Wrestle Review: I Just Can't Wait to Be King Submitted by Andy Sullivan on 08/17/2019 at 03:44 PM
Shane McMahon....I know the job of a heel is to get fans to hate your character. And I'm fairly certain we're headed towards another Kevin Owens/Shane McMahon match. Did anyone really think they'd just let the story lie when Owens beat Shane to "keep his job"? Now he's in the returning King Of The Ring tournament which, I figure, he won't win because of Shane's interference. Maybe he gets all the way to the final and Shane screws him over. That sounds like something that could happen.
Cesaro vs Joe: this first rounder will be the pair's first match with each other since 2017. Awaiting is the winner of Drew McIntyre vs Ricochet. These two haven't faced off since 2017 in WCPW. That saw Drew advance at the English Qualifying round of the Pro Wrestling World Cup. WWE fans might not know what that is. Therefore, this will be most fans first taste of Drew vs Ricochet.
May 13. What's the significance of that date? That's the last time Sami Zayn won a televised match in WWE. It's not a streak that will be broken here against Cedric Alexander, who's been on a bit of a streak since the "Roman Rub" a few weeks ago on Raw. Miz vs Baron Corbin is the final first round match on the Raw side. I feel bad for Miz because he's going to lose to the Applebee's greeter.
Kevin Owens faces Elias over on the Smackdown side. Elias, the current 24/7 champion(as of this writing), will likely lose both his first round match AND the 24/7 championship this coming Tuesday. Ali vs Buddy Murphy is up next. Ali is in the intercontinental championship hunt. Buddy Murphy is getting a big push via his program with Roman Reigns. Therefore, it wouldn't make much sense for Ali to win. I pick Murphy.
Chad Gable, recently moved to 205 Live, faces Shelton Benjamin, who has been relegated to cutting odd vignettes on the blue brand the past few months. I guess Benjamin is winning.
Andrade and Apollo Crews have split some matches recently. I'm picking Andrade to advance because, well I just am. I always thought the winner of King of the Ring should get a world title shot. Why not make it mean something? Granted, not everything has to mean something( Shane McMahon becoming "Best in the World") but the winner getting a title match would add some spice. It would also give them a main event for their next show. I can see Samoa Joe winning this.
I didn't see Impact because it didn't record, for some reason. One thing I saw while looking up the results was that they had one more match(5) than Smackdown(4). Four matches in two hours is more than a little paltry. Lots of backstage segments.
The only reason Buddy Murphy ended up in the "who tried to take out Roman" angle is that fans noticed him in the background for that ultra-weak/lame forklift angle on Smackdown. Now that Bryan and Rowan are in the story. I'm wondering when we get Roman and Buddy reluctantly teaming up to face Bryan and Rowan? Clash of Champions, perhaps?
Speaking of which, it looks like the Raw main event at the Clash will be Seth Rollins defending the Universal Championship against Braun Stroman. Obvious win for Seth. When Seth was taking the beatdown on Raw and Braun made the save, afterwards reluctantly handing Seth the Universal title after taking a long look. I said "that's it. That's the next Universal title feud". I could be wrong but I doubt it.
I'll end with this little tidbit: with Smackdown Live going to FOX Friday October 4-two days after AEW's Wednesday Night Dynamite debut on TNT-will NXT be moving as well? I've read rumors of USA Network acquiring NXT and the show moving to two hours. Expanding the show to two hours would get more NXT talent in on the show. The move would also pit NXT against AEW. I know Vince McMahon wants to destroy Cody's upstart company in short order-even if nobody ever says it. One thing is certain: It's going to get a lot more interesting and fun starting in October!
