WrestleZAYNia XXXIX - 4/1 & 4/2/2023

[w. josh]

The idea that Cody couldn't win because he's not The Guy and would just be a transitional champ, but Jey Uso should dethrone Reigns instead, is...well, it's something.

To be clear: Jey Uso should absolutely beat Roman Reigns clean in the center of the ring in a singles match. That is absolutely the proper blow-off to the Bloodline story. There's no reason for the title to be involved at that point, though.

Last night was the best opportunity to get the belt off Roman and set up the final phase of the story. Whatever happens next will be a step down from that.

[odessasteps]

39 minutes ago, Octopus said:

I’m more irritated we didn’t get a Brandi run in

The next show to drop. Maybe Naomi can come back and we can get some mixed tags. 

[Bear Wyatt]

If they go with Jey as the one to defeat Roman, once and for all, what happens to Jimmy?  Is he any better off?  Does he stick with his brother or become the first challenger to Jey?  The rumor has been that the Usos don't ever want to feud.  I worry Jimmy gets lost in the shuffle for a Jey transitional reign. 

And when Jey eventually loses, do they keep him strong and in the upper midcard or shuffle him back to the tag scene like nothing ever happened?  

Cody winning gave them an out for Roman to blame Jey and/or Jimmy for the loss and restart that Jey feud.  Maybe have Roman 'Pillmanize' Jimmy as a way to get back at Jey for the loss and we're back into another hot angle.

Cody might not be a perfect choice to some but it seems like going with him allows the other Bloodline stories to end neater than the alternative. 

 

[Greggulator]

42 minutes ago, Log said:

It's sort of a Game of Thrones thing, though. Amazing, amazing, groundbreaking series that has a lot of ill will now because of the way it ended. That happens with wrestling shows, especially big ones where the main event is important.

Even as someone who's been out on WWE for a while, I thought the main event was damn near perfect up until the finish. It's not that I'm particularly invested in Cody winning, it's just that the match itself was structured in such a way that Cody winning made the most sense. I won't comment on the storyline because I'm not familiar with it. I have seen a lot of you saying the story makes sense with Roman retaining, and I won't argue with that. It's just that, to me, the way the match was presented and laid out, a Cody win made the most sense for a satisfying conclusion.

Yes, but in this analogy -- I'm actually watching Game of Thrones intently, and you're casually watching. 

[S.K.o.S.]

10 hours ago, The Natural said:

Roman Reigns beating Cody Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship to retain the reminds me of Kazuchika Okada defending the IWGP Heavyweight Championship vs. Tetsuya Naito at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 12. You have a history making run going up against a hot face expecting a title change.

I still have like 5 pages to read so maybe this has been covered, but New Japan also did the same thing with Tanahashi and Okada before that.

Say what you want about how Cody losing feels in the moment (and also I'm so checked out of WWE that I didn't even watch these shows, so what do I know) but that loss is exactly how Gedo would have booked it.

[odessasteps]

What about the Booker of the Year? WWTKD?

[John from Cincinnati]

5 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

What about the Booker of the Year? WWTKD?

Disqualify him from contention for the world belt and make him a perennial IC champ.

[Octopus]

Meat slapping fest was pretty great. Also Flair vs Ripley. Both were my personal favorites of their nights. 

[Lawful Metal]

My prediction: red meat baby face Austin Theory beats Roman by Summerslam. 

[odessasteps]

KrisP had a great line: Dom is the new Jamie Dundee

[Log]

16 minutes ago, Greggulator said:

Yes, but in this analogy -- I'm actually watching Game of Thrones intently, and you're casually watching. 

True. But, my point is that a bad or disappointing (not saying that the Cody/Roman finish was either, but some feel that way) ending can sour even something great that came before it. I don’t mean that’s “correct” or the only way it can be, I just mean that it’s a thing that effects some people’s enjoyment of a work.

I guess maybe this shouldn’t be viewed as an ending, though. The people putting this story together may have had no intention of that match being the culmination of it, I suppose. I think I’ve always thought of Wrestlemania as the “season finale” for WWE, when really it hasn’t been that for a while now. 

[Tarheel Moneghetti]

1 hour ago, Greggulator said:

A few points here:

1) They had a weekend where 80% of the matches were nothing short of awesome. You would all know better than me, but was there a better WM in terms of match quality overall? It was consistently a game of "hold me beer." It feels like a lot of people are missing all of that because of one booking decision.

2) The WWE weekly threads are absolutely dead compared to AEW. Hell, there aren't even breakouts for Raw or NXT or Smackdown. There are only a handful of people who post there regularly. It sort of leads me to believe that a lot of people who are talking about how crappy it is that Roman beat Cody haven't been watching or paying attention. And dare I say a few people are posting about how crappy WM was have said the WWE has almost always put out a crappy product, and you'd find something else to complain about. 

3) The person who is going to take Roman down is Jey. Maybe he beats him solo. Maybe it happens another way. But the whole story has been building up to that for months. Jey even said when Sami was still in the Bloodline "I don't give a damn what the Tribal Chief says." The whole last few weeks of build touched on Jey's loyalty to Roman, and Roman already pre-emptively blaming Jey for losing the straps. 

I’d bet a reasonable amount of cash that if Cody had won, the talking point would be how terrible Cody is and how much the crowd hated the main.  Heck, people here were fantasy booking Cody as a heel weeks ago on the theory he was going to win and the crowds would turn on him since no one likes him.  
 

Honestly, the amount of kvetching here makes me the show went over pretty with the majority of crowds and viewers.

[Gorman]

I'm going to start treating Roman's challengers like the Cleveland Browns during their long losing streak. I am fully expecting them to lose and will be surprised and overjoyed when they finally win. 

My daughter said that Snoop Dogg has "won at life" and can now just float around and show up with the WWE and Martha Stewart whenever he wants.

[Just Adam Bay Bay]

I still say the major F up was giving Theory the briefcase last year instead of Sami. 

Can you imagine the pop last night if after the ending nobody wanted Sami comes running in, hits a helluva kick and cashes in? People still love talking about Rollins Mania cash in, and this would have been even better. 

[chriskbrown50]

Everything that went right on night 1 (and night 1 was really spectacular) was almost undone on night 2. Night 1 the whole Pat Mcafee run-in with Miz while goofy was fun and acted as a moment of levity. Shane, unfortunately, blows out his quad (what is with the McMahons and their quads?). The Hell in the Cell match same thing - had the potential to be really good, and the injury in the middle just derailed the whole thing.

The question on not moving onto Cody to me is this. In 1997 WCW built heavily to Sting beating Hogan at Starrcade. Sting beat him on a really bad screw job finish; instead of beating Hogan in the ring clean. Completely missed the moment. Feels like the same here - Cody winning the championship creates some nice storylines. The Bloodline story does not need the belts to play out for a while. The main event in retrospect was what we see on Raw week in/week out. 

 

 

[odessasteps]

I think it just proves both how divided opinions are here about stuff and how the views here as a whole don't reflect the casual/lapsed but returning fan. 

[supremebve]

So,  I've watched the last few WWE PPVs and I really enjoyed all of them,  which hasn't been the case for years. I'm probably never going to be a weekly watcher any more,  but if they keep this up I'll be here for the PPVs. 

Night one was my favorite of the two nights,  but that is in no way an indictment of night two. I just thought that Rey vs. Dom, Ripley vs. Charlotte,  and Sami/Owens vs. The Usos all delivered exactly what I needed. Rey is a fucking legend and has been consistently outstanding since my old ass was a freshman in high school. He's clearly past his prime,  but he's old enough to have a 25 year old son, and he just worked circles around him while making him look like a million bucks. We asked his old ass to go out there,  carry the match,  get his sons offense over,  but also be the badass dad who has to kick his son's ass to show him who's boss when he's in offense. That's a difficult assignment,  but he was a fucking pro as always and the match was really good. I would have preferred if there was less interference,  but it felt like the story reached the conclusion in a satisfying way. 

Rhea Ripley vs. Charlotte was fantastic. I've been a wrestling fan for a long as I remember, and this is easily a top 5 American women's match I've ever seen. I said this after watching Rhea Ripley and Bianca Belair in the first Mae Young Classic.

