Opinion
WWE Week in Review Special Edition: WRESTLEMANIA!!
Tiffany gives you a special Week In Review…just for WrestleMania 35!
Tiffany gives you a special Week In Review…just for WrestleMania 35!
It’s that time of year again. It’s time for WRESTLEMANIA!!! And since this WrestleMania has a STACKED card, it’s been decided that we will put out a special Week in Review just for the Show of Shows! So sit back, relax, and let’s see how WWE did with their biggest show of the year.
Triple Threat Match for the RAW and SmackDown Women’s Championships – Ronda Rousey vs Charlotte Flair vs Becky Lynch: When it was announced that Ronda Rousey, Charlotte Flair, and Becky Lynch were going to have to absolutely tear the place down to justify their getting that spot and they did that. They left MetLife standing, but they absolutely tore it down and Becky Lynch is now the NEW RAW and SmackDown Women’s Champion!
There’s some controversy about how the finish went because Rousey’s shoulders were’t completely down at first, but the ref looked right at it and counted the three and Lynch shifted so Rousey’s shoulders were pinned completely at the three. Personally, I think this was intentional so that Flair and Rousey were protected but it still stands that Becky Lynch is a double champion and was the woman who got a pinfall win on Ronda Rousey. The Man came back around and WON!
Universal Championship Match – Seth Rollins vs Brock Lesnar: Holy God, it finally happened! Seth Rollins BEAT Brock Lesnar, battling through a sneak attack by Lesnar and showing why the size in the fight in the dog is more important than the size of the dog in the fight. Seth Rollins is the NEW Universal Champion and it’s going to be a wild night on RAW.
WWE Championship Match – Daniel Bryan vs Kofi Kingston: What a match! A lot of people, myself included, thought there were going to be McMahon shenanigans over the contract date or something, but there weren’t, at least on Sunday. Kofi Kingston overcame the odds and beat Daniel Bryan to become the NEW WWE Champion in an amazing, main-event worthy match. After eleven years, Kofi Kingston is a Triple Crown and Grand Slam Champion, and he and Bryan made a huge statement about the ability of the smaller guys to put on a WrestleMania Main Event on their own. Congrats, Kofi!
WWE Cruiserweight Championship – Buddy Murphy vs Tony Nese: I actually really enjoyed this match. I was worried that the rushed build for Murphy vs Nese would make it an afterthought in WrestleMania, but they did a great job of advertising why too many people are sleeping on 205 Live. The fact that Nese actually won, was the biggest surprise. I figured they were going to have Murphy drop the title back to Alexander, but I’m not complaining, this is going to be a fun feud coming out of WrestleMania.
Intercontinental Championship – Bobby Lashley vs Finn Balor: When Balor announced that the Demon would be making his…its WrestleMania debut, we all knew this was going to be a short match because the Demon doesn’t fuck around, but I was expecting a longer match than we got, but I guess it doesn’t matter. Demon Balor overcame Lashley and Rush and we have a NEW Intercontinental Champion..or Champions.
United States Heavyweight Championship – Samoa Joe vs Rey Mysterio: That was a waste of time and Rey Mysterio. The entrances took longer than the match. Rey is dealing with an ankle injury, but surely they could’ve put someone else in and at least had a match worth the name.
RAW Tag Team Championship Match – The Revival vs Zach Ryder and Curt Hawkins: What the actual hell was that?! Who hates the Revival this much that they’d have them lose to Ryder and Hawkins AND lose the belts. I get that they wanted to end Hawkins’ streak at WrestleMania, but they didn’t have to make the Revival look stupid to get it done! This could easily been a DQ win for Ryder and Hawkins or let Hawkins somehow win the Battle Royal. Ending the streak this was was just dumb.
SmackDown Tag Team Championship Match – The Usos vs Aleister Black and Ricochet vs The Bar Vs Rusev and Shinsuke Nakamura: I’m honestly surprised that the Usos got the win since this seemed to be booked to punish the Usos for forfeiting their match against Big E and Woods. The match was great, Black and Ricochet really showed how great they were in big matches and it looked like they were going to pull of the upset, but Usos showed why they were the best team in WWE and the Penitentiary is still open for business!
Women’s Tag Team Championship Match: Under normal circumstances, I’d be FURIOUS over Boss-Hug losing the Women’s Tag Team Titles, but I really like the IIconics and them crying with joy when they won after a very hard fought match makes it hard to be mad. The match wasn’t the greatest, but it wasn’t the worst match on the card. Beth Phoenix did a lot better than I thought she would given that she hadn’t wrestled for seven years. Samoan Dynasty were rough as cobs, but they weren’t awful. Congrats to the IIconics on winning the titles on their first WrestleMania!
