Payback 2014 Preview

Last year’s show was pretty awesome so hopefully this one lives up to it’s Papa. Let’s get to it.

We’ll start with the preshow as always. This is one of the obvious matches as there’s no way they’re unmasking Torito and take away any money they could get from selling bull masks. Hornswoggle can leave 3MB and start getting evil to promote the Leprechaun movie. The match should be fun though as both guys can actually work a match.

I’ll get the other obvious match out of the way: Rusev destroys Big E. for his first meaningful win. No questions here.

Paige retains the Divas Title. She’s too big of a deal to not get the belt here, and are people really going to complain about Alicia Fox having a push wasted? I could go for her in those white shorts again though.

Barrett beats Van Dam. There’s just no reason for RVD to win but the match should be entertaining enough.

I think Cesaro vs. Sheamus goes to a draw and Sheamus keeps the belt. Hopefully they’re not tying Cesaro down to the US Title and let him get the briefcase or maybe even the title. Either way it would seem he’s heading for a match with Brock so why give him a worthless midcard title? The match should be good though.

That leaves us with the two main events. I’m hoping Bray beats Cena, as Cena beating him for three seconds was bad enough, but keeping him down for ten seconds would just be horrible. Bray winning would allow him to do a bunch of crazy stuff that could be very interesting. I’m really not sure where he’s going, but it’s in a bad direction if Cena beats him. Also it’s not like Cena hasn’t lost a last man standing match before so this isn’t the biggest stretch in the world.

Finally, Shield almost has to beat Evolution. There’s just no reason for Evolution to win here as they have nothing to gainand with Batista likely leaving, it would be a good way to get him out. The elimination and anything goes rules should make things even more entertaining.

For a bonus, I think Bryan hands over the title, even though it means sitting through a lot of stupid drama that involves the Bellas and Stephanie getting WAY too much screen time. Bryan can bring the acting at times though and he’ll likely get a lot of time to do so tomorrow night. I still think the title goes above the ring at Money in the Bank, which should be a good way to get some people to care

Overall Payback looks predictable but entertaining. To be fair, that’s almost the same thing that was said about Wrestlemania and it was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. This has a lot of potential to be awesome and hopefully it means we have a good summer to look forward to.

 

 

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of on the History of Survivor Series at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

And check out my Amazon author page with wrestling books for under $4 at:




Extreme Rules 2014 Preview

How could Wrestlemania have been a full month ago?  It’s time for Part 2 which is almost always entertaining.  Let’s get to it.

We’ll start with the pre-show and go with Hornswoggle to win due to having a movie coming out soon.  Not that the movie is ever mentioned or anything like that, but it does exist.  If they play this for total over the top comedy, it could be very entertaining.  It helps that it’s on the free show too.

 

Barrett takes the IC Title. Big E. hasn’t been the worst champion, but again the booking just killed him. He was the hottest thing around for awhile and now he’s just there, which has been the case since before the Rumble. Barrett is hot right now and a good choice for the belt, but I have no reason to believe it’s going to lead anywhere long term.

Bray has to win. He just has to. I’ll go with him getting the win and then getting to find out where things go from there. There’s no logical reason in the world for Cena to win here but if he does, Bray is pretty much done for now as a big time threat.

Paige retains in what should be the obvious match of the night.

Evolution vs. Shield is going to be the main event and likely should be given the build. There’s no reason whatsoever for Shield to lose here either, but you never can tell when HHH is involved. I was hoping for this to be anything goes but as of now it’s just a regular match. Reigns getting the hot tag and cleaning house will be a sight to see.

Bryan retains of course in a match that will be better tahn people are thinking. Brie being out there will help a bit (if nothing else it gives us something to look at) and the match is going to be more about emotion than action, which is the right call this time.

I stand corrected. Rusev crushing Truth and Woods is the obvious win of the night. Extra points if he Accolades both of them at the same time.

Cesaro should win the elimination match in theory as there’s nothing for RVD to gain by winning it and Swagger is Swagger. Beating two former World Champions isn’t going to hurt Cesaro at all either.

With only seven matches on PPV, there’s a chance we’ll get Usos vs. Wyatts as well and I’ll actually go with new champions if it happens.

Overall the show has potential to be very entertaining without being too heavy on the emotion. Yeah a lot of the matches are predictable, but that was the case for Wrestlemania and it worked just fine. The interesting thing is seeing where we go from here, as Shield, Evolution and Wyatt have almost nowhere to go after this. I’d assume Bryan feuds with Batista or HHH but I’m not sure I can see that happening anytime soon. I can’t imagine he’s getting anyone but Lesnar at Summerslam but we’ll get to that later. Extreme Rules looks very good though with some well built stories.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of on the History of Clash of the Champions at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

And check out my Amazon author page with wrestling books for under $4 at:




Sacrifice 2014 Preview

So yeah, this is tomorrow.

