Tags
Akira Tozawa, Bayley, Big Cass, Braun Strowman, Charlotte Flair, Chris Jericho, Enzo, Fastlane, Goldberg, Jack Gallagher, Karl Anderson, Kevin Owens, Luke Gallows, Neville, Nia Jax, Noam Dar, Rich Swann, Roman Reigns, Sami Zayn, Samoa Joe, Sasha Banks, Seth Rollins, The Brian Kendrick, The Undertaker, Triple H, WrestleMania 33, WWE, WWE Fastlane, WWE Fastlane 2017, WWE Network
For all of you WWE fans, tonight is the last PPV stop before the show of shows, the showcase of the immortals, WrestleMania 33, and tonight as WWE Fastlane 2017 kicks off, some big surprises could come our way. Actually, I don’t really believe that because I think tonight will not have many surprises contained within because they have to set up potential WrestleMania storylines. We all know that unfortunately Goldberg will walk out of Fastlane as WWE Universal Champion and it’s a shame because Kevin Owens has been a great champion in my opinion. Plus, a champion vs champion match at Mania would have kicked ass (I’m talking about Jericho/Owens). Neville has truly been the savior of the Cruiserweights so why would they take the belt off of him now? Gallagher will put up a decent fight, but he won’t win. The Club are not going to drop the titles to Enzo & Cass yet because you have to set that up for WrestleMania. Samoa Joe is just beginning his dominance in the WWE, so unfortunately for Sami Zayn, he’ll have to play victim yet again to a rising heel.
We all have seen the shameful pattern the WWE has treated the women’s division yet they are too blind to see it for themselves. The belt has been around for a year and Charlotte is already going to be a six time champion, that is a joke. I would keep the belt on Bayley personally, but I think Charlotte is walking out a champion tonight. What a shame that is. If I was the WWE, I would make Braun Strowman win tonight’s match against Roman Reigns because he is a dominant big man and he is on a roll. Plus, you can set up Roman’s match with The Undertaker at WrestleMania by having the deadman distract him tonight thus giving Strowman that window of opportunity. Strowman is going to win The Andre The Giant battle royal, so why not have him go into it on a hot streak? The only match I am on the fence for is the Nia Jax/Sasha Banks match because it could go one of two ways, but in the end I think that Sasha gets her revenge against the most dominant force in women’s wrestling. During the pre-show, they have Akira Tozawa and Rich Swann teaming up to face The Brian Kendrick and Noam Dar, but Tozawa is on a roll so we know who is winning that match. As usual thanks to The Fan’s Podcast, I filled out their points card and I hope I do better than last time. You’ll find the one I filled out below with a blank card for you to use below that.
The last time the WWE held an Elimination Chamber pay per view was back in 2015 with Ryback and The New Day winning their chamber matches respectively. It was the most devilish match ever invented in my opinion with steel every where. The match sure as hell entertained us for years, but what kind of toll did it take on the wrestlers that stepped inside of it? In 2010, Sheamus suffered a concussion during his match and Triple H had some swelling around his throat that was closing his breathing passages due to a frog splash he took from Rob Van Dam in 2002. There are probably more injuries out there that we are not aware of, but this is a huge sacrifice especially for the superstars that are involved in this match tonight. Out of all the wrestlers involved in the match (John Cena (C), AJ Styles, Baron Corbin, The Miz, Dean Ambrose, and Bray Wyatt) only John Cena and The Miz have prior experience. John has been in five while The Miz has only stepped in the chamber once in his career. With WrestleMania 33 right around the corner, my only hope is that no one is seriously injured in this match. We also found out that the WWE has given the chamber a makeover of sorts, but they are not showing us exactly what they did so that has me curious.
The WWE is also making some strides tonight as the night features not one, two, but three women’s matches on the card itself. You have Natalya taking on Nikki Bella in the obvious grudge match as well as Becky Lynch looking for some revenge when she takes on Mickie James. The last women’s match features Champion Alexa Bliss defending her belt against Naomi. Can the WWE Universe handle all these women’s matches on one card tonight at the Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix, Arizona? The one match I am not sure about besides the pre-show stinker (Mojo Rawley vs Curt Hawkins) is the handicap match that Dolph Ziggler is involved in when he takes on both Apollo Crews and Kalisto. Not sure I agree with the direction that Ziggler is going in or the point of this match to be honest. Unless this is a bury Dolph Ziggler match, it’s strange because usually big guys like The Big Show, Braun Strowman are reserved for this types of matches. Also, these matches are reserved as well for Heels because it’s usually two heels vs a face. I certainly expect Randy Orton and Luke Harper to turn it up tonight while the tag team turmoil match should swing one of two ways, either American Alpha retains or The USOS take the belts. Tune in tonight on the WWE Network and check out my predictions below and below that is a card for all of you to fill out thanks to the The Fan’s Podcast.
