Wrestlemania XXXIII Preview: US Title: Chris Jericho vs. Kevin Owens
All this over a list.
I want to buy this feud a sandwich. They’ve built this up so, so well with the List of Owens reveal being one of the best turns I’ve seen since……oh geez since Batista turned on Rey Mysterio, and this was much better than that. The fact that they waited until this past week to have Jericho put Owens on the List was a great bonus for the whole thing and made it even more awesome. I don’t remember the last time I liked a feud this much but it’s blown everything else away as far as storytelling.
I’ll take Owens to win here in the logical conclusion before they do a big, violent rematch with Owens winning again to send Jericho off to tour with Fozzy. Either way, this match has the potential to really steal the show and should be one of the better things on it, just due to how good both of them are in the first place.
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Much like Jericho vs. Styles, this has been a very simply told story and there’s nothing wrong with that. It really seems like Kalisto beating Ryback in the World Title tournament (Yeah remember that?) in November was planting seeds for this (ok so that’s probably giving WWE way too much credit) and the story has come together really well. I’m digging the heck out of Ryback’s heel character but Kalisto has so much potential.
I think we’re getting a new champion here with Ryback needing to get something to get him back on track. Now I don’t buy for a second that WWE is going to stick with that and Ryback will wind up right back in the midcard purgatory that he’s been in for years but I think they go with him here and that’s probably the best thing for everyone around. Kalisto can come back and do something later but it would be much more damaging to Ryback to have him lose here.
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Let’s get this out of the way first: the best angle of the year was John Cena’s US Title Open Challenges. These things were the highlight of the week almost every time one took place as you were wondering who was going to come through that curtain and have one of the best matches of their career. Nothing is really close to this and I’m not going to waste your time suggesting otherwise.
However, there are some other good stories that are worth looking at.
We’ll start in Ring of Honor actually with the battle of the Jay’s. The company’s big story over the summer was a pretty quick title feud between TV Champion Jay Lethal and World Champion Jay Briscoe for the Undisputed Title. The match itself worked really well too as the announcers made sure to build up the fact that these two just don’t lose. It’s an idea that has worked forever in wrestling and it’s always going to work. As usual, simple yet effective is almost always best.
Also as usual, we have a Bray Wyatt story which could have been awesome but wound up being just ok with “Anyone But You Roman.” This had the potential to be something really interesting but instead we wound up with the usual hot opening and then the standard fallout that went nowhere because Bray can’t win in the end. At least the match inside the Cell was fun though and that’s really all you can expect from Bray’s stories most of the time.
Another good one was over in Lucha Underground with Pentagon Jr. going from a midcard guy to one of the most interesting heels as he was guided by a mysterious master. Vampiro, the grizzled veteran who was long removed from being a regular, went after Pentagon to try and slow him down, only to eventually be revealed as Pentagon’s master. It was a great story with a great surprise at the end and one of the best things from an awesome first season of Lucha Underground.
Finally, we have the story that would have won almost any other year: Bayley’s road to the NXT Women’s Title. This one had all the makings and the perfect blowoff as Bayley won the belt in the real main event of Takeover: Brooklyn. The only thing holding this one back is the fact that Sami Zayn did it the previous year in a better story and better final match. If I hadn’t seen it so recently, this could have passed Cena but it was still awesome on its own.
But yeah, this goes to the US Open Challenge in probably the biggest runaway this year.
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A surprise…..…….AND HIS NAME IS ALBERTO DEL RIO!!!! As managed by none other than Zeb Colter. This is quite the surprise but why not.
John Cena Issuing US Title Open Challenge For Hell in a Cell
This both piques my interest and terrifies me at the same time. Given that Cena is taking time off, it really wouldn’t surprise me to see Big Show come in, hurt Cena REALLY REALLY BADLY with like two punches because he’s a giant (don’t you know?) and then dominate the belt until TLC or so.
Or Tyler Breeze.
John Cena Taking Time Off From WWE After Hell in a Cell
I know this broke yesterday but I have to say something about it.
Well first and foremost this means that we’re going to get a new US Champion. It should be interesting to see who they put the title on as Cena isn’t really feuding with anyone at the moment. There are a bunch of options but I’d love to see Cesaro get it, even though there’s almost no chance of it happening. Hopefully it goes on someone who could use the title though and won’t sit there and waste our time, though that’s WWE’s standard operating procedure more often than not.