We’ll start with the main event. I’ll take Bully Ray to beat Bobby Roode in the tables match with a powerbomb. No seriously that’s the main event. If you watch Impact, this is the match we’ve heard the most of all month long. I don’t quite get the appeal of having people put each other through tables for a month and then pay to see them put each other through one more table but that’s just me.

Eric Young keeps the title because…..well because Eric Young is World Champion in a major wrestling company and according to them it’s not a ripoff of Daniel Bryan.

I’ll take Angelina to take the Knockouts Title because it’s the easiest thing they can do to keep the division as boring as possible.

I’ll actually take Storm to win the I Quit match, presumably through the use of someone else like Gunner’s dad. Why this feud is still going is anyone’s guess as this is about the fourth match that should have blown the thing off.

Angle/Willow over Carter/Spud to give the good guys their revenge. Again there’s no real thinking in this but that’s the case for almost everything in TNA anymore.

Give me Sanada over Tigre Uno in a match that just didn’t need to be a best of three at all.

I have a feeling Shaw wins the Committed match over Anderson with Christy’s help because Russo is back on the creative team as a consultant and that’s one of his favorites.

Oh and the Wolves get the belts back which should be their first reign but we needed them to win in Japan or whatever.

As I’m sure you can tell, I REALLY do not care about this show at all. That was what went through my head the entire show on Thursday and it’s the same case here. TNA is just not very interesting right now and the majority of the show feels like something they remembered doing before and just swapped the names around. It’s not interesting for the most part and there really isn’t much I want to see on this show which doesn’t need to be a PPV in the slightest. Things can turn around, but I don’t see much good going on at the moment.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of on the History of Clash of the Champions at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

And check out my Amazon author page with wrestling books for under $4 at:




Wrestlemania XXX Preview: Overall Thoughts/Predictions

This might be slightly biased.

So as you probably know, I’m going to be in the Super Dome tomorrow night for the show.  Obviously that’s going to change my take on the events a little bit, but I still think it’s going to be a good show.  There are at least four matches with potential to steal the show, and all roads seem to lead to Daniel Bryan walking out with the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.  That’s the logical conclusion here and it’s something most people want to see.  I’m looking forward to it and it’s a chance for WWE to pull the trigger on someone in some long form storytelling.

The wrestling is going to be excellent and the drama will be cranked up to eleven tomorrow night.  Hopefully they throw in the Divas in between the four big matches to give us a breather, because that’s been a problem before.  I’m looking at you Wrestlemania XIX and for some reason talking to you like an animate object.  I don’t think it’s going to top Wrestlemania XVII or anything like that, but it could be up there with XIX or XX as far as an awesome show.

Now for the interesting part: the rumors.

1. I don’t think Sting shows up.  I believe it’s more possible on Raw than any time before, but I’ll stick with my stance of I’ll believe it when I see it.

2. No Punk.  It just doesn’t feel right.

3. Austin vs. Punk next year doesn’t seem likely for me either.  Austin has been almost flat out saying it’s happening on his podcast, which seems like it’s ruining a huge surprise, which isn’t WWE’s style.

Am I missing any?

The show should be great and I haven’t been this excited in a very long time.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of on the History of Clash of the Champions at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

And check out my Amazon author page with wrestling books for under $4 at:




Wrestlemania XXX Preview: WWE Championship

Or how Batista and Randy Orton have become Mike Tyson.

Daniel Bryan has come a long way this year, and at the end of the day there’s absolutely nothing left for him to do but win the title on the big stage.  Well win it and then keep it for more than twenty four hours.  This is up there with the Steve Austin build as he has to win it at some point and every sign seems to him walking out of New Orleans with the title.

That being said, WWE has done a great job of planting some seeds of doubt.  It’s all they had to do and somehow they’ve pulled it off.  Look back to 1998 with Austin vs. Michaels.  There was no doubt that Austin would walk out with the title, so they added Mike Tyson as the heel referee to try and make things look in doubt.  This is a better execution of that as you could actually see any of them taking (or keeping) the title.  The drama could be INSANE out there, but at the end of the day it’s Bryan’s match to lose.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of on the History of Clash of the Champions at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

And check out my Amazon author page with wrestling books for under $4 at:




Wrestlemania XXX Preview: Daniel Bryan vs. Triple H

What else can I say about this one?Something tells me that this is the match of the night, but the ending is a little shaky.  At the end of the day, there is absolutely no way Bryan doesn’t make the title match.  Now the big question is how does he do that?  There’s the simple option of him beating HHH, but I don’t see that as likely.  There’s the option of HHH winning just to shock the heck out of the audience and then have Hogan make the save, but that seems out of place as well.  I’m thinking a draw, putting HHH in the main event.