Can you feel it in the air? Can you see the excitement that is running through the veins of the WWE Universe as we prepare for one of the coolest Pay Per Views besides WrestleMania. I woke up today with so much enthusiasm running through me because the very pay per view that made me fall in love with the WWE is live tonight on the WWE Network. I am of course talking about the WWE Royal Rumble which comes to us direct from the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. I fell in love with the Royal Rumble because it was the one pay per view that fell either on my birthday (four times) or around it. Tonight is just as special as any other Rumble because of the anticipation of who will be coming back to the WWE, who will be debuting on the main roster from NXT, and who will be making their official debut in the WWE? Last year, we saw the debut of AJ Styles which was one of the biggest moments if you are a fan of the business. The year before that, we saw the return of Bubba Ray Dudley, The Boogeyman, and Diamond Dallas Page just to give you an idea of the surprises we get. This year should be no different as we all anticipate who will be in the rumble. Will Tye Dillinger make his Rumble debut at 10? Will Samoa Joe make his jump from NXT to the WWE tonight at the Rumble? Does Rey Mysterio’s tweets mean that he is coming back and are we actually going to see The Cleaner Kenny Omega in the Royal Rumble? All these questions will be answered as soon as the Rumble match starts and we just have to be patient.
The sad thing about the event this year is that I am not totally invested in what is going on outside of the Rumble match. I am a huge fan of Kevin Owens, but I just feel that the WWE has Roman taking the title tonight. I am a huge fan of AJ Styles, but I feel that the WWE has this hard on about having John Cena tie Ric Flair’s record 16 championships. I’m not sure how much I agree with having WWE Smackdown Women’s champ Alexa Bliss in a six woman tag match on the pre-show and you have Charlotte on the main card defending against Bayley. I do however understand why you have Sheamus and Cesaro defend the tag team titles on the Pre-show against Gallows and Anderson. I also understand why you have Nia Jax fighting Sasha Banks which is what they should be doing and that is enhancing Nia Jax’s dominance. I think the only match I am looking forward to is the cruiserweight championship match with champion Rich Swann defending against the King of the Crusierweights Neville. We’ll just have to wait and see how the night goes to see if I change my mind on how I felt about the matches. I am however doing something different this time around with my predictions. I am predicting who wins and who loses, but I am doing a Royal Rumble pool with predictions on outcomes and entrants. To the left of this paragraph is the scorecard courtesy of 
I didn’t title this one My Thoughts and Predictions because I have to be perfectly honest with all of you in saying I have no idea who is going to win because I am not familiar with any of them. That is the beauty of this tournament is that we are now going to be introduced to all new wrestlers that will hopefully entertain us enough that we want to see more from them. The WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament takes place today from The Empress Ballroom in Blackpool, England and it promises to be a good one as we see the first round, Quarterfinals, and Semifinals today with the finals happening on Sunday. I truly believe that the competition will be amazing because they are going to try and impress us enough to want to watch even more of it. The other cool key point of this tournament is that we get Ring Of Honor legend Nigel McGuinness on commentary as he joins Michael Cole and Andy Shepard as well. 16 competitors will enter today’s tourney with only being crowned WWE UK Champion tomorrow. The competitors are Dan Moloney, Danny Burch, HC Dyer, James Drake, Jordan Devlin, Joseph Conners, Mark Andrews, Pete Dunne, Roy Johnson, Sam Gradwell, Saxon Huxley, Trent Seven, Tucker, Wolfgang, Tyler Bate, and Tyson T-Bone. My pick for the tournament was based on looks and I could be wrong, but I am going with Trent Seven as the winner of the tourney. Check out all the competitors in the tourney and then give your best educated guess as to who you think will win and just enjoy yourselves. Check out the bracket below:
It feel like just a couple of weeks ago, we had a WWE pay per view with one not too long before that one and here we are with another one. This time coming from the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, PA, it’s WWE Roadblock: End Of The Line which is also the third RAW exclusive PPV of the year and the first for the brand new Cruiserweight exclusive show 205 Live. It may be the second Roadblock event the WWE has put on, but it’s the first time the company has put it on PPV as well which if you re still buying PPV’s on the TV, then you are absolutely crazy. I am going to be 100% honest and say that this could be a decent PPV that the company throws, but I don’t have any high hopes. The only match(s) that I am looking forward to is the 30 minute Ironwoman match (I am being politically correct) between Sasha Banks and Charlotte. But to be brutally honest, I am getting kind of sick of this match because we’ve seen this too many times before. Is the WWE going to give Sasha an actual run with the belt or will Charlotte just do what she always does which is win at PPV’s while losing the belt on RAW. I will say that the WWE needs to make a decision on who they are going with because I am not even sure they can carry a 30 minute match. Not trying to be offensive in saying that, but those are hard matches to pull off anyways.
