Though this week’s shows were taped and many of us knew what would happen, they still provided some meaningful content as WWE starts laying the groundwork for Royal Rumble. Since the rumble begins the road to WrestleMania, it’s important that WWE sets up storylines that get us off to a good start to 2019. So, without further ado here’s who was hot on this week’s shows:
They Didn’t Quite Make the List:
Natalya – She lost her bid to knock off RAW Women’s Champ “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey, but Nattie was booked very strongly in a match that vied for the best of the night with the main event featuring Seth Rollins and Baron Corbin. It’s not a far stretch to imagine that WWE is revisiting the intended story arc it had of Natalya turning heel on Ronda that were abandoned briefly because of the passing of Nattie’s dad, Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart. Natalya and Ronda worked well together, and Rousey upped the storytelling angle of her work by being reluctant to do any damage to her friend before putting her away with the arm bar.
Drew McIntyre – The Scottish Pyschopath didn’t win his triple threat match with Finn Balor and Dolph Ziggler, but he wasn’t the one that lost it, either. Balor scored the victory on Ziggler, causing McIntyre to go postal on The Showoff after the match. That’s what caused McIntyre and Ziggler to be booked for a steel cage match next week. Perhaps WWE responded to feedback that McIntyre-Ziggler ended a little too quickly and found a creative angle to work its way back into a great way to rekindle the feud.
Andrade “Cien” Almas – Though El Idolo has not had a great 2018 on the Blue Brand, his match with Mustafa Ali showed that the two guys can make magic in the ring together. This could be a showpiece type feud on Tuesday nights. Make no mistake, Almas is the type of guy who guy bust out big time in 2019. He and Ali could easily be in any title picture WWE wants to include them in going forward.
The Miz & Shane McMahon – First and foremost, I want to state that I’m not a huge fan of this story thread, but it’s big news that Shane O’Mac relented and decided to team with Miz. SmackDown has had kind of a stale tag team scene for a little while with the dynamic between The Bar-New Day-The Usos, and has shown signs of wanting to shake that up. We’ve seen both The Good Brothers and Sanity included for the first time in ages on TV, and now we have Miz and Shane. I doubt they are putting these guys together to get others over. Expect the gold on these guys sometime ahead of WrestleMania.
Top 10 Superstars of the Week (Reverse Order)
10. RAW Tag Champs Bobby Roode & Chad Gable – In a throwback tag team title match, Roode & Gable bested Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson to retain the belts. WWE seems like it wants to give these two Superstars time to breathe with the belts to see if some sparks happen. However, my instincts tell me that Roode is and always will be best as a heel, so maybe Bobby turns on Gable at some point around the corner? Either way, a feud with The Revival should that be what WWE goes with in the mean time would be extremely entertaining.
9. Women’s Division Tag Team Title Hopefuls – Mr. McMahon-ta Claus’ announcement (and pardon me throwing up in my mouth that giving the fans what they want means more McMahons as focal points of the shows) that WWE is finally going to launch women’s tag team titles. Yet, I am still cautious about this news because it was extremely vague in details, including the timeline for this. WWE has already teased this for a long time. Here’s hoping its soon because The Boss and Bayley should easily be the first to win these belts and perhaps it creates some meaningful matches for them again for a change. I still think Sasha is best as a heel and would really be a great challenge for Rousey on RAW, but that obviously won’t be in the cards for the first part of 2019 with unresolved issues for Rousey with SmackDown’s top stars Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair. Here’s hoping Riott Squad, Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville and the IIconics get some serious run in tag feuds. With Naomi and Lana working together in Wednesday’s live show in Chicago, don’t sleep on them being a strong team as well. Lana was do a push last year and it stalled out.
8. Elias – The Drifter managed to score his only pay-per-view win of 2018 at TLC, but he didn’t get to celebrate much with “The Almighty” Bobby Lashley pounding him with his guitar afterward at that show. He was able to get a measure of revenge the past two weeks, and had an entertaining Miracle on 34th Street Fight victory over Lashley. I still can’t get the picture of lego blocks sticking to Lashley’s back out of my mind. I like Elias and RAW needs some strong babyfaces because most of the strongly booked male performers are heels, but he needs to work with someone other than Lashley. The Almighty experience in his second round with WWE has been a resounding dud.
7. Jeff Hardy – The Extreme One is having a pretty solid program with Samoa Joe so far. Many critics have been critical of Hardy being booked so well as an older Superstar who some view as a block to emerging talent getting TV time. Yet, I can tell you from the live shows I have attended that he still gets some of the most energetic responses from the crowds, particularly kids. The only act more over with children at the live show in Chicago on Wednesday was R Truth and Carmella who are working incredibly well together in pitch perfect roles for them. Joe is a pretty good matchup for Hardy because the Samoan Submission Machine can work a good power grappling game to get Hardy reeling early, and then the Extreme One can work his way back to rally with his high-flying offensive moves.
