Coming up on today’s episode WWE may be forced to cancel WrestleMania, the rest of
the WrestleMania card may have been revealed, and we’ve got a recap of last night’s
episode of SmackDown, where multiple WrestleMania plans were set in motion.
Hello and welcome to the WrestleTalk STACKED News and STACKED Review.
I am Chopper Pete Quinnell.
To kick things off today, let’s start with a recap of last night’s SmackDown, in about
5 minutes.
The show opened up with the new Universal Champion, Goldberg, to a mixed reaction from
the crowd.
After soaking up the atmosphere, Goldberg says “Don’t be mistaken, it’s not about
who’s last, it’s all about who’s next”.
I don’t know exactly what that means, but he said the catchphrase guys, so it’s ok.
And to answer who’s next, out comes Roman Reigns.
After making a very slow entrance, he gets up in Goldberg’s face and simply says “I’m
next”.
Ah yes, I forgot that the number one contender for the Universal Championship at WrestleMania
is decided by someone coming to the ring and just saying, me please, instead of, I don’t
know, fighting for it?
And that was it, that was the segment, and that’s the feud for Mania, just because
Roman said so.
Alright then, no men’s Elimination Chamber match I guess.
Roman’s word means more than that.
Up next and throughout the show were video packages highlighting John Cena’s career,
from his debut, to his first world title win at WrestleMania 21, to beating The Rock at
WrestleMania 29, to his 16th world title win at Royal Rumble 2017, hyping up his appearance
on the show later on.
After the first Cena package, SmackDown women’s champion Bayley is already in the ring, very
prestigious that title, and then Naomi makes an entrance.
Are these two fighting?
Is it for the title?
Why are they having a rematch?
It doesn’t matter though, because Bayley re-introduces Sasha Banks to everybody, who
comes out and after Bayley vs Naomi goes about a minute, Sasha causes the DQ.
Before Bayley and Sasha can fully beat down Naomi though, Lacey Evans comes out for the
save.
And then for absolutely no reason at all, the match gets restarted as a tag team match?
Alrighty then.
Naomi gets beaten down by Sasha a lot in the tag match, before Lacey Evans makes the hot
tag, runs wild, but ultimately it’s Naomi who picks up the win, by pinning the champion
Bayley.
What with?
A rollup of course, the ultimate finisher of the women’s division.
Up next it’s Kofi Kingston vs Robert Roode, and the crowd were really behind Kofi in this
match.
Which doesn’t mean anything because he lost.
To Robert Roode.
The guy who’s been the designated fall guy for months now.
New Day lose the tag titles at Super Showdown, and then Kingston loses to Roode thanks to
a Ziggler distraction.
Kofi’s WWE Championship reign feels like such a long time ago now.
Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose are watching this match backstage and after Ziggler and
Roode start celebrating, Sonya says “your man seems happy”.
NO, OTIS IS HER MAN, SONYA, I SEE THROUGH YOUR LIES AND DECEIT YOU WITCH.
Speaking of Otis, and he’s backstage having also watched the match, before Tucker comes
in and tells Otis that it might be time to move on from Mandy.
Sometimes the guy doesn’t get the girl, but you know who would never choose Ziggler
over him?
The WWE Universe.
Otis starts to look a little better and promises to come back better next week.
I love Otis.
Up next we had a contract signing for the Intercontinental Championship match, with
Renee Young hosting.
Out comes Shinsuke Nakamura with Sami Zayn and Cesaro, and then out comes Braun Strowman
who has a mullet now?
What is going on?
Strowman puts his mouth in it here by saying he knows he’s going to take on all three
of them, so Zayn alters the contract after Strowman signed it, which I don’t think
is how contracts work, but the match is made.
It’s going to be Strowman vs all three of them in a 3-on-1 handicap match at Elimination
Chamber.
So who would win the title if any of the three pin him?
Ah, what’s the point in speculating about that, it’s not gonna happen.
We got confirmation that Reigns vs Goldberg at WrestleMania is happening, because nothing
says “I should main event WrestleMania” more than beating Baron Corbin several times
and having a feud over dog food.
If you can’t tell, this has really gotten under my skin.
I don’t mind Reigns vs Goldberg, but 1.
It doesn’t need the title, and 2.
If it is for the title, then have Reigns win a number one contenders match.
It’s the WrestleMania main event, probably.
Christ.
Up next was Daniel Bryan vs Curtis Axel, with Drew Gulak on commentary, coaching Curtis
Axel.
He did a decent job, with Axel getting in quite a lot of offense, however Bryan eventually
came back, hit his big moves, and tapped out Axel for the win.
I’d be in to seeing a Gulak/Bryan match, let’s hope they build this in a good way
and can tell a good story.
Miz & Morrison come out next and celebrate about winning the SmackDown Tag Team Championships,
but then a referee starts talking to Greg Hamilton, who then announces that it’s going
to be an Elimination Chamber match between Miz & Morrison, The New Day, Heavy Machinery,
Lucha House Party, Roode & Ziggler, and The Usos.
Why?
Why the hell not, just make a match and announce it via a referee and Greg Hamilton, why build
stories when you can just make matches?
Miz & Morrison then faced The Usos in a fun match, which ended with a top rope Canadian
Destroyer into a splash, what?
Where did that come from?
The Usos won clean though, which doesn’t look great for Miz & Morrison the night after
they won the belts.
And finally it’s time for John Cena, who came out to a great reaction, and cut a classically
great Cena promo.
He spoke about the future of WWE, and how he hears the fans, and he thinks it’s best
if he doesn’t wrestle at WrestleMania.
Spots at WrestleMania should be earned, and he’s not going to take away from someone
who has worked for a spot on the card.
It was a touching promo, and a great delivery by Cena.
He lays the mic down in the ring, and salutes the crowd on the ramp, before the lights cut
out.
The lights come back, and with some great camera work, we don’t initially see The
Fiend standing right behind Cena.
Cena slowly turns around, and The Fiend just...points at the WrestleMania sign.
Cena then immediately undermines everything he just said in his promo by tipping his hat
at The Fiend, who then disappears in darkness again.
John Cena vs The Fiend at WrestleMania, it’s a match the crowd were super into, a match
that I’m super into, and a match that makes so much sense.
But why oh why did they have to build it this way?
To have Cena say he won’t wrestle at Mania this year because he cares about the future
of this company, only for him to immediately go back on his word because someone pointed
at a sign, which The Fiend should not be doing by the way, is not the best look.
That was SmackDown.
Vote by pressing the i above my head and voting in the poll where you can choose from the
options on screen now.
This SmackDown...it was ok.
It was different at least, mostly.
And some matches that I’m looking forward to were set up.
But I just can’t get over the way in which these matches were made.
Reigns vs Goldberg is made because Reigns said he’s next, Cena vs Fiend is made because
Fiend pointed at a sign, SmackDown Tag Team Elimination Chamber match was made because...reasons,
and even the women’s tag match on this show was made for no reason at all.
I don’t want to be too negative about this show, because it changed up feuds that have
been happening for a long time, and that’s exactly what I’ve been asking of the show.
But now matches are being made just because.
We need stories.
Good stories.
It’s WrestleMania season.
Give us some WrestleMania-worthy stories please.
I’m really torn on what to give this show, and I can’t tell if it’s just a pet peeve
or it’s a legitimate criticism of the show’s build, so for once I’m going to split my
vote between Smack Bang in the Middle and SmackDowner.
And now hot tag to me for the news.
Before we get into the news, a quick announcement for our newly re-branded channel, partsFUNknown.
If you haven’t seen, Adam Blampied’s Fantasy Booking videos will be making their home over
there, but on top of that, the very first episode of No Rolls Barred goes live tomorrow,
which is a series we are so excited for, and Adam has done an explanation video of it already
on the channel.
However, you can also watch that first episode right now, a day early, by heading over to
the Patreon for the series, patreon.com/norollsbarred.
I’ve seen the first episode, and it is fantastic, trust me, you’re going to want to watch
it.
So subscribe to partsFUNknown now so you can get notified when that video goes live.
But now, on with the news!
WrestleMania has run every year since 1985 without fail, because why would WWE ever want
to cancel their biggest show of the year that brings in the most mainstream media attention
and casual fans?
Well it turns out this bringing in of fans all over the world could be an issue given
the current coronavirus outbreak that is continuing to spread and threaten the lives of people
across the planet.
We have already seen that New Japan Pro Wrestling has cancelled all events until the middle
of March to try and limit the spread of the virus, so could WWE be forced into cancelling
WrestleMania for the first time in history?
Stephanie McMahon was interviewed by the Tampa Bay Times about this very issue, and she admitted
that if the risk is significant enough, then it isn’t one the company would take and
the show could very well be cancelled or postponed.
Steph said:
“The health and safety of not only our fan base, but also our superstars, really does
come first.
We don’t want to put anyone in a bad situation ever, regardless of the circumstance.
Those are not risks worth taking.”
Jonathan Saboor, WWE’s Executive Vice President of special events went on to add in the same
interview that the company is continuing to monitor the situation.
“Given the number of live events that (WWE) does, it’s constantly monitoring global
events.
There are active and ongoing discussions at play internally, like there are in any sector
of American business, and certainly families as a whole.
So I think those will continue.”
It is almost unthinkable that a show such as WrestleMania could be cancelled, but as
Stephanie said, if there is a genuine risk to fan and wrestler safety, they may have
no other choice than to postpone it until it is safe to hold it.
I wouldn’t want to be the person who tells Vince McMahon that he has to cancel WrestleMania
because other people are in danger.
I imagine he’ll just move the show to Saudi Arabia and bring in Hulk Hogan for every match.
Given that it is so far away, it’s interesting that we already know a very healthy portion
of the WrestleMania card, especially as we have Elimination Chamber next week, although
it appears that plans for that seem to change every other day.
After this week’s SmackDown episode, we know 5 matches taking place at the show of
shows, but thanks to insider reports and the card being somewhat predictable, we can figure
out a whole lot more of that card.
If you don’t want to know the card, I suggest you click off now and watch one of our other
lovely videos.
Or just watch some ASMR soap cutting or something, I’m not your mum.
So, the rest of the rumoured card looks a little bit like this.
On Monday’s Raw, WWE Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix will be appearing to give an update
on the health of her husband Edge, who was brutally attacked by Randy Orton the night
after the Royal Rumble.
WrestlingNews.co reports her appearance could be there to set up a WrestleMania title match
with the Kabuki Warriors, in which she will tag with her best friend Natalya.
And speaking of Edge, given what has happened on Raw we can pretty much 100% say he will
be facing Randy Orton, and you can pretty safely guess that it’ll be some kind of
weapons match.
The last of the matches that have been rumoured are obviously the two pre-show battle royals,
but also, according to the Wrestling Observer, Otis vs. Dolph Ziggler in what will presumably
be the end of the Mandy Rose love triangle feud.
There are reportedly going to be 14 or 15 matches on this year’s card, so there still
space for a few more matches, such as the SmackDown women’s championship, which given
current feuds will likely be Bayley vs. one of Naomi, Sasha Banks or Lacey Evans, or perhaps
all of them.
Lastly, there’s the two men’s tag title matches, which will be made at or shortly
after Elimination Chamber, one would assume.
If you think 15 is a lot of matches, remember last year’s show was 16 matches, so it’s
actually going to be a really short show.
Only 6 hours or so...
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I’ve been Chopper Pete Quinnell, and that, was wrestling.