One of the other matches that I am looking forward to is the Chris Jericho/Seth Rollins match just because these guys have been performing phenomenally all the time. It’s almost a guaranteed great match when you throw Jericho or Rollins into the mix. Plus, their story line has been more interesting than Roman Reigns and Kevin Owens. You’ll get a decent match out of them, but does anyone really care to see Roman win? I am also looking forward to the Triple Threat Cruiserweight Championship match as Rich Swann defends the belt against both T.J. Perkins and The Brian Kendrick. That could potentially be a great match, but the crowd probably won’t be into it as usual. I am also interested to see if this is it for The New Day who are currently the longest reigning Tag Team Champions in WWE History at 483 (Demolition’s was 478). Cesaro and Sheamus have been on the same page for quite some time now and they look like they could possibly be the ones to do it tonight. Now I don’t understand why anyone would care to see a match between Rusev and Big Cass? It’s the most uninteresting match, but it could be a potential change in direction for Big Cass cause you know Vince likes his big men. The Sami Zayn and Braun Strowman match is another uninteresting match in my opinion while Vince tries to stroke that David vs Goliath angle one more time. The match of the night award I am going to predict is going to go to Jericho and Rollins. Here are my predictions for the night:
I woke up today to some unfortunate news (depending on your perspective) that The Young Bucks (a favorite of mine) had resigned with Ring Of Honor. I would have loved to see them in the WWE, but then I remembered some better news and that was that tonight is WWE’s TLC: Tables, Ladders, and Chairs PPV which comes live from the American Airlines Arena in my second home of Dallas, Texas. TLC has exclusively become property of Smackdown Live which means we get to see my favorite show in action tonight which includes the main event which is a TLC match that sees AJ Styles defend the WWE World Championship against Dean Ambrose for the second PPV in a row. The rivalry between the two dates all the way back to Backlash when AJ stole the championship from Dean Ambrose. Dean has been on a war path ever since trying to make AJ’s life a living hell and he has succeeded in the form of James Ellsworth. Ellsworth is someone who is clearly not in the same league as AJ Styles, but Dean has screwed with AJ so much that Ellsworth owns three victories against the Phenomenal One. Nonetheless, the question going into tonight is what kind of a role is Ellsworth going to play in their match and can Dean use it to his advantage or will it prove to be a disadvantage after all?
The Miz in my opinion has been performing at a high level since acquiring the Intercontinental championship when he defeated Zack Ryder back in April on RAW. Yes, I know he lost the title to Dolph Ziggler (who he also defends it against tonight), but even then he has performed at the highest level and I do not see why it should end at TLC because the title is relevant when it is around The Miz’s waist. Ever since the WWE put Randy Orton in the Wyatt Family, it has only benefited them because he is making them a scarier team in the long run. Tonight, Randy Orton teams with Bray Wyatt to put the Cinderella story to rest for Heath Slater and Rhyno (Beauty And The Man-Beast) for the WWE Smackdown Live Tag Team Titles giving Bray his first taste of gold. I am in the middle when it comes to whether or not I am a fan of the Lone Wolf Baron Corbin. I followed him while he was NXT, but I have been sort of dissatisfied with how they are using him since he came up to the main roster. Is Baron the new Ryback as in being the new bully to the little guy in the WWE? I think we are over that angle already and this is a match that I could do without. So, I feel bad for Baron Corbin because he should be taking on serious contenders on Smackdown Live.
I woke up today in a very jubilant mood because I realized that XWA’s Wrestlution 16 is today. XWA is an independent organization based out of Rhode Island that has hosted some of the best in the business like AJ Styles, Rhyno, and so many more. They also host some of the best in the independent world right now like Ricochet, Zach Sabre Jr., JT Dunn, Antonio Atama, TK O’Ryan, Vinny Marseglia, and so many more. The company’s annual extravaganza takes place this time at the company’s own XWA Event Center in West Warwick, Rhode Island and it promises to be one that people will never forget. Yesterday on their Facebook event page, they announced that NJPW stars Sho Tanaka and Yohey Komatsu were going to be at Wrestlution 16. The night is being headlined by a special triple threat match that features superstars Ricochet, Zach Sabre Jr. and JT Dunn all in one match. Last month at XWA Breakout, Zach Sabre Jr. went to battle with JT Dunn in a match that the winner would move on to Wrestlution to face Ricochet. The only problem is that the two fought to a draw and XWA then determined that they would both compete in the match against Ricochet setting up one hell of a main event.