6. Mustafa Ali – If you are a fan of pure, in-ring workers, you simply must check out Ali’s matches. Even though it’s his hometown, the live show fans in Chicago weren’t wrong in giving him a raucous ovation as he held his own in a steel cage match with two of the best in the company right now – Daniel Bryan and The Miz. Ali’s televised match against Almas provided a look at what should be the future of The Blue Brand. These guys are two big breakout candidates in 2019, though it could be argued Ali is already having his coming out party since becoming one of the few Cruiserweights to earn a full-time role on one of the two main shows. None of the 205 Live talents have made much of an impact on RAW or SmackDown since Neville left and Enzo Amore got fired. But Ali is quickly changing that. It would have been easy to see people disappointed Wednesday in Chicago because AJ Styles was advertised to face Bryan, but Miz and Ali put on a hell of a show with the WWE Champion.
5. Finn Balor – News hit this week that WWE plans to push Balor, and you can tell by the way he’s been booked lately. Instead of trading wins or working lackluster feuds, he’s been the first Superstar that’s been able to hand Drew McIntyre losses in WWE since the Scottish Psychopath’s return to the main roster. Even though technically he defeated Ziggler in the triple threat this week, don’t take these victories by Balor lightly. WWE is building him up as a title contender and perhaps the main babyface on RAW in 2019. Personally, I think Seth Rollins is a better heel, anyway. But it will either be Rollins or Balor that can provide the best babyface foils for monsters like Universal Champ Brock Lesnar and Braun Strowman in the Universal Championship title picture. I’m buying on Balor stock being on the rise at the start of the year.
4. Seth Rollins – The Architect had another strong match against Baron Corbin, who can wrestle, despite all of the fan wrath that wants to see him fired entirely. Perhaps Rollins was trying to help with the damage to The Lone Wolf’s rep by tweeting out that he’s a tough test in the ring after RAW aired this week. Rollins’ name has come up in the conversation as a possible opponent for Lesnar at WrestleMania again, and the WWE has done nothing to slow the momentum down for Rollins. Sure, they had him drop the belt to Dean Ambrose, but they needed to give credibility to the power of Ambrose in his new role as a heel. I think it’s been interesting that Rollins’ matches with Corbin have been more entertaining than his TLC showdown with Ambrose. WWE may want to explore switching up the matchups for Rollins and Ambrose a bit like they did last week when they had Tyler Breeze challenge Dean.
3. AJ Styles – SmackDown still needs AJ to be “The Face that Runs the Place” and having him clobber Vince at the end of the Christmas episode has reportedly been about keeping him relevant and positioning him slightly differently now that he doesn’t have the belt. AJ vs. Daniel Bryan is still the money matchup on Tuesday nights and WWE had to do something to keep Styles from fading into the background like some main eventers do when they lose a belt. There’s little doubt more than a few Superstars probably want to take a swing or two at Vince, but Styles got paid to act on it. That’s a pretty sweet gig if you can get it.
2. United States Champion Rusev – A long overdue title reign for the Bulgarian Brute occurred on TV on Christmas, his birthday. Obviously, it was taped a week prior to that, but it’s still a huge validation for all of the love fans have shown Rusev during the Rusev Day gimmick explosion. Having Rusev defeat Shinsuke Nakamura did two things. One – it gave WWE a feather in its cap with the “giving the fans what they want” movement they’ve been touting under the return of the McMahons angle. Two – it takes the belt off Nakamura, who is without a doubt one of the more disappointing Superstars of 2018. His title reign as U.S. Champ essentially had no real big signature moments. He has not even been featured on TV consistently for a while. Rusev is an athletic big man who connects with kids and families, and has impressive moves. He also has a hot wife for the old horn-dog men in the crowds to enjoy during matches. What more do you want in a champion to draw fan interest? At the least, I am confident Rusev has a more entertaining run as champ than Shinsuke did.
1. RAW Women’s Champion “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey – Pressed into a situation where she didn’t get to really do a lot of preparation for a match with the taping scenario in Sacramento the week prior, Rousey didn’t disappoint with a battle against Natalya in a match that was reportedly called in the ring between the two Superstars as it was in progress. That can’t be an easy situation for someone so young in her WWE career as Rousey, but she excelled in selling the reluctant champ who didn’t want to hurt her friend in trying to retain the belt. She also made Natalya look really dangerous and perhaps started the groundwork to Nattie turning on her as WWE intended before The Anvil died. However, Rousey’s dance card looks pretty full with matchups against the top SmackDown stars Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch at the start of 2019. It will be interesting to see how WWE decides to get stars from different brands in these matches. It’s been reported by Wrestling Observer that Rousey versus Lynch is the match for WrestleMania with Rousey versus Flair potentially on for the Royal Rumble. There’s also a chance Flair joins Lynch and Rousey for a triple threat at WrestleMania. Will there be room for a feud with Nattie in the meantime or will that heat up closer to the summer? Either way, Rousey continues to impress every time she heads to the ring and has been a worthy champion.