Fantasy Booking Friday: The rise and fall of the Meta Powers

The Meta Powers haven't been seen on tv in a while and I think it's time for a change! This week's Fantasy Booking looks at the story-line that could be: The rise and fall of the Meta Powers.

Professional wrestling fans around the world know the story of the Hulkster and Macho Man. Macho Man was in a bad position, and Miss Elizabeth ran to the back. No one knew why, but in a few short moments, everyone learned; She brought out Hulk Hogan and the Hulkster helped saved Savage from the beating he was taking at the hands of The Hart Foundation and Honky Tonk Man.

Fast forward several months later, and several more times of Miss Elizabeth running to the back, only to bring out Hulk Hogan to help Savage defend himself against the likes of Million Dollar Man, Andre The Giant, and others. The Mega Powers were this team-up of sorts, between the two top baby-faces in the company. But after dissension grew, the Mega Powers exploded and fought over the world title at WrestleMania 5.

So here we are, nearly 17 years later and Curtis Axel has gotten his #Axelmania gimmick somewhat over. Damien Sandow went from dressing up as Magneto and Vince McMandow, to becoming Damien Mizdow. Once that wore off, he's suddenly become Macho Mandow and we got this...


So they've got the gimmicks. But what they need is something to officially come together over and then break up over. What I'm thinking is Emma. She can be Miss Emmabeth. Okay, maybe the name's not great, but here's the booking:

Macho Mandow and Miss Emmabeth are out for Mandow's match. He's taking on a member of the New Day, when he's about to get the best of them. The other two members of New Day slide in the ring and break it up. Now, all three members are taking it to Macho Mandow. Oh no! Miss Emmabeth runs to the back and we have no idea what's going to happen.

Then, out comes Miss Emmabeth and with her is Axelmania! Axelmania runs into the ring and together with Emmabeth and Mandow, they fight off the New Day, and take over the ring! Yay! All is right in the world.

What ensues is the rise of the Meta Powers. Along with Miss Emmabeth, they bombard through the tag team ranks, and even get a shot at the tag team champions!

It's going great. Axelmania hits the leg drop. He goes to tag in Macho Mandow, but as he does, he gets tossed through the ropes and collides into Miss Emmabeth. Oh no!

Macho Mandow gets the tag in, and while he's in the match, Axelmania takes Emmabeth to the back. Mandow is left in the ring with the tag champions, and they are able to take care of him, leaving the Meta Powers to lose the match.

In the back, Mandow gets there as the doctors are attending to Emmabeth. Mandow breaks in and the infamous Axelmania/Macho Mandow argument takes place!

"You betrayed me, oh yeah!" Screams Mandow!

"What are you talking about dude? Are you crazy brother!?" Axlemania retorts.

From hear the Meta Powers are no more, and are at odds. Axelmania, whose being escorted to the ring now by Miss Emmabeth, is distracted multiple times by Macho Mandow, and loses his matches. This all culminates with the Meta Powers Explosion, where they have to face each other and the winner of the match gets Miss Emmabeth as their managers. Very 80's and kinda sexists in today's climate right? Well here's the finish!

The match would take place at a PPV and the the two go back and fourth. Finally it looks like Macho Mandow, the heel, is gonna come out on top. But wait! Emmabeth get's up on the ring apron and distracts him. Axelmania takes advantage and hits the leg drop for the win. Axelmania invites Emmabeth into the ring to celebrate, but instead of celebrating, heel Emma returns, low blows Axelmania and gets on the mic, proclaiming: "I'm my own woman." And leaves the ring, with both Axelmania and Macho Mandow looking at each other.

And there you go, this weeks' Fantasy Booking.

Slammiverary: The PPV with no consequences

Impact Live just aired and it was actually a pretty good show. The past few weeks, the shows been working pretty well. Bram (who I'm a big fan of) has been calling out past TNA wrestlers, the Doll House, led by Taryn Terrell, has been putting together some good stuff, and the Wolves versus the Dirty Heels have been really entertaining in the Best of Five series. And then there's Ethan Carter, who is really building up momentum, as he's getting ready to face Kurt Angle. Plus, James Storm and Magnus has put together a story line that's become really personal. All of these angles could and should lead up to some great payoffs for the Slammiversary pay-per-view. But most of them won't.

It's weird. Why have a PPV where some of the biggest matches you could have, won't happen until the next week on TV? The first thought that comes to mind is the WCW fiasco where all they cared about was ratings, and instead of building up the Goldberg/Hulk Hogan match for the world championship at the Georgia Dome to something huge, they pack the stadium full for a big rating, not taking advantage of the pay-per-view possibilities.

The only Slammiversary match of any consequence is the Magnus/James Storm match. It could be so much bigger than they've promoted it also, but it's kind of just left on the back burner for TNA. It's a shame too, because it has gotten very personal, and could be a very emotional match. It kinda reminds me of the Stone Cold/Brian Pillman feud in the 90's.

But what about the X-Division championship? The title was just won this week on the live Impact show (a match in which Grado lost in a three-way with Low Ki and Tigre Uno. I thought TNA could have capitalized on the Grado following that's been going on, but that's a topic for another post). No type of X-Division match on the card, let alone the champion defending the title.

What about the World Title match? The number one contender, Ethan Carter is in a tag match with Tyrus versus Mr. Anderson and Lashley. Um, okay. So on TNA's first pay-per-view in eight months, they don't even have the world championship up for grabs? Kurt Angle isn't even booked on the card, unless they pull a fast one and have him in the King of the Mountain match.

And speaking of King of the Mountain match, they get Jeff Jarrett to make a surprise appearance on Impact which got everyone on the internet talking. He comes out, and half the time talks about Global Force Wrestling. Good on him, because it's his new promotion, but that can't be good for the TNA brand. But Jarrett comes out and announces he will be in the King of the Mountain match. That's kind of cool, but who else is in it? I don't know.

And what could be a great Knockouts Championship triple-threat match of Awesome Kong, Brooke and Taryn Terrell, is going to be on network television while at Slammiversary, it's Kong and Broke versus Terrell, Jade, and Marti Bell. It could be a good match, but why not defend the Knockouts title? Again, I don't know.

There are no championship matches on the line. The tag titles, knockouts title and the world championship are all going to be fought over three days AFTER the pay-per-view on television. Why? It doesn't make sense.

The only thing I can think of is that, TNA wants ratings. Again, it reminds me of WCW. Look, ratings are good for any show, wrestling or otherwise. But as far as I know, wrestling shows are different than normal tv shows. Wrestling shows build up to a big pay-off show, where the storylines come to a boil. It's what so many of us wrestling fans want! At this point, I don't have any real reason to buy the pay-per-view myself, other than to watch the King of the Mountain match. That alone is not enough for me to shell out extra money for a wrestling show. I may just wait to watch Impact Wrestling three days later on tv and get what should be a pay-per-view quality type show for free.

Money In The Bank Predictions

Tomorrow is WWE's Money In The Bank pay-per-view. For future pay-per-views and special events I'm going to try and do extra comic strips with the blog post. Anyways, let's get to it shall we?

Kick-Off Show
King Barret VS R Truth
There's not a whole lot to say on this one. It's a kick-off show match, with really no build up (but is there ever really any build up for kick-off show matches?), and Barrett is going against R Truth. I'd say it could easily be a toss up as to who wins, but if R Truth goes over on Barrett, then what really was the point of making him King of the Ring? Winner: Barrett.


Intercontinental Title Match
Ryback(c) VS Big Show
If this match wasn't for the I.C. title, this could easily be a kick-off show match. Big Show hasn't really had a good story line since Survivor Series last year, when he flip-flopped YET AGAIN, and turned heel. Winner: Ryback.

Divas Title Match
Nikki Bella VS Paige
Speaking of flip-flopping.

Flip-Flop Magic

Paige really should be champion. Well, nix that. Naomi is deserving of that title actually, but since that story line seems to have gone kaput, Paige is the next logical choice. I'll agree with some podcasters out there, Nikki has gotten really good in the ring, but MY GOD, is she ever horrible on the mic. But we're not talking about mic skills are we? No, we're talking about the Diva's Championship. I wanna say Paige is going to win here, and maybe I should predict that, but I have a feeling WWE brass wants the Bella's associated with the Diva's title and is looking to make Nikki the longest reigning Diva's champion in history. To do so, she'd have to hold the title until September 16th, which means she'd retain through Summer Slam. With the Bella becoming heels AGAIN, I guess they could stretch out a story line to make it happen. Just please keep Brie around to speak for them. Every time Nikki cuts a promo I think she's auditioning for a bad Syfy movie. Winner: Nikki Bella

Tag Team Titles match
Prim Time Players VS New Day
This is a tough one. A New Day has gotten incredibly over as heels. Is there anyone more annoying then Xavier Woods? But Prime Time Players are starting to really come around again. I want to say that Titus O'Neil and Darren Young are going to win, but I think it's going to be A New Day somehow weaseling out another victory. Winners: A New Day


John Cena VS Kevin Owens

The Sandow Effect

Now this is an interesting match. On one hand you've got Kevin Owens, NXT Champion, and the man who came in and beat John Cena in his first WWE main roster match. How much over can you put a guy than that? With that being said though, he JUST went over John Cena. Do they really put him over again? Does Vince have that much faith in Triple H and his choice of Kevin Owens going over on Vince's golden Super-Cena two times in a row. I don't know. Sam Roberts had this awesome idea, that he should go over, and then he would have two wins over Cena. After the Japan show on July 4th, Roberts hypothesized Owens could drop the title to Balor there, and then come back and challenge John Cena again, only this time, he wants the U.S. Title. It's a very intriguing idea, if it were to happen. But I just don't see them putting Owens over Cena two times in a row. I think Samoa Joe makes an appearance, distracts Owens, and Cena gets the win. Winner: John Cena.



MONEY IN THE BANK MATCH
Dolph Ziggler, Kofi Kingston, Neville, Randy Orton, Roman Reigns, Sheamus, and Kane.
Yikes. I mean, story line-wise you've got what? Kane really. Kane could win, and then he's at odd's with Seth Rollins. Still. That's been going on for months. Sheamus? I don't know... why? He's getting some good response as a heel, but I don't seem him winning. Neville and Kofi? Again, why? That leaves Orton, Ziggler, and Reigns. Ziggler and Orton have both won it already. Winning Money In The Bank twice isn't unprecedented (John Cena and CM Punk both won it twice), but I don't see them doing it. Winner: Roman Reigns.


WWE World Heavyweight Championship
Seth Rollins VS Dean Ambrose
So here's the the thing about this match. I don't really see Ambrose as the World Champion, but at the same time I don't see Rollins continuing on as champion either. There's been some rumors on the dirt sheets, that they could been setting up for a Rollins/Triple H match, which could be pretty awesome for Summer Slam. So for the finish of this match match I've got to go into story-teller mode. Rollins has pretty much alienated everyone in The Authority. And when he accepted this match he even got in Triple H's face for a second, telling everyone he could do it all by himself.

Then we have Dean Ambrose. The crazy wildcard, the "lunatic fringe". Every time I see him with the championship, I think of Heath Ledger's line as the Joker; "Do I look like a guy with a plan? I'm like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn't know what to do with it if I caught it. I just... do things." That's Dean Ambrose. He's just out there, causing chaos, living it up. And it's good. It's fun. But I don't see him as the champion.

So, then what? Well, Ambrose and Rollins fight out out, and out of the blue Ambose somehow wins. Triple H is furious at Rollins, and the next night berates him on Raw. Dean Ambrose comes out the next night on Raw, to a huge pop, he's just living the dream, and then Brock Lesnar's music hits. Out walks Paul Heyman and tells Dean, his client, "BROCK LESSSSNARRRR" wants his title back.

What do you think? I think it sounds like a plan. Either that, or there's a run-in and Rollins retains. I really hope it's not that. Winner: Dean Ambrose!

You got any predictions for Money In The Bank?

Triple H's Announcement

Tonight was the supposed earth-shaking announcement from Triple H, about the "controversy" over the Royal Rumble, specifically Roman Reigns winning.

Monday Night Raw started off the night as Triple H and Stephanie McMahon came out, but really no announcement was made. They eluded to Roman not being the one the fans wanted in the main event at WrestleMania, to which Reigns answered by coming down to the ring and a stare down with Triple H.

After some words, then Daniel Bryan came out to cheers and the yes chant. Bryan said he never lost the heavyweight championship and should get a match.

Seth Rollins then came out and said he deserved one.

After this segment Reigns fought Big Show, and then Curtis Axel came out and said he wanted a shot at Brock Lesnar, which led me to think everyone on the show tonight was going to be saying that.

Anyways, back to the announcement, it was announced that Seth Rollins would face Daniel Bryan on Raw and the winner would face Reigns at Fastlane. The winner of THAT match would then go on to face Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania. And who won that match? Daniel Bryan.

This just spells all kinds of trouble for Roman.

First off all, there's no choice he can make but to accept the match. Because if he declines and says he earned the right to main event WrestleMania at Royal Rumble, he comes off as weak and scared to face either Bryan or Rollins. So he has to accept.

Now, by accepting, it's really a lose-lose situation, regardless of whether he faces Daniel Bryan or Seth Rollins.

By losing, it's obvious: He won the Royal Rumble, but that means nothing now. He's out of the main event at Mania. But even if he wins, do they really think he's going to get over at Fastlane?

No matter how well Daniel Bryan wrestles and puts Reigns over, no matter how good Bryan makes him look, the fans will want nothing less then Daniel Bryan in the main event at WrestleMania.

We'll just have to wait and see how Fastlane plays out, but I have a sneaking suspicion that no matter what the WWE tries to to pull the strings, operating behind the curtains, the fans still wont get behind Reigns, at least this year, leading to WrestleMania.

There is a silver-lining here, that I think played out at the end of Raw. Reigns was booked strong at the end of Raw when he came out and speared Big Show. Good crowd reaction to that. Then a Superman punch to Rollins, which in turn, allowed Daniel Bryan to hit the running knee and get the win. He subtlely aligned himself as a good guy, helping Bryan out to get the match that everyone wants to see. If nothing else, at least subconsciously, it could stick in the fans mind, and actually help Roman Reigns going into Fastlane. We'll see.

Weekend Update: Mick Foley Cheats, Bam Bam Trends

Over the weekend, a couple interesting tidbits hit the wrestling world.

Saturday

First off was Mick Foley competing in the annual Philadelphia Wing Bowl and was caught red handing dipping his hands into the cookie jar, er... fanny pack. Foley was at the event and strolled out to the contestant area via a mini ring, like the Wing Bowl was happening during Wrestle Mania 3.


But things took a turn for the worse, when Foley was caught red handed, stuffing some of his chicken wings down his fanny pack in an effort to take the lead.

This was obviously done tongue-in-cheek, as you can see Foley looking around and appears to see himself on camera, before stuffing the wings in his fanny pack. Plus, there was a referee standing right in front of him, and when Foley was DQ'd, he threw a fit, waving his hands in the air. Because of the mischief, the Wing Bowl actually got some pretty good social media coverage. If I was the organizer of the event, I'd bring Foley back every year, and have him try a new way each year to cheat his way to the top, making a show of it. Good stuff.


Sunday

Sunday was Super Bowl 49, and everyone was ready for the halftime performance of Katy Perry. What they weren't ready for was the flame-engulfed attire Perry wore for the performance, drawing similarities to the late Bam Bam Bigelow. Below are a couple tweets from The Iron Sheik and JBL.

THE KATY PERRY SHOW THE RESPECT TO MY BROTHER BAM BAM BIGELOW TONIGHT #SuperBowl pic.twitter.com/h5j3JSY3Az
— The Iron Sheik (@the_ironsheik) February 2, 2015

Bam Bam never looked that good, but his dancing land sharks were much tougher! @katyperry pic.twitter.com/QCyJAlQocx
— John Layfield (@JCLayfield) February 2, 2015

WWE's Next Competitor

The title of this post may be a tad misleading. World Wrestling Entertainment is on the stock market. It's a multi-million dollar company. What company out there could possibly rival the machine that is WWE. Well none of them individually. But all together? That could be a different story.

WWE hasn't been rivaled in ratings or any other way since the Monday Night Wars with WCW. But since that company has shut down, no other single company has been able to put on a product with the budget and spectacle of WWE.

For a moment, TNA looked like it might start to come close, especially when a number of WWE stars went over there, including Booker T, Jeff Hardy, Hulk Hogan, The Dudley's, Sting, just to name a few. But for whatever reason, and there are numerous websites out there that talk about such, they've never been able to break the barrier in fan growth.

But in 2014 the landscape started to change. Towards the end of January, the day after the 2014 Royal Rumble, CM Punk, arguably the most popular wrestler in WWE, left the WWE. The whole ordeal was talking about in Colt Cabana's Art of Wrestling Podcast, but right when it happened, people didn't know what was going on.

Was it a work? Was Punk really gone? And if he was really gone, where was he going? He'd already mentioned ROH on WWE t.v. before, was he going there? Would he actually go over to TNA and wrestle there? New Japan Pro Wrestling? No one knew and everyone was speculating.

As more time passed in 2014, it would seem to everyone that CM Punk was done with wrestling, at least for the immediate future. But then another shake up.

In August of 2014, Alberto Del Rio was involved in an incident with a WWE employee and was subsequently fired from the company. Though it was reported that WWE had a non-compete clause in their contracts, lawyers for Del Rio contested that clause and he won. He was free to wrestle. At first he appeared on the Mexican promotion AAA, and then in December it was reported that Del Rio, now going by Alberto el Patron, would be wrestling for ROH in January of 2015.

So in 2014 we had two rather large shake-ups, with CM Punk and Alberto Del Rio. But that's not all. Both TNA and WWE decided to release or not renew contracts with a number of wrestlers. Coming from a large group of released WWE wrestlers was Curt Hawkins, Drew McIntrye, Brodus Clay, and Evan Bourne, as well as others.

In TNA, A.J. Styles, Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian, Chris Sabin, and others did not have their contracts renewed with the company.

So now, throughout 2014 we have all these great wrestling talents out on the market. They've all continued to wrestler on the independent scene, and also Clay has now signed with TNA going by the name Tyrus. But that's not it.

Along with an abundant of free agent talents on the market, not only do we have WWE, TNA and ROH, but New Japan Pro Wrestling was beginning to be highly promoted through Jeff Jarrett's new promotion GFW (Global Force Wrestling). AND, a new player came to the t.v. screen in the form of Lucha Underground. Though debuting on a small network, El Rey, in October, fans and wrestlers alike have been giving the promotion high praise. There's also Tommy Dreamer's House of Hardcore, which isn't really a weekly or monthly promotion, but putting on great wrestling shows every few months.

Finally, there is the plethora of "indy" talents already making names for themselves with small independent wrestling promotions like Adam Cole, The Youngbucks, Chris Hero, Ricochet (who wrestlers as Prince Puma in Lucha Underground), reDRagon (the tag team of Kyle O'Reilly and Bobby Fish) and others.

So what does this all mean? An abundance of talent not only in TNA and WWE, but performing on independent shows, as well as wrestling promotions like NJPW, ROH, and Lucha Underground reaching a wider audience. Professional wrestlers out there, can perform in front of crowds today, some larger than others, and if they didn't make to to WWE or just don't want to go to WWE, they don't have to, and can still make a living. That's why some of the talents like TNA, the schedule isn't as grueling.

The title of this post is "WWE's Next Competitor" and the next big competitor is the market itself. Because if a fan doesn't like what's going on in WWE, they can check out TNA. Or ROH. Or NJPW. Or Lucha Underground. There are so many options out there now, including some great independent promotions not on t.v. So WWE, at least in my opinion, needs to put out a great product. Because over time, if they just put out middle of the road entertainment, fans can tune in to other products. Will the fall-off be like that of the nineties, and make a company rival WWE? Probably not, but the fall-off wouldn't be good for business, no pun intended.

But it's not just the fans with options. The wrestlers have options now too. I don"t know the pay scale for wrestlers, but if you're a top talent in WWE, there probably isn't another company out there that can rival their pay. I'm talking main event wrestlers, at every pay per view. But not everyone can be that, for one reason or another. But you can go out and be a free agent, wrestling for other promotions, and make a living. And if you're good, you can make a good living.

So WWE's next competitor isn't just one promotion, but all the great promotions putting on good shows right now as a whole. There are lots of other options out there for professional wrestlers, and they don't HAVE to stay in WWE. Sure, WWE is the desired destination for many wrestlers, because it's the show. If you play football, you're goal isn't to play in the Canadian Football League or the Arena Football Leaugue, but the NFL. That's just the way it is. WWE is the big show. But the other shows out there are an actual option for wrestlers now, to not only perform and entertain the fans, but make a living as well.

It's a good time to be a wrestling fan.

Recap: Royal Rumble 2015

Man oh man!

The Royal Rumble. What can you say? It's taken over the internet the last couple days, unfortunately for the wrong reasons. The hashtag #CancelWWENetwork went viral and was trending all over the world. Everyone was up in arms and by the reactions, some people might have thought a high government official had been assassinated. But alas, it wasn't as traumatic or serious as that. It was, professional wrestling.

Wrestling fans are loyal and emotional, sometimes as we've seen, on a unreal level. But I guess that is what a fan is right? Fanatical. The Royal Rumble proved just how fanatical wrestling fans can get, but before we get to the main event of the night that set twitter ablaze, had people booing their heads off, and even had the Rock wondering what the hell was going on, let's talk about the precursor matches.

In the kick-off show we saw two member of New Day take on Cesaro and Tyson Kidd, who had Adam Rose in their corner. The match was okay, but what many people were talking about were the shirts Cesaro and Rose were wearing. Apparently the "Brass Ring Club" may or may not be a personal motto between the three unlikely allies, and both Rose and Cesaro came out with a parody shirt of the Bullet Club, made famous now through NJPW. Replacing the skull, machine guns, and bullets for the Brass Ring Club was a cat skull with ears, two Swiss crosses on the sides and two long stemmed roses. It was actually pretty cool. I really hope Cesaro "proves" he's over, because in my book he already is.

The Usos went on to defeat The Miz and Mizdow. Not much to say about this match, but Mizdow continues to impress. The fans really like him, but I have a sneaking suspicion that even when he splits from Miz, they'll have a match or two, but then "creative" will have nothing for him, which is horrible.

The Bella Twins beat Paige and Natalya, which only had a couple good spots. I wish Paige would get back into a good story line, whether it's for the title or not. Preferably for the title. Every time Nikki Bella holds that title up, it just seems like one of those things where someone had a championship or what not, but you know they shouldn't. But they are holding it up to prove to everyone that they do. I can almost hear the words "Nah-uh, I'm the champion. See!! I have the title, see! I'm the champion." That's the feeling I get. She's good, so maybe she just needs to change her demeanor/attitude.

The Ascension defeated the New Age Outlaws, in a match I think was there to show that the Ascension are good, but I'm still not buying them. I've been watching them since NXT, and I wasn't buying them there either. I don't think they are gonna work. Hopefully they can get something else with either different tag team partners and single story lines.

The World Championship match came right before the rumble, and wow! Man, this match was great. It got great buzz on social media from everyone, whether they were in WWE or not. I tweeted that no matter the outcome of the rumble, that match was worth the 9.99 for the network.

Brock Lesnar is a beast. plain and simple. His nickname as the Beast Incarnate has never been so apropos as these last few matches he's had and he did it again at the Royal Rumble. He's a monster. He's a suplex machine. And ever since that Undertaker match at WrestleMania 30, every match he's had he's just looked dominant.

For all the boos and all the haters and every person out there that says "I respect him, I just don't like him", John Cena is the man. And not the man in the sense as the face of the company and all that, even though he is. I mean he's the man in the sense that he puts it all on the line, every match and you gotta give him props for that. He went through barricades at the rumble and threw stairs around and took a boatload suplex's yet again and he still put on a great show.

And Seth Rollins. I'm buying in on Seth Rollins. If this wasn't his coming out party to the top players in the WWE, it was damn close. Jumping off the top rope with knees to Lesnar and Cena, that amazing Phoenix Splash on Cena and Oh. My. God. That top turnbuckle elbow drop on Lesnar over the spanish announce table (why is it always the spanish announce table?). Rollins proved that he definitely is in the main event scene, and as he puts it, the future of the WWE.

Finally we had the Royal Rumble.

Okay, while I felt the end was definitely lack-luster, I did not jump on the #CancelWWENetwork bandwagon. I like the network. I like the countdowns, and I'm always browsing through the documentaries. But yes, they could have had a little more drama to end the match.

Daniel Bryan. We all knew he wasn't going to win, but it felt like he got eliminated as just another guy. Some more story and drama could have been utilized. Anything other than just being bounced off the apron.

The guest spots were pretty cool. Bubba Ray Dudley making a come back was cool for sure and it was awesome watching DDP nail some diamond cutters on people. One thing I wasn't thrilled with was the Boogey Man taking a spot. I get it, he was a crazy scary guys going up against Bray Wyatt, supposedly another crazy scary guy. But I thought they could have given that spot to someone else. Maybe even Sami Zayne or Adrian Neville from NXT. Last year the NXT guy was Rusev, so I was hoping at least one person from NXT would show up. But nope.

While not disappointing, a little bit of a head scratcher was Kofi Kingston's "rumble spot" this year. Kofi's become an attraction at every rumble the last few years, with interesting predicaments on how to get back in the match without being eliminated. Granted, it's hard to come up with these spots, but this year we saw him sort of crowd surf the rosebuds around one part of the ring and get put back in. Kind of "meh".

It was cool that The Rock came out to help Roman Reigns for a moment, the last thing that really disappointed me was the way Dolph Ziggler, Ryback, Bray Wyatt and Dean Ambrose were eliminated. No drama. No tension. Just Big Show and Kane laying waste and quite literally simply dumping them over the top rope. Come on WWE!!  Give us a little more story and drama then that! I get it, you want to show them unstoppable for Reigns to try and look heroic, but while you're making one guy look like a hero, you're making the other main event players look like chumps.

So, yes, while the Royal Rumble match itself was a bit under-whelming, I still keep thinking about the championship match and it reminds me that there are still great matches to be had and stories to be told. And even if Roman Reigns is rumored/scheduled to be the man in the future, I'm not hitching my horse to that wagon. Make mine Seth Rollins.

#IBelieveInSethRollins

I am the light at the end of the tunnel.
— Seth Rollins (@WWERollins) January 27, 2015