With No Mercy upon us, WWE kicked the action into high gear. Will Sunday deliver more surprises?
No Mercy has somewhat quietly become a highly anticipated PPV event. Meanwhile Raw is delivering quality main event matches and NXT is once again hitting their stride with the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. Another full week of WWE action so let’s get right into it.
1) Smackdown’s No Mercy is this Sunday. What do you think of the card?
Corey: Personally I’m very interested in most of the match ups that they have. With the Usos recent heel turn I hope that they come away with the tag team title win. John Cena vs Dean Ambrose vs AJ Styles is going to be match of the night, I just know it. Bray Wyatt vs Randy Orton could be a dark-horse for the night so I’m looking forward to that. Nikki Bella vs Carmella is gonna be a big night for Carmella as it’s her first major one on one match at a PPV so I’m curious to see what she brings to the table as well. And last but not least Dolph Ziggler vs The Miz. These two have been on fire lately and I hope with everything in me that Dolph wins.
Josh: No Mercy has shape into a really nice card. Smackdown has smartly built a very compelling main event and peppered in enough interest in the undercard matches to deliver what should be an excellent show. I’m particularly looking forward to how the women’s matches develop and if they can top the work that Sasha and Charlotte are doing on Raw. I’m expecting big things from Becky Lynch and Alexa Bliss.
2) Rumor has it from Good Ole JR, Jim Ross, that Survivor Series will be the setting for Brock Lesnar vs Bill Goldberg. What are your thoughts on this?
Corey: To be completely honest I do not care at all about this match. The last time these two met in the ring it could have been something extremely special but instead they both gave us one of the biggest let downs in the past 20 years. The match was so bad that the crowd turned on both wrestlers and instead cheered the special guest referee, Stone Cold Steve Austin. The only way I could get interested in this match is if 15-mins in I can see that they are actually giving 120 percent effort.
Josh: If the idea is to build Survivor Series as a major PPV again I get what the thought behind this is. You need a marque match to sell the PPV as a big deal so it sits alongside SummerSlam, Royal Rumble and WrestleMania. But I don’t know if this is really the right match. Lesnar works best with guys that can sell his particular brand of physical violence. Is Goldberg really going to come back for one match to get beat? Plus, Goldberg hasn’t wrestled a match since 2004. That’s 12 years of ring rust. Goldberg is in phenomenal shape, but he wasn’t exactly a workhorse in the ring during his heyday. I’m not sure the significantly older Goldberg is going to put on a classic match at this point.
3) Roman Reigns vs Rusev was announced and the match will be a Hell in a Cell match. What are your thoughts?
Corey: This feud has been extremely intriguing. If only WWE had built Roman with some mid-card feuds like this before thrusting him into the main event title picture then the crowd would probably be fully supportive of him at this point. But I digress. I am excited for this match. Roman already has one cell match to his name that he had with Bray Wyatt and it was AMAZING. On top of that over the past 10 months Rusev has done some of his best heel work ever so to put these two in a Hell in a Cell match? I’m all for it!
Josh: This is the perfect forum for both these individuals. I like Roman when he feels a little more dangerous and Rusev is just the best. Stick them in a match that will showcase both their physicality and a creative playground to tell a story. Good things will definitely come from this match.
4. Another tournament is coming up, The Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, which means that Josh and Corey have another chance at making bets on who the winner is going to be. Who is your pick?
Corey: Even though the NXT tag champions are part of this tournament I’m going to have to go with Hideo Itami and Josh’s CWC pick Kota Ibushi. If I had to make a second pick it would be Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano.
Josh: I love me a good tournament and this has some very intriguing teams competing this year. My pick this year is definitely the Authors of Pain. A truly monster tag team led by the incomparable Paul Ellering. It’s funny because I didn’t realize what the tag division was missing until the Authors of Pain showed up in NXT. I expect these guys to get hot-shotted to the main roster pretty quickly, serving as the monster team that the Ascension never became on the main roster. For that reason I think this is the platform where they just mow through the tag teams in this tournament, skip the NXT titles and appear on Raw or Smackdown in early 2017.
5) Sasha Banks has won the Raw Women’s Championship again. (So Happy for her) What do you think her next feud will be and how long do you think her title run will be?
Corey: Sasha Banks is absolutely amazing. I’m genuinely excited for this title run of hers but before she gets into another feud I think she’s going to have her rematch with Charlotte first and then her next feud is going to be with Bayley. It would only make sense. I could see her reign, barring any injuries, going even past WrestleMania. But the one feud I want to see is Sasha vs the current NXT Champion Asuka. That match could main event any Pay Per View and no doubt steal the show!
Josh: Well firstly I don’t think Sasha has quite run her course with Charlotte yet. But at the conclusion of their feud, probably sometime around Survivor Series, I think the next up to the plate would be Nia Jax. There’s a really good feud there that could be very similar to what Jax and Bayley did in NXT. Run that feud until Royal Rumble or just after and then pull the trigger on a Banks vs Bayley feud (maybe include Charlotte back in the mix) to go until WrestleMania. However, I actually think Sasha could be dropping the title as soon as Hell in a Cell back to Charlotte to continue Charlotte’s run of undefeated PPV matches. I’m not usually a fan of trading a title back and forth very often, but an exception can be made when you have talents as good as Sasha and Charlotte competing against one another. It makes every match must-see because you’ll never know if the title is going to change hands once again.
Additional notes
Corey:
— I could watch Jericho/Kevin Owens vs The New Day promos every week and be happy. Those guys had me laughing the entire segment.
— I can’t wait to see where this Cesaro/Sheamus tag team situation leads to.
— It looks like Braun Strowman is actually going to be getting an opponent next week that isn’t a jobber. Although for some reason I still can’t see him being able to carry out a full match with any of the upper talent and it stay exciting. I guess time will tell.
Josh:
— I like the thought of moving New Day into a more prominent spot alongside Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho. This elevates New Day and subsequently anyone they feud with going forward if they’re picking up wins over challengers of that caliber. There’s a great dynamic that’s occurring at the top of the Raw card.
— The promos AJ Styles and Dean Ambrose cut on John Cena were absolutely savage. Arguably the best promos either of those men have ever delivered and Cena’s response was perfect. That segment completely sold their championship match at No Mercy.
Corey Stewart
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