Top Ten Thursday: Shane McMahon Matches

With the news that Shane McMahon has not only returned to the WWE, but will be facing the Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell at WrestleMania, I figured now would be a good time to look at the best Shane McMahon matches. The only criteria is that Shane McMahon had to be involved in the match. It could be singles or tags. At the time of this writing, Shane vs. Undertaker is still set but there are rumors that it could change. If it does, oh well, just enjoy Shane McMahon's Top Ten Matches.

10. Shane McMahon vs. Randy Orton – No Way Out 2009 

In early 2009, the WWE was in full on Randy Orton push mode. He had just returned from an injury with fresh ink on his arms and a more vicious attitude. Orton would win the Royal Rumble and proceed to punt Vince McMahon in the skull. Never one to let his family get hurt, Shane returned and came after Orton. It led to some odd moments during the build, like the infamous gif of Shane’s phantom punches, but the match itself was pretty good. Shane has never been a technician or a catch as catch can guy. He plays to his strengths, which are brawling and big spots and it works for him. Brawling was key here because the feud called for a match that felt personal. While I love Shane McMahon, a lot of his matches aren’t really great, which is why this one makes the list at pretty good. Orton had his Legacy buddies with him, which only meant that Shane had to overcome some odds, leading him to nail Cody Rhodes with his Van Terminator. After a fair amount of hardcore spots, Shane tried to get revenge for his dad by punting Orton, only to get hit with the RKO. Orton picked up a win on his road to WrestleMania XXV.

9. Shane McMahon vs. Shawn Michaels – Saturday Night’s Main Event

Leading up to WrestleMania 22, the McMahons were embroidered in a feud with Shawn Michaels. Mainly it was Vince targeting Shawn, leading to a match at Mania. Shortly before that clash though, the WWE brought back Saturday Night’s Main Event and gave us Shawn Michaels vs. Shane McMahon. Shane is indeed always at his best in the Street Fight, which is what this was. You believed in the hatred again when Shawn attacked Shane during his entrance. Weapons were quickly brought into play as Shawn brought out a chair and table to take it to the young McMahon. Not to be outdone, Shane got a ladder, which both men fought atop. In one of the craziest bumps I remember seeing, Shawn superplexed Shane from the ladder in the ring, through two tables outside. I know Shane has done some absolutely insane shit in the past, but this had to be ridiculously scary and extra points to Shawn for doing this with his eternally bad back. Somehow, there was still match left after this. The spots slowed down a bit after until Shane’s Van Terminator hit Vince instead of Shawn. Still, the McMahons pulled a screwjob on Shawn, giving Shane one of the rare wins on this list.

8. WWF European Championship: Shane McMahon (c) vs. X-Pac – WrestleMania XV

The earliest match on this list. Thanks to his last name and the Corporation angle, Shane McMahon found himself as the WWF European Champion. Shane was the epitome of unproven in the ring though he would end up getting the fans to love him for his daredevil stunts. This match didn’t feature anything like that but was a well worked match that the crowd was hot for. X-Pac was just about at the peak of his popularity, while Shane was never more hated than he was here. They did very smart things, like having Shane, knowing he’s way out of his depth against X-Pac, look for a countout victory. Shane has the help of Test at ringside, who he would go on to have a great match with down the line, giving him all of the odds in his favor. It was one of those times where you felt like the babyface HAD to win. He would get revenge on Shane and the Corporation. Instead, they pulled off a good old fashioned Russo swerve. Triple H, leader of D-Generation X showed up to seemingly help X-Pac. Instead, he planted him with a Pedigree, allowing Shane to retain his title and move to 1-0 at WrestleMania.

7. Last Man Standing Match: Shane McMahon vs. Kane – Unforgiven 2003 

People are really split on this rivalry. Some thought it made the recently unmasked Kane look rather soft, while others felt like it was a ton of ridiculous fun. I’m with the latter. I love Shane McMahon and really found this to be mostly insane fun. Where else can you get an angle where a dude electrocutes another man’s testicles and have it be a blast? An unstable Kane Tombstoned Linda McMahon, causing perennial “mama’s boy” Shane to return and come to her rescue. Some of what they did could be considered wrestlecrap, but certainly not all of it. Again, it’s a recurring theme, but Shane is at his best in the insane brawl environment. He had to pull out all of the stops against the monster known as Kane. You could feel for Shane and you understood that he was doing this in honor of his mother. By this point, Shane was now well known for his insane stunts. You had to figure that he would need to pull out one of those to have a chance at Kane. You would have figured correctly. The crowd wanted it and Shane obliged, climbing the entrance structure and diving out, falling through the stage. Kane got to his feet, winning the match.

6. Hell in a Cell: The McMahons and the Big Show vs. D-Generation X – Unforgiven 2006 

Unforgiven 2006 is one of those rare shows that had some big time stipulation matches on the card. Besides the TLC main event, there was the first ever handicap Hell in a Cell match. It’s fitting to list this here considering Shane’s upcoming Hell in a Cell match with the Undertaker. The McMahons were in the midst of a long rivalry with D-Generation X. Clearly on the losing side, they recruited the ECW Champion Big Show. Show was in rough shape here, reaching his heaviest weight and looking like he could literally die at any point during the match. This was the last Cell match that comes to mind that really went all out. There were multiple weapons, tons of chaos and buckets of blood from nearly everybody involved. It certainly wasn’t Shane on his own like some other matches on this list, as everyone more than did their part, but he was still involved. I wasn’t a big fan of the childish finish where Vince has his face shoved in Big Show’s ass, but other than that, this is a brutal war.

5. WWF Hardcore Championship: Shane McMahon (c) vs. Steve Blackman – SummerSlam 2000 

SummerSlam 2000 is one of my all-time favorite events. I’m not saying it’s one of the greatest, but it holds a special place in my heart for a few reasons. One of them is that it was the first ever PPV that I purchased on DVD. One of them is that I went to my first Raw on the road to this show. One of them is Shane McMahon vs. Steve Blackman. When you think about McMahons holding titles (seriously, all but Linda have done so), the one that would make the most sense to me would be Shane as Hardcore Champion. It just fit him so well. However, his run came at the expense of Steve Blackman, who was billed at the time as one tough son of a bitch. This caused Shane to run at the sight of Blackman, but once the bell rang, he could run no more. Or at least we thought so. He fought to try and survive but Blackman was too much, forcing Shane to run away. He ran all the way to the entrance and when he ran out of places to go, he had nowhere to go but up. Literally. Shane climbed the structure and must have gone up at least fifty feet. Blackman followed and hit him with a kendo stick, causing Shane to take one of the sickest bumps ever, falling back off the stage. Blackman climbed lower and hit a big diving elbow to regain his championship.

4. Street Fight: Shane McMahon vs. Vince McMahon – WrestleMania X-Seven 

It’s no secret that the Invasion angle was a pretty big debacle. WCW and ECW were booked to be incredibly inferior to the WWF. Hell, even most of the Alliance guys to shine were WWF guys who “defected”. Before any of that though, there was a lot of buzz and hope after Shane showed up on the final WCW Nitro to say that he purchased the company right from under his dad’s nose. It helped add fuel to an already red hot fire between Shane and Vince, culminating in a Street Fight at arguably the greatest WrestleMania of all time. This match was great for two reasons. Violence and storytelling. Vince and Shane held nothing back, proving that even though they aren’t regular wrestlers, they more than deserved the spot on the show. The red hot crowd was invested throughout and everything was laid out so well. From Trish wheeling out Linda to Trish turning face and brawling with Stephanie to Mick Foley as referee and finally to Linda rising and giving Vince his comeuppance, this was all tremendously done. It was here that Shane debuted his Van Terminator and beat his father. Following this and the Invasion PPV, WCW was 1000% inferior to the WWF the rest of the way.

3. Love Her or Leave Her Street Fight: Shane McMahon vs. Test – SummerSlam 1999 

While the match against X-Pac at WrestleMania of this year was good, I’d say this was the first Shane McMahon match to just about hit great status. His sister Stephanie fell in love with Test and Shane didn’t approve like most brothers would. It all came to a head at SummerSlam, where Test put his love on the line. If he would lose, he’d have to leave Stephanie, but if he won, Shane would approve. Shane and Test went out and completely stole the show at SummerSlam 1999. This was the first time I remember Shane busting out his trademark elbow through the announce table. I’d like to point out that I think Shane legitimately has a top three elbow in history, behind only Randy Savage and Shawn Michaels. They used weapons throughout, but added enough story in there that it wasn’t just some typical hardcore match from the era. The Mean Street Posse got involved to even the odds for Shane but Test fought them back. He won the right to love Stephanie after a big flying elbow of his own. The celebration with Stephanie was one of the better feel good moments you could find at the time. Not only would they be together, but Shane would approve, while also earning Test’s respect.

2. Team WCW vs. Team WWF – Survivor Series 2001 

I truly believe this is not only the best match on the list, but if you recall my first Top Ten Thursday, I also consider it to be the greatest Survivor Series elimination match in history. The only reason it isn’t topping it is because it wasn’t purely a Shane McMahon performance. However, Shane, and literally everyone else involved, all more than held their own. From the Big Show’s elimination to the Undertaker and Kane teaming up to Rob Van Dam being the most popular heel on the show to Shane’s sweet elbow drop to Jericho going heel and everything in between. It all just clicked. If Shane shone brightest in Street Fights, I’d say he was at his second best in tandem environments. Matches like this helped to hide the fact that Shane isn’t the best worker. This match was fantastic and Shane was able to score a pinfall over the Big Show. Shortly after, he was eliminated by Chris Jericho before the match continued for another thirty minutes or so.

1. Street Fight: Shane McMahon vs. Kurt Angle – King of the Ring 2001 

Oh look, it’s another Street Fight. This is the absolute pinnacle of Shane McMahon and everything he stands for in the ring. Kurt Angle was lightyears out of Shane’s league and again, Shane entered this match as the underdog. He made sure Angle won an earlier match so he could face a second opponent and be tired heading into their match. Early on, Shane surprised Angle by outworking him on the mat, angering the Olympic Gold Medalist. Angle went nuts and this fight just picked up and never let up. Shane McMahon is absolutely nuts. He took some sick bumps throughout this. The most infamous moments came when Angle tried to belly to belly suplex Shane through some glass in the entrance. Just going through them would have been enough for a great visual but what actually happened made it so much more legendary. The glass didn’t break but Angle kept going at it, so Shane just kept getting dropped on his head. I still cringe at the sound of his head thudding off of the concrete floor. Angle finally put Shane away after over twenty minutes with a top rope Angle Slam. Shane is one of the gutsiest performers in wrestling history and this match proves why.

Fave Five 2/15/16-2/21/16

1) Tomohiro Ishii: The rise of Tomohiro Ishii over the past few years has been pretty remarkable. He rose to become a fan favorite in New Japan Pro Wrestling and was able to become NEVER Openweight Champion a few times. He lost that title at Wrestle Kingdom earlier this year but found himself in another title match this week. At the ROH Honor Rising show in Tokyo, he got a shot at Roderick Strong and the Television Title in the main event. It's a match I've wanted for a long time and they delivered a great, hard hitting performance. Ishii pulled off the upset and won the belt. It looks like he'll be doing more work with ROH throughout the year.

            2) Kevin Owens: This past Monday, Raw opened with Dean Ambrose and it led to Stephanie McMahon making a rare Fatal Five Way match for the Intercontinental Title. Kevin Owens bested Ambrose, Tyler Breeze, Dolph Ziggler and Stardust to win back his championship. His terrible feud with Ziggler continued at Fastlane, where he defend the title against him. It was a pretty good match and Owens managed to retain the gold. Hopefully, with the title back on his shoulder and WrestleMania coming up, we'll get Owens/Styles or Owens/Zayn at the Show of Shows.

3) Roman Reigns: The main event of Fastlane was pretty much the most predictable one in a really long time. Roman Reigns was going to win once the match was announced and it indeed happened this week. The match was good, but didn't reach great levels for me, especially due to the shitty finish. Still, Reigns pinned Dean Ambrose again and Brock Lesnar stayed unpinned in the last two years. Reigns had the "epic" Mania sign staredown with Triple H, though it hardly felt like it. The crowd in Cleveland pretty hated anything he did. Reigns is going to WrestleMania, earning his spot on this week's list.

            4) AJ Styles: Since his arrival in the WWE, AJ Styles has been booked pretty well and it continued this week. On Raw, he picked up a victory over the Miz, in another pretty solid match between the two. On Smackdown, Styles waited for Chris Jericho to defeat the Miz before Jericho accepted his challenge for a rubber match at Fastlane. The rubber match came at Fastlane and was, outside of the main event, my pick for the match of the night. Unfortunately, Jericho kicked out of the Styles Clash, which I feel hurts the move. However, Styles won with the Calf Crusher, cementing a submission victory and establishing that move.

5) Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks: These three Bullet Club members are collectively known as "the Elite". This week, at the ROH/NJPW Honor Rising shows, they faced the NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Champions, the Briscoes and Toru Yano. They were able to dethrone them, making the trio already the fourth champions in history, despite the belt debuting on 1/4/16. It now makes Omega a double champion with his IWGP Intercontinental Title. Hopefully, since the company seems hellbent on pushing him to the moon, it means the titles won't switch hands again anytime soon.

OH MY GOD SHANE O MAC IS BACK Raw Review

Holy shit. We heard there was supposed to be a big start to Raw and we got one. Vince McMahon presented his daughter Stephanie with the Vincent J. McMahon Legacy of Excellence Award. While Stephanie was accepting, "Here Comes the Money" played and Shane fucking McMahon returned for the first time in nearly ten years. The crowd reaction for him was insane. He declined a hug and handshake from his dad before telling Stephanie that he cut a deal with his dad where he didn't lose his spot in line and he wants control of Raw and the company. Vince agreed but only on the condition that Shane earn it in a match at WrestleMania. Against the Undertaker. Inside Hell in a Cell. It's a random match but goddamn it sounds fun and intriguing. Shane is going to potentially die in the Cell to try and save WrestleMania. This is the kind of start I want from Raw more often. Give me something of interest instead of the same old tired format.

That opening segment literally took up 31 minutes of hour one, but it was very well earned. It was followed by a lengthy but fun six man tag, pitting Neville and the Lucha Dragons against the New Day. It was enjoyable but my only issue was that Neville doesn't really feel important as US Champion. Kofi pinned Sin Cara with Trouble in Paradise. Hours before Raw, Dean Ambrose arrived at the arena, only to be assaulted by Brock Lesnar and taken out in an ambulance and neck brace. Brock and Paul Heyman came out and Heyman complained that Brock didn't have a Mania opponent and it's all Dean's fault for costing him the match at Fastlane. Before they could leave, the ambulance returned with Dean driving, complete with the neck brace. He crawled to Brock who just walked over him. Dean got on the microphone, told Brock to kiss his ass and challenged him to a No Holds Barred match at WrestleMania. Brock laid him out with the F5 and accepted. Well, outside of the main event, WrestleMania sounds much better now.

Up to this point, the show was great, firing on all cylinders. The Usos beat the Ascension next in a short match. It was fine and saw the Dudley Boyz cut a promo on the Usos. It was fine and seems to be leading to another multi-team Mania match. Chris Jericho came out to put over AJ Styles after losing to him. He respect him now. Styles comes out and they shake hands until the Social Outcasts show up. They talk smack (while Bo Dallas is amazing in his role, actually being moved by Jericho and AJ's bonding). It led to a tag team match that Styles and Jericho won. I didn't mind this, but I'm not sure what the plan is for Styles at Mania. Jericho again? Backstage, HHH tells Stephanie to give Roman some news. She finds him and the news is that he'll face Sheamus tonight. Oh joy, because we've never seen that before. Also in the back, we get more teases for R-Truth and Goldust. These segments have gotten progressively worse after starting out pretty funny. Truth smashed a cake in Goldust's face, leading the fans to boo. This whole thing is odd.

The low point of the show is next, and it's a rematch of the bad Wyatt Family Fastlane tag. This time, Bray was actually in the tag and they won. However, they only won because Ryback walked out on his team. Afterwards, he said that he needs to start looking out for himself. Next up, Sasha Banks went one on one with Naomi. It was decent at best and Becky Lynch made the save when Tamina got involved. Becky and Sasha stood tall until Charlotte and Ric Flair came out. Charlotte was wearing a top that mocked Brie Bella's. Charlotte says that next week, Becky faces Sasha to determine the number one contender. She tried to build tension between them, shouting that Sasha was attacking Becky and making Becky jump. The match should be good and hopefully leads to a Triple Threat at Mania because that would easily be the best route.

The main event pit Roman Reigns against Sheamus for the 100th time. They worked their normal match until Triple H showed up in his leather jacket. Michael Cole was awful here, flat out saying "YOU KNOW HOW I KNOW TRIPLE H MEANS BUSINESS? HE'S NOT WEARING A SUIT." God, he's the worst. HHH and Reigns brawled and it was pretty glorious. Triple H beat his ass, bloodying Reigns and hitting him with a Pedigree on the steel steps. While he did all of the this, the crowd chanted for him and even chanted "one more time". When the heel destroys the "top" babyface and the crowd loves it, there is something seriously wrong. Triple H was tremendous in this segment though.

This is what I want from my episodes of Raw. I don't need work rate matches that go through two commercial breaks and mean nothing. Most things on this show felt important and moved things forward. We got build for Dean/Brock, Shane's return, HHH's excellent close and more. 8/10.

Fastlane Review

Well, I was at Fastlane live so part of my review will be about the matches themselves and some will be about the live report. The show opened with Kalisto defending the US Title on the Pre-Show against Alberto Del Rio. This was their fourth televised match that I can recall, with Kalisto holding a 2-1 advantage. The fans were into Kalisto but Del Rio got an apathetic response. They worked a really good match actually. It was their best effort besides the title change on Raw last month. Del Rio got DQed early on, weakening Kalisto and scoring a fall to even it. For some reason, he tried to win via countout. You can't win the belt like that so why even tease that? That hurt the match for me. Kalisto scored with a rollup to retain, cementing Del Rio as the highest paid Kickoff Show loser in history. Seriously, they're paying him about a million dollars for this. He has good matches but mostly nobody ends up caring. And this is from someone who really likes him. ***1/4

In a surprising, but very deserving move, the women were given the PPV opening. This is the first time that's happened since a UK only PPV in 2003 if I'm right. Crowd was hugely into Sasha and Becky and they made it work for them. This was EASILY the best match I've ever seen Naomi or Tamina have. Sasha and Becky worked great as a unit and built to the hot tag perfectly. The fans wanted to see Sasha get it and Becky is a fantastic sympathetic babyface. Sasha got the tag and both girls killed it en route to a victory. Strong opener and once again showcased why these two belong in the big Divas match at Mania. ***1/2

            In a match that didn't feel like it should be on a Pay-Per-View, we got Kevin Owens vs. Dolph Ziggler for about the 15th time in the past few weeks. Like most of their previous matches, it was good but something was missing. Add in the fact that we've seen it a ton and you have given the fans next to no reason to care about it. Surprisingly, they billed Ziggler from Hollywood, Florida which they usually avoid when he's home in Cleveland. The fans finally got into it thanks to some near falls in the end. Owens scored with the popup powerbomb, I think, I did look away for a minute. Solid enough match with the right guy going over. Just please, for the love of everything, end this feud. **3/4

At this point, we'd had three pretty good matches and I was thinking this show was already better than the last PPV I attended, TLC 2014. Then the guys that sucked the hardest at TLC (Show, Rowan, Ryback and Kane) reared their ugly heads. This was a six man tag not involving Bray Wyatt and it pretty much blew. It was dull, I could not get interested in anything that anybody did. The best thing about this was a sign that someone had saying "Big Show is a Vapegod". Then, to make matter worse, the babyfaces won after Ryback Shellshocked Luke Harper. Why? The Wyatts are just no a viable threat in any conceivable way at this point. *3/4

Playing off the Daniel Bryan sympathy train came the WWE Divas Championship match. Being there live, I wasn't feeling this match at all. It felt like it dragged and I just couldn't get invested. The crowd was pretty hot for Brie. She kept going for the Yes Lock and did some of Bryan's trademark kicks. Charlotte continually looked for the heat she can't get on her own by doing the Yes taunt. Ric Flair got involved but Brie transitioned into a single leg crab when he interrupted her Yes Lock, which was cool. Charlotte survived and made her tap. I've heard people say really good things about this so I may need to give it a second watch. **

After a good first match on Raw and a great second match on Smackdown, we had the rubber match between AJ Styles and Chris Jericho. I was more into this match than any other because I had never seen AJ live. They had a damn fine match that was better than the first one on Raw, but not as good as the Smackdown one. For some reason, Jericho kicked out of the Styles Clash. Why kill that move's credibility for the sake of a near fall? Yoshi Tatsu died for that move. Anyway, Styles won with the poorly renamed Calf Crusher. They shook hands after the bell. ***1/2

                        Edge and Christian came out for the Cutting Edge Peep Show to promote their new show and have New Day as their guests. New Day came out and made some jokes while E&C said they basically ripped off their style to get over. For some reason, they brought up the League of Nations and apparently, New Day has issues with them now. Yes, even though they've hung out with them in the past. There was no setup for this or anything. LON came out to trade barbs, New Day left and E&C cracked one final joke on LON that had the New Day in stitches. It didn't work nearly as good as they wanted and it completely came from out of nowhere. Oddly, the new segment saw the Social Outcasts come out and there was a random match between Curtis Axel and R-Truth. It's like I went to a PPV and Superstars started happening. Goldust showed up but Axel still won. I didn't get it. 1/2*

The extremely predictable main event was next. I knew the crowd would be more into both Brock and Dean but man, it was overwhelming negative towards Reigns. Much more so than I thought it would be. The match itself was a really fun brawl. Brock suplexed the world, while Reigns and Ambrose worked together to neutralize him. They put him through two tables even. The finish came when Ambrose lit up both men with a chair, sending Brock outside. Reigns no sold all of that, hit a Spear and won. The crowd hated that. It was like, the worst kind of Superman finish. It really hurt the overall score of the match. Triple H came out after to do the WrestleMania sign staredown with Reigns. Fans were very positive towards HHH. ***3/4

Overall, I found this show to be very middle of the pack. There were some good things, like most of the main event, the Divas tag and the AJ Styles/Chris Jericho match. There were some bad things like the Superstars thrown together match an the awful Wyatts jobbing situation. At least the crowd was hot. 5.5/10.

Fastlane Predictions

It's WWE's old faithful booking idea. Do the same match, over and over and over again until we're all sick of it. This will be the fifth encounter between Alberto Del Rio and Kalisto in under two months. They usually have good, but not great matches. I expect more of the same here. Unfortunately, these two were bumped to the Kickoff show, because the US Title isn't as important as the terrible Wyatt Family six man tag apparently. This is a tough call. Part of me sees Kalisto retaining because if he loses, his reigns seem worthless. I could see Del Rio winning and the WWE going back to the Lucha Dragons. I'm gonna be optimistic and say Kalisto retains.

Winner: Kalisto

When I attended the live NXT shows in Ohio last year, one person who had to unfortunately miss them was Becky Lynch. She is someone I've really wanted to see live and I'll finally get the chance here. Her and Sasha Banks are among the best women on the WWE roster and the two best on the main roster. Naomi and Tamina are much, much closer to the bottom of the WWE barrel. If the plan is to give us Charlotte vs. Sasha vs. Becky at WrestleMania, which is should be, then the former Team BAE needs the victory here. Hell, even if that's not the plan, there is no reason for Team BAD to win since they are...well, bad.

Winners: Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks

I'm actually going to be attending this Pay-Per-View. It'll be my first WWE PPV since TLC 2014. On that night, Ryback faced Kane in a dull Chairs match, while Erick Rowan wrestled the Big Show in an awful Stairs match. At the very least, the WWE combined those two shit matches into one, hopefully saving me some time. I sense this is the same old story we've grown accustomed to with Bray Wyatt. He'll kick ass at the end of the year and on the road to WrestleMania before ultimately jobbing at the Show of Shows. The Wyatts win here so Bray can look strong on the way to a loss to Brock Lesnar at Mania.

Winners: The Wyatt Family

Usually, I would be rather disappointed in this match being on a Pay-Per-View. Brie has only had a handful of good matches and Charlotte has been pretty lackluster since the main roster move. However, this kind of match works perfectly for a show like Fastlane. Sandwiched in between the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania, the February events don't usually get the major matches. This should work as a buffer, holding off on the Charlotte/Becky/Sasha Mania outing. Brie will have some sympathy cheers for Daniel Bryan's retirement, but outside of that, people don't really seem to care about this program. I could see Brie getting the sympathy win but it wouldn't be the right move. Keep the title on Charlotte so Sasha or Becky could dethrone her.

Winner: Charlotte

Take what I said about the Kalisto/Del Rio series and multiple it by a billion here. Kevin Owens and Dolph Ziggler are two talented individuals. Owens had a tremendous 2015, while Ziggler was consistently mediocre. A match between them would be fine. However, the WWE has booked them in SEVEN singles matches over the past few months, including about three straight weeks recently. This was all before they both participated in a five match for the Intercontinental Title, which is where Owens regained the title. This will be another in their seemingly endless Best of 54 series. To make Mania better, we should get Owens defending the IC Title against either Sami Zayn or AJ Styles. In order to do so, he should retain here because Ziggler doesn't belong anywhere near a championship at this point.

Winner: Kevin Owens

Surprisingly, I feel like the WWE has handled AJ Styles very well since his debut. He's won all of his matches except the rematch with Chris Jericho. He has been treated like a star even if some commentators call him a rookie. His matches have been good and he's been mostly protected on the microphone. Miz isn't getting anywhere near enough credit for his work in this program. Anyway, the rubber match between Jericho and Styles should be great. Their first match was good and the second ruled. Hopefully they continue to top themselves. Plus, I'm stoked to see Styles, the best that I've never seen live, for the first time. Styles needs to win this.

Winner: AJ Styles

If it weren't so predictable, this could be one of the more fun main events in recent memory. Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar had a great match at WrestleMania last year, while Dean Ambrose's interactions with Brock in the past few weeks have been the best things in the company. With Dean dropping the Intercontinental Title, I really wish he'd win. Ambrose/Triple H sounds better than Reigns/HHH to be honest. I don't see it happening though. The Wyatts will interfere and take out Brock (much like how Bray's feud with Cena started at the 2014 Rumble, died off and then picked back up at the February PPV), leaving Dean to take the pinfall loss to Roman.

Winner: Roman Reigns

2016 Prediction Record: 4-2

2015 Prediction Record: 60-35

ROH/NJPW Honor Rising Night One Review

ROH/NJPW Honor Rising Night One

January 19^th, 2016 | Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan

Usually, the ROH/NJPW joint events are held in the United States but that was different today. They held the first part of a two night event in the hallowed Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. Top stars from both promotions would compete against and with each other throughout the evening.

