by Scott McLeod @scottmcleod1996What do you think of when you think of a great wrestling trilogy? Rock vs. Stone Cold, Flair vs. Steamboat, Cena vs. AJ. I’m here to talk about a trilogy from this year. No not Okada Omega - though that was indeed stunning - I’m talking about one you haven’t thought of but should have; Bate vs. Dunne. Two of the UK’s young up incoming stars trying to prove not only why they are the best, but for the right to hold the new UK Championship and be the face of WWE’s UK brand. Through three matches, they managed to establish themselves as two guys who could carry not just a division, but the entire WWE for years to come. Each match told its own story. The first match in the final of the UK championship tournament was the culmination of a story told over the course of the two nights. Through the whole tournament, Dunne established himself as a true heel, utilisingg every underhanded tactic to advance, while Bate was clearly the fan favourite. Bate had to overcome not just wrestling multiple times over the two nights but Dunne injuring his shoulder to become the first ever UK Champion. He played the likable underdog perfectly for the entire match as much of his offence was hindered by the injury. After almost every move, it took him a while to follow up. Dunne assumed he had the advantage and his facial expressions when Bate refused to stay down were perfect. By the end you’re so invested that when Bate is finally able to hit the Tyler Driver 97 for the win it feels like he fully earned it. Then came THAT Takeover match, better known as WWE’s best match of 2017. The story before this match was that Dunne felt he had been robbed of the opportunity to become the first UK Champion and Bate was on top of the world since the tournament. Starting out with the kind of technical wrestling you’d expect from these two and from there, it looked like they tried to top each other with one high spot after another. Towards the end Bate went to the well once to often which gave Dunne the opening to win the title. On Takeovers, it’s hard to overshadow a #DIY match but these two pulled it off. It was far superior wrestling wise than anything on Backlash the following night. Don’t just take my word for it just listen to the Chicago crowd chanting UK. Most recently came the rubber match on an episode of NXT with Bate finally getting his rematch after pinning Dunne in a tag match. It would have been hard to top the Chicago match, so they didn’t try, instead putting on a straight up wrestling match. There was plenty of joint manipulation both trying to do more damage to the other - Bate even dislocated his finger and had to pop I back in. This did lead to a fantastic bit of story telling with Bate unable to cover Dune after Bop and Bang because he used his injured hand. Dunne countered another top rope spot into the Bitter End to come out the victor of this trilogy. The finish of the second and third match speaks to the over confidence of the younger Bate and plays wonderfully into a possible development of character angle further down the line. A big advantage was that these matches all had a least a few months between them, a rare thing in WWE today especially with the automatic rematch clause; it allowed them to build anticipation for the next match. Having said that, the draw back to this trilogy was that all three matches took place on network exclusive shows meaning your more casual fan won’t see it and even more regular viewers might not be as inclined with all the hours of weekly WWE programming they already have to watch! I could easily just be gushing because I loved these matches so what do think? Do enjoy Bate vs Dunne? If so where do you think it ranks among great wrestling trilogies? Tell me on twitter @scottmcleod1996 and follow Wrestling and More @WAMPodcastUK
by Scott McLeod @scottmcleod1996Right now, Woken Matt is everything we could have hoped for. It’s to early to tell how his feud with Bray will go, but you know things will get even better when Brother Nero returns around WrestleMania time. Once they’re back together, they can bring everything that made the Broken Universe so great in the first place.
There are a lot of good teams for the Hardys to have dream matches with in the WWE in the upcoming year, and I’m here to list some of the ones I want to see! by Scott McLeod @scottmcleod1996It’s hard to say what makes a match of the year candidate. Often, as soon as fans see a great match they’re quick to deem it a candidate for match of the year.
