Tags
AJ Styles, Asuka, Bayley, Bobby Roode, Braun Strowman, Brock Lesnar, Cesaro, CM Punk, Enzo Amore, Finn Bálor, Jason Jordan, Jey Uso, Kane, Karl Anderson, Kevin Owens, Luke Gallows, Nia Jax, Philadelphia, Raw, Royal Rumble, Sami Zayn, Seth Rollins, Sheamus, Shinsuke Nakamura, Smackdown Live, The Revival, The USOS, Tyson Kidd, WWE, WWE Championship, WWE Network, WWE Raw Tag Team Championships, WWE Royal Rumble 2018, WWE Smackdown Tag Team Championships, WWE United States Championship, WWE Universal Championship
I am going to start off this article by just saying that no matter how the Women’s Royal Rumble match turns out, I am 100% proud of all those women who are taking women’s wrestling to a whole new level. That is the last time that I am going to address that match tonight, but I am here to talk about the 31ST ever Royal Rumble PPV which takes place at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. There are a lot of matches on the card that are just fillers or duds and I have a good reason for saying that. First of all, do not be surprised if The Usos, the best tag team on Smackdown drops the belts tonight due to the recent troubles that Jey Uso has just been through. Enzo Amore was dropped from the company due to his troubles so instead of awarding the belt to someone new, we just have a six man tag match. As much as I love to laugh, I can’t see the point of having Jason Jordan be a champion with Seth Rollins. I mean, Seth deserves more than that, the man is a former WWE Champion that deserves a shot at the belt as much as anyone else.
Now the real matches to talk about are matches like the triple threat match for the WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar defending it against Kane and Braun Strowman. You have AJ Styles defending the WWE Championship against both Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn not in a triple threat match, but a handicap match. Then there’s the Royal Rumble matches itself and I have to be honest in saying that the WWE needs to step it up big time as far as that match is concerned. I am going to say that the Pre-show match between The Club (Gallows & Anderson) and The Revival could actually have the potential to be a great match after all. The WWE needs to listen to the crowd and hand Braun the damn title already, the man is so over with the crowd and he works every single week which is a bonus. He’s not a part timer like Brock or a once in a while guy like Kane. Make the right choices moving forward this year WWE, no one wants to see Roman Reigns headline another WrestleMania. With that being said, Shinsuke Nakamura is the only logical winner moving forward unless it’s Finn Balor on the other end.
So, with the fact that I just mentioned Shinsuke, you know I want AJ Styles to walk out of Philly with the WWE title just like the Patriots are going to walk out of Minnesota SuperBowl champions (I’m a good heel I know). The only other way, I’ll expect Brock winning tonight is if Finn Balor wins the Royal Rumble. I just think the man deserves his shot at the title and why not have the Beast vs the Demon. We could also easily have the Monster Among Men vs the Demon as well. The Philly crowd looks pumped up (just check out Barstool sports) and ready to enjoy this amazing PPV and so should you because after all history is being made tonight right in front of your eyes. I am only expecting a win from Bayley, Asuka, or Nia Jax. I am sorry ladies of Smackdown Live, but the win is going to Raw. I was originally hoping for a win from Paige, but Sasha Banks ruined that. I want a surprise return of AJ Lee tonight for the women and I am still holding on to hopes of a CM Punk return or even Tyson Kidd on the men’s side. That is another thing I look forward to the most tonight is the surprise entrants. Here are my predictions for tonight:
Braun Strowman wins the WWE Universal Championship
AJ Styles retains the WWE Championship
Bobby Roode retains the US Championship
Gable & Benjamin win the WWE Smackdown Tag Team Titles
Cesaro & Sheamus win The WWE Raw Tag Team Championships
The Revival will defeat The Good Brothers
Kalisto, Gran Metalik, and Lince Dorado will win
Shinsuke Nakamura will win the Royal Rumble match
Asuka will win the Women’s Royal Rumble match
The match that we chose for today started out as a singles match between then US Champion Antonio Cesaro and then WWE Champion CM Punk. The match caught my eye because it wasn’t in a WWE ring, but in NXT at Full Sail University. I thought it was the coolest and weirdest thing so I decided to watch the match especially considering how much I miss CM Punk. The match started with CM Punk throw some kicks at Cesaro like they were jabs, but Cesaro was going to quickly learn that Punks collar and elbow tie up game was on point. Much of what happens next doesn’t quite matter because it’s a turn of events that will change the very make up of the match. After escaping a good headlock from Cesaro that was applied for a least a couple of minutes with a suplex, Punk was on a roll. He was hitting Cesaro with some good knife edge chops and a body slam to set him up for an elbow. When Punk got to the very top to hit, Kassius Ohno (Chris Hero) showed up and knocked Punk off of the top forcing the referee to call the match. As both men were attacking Punk after the bell, NXT Champion Seth Rollins came to the aid of CM Punk.