Quote

If I had to bet on who is going to be the best worker in this tournament 5 years from now I'd bet on either Bianca Belair or Rhea Ripley.  You can teach an average athlete how to wrestle, but if you teach an athlete like Belair how to wrestle you'll have something special.  She is kind of like a college football player that you recruit even though you have no idea what position they will play.  The floor on an athlete like her is higher than the ceiling for a lot of women.

I think it's safe to say that this came true. I honestly believe that they should have a face off on Raw and do a full year collision course story where the two of them wrestle at next years Wrestlemania. Have both of them be dominant champions taking on all comers until no one is left but each other. They are the present and the future. 

Zayn/Owens vs. The Usos was great and I believe that this was the exact right match for the story. I was telling my friend while watching this that I kind of wish The Usos would leave for a year or two to see them against the best tag teams outside of WWE. They are so fucking good,  but they've been handcuffed wrestling in a promotion that doesn't prioritize tag team wrestling. 

I'll be back to give some thoughts about night 2 after I do some work...

[Greggulator]

2 minutes ago, chriskbrown50 said:

Everything that went right on night 1 (and night 1 was really spectacular) was almost undone on night 2. Night 1 the whole Pat Mcafee run-in with Miz while goofy was fun and acted as a moment of levity. Shane, unfortunately, blows out his quad (what is with the McMahons and their quads?). The Hell in the Cell match same thing - had the potential to be really good, and the injury in the middle just derailed the whole thing.

The question on not moving onto Cody to me is this. In 1997 WCW built heavily to Sting beating Hogan at Starrcade. Sting beat him on a really bad screw job finish; instead of beating Hogan in the ring clean. Completely missed the moment. Feels like the same here - Cody winning the championship creates some nice storylines. The Bloodline story does not need the belts to play out for a while. The main event in retrospect was what we see on Raw week in/week out. 

 

 

Except that Roman never defends his titles on Raw. He also the past few weeks wasn't even at a lot of Raw/Smackdown to even build the feud with Cody and sent Heyman out to do his bidding. 

[DJ Hero Morganti]

Other than being bummed Cody lost, im actually really interested in how they keep Roman strong, and compelling for another year.  

I enjoyed the fat guy moonsault, i loved the meat bumping festival complete with using a mfer to hit another mfer.  

 

Also, i knew Cody wasn't winning when they fucked up his Woah.

[The Natural]

Now that's a photo.

Edited April 3, 2023 by The Natural

[The Natural]

Poor Finn Balor. Very NSFW:

Spoiler

Finn Bálor got injected with a numbing agent and got staples at ringside. Finn Balor is a tough one.

 

[StuntmanCrowley]

I'm more pissed Bianca retained than Roman.

 

Roman retaining was a total piece of shit move

[Greggulator]

 

16 minutes ago, Log said:

True. But, my point is that a bad or disappointing (not saying that the Cody/Roman finish was either, but some feel that way) ending can sour even something great that came before it. I don’t mean that’s “correct” or the only way it can be, I just mean that it’s a thing that effects some people’s enjoyment of a work.

I guess maybe this shouldn’t be viewed as an ending, though. The people putting this story together may have had no intention of that match being the culmination of it, I suppose. I think I’ve always thought of Wrestlemania as the “season finale” for WWE, when really it hasn’t been that for a while now. 

It was the season finale. KO/Sami beat The Usos. Roman beat Cody. Now we have what looks like the finale, with the actual family itself dealing with its business and the beaten down Jey who was the first to be manipulated by Roman comes for the crown, which is how the whole thing started. 

[DEAN]

The fact that GUNTHER, Sheamus and Drew McIntyre beat the living dogshit out of each other almost got it over the hump of being a fucking triple threat match.  I really want to see McIntyre vs GUNTHER now.

[Log]

13 minutes ago, Greggulator said:

 

It was the season finale. KO/Sami beat The Usos. Roman beat Cody. Now we have what looks like the finale, with the actual family itself dealing with its business and the beaten down Jey who was the first to be manipulated by Roman comes for the crown, which is how the whole thing started. 

That’s a good point. I guess I was really looking at the WM main event as the “series finale” of a storyline. In reality, it hasn’t always been like that. Even the ultimate WM “babyface stands tall” moment in Hogan beating Andre was sort of a middle point in their feud.