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| The Buzzards lead to WrestleMania |
- We got some title changes! Naomi is your new SmackDown! Women's Champion, Bayley is RAW Women's Champion and Bray Wyatt is WWE World Champion (fuckin' yeah!)
- We have a new design for the Elimination Chamber (more on that later), and I have to say, I'm lovin' it.
- Brock Lesnar has officially announced his retirement from MMA - I'm sure it has nothing to do with him getting on a bit or the fact that he failed his drug test for his last fight, nothing at all.
- Its being reported that Zack Sabre Jr. is joining New Japan Pro Wrestling. I can see him fitting in well there, and it'll certainly give me more reason to watch, here's hoping he doesn't get bunged into some faction for the sake of it.
- JeriKO is (seemingly) dead. Owens attacked Jericho at the Festival of Friendship and made everyone cry in the process. I know it had to end sometime but not like this, WWE, not like this.
And now for the hydrogen in this zeppelin of a wrestling blog, its the matches!
WWE Elimination Chamber
Best Match on EC: John Cena vs Dean Ambrose vs Baron Corbin vs The Miz vs Bray Wyatt vs AJ Styles - WWE World Championship Elimination Chamber Match
We start off this week with the SmackDown! exclusive Pay-Per-Vew, Elimination Chamber. Taking the prize as best match on the show is the marquee bout itself, with John Cena defending his WWE World Championship in the Elimination Chamber.
First off, lets have a quick chat about the new structure. Imagine if the old Elimination Chamber and the Hell in the Cell did the fusion dance and fused together. There's a more square, rigid design to it, and bloody hell its got some height to it. There's some padding on the floors now, which allowed some more big spots that wouldn't result in death anymore, and they changed the pods; more cubic and now a good clearance overheard to allow some proper climbing up on top of them. I can't speak for those in attendance, but it looked like it was easier to see into, with less chunks of mesh amongst the chain. I am a big fan of this change, its slick and I had a lot of fun thinking of what they could do in there. I didn't think the pods were at a great angle to throw someone through the plexiglass, but fuck me when someone got tossed through, it popped me big.
Right, lets get into it. As everyone was entering, we were counting it down to who would be kicking us off and boy oh boy was I happy when Cena and Styles began in the ring. Coming off their awesome clash at the Royal Rumble just a couple weeks prior, I was amped to see these two go at it. Although they weren't alone for long, they did have their encounters throughout the match, with them being the last 2 to be eliminated.
As people came in, they all had a part to play that gave the match something new to play with. When Dean came in, things started to get more violent with the usage of the environment from the second he stepped in. Wyatt's entrance gave the group a big, brutalising bastard to work with. Corbin had the 'house of fire' element to his presence, just completely wrecking shop, taking out everyone with his power moves. The Miz played the vulture, picking up after Corbin and taking advantage of the devastation laid out for him.
Going bad to what I said about the structure, the new structure allowed for greater usage of risky spots that would've murdered in the last version. For example, Ambrose's suplex toss thing became even more lethal.
However, my favourite moment of t his match was when the new planes of plexiglass above the pods came into play. First off, the new cubic pods allowed for this to happen, and then we got given this destruction of AJ's face;
Just horrific, and this brings me to my next point. AJ Styles took one hell of a shit kicking in this match. He was involved in the majority of the big moments, with him more often that not being the one taking damage. He got chucked into the chain, dropped on the floor, dived on, did some diving himself, just a whole host of pain dished out to him. Definitely the MVP of the Chamber. After all of that, he lasted right til the end, staying in the match for all 34 minutes of it, and got a Sister Abigail for his troubles.
And there you have it, Bray Wyatt is WWE World Heavyweight Champion! This was my favourite Chamber in recent memory, I'm loving the new structure, and with SmackDown! this is most definitely the best group of people to have put in here. Awesome match through and through.
Monday Night RAW
Best Match on RAW (13/2/17): Charlotte vs Bayley - RAW Women's Championship Match
We're on Monday Night RAW now, and looking towards the main event we have Charlotte defending her Women's Championship against Bayley. Booking aside, this was a pretty good match, its just a shame I can't really remember a whole lot about it.
You had Charlotte going with the power game for this one, beating down Bayley every chance she had. Pair that with Bayley's plucky underdog fight, we had a great setup for the classic heel/face dynamic.
One moment that does stick out to me was Charlotte once again delivering that beautiful moonsault of hers. This time, she took flight off of the barricade, Sami Zayn style, and good lord she came clattering down on Bayley's shoulder hard. Absolutely flattened the poor girl.
The ending, was a bit of a let down I have to say. Charlotte had Bayley in the Figure 8 Leg Lock. Dana Brooke comes out of fucking space - God knows when she was last on RAW - helping Charlotte, giving her leverage for the hold or something like that. Cue Sasha Banks who runs down ramp (still nursing an injured leg but no sign of pain), takes care of Dana, hits Charlotte with a crutch without the ref seeing - leads to a Bayley-to-Belly and a pin. Bayley wins!
I would rather Bayley's journey to the title taken longer. Its her first program in title contention, and I don't think this quick a quest, and on just some episode of RAW that will probably be most remembered (for now at least) as the one where JeriKO was destroyed. Plus, having Sasha involved and dirtying up the victory doesn't sit well with me. I've seen people comparing it Macho Man Randy Savage's first world title win, but I don't think its the same. Whilst both of them are the good guys, Bayley has a much more significant sense of honour and perseverance, with Savage being more of a wild, charismatic character that the people loved. But hey, lets hope for the best and see where we go from here.
SmackDown! LIVE
Best Match on SD! (14/2/17): Bray Wyatt vs John Cena vs AJ Styles - WWE World Championship Match
Taking us to SmackDown! Live now and we've got Bray Wyatt with his first title defence. It's a triple threat against former champion John Cena, and 'The Phenomenal One' AJ Styles.
This was a great match and I thought that it did a good job of cementing Wyatt as champion. It had the makings of what I'd consider a PPV standard match. We had the sequences involving all three men, weaving in and out of each other. Kicking out of finishers wasn't done to death here; if I'm remembering correctly here I think one Styles Clash and one Attitude Adjustment were kicked out of, with these being done to Cena and AJ respectively, so that keeps their little feud going a bit. Wyatt only hit one Sister Abigail, and that was to finish the match, so that move is perfectly protected as being a killer right now.
Just a note on this match, it seemed that AJ kept falling out of the sky in this one, and I thought it was awesome camera work. One of them just turned around and all of a sudden, from the top of your screen falls Styles with a forearm. Bray was pinning Cena at one point, real close shot of it, and boom, AJ crashes down on top of them. I think its cool as all hell, gives a real 'wow' factor to things and gives excitement to some things that otherwise wouldn't be as entertaining. Breaking a pin with a springboard in itself is pretty sweet, but having it come out of nowhere makes it that bit more special.
Great match here on SmackDown!, continuing the shows trend of putting on some belters. Keep it up, SD!
205 Live
Best Match on 205 (14/2/17): Gran Metalik vs Drew Gulak
Its a little bit later than SmackDown!, its 205 Live! Making his debut on the show, having been missing from WWE programming since the first RAW with Cruiserweights, its Gran Metalik!
We started off with Gulak just straight up bludgeoning Metalik from the off, kicking the ever loving piss out of the luchador. Metalik slipped on the ropes pretty early on, which Gulak helped him recover from by booting him in the face. Lovely stuff. I was surprised with how much offence Gulak had considered this is more or less a showcase match for Metalik, and my favourite of his arsenal was his spinning Gory bomb...thing;
Soon enough though Metalik would be bouncing around on the ropes and diving over them, lots of pomp and flair. The best was when he nailed an arm drag after a double springboard then into a wheelbarrow position and then sending Gulak across the ring. An amazing sequence through and through. After hitting the Metalik Driver, the masked man won. I feel his finisher should be something more considering all the fancy stuff he mixes in his matches, but that's just me. Nevertheless, good match here.
NXT
Best Match on NXT (15/2/17): Tyler Bate vs Trent Seven - WWE United Kingdom Championship Match
Fuckin yeah! Its Tyler Bate and Trent Seven, my two favourite competitors from the UK Championship Tournament, facing each other with said title on the line in its first ever defence.
Moustache Mountain was in full effect as the start of the match saw the opening lock ups taken to the ropes and clean breaks ending in twirling each other's moustaches. Loved it.
We had Seven assuming the role of the more dominant one, playing up the seniority of him and commentary putting over their relationship of teacher/student and even a bit of a father/son one as well. I tell ya, Seven sure as shit knows how to chop a man, it was nasty just watching it. Running corner to corner and getting that clap of meat on meat was horrific. Makes me feel tingly.
There was a high spot of an Exploder Suplex from the top rope, with Bate doing the throwing. Seven was teasing a superplex or something of that ilk, like did in the tournament as well, its got me wondering if he's ever executed it. If anyone knows, please do share.
Trent landed his finisher, the Seven-Star Lariat, on Bate in a cool sequence but didn't manage to get the job done. Kicking out of finisher is becoming an increasingly touchy subject, but this is the first time its occurred in the Brits' matches, so I don't think its too bad. Plus, the way they set it up kept Trent looking like a badass;
It wasn't too long after that we saw Bate land his rolling heel kick and then the Tyler Driver '97 to cover Seven for the victory, retaining that beautiful championship of his. There was a lovely exchange at the end, with Seven giving his buddy a lil' kiss on the head as he left. Awwww.
I thought this match was great, its just a shame my Network was a bit choppy when I watched this, so I might just give it a rewatch which will be no hassle at all.
Ring of Honour
Best Match on ROH TV (Episode 282): Bobby Fish & Jay Lethal vs Bullet Club (Adam Cole & Cody Rhodes)
We're on ROH TV now, and honestly, I really didn't care for this episode. I can hardly remember much about this match. On paper it looks pretty damn fine, but in practice I felt it fell short of expectations.
Lots of dicking around with Bullet Club antics which I didn't massively care for. I like it when The Young Bucks do it, and Omega, and most of the main group, but it still doesn't feel like these two are actual members of the Bliz Cliz. Can't really get behind them under that banner, I have to say.
I'm not too sure I even enjoyed this match that much. But that's just me, I'm sure others liked it, some probably even loved it. I'm becoming increasingly frustrated with Ring of Honour - contemplating doing a BWOTW Special on it to air it all out - and this didn't help it much. What I do remember is Cole tapped to Fish's kneebar ahead of their clash at ROH's sort of PPV house show things that aren't massively influential on continuity, so the impact on the victory was softened some.
As always you can catch ROH TV for FREE on www.rohwrestling.com/tv/current or on the Fite TV app.
The Verdict
Best Match of the Week: John Cena vs Dean Ambrose vs Baron Corbin vs The Miz vs Bray Wyatt vs AJ Styles - WWE World Championship Elimination Chamber Match - WWE Elimination Chamber
My God what an awesome match this was. I feel I've praised it plenty to get my message across, and I truly believe it is one of the best Chamber matches in WWE history. Definitely check it out. I would also like to recommend the SmackDown! triple threat and Bate/Seven, because I thoroughly enjoyed them too!
With that down, here is how the leaderboard shapes up nowadays. Bloody hell how is The Miz fifth?
And now for 'The Best Wrestling Quote of the Week' and because I don't want to make people cry with Jericho's heart braking words before Kevin broke their friendship, here's Austin Aries with a lovely bit of cheek;
And now for 'The Best Wrestling Quote of the Week' and because I don't want to make people cry with Jericho's heart braking words before Kevin broke their friendship, here's Austin Aries with a lovely bit of cheek;
That just about does it for this week from me, all that's left to do is wish you all a pleasant (Trent) seven days, and I look forward to our next meeting. Buh-bye!
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