Other than that, it might mean Cena being freshened up. The logical move would be to have him win the Royal Rumble (tying Austin for the most all time) so he can move on and win title #16 at Wrestlemania in Dallas but that might be a bit too easy. I’d have him take #17 at Wrestlemania number whatever in the future but I can’t imagine WWE keeps the title off him that long.
The other interesting case is going to be the ratings. The numbers are already at some of the lowest in years (due to a ton of reasons, namely Monday Night Football and the third hour being too much TV but that’s another story for another time) and Cena is one of their few proven draws. Take him away and WWE is really going to have to mix things up, which could certainly benefit the fans.
I hope he gets back soon because there’s no one better, but this might be a good thing just a few months before one of their biggest shows ever.
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John Cena To Issue Open Challenge For US Title Every Week
Mild spoiler from Smackdown but it’s not that big of a deal. Now this is an interesting one.I REALLY like this idea as it’s exactly what the title has been missing. Booking a title strong is really one of the most basic ideas in wrestling: make it look valuable. Seriously that’s about it. If Cena has a line of people waiting to challenge him for the title, it instantly becomes something of value and therefore better than it was before. The matches are almost guaranteed to be entertaining and a pretty high quality with Cena out there as well.
The other major perk of this is it can elevate people by just having them rub elbows with Cena. Remember when Sandow cashed in his briefcase and had the best match of his career? Imagine that from Fandango, R-Truth, Jack Swagger, Neville, Erick Rowan, Adam Rose, Titus O’Neal and I think you get the point. Wrestling John Cena is instantly going to make people better, much like wrestling Undertaker at Wrestlemania. No they aren’t likely to win, but it makes for an entertaining match and gives them a big rub.
I completely approve of this and the longer it lasts the better.
Wrestlemania XXXI Preview: US Title: Rusev vs. John Cena
Let the rematches begin.
This is one that should be the biggest layup of the night and the more I think about it the more sure I am about it. We saw this already last month with Rusev making Cena pass out in the Accolade (I still don’t like that name) to retain after Lana interfered. That was the match that did little more than give Rusev the big win (and give Fast Lane another match that people actually cared about to try to validate its existence as a pay per view) before coming here.
There’s really no reason for Rusev to win here. He’s held the title since November, has had a good reign, got his big win over Cena, and has gotten the one up on him other than that time where they set up the match. This is the kind of match that Cena is supposed to win as he finally stands up for America against the EVIL Communist Russian villain. It’s a story they’ve been telling for years and amazingly enough, it still works just fine.
I’ve enjoyed the build to this roughly 18,000% more than I enjoyed the Fast Lane build, as the story of Cena being too old to do this anymore had me rolling my eyes and laughing instead of listening to what Rusev was saying. Cena is more than capable of taking this, but it also brings up an interesting transition that he’s been making.
I’ve written in more detail about this before, but when you look at it, Cena has really started taking a step back from the main event in recent years. Yeah he was World Champion last summer, but it’s pretty clear that they threw the belt on him because Bryan went out with an injury and who else are you going to put it on for a placeholder champion when the guy you want on top is out?
Last year Cena fought in a midcard feud with Wyatt and this year he’s fighting in a midcard feud with Rusev. It’s interesting to see one of the true legends start to step away from the main event, even though he’s more than capable of main eventing a show if you need him to at any time. Cena is a great thing to have in your back pocket, but it’s also cool to see him acknowledge that he’s still the top man around here (which he is).
In case it wasn’t clear, I’m going with Cena. There’s just no logical reason to have Rusev keep the belt here other than shock value, as the entire story has been built around having Cena STAND UP FOR AMERICA and win the title back here. It would also be nice to have the US Title mean something, and having Cena going after it is the best way to possibly do something like that.
One final note: if Lana misses this show because she’s on the set of some movie that no one, I repeat NO ONE, is going to care about, I’ve lost a lot of faith in this company. Let her be out there and soak up all the hatred from the fans because that’s what makes Rusev that much more hateable. Get your priorities in line WWE, because the movies aren’t as important as you think they are.
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