Jushin “Thunder” Liger and Matt Sydal def. Dalton Castle and Ryusuke Taguchi in 8:22

The New Japan crowd was certainly intrigued by Dalton Castle and the Boys. Credit to Ryusuke Taguchi, who fit right in and even donned a pair of wings like Dalton. Like their match on ROH TV last year, the interactions between Liger and Castle were so much fun. Liger even posed with the Boys once again. Castle and Taguchi kind of make sense as a tag team. Both teams got opportunities to get their stuff in, with Sydal hitting his athletic stuff, Taguchi using ass attacks, etc. In a bit of a disappointment, Sydal pinned Castle with the Shooting Star Press. I understand wanting the guy with a title to win but I think Taguchi could have eaten the pin, unless Castle isn’t returning. All four men shook hands after the match. Relatively fun opener. **¾

Delirious def. Gedo in 7:53

It’s a battle of the bookers! One overbooks his matches with a lot of interference and the other loves American wrestlers and does tons of random title switches for no real reason. When did Delirious start wrestling barefoot? I don’t like it. The fans were unsure of what to make of Delirious’ bell ring gimmick. They worked at a decent pace but it never really got going. Delirious won with a pinning combination. The match was about as good as their booking ability. *½

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion KUSHIDA def. Kazarian in 9:47

Kazarian has always been an interesting case to me. It’s like, he’s good but he’s never been able to wow me. With the right opponent, like a KUSHIDA, he can deliver. Unfortunately, it kind of felt like Kazarian phoned it in a bit. KUSHIDA was great as always, holding nothing back and even hitting a great front flip dive to the outside. After some relatively uninspired back and forth, KUSHIDA made Kazarian tap out to the Hoverboard Lock. This worked fine as a showcase for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion, who should be in for a massive 2016. I found this to be solid enough but nothing more. **½

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Moose, Michael Elgin and Tomoaki Honma def. The Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Cody Hall, Tama Tonga and Yujiro Takahashi) in 11:38

It’s odd seeing Moose come out and not having the whole crowd do the trademark “MOOSE” chant. They do get a little bit into it when the bell rings though. I may not like the Bullet Club at all, but their theme is pretty great. Moose and Fale had a good hoss battle and it ruled because Moose is like the only guy I’ve ever seen match Fale’s size. This turned into a brawl at one point, with all eight men fighting outside. Elgin got to do his trademark big moves that the Japan crowd loves. Tanahashi was his usual self and Honma was super over as always. If I had to pick one guy, I’d say Moose was the star here. Helped along by Tanahashi and Honma doing the “MOOSE” chant and his work in the ring, he won over the crowd. He ran up the turnbuckle before hitting a cross body and then connected on the Spear to beat Cody Hall. Best match of the night so far. Just an enjoyable match where everyone got a chance to do their thing and the crowd was way into all of it. ***¼

The Bullet Club (IWGP Intercontinental Champion Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks) def. NEVER Openweight Champion Katsuyori Shibata and reDRagon in 10:16

Shibata and reDRagon is pretty much my dream team. One of my favorite singles guys teaming with the best tag team on the planet. Going in, I just knew that if Shibata got to kick the shit out of the Young Bucks enough, I’d get exactly what I wanted from it. Kudos to Omega, who showed no fear of Shibata. It further cements that he is a heavyweight that won’t be intimidated. It’s like, for every good thing I see from Omega, he messes it up with his next action or something. He did hit a nice dive outside, while I enjoyed seeing reDRagon and Shibata apply triple armbars. Seeing O’Reilly counter the One Winged Angel into a guillotine was pretty sweet. The interactions between Shibata and Omega were great, but the stuff from reDRagon and the Bucks kind of bored me. What they do isn’t bad, but we’ve seen it a million times. It’s NJPW’s version of the old never ending Del Rio/Sheamus feud. Kyle fell to an Indytaker and One Winged Angel. Good match but I wish we got more of Shibata kicking the shit out of the Bucks. ***¼

The Briscoes def. Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson in 8:23

Karl Anderson pointed out his wife in the front row during his entrance. Props to him. The Bullet Club members attacked before the bell. Gallows even brought a steel chair into play outside at one point. Mark took the heat and Jay got the hot tag, with both guys playing their roles well. Gallows and Anderson teased a win a few times, but Jay had the Gun Stun well scouted. He couldn’t hit the Jay Driller either, instead going with a neckbreaker before Mark won it with Froggy Bow. Pretty good tag match between two of the best teams out there. I feel that it could have been more though. Gallows and Anderson got a good hand from the crowd on their way out. **¾

ROH World Champion Jay Lethal and Tetsuya Naito w/ BUSHI, EVIL and Truth Martini def. IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada and YOSHI-HASHI w/ Gedo in 12:56

Naito again messed with the commentator whose name I don’t know, demanding he hold the ropes open for him. There was some surprising “let’s go Lethal” chants early on. He started with Okada and both men went for their finishers early on. Lethal and Naito were the perfect dick heels. Okada did his usual stuff. We got a tease of Okada/Naito, but I wish we saw more. I truly think that Naito should be the one to take the title from Okada. Chaos started to look for the win as Lethal failed to use the Book of Truth. EVIL shoved YOSHI-HASHI off the top while Naito laid out Okada with the book. YOSHI took the Lethal Injection and the right guy ate the pinfall. They teased tension between Lethal and Naito after the match, but they shook hands and bumped fists. Naito gave Lethal his Los Ingobernables hat, while Lethal handed him the Book of Truth. Another solid match featuring good action. ***

ROH World Television Championship: Tomohiro Ishii def. Roderick Strong (c) in 20:07

This is a match I’ve wanted to see for a while since both guys wrestle a style that I really enjoy. Roddy was an asshole from the start, playing up his new heel persona which he’s kind of mastered from what I’ve seen oh his PWG work. He targeted the back, slamming it into both the apron and the guardrail. Ishii gave zero fucks, even spitting at Strong after getting chopped. Strong grew frustrated that, despite his best efforts and backbreakers, couldn’t keep Ishii down. Ishii’s selling in this match was top notch, proving again that he’s one of the best in the business when it comes to that aspect. Ishii started to fire up, leaning into forearm shots from Roddy. He survived an onslaught from Strong before capturing the title with a Brainbuster. The crowd popped hard for this surprise victory. Last year, Strong vs. NJPW guys made it to my Top 100 Matches list three times (Okada, KUSHIDA and Nakamura), but this might have been better than all three of those. An excellent main event. ****¼

Overall: 7/10. Like most shows that I have seen this year so far, this was pretty damn good. It started a bit slow and none of the matches, outside of the great main event, are anything I would consider must see. However, nothing outside of the second match is something I would consider bad. It’s an easy to sit through, enjoyable show that gets some bumped up cool points for giving us intriguing and rare matchups at times.

Top Ten Thursday: WWE Female Performers

Considering the jump in focus on women's wrestling in the past few months, we're going to look at my picks for the ten best female performers currently signed to the WWE. I say performers because I'm not only including wrestlers. I'm including any female in the company and ranking them based on how well they perform their specific job and their value to the company. Some close calls and honorable mentions would include Natalya, Lana (who would have made the list if she was still as prominent as she was in 2014) and Dana Brooke.

10. Stephanie McMahon 

There is so much potential for Stephanie McMahon to be higher on this list. When it comes to getting the crowd to hate you, there is no female in the company better than Stephanie McMahon. She’s got the penchant for drawing heat that her father was so good at. I mean, this is the woman that got fans to cheer for Vickie Guerrero on her way out, which I never expected. She plays the authority figure role well and commands attention when she speaks. Even when she steps into the ring, Stephanie knows what she’s doing and is good at highlighting what works for her. Her match against Brie Bella in 2014 was one of the better Divas matches of that year. The main reason that Stephanie doesn’t rank higher for me is that she tends to put down a lot of the talent in order to get herself over. Take the Divas Revolution stuff for example. The company made sure to have Stephanie be at the forefront and it really seemed like we were supposed to credit her for the idea. There’s also the countless times she undercuts a lot of what the top faces say, making them look dumb, and we’ve grown tired of seeing and hearing her. Maybe it’s because she’s been on TV for so long and so often, but once a lot of us hear the opening line of her awful theme music, we groan in unison.

9. Charlotte 

Considering the work that Charlotte did during his time in NXT, most readers are going to think she’s ranked very low here. Honestly, if I was making this list a year ago, Charlotte would rank in the top five easily. She was coming off of a great 2014 and had taken part in a fantastic fatal four way match between the “Four Horsewomen”. Charlotte would spend the rest of 2015 in NXT having good matches. Once she got called up to the main roster with Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks, something changed. She was still able to have pretty solid matches with Nikki Bella, but something was missing. She was not the performer she was in NXT. Granted, Becky and Sasha haven’t reached those heights either, but Charlotte seems the furthest off. Then, she inexplicably turned heel and went on to have a series of poor matches with Paige. The WWE stuck Ric by Charlotte’s side every single night and it’s not helping. Charlotte has gone from “genetically superior” NXT Women’s Champion to “Ric Flair’s daughter and nothing more” on the main roster. She also is the only woman with a worse promo voice than Brie Bella. There’s literally nothing else to her character and she is completely defined and overshadowed by her dad at ringside.

8. Renee Young 

Another rather surprising choice for this list comes in at number eight. Renee Young has never had to wrestle a match but she is a lot more valuable than people give her credit for. Throughout the years, the WWE has had a few faces play the role of host. Around the time Renee Young showed up, Josh Matthews mostly handled those duties, but he suffered from the same issue that most hosts not named Renee Young had. He came off as kind of unlikable at times and lacked charisma. When he was canned and Renee took over, the monthly WWE Pay-Per-View kickoff shows became better because of her. She just has this quality about her that you genuinely want to watch and enjoy her. It doesn’t matter what role the WWE wants her in, Renee Young delivers. She can hosts those pre-shows better than anyone, she is the best backstage interviewer that they have, she can host anything on the WWE Network with charm and grace and she even has her own series on the WWE Network, which is one of the better ones they’ve produced. She’s a fan of the business and it shines through. There’s a reason there were reports that ESPN pushed to sign her. She’s that damn good.

7. Paige

I really, really want to put Paige higher on this list. After watching her as the “Anti-Diva” in NXT, putting on some really good matches with Emma, I was a huge fan. She debuted on the main roster and won the Divas Title on her first night, causing me to mark out. I was really looking forward to her feud with AJ Lee. Unfortunately, they feud was incredibly disappointing and it began a trend of Paige putting on mediocre performances. She was, outside of some work with Sasha Banks, not very good in 2015 when it came to in-ring performances. I don’t know what it was exactly, but she came off as rather lazy. That might be unfair, because I’m sure she works hard, but it wasn’t reflecting when she wrestled on television. Still, a Paige that is only performing at 50-75% of her abilities is still better than most of the main roster Divas. Also, Paige is one of the most marketable women on the entire roster. Her merchandise moves very well, she’s a focal point of Total Divas, she’s been in a WWE film and, according to reports, she is a heavy favorite at Comic-Con appearances (she was a blast when I met her at one). Due to her age, there is still a ton of time for her to make a ton of money.

6. Emma

Had I made this list a year or so ago, Paige would undoubtedly rank higher than Emma. They came up in similar ways through NXT and honestly don’t get enough credit for kick starting the women’s wrestling craze in NXT. If Emma and Paige didn’t deliver in their Women’s Title Tournament Finals and NXT ArRival matches, we may never have seen Sasha Banks, Bayley and others get the opportunities that they did. Emma hit tons of rough spots on the main roster though. Her dancing gimmick failed to get over and pairing her with Santino prevented her from being taken seriously. Being sent back down to NXT in 2015 proved to be the best possible thing for the Aussie. She developed into a heel character because being the dancing babyface failed for her. It wasn’t just a random turn for the sake of it, they let it fester and develop. Emma got paired up with Dana Brooke and, while she unfortunately comes off as a sidekick at times, it worked better than ever expected. She is helping Dana with in-ring work, while Dana is helping her be a better heel. Emma has played the aggressive role so well and her match against Asuka at TakeOver: London was damn good. She is quietly one of the best things going in NXT.

5. Nikki Bella 

A few years ago, Nikki Bella was pretty awful. She couldn’t do anything worth a damn in the ring, she was a piss poor actress and she sucked as a promo. When she turned heel in 2014, she seemed to get better in the ring, but still struggled with acting and promos, as evidenced by the god awful feud with Brie. However, their blow off match at Hell in a Cell turned out to be solid. Nikki captured the Divas Title and went on to break AJ Lee’s record for longest reigning Divas Champion. During 2015, the Divas division was pretty lackluster, especially when compared to what the NXT girls were doing. However, one of the lone bright spots was Nikki Bella. While Paige was disappointing and people like Naomi and Tamina were performing mostly poorly, Nikki was always there. Yea, some of her matches were bad at times, but she had some really strong ones in there. Hell, the Paige/AJ feud was mostly lame until Nikki got involved and their triple threat match at Night of Champions ’14 was damn good. She went on to have good matches with Paige, Sasha Banks and Charlotte, while being the face of the division, making a bunch of appearances, starring on Total Divas and just being the MVP. I never thought I’d say it, but I’d love to see Nikki back and working with the future crop of Divas.