For the second year in a row the WWE network has released a collection entitled Match of the Year and whilst there are definitely worthy candidates - Bate vs. Pete Dunne at Takeover Chicago and John Cena vs. AJ Styles at the Royal Rumble - some are not so worthy - *cough* *cough* Jinder vs. Randy Orton *cough!* But, as with any list of matches, there are some that aren’t included that some people say should be. At the time of writing this, the collection only goes up to October, but they will likely update the collection like they did last year. For that reason, you won’t see Aleister Black vs. The Velveteen Dream or AJ vs. Brock! On that note, here are 6 matches that, in my opinion, should most definitely be included on WWE’s Match of the Year collection! by Scott McLeod @scottmcleod1996What’s the biggest problem with WWE? Wait! Don’t guess we’ll be here all day, but a big contribution to the perceived stale product is a lack of credible competition. Everyone likes to talk about how great the Attitude Era was, but the thing is, that’s because WWE had to be great to stay in business. The reason it was so great is because WWE realised they had to change up the product to reach out to the fans at the time and compete with WCW. For a long time after WCW went out of business, it was felt WWE didn’t have to try because there was nowhere else the superstars could go and make the same money. That was true in the early to mid 2000’s but now that’s not the case. Even if there wasn’t anywhere else for people to go that’s no excuse for not trying. The whole of 2000 and early 2001 WWE could do no wrong despite their main competitor being as good as dead. To say there is no competition would be untrue. There’s no company as threatening as WCW was back in the day but there are a more than a few alternatives. TNA/Impact/GFW or whatever they are known as at the moment seemed, at a time, to be on the right track to being a viable alternative to WWE, but ruined it spectacularly through their own stupidity.They’ve gotten to the point now where as much as they try they can never compete with WWE. The UK independent scene is booming right now, with companies such as Progress and Rev:Pro growing to such an extent that the former is putting on shows at the Wembley arena, no mean feat for what is perceived a small company. In fact, the scene has exploded to the point that WWE has had to acknowledge this with the UK tournament and championship The closest thing to competition WWE has at the moment is quite easily New Japan Pro Wrestling - the biggest wrestling promotion in Japan - and to a certain extent Ring of Honor due to its relationship and talent sharing philosophy they have with NJPW. The fact is, the Japanese juggernaut are selling out the Tokyo Dome every year, which holds around 40,000 people, meaning they’re the closest thing to WWE in terms of drawing in fans by a considerable distance! In the minds of the majority of fans, NJPW has some of the best wrestlers not contracted to WWE. Names such as Kenny Omega, Kazuchika Okada, The Young Bucks, Testsuya Naito and Hiroshi Tanahashi are lauded the world over as some of the best talent working in the business today, talent that is capable of putting on quality matches, week in week out, as Dave Meltzer’s now broken ratings scale can atest! There is a theory going around that WWE changed the Survivor Series card to feature Shield vs New Day and Brock vs AJ and put Triple H in the men’s 5 on 5 as a response to Chris Jericho announcing he would face Kenny Omega at Wrestle Kingdom 12 - an announcement that understandably shook the wrestling world! I can’t say whether this is true or not but if so, GOOD! On the one hand, we shouldn’t criticise the company for responding to another company by improving the card of their show. That shows they realise they need to step up their game, which gave us a match of the year candidate between Brock and AJ. On the however, why should it take another company to produce something excellent for the WWE to raise their game?
A true test for ROH in terms of being a competitor to WWE, is if they can sell out a 10,000-seat arena next year. It has been nearly 20 years since a company other than WWE has sold out a 10,000+ arena, but if anyone has the sway to do so outside of the WWE, it is the The Bullet Club. Besides this, according to Cody himself, the dream main event would be himself vs Daniel Bryan for the ROH world title. If they get that main event they’ll almost certainly sell out! A fear is that WWE will resort to something petty like sending out Cease and Desist, or do a show just down the road from them to draw people away. That’s the worst thing they can do as it will give more frustrated fans more ammunition and will drive them away from WWE in the long term! The best thing they can do is around the same time put on a show with the best possible card they can put together. History has shown WWE is capable of putting on a great show when their backs against the wall - see TLC as a recent example. If WWE steps up their game to compete with the growing Indie Scene and the startling rise in popularity in NJPW and ROH, then the fans are the true winners! by Scott McLeod @scottmcleod1996Regardless of your feelings about the WWE Hall of Fame, it’s a great way to honour people for all their hard work and contributions to the business. However it’s getting to a point that people are wondering how many worthy inductees are left!
Contrary to the belief that WWE can’t build new stars there are several future Hall of famers who are a part of the active roster, both full and part time wrestlers. So, in no particular order, join me in counting down 10 current WWE superstars who are destined to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame! |