Choke's WWE Raw rant & Smackdown Preview 2/24/2014 - 2/28/2014
Posted by: choke Feb 28, 2014 | 1688 views | 2 comments
RAW Rant
Overall very enjoyable show. Nice ending sending it home with the Undertaker choke slam. I'm so intrigued by what the WWE is going to do with Batista vs Orton. Two heels battling it out for the Title on a Mania? Is Orton actually going to turned semi-face? Will they change it completely up and insert Bryan or someone else in the mix? I feel the next weeks will almost be more exciting because of this development than if they just had given us Bryan winning the Rumble or Chamber. Funny how that works. If that was their plan all along (it wasnt), chalk one up to the creative geniuses. Odd storytelling with the Cena "injury". It was good acting to make us think he was actually hurt, but I still feel like it would have been 10 times more effective to actually have the Wyatts kick his ass instead of playing it off as "real" It's not like we all cant check the internet the next day to see Cena is fine? BLURRING THE LINE AS ALWAYS.
Smackdown Preview
As always this preview is from www.prowrestling.net and contains no spoilers as I myself have not read them yet. Just predictions. If some of these matches aren't listed correctly, blame them!
1. Mark Henry and Big E vs The Real Americans: Well this is obviously going towards setting up Cesaro vs Big E for the IC Belt. Or is it? Maybe instead they'll give us a heel turn for Henry to challenge his "friend" Big E. Either way it's hard not to predict that Swagger and Cesaro will bicker over something. I'll say it's Cesaro getting the pin to get him another shot at Big Es belt, with Swagger then getting upset that it wasnt him.
2. Sheamus vs Alberto Del Rio: Interesting match. I was convinced the WWE was giving us Sheamus vs Christian at Mania, but then they gave us the match on Raw with a clean pin by Sheamus. I'm guessing the Del Rio pinning Batista on Raw was the end of their feud for now, but it seems weird to give Batista a loss to Del Rio and not have him avenge it? I'm confused. I'll say Christian gets involved somewhere and causes Sheamus a loss.
3. Batista vs Dolph Ziggler: Well the heel turn is official. And what other way to make it official than to have him come out and destroy a relative fan favorite like Doormat Ziggler. Plus is there any way to make a guy look good then by having him destroy Ziggler? Take a shot every time Ziggler's body folds in a way that you didnt think it'd be humanly possible. If they do it right you'll be drunk after 3 minutes. Batista wins easily.
4. AJ Lee vs Cameron for the Divas Championship: Not sure exactly what this will set up. Obviously it's hard to see Cameron winning. I wonder if Tamina's leather vest thrown at her will be more or less painful than sex (Total Divas references ftw!) Actually I'm gonna say AJ wins, then in an aftermatch beatdown Natalya or one of the Bellas comes out for the save, and then we'll have our Mania Divas match set!
5. Daniel Bryan and the Usos vs Kane and the New Age Outlaws: Pretty sure the Usos will get another shot at the tags for Mania, and pretty sure the WWE is HELL-bent on not giving Kane an actual match victory all season, so you gotta go with the faces. Maybe Trips comes out at some point to acknowledge the probable Bryan/HHH match for Mania? Probably, But not until after the faces take it
Overall: Doesnt look like enough wrestling. And the matches we are getting all seem like rehashes of things we've seen over the last month anyhow. Is it weird I'm mostly excited to hear the Batista crowd reaction (and also seeing how many near concussions Ziggy picks up) But even with that potential fun, gotta go with a dismal 4 jameson shots out of 5.
Rising
1. Undertaker: He really should have been on my list last week. Sorry guys. I actually picked him up on Saturday before the Chamber, thinking they might have him come out and do something there. Obviously he's not going to pick up a ton of points from now til Mania, but I think between his foreign object, attack, tables etc potential, to the points he'll get from a likely win at Mania, plus the possibility he'll wrestler a Raw match or two (can anyone else see a Taker vs Heyman?) along the way make him a solid pickup if you've got dead weight on your team
2. Whichever Diva comes out after the AJ/Cameron match (if any): MAYBE Naomi will be ready for Mania and if she comes out to save Cameron I'd roll with that, but if Natalya or one of the Bellas comes out, I'd go that way for the Mania title match, and scoop them up. The contenders for the Divas belt can be monstrous point getters during the chase.
3. HHH: If you're really desperate. I dont know how much in-ring action they'll get hunter involved in leading up to his probably match against Bryan, but I'd rather have a guy that has a match at Mania vs a guy like say Sandow, Ziggler, etc on my team who probably wont even be given a ticket to the show.
Also: Heyman can get some sneaky points when he's involved in a buildup for a match like this. Like he could at some point rail Taker with a Kendo stick 10 times.
Falling
1. Xavier Woods: Even with his atrocious "gimmick" and them forcing him to come out with R-Truth, I still thought in the pre-season that he'd have a good season, picking up various wins on Smackdown and Raw. Well I was wrong. ALICIA FOX HAS THE SAME AMOUNT OF POINTS. In the oft chance you're still carrying him on your team, you should've stopped a long time ago
2. Every midcarder who showed great promise to be a top tier star: Sandow, Ziggler, etc. I know I put these guys on here every week, but each and every week it just becomes more true, and more depressing. Please dont let this happen to Cesaro, PLEASE.
Also: Where is Kofi Kingston?