No Holds Barred Match – Triple H vs Batista – If Triple H Loses, He Must Retire: This match was shocking because it was so brutal, something that hadn’t really seen in WWE in over a decade since WWE entered the PG Era. That said, it was a great match for all the brutality, though watching Trips rip Batista’s nose piercing out is still super gross. There was a lot of speculation that DX would help Triple H win, but I like that Ric Flair is the one to help him win the match, getting revenge on Batista for the attack on Flair two months ago. Triple H’s career will go on and he and Batista had a really good match to give Batista a great send off.
Retirement Match – Kurt Angle vs Baron Corbin: Well, John Cena didn’t save us from Angle vs Corbin and we all suffered or it. Angle, quite honestly, can’t go like he used to even five years ago and Baron Corbin isn’t a skilled enough competitor to cover for that, so Kurt Angle’s Retirement match wasn’t close to being a good one, sadly. Thanks for the memories, Kurt, you’ve definitely earned the accolades you’ve gotten.
Roman Reigns vs Drew McIntyre: I’m going to preface this by saying, I’m a huge Roman Reigns fan, but I was very disappointed in this match for many reasons, mainly that it was so short and felt flat. With the build of it being Reigns’ first singles match since his cancer announcement back in October, and the constant assaults by McIntyre, the match should’ve been longer or something.
I know a lot of people were expecting McIntyre to win, but the return of Roman Reigns was a much bigger deal than the Scottish Psychopath, who proved that, like Braun Strowman, while he has a great look and a respectable skill set, he’s not the answer to Roman Reigns that a lot of smarks want to believe he is. McIntyre got little reaction and was as interesting as paint. The important thing is that Reigns made his triumphant return to WrestleMania and put away a despised rival as only he can. Welcome back, Big Dog!
Falls Count Anywhere Match – The Miz vs Shane McMahon: Did we honestly think a Falls Count Anywhere Match with Shane McMahon wasn’t going to be crazy? This was another match I wasn’t totally sold on as being a big enough deal for WrestleMania, but I was proven wrong. This match was so good and so crazy that it doesn’t matter than Miz lost because he lost by fluke, rather than Shane somehow being the better competitor. Also, George Mizanin being game to get in the ring and get the shit kicked out of him by Shane was actually hilarious. If there was a flaw in this match it’s that it was on such a stacked card, so it wasn’t the highlight of the night like it should’ve been.
AJ Styles vs Randy Orton: This was one of the matches where the build was rushed and I couldn’t really get into it, but Styles and Orton did a great job with this match and told a great story of why dismissing someone’s pre-WWE career is a bad idea and why Styles is one of the best wrestlers on the planet, hands down.
Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal: This match I didn’t like nearly as much as the Women’s Battle Royal since there was no real suspense, everyone knew Strowman was going to win and it went down basically like it was being built to be: It came down to him and the SNL guys and Strowman won.
Women’s Battle Royal: I LOVED this match! The women of WWE having their own battle royal at WrestleMania isn’t new, but it being taken seriously is and they did a great job. I did feel for Sarah Logan a little since winning the battle royal would’ve been a huge step up for her, but after what happened with the SmackDown Women’s Championship a couple of weeks ago, the SmackDown Women’s Division needed a big moment and Carmella gave them that with that surprise win!
Elias and John Cena: The doctor is in the house! The Doctor of Thuganomics made his surprising return to WrestleMania by beating the tar out of Elias, who was set to make his musical debut. The Doctor showed no sign of mic rust and the crowd had a blast, so everyone, but Elias, was happy.
Overall Thoughts: So, how was WrestleMania? I have to say that this was one of the best WrestleManias in a long time. The three major titles got fairy-tale endings and there were very few clunkers. I was disappointed that Ambrose wasn’t featured at all in either the Rollins or Reigns match and there were a couple of other minor things that weren’t the best, but weren’t bad enough to warrant complaining about.
I loved the return of Thuganomics John Cena and the bloody and brutal Triple H/Batista match seems to be signalling a return to some more adult storytelling, which is nice. Overall, I really enjoyed this WrestleMania, it shows what great storytelling WWE is capable of when they put the effort in, if they could put this kind of effort in the rest of the year, the whole fanbase would be much happier…probably.
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Opinion
TheChairshot.com PRESENTS: WWE Bash In Berlin Immediate Reactions
Join DJ and Tunney for their immediate reactions to WWE Bash in Berlin. For the latest, greatest and up to datest, ALWAYS #UseYourHead and visit THECHAIRSHOT.COM
Join DJ and Tunney for their immediate reactions to WWE Bash in Berlin. For the latest, greatest and up to datest, ALWAYS #UseYourHead and visit THECHAIRSHOT.COM
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@TheMindlessPod @PCTunney @ChairshotMedia
prowrestlingtees.com/TheChairshot – TONS of Great designs…MAKES A GREAT GIFT!
About Chairshot Radio Network
Launched in 2017, the Chairshot Radio Network presents you with the best in sports, entertainment, and sports entertainment. Wrestling and wrestling crossover podcasts + the most interesting content + the most engaging hosts = the most entertaining podcasts you’ll find!
MONDAY – Bandwagon Nerds (entertainment & popular culture)
TUESDAY – Musical Chairs (music) / Hockey Talk (NHL)
WEDNESDAY – The Greg DeMarco Show (wrestling)
THURSDAY – Keeping the news ridiculous… The Oddity / Chairshot NFL (NFL)
FRIDAY – DWI Podcast (Drunk Wrestling Intellect)
SATURDAY – The Mindless Wrestling Podcast
SUNDAY – The Front and Center Sports Podcast
CHAIRSHOT RADIO NETWORK PODCAST SPECIALS
Attitude Of Aggression Podcast & The Big Five Project (chronologically exploring WWE’s PPV/PLE history)
TheChairshot.com PRESENTS…IMMEDIATE POST WWE PLE REACTIONS w/ DJ(Mindless), Tunney(DWI) & Friends
Patrick O’Dowd’s 5X5
Classic POD is WAR
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Your home for the hardest hitting podcasts… Sports, Entertainment and Sports Entertainment!
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About Chairshot Radio Network
Launched in 2017, the Chairshot Radio Network presents you with the best in sports, entertainment, and sports entertainment. Wrestling and wrestling crossover podcasts + the most interesting content + the most engaging hosts = the most entertaining podcasts you’ll find!
MONDAY - Bandwagon Nerds (entertainment & popular culture)
TUESDAY - Musical Chairs (music) / Hockey Talk (NHL)
WEDNESDAY - The Greg DeMarco Show (wrestling)
THURSDAY - Keeping the news ridiculous... The Oddity / Chairshot NFL (NFL)
FRIDAY - DWI Podcast (Drunk Wrestling Intellect)
SATURDAY - The Mindless Wrestling Podcast
SUNDAY - The Front and Center Sports Podcast
CHAIRSHOT RADIO NETWORK PODCAST SPECIALS
Attitude Of Aggression Podcast & The Big Five Project (chronologically exploring WWE's PPV/PLE history)
TheChairshot.com PRESENTS...IMMEDIATE POST WWE PLE REACTIONS w/ DJ(Mindless), Tunney(DWI) & Friends
Patrick O'Dowd's 5X5
Classic POD is WAR
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Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!
Opinion
AJ’s Top 3 Favorite SummerSlams
AJ is back with his annual opinion article, and this time the SummerSlam buzz got him wondering about his personal Top 3.
It’s been a while since I have done any form of writing and SummerSlam is this Saturday. Of all the SummerSlams I’ve seen over the years; which ones are my favorites? While it’s not a revolutionary idea, I figured everyone loves to debate favorites of well, anything. Don’t worry though because this isn’t just going to be pure recency bias. I’ve watched the majority of them so with the ones I put on the list, it hit me more in some way shape or form whether it was story, a really good match or it just felt like a solid event.
At least this proves WWE is trending in a good direction for me, when it gets the ol’ brain juices flowing just because a show is around the corner!
#3: 2022 (Ol’ Brock Lesnar Has A Farm)
Starting off the show, we get Bianca looking for a rematch against Becky from last years SummerSlam and it was better than the 21 second affair that everyone claims was a squash. This time Bianca holds her own and beats the Man in a fairly decent match, good way to get the event started. Next up is the heat seeking missile, Logan Paul against the former heat seeking missile because, well he wasn’t cut out for it and wasn’t a guy in everyone’s eyes, The Miz. After they had their blow off at Mania with Logan coming out on top which… isn’t awful, I just don’t like Logan Paul because he has that dude bro aura and swagger to make him more hateable than any other person on the card. Which I suppose is his gimmick…so…kudos?
First Championship match is for the US Championship and it’s as expected that in Theory, he should never beat someone to the caliber of Bobby Lashley which is no surprise. Dominik and Rey still back when Dom wanted the good fight against the Judgement Day before joining them later. The former Colts players, which they hammered it dahn in this match up showed that the canal swimming, trash talkin’, podcastin’, current RAW Color Commentatin’ goofball we all love, Pat McAfee came out on top again Bum Ass Corbin.
Usos putting the Street Profits on lockdown in the penitentiary since I believe this was peak Bloodline with the belt collecting and running all of WWE. Liv beat Ronda Rousey which isn’t astonishing but it’s not something people had on their bingo cards for anything with WWE so it was a nice little shock factor. The most memorable part of the night is obviously the Main Event, Lesnar brings the tractor, Roman catching the Microphone and Brock stands on top of the vehicle. Damn good match that showed off what they do in the ring since Roman caught his stride as the main bad guy and Brock… liked people after all of this? That is still a weird statement in my head. Brock being a good guy people person. If Liv wasn’t on bingo cards for wrestling, that is not on bingo cards in any aspect of life really.
That is more of the event that had solid matches and story going for it. No weird double count out, multiple people involved, 5 tag matches on the card. Things made sense and weren’t convoluted, had shocking moments that were great to see like Liv actually getting a title defense and there were the results we all expected at the time like Theory losing in 4 minutes to Bobby Lashley.
#2: 2009 (Are You Ready for The Return?)
This event wasn’t that strong. It was strong with the star power involved in 2009 with guys like Rey Mysterio as Intercontinental Champion, Orton and Cena for the WWE Championship as it was becoming as stale as month old chips and CM Punk was facing Jeff Hardy before he ultimately returned to TNA at the beginning of 2010 after this PPV. For me, it’s not so much of the show itself, it was more of the memories because the Balai as our friends Chris Platt and Rey Cash like to call my brother and I, we were just coming back into wrestling and we were TNA Fans. We didn’t watch WWE that much really, it was just what came on after another channel had old ROH shows before they moved to three hours and swallowed the 8pm Eastern Slot. No, the reason why this has so many memories for me is three main reasons. First, Orton and Cena. They have had their rivalry since the beginning it seems, being each others foils like Hogan and Piper before them and there had to be a stipulation where if Randy was Counted Out or DQ’d, he’d lose the championship regardless. This was prime Viper Randy and the obvious joke we had of Super Cena where he very rarely lost, unless it was SummerSlam surprisingly enough.
Number two reason was CM Punk and Jeff Hardy. Hardys known for the Ladder and TLC matches in the past and this being the penultimate match for this feud and it was a banger of a match. If you didn’t know Punk before, it was a great introduction to his wrestling. I used to like Punk a lot because of this match because he could talk, wrestle… and not insanely personal with things in wrestling. In all seriousness, this was a great match. Ultimate risks, high reward for Punk grabbing the World Heavyweight Championship and he was given his next feud because of the final boss of SmackDown at that time. Thanks, Teddy Long.
The main and final reason though why this match gave me the memories flowing back is more of the fact that one of my closest and longest termed friends of 23 years, also loves wrestling. Back when we were younger, he’d do MoCap videos on YouTube with his figures. We’d have friends come over for parties at his house and we’d do the one thing WWE always told us not to do and that was try it at home. He was always stronger than me, I was always more charismatic. He had the power aspect and did things with brute force, I could talk my way out of trouble with parents if we did something wrong. There was always one thing that our respective mother’s always called us though… it’s on the tip of my tongue… oh right, ‘Degenerates’.
As soon as we were called that, we kind of parodied the DX line. I was limber enough to do the HBK pose and do a Superkick before it became the new DDT and he would just Spinebuster people and knew how to do the water spit. So what do you think was the main reason we even ordered this PPV for his 13th Birthday? I think the two guys we were pretending to be were set to return on a tank and toss out some glow sticks. The return of DX, Shawn Michaels coming back after Mania with Triple H to deal with the Legacy problem was an amazing return for them and made everything so much fun.
So we have the solid card and this one has a personal story… what’s my number one SummerSlam? Is it personal? Well yes but not going into that. Is it a good card? To me, it was a phenomenal card! Is it memorable? Seeing how wrestling fans still mention at least three matches to this day.
#1: 2005 (Octopus in the Washer, Lover’s Quarrel and Where the F%#$ is Vickie?)
Quite possibly some of the best matches I’ve seen and one that was just the most hilarious moments of overselling in wrestling history, I know why I love this SummerSlam but it’s also a really good card at the same time. Redacted beats Orlando Jordan in 25 seconds for the US Title and they made jokes about it like, he can make a coffee faster than he beat Orlando and stuff like that, it’s pretty funny. Angle getting sick of Eugene’s antics for his Gold Medal was also a great bit they had play up, the Year long feud of Randy Orton and Undertaker was still going on where Orton comes out on top this time around to get the win back from Mania, Jericho returning for the match with Cena in a whole promotional thing for each other’s groups, Fozzy for Jericho and the Chain Gang doing Bad, Bad Man for Cena leading up to a match for the WWE Championship. JBL won a 20 man battle royal on SmackDown to win the Championship…… Opportunity to face the newest member of SmackDown, Batista but the three main matches that a lot of people talk about to this day; Edge vs Matt Hardy, Rey vs Eddie for Dominik and Hogan vs HBK in the Main Event.
I have reasons to enjoy the Hardy/Edge match but it looked like a real fight, it really made us believe that Matt Hardy was going to kill Edge because real names were dropped during this tirade from Hardy. It wasn’t Edge and Lita, it was Adam and Amy. Matt was so dead set on beating the hell out of Edge that they made a situation into gold and it was a great moment for this match to happen, I believe it was also an Unsanctioned Match too which added the intensity until matt got concussed and knocked senseless that it looked like he couldn’t fight for anything but the build up was what made it seem like a marque match. It made it feel real, it made it feel awesome and it made it feel personal.
Eddie kept tormenting Rey Mysterio about Dominik not being Rey’s but Eddie’s for the summer. That’s all you heard from Eddie being the weasel he was is hanging out with Dominik, making the world believe it’s his son and what not (Let’s not do a fast forward to today where he has the mullet, mustache and everything like Eddie) but they settle this in a Ladder Match where the top of it is a document for the custody of Dominik and my god, this match is better than it should have been. I expect nothing else from Eddie because the man hated having a bad match, Dom got involved and stopped Eddie, Vickie was late and stopped Eddie. The whole match was good it was just very weird with the premise but was a great match. I wonder if Rey regrets his decision to win the match now…
Octopus in a Washing Machine… those five words have resonated with Shawn Michaels’ performance in this match, forever. It was supposed to be an amazing match up between Hogan and Michaels, Icon vs Icon it said and suddenly Hogan’s back gives out, can’t do a trilogy of matches so we can only do the one and then pull out of everything after. This match was set up to be a classic and instead turned into the most unbelievable sell fest ever. A Hogan big boot caused Shawn to tumble 3 or 4 times, getting crotched on the ropes had HBK bouncing higher than he should have, being tossed out of the ring made it look like Shawn never broke his back in 1998 from how much he flopped and flipped around like crazy. It’s bad… or maybe even good that a lot of current wrestlers watched this match that went, “I can sell like that, I want to be a wrestler” and did. So good or bad, I don’t know but for some reason this PPV has always had a place in my heart for how memorable it was.
Those are my top three SummerSlams so far but who knows, 2024 has potential to maybe bump something or at least get me to consider a shift. Should be fun to see how the show plays out! What are some of your favorite SummerSlams?
About Chairshot Radio Network
Launched in 2017, the Chairshot Radio Network presents you with the best in sports, entertainment, and sports entertainment. Wrestling and wrestling crossover podcasts + the most interesting content + the most engaging hosts = the most entertaining podcasts you’ll find!
MONDAY - Bandwagon Nerds (entertainment & popular culture)
TUESDAY - Musical Chairs (music) / Hockey Talk (NHL)
WEDNESDAY - The Greg DeMarco Show (wrestling)
THURSDAY - Keeping the news ridiculous... The Oddity / Chairshot NFL (NFL)
FRIDAY - DWI Podcast (Drunk Wrestling Intellect)
SATURDAY - The Mindless Wrestling Podcast
SUNDAY - The Front and Center Sports Podcast
CHAIRSHOT RADIO NETWORK PODCAST SPECIALS
Attitude Of Aggression Podcast & The Big Five Project (chronologically exploring WWE's PPV/PLE history)
TheChairshot.com PRESENTS...IMMEDIATE POST WWE PLE REACTIONS w/ DJ(Mindless), Tunney(DWI) & Friends
Patrick O'Dowd's 5X5
Classic POD is WAR
Chairshot Radio Network Your home for the hardest hitting podcasts... Sports, Entertainment and Sports Entertainment!
Powered by RedCircle
Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!