After the ring was cleared, Punk would issue a challenge to Cesaro and Ohno in the form of a tag match with Seth as his tag team partner. Cesaro and Ohno started to walk away which forced Rollins and Punk to chase them up the ramp and they brought them back to the ring. Punk would start the match with Ohno, but it was very brief as he tagged Rollins in and he laid Ohno down on his knee with Rollins climbing the rope and coming down on Ohno. The crowd was dubbing Punk and Rollins the “Kings Of Wrestling” during the beginning stages of the match. After another quick assault and tag, Ohno was finally able to separate himself from Punk to make the tag to Cesaro, but Cesaro was in for some punishment with a quick toe hold from Punk that was quickly turned into a dangerous Muta Lock. Luckily for him, he made it to the ropes before it was too late. Cesaro seriously needed to regroup with Ohno because Punk and Rollins were in full control.
The team’s break would finally come when Aksana grabbed Seth Rollins foot who was looking to do a springboard move of sorts, but ended up getting the boot of Cesaro to the face. Cesaro and Ohno were working like a fine oiled machine surprisingly as they continued to assault Rollins as they made frequent tags to keep themselves fresh at all times. Anytime Rollins tried to create separation, they would cut him off with some impressive kicks from Ohno. There was one moment when Punk tried to fire up Rollins by getting the crowd involved and it looked like it was working as Rollins was hammering away on the both of them, but then Ohno caught him square in the face with a big boot that stopped that. At one point, Rollins was able to separate himself from Cesaro, but when he went to make the tag to Punk, Punk wasn’t there thanks to the legal man Ohno making sure of that. Punk coming into the ring to retaliate back allowed Cesaro and Ohno to bring Rollins back to their corner. Cesaro and Ohno were really looking like a dangerous tag team and it’s too bad that nothing ever came of this combination in NXT or the WWE.
Cesaro tried to keep Rollins grounded and away from Punk, but that obviously wouldn’t last very long after an enziguri allowed him some time to tag Punk in. Punk exploded out of his corner and into the ring at a poor Ohno who wasn’t expecting that at all. After a springboard clothesline, a back heel kick to the face, and a swinging neckbreaker, Punk set him up for the step up high knee to the face in the corner and the running bulldog right afterwards. Punk tried to set Ohno up for the GTS, but Ohno countered out of that. Ohno tried to set Punk up for the rolling elbow shot, but he missed and punk hit him with a bodyslam. Punk would climb the ropes and he’d hit Ohno with the flying elbow drop, but during the pinfall attempt, the referee was not there and Cesaro would attack Punk. After failing to double team Punk, CM had Ohno in the air for a GTS (and hit hit succesfully) and Rollins hits Cesaro with a skywalker. Punk covered him and they got the 1-2-3 for the win. After the match, JR mentioned something about how somewhere, someday that we would see this match, but unfortunately we never did get to see this match at all. Hey, don’t forget to like our page on Facebook at 
One of the most iconic matches in WrestleMania history was the ladder match when we first saw it with Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon. The match of course has evolved over the years with a triangle ladder match, TLC match, and then the Money In The Bank Ladder match which was first introduced at WrestleMania 21. Like anything, the match would eventually evolve and become an annual pay per view like the TLC match. At WrestleMania XXV, the match would return yet again and CM Punk was looking to win the match once again as he did at WrestleMania XXIV. If he was going to be successful, he would have to do so against Christian, Shelton Benjamin, Kane, Finlay, Montel Vontavious Porter, Kofi Kingston and Mark Henry. We all know that the beauty of matches like these are the various spots that happen during the match. When the match started, Kane and Mark Henry basically cleared the ring sending everyone out before attacking each other. Henry was in full control in the ring until Christian and Shelton Benjamin used a ladder together to take the two biggest men out of the match.
