How I Would Book… Scott Steiner in WWE (2003)

You know they say all men are created equal. But when you look at yourself and you look at Scott Steiner, you can see that statement is not true. See normally if you go one on one with another wrestler, you’ve got a 50/50 chance of winning. But Scott’s a genetic freak and he’s not normal, so you’ve got a 25% chance at best at beating him. And then you add good booking to the mix… your chances of winning drastically go down.

Unfortunately, WWE did not add good booking to the mix when booking Scott Steiner’s return to the company in 2002. Despite being one of the big free agents available after leaving WCW, Scott’s return just didn’t hit the heights of his run in the dying days of WCW and even some of the highlights of his TNA run. Scott as a star in WWE seemed to not be on the cards.

However, was there a chance to redeem Big Poppa Pump in the post-WCW WWE? Well I think, if handled right, Scott could have been a valuable asset to the company. In fact, I’m going to try to turn his run in WWE into something actually respectable enough where Scott Steiner could potentially become a star again rather than a joke. Here’s How I Would Book… Scott Steiner in WWE.

I’m not going to lie… I have a soft spot in my heart for Scott Steiner. This is a wrestler that was an incredible athlete during his peak WCW days with such charisma in every promo he ever cut. It’s no surprise that he stood out as a star during the later years of WCW as its champion and how he’s garnered this legendary status as a wrestler.

And yes… his wrestling promos have made me laugh over and over again so you can’t help but want more for the Genetic Freak. After all, throughout his career, he’s wrestled a lot of countries…

However, Scott’s career never saw him become a major star in WWE. Scott had world title programs, he won the WWF Tag Team Championship during the early 90s and is fondly remembered. However, even when he was given a major program as a top babyface, Scott seemed to fall flat and was never able to be picked back up again until his release from the company in 2004. Despite the charisma, talent and look Steiner had, it just didn’t work.

Let’s go into his career and see where things didn’t work out for Freakzilla…

Scott Steiner debuted in Madison Square Garden at Survivor Series 2002, where he attacked Chris Nowinski and Matt Hardy to a huge reaction in New York. He was pushed as the biggest free agent that General Managers Stephanie McMahon and Eric Bischoff both wanted to sign for SmackDown! and RAW respectively. Stephanie seemingly had Scott secured for her brand, with a promise of a “signing bonus” if Scott had signed with her. Because Scott was not willing to wait for quality time with Stephanie, the deal fell apart and Scott signed with Bischoff instead. He really was the wrestling version of Johnny Bravo… at least in his mind!

Scott showed up on RAW and challenged new World Heavyweight Champion Triple H for a guaranteed title shot. Triple H and Scott proceeded to have multiple contests to determine who was best between the two of them including push-up contests, pose-offs and arm wrestling contests… yes, this is all true. This led to one of the worst world title matches in WWE history at the 2003 Royal Rumble which ended in a disqualification. To make matters worse, the fans booed babyface Steiner throughout the match and cheered for heel Triple H. Yikes.

WWE inexplicably attempted a rematch between Steiner and Triple H which led to the formation of Triple H’s Evolution stable. Triple H retained the title at No Way Out to end the feud which was never brought up again.

Scott didn’t even appear at WrestleMania XIX and such highlights on RAW included a debate between himself and Nowinski about the Iraq War, with Steiner delivering such a debate points like comparing France to Hell. Yes, that is true. Go look it up.

Scott started a program with Test and his manager Stacy Keibler, with the two forming a tag team. The team didn’t last long as Test turned on Steiner and started mistreating Stacy. Scott and Test fought over Stacy’s managerial services. Scott won her services in a hilarious match at Bad Blood (which we did cover on the Armbar Express many year ago (link available here)) before losing the services back to Test in August. Oh, and Stacy did a lap dance for Steiner on the stage during this storyline. Again, this was a bizarre time for wrestling and Scott Steiner.

Test won Steiner’s services at Unforgiven, with Steiner himself become a servant to Test too. Scott eventually got sick of this and attacked Stacy, as he turned heel and became better friends with Test. They both started mistreating Stacy and I believe it was implied that they were planning to use Stacy as a sex slave. Remember… this was shortly after the whole Katie Vick storyline so anything appeared to be on the table.

Mick Foley eventually fired Steiner and Test, ending the storyline and freeing Stacy from her servitude. Scott was an entrant in the 2004 Royal Rumble match before he was released from his contract.

What a hot mess this was.

When you look at everything I just recapped about Scott Steiner’s WWE run, it’s easy to crap all over the writers for just pure lackluster and disgusting storytelling. Even before the storyline with Stacy, they had Steiner doing push-ups, posing contests and debates which were all just recipes for disaster.

However, Scott was also extremely sloppy with his in-ring work during a lot of his big matches with the company. His match with Triple H at Royal Rumble 2003 was voted the “Worst Worked Match” in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards and if you’ve ever watched the match, it’s understandable as to why. Scott in particular just had a horrendous night.

Therefore, it’s not like you can push him as a great wrestler where he just destroys people and have him wrestle in the main-event each night. To be honest, he simply wasn’t good enough and was just limited in the ring at the time.

However, that doesn’t give the writers a pass with the storytelling either. Even if Scott was limited, he was still wrestling at this time and still demonstrated great charisma when he had the chance. He just needed simple direction that didn’t involve misogyny and stupid competitions.

Here’s where I’ll come in and attempt to re-book Steiner’s WWE career myself. When it comes to booking better than WWE, I’ve got a 141 and 2/3 chance of doing it better!

Scott Steiner’s debut at Survivor Series 2002 stays as it is. It was a really cool moment and you don’t really need to change it. The fans ate up Steiner that night so you keep that segment in tact.

Scott Steiner is still a free agent at this point, who GMs Eric Bischoff and Stephanie McMahon are trying to sign. Steiner initially rejects both RAW and SmackDown! and quits WWE all together. He doesn’t appear again until the 2003 Royal Rumble. The World Heavyweight Championship match is defending champion Triple H wrestling Booker T. Booker seemingly has the match won when Scott Steiner blindsides Booker T and helps Triple H win. Scott Steiner appears on RAW and announces that he’s signed with RAW for a guaranteed title shot. This was the same storyline like in real life so we’re just tweaking the timeline just a little. Triple H has promised Steiner a title shot at WrestleMania XIX by helping him take out Booker T.

Scott feuded with Booker in tag teams and in singles action during their time in WCW so there’s that history there to use as well. Booker responds by challenging Triple H and Steiner to a tag team match. Let’s say it’s Booker and Shawn Michaels against Triple H and Steiner at No Way Out. If Booker wins, it’s a triple threat match for the title at Mania between HHH, Steiner and Booker. If Booker’s team loses, Booker will not be at WrestleMania at all. The match is agreed and Booker’s team win by Booker pinning Triple H. With this finish, you protect Steiner as he didn’t get beat. You put over Booker T heading into WrestleMania XIX by having him pin the champion and it builds a great dynamic. Not only does Triple H have to defend the title in a triple threat, but he’s against a man who has pinned him in a tag team match and a man in Scott Steiner that he’d never wrestled before.

The match is set for WrestleMania XIX – Triple H defending the World Heavyweight Championship against Booker T and Scott Steiner. No, we will not be including the original racial storyline as part of this build-up. Booker T as the underdog against Steiner and Triple H is enough. Booker T wins the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania XIX, as he should have done in real life and all is right with the world up to this point!

After WrestleMania, Booker and Triple H can continue to feud over the title. Meanwhile, Scott Steiner is disturbed by the debut on another ex-WCW wrestler on RAW… Goldberg. Scott can cut these promos for months about how he beat up Goldberg in WCW and decides to create his own streak which is just as good as Goldberg’s was in WCW. Yes, I am copying the angle that WCW did where Sid tried to emulate Goldberg’s streak. However, I am convinced Scott Steiner would be able to make it entertaining in his own right!

This goes on until Bad Blood, where Steiner finally has his match with Goldberg for the first time since WCW. Goldberg beats Steiner and we continue to build Goldberg up ahead of his first World Heavyweight Championship reign in the Autumn. They ended up doing Goldberg vs. Scott Steiner anyway on an episode of RAW. Why not build a program going into Bad Blood and actually try to make some money out of it?

I guess we should finally address the elephant in the room… Scott Steiner’s feud with Test about Stacy Keibler. I am going to try and re-write this but I’m going to try and tell somewhat of a compelling romance story. So here goes….

Test was being managed by Stacy Keibler at this time and was somewhat of a tweener. I think Test was technically a babyface but the fans mostly liked him because of Stacy. They LOVED Stacy at this time. Therefore, we can still initially treat Test as a babyface at first. Test gets interrupted by the new World Tag Team Champions in La Resistance. La Resistance try to recruit the Canadian Test to their cause, with Rob Conway being a Canadian that was a French Sympathiser too. They try to get him on their side as Test was part of the Un-Americans stable in the past. Test says no but he gets attacked by the stable. Scott Steiner makes the save for Test against La Resistance. Stacy is elated by Scott teaming up with Test while Test is initially suspicious. Scott’s still a heel (following on from the WrestleMania and Goldberg storylines), Test is a tweener and Stacy is a babyface which sets up a very interesting dynamic.

This leads to a World Tag Team Championship match at SummerSlam, where Scott Steiner and Test defeat La Resistance to win the tag titles. Stacy hugs Steiner after the match and leaps into his arms, with Test watching on and taking issue with this.

The team defends the titles in a rematch against La Resistance, where Scott is presumably getting cheered more and more and Stacy is being more happy with him than Test. They defend the titles against the Dudley Boyz on RAW, where Test shows some heel tendencies by actually cheating to help their team win the match. This grabs the attention of Eric Bischoff, who recruits Test and Steiner into his team for a Survivor Series match in 2003. It was Team Bischoff vs. Team Stone Cold, with Stone Cold’s career being on the line. Test agrees to join the team but Scott and Stacy are reluctant. The match sees the team start to implode, with Test getting himself disqualified. Scott gets pissed off at Test and Test pushes Scott back into a Sweet Chin Music from Shawn Michaels, leading to Scott getting pinned.

The problems with the team continue going into Armageddon, where they lose the tag team titles to Evolution members Batista and Ric Flair. Test starts blaming Scott Steiner and accusing him of going after his woman in Stacey Keibler. This leads to a grudge match between the former partners to take place at the 2004 Royal Rumble. Scott Steiner wins the grudge match, which leads to Scott, Test and Stacy all going their separate ways.

That about wraps things up for this How I Would Book. It feels a bit of a premature end but Scott did get released after the 2004 Royal Rumble. If I’m being honest, I probably would have continued the feud into WrestleMania if he was still in the company by that point. However, I think we’ve actually created interesting stories with Steiner which were more appealing that goofy debates, love triangles and athletic competitions. Scott Steiner is seen more as a star and even gets a Tag Team title reign out of it.

I honestly can’t imagine a scenario where he could win the championship and it would have made sense to put the title on him. Guys like Booker T, Goldberg, Shawn Michaels and Rob Van Dam were just far more over than him and most of those guys were just better workers at this time. However, I still think a World Heavyweight title match at WrestleMania was easily do-able and it certainly beats having Scott not being at WrestleMania at all

See WWE… the booking doesn’t lie and spells disaster for you.

Next week, we’ll be looking into another storyline from the Ruthless Aggression era of WWE. We’ll be looking at Triple H’s feud with Kevin Nash from 2003 and seeing if we can do a better job in telling the story between two Kliq members fighting for the World Heavyweight Championship.

That post will be going up on the 18th of May 2024 at 2PM UK time. See you there and remember…

…HOLLA. IF YA HEAR ME.

How I Would Book series

#1 – How I Would Book… Rey Mysterio vs AJ Styles

#2 – How I Would Book… Batista vs Brock Lesnar (Part One and Part Two)

#3 – How I Would Book… Wrestlemania 29 (Part One, Part Two, Part Threeand Part Four)

#4 – How I Would Book… Eddie Guerrero’s Road To Wrestlemania 22 (Part Oneand Part Two)

#5 – How I Would Book… The nWo 19th Anniversary Special (Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five and Final Part)

#6 – How I Would Book… Roman Reigns vs Undertaker

#7 – How I Would Book… The End Of The Streak (Part One, Part Two (John Cena), Part Three (CM Punk), Part Four (Randy Orton), Part Five (Bray Wyatt), Final Part)

#8 – How I Would Book… Roman Reigns vs The Rock

#9 – How I Would Book… Kurt Angle’s Return To WWE

#10 – How I Would Book… John Cena vs The Rock III

#11 – How I Would Book… Kevin Owens as Intercontinental Champion

#12 – How I Would Book… Christian’s World Title Run In 2011

#13 – How I Would Book… Roman Reigns vs John Cena

#14 – How I Would Book… Dean Ambrose Winning The WWE Championship

#15 – How I Would Book… Batista vs Brock Lesnar vs Undertaker

#16 – How I Would Book… Roman Reigns vs Undertaker (Wrestlemania 32)

#17 – How I Would Book… AJ Styles’ Road to WrestleMania 32

#18 – How I Would Book… CM Punk As Nexus Leader (Part One and Part Two)

#19 – How I Would Book… WrestleMania 32

#20 – How I Would Book… Who Ran Over Stone Cold?

#21 – How I Would Book… Rusev in WWE (Part One, Part Two and Part Three)

#22 – How I Would Book… Wade Barrett in WWE (Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four and Part Five)

#23 – How I Would Book… The 2018 Bayley vs. Sasha Banks Feud

#24 – How I Would Book… Samoa Joe in WWE (Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four)

How I Would Book… Samoa Joe in WWE (Final Part)

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

We’ve finally come to the most turbulent time in Samoa Joe’s WWE career. In 2019, things seemed to fall apart when it came to Samoa Joe’s in-ring WWE career. Injury after injury led to multiple problems when it came to booking the man. Was the end of Samoa Joe’s WWE career salvageable? Well I’m going to give it a try and at least see if I can work with the bad hands dealt when it comes to Joe. Here’s How I Would Book… Samoa Joe in WWE – PART FOUR.

This part will cover a huge period of time from the night after WrestleMania 35 in 2019 to April 2022 when Samoa Joe was released for good. However, there’s not really a large length of time from this period when Joe was an active wrestler. Joe was still wrestling up until September 2019 before he was moved to commentary and he was an enforcer in NXT for about six months or so in 2021. However, the rest of his time was spent either injured, released, suspended or on commentary. We don’t really have a lot of active time to work with, so we’ll condense it all into one part.

We’re also not going to pretend that Samoa Joe was healthy throughout this time. If WWE had to manage all of this, so do we.

Now granted, it was damn sure WWE’s fault that Samoa Joe was initially RELEASED in April 2021! However, we’ll just assume the role of the booker for the purpose of this story! We’re not going to pretend that he was never released in the first place. He was released among with many others at the time, so we’ll just deal with it.

We’ll start off this part picking up where we left off in Part Three. Samoa Joe had just lost the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 35 (again, please read Part Three in order to be caught up!), so we’ll start with giving Samoa Joe his rematch for the WWE Championship. Joe ended up getting a WWE Championship match against Kofi in real life anyway so we may as well incorporate it into this storyline too. Kofi wins the rematch at Money In The Bank.

At around this time, the WWE United States Championship becomes vacated on SmackDown! brand. In real life, Rey Mysterio defeated Joe for the title at Money In The Bank but was forced to vacate the title due to injury and relinquished the title back to Samoa Joe. We’ll go ahead and assume that the injury still happened so instead of giving anyone the title, we’ll do a good old fashioned tournament for the WWE United States Championship. This is the perfect opportunity for Joe, who wins the tournament final at Stomping Grounds by defeating Ricochet.

Samoa Joe is determined to bring honour to his newly won championship by taking on all comers, except Ricochet. At the time, Joe had plenty of great wrestlers he could work with. Joe can wrestle the likes of Cesaro, Shinsuke Nakamura, Kevin Owens, Drew McIntyre and the list goes on. It’s actually incredible, when you look back, just how strong the SmackDown! roster was in 2019. Instead of hot-shotting the championship though, let’s have Joe take on and beat all of these stars, while building up the championship too.

This culminates in August, where Samoa Joe declares himself to be the King of the WWE and he’s determined to prove it. He announces a King of the Ring tournament and declares that the winner will challenge him for the WWE United States Championship. He wants to beat the very best, so the tournament is open to wrestlers from RAW and SmackDown! to compete in (and heck, throw in NXT wrestlers if you’d like). Joe wants the best of the best and then he wants to beat them and embarrass them.

I was going to have the tournament itself be for the United States Championship, where Joe would defend the title during each round. However, it does make the title feel more prestigious if you have to go through 15 other wrestlers just to get a SHOT at the title. Joe, in our story, went through a tournament to win the title himself. Because he’s a heel, he’s going to make someone else go through a tournament and then face the winner himself as the final boss. That seems far more appealing to me.

Also, I really like the idea of the King of the Ring tournament being for more than just pride. If 16 people are fighting just for a shot at the championship, it makes the championship and the tournament mean more important. As crazy as it sounds, WWE have only had the King of the Ring tournament be contested for a shot at a championship once. In 2002, Brock Lesnar won the King of the Ring tournament and won a shot at the Undisputed WWE Championship. Even if it’s for the United States Championship, why not do the same thing here?

Ricochet qualifies for the King of the Ring and ultimately wins the whole thing to get a shot at Samoa Joe. I much prefer the idea of King Ricochet rather than King Corbin. Baron Corbin didn’t really get anything out of becoming the King of the Ring at the time where as someone like Ricochet may actually get elevated by winning such a renowned tournament. To me, I think the fans would be interested in seeing someone like Ricochet getting such a big win.

So the United States Championship match is set. Samoa Joe, who won the United States title in a tournament, takes on the King of the Ring winner. In a rematch from their final in the original United States title tournament, Ricochet beats Joe and wins the title. Ricochet avenges his original loss and wins his first ever United States Championship.

Samoa Joe then gets injured and is moved to the RAW commentary team until the end of the year, where he returned from injury. The same thing plays out here but the storyline is different. Samoa Joe is happily on the RAW commentary team and United States Champion Ricochet also happens to be on RAW too. He gets moved to RAW and takes the title with him. So as Joe is recovering from his injury, he has to watch Ricochet defend the title on RAW from the commentary booth. Eventually, things get too much for Joe who attacks Ricochet at the end of 2019.

This sets up a third match between Ricochet and Samoa Joe at the 2020 Royal Rumble. In the third and final match, Ricochet defeats Samoa Joe and ends the feud once and for all. Then, shortly afterwards, Samoa Joe is moved to the commentary team permanently…

Finally, let’s quickly tackle Samoa Joe’s brief return to the ring as part of NXT in 2021. I don’t really have much to really comment on with how this went down. Joe being the enforcer for William Regal was a good role for him, especially if he was feeling limited in the ring. It’s a way for him to get physical without over-exerting himself. Even his feud with Karrion Kross also was a natural progression with that story. Of course, Samoa Joe would want to challenge Kross to a match for the title. However, I don’t think Samoa Joe should have beaten Kross for the title at all.

If Samoa Joe was to be pushed as an “authority figure” who rarely wrestles, him beating the reigning NXT Champion devalues the title and those in NXT at the same time. If Joe comes along after nearly 18 months away from action and beats the best NXT has the offer in his first match back, then what does that say about the rest of NXT? It really does make them all look third-rate compared to the main roster. Therefore, Kross should have beaten Samoa Joe…

With Samoa Joe getting released for good in April 2022, that puts an end to this “How I Would Book…” series. I thought I was going to struggle with this portion of his career but the wrestlers and elements were there for WWE to still do more with Samoa Joe at this stage in his career. Heck, his AEW run is already proving that Samoa Joe has a lot left in the tank in his wrestling career. As of me writing this (03/04/2024), Samoa Joe is still the AEW World Heavyweight Champion and AEW have done a great job in building him as a true main-event star for that promotion.

Really, the blueprints on how to use Samoa Joe was already created by ROH and TNA. AEW pretty much copied the same blueprints but WWE, for some reason, struggled to do this. However, I’d like to think my four part series has shown just how much you can do with Samoa Joe despite the bad luck that fell upon him. He’s a Samoan Submission Machine and should be pushed like one…

Please let me know if you have your own ideas on how to book Samoa Joe in the comments. I’ve seen a lot of ideas from wrestling YouTubers on how Joe should have been booked on the WWE main roster and I’ve really enjoyed watching those stories. I’m very curious to see what the readers of this post think and if you have any other ideas for “How I Would Book…” content.

Thank you for reading!

How I Would Book series

#1 – How I Would Book… Rey Mysterio vs AJ Styles

#2 – How I Would Book… Batista vs Brock Lesnar (Part One and Part Two)

#3 – How I Would Book… Wrestlemania 29 (Part One, Part Two, Part Threeand Part Four)

#4 – How I Would Book… Eddie Guerrero’s Road To Wrestlemania 22 (Part Oneand Part Two)

#5 – How I Would Book… The nWo 19th Anniversary Special (Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five and Final Part)

#6 – How I Would Book… Roman Reigns vs Undertaker

#7 – How I Would Book… The End Of The Streak (Part One, Part Two (John Cena), Part Three (CM Punk), Part Four (Randy Orton), Part Five (Bray Wyatt), Final Part)

#8 – How I Would Book… Roman Reigns vs The Rock

#9 – How I Would Book… Kurt Angle’s Return To WWE

#10 – How I Would Book… John Cena vs The Rock III

#11 – How I Would Book… Kevin Owens as Intercontinental Champion

#12 – How I Would Book… Christian’s World Title Run In 2011

#13 – How I Would Book… Roman Reigns vs John Cena

#14 – How I Would Book… Dean Ambrose Winning The WWE Championship

#15 – How I Would Book… Batista vs Brock Lesnar vs Undertaker

#16 – How I Would Book… Roman Reigns vs Undertaker (Wrestlemania 32)

#17 – How I Would Book… AJ Styles’ Road to WrestleMania 32

#18 – How I Would Book… CM Punk As Nexus Leader (Part One and Part Two)

#19 – How I Would Book… WrestleMania 32

#20 – How I Would Book… Who Ran Over Stone Cold?

#21 – How I Would Book… Rusev in WWE (Part One, Part Two and Part Three)

#22 – How I Would Book… Wade Barrett in WWE (Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four and Part Five)

#23 – How I Would Book… The 2018 Bayley vs. Sasha Banks Feud

#24 – How I Would Book… Samoa Joe in WWE (Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four)

How I Would Book… The 2018 Bayley vs. Sasha Banks Feud

Picking a subject for this one was difficult. I could easily do another dream match booking scenario, as they usually generate a lot of hits for me. Alternatively, I could do a post based on WCW since I’m reviewing the weekly Nitro episodes. However, I’ve decided to go with a storyline which I regard as one of the worst booked storylines in recent WWE memory. Despite the talent of the people involved, they were saddled with such a miserable storyline and I want to do it justice. Here’s How I Would Book… the Sasha Banks vs. Bayley feud from 2018….

This storyline won the category for Worst Feud of the Year in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter in 2018. It was that terrible and honestly, I felt really bad for the individuals involved. The feud was based of a friendship established during one of the greatest rivalries in NXT history which didn’t translate, or was not properly translated, well in the main roster. It took them until 2020 to get it right.

Sasha Banks had a number of title reigns on the RAW roster but was never able to successfully defend the RAW Women’s championships once. Bayley was the RAW Women’s Champion once and was legitimately over with the fans for a period of time but after an embarrassing feud with Alexa Bliss, Bayley’s career started to go downhill. By the time that storyline started officially at the 2018 Royal Rumble, after years of being teased, neither girl was in a prominent position on RAW at all.

Although they weren’t prominent, the storyline was pushed hard from its inception. However, it fizzled to the point where it legitimately felt that WWE changed their minds with every episode of RAW that they did. It was bad and there was no real pay-off, unless you count them winning the Women’s Tag Team titles at Elimination Chamber as the pay-off.

Let’s break down the storyline and see what went wrong:

As I said, tension between Bayley and Sasha had been in the works for years despite no “official” program together. Bayley arrived on the main roster in 2016, where she and Sasha both tried to defeat Charlotte Flair to win the RAW Women’s title. As mentioned, Sasha beat Charlotte multiple times for the title but was unable to successfully defend her championship once. At Roadblock 2016, Charlotte beat Sasha in a match where Sasha would no longer be able to challenge for the title as long as Charlotte was the champion. Enter Bayley…

After unsuccessfully challenging for the title at the Royal Rumble, Bayley won the title on Monday Night RAW thanks to help from Sasha. At Fast Lane 2017, Bayley beat Charlotte again, thanks again to Sasha. This ended Charlotte’s 18 match winning streak on pay-per-views. Bayley defended the title against Charlotte, Sasha and Nia Jax at WrestleMania 33 which led to Sasha stepping up to Bayley for a singles title shot on the RAW after WrestleMania.

This angle led to nothing as Alexa Bliss arrived on RAW to beat Bayley and win the women’s title. Both Sasha and Bayley fought for the title but was mostly dominated by Alexa Bliss heading into 2018. At the 2018 Royal Rumble, Sasha eliminated Bayley from behind in the match which seemingly started the break-up of this friendship.

Although Sasha legally did nothing wrong in the match, Sasha was portrayed as the heel in the feud as she eliminated Bayley as her back was turned and talked trash after she did it. The idea of this storyline was to hint that Sasha was walking all over Bayley in the friendship and she betrayed her again in the Elimination Chamber. Eventually, Bayley started to screw over Sasha. She would pull off antics such as refusing to tag her during a six woman tag match. Even though Sasha was not really in the wrong for the Rumble or the Chamber matches, Bayley was going out of her way to screw her own friend out of matches on RAW.

It became a depressing teenage soap oprea between Sasha and Bayley, mostly with Bayley being stroppy and acting immature and Sasha acting like a bitch to Bayley. Eventually, this broke out into backstage brawls and a fight in the ring after Bayley could take no more of being berated by Sasha. In the women’s battle royal at WrestleMania 34, Bayley eliminated Sasha from behind just like the Royal Rumble. This led to Bayley… not even winning the match as Naomi won instead.

They eventually had a match on RAW but this resulted in a No Contest when the Riott Squad attacked. Both girls continued to have problems for WEEKS where they would both struggle in tag team matches and singles matches against the Riott Squad. General Manager Kurt Angle warned them to make peace or face the consequences. After losing a RAW tag team match, Bayley attacked Sasha which was either a heel move or a huge babyface moment for Bayley. You decide.

Bayley and Sasha were both forced to go to therapy where they would get into lousy segments with Dr Shelby, the anger management therapist that helped out Kane and Daniel Bryan during their problems in 2012. Eventually, the angle was seemingly dropped when Sasha said she loved Bayley and this led to them becoming friends again. That was the end of the storyline.

*Sighs*

The biggest problem with this storyline was it almost felt like the storyline stood still with regards to the direction. Sometimes the storyline would have a big angle where the girls fight to suddenly having them tease dissension or have no dissension at all. Eventually, they just gave up on the angle with no real pay-off and it really did none of the girls any favours. The fans rejected this angle and Bayley and Sasha were more despised because of it. If anything, this became the catalyst to the both of them turning heel in 2019.

When Bayley debuted on the main roster, the fans had high expectations for a massive Bayley vs. Sasha program to follow up from their time on NXT. Bayley beat Sasha twice in NXT and so that’s something to use, as well as their real-life friendship, when building towards a third match in WWE. If anything, people were desperate for Sasha become a heel as she’d become stale as a babyface. What better way to do it than have her turn on everyone’s favourite in Bayley?

So how would I book this? How could I make a storyline that was voted the worst feud of the year, and is considered by some to be one of the worst storylines of all time, and transform it into a memorable and satisfying rivalry? Well, allow me to break down how I would have done this storyline if I was able to turn back the clock….

I’m going to start booking this angle from Roadblock 2016 onwards, when Sasha lost the Iron Woman match to Charlotte and was banned from competing for the RAW women’s title as long as Charlotte was the champion. This plot-point is not a bad place to start when it comes to building this feud up. It gives Sasha a personal interest in seeing Bayley beat Charlotte for the title. If Bayley beats Charlotte, Sasha is back in the title picture.

Bayley beating Charlotte at WrestleMania 33. Breaking Charlotte’s PPV streak and winning the title was literally the best thing they could have done for WrestleMania 33. Having Bayley beat Charlotte on RAW for the title instead and again at Fast Lane brought an premature end to what could have been an excellent WrestleMania pay-off for the Charlotte title reign and Bayley’s pursuit of the championship.

I’d keep Bayley away from Charlotte until WrestleMania. I’d have Bayley win a match at the Royal Rumble to earn a RAW women’s title match at WrestleMania 33. Charlotte dismisses Bayley as a threat but is still concerned enough that she sets Nia Jax on her. Charlotte promises Nia a title shot if Bayley is taken out. Sasha, of course, comes to Bayley’s aid against Charlotte and Nia. Sasha helps Bayley beat Nia Jax, giving Charlotte ammunition to taunt Bayley ahead of their title match at WrestleMania 33. Charlotte can cut promos about how Bayley not being able to do anything without her freind Sasha with Bayley vowing to prove her wrong.

Sasha could do an angle where she turns Dana Brooke against Charlotte to try and rattle the champion. Sasha is looking to give Bayley every advantage going into the WrestleMania 33 match, for her own personal gain. Eventually, Bayley beats Charlotte to end the PPV winning streak at WrestleMania and become RAW Women’s champion. Sasha raises Bayley’s arm but can’t help but glance at Charlotte and then the title…

Now let’s think about this. Bayley did what Sasha never could… she ended Charlotte’s winning streak on PPV. This would play into the psyche of Sasha in the months to come. Sasha can come out on the RAW after WrestleMania and declare that she is next in line for a title shot. However, Charlotte gets the nod as she has a rematch clause which is cashed-in at Payback. Sasha is engaged in a feud with the new RAW superstar Alexa Bliss.

Sasha tries everything to become the number one contender but, because of shenanigans here and there, she is always prevented from facing Bayley. Sasha starts cutting promos, effectively whining about waiting months to fight for the title again because of a stipulation from Roadblock that was unfair. After this, she had to wait more time to win back the title that was always hers. This could come off as whiny and bitchy as the fans would slowly start to turn on Sasha.

As Bayley is defending her title as a fighting champion, all Sasha does in complain. Eventually, Sasha gets a big opportunity. Sasha wins a gauntlet match on RAW to earn a RAW women’s title match. This sets up Bayley defending the Women’s Championship against Sasha in Brooklyn, calling back to their first match two years before that was also in Brooklyn. The stars were aligned. This is Sasha’s first championship opportunity in 2017, it’s against her alleged friend and it’s someone who I don’t think she’d ever beaten before this point. Please correct me if I’m wrong about that last point…

As for who wins, I’m going to have Sasha regain the Women’s Championship. I’ll be completely honest, I was considering having Bayley beat Sasha every time they wrestled. I was going to take a page out of the Eddie Guerrero/Rey Mysterio feud in 2005, where Eddie could never beat Rey, and apply it to this feud. After all, Eddie was one of Sasha’s favourite wrestlers so her playing the role of Eddie would be kind of cool.

However, I think the timing would be right to have Bayley drop the title. It was around this period where the fans started to boo Bayley anyway. I’m not saying that this would happen in this storyline, as she didn’t get embarrassed by Alexa Bliss beforehand. However, I think you risk having the fans turn on Bayley if she beats Sasha outright again. The fans may want to see Sasha winning the title as a change of pace. So, in this storyline, Sasha wins by reversing a Bank Statement attempt by Bayley, and covering her to get the win. However, Sasha is shown grabbing the ropes for leverage to win the RAW Women’s Championship.

I think this finish would work brilliantly for a few reasons. Firstly, this type of finish in New York would get such heat from a hyped-up crowd as they’d have Sasha cheat to win rather than having her get a clean victory. Secondly, it’s clear that Sasha is influenced by her hero Eddie Guerrero with this finish. It’d actually create a cool dynamic where Sasha cheats just like Eddie, but the fans turn on her while they cheered him. I think that’s a cool hypocrisy she can call out to get heat later on during her run as champion.

Thirdly, I think this finish is ambiguous enough where it’s not a COMPLETE heel turn. If Bayley calls her out the next night, Sasha can try to convince Bayley that it wasn’t personal and it’s what you need to do to win and be competitive. She insists that she is still Bayley’s friend but in this ring, she will do whatever she needs to do to win. I’d say Bayley can forgive her for now as Sasha is her friend but wants her rematch for the RAW Women’s Championship.

She gets it at No Mercy in a fatal five way match. Bayley has somebody like Emma pinned until Sasha steals the pin away from her. Survivor Series 2017 is a very interesting show. It’s RAW vs. SmackDown!, so the RAW Women’s Champion wrestles the SmackDown! Women’s Champion. In this story, it just so happens to be Sasha Banks and Charlotte Flair who are the cha,pions. Sasha has something to prove as Charlotte beat her in their last match. Bayley encourages Sasha and wants her to beat Charlotte fair and square. Sasha does her best but ultimately loses to Charlotte clean. Bayley, who was one of the survivors in the RAW vs. SmackDown! Survivor Series match, tries to comfort Sasha but Sasha is not having it. She snaps at Bayley and attacks her, completing her heel turn for good and laying her out. Bayley is out of action for a couple of months for now as Sasha continues to reign as champion.

Bayley makes her return as the #30 entrant of the first-ever women’s Royal Rumble match. Sasha, who would have been watching the match, comes into the ring to confront Bayley. However, Bayley FINALLY attacks her and sends her packing as she continues to wrestle in the match. Bayley makes it to the final two with Asuka, but is eliminated. Asuka wins the Rumble match to set up Charlotte vs. Asuka for WrestleMania 34 like in real life.

Meanwhile, we set up Sasha vs. Bayley for WrestleMania 34. Bayley wins the first ever women’s Elimination Chamber match to earn a title shot at Mania 34. The two best friends clash one more time at WrestleMania 34 where Bayley regains the title and closes the book on her feud with Sasha for now.

That’s where we’ll end the storyline. I’ll be completely honest, this was a difficult one to write. I started writing this almost four years ago and, as I picked it back up again, I either had to try and remember where I was going to take the storyline or just come up with a new idea all together. I came up with an idea which I think is very faithful to the characters and builds genuine interest in seeing the conflict between Sasha and Bayley. At least I think so anyway!

Do you have a different approach or a different idea for this storyline? Let me know by leaving a comment and I’m open to suggestions for storylines to book in the future. I do have a few ideas in mind but I’m very curious as to what the readers think I should tackle next. Until then, take care of yourselves and I’ll be back with more How I Would Book… content.

How I Would Book series

#1 – How I Would Book… Rey Mysterio vs AJ Styles

#2 – How I Would Book… Batista vs Brock Lesnar (Part One and Part Two)

#3 – How I Would Book… Wrestlemania 29 (Part One, Part Two, Part Threeand Part Four)

#4 – How I Would Book… Eddie Guerrero’s Road To Wrestlemania 22 (Part Oneand Part Two)

#5 – How I Would Book… The nWo 19th Anniversary Special (Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five and Final Part)

#6 – How I Would Book… Roman Reigns vs Undertaker

#7 – How I Would Book… The End Of The Streak (Part One, Part Two (John Cena), Part Three (CM Punk), Part Four (Randy Orton), Part Five (Bray Wyatt), Final Part)

#8 – How I Would Book… Roman Reigns vs The Rock

#9 – How I Would Book… Kurt Angle’s Return To WWE

#10 – How I Would Book… John Cena vs The Rock III

#11 – How I Would Book… Kevin Owens as Intercontinental Champion

#12 – How I Would Book… Christian’s World Title Run In 2011

#13 – How I Would Book… Roman Reigns vs John Cena

#14 – How I Would Book… Dean Ambrose Winning The WWE Championship

#15 – How I Would Book… Batista vs Brock Lesnar vs Undertaker

#16 – How I Would Book… Roman Reigns vs Undertaker (Wrestlemania 32)

#17 – How I Would Book… AJ Styles’ Road to WrestleMania 32

#18 – How I Would Book… CM Punk As Nexus Leader (Part One and Part Two)

#19 – How I Would Book… WrestleMania 32

#20 – How I Would Book… Who Ran Over Stone Cold?

#21 – How I Would Book… Rusev in WWE (Part One, Part Two and Part Three)

#22 – How I Would Book… Wade Barrett in WWE (Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four)

An Update… Where The Armbar Express Has Been For 3 Years

Good afternoon everybody! The Armbar Express has returned! In 2023, after almost 3 years away, we’ve started posting again on WordPress with the Armbar Express retro reviews. We’ve started a brand new series reviewing every Brock Lesnar match since his return in 2012 and we’ve uploaded new blog posts reviewing the WCW Monday Nitro shows which we started a LONG LONG TIME AGO. For those who missed them being uploaded onto the blog, the links to read the Retro Brock Lesnar series and the newest WCW Nitro review will be provided at the end of this post.

In the mean time, I feel this post was necessary to somewhat explain where I’ve been in the past three years, why there was a hiatus and the plans for the blog post going forward.

Without further ado, folks, LEMMA TALK TO YA!

Where in the world has the Armbar Express been?

In 2020, there was a lot of change in the world. If you’ve lived through 2020, you know exactly what happened so there’s no need for me to beat you around the head with it. Suffice to say, everyone’s world got turned upside down due to a global pandemic. I also had a crazy 2020 but not just because something called Covid-19.

In 2020, I bought my first house. Yes. In 2013, I was a wrestling nerd pumping out WrestleMania 29 posts just as a hobby as part of my University course. In 2020, I had a full-time job and was able to get myself on the property ladder. That was a big milestone for me personally but also a time for massive change. For starters, I was re-modernising the property that needed a lot of work done. I am happy to report, as of me writing this, that my bedrooms, living room and bathrooms are all but done. However, a lot of work was done which took me away from the blog to focus on these grown up things!

Whether it was actually doing work on the house myself or putting in extra hours almost every week at work to get the money together, there was little time to focus on this writing gig. While I wasn’t able to write blogs, I did create my own Twitch account and began dabbling into video game streaming. I tried to focus on that for most of 2021 but even after a while, there wasn’t much time to do that either. I will post the link to the channel further down on this blog post if you’d like to check it out and follow me. I am a Twitch Affiliate and I did just stream the Mortal Kombat 1 Beta last week. The plan is to stream a bit more but I’ll go into details about my upcoming plans for the blog and streaming later.

In 2023, I made a New Year’s Resolution to dabble back into the world of writing as a part-time gig once again. I started this year with a new Retro Express series showcasing Brock Lesnar matches since his return in 2012. However, this stopped a couple of months in due to extra hours and days at work piling up again which was just more important for my financial future and my house.

However, I am happy to report that I’ve just secured a temporary promotion at my job! This allows me to spend more time on hobbies such as cooking, gardening and yes… writing. As important as getting yourself sorted financially is, having hobbies is also a massively important aspect of life which I’ve neglected for a long time.

Therefore, I am back again with the blog! 😀

So…

What’s the plan?

With time on my hands, I want to go out of my way to actually see if I can make this blogging experience and venture back into writing a financially viable endeavour. I have a Journalism degree from my Uni days which I have not used a great deal since I left. Therefore, I want to use those skills effectively by doing something I love to do.

Writing the Brock Lesnar reviews earlier this year and even working on my most recent WCW Nitro review brought back positive memories about the whole experience of putting together this wrestling blog. I’ve got to give this another crack, at least on a part-time basis.

Therefore, I’ve reviewed the stats recently about what folks are coming to the blog to read about and there are things that I’ve had a desire to get back into. With that in mind, here are planned projects that I’ll be working on for the rest of year at least and hopefully going forward past 2024 and beyond:

• Retro Express: WCW Monday Nitro – Yes, the Nitro reviews are coming back! I published the review of the December 16th 1996 episode this week. I wrote it back in 2021 I believe but tweaked it and put it out there. The links will be available further down on this post. However, more episode reviews will be coming. The stats show that people are coming back to read these reviews and are invested enough to read more than one review from me. I’m so happy that people are enjoying those reviews enough to read all my reviews on these episodes of Nitro. Therefore, I’ve got to give the people what the want! The plan is for the next episode review to be released at some point in the first few weeks of September!
• Retro Express: The Return of Brock Lesnar – This series began late 2022. We’re reviewing every Brock Lesnar match since he made his return to WWE in 2012. We reviewed Brock Lesnar vs John Cena from SummerSlam 2014 as our most recent review. However, I have already drafted the review for the next match in that series – Brock vs Cena from Night of Champions 2014. That should also be going out during the first few weeks of September as well and will be continued.
• How I Would Book… – Yes, this fantasy booking series is coming back! Believe it or not, I started this series right before WhatCulture started releasing similar videos with Adam Blampied! I basically take a wrestling storyline and give my own take as to how I’d book it myself. They were very popular during my Uni days and fantasy booking in general is popular in wrestling. Therefore, we’re gonna do it again! I had some ideas which I thought of a year ago or so involving a few minor storylines and one big storyline which I plan to work on and publish! I’d like to get a mini “How I Would Book”post published before the end of September however these posts do take a bit of time to put together especially if you want the quality to be there. If anyone has ideas or requests, please leave a comment! Feedback in general is just good for the blog!
• An EWR-like project – So, my Extreme Warfare Revenge series also gets huge numbers in the stats. The fans do like the fantasy booking concept with video games. Therefore, I’m happy to start this up again with a different video game. EWR is a fun free-to-play game but there are newer games to play such as Journey of Wrestling which I would love to start playing again. Therefore, expect a new series to start at some point before the end of the year.
• Twitch – ItsJustTomBobson is the name of my Twitch channel. I usually play a huge mix of video games ranging from wrestling games, to fighting games and even Fall Guys! I’ve just bought myself a Playstation 5 and pre-ordered Mortal Kombat 1. Therefore, the plan is to start streaming Mortal Kombat 1 in September and games like Tekken 8 to follow in 2024. I’m wanting to include the Armbar Express somehow in some cross-promotion. Stay tuned!

There’s a few other ideas and general maintenance with the blog I need to do but all you need to know is I am back! I’ll admit, I’ve always hated these types of blog posts providing updates and reasons for why there hasn’t been content. It’s something I see YouTubers do when having breaks to try and get people talking. Trust me, this is not what this is. I know the people who read this blog want content and wrestling reviews, not excuses and “updates” like this.

That’s why I started posting out the content first. I did want to give you guys an update as to what is going on. When I see such good stats after all this time, it lights a fire within me and I at least owe you an explanation as to what was happening with me.

Now seems like a really good time to get back into the thick of things! I’ll talk to you again soon and hope you enjoy the content coming from the Armbar Express!

The most recent WCW Nitro review! Click here

Twitch: ItsJustTomBobson

Brock Lesnar Match Reading Order

• #1 – Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena (Extreme Rules 2012)
• #2 – Brock Lesnar vs. Triple H (SummerSlam 2012)
• #3 – Brock Lesnar vs. Triple H II (WrestleMania 29)
• #4 – Brock Lesnar vs. Triple H III (Extreme Rules 2013)
• #5 – Brock Lesnar vs. CM Punk (SummerSlam 2013)
• #6 – Brock Lesnar vs. Big Show (Royal Rumble 2014)
• #7 – Brock Lesnar vs. The Undertaker (WrestleMania XXX)
• #8 – Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena (SummerSlam 2014)

RETRO EXPRESS: THE RETURN OF BROCK LESNAR #3 – BROCK LESNAR VS. TRIPLE H II (WRESTLEMANIA 29)

Welcome to the Retro Express. This is where we’re taking a stroll down memory lane at wrestling history. This post is part of a new ongoing series where we’re reviewing every Brock Lesnar match since his return to WWE in 2012. We hope you enjoy.

We’ve approaching the end of Brock Lesnar’s first full year back with WWE. He returned on the RAW after WrestleMania 28 and here we are at WrestleMania 29 with Brock Lesnar booked for a rematch with Triple H as somewhat of a culmination to a near year-long rivalry between the two. After Brock Lesnar convincingly beat Triple H at SummerSlam, the No Holds Barred rematch included the added stipulation that Triple H’s career would be over if he lost to Brock.

Did this match surpass the original or was it a disappointing sequel to the “Perfect Storm” of their SummerSlam encounter? Well let’s get into it and see if WWE got it right:

Background: Brock Lesnar defeated Triple H at SummerSlam after no-selling the Pedigree and breaking Triple H’s arm for a second time. Triple H teased retirement at the end of the night as well as an episode of RAW a few weeks later. Both men disappeared from WWE television, with Brock Lesnar “quitting” WWE again while Triple H recovered from his “injured” broken arm. We wouldn’t pick up with this story again until after the Royal Rumble. Paul Heyman was about to be fired by Mr McMahon, due to Paul hiring The Shield to help CM Punk in his WWE title match with The Rock. As McMahon was ready to fire Paul, Brock Lesnar made his return. Brock F5’d the chairman of WWE as it was revealed that Vickie Guerrero had re-signed Brock to a contract. This attacked gave Triple H a reason to return as he beat up Brock on RAW and gave Brock 18 stitches by busting him open. Triple H challenged Brock to a rematch which Paul Heyman would agree to as long as Triple H agreed to two stipulations that he would find out after he signed the contract. After beating up Paul, Triple H found out that the match would be a No Holds Barred match and that his career would be on the line. This was must-win for Triple H.

Date: April 7th, 2013

Brand: WWE

City: East Rutherford, New Jersey

Commentators (First Hour): Michael Cole, Jerry “The King Lawler and John Bradshaw Layfield

Brock Lesnar w/Paul Heyman vs.Triple H w/Shawn Michaels in a No Holds Barred match. Triple H’s career was on the line

I’ll try to cover a few of the pre-match details as quickly as I can since I want to get into the match itself. The first thing is that the video package showed the angle where Paul Heyman revealed this would be a No Holds Barred match. I love how Paul menacingly revealed it was “No Holds Barred” like we didn’t just see what was basically a no disqualification match last time and Brock’s first match back was an Extreme Rules match. I loved the delivery of the line but in continuity, it’s not that big of a deal that we’re having the same style of match for a third time in Brock Lesnar’s case.

Shawn Michaels got his whole entrance as he came down to manage Triple H. It was to be expected given that he was literally introduced as “Mr WrestleMania” by Justin Roberts, so that part was fine. The more interesting aspect of Shawn was his outfit for this match. Shawn is an anomaly where he can either pull off an outfit really well or he looks ridiculous in an outfit. For every great WrestleMania attire he had, there was a Shawn Michaels referee outfit in shorts to counter this! For every yin, there was a yang and that was true with Shawn’s outfits. Shawn’s outfit here stood out big time. He had bright brown cowboy boots which fit Shawn himself and his lifestyle but just not the rest of his outfit! He had a trucker hat, skinny jeans and a black tank top to accompany his cowboy boots and it just didn’t fit at all. I could take my eyes of the cowboy boots. Trying to pull off cowboy boots in a casual outfit is a hard sell and it just didn’t work for old HBK!

Triple H’s WrestleMania entrances where also interesting at this time. He had a Motorhead-like structure surrounding him and he had white powder across his stomach. I didn’t know what the deal was with this when I watched it but when putting this review together, I did find a few interviews which explained it. Triple H revealed on Twitter that dry ice stuck too him and gave him 2^nd degree burns on the torso and arms. Kudos to Triple H for wrestling threw THIS MATCH IN PATRICULAR with burns on his body.

The match started with Brock and Triple H trading knees and punches. Triple H whipped Brock into the barricade which sounded ridiculously padded! I can’t really be upset that they added extra protection for the superstars! He bounced Brock off the announce table and punched away at Brock. Brock responded by pushing Triple H into the apron. Brock was about to climb over the barricade but Triple H clotheslined Brock and this big monster damn near landed right on his head. I can only assume that was Brock’s idea but it was nasty looking as he came crashing down onto the floor. This match is on YouTube and there’s a comment which mentioned: “At around 2:00 he legit landed on his neck and it’s not in the ring either. For guy who is close to 300lbs that was scary. Incredibly physical match from both sides, one of the best match.”

They were absolutely spot on. For a big dude to fly like that, he took a risk with that spot. It appeared Brock was fine though as started whooping Triple H’s arse. Brock tried a chair shot but Triple H threw a knee and Brock fell down in an awkward spot. Brock got thrown to the outside and one kid front in the row popped up and shouted: “you suck”… I laughed. Brock hit a belly to belly suplex on the floor. The hard bumps continued on from the first match and they pretty much picked up right where they left of. Brock beat on Triple H some more. Brock then transitioned a suplex into just a throw to send Triple H crashing through the announce table.

Then we got a legendary all-time Brock Lesnar moment. The camera man then zoomed right into Brock Lesnar’s face. Brock flexes, unleashes a gorilla like pose and then screamed in an extremely high pitched voice while beat red. It was one of the funniest scream ever, as even fans started laughing at this as Brock was fired up. His eyes popped out and everything. He sounded like a wolf trapped in an eagle’s body!

This didn’t stop Brock screaming though. He just kept doing it as he did a belly to belly on the remnants of the announce table. Credit to Triple H, he took a beating on this night as this spot was ugly. Brock continued to scream, at least a little bit more manically and animalistic like throughout the match. What I love about Brock is that even with this scream becoming a meme, Brock would continue to scream in this high-pitched fashion. Instead of never doing it again, he just kept it going and at least worked on it over the years. It created some unintentionally hilarious moments but at least Brock didn’t give it up on it!

Brock taunted as Triple H told him to bring it, so Brock just stomped him out in the corner. Triple H fired back but Brock knocked him back down with a clothesline. Much more co-ordination here then the clotheslines from the first match. They seemed to be a bit more on the same page with some spots.  Brock did another bely to bell suplex in the ring, followed up with a German suplex.  I think they learned their lesson with the continued working on the arm. Instead of just constant Kimura locks, Brock just dominated and threw Triple H around which made the match seem more dangerous. With more dangerous it was, the more suspense it had which added to the drama.

Triple H fired back with punches but got Irish Whipped over the top turnbuckle. Brock would stalk Shawn on the outside but Triple H did take advantage one time with a clothesline. Triple H followed up with a second clothesline over to the time-keeper’s area. Triple H grabbed a chair and whacked Brock on the back with it.

Brock hit a German suplex with somewhat of a snap suplex. Brock, at least nowadays, does a lot more of a throw than a snap suplex. This was more reminiscent to a Kenny Omega snap suplex than a Brock suplex!  Brock eventually got his hands on Shawn by clotheslining him off the apron. Triple H got a spinebuster in. Shawn tried a Sweet Chin Music on Brock but Brock caught it and hit the F5 on Shawn. Triple H took advantage and hit a pedigree. It appeared Brock wasn’t ready at first but they recovered fine and hit the pedigree anyway.

Triple H grabbed the sledgehammer and tried to use it, but Brock ducked and hit an F5 for a two count.  What bothers me about this is that Brock’s not won the match yet in his return WWE run (at this point) with an F5 in his first three matches. Every time he’s hit the move, Cena and Triple H both kicked out. I know at this time WWE had a lot of finisher kickout spots for big matches but this was ridiculous. At least try to protect Brock’s big moves.

Brock grabbed a chair of his own and hit Triple H. He then threw Triple H into the steel steps. Brock seemed way better at getting the heat as he just beat on Triple H and stalked him after each move. He seemed far more threatening. He hit Triple H with the steel steps and then threw them into the ring. It was the bottom half of the steps and this was somewhat a callback to Brock’s first match back in the company when the steps where important to that match. Lighting stuck twice with these steel steps which we’ll get to later.

Brock used these steps and hit Triple H with them, which got a 2 count.  Brock yelled at Triple H to retire and Triple H slapped him in defiance. Brock countered a pedigree into a Kimura Lock for the first time in the match. I swear some fans chanted “break his arm”. It wasn’t very loud but it appeared that’s what it was as soon as Brock locked on the move. Then some others you could hear chant it. Some fans really hated Triple H at this time period, and I didn’t realise how much until now. They booed him during his big retirement tease at SummerSlam and they booed him during a potential career-ending match.

Brock sat on the top turnbuckle and locked on the hold but Triple H lifted him up and transitioned it into a spinebuster of some kind. Triple H did the “suck it” pose and suckered Brock in for a low blow. At least this was a callback to the first match where Brock did a low blow, so it was somewhat justified Triple H returning the favour.

Triple H hit Brock with the chair in the arm as Michael Cole even mentioned he was “returning the favour” as Brock basically worked on Triple H’s arm for the whole feud! Triple H did his own Kimura lock on the former UFC Heavyweight Champion as the fans actually got into this as Brock teased the tap. Paul Heyman got in with the chair to try and save him but Shawn Michaels was ready to deliver Sweet Chin Music to Paul.

The fans chanted tap and I think a lot of fans thought Brock was going to tap and Brock teased this extremely well. Brock was awesome with these teases but he then powered up like the Terminator and then carried Triple H over to the steel steps while locked in the move and slammed him. Triple H however woke up and locked on the hold again (again a callback to the first match) but Brock slammed him one more time . Triple H tried a third time and Brock again, teased tapping out but didn’t. Brock got him up but this time, Triple H counted it into a DDT and slammed him into the steel steps. This was an awesome exchange where a part of you really believed that Triple H was going to tap out Brock in the ultimate irony.

Triple H grabbed the sledgehammer and hit Brock. Triple H hit the pedigree on the steel steps to score the win and Triple H’s career remained intact.

Match Rating: ***1/2

I will say, despite Brock being beaten a second time, this was a very poetic match. Call backs to previous matches, Brock losing in the same way he lost to Cena on the steel steps and just a natural conclusion for the feud (at least we thought it was the conclusion). It was very chaotic, there was a lot of action and a sense of danger. I thought this was a huge improvement to their first match and it felt like the finish to a story so I felt this match was a success. Nowhere near the level of the likes of Punk vs Taker on this show but this was a good match.

With that being said, while this was a very good story being told, this had nothing to do with Brock Lesnar. This was essentially a Triple H story. The COO of WWE had his arm broken by an uncontrollable monster. He had to fight when things became personal but ultimately got humbled in their first match. The monster returned and after he made it personal with his father-in-law, Triple H had a reason to comeback and be “the ass kicker” again to get revenge. Even with his career on the line, he beat the monster at his own game and slayed him to keep his career alive.

They even told a very similar story for WrestleMania 35 where Batista attacked Ric Flair to make things personal with Triple H heading into a match where Triple H’s career was over if he lost. It’s very similar but the big difference is that Batista, as big of a star as he is, was not the same as Brock Lesnar.

Brock Lesnar was the UFC Heavyweight Champion. He came in and he battered John Cena in the first match. He lost a match where Cena was the one that had to dig down deep to beat this monster. Then his next feud was against Triple H but he was just the big monster that Triple H had to beat to essentially re-vitalise his career. That was the story. The story was about Triple H, not about Brock.

Therefore, Brock had just became like every other big heel monster that WWE had. He’d be in there with two of WWE’s most protected guys and he lost to both of them clean. For a guy who is a one-of-a-kind freak of nature, he should never be in this role. As guys like Edge would say publicly, Brock shouldn’t have lost to John Cena and Triple H. He should have beaten everybody en route to a big match where the “next big thing” or the next big babyface beats him and becomes the new guy. Instead, he’s basically there to give notches to the belts of already-established stars like Triple H and John Cena.

Even in his feud with CM Punk (which we’ll get to later in the series), the storyline was about CM Punk and Paul Heyman. Brock was just a guy in a heel monster position and this likely the reason why Brock ended the WrestleMania streak of Undertaker. Without that big win to show that Brock was not like any other star, he was reduced to just being another main-event heel. He should be completely different to everyone else and this match didn’t do him any favours.

Also, Triple H’s career really didn’t need to continue after this point. Yeah, Triple H would win the title again, main-event WrestleMania and win a Royal Rumble match in 2016 but he was in that position because they didn’t have anyone else. It wasn’t essential for his career to continue and it even ended in 2019 shortly after the Batista match. There was no good reason for his career, at least from a business standpoint, to continue other than WWE felt the need to keep him around. Maybe it was a Triple H call but they booked themselves into a corner by having Triple H’s career being on the line. Brock had to lose so Triple H’s career to continue, even though Brock was the more valuable asset.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

However, hindsight is also 2020 and Brock’s career ended up being fine so Triple H gets a pass for now. This match was better than their first match. I’ve read reviews saying it was worse than the first match but this felt more dynamic, it felt like there was more of a story and you were rewarded if you paid attention to previous matches. It didn’t have the ring psychology of the first match but it made up for it with a much heightened sense of danger that the first match like.

Coming up next is the third match in this trilogy between Brock Lesnar and Triple H where we finally end the feud for good with the score being 1-1 heading into the rubber match inside of a steel cage…

Brock Lesnar Match Reading Order

• #1 – Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena (Extreme Rules 2012)
• #2 – Brock Lesnar vs. Triple H (SummerSlam 2012)

RETRO EXPRESS: THE RETURN OF BROCK LESNAR #2 – BROCK LESNAR VS. TRIPLE H (SUMMERSLAM 2012)

Welcome to the Retro Express. This is where we’re taking a stroll down memory lane at wrestling history. This post is part of an new ongoing series where we’re reviewing every Brock Lesnar match since his return to WWE in 2012. We hope you enjoy.

We’ve covered the first match of his return to WWE in 2012. Now we’re about to cover his second match where it was structured completely differently from the bloody beatdown of John Cena at Extreme Rules. It was a hard-hitting affair but it also successfully transitioned Brock Lesnar from the unstoppable badass in his first match to just another profesional wrestler in the second match. It was night and day as this time, Brock Lesnar had a SummerSlam main-event with The Game… Triple H.

Brock’s program with Triple H was very entertaining at times but there was a number of fundamental flaws with Brock’s next opponent being Triple H:

1. Triple H was a part-time wrestler now, so there would be months where neither Brock or Triple H would be on television promoting the feud. Whether it was to sell a kayfabe injury or a kayfabe walkout, it felt very isolated to the rest of the stories in WWE and couldn’t really develop the intensity after their first match.
2. Brock Lesnar was supposed to be presented as a spoiled bully that Triple H was trying to stand up to. However, Brock Lesnar himself was also standing up to an authority figure so him getting heat wasn’t as easy.
3. Triple H was also someone with a reported history of booking himself favourably in big main-event storylines. Any CM Punk fan will testify that a Triple H loss can stop momentum dead in its tracks.

In WWE’s mind though, Triple H was the way forward. However, the three matches they had never really stood out as some of Brock’s best work really because it was structured in the formulaic way of long heat spots which really wasn’t engaging enough to warrant that amount of time. Give Bryan Danielson time to get heat, he keeps you engaged in the match. Give Brock Lesnar, in his second match in 8 years, time to get heat, the heat dies down. Brock just wasn’t experienced enough to work this type of match with Triple H and make it look compelling.

However, everything else about this first match was sound. The psychology was sound, Brock did hit Triple H with some big moves which made it seem semi-dangerous, the fans got into Triple H’s comeback and the finish was excellent in execution and set up the rest of the feud perfectly.

Let’s get into this one and see what worked and what didn’t work.

Background: Previously in WWE, Brock Lesnar lost to John Cena in his first match back in WWE. However, as mentioned in the last post, Brock had bullied general manager John Lauriniatis into a more lucrative deal including Vince’s private jet and renaming Monday Night Raw after him. COO Triple H revealed that John didn’t have the authority to authorise changes to Brock’s contract so Brock wouldn’t get what John agreed to. As Triple H was distracted with John, Brock ambushed Triple H and a fight broke out which saw Brock break Triple H’s arm. Paul Heyman appeared on RAW acting on Brock’s behalf to announce Brock had quit and would subsequently file a lawsuit against WWE for not getting what was agreed. A few back-and-forths later, as well as Paul Heyman’s own lawsuit for Triple H assaulting him, Triple H decided to challenge Brock for a match at SummerSlam instead of settling this in court. At RAW 1000, Paul Heyman rejected Triple H’s match and tried to goad Triple H into hitting him when Stephanie McMahon appeared to slap him. Heyman eventually agreed to the match. Shawn Michaels got involved in the program as well, initally declaring himself to be in Triple H’s corner. In response, Heyman and Lesnar trapped Shawn in order to ambush him and Brock eventually broke Shawn’s arm as well.

Date: August 19th, 2012

Brand: WWE

City: Los Angeles, California

Commentators (First Hour): Michael Cole and Jerry “The King Lawler

Brock Lesnar w/Paul Heyman vs. Triple H in a No Disqualification match… kind of

NOTE: I believe this match was technically just a regular match and the referee appeared to be able to call for the bell. However, the storyline going in was that Triple H apparently told the referee that this was supposed to be a fight to the finish. In other words, use his discretion and not call for a disqualification so Triple H can fight Brock to the finish. It was essentially a no disqualification match although the referee did consider calling for the bell during it.

Before we had the match, earlier on in the show, Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman were backstage for an interview. Interviewer Matt Striker literally said: “Ladies and gentlemen, Brock Lesnar” and then Paul Heyman took over with the rest of the segment. Paul called Brock the most destructive, dominant and decorated athlete in WWE history. Brock said he would break the spirit of WWE and Brock grabbed the mic to say this was fight Triple H could not win. Paul Heyman said if you’re not down with that they had two words for you: “tap out”. Brock snarled and smiled at the camera creepily like he was going to eat Triple H. This was quite great and Paul was in usual form with his hyping up Brock.

Maybe I was crazy but Brock came out for his entrance and looked way bigger here than he was during the Cena match. In Brock’s defense for that match, I think Brock was coming off of the diverticulitis that basically ended his UFC career so maybe he looked a little thinner during his Extreme Rules match because of that illness. However, with the months away to build himself up again, he just got super jacked. He was MASSIVE as he came out and just looked like a legitimate monster.

Fun fact: I actually think this was Triple H’s last match in WWE with long hair. He cut it while he was away from television after this.

I loved the shot of Triple H’s close up titantron side. The camera turned around as if it’s Triple H looking around. It showed Brock lurching over Triple H in the ring looking down and Triple H staring him down from the outside in the green lighting. It looked super cool and with Triple H’s music playing, you couldn’t help but be amped up for a fight which was the point. You wanted to see two big dudes slugging it out and that was the story.

Brock immediately charged at Triple H in the corner as Triple H tried to punch his way out. This was reminiscent to the initial brawl that started the feud in the first place. Triple H fought out of an early Kimura attempt. Brock wrapped his legs around the waist of Triple H as he locked it on but Triple H fought out of it again. Triple H clotheslined Brock out of the ring and Brock did his crazy “leap out of the ring” clothesline spot which I always enjoyed. There was some kind of miscommunication it appeared as Brock tried to pop up with a clothesline but Triple H just bungled into him with his high knee and then he just clotheslined Brock out of the ring again.

Paul screamed at Brock that it was “his fight” as he made his way back into the ring. He took off the gloves and smiled with his mouthpiece. They traded punches on the outside until Brock grabbed Triple H’s arm and just slammed Triple H on the announce table. Referee Scott Armstrong was told “not to count out anyone” but after hesitation, he just started counting out both men.

Brock worked on the arm and stomped away at Triple H. Brock tried the Kimura again but just threw Triple H again into the corner. Brock was BRIGHT RED with patches of white as he appeared gassed early on. Brock hit an absolutely solid German suplex with Brock grinning as he had blood on his face. Maybe Triple H clocked him for real, at least that’s what the announcers implied. Either way, both men took a few ugly shots during this.

Brock went to twerk the arm again and at this point, it just became tiresome. It was the same move that Brock just kept trying. If the story is Triple H’s broken arm is in trouble with this Kimura, he shouldn’t keep trying the move. The first time, sure it was an attempt to win the match early on. Multiple times though, the suspense just dissipated and it does take away from the danger of the move. In my mind, he should have worked on and at least tried it once early on to tease the spot and heighten the danger of it, then he should have broke this arm with it in the finish. Brock going for the move repeatedly just got old quickly.

Brock threw Triple H into the steps and then speared him into the announce table before just knocking the announce table over himself. Then Brock had an idea to jump onto the corner of the announce table and then jump as HIGH AS HE COULD to come crashing down with possibly the only double axe handle Brock Lesnar has ever done in his life! It looked really cool too. I love how Brock, even being the monster that he is, can’t help but fly around all over the place for stuff like this. Whether it’s taking the clothesline in a over-the-top fashion or throwing himself at John Cena like a cannonball, Brock just couldn’t help but show signs of agility to remind the audience that Brock can still move despite being a big dude. I loved it. This was a period where Brock could still move so he was feeling ambitious on this night for spots!

Brock actually did try a small package of sorts during this match. Brock and Triple H’s chemistry was off on another clothesline and a handful of fans started to boo. Triple H eventually got back into it with a suplex. Triple H tried a pedigree but Brock got out of it and Irish whipped him to the outside.

Triple H actually winded Brock by throwing him gut first into the second announce table which is actually key to this match. Brock actually coughed up flehm and complained about his stomach as even Paul asked: “are you alright?”. Cole did mention the “history of stomach issues” so the diverticulitis actually was a factor in this match. Brock tried another Kimura and Triple H just kneed him in the gut to get out of it. He did repeated knees to the gut which the fans ate up.

I did like the ring psychology of this match, with Triple H going after Brock’s stomach while Brock went after the arm of Triple H. The fans started to wake up for this as well so it did turn the match around and brought life to it. Triple H hit the spinebuster. Triple H and Brock both attempted their finishers until Triple H won this little battle and hit the pedigree for a 2 count. Brock hit a low blow and Paul Heyman immediately screamed at the referee that “he told you he wanted a fight” as Scott contemplated calling for the bell. Brock hit the F5 for the 2 count which actually got a lot of boos. This appeared to be a very anti-Triple H crowd which is actually hilarious given the post-match segment.

Brock eventually locked on a Kimura lock and brought Triple H down to the ground to tighten the grip I guess. Triple H grabbed the ropes but Scott wouldn’t call for a rope break. Triple H fought out. Triple H hit a second pedigree but Brock immediately popped up, locked on a Kimura lock and caused Triple H to tap out in what was a hell of a finish. Brock literally no-sold a pedigree to break this dude’s arm and it was something that Brock really needed to really create this superhuman nature about him. He took the best that Triple H dished out, didn’t care about the pedigree and tapped him out. It was a dominating, convincing win which Brock needed to recover from John Cena and it humbled Triple H which was crucial to the overall story.

An excellent finish to an otherwise really bland main-event with at least a semblance of psychology

Match Rating: ***

I can’t go higher than 3 stars. The story was there, the psychology was there, it had a hell of a finish but the chemistry was very off a number of times and the match felt very slow. The heat spots were just too much from Brock and it took away from what was sound psychology and structure on paper. In execution, everything but the finish was just “OK” but it doesn’t really make me look forward to the rematch.

The fans chanted “you tapped out” to the babyface Triple H with a broken arm. I laughed. This was Triple H’s big “retirement” tease which also made me laugh as the fans did not think highly of Triple H on this night. He got his arm broken and the fans mocked him for tapping out, like they would for a heel tapping out.

Eventually, the fans started to half applaud and half boo like crazy. Triple H stood up in the middle of the ring as he shook his head. He played this up like it was his big retirement. He said “I’m sorry” as he leaned against the rope looking very solemn. Triple H even shook hands with some front row fans as he walked to the back. Clearly Triple H was really looking for like a hugely applauding crowd as he had his big moment here and it just never happened. Michael Cole even asked if this was the end of Triple H as Triple H just walked to the back a beaten man.

If 2022 is anything to go by, this is only the beginning for Triple H!

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

This match was good… but it could have been better. Both of these men had been in Match of the Year candidates in 2012. Brock had done excellent work with Cena and Triple H had his big Hell in a Cell match with Undertaker. Those matches will always be remembered by wrestling fans as all-time classics for each man respectively. This match will not be remembered as fondly but the finish will be. Brock Lesnar no-selling a Pedigree and then breaking Triple H’s arm was the perfect end to what was promoted as a “Perfect Storm” with SummerSlam 2012. It was crucial to the story and set things up nicely for a rematch at WrestleMania 29 where Triple H could go one more round with Brock Lesnar.

Brock Lesnar Match Reading Order

• #1 – Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena (Extreme Rules 2012)

RETRO EXPRESS: The Return of Brock Lesnar #1 – Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena (Extreme Rules 2012)

Welcome to the Retro Express. This is where we’re taking a stroll down memory lane at wrestling history. This post is part of an new ongoing series where we’re reviewing every Brock Lesnar match since his return to WWE in 2012. We hope you enjoy.

It’s been about two years since the Armbar Express has posted on WordPress. A lot has happened in the world of wrestling in the past two years as we’ve wrestled through a global pandemic, wrestling TV wars and changes in the WWE hierarchy. However, it’s always nice to take a trip back in time and review some of the highlights from the past. We were doing this with our WCW Nitro series, which I do intend on resuming at some point on this blog.

However, I wanted to do a retrospective dive into the return and continued run of one of my favourite wrestlers of all time. This was a man who was pushed to the moon when he first arrived, dominated the SmackDown! main-event scene and then left for other pastures such as the NFL and UFC. In 2012, he returned to professional wrestling and he still wrestles for WWE as of December 2022. This man’s name… was Brock Lesnar.

With this run of ten years since his return, his new spell with WWE has far surpassed his original with the amount of time. From OVW to when he left in 2004, he was only in the wrestling business for about five years and even with adding his New Japan Pro Wrestling run it’s still not as consistent and as long as his run since 2012.

Now obviously he is not wrestling on a full-time basis and he did fight in the UFC again during this run in WWE. However, it does say a lot about a man who still continues to work his socks of in the wrestling world and even put on Match of the Year candidates ten years after coming back from conquering UFC. Brock does have a passion for wrestling in his own way… he’s just got incredible negotiation skills with his contract!

I looked up how many matches he’s had since he’s returned and I set myself a little bit of a challenge to review each of these matches, rekindle memories from the past ten years of a wrestler that has been an all-time favourite of mine since I first started watching wrestling in 2003.

Let’s get started with a bloody, brutal return to the WWE as Brock Lesnar wrestled John Cena in the main-event of Extreme Rules 2012.

NOTE: I did consider going all the way from the start of his career but I found a hard time gathering OVW matches in order for Brock. If anyone has a playlist of Brock Lesnar’s matches from OVW from YouTube for example they can provide, please leave a comment as it would very much be appreciated. The WWE Network appears to only have one Brock Lesnar match from OVW.

Background: John Cena had just lost a match one year in the making to The Rock at WrestleMania 28. Such a loss to a guy he’d been trash-talking for a year was a bitter pill to swallow for Cena. However, Cena did want to congratulate The Rock on the night after WrestleMania. However, he was instead met with the former UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar making an unannounced return. Brock faked a handshake and pulled Cena in for an F5. Cena retaliated the next week by slapping Brock in the face, which led to a pull apart brawl where Cena was bloody at the mouth. It was revealed that General Manager John Laurinaitis had signed Brock to bring legitimacy back to the WWE, with Brock doing interviews about what he was going to do to Cena. Cena vs Lesnar was signed for an Extreme Rules match at the PPV. Cena even lost to Lord Tensai en route to Extreme Rules so Cena’s confidence was rocked. Edge tried to motivate John on his last contracted night with the company, telling Cena to wake up and beat Brock Lesnar. Brock himself had held Laurinaitis up for more additions to his contract and wanted things such as the show to be renamed to “Monday Night RAW Starting Brock Lesnar”. Cena interrupted but was clearly still shaken as he went face to face with Brock one more time

Date: April 29th, 2012

Brand: WWE

City: Rosemont, Illionis

Commentators (First Hour): Michael Cole, Jerry “The King Lawler and Booker T

Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena in an extreme rules match

They showed the video package before the match and the intensity was superbly captured with the grittier, darker tone of this story. This was right after John Cena lost to The Rock at WrestleMania 28 and he was thrown in a serious fight with a former UFC Heavyweight Champion and the stakes were high. This was not your typical John Cena feud (at least on the surface) and the fans had to come to terms with a new side of John Cena in the sense that he was petrified going in. They did their best to prepare the fans for what would be a lamb going to be slaughtered and the fans had no idea what they were in for here. It’s a superb video package.

I will say that I hard a weird irritable nostalgia moment right before the match started. Fans chanted “Let’s go Cena, Cena sucks”. I heard this every week in this time period. Every RAW segment, every PPV match, it was exactly the same. Yet in 2022, 10 years later, Cena’s barely around enough for me to even hear the chant again. I don’t even think he gets the chant now whenever he’s in WWE. However, ten years ago, it’s all you heard whenever Cena came out. I’m sure when I review Cena vs Brock in 2014, it’ll be the same thing. It took until Roman Reigns being pushed for the chant to slowly die away.

Brock came out in MMA shorts, MMA gloves, fighting gear for the first time in a WWE ring. It was unique for wrestling at the time, it fit Brock and it evolved Brock into a completely different character that he needed at the time. He was a fighter now and he looked like a fighter with his gear, which told the fans that Brock had evolved into something different for this new run in WWE.

Fans were surprisingly quiet for Brock coming out. There was way more reaction to Cena given that this was Brock’s first match in eight years. Cena himself came out wearing a chain around his neck in homage to his “thuganomics” days and it was so obscure seeing it over his PG look if you will. Cena himself was just clearly angling for a huge character change with how he was presenting himself differently. Cena himself has stated in interviews that he tried to turn himself heel at around this time and supposedly had music and merch produced in order to spearhead this planned heel turn but it was not to be.

Listening to this crowd though, Cena was doing absolutely fine in terms of keeping himself as the talk of the town. Fans went nuts for him, whether they hated him or they booed him and that was clear in how this match was put together. This was not a match about Brock’s big return to WWE. This was Cena having to dig down deep against impossible odds which just so happened to be former UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar.

Brock was bouncing in the corner and Cena glared at him ready to strike as the referee called for the bell to start the match. Cena charged at Brock but Brock easily scored a takedown and smeared Cena’s face with elbow strikes which busted Cena open hard way. Cena gets up but Brock flattens him with a clothesline. The ref even grabs the rubber gloves like a minute into the match to tell the viewers basically that Cena was in serious jeopardy and this was not like any usual WWE match at this time.

Cena scored a take down when he popped back up and even applied a front face lock but Brock quickly turned this around as he just pummelled Cena. He punched Cena and punched Cena, with Brock snarling whenever he and Cena were separated. They had towels and they stopped the match entirely multiple times as Brock just stalked Cena. In 2012, it was insane with how much blood there was here.

This was a match where Brock basically dominated and Cena would spring back up but Brock took him back down again. Brock took him down with ground and pound and mounted him from the back as Cena just couldn’t defend himself. Brock even gets in a cheeky knee as Cena rolls out of the ring. The replays even emphasises the big knees to the gut as to the beating Brock was putting onto Cena.

Brock was definitely looking tired and was dripping with sweat by the end of the match. Cena got back up and went for the Attitude Adjustment but Brock countered this into two rolling German suplexes. This was pre SUPlEX CITY so these were pretty much the only suplexes Brock dished out in this match.

Fans started chanting “Brock’s gonna kill you”. Cena was fighting back and scored a shoulder tackle which knocked Brock into the referee Charles Robinson who took a bump. Cena tried a second one but Brock bounced Cena off of him with his own shoulder tackle and sent Cena crashing into the mat.

From this point, there was rarely an official in the ring. Brock just beat on Cena with no referee willing to get in and check on either man during this battle. Cena just had blood smeared on his face as Brock locked on a standing kimura but then just threw Cena arm first into the corner. What was great about this match was Brock wrestled completely different to how he was trained to wrestled years ago. He re-invented his style to the point where he invited his own style of match despite not wrestling in about six years by this point. It was astounding to see.

Credit to the announcers, they called it like a serious fight. It wasn’t a joke commentary team or gimmick. They all paid attention as Cole just added the heightened drama as Brock beat on Cena like Cena’s life was in danger. Brock grabbed Cena’s chain but then put it down but then changed his mind to do spots with it.

There was been no referee for like 5 minutes but Brock didn’t care. Brock got the idea to wrap the chains around Cena’s legs. Brock was gushing with sweat as he dared Cena to stand up so he could just clothesline him down again. Even fans in the front row, women and children in the front row had their hands to their face in disbelief. I can only imagine what kids in the front row were thinking watching their beloved hero Cena get turned into red paste by this monster.

Brock tied up Cena in the corner as he beat on Cena draping in the corner in the tree of woe. Brock turned his attention to the referee laid out on the floor but this gave Cena a chance to fire back. This ended up being futile as Brock simply Irish whipped Cena into the steel steps.

Brock literally grabbed referee Charles Robinson by one arm and threw him into the ring… almost effortlessly. The fans weren’t even like laughing massively like it was a comedy spot. It was just a momentary “woah” that Brock was able to do it so easily. It just added to the monster, King Kong vibe of Brock as he was a literally a monster among men carrying men around!

The ref eventually gets his bearings as Cena went for the Attitude Adjustment but Brock countered this into the F5. However, the F5 wiped out Charles again. Brock had Cena down as a new referee ran down but Cena kicked out at two. Brock then clotheslined the second referee, who I think was John Cone, after Cena somehow kicked out. I think this F5 kick out would have been a lot more justified if Brock would have won this match but in hindsight, this was a clear sign that Brock was losing. Even Cena kicking out would have been easier to justify as a last wind for Cena who was going down with a fight. Cena kicking out took away from effectiveness of the F5 for a man who just returned in Brock Lesnar.

Brock grabbed the steel steps as multiple referees came down on standby. Brock grabbed the lower part of it, placed it in the middle of the ring as he taunted. Cena was defiant though with the “you can’t see me” pose. Brock locked the kimura lock on the steps. Again, these MMA moves were so rare in this WWE environment that it added to the drama of the match. Cena though continued to fight as Brock had this hold locked in for about a minute or so but Cena was able lift Brock up and slam him on the steel steps to get out of it. Cena finally did something of value to Brock in this match!

Cena tried a diving leg drop to Brock on the steps but Brock moved. This was a fascinating story of John Cena refusing to give up against all odds. Cena was never not “in character” as Brock beat the crap out of him. He never gave up and even with this dangerous move, he refused to quit.

Brock then got a great idea where he bounced off the rope and did a huge flying knee or something to Cena on the apron! I don’t even think I can call it a knee attack. He just launched himself at Cena like a cannon as they both crashed to the floor. Brock is an absolute mad man and this match showed it off in full display. He had no reason to do this crazy spot but he did it anyway and, to his credit, it added more danger in the sense that now Brock could end up hurting himself to destroy John Cena.

Brock no-sold it though and taunted in the ring. Brock tried to get Cena up but Cena was prepared with the steel chain wrapped around his fist. CENA FIRED BACK, shaking, revving up as the fans went absolutely nuts one way or the other for this guy. Cena had blood pouring, he screamed and yelled for a bleeding Brock to stand up. Brock bled like crazy from the chain attack. Cena got Lesnar up and hit an Attitude Adjustment on the steel steps as John Cena won via pinfall against ALL ODDS against Brock Lesnar.

Match Rating: ****1/2

How you look at this match, ten years after it happened, will hugely impact your opinion on it. If you looked at this match as if it was Brock Lesnar’s return match in WWE, this was an exceptional, one-of-a-kind classic bloodfest ruined by a horrible finish. If you looked at this match as a John Cena match where he had to overcome his own fear and self-doubt against impossible odds, this match was exceptional with a somewhat flat but crowd-pleasing finish.

Either way, the finish took away from the drama of the match. Obviously, Brock Lesnar was not buried or ruined by the finish. He ended up breaking Undertaker’s WrestleMania streak and main-evented multiple WrestleMania’s in the past ten years. However, Brock had been hit with like three substantial moves before the match ended. He had beaten up Cena continuously for 17 minutes. Despite this, Brock was still defeated after three big moves by Cena? These weren’t even the “Five Moves of Doom”. Cena hit him with a steel chain and slammed Brock twice on the steel steps to win. That seemed pretty week given what Cena went through.

However, if the story was just that Cena was in a seemingly unwinnable fight that he had to find a way to win then I guess it would be better. However, Cena winning this match isn’t the best ending to this story. There’s been many wrestlers over the years who have gotten more over in defeat than winning. If Cena took this beating and the ref called for the bell or he passed out or something like that, then that would be way more effective in preserving both men and putting both of them over.

Instead, both men lost heat because of this. You took heat off of Brock Lesnar, who lost his first match in eight years. You took heat off of John Cena, who was destroyed for 17 minutes. Also, it took heat off of Triple H as he was Brock’s next opponent. The next on RAW, Brock broke Triple H’s arm with a kimura lock that Cena survived for a minute straight. This finish was more damaging to everyone involved than it should have been.

NOTE: I am also aware of reports that Vince McMahon didn’t know if Brock was gonna come back after Extreme Rules which is why Cena won but that doesn’t excuse the finish.

Cena had five different people attend to him in the ring after the match where as Brock lurched to the back. I felt Brock lurching to the back without assistance somewhat no-sold the finish. After everything Cena got hit with, he won with an Attitude Adjustment on the steps but yet Cena still needed help after the match. Brock in comparison should have been like stretched out if the move was so devastating that Cena won with it.

Cena stood on top of the steel steps in victory. Cena even said to the camera that his arm was messed up but he was still in one piece. This post-match was very weird. I know there was a lot of backstage shenanigans but the whole ending seemed to uncut what was an intense situation with Brock and Cena.

Cena cut a promo saying he thought he was gonna be sent home for speaking when he wasn’t supposed to, but he was likely going home anyway. He said this Chicago crowd was Punk town but this was a wrestling town. He had blood in his mouth, he couldn’t feel his arm but he was honoured to do this match in Chicago. Cena said if he’s going away for a while, he wanted to thank everyone for a hell of a ride. Cena told the fans to get home safe.

I will say if I was Brock Lesnar, I would have been pissed off about this promo as well! For starters, Cena didn’t go away and just feuded with John Laurinaitis for the next PPV. Also, it undercut the beating that Cena took where he’s just his usual self. Cena shouldn’t have even cut a promo. After a beating like this, he should left on a stretcher or even lurched to the back like Brock. Instead, he goes a house show like promo where he’s thanking the fans for being here after a bloody war. It just didn’t belong at the end of the PPV.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

As a whole, I felt this match was a one of a kind war. Even when they did the rematch, it was mostly suplexes. It wasn’t Brock busting people up, punching them, blooding them up in this fashion. This was dangerous, it was captivating and it had a tension where you really thought someone might get hurt for real and the chances are both of them were banged up a little from this. Up until Cena’s steel chain attack, this was a five star match to me. Up until that point, it was a perfect match with how it was presented. Two moves later and it just changed back to a regular John Cena PPV finish and the original mystique of Brock Lesnar was gone. Brock was just another monster for Cena to slay.

If they would have had Brock win, this could have done serious business. Brock could have then went through everyone, like he did anyway, to do the story of who could beat Brock Lesnar. It could have led to WrestleMania 30 where the unbeatable Brock Lesnar took on the Undertaker’s undefeated streak where only one of them could win and move on with their legacy. Instead, he just had to lose.

….well at least he got is revenge in 2014.

WWE’s Brock Lesnar To Fight Mark Hunt At UFC 200

How’s it going everybody? Thomas Robinson here with the Armbar Express with some big news coming from the world of professional wrestling and mixed martial arts. It was confirmed at UFC 199 that Brock Lesnar would be competing at UFC 200, as part of an historic event including three world title fights. It was confirmed on Monday that Brock’s opponent in this heavyweight bout would be accomplished fighter Mark Hunt. To say this is ground-breaking news would be an understatement.

A collaboration by WWE and UFC in this capacity is certainly unheard of. The nearest to this was probably Ronda Rousey being allowed to do her angle with The Rock, Stephanie McMahon and Triple H at WrestleMania 31. Even proposed plans for a Rousey vs Stephanie match fell through, due to the UFC not allowing Rousey to do more than the original one-off deal. Rousey showing up in a non-wrestling role is one thing. Brock Lesnar actually fighting in the UFC is on a completely different level.

The WWE, for years, had been against the idea of collaborations with outside wrestling companies. With recent projects involving EVOLVE and other independent companies as part of their Cruiserweight Tournament, they are certainly turning a corner in that regard. This deal with their supposed rivals UFC is pretty big. The story is supposedly that Brock Lesnar was able to secure an agreement when negotiating his WWE contract in early 2015, with the option of one UFC fight being open to him. Chael Sonnen explained to Jonathan Coachman on ESPN that the door was always open for Brock to come to UFC, with Dana White not even having to call Vince McMahon in order to secure this fight with Brock.

With those details, it may not seem as much of a collabaration anymore. However, WWE is still promoting this news heavily on theory social media accounts. WWE released a press release about the news, as well as the news of Brock’s opponent being Mark Hunt. According to Wrestling Observer, it is also likely that Brock will be promoting this fight on WWE broadcasts as well. It’s almost as if WWE are still trying to turn this into more of a WWE deal than a UFC deal, by having Brock with Paul Heyman on RAW to hype up  the fight.

I personally believe that there’s probably a lot more to the story and that WWE is probably getting something in return. Whether that’s the big Ronda Rousey fight at WrestleMania or not is left open for debate. However, I’d be very surprised if WWE aren’t getting anything out of letting Brock fight. The reason I say this is because I believe, from a business perspective, that WWE have a lot more to lose from this than UFC.

However, UFC have hardly any trouble at all in building up stars as opposed to WWE. If Brock beats Mark Hunt and leaves, it’s not that much of a business tragedy. On the other hand, WWE have not generated a legitimate wrestling superstar in nearly ten years. They’ve never been able to develop a hugely socially-relevant larger-than-life WWE superstar since John Cena a decade ago. If Brock Lesnar loses this fight, it’s going to be very difficult for WWE to promote Brock for future programs. If Brock Lesnar loses this fight, Paul Heyman has to sell on the microphone that Brock is still an unbeatable badass when he just lost a legitimate fight. If Brock Lesnar loses this fight, the WWE are going to look so inferior in comparison to UFC.

Even though he officially called it a day on his UFC career in March 2015, Brock still thought that the issues with his health really did prevent Brock from achieving his full potential in the octagon. Brock said: “I felt robbed by diverticulitis. I felt robbed by being sick. I was feeling good and it took me a couple years to start feeling good. I’m at home, I’m working out, my life is great, everything’s in tune, my contract’s coming to an end with WWE, hey it’s been a great time but something’s missing.”

For UFC, you get another big fight as part of the UFC 200 event that they’ve been building towards in the last few years. They tried to get every big fighter they could for this huge event, similarly to their UFC 100 event which, ironically, featured Brock Lesnar in the main event. Whether Brock Lesnar wins or loses, UFC get the box-office draw of Brock Lesnar. He was the biggest MMA draw when he was last with the UFC. Even in WWE, he has been the biggest draw on the WWE Network with his Network-Exclusive events gaining a lot of interest. Not only are UFC getting this dude, but the ball’s in their court whether Brock wins the fight or not. In their mind, it doesn’t matter if Brock wins the fight or not. Unless UFC have it in the back of their mind to do another fight with Brock down the road, they’ve got nothing to lose with this situation.

Now if Brock beats a top UFC star like Mark Hunt, maybe it’s detrimental in the sense that you’ve just fed a star or maybe the next big thing against… the next big thing. If Brock wins and leaves, there’s no way for that fighter to get his win back and a lot of work would need to be done in order to re-build his reputation.

The news was actually broken by MMA reporter Ariel Helwani, who was quickly banned for life from attending future UFC events as a certified media member for leaking the news about Brock. UFC lifted the ban on Monday, by releasing this statement.

“Following a conversation with the editorial team at SB Nation, UFC will not prevent MMAFighting.com from receiving media credentials to cover live UFC events. We respect the role the media plays in our sport and beyond, including MMAFighting’s ability to report news. However, in our opinion, we believe the recurring tactics used by its lead reporter extended beyond the purpose of journalism. We feel confident our position has now been adequately communicated to the SB Nation editorial team.

“UFC’s goal as the world’s leading mixed martial arts promotion is to cultivate interest in its world-class athletes and events, and deliver for the fans. We will continue to introduce this sport and its athletes to new fans across the world, and we will do so by working alongside media across all platforms.”

That about covers everything that we know at the moment about Brock. I’m sure in the next month that a lot more will come out of this. What do you guys think? Do you think Brock will win? Do you think this will be the first of many fights from Brock? Tweet the @ArmbarExpress Twitter account or leave a comment to share your thoughts.

Main Event 31/05/16 Review: Sasha Banks vs Summer Rae – The Return Of The Boss

How’s it going everybody? Thomas Robinson here with the Armbar Express, with a small review of the women’s match from this week’s episode of Main Event. This episode featured the return of “The Boss” Sasha Banks to television, as she defeated Summer Rae upon her return. The main point of the match was for Sasha to return in triumphant fashion and beat her former BFF Summer Rae. No mention of their previous relationship by the commentators for this match. SPEAKING OF WHICH…

The commentators for this episode of Main Event was Tom Phillips, Jerry Lawler and guest commentator Dolph Ziggler. I know that there’s a lot of fans that love Dolph Ziggler but I have to be honest – this was a pretty bad outing from the man. In a way, I do feel bad for Dolph as this was probably just a last minute deal for him to be on this show as a commentator. I also think commentary is probably a lot more difficult than people realise. With that said though, he was just so hard to deal with on commentary. He started out seemingly lost and not having a lot to say. He and Lawler started cracking jokes about the women, including about how Ziggler apparently couldn’t remember Summer Rae’s name despite the fact that Ziggler and Summer were involved in one of the most promoted angles of 2015. We all know how that turned out…

Then, as Jerry Lawler was making jokes, Ziggler started talking and becoming a lot more active. He began raising his voice more and more until the closing part of the match, where all Ziggler did was just screech at the top of his lungs. All of this was just a complete channel-changer when it came to the commentary. Tom Phillips was average, Jerry did everything but talk about the match and Ziggler was just not a fit out there in the slightest. The thing that was most alarming and worrying about all of this though was their treatment of Summer Rae…

Summer Rae came out to cut this promo and she’s trying her best to build up anticipation for the WWE Brand Extension. Even though she’s on the fourth most important show WWE has to offer, she’s doing the best with what she’s got. While she’s cutting this promo, the Main Event commentary team couldn’t help but laugh and mock her while she was talking. You could hear all of this sniggering from Jerry Lawler and Dolph Ziggler while Summer is cutting this promo, which was not actually that bad considering that there are far worse promo-cutters on the main roster than Summer. Actually, her delivery and her poise is pretty great. She carries herself around as unique and as a star, even if she isn’t one. She’s like the women’s division’s version of the Miz, who does such a great job in playing the heel that you love to boo.

Summer claimed that mainstream media were talking about where she would be going in the draft when Sasha Banks came out. Sasha was talking about everyone talking about the other women on the roster, when they should be talking about Sasha. Summer did mess up a little when she was talking about Sasha competing in the triple threat at WrestleMania, really just in the delivery. The announcers couldn’t help but laugh in order to hurt Summer’s credibility. She claimed that she would have won the Women’s title if she was in the women’s match at Mania and Sasha claimed that Summer couldn’t even catch Sasha’s mic. Sasha threw her mic at Summer and SUMMER CAUGHT IT! This led to a brawl to kick-off the match.

The two girls brawled on the apron which led to Summer booting Sasha off it to take control. Summer did the submission that a lot of women do, where she gets behind her opponent and traps Sasha’s arms with her legs. To make a complete joke of the situation, Dolph asked Jerry if he’d ever been in that position. Jerry’s answer was “I wish.”

Summer hit some moves including the “Super Model Kick” which got a near fall. They went back-and-forth until Sasha won with the Bank Statement.

The match itself was OK but the commentary was the real highlight of the whole ordeal, although this was quite the opposite of a highlight in all honesty. It was memorable because in case you’ve missed it, WWE have spent the last year pushing the women’s division and attempting to give the women a new-found purpose. They wanted the fans to treat this more than just filler in between the angles involving the men. They wanted to make them seem as genuine commodities to the roster. On RAW, they made this big video package about Charlotte’s supposedly shocking turn on her father Ric. They had the likes of Dean Ambrose and ironically Dolph Ziggler talking about this big angle, in an attempt to make it seem like the Flair stuff was a major angle for the product. That’s how much they wanted this to work.

Then I listen to this commentary and any faith in the idea that WWE are giving it their all to make this division vieable again is just quickly undone. If you want to build up someone as a top star in your company, then you need other wrestlers around in order to help elevate that person. You need “stars” in order to try and make a superstar out of your proposed champion. Sasha Banks is reportedly in line for a program with Charlotte, which is expected to be for Summerslam.

I personally don’t believe that these plans will stay the same and I’ve mentioned this a few times on the blog (I’ll leave the links for these posts at the bottom of this post). If these plans are legitimate and they ended up going with Sasha, they need to build her up right. Sasha beating women cleanly is fine. However, the announcers spent the entire segment and match burying Summer and trying to make her out to be a complete joke. Perception is reality, as the old saying goes, and how the fans perceive these acts will have a bigger effect than what everyone thinks.

If the commentators are making Summer out to be a joke, the fans will perceive Summer Rae to be a joke. If the fans perceive Summer as a joke, they will perceive Sasha as a joke for not taking out this joke a lot sooner into the match (keep in mind that Summer had the majority of the heat too). If they perceive Sasha as a joke, they will perceive Charlotte and her title reign as a joke as only jokers are competing for her championship. If they perceive Charlotte as a joke, they will perceive the entire division as a joke as their champion has no legitimate challengers to pose as a threat as the whole division is filled with jokes. In fact, the announcers were laughing at the possibility of anyone caring about Summer Rae!

THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE LEGITIMATE MAIN EVENT OF THE SHOW.

I don’t care if this is the least most important show that WWE have to offer. This match is supposed to be the main attraction for the viewers of this particular episode and the announcers are telling you not to care by laughing at these talents. If I was a commentator, I’d be doing my best to tell you that these girls… ARE STARS.

It may seem as a small match to complain about but this was just one of the greater examples about how this division cannot possibly “evolve” with the direction they are taking it.

 

Related Links

WWE Not Banking On Sasha?

16/05/2016 RAW Review – Women’s Title Contract Signing Closes RAW Once Again

SLTD: The Women’s Devolution

 

Extreme Rules 2016 Review – Extremely Fine Professional Wrestling

Extreme Rules saw the continuation of the “new era” in WWE. Feuds and storylines continued on from Payback, with Roman Reigns and AJ Styles battling for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship once again. Chris Jericho and Dean Ambrose settled their differences in the first ever Asylum match and four men went to war in a action-packed fatal four way match for the Intercontinental Championship. The pressure was on for WWE to deliver.

 

PRE-SHOW: Baron Corbin vs Dolph Ziggler in a No Disqualification match

Ziggler fired up on Corbin early with Corbin turning the tables by sending Ziggler over the turnbuckle Triple-H-style. He took over and there was some really nice heel offense from Corbin. He yelled at Ziggler to “stay home” which led to Ziggler’s comeback. Corbin moved out of the way for Ziggler’s elbow drop but Ziggler simply dropkicked him and did the elbow drop anyway.

Corbin hit the Deep Six. Corbin caught Ziggler off the top, to which Ziggler countered with a DDT. That was a very well executed spot. Ziggler hit the famouser but Corbin kicked out. Corbin then hit the low blow on Ziggler to which Mauro Ranallo sold tremendously on commentary. He claimed that Corbin “pulverised the plums” of Ziggler! Corbin hit the End of Days and won.

It was an OK pre-show match. The right man won and hopefully Corbin can move on to somebody else.

 

The Usos vs Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows in a tornado tag team match

The Usos attacked Gallows and Anderson on the entrance ramp. Again I ask… who are the heels supposed to be?

The Usos ran wild until Anderson sent one of the Usos into the crowd. He came back out to do a dive. Gallows Irish Whipped an Uso into the ringpost and the duo did the Boot of Doom to the other one. This got applause from the crowd.

Anderson and Gallows battered Jey Uso with corner running attacks. They attempted a Doomsday Device but they are stopped. The Club tried the Boot of Doom but was stopped again. The Usos delivered the double superkick on Gallows and went for the the double splash but Anderson cut him off.

One of the Usos tried a Whisper in the Wind but missed. There was an cool spot when the Gallows Pole, Samoan Drop and a Spinebuster were delivered in one big sequence.

These guys were working at a really fast pace and they were doing a damn good job at it. Karl ran into the superkick from Jey. Jey did the running hip attack into the barricade, which was followed by a big clothesline by Gallows. This prompted JBL to yell “LARIATOOOO!”

Gallows grabbed the ring bell but was cut off by Jimmy’s superkick. Big Boos when the Usos took over. Jimmy went for the splash but missed which led to the Club hitting Black Magic and winning.

The right team won this. This was a fast but greatly worked match and both teams should really give themselves a pat on the back. The right team won as the Club obviously needed the clean win over the Usos.

 

Kalisto (c) vs Rusev for the United States Championship

Kalisto tried to cut Rusev down to size with a number of kicks but Rusev wasn’t budging. Rusev no-sold a springboard move, playing a great big man in this David vs Goliath match. Rusev laced Kalisto with a kick to the face and “We Want Lana” chants broke out. Rusev delivered a running elbow drop, which Kalisto kicked out of. Rusev looked very mean in this match.

There were “let’s go Rusev” and “Rusev sucks” chants, with the pro-Rusev chants winning. Rusev locked on the bearhug, with the Bulgarian going to the ground while Kalisto screamed. Michael Cole reminded us that this is a traditional match, as opposed to all the non-traditional matches in WWE history. There were small CM Punk chants IN 2016. Keep trying guys. Rusev did the torture rack, where he carried him around and taunted like a true heel powerhouse. This was great old-school stuff from Rusev.

Kalisto tried a sleeper but Rusev simply drops him, with Lana applauding. Kalisto fires up with a corckscrew springboard and hurricanrana facebuster. Kalisto did a hurricanrana to Rusev into the steel steps. That was a pretty innovate attack. Kalisto did a springboard frog splash but Rusev kicked out. Kalisto did an awesome moonsault to the outside. Rusev tossed Kalisto onto the ring apron. With injuries mounting up for WWE, why not risk another one by dropping Kalisto on the hardest part of the ring? Really good idea. Rusev tried to go for the accolade but the referee stopped him. The referee wanted to check on Kalisto. Rusev ignores him and went for PAINFUL accolade submission. Kalisto tapped out quickly and soon as Rusev stretched Kalisto out with the move. We had a new WWE United States Champion.

This did catch me off-guard as I expected Kalisto to win but the right man won. This was a fun and unique match, with the perfect use of the David vs Goliath chemistry.

“The New Day” Big E (c) and Xaiver Woods (c) vs “The Vaudevillians” Aiden English and Simon Gotch for the WWE Tag Team Championship

The New Day cut a promo. Xaiver wants to “shoot his shot,” which led to a “shoot his shot” chant.  They talked about the time machine segment from RAW. Usually antics from the group. This got big reactions from the crowd.

Simon Gotch laid it in early on as the Vaudevillians beat up the New Day. JBL once again referenced to Leicester City’s Premier League title victory. Aiden hit a reverse stroke. Big E went for Big Ending but the Vaudevillians broke it up. They attacked Kofi on the outside.

Big E got the hot tag and delivered belly to bellys to English and Gotch and hit a big splash.

This was actually a great comeback from Big E as the New Day took over. Big E hit the big spear to Aiden English to the outside. I always love this spot but Big E really shouldn’t be doing it as much as he does it. He does not land well for him. After interference from Kofi, Xaiver hit the running knee to retain the tag titles.

This was a fine tag team match and Xaiver looked strong which is good. Xaiver doesn’t really wrestle in the tag team matches as much as Big E and Kofi, so it’s great to see him get his chance in the ring. Xaiver’s actually a good worker so it’s nice to see him involved. The right team won.

 

AJ was walking backstage. Renee interviewed him. AJ vowed to win the title, which was a case from deja vu as he essentially did the same promo from Payback. He went into the Club locker room.

 

The Miz (c) w/Maryse vs Cesaro vs Sami Zayn vs Kevin Owens for the Intercontinental Championship

Quite interesting to see the Intercontinental Championship match get a promo video beforehand. It was a pretty good one actually and it genuinely did a good job in hyping up the match.

Cesaro was casually doing press-ups in the ring during the entrances. The match got off to a flyer, with Sami blistering down to the other corner of the ring and blasting Kevin Owens with a Helluva kick. This was a very effective start-of-the-match finisher which played into the storylines and a great touch to the match. Gave me flashbacks to Survivor Series 2009, where Shawn Michaels hit Triple H with the superkick right away! Just awesome stuff.

Cesaro followed this up by running across the ring to uppercut Miz. This lead to Cesaro and Zayn having a nice one-on-one exchange between the Swiss Man and the Canadian.

Zayn took Cesaro to arm drag city, with Cesaro turning things around. Zayn then delivered hurricanranas and side kicks to Cesaro in a lovely little back and forth. Cesaro caught Zayn with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Miz got back involved, which eventually led to Zayn doing a dive to both Cesaro and Miz on the outside. Miz begged Zayn off, but Miz lured him into an attack. Miz hit his signature clothesline in the corner. There was a tower of doom spot building which was broken up by Kevin Owens. Owens actually did a good job in breaking up the spot. I saw somebody on Twitter calling Kevin Owens the “babyface of the year” for breaking up the tower of doom spot. It is insanely overdone though in fatal four ways.

Despite this, we still ended up getting one anyway. Owens took control for a few minutes but Miz and Zayn got involved to set up a double suplex spot. Cesaro swooped in and delivered the tower of doom spot. This did get a big pop though.

Do you remember a spot at WrestleMania 22, when Kurt Angle did the double German suplex spot with Randy Orton and Rey Mysterio? We saw quite the alternative during this match, when Miz got Zayn up for the Taz-Plex with Cesaro delivering the German suplex to Miz which launched Zayn. A tricky spot to pull off which didn’t exactly have the same effect as the WrestleMania spot, but it still looked sharp.

Cesaro ran wild and delivered uppercuts to everyone. Kevin then took over with a German suplex to Cesaro. Owens clotheslined Miz and proceeded to do cannonballs to Cesaro, Miz and Zayn. Cesaro hit the uppercut to Zayn. Miz sneaked in from behind and hit the Skull Crushing Finale to Cesaro but Cesaro kicked out. A good way to build up Cesaro, considering that he was the one who got pinned later. The match was at such a fast pace that I really struggled to make notes of everything.

Miz slapped Cesaro for kicking out which led to a springboard uppercut by Cesaro. Cesaro did the Cesaro Swing to the Miz. He went for the sharpshooter but the Miz got the ropes. Maryse was dragged into ring from the sharpshooter. Miz eventually tapped but the referee was distracted. Kevin Owens tried a roll-up and then hit the bullfrog splash on Miz. Cesaro hit the neutriliser but Zayn broke it up!

We got big ole chants! The crowd was going crazy for this match! Zayn hit an awesome looking sunset flip on Cesaro but Cesaro kicked out. Cesaro hit a HUGE uppercut to Zayn! Zayn hit the Exploder Suplex.

Zayn tried the Helluva kick but he was cut off by Owens. Owens hit the Pop-up Powerbomb, went for the cover but it was broken up by Miz. Miz gave the Skull Crushing Finale to Owens on outside. He covered Cesaro but Cesaro kicked out.

Zayn hit the Helluva kick on Ceasro but Owens threw him out. Zayn eventually got mad and beats up Owens on the outside. Miz covered Cesaro and finally won. This match was all kinds of awesome. Bravo to EVERYONE involved! Miz more than held his own against the likes of Cesaro, Zayn and Owens. They did everything they could to protect Cesaro before they finally beat him. It was a good finish with Zayn’s hatred of Owens getting the best of him as Miz sneaked away with the pin. If Zayn had stopped bullying Owens on the outside, he would have won!

Just remember kids – don’t be a bully! Be a star!

I know a lot of people were upset with The Miz retaining the title but the right man won and I’ll explain why. The story of the match was that Cesaro, Zayn and Owens all were fighting their arses of to try and win the championship, with the Miz having to resort to sneaky pin attempts throughout the match. Cesaro, Zayn and Owens all looked great in this match as the Intercontinental Championship meant everything to them. In fact, they all looked BETTER than The Miz.

Zayn tried over and over again to win the match but Kevin Owens cut him off every time. He hit the Helluva kick one last time but Owens broke it up again. This enraged Zayn so much that he simply decided to just try and beat Owens to a pulp, as it’s the only way that he’ll get him out of the picture. He’s blinded by rage so much though that he allowed Miz to steal the pin and finally retain the title.

You didn’t bury Zayn, as he had the match won. You didn’t bury Cesaro, as he kicked out of all sorts of moves. You didn’t bury Owens, as he was one of the smartest wrestlers in this match. You didn’t bury Miz, as he WON THE MATCH. Everybody got over and the challengers all qualified for the Money In The Bank match anyway, so who really cares if the Miz got the pin?

This was quite possibly the best match shown on the main roster in all of 2016 so far and it involved… THE MIZ.

Dean Ambrose vs Chris Jericho in an Asylum match

They played “creepy” music as the Asylum cage came down and we got a Perry Saturn reference from JBL. You could tell from the get-go that this was going to be… weird.

Jericho ran to the door right away but Ambrose stops him. This match couldn’t end via escape. Ambrose grated his face with the cage. I respect Jericho for working the match in those jeans.

Ambrose smashed Jericho into the cage walls. Ambrose has some serious pondering to do as he went for the mop and the bucket but Jericho stopped him.

Think about this for a minute. In a match where weapons such as 2x4s are available, Ambrose went for the mop. As far as the structure of the match and the “build” up to the best weapon until last deal, it would make sense for Jericho and Ambrose to use the “weaker” weapons first. However I’d imagine that if I could go for any of those weapons during an actual fight, I would not go for a mop. It’s like bringing a knife to a gun fight.

They battled to the top but Ambrose grabbed the mop and smacked Jericho in the ear, which actually seemed pretty painful. Cole hit us with the apparently essential “mop up Jericho” pun. Dean then mopped Jericho’s face and hair. Jericho dropkicked Dean and turned it around. He smacked Dean with mop and went for the 2×4 but Dean cut him off. Dean hit the back suplex off the top turnbuckle to no reaction.

They both went for weapons. To add to my point from earlier, Dean grabbed nun-chucks and Jericho grabbed the 2×4 with barbed wire. Now, I know Dean’s gimmick is that he’s supposed to be crazy. If the Joker has taught me one thing is that crazy people are not necessarily stupid people. Jericho going on for months about Dean being an idiot and then being proven right during the match just did not come off well for me. I would not build up a potential future champion like Dean by portraying him as stupid. Maybe if this was a lower midcarder like R-Truth and Goldust, I wouldn’t have been so bothered as they’re both comedy acts. Dean is supposed to be main-eventer. Dean got the wrong end of the deal with this weapon duel. Someone on Twitter compared this to Michelangelo from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles battling the Shredder!

Dean smacked him with the nun-chucks. Michael Cole made it out as if that Dean was able to master the use of these nun-chucks.  Jericho tried to escape and he grabbed a kendo stick and smacked Dean a few times. Jericho battered Dean with a leather belt.

They fought back-and-forth. Jericho tried to escape but Dean stopped him. Dean got the fire extinguisher and Jericho got a straitjacket.

Jericho covered Dean with the straitjacket and hit an Enziugri. He then tucked Dean into the jacket and Jericho did a surfboard with it. Dean fought back, took off the jacket and did a comeback. Clearly Jericho never fastened the damn thing!

A lot of boos came from the crowd and justifiably so. The first two-thirds of the match were just very hard to sit though. For two guys that are very creative and good workers, the majority of the match was very underwhelming. The crowd chanted “we want Rollins” during the match.

Dean jumped off the cage to the mildest jump-off-the-top pop ever from the fans. Jericho used a fire extinguisher and hit the codebreaker for a near fall. Jericho used the 2×4 in the mildest way possible. This was hardly in the Negan territory of violence. See the Walking Dead television show or read the comic books to get that reference.

We got thumbtacks and to be fair to Ambrose and Jericho, they did a good job in building up to a spot involving them. This eventually led to Dean countering the Codebreaker and dropping Jericho into the thumbtacks. Dean hit Dirty Deeds to win the match.

As a standard bearer for future Asylum matches, this did not hold up. This was one of the rare instances where I think I can say that TNA can do better weapon cage matches than WWE, which is not saying much. The thing about whenever TNA did the Lethal Lockdown match is that it was usually very hard for those matches to excel. The thing about this Asylum match is that it featured two men who are both creative and good workers, which I mentioned earlier. Jericho and Ambrose have both each been wrestling in gimmick matches for more than a decade now, with Jericho wrestling professionally for twenty five years. Surely these two should know how to get the most out of a gimmick match even without the PG restrictions. If this match did not last twenty seven minutes, it probably would have been twice as good but it didn’t. In the first twenty minutes of the match, they did everything their power to make you not care about it until Jericho was dropped onto the thumbtacks.

I don’t want to put all the blame on Jericho or Dean, or whoever put this match together in the back. If they did a twenty seven minute I Quit match or a twenty seven minute Last Man Standing match, I guarantee you that it would have been ten times better than this. When you’re locked in a steel cage for twenty seven minutes and forced to use weapons like mops and nun-chucks in a wrestling environment, maybe not even the best of workers can turn this sort of coal into a diamond.

 

Charlotte (c) vs Natalya in a submission match for the WWE Women’s Championship. If Ric Flair interjected himself into the match, Charlotte would lose the title.

I’ve not been a fan of Charlotte during her title reign. In the seven days between the RAW before Extreme Rules and the RAW after Extreme Rules, the WWE found a way to make me utterly detest the idea of Charlotte being the top star on the women’s roster. The main event segment of RAW with Charlotte and Natalya did little to help with the promotion of this match. Then I watched the match. Infuriating…

Someone on Twitter mentioned that they totally expected Ric to come to the ring in a disguise to interfere. I actually would have forgiven everything bad about this Charlotte/Natalya feud if they had Ric Flair come out in some clever disguise. I just wish he came out as himself but with a GIANT mustache, which completely fools Natalya! Natalya ended up getting fooled twice in this match so if you’re going to make Natalya out to be a complete fool, at least do it in the most entertaining way possible! The finish of the Payback saw a Montreal Screwjob so why not do another completely ridiculous finish?

We got early Sharpshooter attempts by Natalya. Momentum in the match switched back and forth. Charlotte delivered a chin-lock but a snapmare by Natalya turned the tide.

Natalya hit the discuss clothesline and forearms, and the girls did some moves.

Charlotte went for figure-four but Nat countered this into an ARMBAR which led to the dead-lift spot from Charlotte.

Charlotte successfully hit the moonsault on Natalya and locked on the single leg boston crab. Natalya hit the German Suplex to very small “suplex city” chant from the crowd. Then we got the finish…

Natalya locked on the sharpshooter and has Charlotte seemingly on the verge of tapping when Ric Flair’s music hit. Everyone looks at the ramp and Natalya immediately let go off the hold. DOES EVERY BABYFACE HAVE TO STOP WHAT THEY ARE DOING FOLLOWING A DISTRACTION? If I was a legitimate competitor in a match, I would do my very best to just block the distractions from my mind. NOT NATALYA. She is made to look like a complete doofus in this match as she lets go of the hold to see who’s coming down to the ring. Let’s pretend for a second that this is real. Let’s say that this is a UFC fight and you’re in a UFC Light Heavyweight title fight against Daniel Cormier. What happens if you have Daniel at your mercy on the ground and you’re about to win the fight and the title, and then you see somebody in a robe in the crowd? What are you going to do – stop and stare at this person? No. You’re in probably the biggest title match of your life. If Natalya had lost STRICTLY because of this, I would have been incensed. 

Somebody comes out with white hair and a robe on, and Natalya immediately pleads with the referee to call for the bell. Apparently, a man with white hair and a robe was enough evidence for Natalya to be awarded the championship. It’s funny because Ric Flair has not come out in a robe and with all of this hair on his head in many years. 

It’s revealed that Dana Brooke was in the Flair robe and wig and this all led to Charlotte locking on the Figure Eight Leg Lock and Natalya submitting.

What a complete disappointment of a match, with a really bad ending. I’ve seen worse matches than this but I would have expected more from Charlotte and Natalya of all people. Those running the booking and writing for the women’s division need a serious word with themselves

Roman Reigns (c) vs AJ Styles in an Extreme Rules match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship

Then we got the main event of the evening and it was quite a main event. We got big boos for Roman and big cheers for AJ. We also got a “Roman is Anoai-ng” sign from the crowd! We got a lovely little striking battle between AJ and Roman. AJ grabbed the chair but Roman cut him off. Roman grabbed the chair and went for a chair shot, but AJ moved out of the way. They battled into the crowd and even fought into the kick-off panel area. Roman threw him into the panel table, which looked like it sucked for AJ.

AJ then fired back with a Phenomenal Forearm off the kick-off table. AJ mocked Roman’s roar as they made it back into the ringside area. AJ took away the protective floor padding. A Styles Clash there would have been really nasty but Roman fought out of it. Roman went for a powerbomb but AJ punched his way out of it. They landed on the German announce table. A Styles Clash on the announce table was countered by Reigns, who backdropped AJ through the table. Styles landed right on his arse and it looked very painful for the phenomenal one. After all, AJ does get some serious air time with these backdrops that he takes!

Following that move and a big Batista Bomb by Roman in the ring (which looked great), we got “you still suck” chants from the crowd. This was a good chant for Roman as the fans acknowledged that what he did was cool but they still just didn’t like him. At least the crowd notices that what you did was awesome.

AJ did the chop block and suplexed Roman into the turnbuckle. AJ hit the running knee. Roman caught AJ’s attempt at a hurricanrana on the outside and SWUNG AJ into the ring post and the barricade before powerbombing AJ through another announce table. This was a great spot for Roman and AJ did a great job in making the guy look good.

To make sure that it wasn’t a completely one-sided beating, Roman missed a spear through the barricade. This was all great stuff. Roman then countered a Phenomenal Forerarm with a Superman punch. A great counter from the Samoan.

Roman then speared AJ on the floor. AJ took some serious hits during this match, which is probably why WWE did all their best to protect him physically in the few weeks before the pay-per-view. As pointed out by Bryan Alvarez, AJ Styles is ridiculously great. Gallows and Andrson came out and hit the Boot of Doom on Roman. They rolled AJ into the cover but Reigns kicked out. The Usos run out and hit everyone with super kicks! This was quite the super kick party as they battered AJ. They did the Uso Splash but AJ kicked out. The brawl between the tag teams continued with Roman giving Superman Punches to Gallows and Anderson. AJ then hit the Styles Clash but Roman kicked out.

AJ caught Roman’s Superman Punch with a Pele kick. Some great stuff. Styles then hit Roman with the Styles Clash on the chair, which got a two count. Then we got the best spot in the entire match in my opinion. AJ, after everything that’s happened with Gallows, Anderson, Usos and Roman, completely snaps. He grabs a chair and unleashes hell of Roman Reigns, Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso. The crowd is going crazy as AJ lays waste to everyone with chairs in an incredible 30 seconds of the match. I wish that AJ won the match off that but he didn’t. Roman got the victory by catching AJ coming off the top rope and hit him with a spear. AN INCREDIBLE MATCH.

People were upset with the finish of this one as Roman Reigns went over. However, AJ Styles put on the performance of a lifetime in order to make Roman out to be a star. Think of every wrestler than Roman Reigns has faced since his big push began. He’s wrestled against the likes of Daniel Bryan and Brock Lesnar but it was still hard to take him seriously as a main event star. He had good matches with Daniel Bryan and he did look good in taking the beating from Brock Lesnar. However, AJ is the first wrestler to make Roman seem like an actual Superman in the WWE. AJ sold and sold moves like crazy and did everything in his power to put Roman Reigns over. He did lose the match clean and he did take a lot of punishment, but I do personally believe that big things are ahead for AJ after this performance. You know why? Because he made Vince McMahon’s golden boy out to be such a star to the point where even Roman Reigns’ detractors are acknowledging that he’s doing some badass moves in this main event with AJ. I personally believe that this was much better than their Payback match. I did say that the Intercontinental title match may have been the best main roster match of the year, but this match is a incredibly close rival. This match was ever so good.

So following all of this, Seth Rollins appears to an insane pop. Seth hit the Pedigree on Roman and held up the WWE World title to make his return after six months out with an injury. I did not expect this to happen but I think this could lead to something great happening in their title match at Money In The Bank…

I’m not going to lie… I thought Payback was a better pay-per-view than Extreme Rules. With that said though, NOTHING that happened at Payback was better than the Intercontinental title match and the main event match of Extreme Rules. Those two matches were something to behold. Everyone of the six men involved in those two matches came off as such stars to me. Even Gallows, Anderson and the Usos looked good and their tag match was actually pretty good. I think Payback was the better show but I think Extreme Rules did a much better job in sending the storylines and direction of the company in the right direction.