The other main event of the night features The Miracle Mike Bennett facing XWA Champion and Kingdom member TK O’Ryan for the championship, but there’s a catch. TK is cashing in his special stipulation which allows him to have whoever he wants at ringside while Bennett is not allowed to have anyone. It seems a little unfair, but that is the stipulation the Miracle needs to deal with. That is definitely not all there is for the night people, there is a hell of a lot more. The night also features a six man Contract Stipulation Ladder Match which will feature Christian Casanova, Antonio Atama, Kevin Bennett, Devin Blaze, Nitro, and Ace. They are all fighting for the same thing that TK O’Ryan won last year and has used. In what should be a brutal match, Sami Callahan will be taking on Kingdom member Vinny Marseglia which means this is a must see match. In a triple threat match, Travis “Flip” Gordon welcomes former NXT stars Mr. 450, and Jon Cruz. TNA talent Braxton Sutter takes on the legendary Brian Fury while Wrestling royalty and third gen superstar Tessa Blanchard takes on Sumie Sakai. Rudeboy Riley will take on one half of The Irish Airborne in Jake Crist and I believe Ethan Case will take on Anthony Henry. This is definitely a night of wrestling that you absolutely do no want to miss and if you are not aqauinted with them yet, do yourself a favor and do so. You can check out their official website 
WWE has officially held after today, 30 years of their annual November PPV Survivor Series which has had some memorable moments over the years. WWE Survivor Series was the birthplace of the man we would eventually call the Phenom in The Undertaker when Ted DiBiase and Brother Love introduced him in 1990. That same event also introduced us to the worst gimmick in the WWE the Gobbledy Gooker which was a huge letdown by the WWE. The event also introduced us to another future Hall Of Famer The Rock who debuted as Rocky Maivia in 1996. The event was also the home to the most controversial Survivor Series of all time when Shawn Michaels defeated Bret Hart in what would be forever known as the Montreal Screwjob in 1997. In 2002, Shawn Michaels would win the first ever Elimination Chamber match at Survivor Series, but the most important thing about the event is the Survivor Series styled match. 5, 4, or even 6 competitors form a team to take on another team in an elimination style match until all members of a certain team are eliminated.
The thing about this years Survivor Series is that the most talked about match is one that is about fantasy warfare and I am sorry to tell you, but I could care less. Brock Lesnar is stepping into the ring to take on Bill Goldberg who hasn’t stepped in a WWE ring in 12 years. The last time Bill was in a WWE ring was back at WrestleMania 20 and he fought and defeated Brock Lesnar in the worst match ever. So, tell me why should I care about this match up now? I didn’t care for the match then and I certainly do not care for the match now. The other thing is that this was a match that should have been promoted for WrestleMania 33, but they just couldn’t wait for it. The rest of the night features some interesting matches as Sami Zayn (RAW) goes up against Intercontinental Champion The Miz (Smackdown Live) in a match that if Sami wins the title heads over to RAW. The same can be said for the Cruiserweight Championship match as Brian Kendrick (RAW) defends his title against Kalisto (Smackdown Live).
The night also features some interesting traditional Survivor Series matches where Team RAW takes on Team Smackdown Live in three different matches. The first one is the women’s division with Team Smackdown Live featuring Nikki Bella, Becky Lynch, Alexa Bliss, Carmella, and Naomi with Natalya in their corner taking on Team RAW which consists of Charlotte Flair, Bayley, Sasha Banks, Nia Jax, and Alicia Fox with Dana Brooke in their corner. If you ask me, I think Team Raw should take this match because they have the better women’s competitors than Smackdown Live. It’s just that Smackdown Live his their sh** together as far as how they promote their division. Team Smackdown Live’s team just isn’t believable enough for me that would gel together to form a cohesive unit.