Kofi was the first to razzle and dazzle us as he leaped over the ladder and nailed them with a dropkick and then proceeded to hit a boom drop on top of the ladder. The competitors were smart as they did their best to take Kane and Henry out of the picture again until they all climbed a ladder. The next big spot that followed started with Fit Finlay hitting a suicide dive to the outside of the ring. Christian would get up and he would hit a crossbody to the outside hitting Finlay, Kane, and Benjamin. MVP would turn himself into a human cannonball as he nailed all of them on the outside. Punk and Kingston would look at each other in the ring with no ladders and they would hit all of them with a suicide dive each at the same time. Then out of nowhere, Shelton Benjamin climbed one of the bigger ladders and did a swan dive on to all the wrestlers on the outside so he wasn’t outdone by everyone. Then all of a sudden, it looked like Mark Henry was going to attempt to jump on the crowd, but Finlay rescued everyone by hitting Henry with the Shillelagh which was a definite life saver.
In a very funny occurrence, Hornswoggle decided to get in on the fun and Finlay set up the little ladder and he did a five star frog splash onto everyone on the outside. After Kofi was able to stop Finlay from climbing the ladder with trouble in paradise, Mark Henry was able to stop him by simply pushing the ladder down. Mark was trying to set up the ladder, when Kofi started climbing it with Henry still holding it up. Henry slams the ladder down against the ropes and grabs Kofi for a world’s strongest slam on top of the ladder. At one point, MVP had set up a ladder inside of the main ladder that was standing up. Shelton Benjamin tried to use the ladder as a springboard, but MVP caught him and powerbombed him to the mat. All of a sudden as MVP started to climb, CM Punk was there to cut him off, but as soon as he attempted it, Christian delivered the unprettier off of the ladder and on to the mat. It was all out war in the ring and you really did need to have eyes in the back of your head because soon as you think one guy is gone, another appears.
How much more could these wrestlers possibly take in this match and who in the world was going to be able enough to do so? Shelton Benjamin looked like he was in full control as he attempted to do a sunset flip powerbomb off the ladder, but he ended up botching it. It didn’t matter much because Shelton would just end up powerbombing MVP out of the ring anyways. Fast forward a little into the match, CM Punk is being hung up upside down on the ladder with his leg keeping him from falling. Christian is trying to grab the suitcase when Kane decides to climb the ladder. Kane disposes of Christian with a choke slam off the ladder so it looks like Kane has a clear shot at the briefcase. Punk is finally able to re-position himself on the ladder and he begins to use the educated feet as he kicks Kane off the ladder and once Kane is down, he reaches for it. Much to the dismay of the wrestlers, he is successful in grabbing it as he has now won it two years in a row. Hey, don’t forget to like our page on Facebook at 
Whether you love him or you chant that he sucks every single time he comes out to the ring, there is no denying that the hardest working man in the WWE is none other than John Cena. He has been the face that runs the place for a very long time and you can’t have a countdown without him as well as his opponent at WrestleMania 22 than the cerebral assassin, The Game, Triple H. After he failed to win the Royal Rumble that year, Triple took part in the road to WrestleMania tournament which was put on to determine a number one contender for the then WWE Champion John Cena. After going through both the Big Show and Rob Van Dam in the finals, Triple H was poised and ready to take on John Cena. The match featured some cool entrances in the beginning with Triple H coming out as Conan The Destroyer and John Cena having gangsters in prohibition style suits and Tommy-guns (CM Punk is one of the guys in a suit). When the match first started, they both tested each other in mat wrestling skills and Triple H got the better of the exchange with a slap to the back of the head to Cena.
Triple H continued to school Cena with a simple wrist lock right into a hammer lock and a push off with his boot to Cena’s butt. The challenger was riding the momentum and the roar of the crowd as he continued to embarrass Cena with a big right hand to the jaw that was a reversal out of the AA. Then on the collar and elbow tie up, he kneed Cena in the stomach and just threw him out of the ring. What was going through the mind of the champion who was being embarrassed by the cerebral assassin? Well, Cena had had enough, he stormed back into the ring and began throwing rights and lefts at the challenger stunning him. Then Cena began to follow that up with a backbody drop and a fisherman’s suplex, but on the ensuing pinfall cover, Triple H would kick out. We finally had a fight on our hands with the unorthodox Cena and the old school Triple H. Cena continued working on Triple H with a sleeper hold, but as soon as Triple H tried to fight back, John was right on top of it by delivering an Irish whip to the corner that sent Triple H out of the ring.
Triple H tried to change the momentum with a thumb to the eye and a pedigree on the steel entrance ramp, but was backbody dropped on it instead. A Harley Race like high knee to the head was all Triple H needed to swing the momentum his way as he began just hammering away at Cena and then he threw Cena right into the steel ring steps on the outside. Triple H was just taking it to Cena, not allowing him to have any offense and if he did, he got a facebuster and a lariat for his troubles from Triple H. After a while, both men began to just exchange rights and lefts with each other and unfortunately for the Game, Cena got the best of the exchange ending it with a big powerslam. After a modified powerbomb from Cena, he would attempt the five knuckle shuffle, but he took too long and Triple H countered with a spinebuster. All of a sudden out of nowhere, Cena powered up and hit Triple H with two shoulder blocks, a modified side suplex (because Triple H had him in a sleeper hold), and the five knuckle shuffle.
Super Cena was born and he was pumped up and ready to rock. After pumping his Reebok pumps, he executed a drop toe hold and put Triple H right into his STFU submission. Would Triple H tap out or would he reach the ropes. It looked grim for a minute, but then Triple H willed himself over to the ropes breaking the hold. After John tried to deliver an AA to Triple H, but Triple H countered by slamming him into the corner against the referee and then he conveniently delivered a low blow that also struck the referee. Triple H then proceeded to exit the ring to grab what JR called the “difference maker” being the sledgehammer and brought it into the ring. As soon as he brought in, Cena tried to block with a kick to the midsection, but as soon as he hit the ropes, he returned to receive the sledgehammer shot to the head. Triple H covered him, but Cena kicked out at two. Then out of nowhere, Cena hit Triple H with the AA (It was called an FU at the time), but Triple H kicked out at two on the ensuing cover. Cena then uncharacteristically went to the top to attempt a cross body that completely missed, but it didn’t matter because when Triple H tried for the pedigree, Cena countered it into an STFU. Then much to the dismay of the crowd, Triple H tapped out.
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.
Every year since 2011, I have awarded a wrestler from any of the companies the Wrestler Of The Year Award. CM Punk was the winner of the first two followed by Daniel Bryan winning two in a row, and Seth Rollins was last year’s winner. The WWE has had the stranglehold on the award for sometime beating out any competition from TNA and Ring Of Honor. So since there is so many wrestlers that I would love to include on the ballot for all of you to vote on, I am going to hold a tournament to determine seven spots at the end of the year for all of you to vote on. Don’t fear, we will also be giving out the Female Wrestler Of The Year Award and the new Tag Team Of The Year Award as well. The way it’s going to work is that they are going to broken down into groups and then placed into brackets. When wrestlers are placed into brackets, some will end when it gets to the semifinals while other brackets will have a final. Let me explain a little more for you.
I wanted to start this article off by doing what no one else in the media world will do and that is I am going to give CM Punk nothing but respect for entering the octagon at UFC 203. CM Punk lost his very first fight ever in the MMA world by losing to Mickey Gall in a rear naked choke submission. Mickey Gall improved to 3-0 on the night while CM Punk has to bounce back from his loss. The outpouring of respect on Twitter from wrestlers all over the business was amazing from guys like Samoa Joe, Steve Corino, TJ Perkins, Corey Graves, Chavo Guerrero, Aldo Rose, Alberto Del Rio, Mick Foley, John Morrison, Angelina Love, Madison Rayne, and so many more. The newest and most hated man in the WWE that’s not a member of the roster in Conor McGregor even gave his props to Punk saying to TMZ Sports, “fair play’ to Punk because he got his ass whooped, but he still got in there.” He also said that Punk was not a WWE P**sy as he had called the roster that last month. At the end of the day, Punk may have physically lost the match, but he won. He did something that everyone kept telling him that he couldn’t do and he did it.
Now after the fight, CM Punk said that he would come back, but Dana may have thrown a mixed message into the air. Dana said, “I wouldn’t know if it was an experiment. I became friends with him, he’s a nice guy and I have a lot of respect for him. He wanted me to give him a shot, I gave him a shot. He probably shouldn’t have his next fight in the UFC. Just like I said with Brock, having your first fight with the UFC is tough, and you see tonight, even if it’s up against a guy who’s 2-0, this is a tough place to learn.” I honestly do not know what this means for Punk, but I can not wait to see. I went to a local establishment to see the fight and the air was electrifying. There were plenty of people with CM Punk shirts there like myself, but yo couldn’t definitely feel the divide. It was the WWE vs the UFC last night and as fate would have it, the UFC won. Punk should take a page out of Brock’s book and strive to comeback because Brock would eventually go on to be a champion in the UFC.If there is anything to be learned from this, it’s that you do not let anyone tell you that you can’t do something because look at CM Punk. As far as my predictions were concerned, I went 2-3 on the night, but that didn’t really matter to me this time around.
I have to be perfectly honest in saying that I do not watch a lot of UFC or at least as much as I would love to. Tonight is a very special night though especially for WWE fans all over the world that loved a wrestler by the name of Phil Brooks a.k.a. CM Punk. Punk is attempting to do what only one other man from the WWE has done in the Octagon and that is win. He wants to be the first from the WWE to win his debut match in the UFC (Brock Lesnar lost his first match) as well. WWE wrestlers get a bad rap because wrestling is “Fake”. Mixed Martial Artists have repeatedly knocked the organization because their fights are not pre-determined (even though that is debatable) as the WWE’s are. There will be a lot of hate in the air when CM Punk enters the Octagon for the first time in the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio when he takes on Mickey Gall in a welterweight fight (170lbs). However, there is going to be a lot of love in the air as well when us WWE/wrestling fans hope for the best for the man who was once the best in the world in the WWE.
One thing you can definitely expect from Punk is that he knows how to make waves and promote fights. Yesterday at the weigh in, CM Punk chose to not shake the hand of Mickey Gall which went right up his you know what. One of the things I can say about that is that Punk looks like he is very good shape, but he’s going to need more than that tonight. Of course, there are other fights on the card as well like the main event which sees heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic defend his belt against the man that originally sent Brock Lesnar packing in 2011 Alistair Overeem plus Fabrício Werdum takes on Travis Browne. Also, Urijah Faber takes on a man who has won 18 straight fights in Jimmie Rivera and Jéssica Andrade takes on Joanne Calderwood in a women’s Strawweight fight. Now as far as predictions are concerned I am picking Jimmie Rivera to beat the veteran in Faber, Overeem to beat Miocic, Werdum over Browne, Calderwood over Andrade, and Punk over Gall. Check it out tonight on PPV.
I have to admit that despite not having Randy Orton, John Cena, Seth Rollins, and even CM Punk, this wasn’t that bad of a PPV to be perfectly honest. I will admit that on Twitter I was a little bit ticked off that the only Traditional Survivor Series match was on the pre-show, but then all of a sudden we had another one during the actual PPV. That of course, was one of the entertaining matches of the night because it featured The New Day. It was nice to see The USOS back in the mix as well so we can bring some legitimacy to the WWE Tag Team Division. One question though. did the WWE say screw it to any chance of The Dudley Boys getting a shot at the titles? For the first time in my life, I actually went undefeated in the night with all of my predictions including one that I added to the Championship finals. I will admit that I haven’t watched Monday Night Raw in about four months and maybe that is what it takes for me to correctly predict matches or can I see right through them now. I will of course explain to all of you.
As far as my predictions are concerned, I knew that Dean Ambrose vs Roman Reigns was what was best for business because it’s a match that all of us have wanted to see. We’ve seen Dean take on Seth Rollins in some awesome matches and we even saw Roman Reigns take on Seth, but we’ve never seen the other members of The Shield take on each other. As much as I enjoy having Alberto Del Rio back and as much as I enjoy Kevin Owens being on the main roster, I knew they weren’t going to make it to the finals. My thought process on Tyler Breeze’s match with Dolph Ziggler and Charlotte Flair’s match with Paige were both the same. These are brand new rivalries so the guy you want to win isn’t going to yet to set up more PPV matches. That was the same as far as Charlotte and Paige was concerned. You’re not going to have Paige beat Charlotte for the Divas Title yet, you’ll do it down the line or you just may never do it and have Nikki Bella return to do it.
As far as The Brothers Of Destruction (The Undertaker And Kane) taking on Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper match was concerned, it was a little different. I was going on a whim that the WWE was not going to have The Deadman lose on his 25TH Anniversary of when he entered the WWE. I do however want to thank JBL for the tidbit on Koko B. Ware being the first man ever Tombstoned by the Deadman. It was an excellent match and if this is it, then I want to thank The Undertaker for all the amazing memories he has provided over the last 25 years. Now as far as the championship match was concerned, we all know Roman Reigns was going to win the title because it was his time to do so. As far as the extra tidbit about Sheamus cashing in, well that was something some I know brought up to me during a conversation and it made perfect sense. Roman Reigns rejected Triple H’s offer to join The Authority and now he is the new Daniel Bryan. He wins the title on his own and then out of nowhere he gets screwed by Triple H as Sheamus is lurking in the back. It was definitely one heck of a night and I have to say I cannot wait to see what happens on Monday Night Raw as Sheamus is your new champ. WWE TLC 2015 is around the corner and yous truly will be there. As far as Survivor Series 2015 is concerned, I am giving the PPV an B+ for a final grade. Here are the results:
