Choke's WWE Raw Rant and Smackdown Preview 11/18 - 11/22/2013
Posted by: choke Nov 20, 2013 | 1359 views | 0 comments
A look back at Raw, and a no spoiler preview of Friday's Smackdown
RAW Rant
Well after a full month of lackluster buildup to one of their 4 major PPVs (okay that's arguable nowadays), we finally got a remotely decent Raw that at least generated some excitement.... right? Some of you are shaking your heads no. Well a title change, a return of a "superstar", and the debut of Xavier Woods? I'll take it. The Big E title change seemed a long time coming, and I've been calling for Axel to lose it for a while now. Big E is getting a pretty mild reaction from the fans for the most part, but they sure did pop at him actually winning it. I think he'll prove to be a solid mid-carder,but not sure he'll ever take that extra step beyond that. I'll go more into Rey's return and Xavier's debut in the rising/falling list. CAN YOU GUESS WHICH LIST THEY'LL BE ON?
By the way today it was announced that we'd be getting a Curtis Axel vs Big E Langston rematch for the title. And not sure when it was announced but the kickoff match was the newly heel Miz vs Kofi
Let's take a look at the final go-home show for Survivor Series. As always these are from prowrestling.net and contain no match spoilers as I haven't seen them myself
Smackdown Preview
1. Goldust and Cody Rhodes vs the Real Americans for the tag titles: Is this their way of trying to make it acceptable that the tags arent up for grabs at the PPV? It doesn't fly with me. Maybe it's old school way of thinking but I want to see every belt defended every PPV. I don't think that's too much to ask. Anyway, I really would have liked the Real Americans chances here, but it's highly doubtful it'll happen on a Smackdown. CodeDust retain
2. Ryback issues an open challenge accepted by a roster member. Hmmmmm. Lots of mystery here. Maybe R-Truth again? How about Xavier Woods if they're going to try to build some momentum for him. Khali is an option. Khali is ALWAYS an option. I'm gonna go with Xavier Woods, and that he gets the "upset" win over Ryback.
3. AJ Lee vs Cameron and Naomi in a handicap match. Assuming Tamina is out there, and knowing that there's a 200 Diva in the ring at one time match on Sunday, I'm gonna say this ends up in a big schmozz.
4. Rey Mysterio and the Usos vs the Shield: This doesnt seem like too bad a show so far. Why did they wait til the last minute to do all this? It really speaks volumes about the WWE Product nowadays that I want to predict schmozz every single match. They probably give Rey the win though and then have the rest of the Survivor Series match participants come running out to sell that match further
5. Big E Langston and Dolph Ziggler vs Sandow and Axel: It's like the midcard all-stars! Maybe Kofi kingston can be on commentary to complete the 5-point star of midcarddom. Well after Big E dispatches of Axel, Sandow wouldn't be a bad feud for him to move onto, or hey, how about let's turn Dolph back heel and go after Big E! I like that much better, but probably not gonna happen. Anyway what SHOULD happen here, is Axel gets the pinfall on Big E, so the announcers can excitedly claim that Big E might not have that belt for long leading into Sunday.... Yeah, I'll go with that.
6. PTP vs 3MB (impersonating a legendary trio): So it looks like 3MB will be coming out as a different act each week. I actually dig this, and it's similar to what Bad Influence was doing for a while in TNA (do they still do this? Loved when they did the Legion of Doom). Anyway, probably the Freebirds since this show was from Atlanta Georgia. Would I be nuts in predicting a 3MB win???? Okay yeah gonna go with PTP.
7. Daniel Bryan vs Luke Harper: this HAS to end in schmozz right? If anyone gets a win it'll be Bryan. This seems like a ho-hum way to finish the show right? Is there really not a thing on the entire show about either of the two major titles? Seems bizarre. There must be SOMETHING. Okay, schmozz. Why do I even do these?
Rising
1. Rey Mysterio: If you're last in your league I dont see any reason why not to get Mysterio this week. If there was more than a month and a half left in the season, I could see an argument for Woods or maybe Miz, but unless Big E is somehow available, you've got to roll the dice and hope Mysterio can stay healthy longer than his latest stints which by my calculations I show as being an average of 3.5 days. Even if you can just have him for Survivor Series and a couple of Raws after, he should pay dividends.
2. Xavier Woods: How angry do you think Woods secretly was when they told him he was going out with R-Truth against 3MB? Remember when they'd build a guy up like Carlito or John Cena and have them come out and make an immediate impact? What happened to that game plan? Nowadays instead of having guys come out and beat a top carder for a title on their opening match, they're forced to dance with R-Truth It's a disgrace. Anyway, being a new guy tends to get you a handful of wins early, and R-Truth is still inexplicably popular with the kiddies. Worth a pickup if you've got some dead weight
3. the Miz: Arguably should be higher than Woods, as I could see him being thrust into some decent midcard feuds with the likes of Langston, Ziggler, and obviously Kofi like he's currently involved with. Should get some decent points moving forward.
Also: Big E should be #1, but i've mentioned him so much that by this point if you haven't taken him in your league, you're banned from reading my stories from this point forward.
Falling
1. Kane: Has anyone considered how awful Kane's return has been? Let me get this straight, he comes back, tells Stephanie she can do whatever she wants with him and she evilly holds his mask up as you consider "oh shit! Stephanie is going to have this guy destroy everyone in her path!!!!!!" No, she puts him in a suit to be a powerless administrator. Huh?! Hopefully they go somewhere much better with this, but this is the equivalent of Jessica Alba walking into my house and telling me she's mine to do as I please, and my putting her on laundry duty.
2. Sandow: Okay so I thought he was still going to be heavily involved with Cena/Del Rio in their feud, and that he proved himself somewhat in his MITB attack on Cena. Clearly I was mistaken and the brass want to keep him in the midcard. Okay then. Still a good hold, just wasted potential
3. Real Americans: thought they had a legit chance to win the tags at Survivor Series, but now that they're in the actual Survivor Series match, I think it's more likely they get eliminated and don't get many points period. Plus once that's over with there are a lot of ways the WWE can go with the tag titles, particularly the Wyatt Clan. Still hold onto them though.
I'll be back this weekend with my Survivor Series predictions!