2019 Pro Wrestling thread

The women's rumble match was great. God help me, I even liked Hornswoggle chasing Zelina out from underneath the ring.
For me, the Balor-Lesnar match was great. Rematch with the demon?
The men's rumble match was really predictable. Rollins and Strowman were the obvious two final combatants. The Nia Jax stuff was just sort of OK. Surprised EC3 was not in there.

 

I liked having all the NXT wrestlers in the Rumble this year and letting them all have a good run and even eliminate some main roster wrestlers. Helps build them for when they get called up down the road. Rhea Ripley should be a player in the women's division sooner rather than later.

Overall I thought the PPV was good. Not a total home run. A few impressions:

-- The Rumbles were both solid but not spectacular. We won't be talking about these in years to come. Was kinda glad to see Mandy Rose take out Naomi when she had saved herself. The amazing save thing is getting a little overplayed, though there were some good ones in the women's match. The Kofi-Woods save probably would've been better but it looked like it got screwed up and Xavier didn't know how to fix it at first. Also, when Lawler or JBL or whoever it was said something about maybe there could be a whole village of leprechauns under the ring, they missed out on what could've been the greatest comic Royal Rumble moment ever by having someone get chased from under the ring by Hornswogggle and 20 other leprechauns. I'm sure the logistics of getting that many people under the ring would've been insane, though.
-- Balor-Lesnar did a good job building Balor though I would've liked a little more to the finish than the quick ending it got. Seemed like it was either cut short either because the show was long already or because they didn't think Lesnar could go another 5-10 minutes.
-- I think Daniels-Bryan suffered from great-match fatigue. Everyone expects guys like them to put on a 5-star performance when they're together, so when they put on anything else, it comes across as bad. This was by far not their best work together, but it was solid up until the screwjob at the end (new take on the Straight Edge Society coming, I'm betting), but that fits the "New Daniel Bryan," so I can't fault it too much.
-- WHY DO YOU MAKE BECKY LYNCH TAP OUT CLEAN?!?!?!?! I get that they want to build Asuka back up after killing her character the last year. I don't get why they have Lynch lose clean after they've built her as "The Man" and want to put her against Rousey at WM. That result takes out a lot from what they've been doing with Becky. Don't even make it be Rousey that interferes. Tease more for the Four Horsewomen angle and have the three in NXT come out and cost Lynch the title and let the announcers make the Rousey connection with them. Hell, make it a double DQ if you have to. Let Lynch win by DQ. But you do NOT have her lose that clean.
-- The tag title match was decent (I have putting Shane McMahon in the ring when there are so many good wrestlers available, so I'm biased against it). I haven't watched any pre-show matches yet.
-- Another headscratcher was Rusev dropping the belt to Nakamura. I don't think they have any idea what to do with the US belt.
-- How the hell do you not have an IC title match on the card? Lashley-Ambrose seems like a no-brainer. It probably was the simple fact that they didn't have time for it on the main show without cutting some other matches down, but still.

 

Thoughts going forward:
-- WM will have Lesnar-Rollins as one main event, but who gets Bryan? I'm betting they go triple threat or fatal fourway with it. Maybe Styles and Samoa Joe or Styles, Joe and Andrade as the challengers. Seems too early to put Andrade in the match solo against Bryan.
-- Lynch-Rousey is a given. Because of that, I don't see the Four Horsewomen angle going off at WM. There are six participants who are ready, and two that are still way too green (one could argue there are five ready and three to green if you want to toss Rousey into the "too green" category). Maybe they do Lynch-Rousey for the title and then do a six-woman match for the other part of the Horsewomen angle. Maybe they hold off until later if the rumor isn't true and Rousey is going to be around after WM.
-- If they don't go with the Four Horsewomen in some form at 'Mania, do we get Asuka-Flair again? Or do the go Asuka-Naomi or use someone fresh like Nikki Cross or Mandy Rose or Sonya Deville?
-- Like I said before, I'm betting we see a new Straight Edge Society forming with Rowan and Bryan. Would love to see them add Gallows and Anderson too so Gallows can be the link between the CM Punk group and this one, which will have the "we're better than you" schtick but with the vegan, earth-loving twist.

 

Ronda Rousey leaning toward taking time off from WWE after WrestleMania to try to have a baby, as she's long talked about -

 

I’m thinking Miz will break up with heel Shane and get Bryan as a face twist on their rivalry, but then who gets Styles? Some kind of dream match? Is it time for AJ to go Raw where he’s running out of opponents?

 

‘It’s my vagina’: Rousey trashes reports

 

I was thinking Miz for Bryan up until last night. I think we'll see Miz-Shane at WM now. If Styles isn't against Bryan in some form, I could see him vs. Joe in some kind of gimmick match. maybe Hell in a Cell.

 

Methinks it's going to be a triple threat ... Rousey-Lynch-Flair, since Charlotte can beef that she was the Royal Rumble winner since Becky wasn't an official entrant until Fit shrugged and said OK. How they get there is anyone's guess.

And that match will go on last ... and it will be epic.

 

I definitely could go for that.

 

There's was a bit of "beef" between Charlotte and Lacey Evans in the women's Rumble last night. I wonder if meant anything.

 

They've learned not to piss off the wrong WWE superstar.