HHH vs. Bryan has been building up for years and the Occupy Raw movement finally got us to this point.  People have been wanting to see Bryan take HHH’s head off for months now and this is the chance.  HHH’s video on Monday made everything work so much better, as now HHH is acting evil like he should have been doing all along.  This is the moment Bryan needs to set up the moment he’s destined for, and it’s going to come at the end of an insane match.

 

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of on the History of Clash of the Champions at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

And check out my Amazon author page with wrestling books for under $4 at:




Wrestlemania XXX Preview: Divas Title: Vickie Guerrero Invitational

The winner literally beats the entire division.We’ve been saying AJ loses the title in the big finale to Total Divas for months now, but for once I think it doesn’t happen.  Instead I see AJ hanging onto the title so Paige can win the title on Raw.  The Total Divas would rather yell at each other over their latest drama and the title has only been mentioned occasionally.  AJ winning and issuing an open challenge on Raw is a great way to go, but this is going to be completely insane no matter what happens so why bother trying to talk about the match itself?

 

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of on the History of Clash of the Champions at Amazon for just .99 at:

And check out my Amazon author page with wrestling books for under at:




Wrestlemania XXX Preview: Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar

I’ve ranted enough about the complaints for the build.It’s Wrestlemania.  Of course Undertaker wins.

Seriously what else do you want here?  It’s going to be a brutal fight and the Streak continues, sending Undertaker into seclusion until next February, save for an appearance tomorrow night on Raw.

 

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of on the History of Clash of the Champions at Amazon for just .99 at:

And check out my Amazon author page with wrestling books for under at:




Wrestlemania XXX Preview: John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt

This is the match I’m looking forward to more than anything else.This is the match that they’ve put some thought into as you have Bray ripping away at Cena’s legacy by saying Cena is lying to himself when he puts all of this out there.  THis goes right in the face of everything Cena believes and plays up an interesting idea for Cena: what is Cena going to be remembered as?  It’s clear that he’s nearing the end of his career with all of the injuries, but how does he let go of something that he’s built his entire life around.  That’s some very interesting psychological stuff to get into and could be awesome stuff down the line.

As for tomorrow though, Bray Wyatt gets a chance to get the biggest win of his career on the biggest stage he’ll get for a long time.  He has the potential to be a huge star and a win over John Cena on the biggest stage of them all is a great way to do that.  Cena isn’t in the main event here and it’s kind of interesting to see him going there.  That being said, I’m not sure who I see winning here.  Cena doesn’t need the win, but at the end of the day I’m not sure I can see Bray getting the pin.  However, I think that’s where they’re going, leading to an incredibly violent rematch at Extreme Rules.

The good thing is both guys are capable of having some excellent matches against anyone as Bray is the evil calculating one who lets his talented minions do his work for him and only gets his hands dirty for the big matches (or the occasional squash).  This should be outstanding all around and the potential for psychological stuff as a result are absolutely incredible.  Does Cena start to doubt himself as we head into his final years?  I can’t imagine they end Bray this early, as once he loses a lot of the mystique goes with it.  I’m looking forward to the war though.

 

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of on the History of Clash of the Champions at Amazon for just .99 at:

And check out my Amazon author page with wrestling books for under at:




Wrestlemania XXX Preview: Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal

Basically if you’re on the roster and not on the show, you’re in this.The push seems to be for Big Show to win here, but it seems too easy for that to happen.  I think they might go with Sheamus, but the interesting thing is who the last three entrants are.  My money is on Rob Van Dam, someone we don’t care about, and Sami Zayn.  That being said, the rumor is CM Punk returning and winning, but that doesn’t jive with the idea of him feuding with Austin as has been planned, as it would put him up against Hogan, which doesn’t work at all.

Most of the people simply aren’t going to win, but I’ll take Sheamus for the surprise win.  This isn’t the Royal Rumble, meaning you can have 29 people gang up on Big Show at once.  Granted that rarely works on big names, so I think he makes the final two or three but eats a Brogue Kick for an elimination.  The match can be good if they let it work, but the entrances are either going to be all together or take about an hour and a half.  This has the potential to suck but it could be fun if they build some drama.  The last three entrants should be fun as well.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of on the History of Clash of the Champions at Amazon for just .99 at:

And check out my Amazon author page with wrestling books for under at: