Choke's Fantasy Rant Raw,Smackdown 2/22/13 Swagger's Last Stand?
Posted by: choke Feb 21, 2013 | 1695 views | 2 comments
My fantasy preview of this week's Smackdown, what happened on RAW, and what to do in the upcoming trade queue.
First, the biggest news story of the last week is Swagger's arrest, and since Smackdown was taped on Tuesday, right before Swagger was arrested, we still won't be sure what the full impact will be until possibly Monday.
That being said, Swagger beat Bryan Monday and has a match taped with Orton to be aired Friday (unless WWE does something REALLY crazy and edits it out), and I expect him to get a victory there to further his push.
Other RAW notes/highlights: Why is Mark Henry scared of Great Khali? Please WWE writers remove Swagger from TV and replace him in the Bertie feud with Henry just so we don't have to see more Henry/Khali guff. Clay and Tensai keep rolling (and shuckin and jivin!), The Shield win another impressive and needed victory, Ziggler keeps losing cleanly, and Damien Sandow, Cody Rhodes keep on getting used poorly. In other words, not much change.
This Friday here's the scheduled match lineup (no spoilers), courtesy of prowrestling.net
Sheamus vs Damien Sandow: AGAIN. I assume Sheamus wins unless Shield comes out
Tamina and Aksana vs Kaitlyn and Layla: This can go one of two ways.
1. Tamina pins Kaitlyn and establishes herself AGAIN (well, for the first time really) as the #1 contender so we can have a bathroom break at Mania
2. Layla and Kaitlyn have some sort of issues during the match which could still result in them losing, but the bigger issue will be that Layla still wants her title back, setting up Layla vs Kaitlyn for Mania (and okay, still a bathroom break)
I'm personally going with 2.
Randy Orton vs Jack Swagger: Well, it'd be foolish for them to have anything happen here other than a Swagger victory. Now maybe someone will come out and cause a schmoz, but you simply can't have Orton go over clean, that's for sure. Then again we ARE in the middle of FaceFest 2013, so maybe
The Miz vs Cody Rhodes: UGH. Let's all pray Rhodes gets the win (it doesnt even need to be clean guys!) and gets himself involved in the Cesaro/Miz feud, otherwise it'll be another match where Cesaro sits at ringside and yells at Miz after he gets the clean pin over Cody. God please no. I can't take much more of this.
Alberto Del Rio vs Wade Barrett: Poor Wade Barrett. With the IC belt he almost seems like he's in a worse spot than someone like Zack Ryder who barely even gets on the show. He's certainly not too far off.
Some quick trade queue talk:
Rising:
1. Layla - I like her potential here to become the Divas #1 contender. If they want to set up something with her and Kaitlyn, they might need to make her heel and have her dominate in the upcoming weeks leading up to it. Plus she's probably available. If you have any other Diva on your team other than Kaitlyn (yes, maybe even AJ, I'd consider a drop IF she has issues with Kaitlyn this Friday)
2. Tensai/Clay - I'm REALLY late on this, but mostly because I've been out for the last several weeks. Anyway, if these guys are available, pick them up. The WWE LOVES Comedy teams. We'll be stuck with them for a while
3. R-Truth - I mean, he's back, and looks like he'll be feuding with Sandow (AGAIN). I guess he's worth a look
4. Fandango - He HAS to be coming out soon right? RIGHT?!?!?!
Falling:
1. Swagger - IF. It's a big IF, but IF the WWE suspends him or replaces him, I dont think he'll be any good for the rest of the season (obviously)
2. 3MB - With Brodus and Tensai, I think these guys will get less shine. Plus they werent really winning anyway lately
3. Zack Ryder - Just in case I haven't brought him up in a while.