4. Asuka 

If we were just talking about pure in-ring skills here, Asuka would end up a bit higher. The woman has, in a very short time, captivated the audience with her hard strikes and badass submissions. There is something about Asuka that just clicks and connects. She doesn’t speak much English from what we’ve heard, but she doesn’t need to do anything with her promos. Asuka has said just a few words in her five or so months with the company, but is already the second most popular woman in NXT. Her matches with Dana Brooke and Emma, especially the latter, were both really fun. Even her squash matches are among the best in the company, always making sure to wow the crowd with her offense. I can’t quite put my finger on it but there is an aura surrounding Asuka that other girls don’t have. The possibility of upcoming matches with Nia Jax and Bayley seem to have the fans roaring with anticipation. It hasn’t been long, but Asuka is already shooting up the ranks. By this time next year, it is plausible that she will even sit atop a list like this.

3. Becky Lynch 

I love Becky Lynch. She is my second favorite female on the WWE roster and I truly believe that she is within the top three when it comes to pure in-ring talent. She finally got her chance at TakeOver: Unstoppable in May of last year against Sasha Banks where the women combined to put on a match of the year candidate. Unfortunately, once Becky got moved to the main roster, they had her play second fiddle to Charlotte. Seriously, if you didn’t watch NXT, you’d have thought Becky was only Charlotte’s more attractive little friend. Thankfully, as Charlotte turned heel, Becky moved into a prominent role. This has allowed Becky to let her personality shine through. That personality is her biggest selling point because she comes across as the most likable Diva on the main roster. Even most of the faces in the Divas division can be unlikable at times, like Paige, the Bellas or Charlotte. It’s hard to dislike Becky. Becky not only has loads of potential but she’s already more than living up to it. There is no reason why she shouldn’t be a part of WrestleMania. Honestly, as much as I love Sasha Banks and think that she needs to be the top woman in the company, Becky winning the belt at WrestleMania would be a fantastic feel good story for the biggest show of the year.

2. Bayley 

As noted, if this were a list of personal preference, I would swap Bayley and Becky Lynch. I remember when Bayley vs. Sasha Banks was announced for TakeOver: Brooklyn, I was actually disappointed. I badly wanted Becky/Sasha II. Bayley shut me up by competing in the greatest women’s match that I’ve ever seen. The main thing is, Bayley’s in ring work, while being very good, isn’t anywhere near the total reason why she’s ranked so high. Bayley has potential to be the female John Cena. She could not only move tons of merchandise, from shirts to headbands to wristbands and more, but she could be the female role models for all of the kids. If handled properly, Bayley could be the new top Make-A-Wish granter down the line after Cena retires. The thing about Bayley is that she appeals to every demographic. Children love her for because she loves what she’s doing and can be seen as a role model. Women love her for similar reasons but she’s also, while being very attractive in my eyes, not one with supermodel good looks. Grown men love her because she reminds a lot of us a simpler time when we used to unconditionally love wrestling before we all got all cynical. Everything about Bayley screams Superstar.

1. Sasha Banks

I’ll start this one the way I ended the last one. Everything about Sasha Banks screams Superstar. When the women in NXT began stealing the show, the focus was on Charlotte mostly. Bayley got an opportunity early on but I just wanted Sasha. I don’t even really remember what drew me to her initially but when she finally got her shot on a big stage (R-Evolution), she absolutely delivered. Sasha then proceeded to spend 2015 topping herself at almost every turn. She wrestled on four NXT TakeOver specials and those were honestly, the four greatest women’s matches I’ve ever witnessed. She is passionate about the business, knows how to cut a solid promo and is the best in the business when it comes to the ring. She gets psychology better than most of the men in the company. She has the ability to make her offense look stiff and she has connected with the audience. The fans want Sasha. She’s earned the respect of everybody. Sasha Banks, being the niece of Snoop Dogg and being well spoken, has crossover appeal that a lot of women don’t. I picked her for my best female wrestler of 2015 and she came very close to being my wrestler of the year in general. Sasha Banks is something very special and the WWE needs to fully capitalize on it. She is money in the bank, pun intended. 

Lucha Underground Cero Miedo Review

Well, with an episode title like that, I'm pretty pumped. After a short recap, we see Ivelisse go to Catrina in her office. I love both of these women. Catrina claim that Mil Muertes showed Ivelisse mercy, so Ivelisse wants a match against the Disciples. Catrina says there are no automatic rematches so Ivelisse, Son of Havoc and Angelico have to face another Trios team before they can earn a shot. Ivelisse promises that she will get her hands on Catrina one day and there won't be any mercy.

Vampiro hypes the main event because his boy Pentagon is in the match. He is basically his biggest cheerleader while on his psych meds. (Shoutout to my boy Dante for that line)

Angelico, Ivelisse and Son of Havoc def. Chavo Guerrero, Cortez Castro and Mr. Cisco  in 5:54
Goddamn, I love Angelico, Ivelisse and Son of Havoc. For those who caught the end of last week's episode, Cortez Castro is actually an undercover cop out to get Dario Cueto. It's great to see the growth of the former Trios Champions. Instead of being the uneasy partners that they were last season, they worked as a team here. The heels do all of the standard heel things right and the faces play their role to perfection. They basically worked tow hot tags, with Angelico getting the last one and doing the crazy shit that he does so well. All three members do stereo dives in a cool visual before Angelico pins Castro with a double stomp. A really fun tag match, made better by how great the former champions are together. ***1/4

Chavo Guerrero is pissed at the Crew for the loss. Texano runs out, now sporting a singlet, and chases Chavo off, only getting his hands on the Crew. Mil Muertes continues to watch all of this from his throne.

A Johnny Mundo video package airs where he talks about being the top star in Lucha Underground. It also focuses on the feud with Cage.

Cortez Castro is icing his shoulder when Joey Ryan comes up to him. He calls him by his real name, Reyes, and says that he's always been a better cop. He antagonizes Castro before heading off for his first match.

Cage def. Joey Ryan in 4:04
Joey Ryan is certainly an interesting character. He sucks on a lollipop and pours baby oil on himself before the bell. Of course, Cage is a monster and he plays that role pretty well as a babyface now. Vampiro is hilarious at trying to figure out how to explain Ryan. Ryan gets a good showing as someone that didn't back down from Cage and actually did a good job against him. Cage basically kills Ryan with a stalling screwdriver. Fine debut for Ryan and good win for Cage. **1/2

Cage instantly points up at Mil Muertes until Johnny Mundo shows up to attack him. He uses a spear, which is one of Mil's trademark moves. Cage turns it around on him and leaves him laid out.

We now see Rey Mysterio training with Dragon Azteca. He tells him a story. 25 years ago, Dario Cueto's father came to Mexico and met with the original Dario, coming together to find the seven ancient tribes and bringing them together. Dario's dad became obsessed and did sacrifices to the old Gods, including his son Matanza. They parted ways and made a treaty with dark magic. Rey wants Dragon Azteca to look for a way to unite the seven tribes.

Next week, Cage faces Johnny Mundo.

Prince Puma def. Pentagon Jr.
This absolutely felt like a big time main event. Vamprio is so interesting on commentary during Pentagon matches. He wants to mark out for him but also talks about things he should be doing better. They had some really good back and forth here and both guys got to do their thing. However, it really felt like they were holding something back. Like maybe there is going to be a bigger rematch somewhere down the line. It felt like a good teaser for something better. The finish was really well done. Pentagon thought he had it after a package piledriver, but decided to go to a surfboard. Puma fell back and barely got his shoulders up to avoid getting pinned and to pin Pentagon. Solid work from both men. ***1/4

After the match, Pentagon, who thought he won, attacked the referee. Puma laid him out and went to break his arm, giving Pentagon a taste of his own medicine. Puma whispered something in his ear and decided against it. Matt Striker said that Pentagon may be a bit embarrassed and Vamprio really looked like he was concerned with this.

To close things out, we see Sexy Star running and stumbling backstage. She runs into the Mack and says that the Moth did this to her. Mack hilariously says that he'll kill him, but Sexy points behind him and says "not him, her". It looks like we're getting the introduction of Marty's sister finally.

Overall: 8/10. Lucha Underground produced another really strong hour of television. We got a really fun opening contest, a solid main event and the debut of Joey Ryan. They also set up next week's main event, furthered the Rey Mysterio story and brought Texano back into the fold. Almost everything Lucha Underground does feels different and unique. It's consistently a breath of fresh air in the world of wrestling.

If you do want to check out Lucha Underground and don't get El Rey Network (like me), you can sign up for the streaming service Fubo.TV. It's a great way to support the company and channel while streaming the show online. You can sign up and get Lucha Underground right here with Fubo.tv

Raw Review 2.15.16

The biggest match set for this Sunday's Fastlane Pay-Per-View is the Triple Threat main event. Dean Ambrose, a member of that match, opened Raw and continued his crusade to call out Brock Lesnar at every opportunity. He got Stephanie McMahon again, leading to disappointing groans around the world. Stephanie cuts the balls off of Brock a bit before booking Ambrose in a a Fatal Five Way match. Michael Cole acted like this was some sort of usual match that we get on a weekly basis by the way. Anyway, Dean would defend the Intercontinental Title against Kevin Owens, Dolph Ziggler, Tyler Breeze and Stardust. Random? Yup. Fun? Actually, yes. Steph also says that if Roman tries to help, Dean will lose his spot at Fastlane. The match goes on with no Roman interference and was actually really fun. All five guys worked hard, gave us some cool teases and great spots. In a furious finish, Owens laid out Breeze with a popup powerbomb to win back the strap. This opens up the realm of possibility that Ambrose can win this Sunday, while also hopefully opening the door for Owens/Zayn for the IC Title at WrestleMania. Ambrose was pissed backstage but did a great job in saying that this may open the door for him to become WWE Champion. Owens also cut a damn good promo until Ziggler interrupted. He challenged him to the 168th match of their series, this time for the title, at Fastlane. Dolph fell from fan favorite to guy nobody cares about in about a year thanks to mediocre performances.

The New Day showed up and cut a promo on Mark Henry for walking out on them last week. Big E faced Henry in a pretty bad match. They messed up the finish and I'm unsure if Henry was injured or not. Big E won by the way. At the top of the hour, Brie Bella came out for an interview. They instantly brought up Daniel Bryan. Charlotte and Ric Flair showed up and interrupted her. Charlotte kept mentioning that Brie would have to support Daniel and talked about her goat faced, vegan kids. Brie finally snapped and laid into her with Bryan's signature kicks. They tried to make people care about the Divas Title match at Fastlane but the performances were off. Charlotte and Brie are probably the two worst women on the roster when it comes to promos, making this rough.

We got to see AJ Styles in action once again, taking on the Miz, who he has been working on the house show circuit. They put together a really solid match, slightly below the opener. They did a good false finish where AJ kicked out of the Skull Crushing Finale. Chris Jericho was on commentary and got on the microphone after Styles won with the Calf Crusher. Styles cut him off and challenged him to a rubber match at Fastlane. Jericho will give an answer on Smackdown. The Dudley Boyz were out next, cutting a decent promo about their heel turn. I think the Smackdown promo worked much better. This just came off as a way to kill time on the show. Next, we got the weekly reminder that Total Divas is back. Paige returned to the ring to face Summer Rae. In a pretty strange decision, Summer beat Paige via rollup. I would question why but it's the Divas division so it probably doesn't mean anything.

It's that time of the week where the WWE mocks the people who put money in their pockets and pay for PPVs. They do this using flash cards, adding to the insults. Paul Heyman came out and called Roman Reigns to the ring. Heyman stirred the pot, saying Reigns has to pick between his friend and his daughter. If he wins the belt for his daughter, he'll have no friends backstage. If he chooses friends over family, that usually ends in divorce. Reigns respects Heyman being straightforward and honest and shakes his hand. The crowd gave zero fucks about Reigns, not helping this segment. Heyman was the only good thing about this. The Dudleys then randomly attacked Reigns until Dean made the save. The two teams will meet on Smackdown. Next Monday, there will be a presentation for the first ever Vincent J. McMahon Legacy of Excellence Award. No explanation was given for what that means.

A mostly meaningless match followed as Heath Slater defeated Zack Ryder in a rare appearance for Ryder. I wonder if this will lead to a main roster appearance for Mojo Rawley. Probably not. R-Truth is on a date at a restaurant and Goldust is the waiter. Goldust ends up popping a bottle of champagne and it sprayed all over Truth's date in a highly suggestive manner. Moving on, Neville, who has nothing to do, teamed with the Lucha Dragons against the League of Nations. Also, Del Rio/Kailsto at Fastlane has been moved to the Kickoff show on Sunday for some reason. It's not like the card is loaded or anything. Del Rio won by pinning Sin Cara. Kalisto needs to retain in a great showing this Sunday to make his title reign worth something. Becky Lynch was attacked by Tamina and Naomi earlier in the show. She faced Naomi and beat her with the Dis-arm-her. Tamina attacked again but Sasha Banks came out, removed her earrings and worse some incredible leggings. She wasn't there in time to make the save exactly but ran off Team BAD anyway. The main event saw Big Show take on Brain Stroman. The Wyatts jumped in for the DQ after like two minutes. Ryback ran out, returning from a Wyatt beatdown. That failed, so Kane did the same and they ran off the Wyatts. Yup, that's how your show ends.

So, with Fastlane just six nights away, the WWE chose one of the worst possible go home show closing segments. It was up there with Charlotte/Paige last year and Rusev/Henry from two years ago. We did get a really fun opener and solid Miz/Styles match, but most of the show seemed filler. There was potential on this episode, but it never fully got reached. 6/10.