Opinions

This week in WWE: WrestleMania 41 card taking shape, Kevin Owens injured, more

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So many stories to cover this week and so little time to cover it all, so let’s just dive right in and do a quick recap of everything that happened.

1. The WrestleMania card is finally taking shape

I looked at the card for Mania last week and thought it wasn’t really exciting. We knew some of the big matches, but it was lacking a lot of the undercard, which I feel is just as important as the upper-level matches.

That all changed this week as most of the mid-card champions—except for Lyra and Chelsea—seemed to have some sort of direction for Mania.

The War Raiders will defend the titles against The New Day, which should be a really good tag match.

Bron Breakker will be challenged by Penta, Dominik Mysterio, and Finn Bálor—hopefully in a ladder match or some sort of gimmick match.

Liv and Raquel will find out who they’re facing next week. I’m thinking this is where we see the return of the Wyatt Sicks and Alexa.

LA Knight will face Jacob Fatu, and the Motor City Machine Guns will face The Street Profits.

Outside of that, they added Jade vs. Naomi, which will probably be a trainwreck—but an entertaining trainwreck.

So all we have left to find out is who Lyra and Chelsea will face at Mania, and we’ve got a pretty strong undercard for both nights.

For Lyra, I’m thinking they might either do a multi-person match, or they’ll just go with Bayley facing her after we get a no-contest on next week’s Raw.

Chelsea will probably get an unannounced match at Mania after she cuts an in-ring promo that gets her into trouble.

2. Bret Hart calling modern wrestlers actors

One comment about modern wrestling from Bret, and the IWC starts losing their minds and calling him all sorts of names.

While I partly agree with Bret on this, I think he made a generalized comment and put everyone in the same basket. Yes, I agree with him about wrestlers wanting to be actors because, back in his day, wrestling was a totally different animal. Stories were told in the ring, and promos served to enhance those stories. It wasn’t just about the moves—it was about the little things, like how you sold a move or how every move told a story.

Now, especially in AEW but also in WWE and TNA, most stories are told through promos and backstage segments, and they don’t feel as organic as they used to. Also, since a lot of wrestlers are way more athletic, they tend to overbook their matches just to get a quick pop and forget about storytelling and the little things that made wrestling so great.

So while I don’t agree with him that everybody in modern wrestling is more of an actor than a wrestler, I do see the pattern he’s talking about.

3. Ricky Starks wins the NXT North American title

Watching NXT last Tuesday, I thought they were going to screw Ricky out of the big title win and have him win the belt at Stand & Deliver, but that’s not what happened. He actually won the title and will go into Stand & Deliver as the champion—and I couldn’t be happier for him.

In fact, this seems to have become a trend in WWE. They sign someone away from AEW who was wasted there and turn them into a bigger star than they ever were in AEW. Just look at the list of guys WWE has signed over the last year and a half:

– Lexis King went from a job guy teaming with someone who shouldn’t even be in pro wrestling to the Heritage Cup Champion.
– Ethan Page went from a job guy in ROH to a former NXT Champion and now has not one but two big programs going into Mania season—challenging Starks for the North American title and fighting Joe Hendry for the TNA title the following week at their PPV.
– Ricky Starks went from being sidelined for a year and a half to becoming North American Champion.

That’s not even mentioning the Lucha Bros, who are doing great on the main roster.

So while I don’t take joy in seeing WWE trying to make AEW look bad by turning guys AEW didn’t use properly into stars, I’m happy for those talents. They’re having success, and it makes WWE look more appealing for AEW talent considering jumping ship when their contracts are up.

4. Kevin Owens is injured and will miss WrestleMania

This just happened last night, and I think they missed a golden opportunity here. I get that they were in a bind because they needed to pivot quickly to find a new program for Randy Orton going into Mania. So they decided to just have Owens say he’ll be out because of a neck injury, which turned him into a babyface instantly, and then have Orton RKO Aldis—but this felt flat to me. It’s like Randy just forgave Owens for everything he did to him just because Owens got injured.

This unfortunate injury should have been used to advance the story so that when Owens comes back, they could resume the feud.

What I would have done is have Orton attack Owens backstage and take him out by punting him in the head. Then you announce that Owens suffered a possible career-ending neck injury. By doing it in a backstage segment, you could protect Owens a lot more than if you did it live. Plus, you give Orton some payback for what Owens did to him and keep the door open for the feud when Owens returns. Now, they’ve just made Orton look dumb.

5. The build-up for the Royal Rumble winners is really underwhelming

While I will praise WWE for making both main events feel special, I can’t say the same for the build-up for Jey vs. Gunther and Charlotte vs. Tiffany.

I really don’t get what they’re doing with Gunther vs. Jey right now. Instead of building Jey up as a major threat to Gunther’s title, they’re making him look like a complete idiot. From getting jumped from behind every week to tripping in the ring—not once but twice—to getting blindsided again this week and zip-tied while Jimmy gets bloodied. I get that they want us to feel sympathy for Jey so that when he beats Gunther at Mania, he gets a big pop, but for me, it does the opposite. I actually hope Gunther destroys him at Mania.

As for Charlotte vs. Tiffany, this has been an awful program from the start. The high point of the feud was their brawl a few weeks ago—even though it was confusing since they were wearing the same outfit—but it went downhill from there. The first backstage face-to-face interview was a total mess, and this week’s promo wasn’t much better. Charlotte trying to take over the segment and improvise is hurting the whole thing. Tiffany did her best to keep up, but she’s not as experienced, and it exposed her. They have two weeks to fix this, but right now, this is the match I’m looking forward to the least.

6. The main event build-ups are great

On the other hand, both Mania main events are on fire right now.

The Rollins vs. Reigns vs. Punk build-up has been fantastic. From Reigns attacking Punk in his cage match with Rollins at MSG to last week’s contract signing—everything has been executed perfectly.

Then you have Cena vs. Cody. Anyone saying Cena buried Cody on Monday or that this story doesn’t make sense is just looking for reasons to hate on Cody. This was probably the best Cody has looked since winning the title last year. He held his own in a promo battle with one of the best ever—and even outsmarted him at the end. Cena also did a great job explaining why he turned on Cody at Elimination Chamber, and it made total sense.

For me, WWE has done a great job with the limitations they have in this feud, and both Cena and Cody have turned what could have been a boring babyface vs. babyface match into a great grudge match.

So those were my thoughts on this week’s WWE news. It’s the most exciting time of the year for wrestling fans, and we’ll have a lot more to talk about in the coming weeks!