NXT Takeover, the Rumble, and the week of WWE programming that followed set up some interesting angles and potential big matches for this year's Wrestlemania. Without resorting to a full-on draft, it feels like the deck has been shuffled and we're about to be dealt a pretty exciting hand. I'm personally digging the diveristy of WWE's current product; between NXT, 205 Live, and the upcoming United Kingdom series, there's a lot of quality wrestling on a weekly basis, and you don't have to slog through Raw and Smackdown to get to it. On to some highlights!
Samoa Joe's debut at the end of Raw was a clever bit of misdirection. I thought Joe would make an AJ Styles-like debut in the Rumble match on Sunday, but considering how many big names flooded the ring this year, I'm glad they held off since his debut would've been buried under all the Taker/Lesnar/Goldberg stuff. While I'm gld to see him on WWE's marquee cable show, I'm not sure how I feel about him acting as a "sub-boss" for Seth Rollins to deal with until he inevitably faces Triple H at 'Mania. Joe did come across as a real killer, brutalizing Rollins and choking him out. If booked to look dominant, Joe can be a great addition to the roster, since Owens and Jericho play the cowardly roles and Strowman is still a little green.
The Rumble also gave us AJ Styles and John Cena's best outing yet. I know I've railed the 'E before about not protecting finishers and guys kicking out of everything, but for whatever reason (probably the pacing), each near-fall felt earned in this match. I'm not sure where this leaves Styles going forward and I would liked to have seen this match at 'Mania instead. That being said, it was a great effort by both men to keep the audience guessing. I think a large portion of fans felt Cena would win here and face a Rumble-winning Undertaker, but as the night wore on, we learned that would be the case.
Orton winning the Rumble was . . . interesting. I'm fairly certain they won't do Cena vs. Orton for the 585th time as a Mania main event, so I think we'll see some hot potato-ing of the belt in the next two months. And the Elimination Chamber is still happening, so there's that.
Bobby Roode made his most Nature Boy-esque entrance yet to face Shinsuke Nakamura for the NXT title on Saturday. This was a brilliant match, and I wouldn't hesitate to put it right next to the Cena/Styles match from Sunday. Roode was sneaky and opportunistic in an Edge kind of way, rushing in on an injured Nakamura to deliver a devastating DDT. I hope Roode has a long run with the belt; he's a great king-of-the-mountain type who can make some of WWE's "projects" look better. Let him run that show for a bit, then at this time next year, when we're eagerly awaiting entrant #30 in the Rumble, "Glorious" hits on the titantron and . . . well, that's just fantasy booking at this point.
Two of WWE's more underrated workers, Neville and Dolph Ziggler, have both experienced character reboots in the last few weeks. Neville is really making the most of it, catapulting himself to the top of the cruiserweight division and showing an intensity that his previous persona lacked. Meanwhile, Ziggler has reverted to his frustrated villainous self on Smackdown, but the jury's still out on whether this will move him up the card. Ziggler's career has been plagued by aborted pushes and false starts, and it's a damn shame. Great stuff by both guys, though. Good villains are always needed in wrestling.
Another cryin' shame is Smackdown's women's division getting reduced to Rumble pre-show filler. While Charlotte and Bayley and the rest of the Raw gals are tearing it up, I think the Smackdown ladies have been working even harder. The inclusion of Mickie James will spice things up, but I do wish they'd focus a little more on how dominant Alexa Bliss has been or how fucking rad Naomi is.
Man, I'm jumping around a low here, aren't I? All this wrestling content has jumbled my thoughts- over 12 hours of WWE shows in less than seven days . . . as Ron Simmons would say, "Damn."
Tyler Bate on this week's NXT was a nice surprise (it was taped before Takeover and aired Wednesday). We need to see guys like him and Wolfgang, and Pete Dunne as much as possible, if for no other reason than to keep the UK title in peoples' minds and build up anticipation for the upcoming UK network show. I can't believe Bate is 19 years old, by the way. I could barely function when I was 19. Kid's an overachiever.
The "big" matches coming down the pike don't do much for me, unfortunately. Reigns vs. Taker will be boring, bolstered up only by the mystique of seeing the Deadman do his thing on the Mania stage. Lesnar and Goldberg feels contrived, although I like the idea of someone having Lesnar's number--it adds a dimension to his character he didn't have before.
Well, that's my Rumble ramble for this week. Thanks for reading and follow me on Twitter @ChrisBComics for more chronic incoherence.
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