The Third and final Traditional Survivor Series match of the evening is the men’s singles division. Team Smackdown will feature WWE World Champion AJ Styles teaming with Randy Orton, Bray Wyatt, Dean Ambrose, and Shane McMahon. The reason Shane is in the match is because of the injury to Baron Corbin. With that being said, they will take on Team Raw which features WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens as he teams with Chris Jericho, Braun Strowman, Roman Reigns, and Seth Rollins. First of all, Team RAW is completely stacked and I would not be surprised if the rumors are true. You may see Team Smackdown lose this match because a possible angle between The Undertaker getting a shot at WWE World Champion AJ Styles at Royal Rumble. The Undertaker warned them that they better not lose which could have been him foreshadowing events to come. The only thing that I hope for in all honesty is that we get a great Pay Per View, but Team RAW is cleaning house as they go 4-1(That’s including the two singles matches) on the night. Here are my predictions:
The last time we reported about a UFC event here on Mr. X’s Punch Out, we were reviewing the CM Punk/Mickey Gall fight (UFC 203). Tonight the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) is putting on heck of an event on Pay Per View in UFC 205 which comes to us from Madison Square Garden in New York City. What is the significance of the event you ask? Well this is the first time the UFC is going to hold an event in New York state since the ban on MMA was lifted earlier this year. The last time the UFC had an event in New York State was September 8, 1995 for UFC 7 which saw Ken Shamrock take on Oleg Taktarov in the Superfight main event. That is 21 years ago and 198 UFC events ago which is huge. New York has always been the mecca for sports like Wrestling and Boxing so it’s only right that the UFC get a shot at the big apple. The other significance of the event is that it has one heck of a main card and one power packed undercard to boot. Dana White has really stacked the card to make this one memorable night for all mixed martial arts fans.
The fight that I am really looking forward to is the champion vs champion main event card that see’s the WWE’s public enemy number one and UFC Featherweight champion Conor McGregor challenging UFC Lightweight Champion Eddie Alvarez for Alvarez’s Lightweight title. The match has had so much hype behind especially with the WWE tactics that McGregor pulled at the weigh in (stealing the title). It’ll be interesting to see if he can jump weight classes and be the pound for pound best or will Alvarez simply put him in his place. The card also features two other championship matches like UFC Welterweight Champion Tyron Woodley defending it against Stephen Thompson and Women’s Strawweight Champion Joanna Jędrzejczyk against Karolina Kowalkiewicz. The rest of the card is rounded out with Chris Weidman taking on Yoel Romero and Miesha Tate taking on Raquel Pennington. The undercard features a great match as Frankie Edgar takes on Jeremy Stephens and undefeated Russian lightweight Khabib Nurmagomedov taking on UFC vet Michael Johnson. The card can’t get any better than this especially if you are a MMA fan. I am going to try my best and make some predictions for the night (Main Card Only) and hopefully I come out on top.
For the first time since 2008, the WWE will hold No Mercy and for the first time since 2006 it is a Smackdown exclusive pay per view. WWE No Mercy comes to us live tonight from the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California in what should be a pretty decent night of wrestling. The most talked about match of the night is the Career Vs Title match that sees The Miz once again put his Intercontinental Title on line against Dolph Ziggler, but this time if Dolph loses he has to leave the WWE for good. It’s a match that should have everyone glued to the television set because we are waiting to see what happens. Is this truly the end for Dolph or will he finally overcome the adversity and win the IC title. That should be your match of the night in my opinion, but the triple threat match could be an honest contender as well. The Triple Threat match for the WWE World Championship sees AJ Styles put his title on the line against Dean Ambrose and John Cena. I know Smackdown Live has been hyping up the fact that Cena will look to tie Ric Flair’s record setting 16 time reign, but I have to agree with AJ Styles. On this past week’s Smackdown he said, “How dare you compare yourself to an Icon, a legend like Ric Flair. I don’t care how many championships you’ve won. You’ll never be in the same conversation as Ric Flair.” That is exactly how I feel about that situation.
The rest of the night features some matches that could be pretty decent to watch like Baron Corbin taking on Jack Swagger, Randy Orton taking on Bray Wyatt, or even WWE Tag Champions Rhyno and Heath Slater (Beauty and the Man-Beast) taking on The USOS. I feel like something could possibly happen in the tag team match that we are not going to or want to expect. I am looking forward to Curt Hawkins stepping back in the ring after his Chuck Norris Facts promos he’s been cutting, but you know he’ll win his match. The one match I am not looking forward to is the Nikki Bella/Carmella match because I am not sold whatsoever on Carmella. I think she’s awful, but what can you do about it since it was announced that Becky Lynch had a legitimate injury. I just want to add that I think the rumors are true and that we should finally see either Sister Abigail or Luke Harper tonight during the Bray Wyatt/Randy Orton match. Here are my predictions for the night: