Opinion
Power Rankings: WWE Smackdown Live (10/12/17)
Coming out of Hell in a Cell…I…I don’t even know. Some feuds got dragged out for no real reason, twists happened which muddies up the storyline landscape for a while and there was only one real classic match that ended in a nice respect angle on the following Smackdown (yes I’m talking the Usos and New Day). So as per usual, Power Rankings isn’t purely a “best wrestler” concept, it does try to assess overall popularity, social media attention, amount of internet chatter as well as plenty of other things. So let’s see what we’re working with for the Post-Hell in a Cell fallout:

5. AJ Styles
Still the face that runs the place, but seems to be that he was helping to elevate Baron Corbin, so his status does take a hit for this update. Losing a Triple Threat isn’t too bad, but losing clean and rather definitively on the 10/10 episode of Smackdown shows he’s most likely taking a small backseat. They could randomly interject him into the WWE Title scene, but I think that will be a slower build, possibly resulting in a Royal Rumble victory or at least a storyline that takes a few months for him to reach the WWE Title.

4. The New Day
Now this one wasn’t easy. Smackdown stories are at a weird point, a lot of the characters are caught in the wash or there’s no overwhelming feeling one way or the other about some…BUT, New Day has been killing it with The Usos and that much everyone agrees on. Be it Hell in a Cell, new underwear, or popping themselves for the Fashion Police, they are a fantastically over team that has really come into their own last 2 years. Now they may take some time to help validate the other tag teams on Smackdown, but their place at the top of the current division is hard to argue.

3. Jinder Mahal
This has kind of become his spot. His matches are never anything to write home about, they always end with some kind of interference or shenanigans, but he’s being booked strong. People will complain that he’s hurting Live attendance, but the internet doesn’t keep his name out of their mouths and the TV viewership is still holding steady. So he’s doing something, sortuv right, maybe, a little…yeah? But he’s still the champion, he’s moving merchandise even if it’s ironically…so…he’s still a top 5 talent on Smackdown.

2. Kevin Owens
The cell match left a few people saying “What the hell was that”? He had a great match with Shane, and even if a little confusing, bringing Sami Zayn into the angle just helps to move this along. We could see this turn into family warfare, with Zayn calling Owens his brother, that could be foreshadowing that Triple H is coming to help Shane. Even if it’s not a top talent main event storyline, Owens is in one of the most intriguing stories going along now.

1. The Usos
These guys came out of Hell in a Cell looking like a million bucks. So much hype surrounded the match, and it exceeded most expectations. Now, they seem to be on a face turn since they respect the New Day, but this new angle is too new to start anticipating direction. As long as the Usos help elevate the Tag Division and don’t just stomp everyone not named New Day, this could be very healthy for Smackdown. Plus, after the pay-per-view match, people were running through social media trying to crown the Usos as one of the greatest tag teams of all time.

— so the hype is real, let’s see if they can continue to run with this momentum.
In previous iterations, there were stronger singles storylines coming out of the PPVs. Orton’s struggles with Jinder, Nakamura moving up in the card, but now they’re in story limbo. Perhaps it’s a little overdue for this to be New Day‘s debut on Power Rankings, but the singles stories always seemed to overshadow the tag division, until now.
Survivor Series is the next Pay-Per-View that Smackdown builds toward, so there should be plenty of time to build through the talent and hopefully give us something better to work with next Power Rankings update.
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Opinion
Chris King: Is Brock Lesnar Truly Retired?
Brock Lesnar retired at WWE WrestleMania 42, right? Are we totally sure? Chris King asks…
Brock Lesnar retired at WWE WrestleMania 42, right? Are we totally sure? Chris King asks…
At WrestleMania 42, ‘The Beast Incarnate’ Brock Lesnar took off his boots and gloves following his loss to Oba Femi. Lesnar has done it all inside of his twenty-four-year career in professional wrestling. He’s a ten-time WWE Champion and former UFC Heavyweight Champion, and he’s one who ended The Undertaker’s undefeated streak at WrestleMania.
While Lesnar was in the ring, he was visibly overwhelmed with emotion and crying while he thanked the fans in his own way. The Beast even threw up an x to signal to Paul Heyman, his longtime friend and advocate, that this was not scripted and was real. There had been rumors that Lesnar and Oba were supposed to have a series of matches before everything went down at Mania.
‘The Career Killer’ Gunther was doing Heyman’s bidding as he faced Seth Rollins for a favor. For a while now since Gunther retired Goldberg, John Cena, and AJ Styles, the rumor has been Gunther was set to retire Lesnar in his hometown at this year’s SummerSlam event. There’s been no confirmation if Lesnar is truly retired, but on this week’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown, we saw Heyman talking with General Manager Nick Aldis. Later that night following Rhodes’ match against the debuting Ricky Saints, Gunther choked out the WWE Champion. Could this be the favor from Heyman?
I know in the world of professional wrestling we live by the mantra of “never say never,” but what if Lesnar is actually retired and this was WWE’s way of shutting down those rumors about Gunther and Lesnar? What if Gunther’s next program is chasing after the WWE title, and where is Randy Orton at in all of these plans? There are so many questions that need to be answered, hopefully soon!
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Opinion
Chris King: Defend The Intercontinental Championship At Backlash!
With WWE Backlash upon us, Chris King wants to see Penta defend the Intercontinental Championship in Tampa!
With WWE Backlash upon us, Chris King wants to see Penta defend the Intercontinental Championship in Tampa!
This year’s annual Backlash showcase is only a few days away, and while there are many big matches announced, one that definitely should be isn’t on the card. In my opinion, outside of Roman Reigns/Jacob Fatu and Seth Rollins/Bron Breakker, the Intercontinental Championship scene has been stellar over the last month.
Penta has been an excellent champion, especially after his triumphant title defense in a ladder match against JeVon Evans, Rusev, Dragon Lee, and the Hall of Famer Rey Mysterio at WrestleMania 42. Their ladder match at Mania was one of the best that WWE has produced in a while.
The momentum never stopped, as on the post-Mania episode of Monday Night Raw, ‘All Ego’ Ethan Page made his debut and was quickly inserted into the Intercontinental title scene. Page had a fantastic showing against his longtime NXT rival Evans and picked up a big win in his debut match thanks to an assist from Rusev.
All Ego immediately joined forces with ‘The Bulgarian Brute’ Rusev, who was also vying for the Intercontinental Title in his own right. On this week’s episode of Raw, Page and Rusev defeated Evans and Penta. All Ego pinned the champion, making a huge statement and putting him one step closer to getting a title shot. For the past few weeks I’ve been anxiously waiting to see if WWE was going to add this incredible fatal four-way match for the Intercontinental Championship, but it hasn’t happened yet.
As much as the WWE Universe enjoys witnessing great matches on free television, I truly believe all four superstars deserve the chance to showcase their talents on the PLE. While Penta has done a terrific job as the intercontinental champion, it’s time for a fresh face to hold the prestigious title. Page would make a great braggadocious heel that would help elevate the Intercontinental Championship to new heights!
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