hometown of Cincinatti, OH! I don't know what to make of this. If he and the Dudleyz win, that would be mighty nice of WWE to let Ambrose win in his hometown. If he loses, then it's no big deal. If it happened on Smack Down, then it didn't happen at all.