Why the Kurt Angle / Jason Jordan storyline isn't working out

If your caught up on your Monday Night Raw storylines, you'd know that Jason Jordan is Kurt Angles secret son, and he's been given a huge WWE push... and it's not working. Allow me to explain.

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To start, the build up to the reveal was mediocre at best. For weeks RAW had this subplot wereKurt Angle would be making suspicious phone calls. It did spike curiosity of the viewers and fans, hopefully leading to a new storyline. It was then announced that Kurt Angle had a illegitimate son, and he was on the WWE roster. Now this should have been exciting and shocking, but it was a dud.

But why was this a dud. Let me give you and example of past WWE storylines that revolve around family, one realistic and one obviously fake.

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The first is Roman Reigns and the Uso Twins (Jimmy and Jey). They are a real family, cousins from the famous Anoa'i Family that includes The Rock. So when they feuded with the Bullet Club last year under the family gimmick, the fans were able to get on board.

Next we have Macho Man Randy Savage's in ring marriage to Miss Elizabeth. It's one of pro wrestlings greatest love stories. Randy Savage and Miss Elisabeth had been a couple for a while by the time they got hitch during Summer Slam 1991. It was totally believable for the fans, but in reality the couple had be secretly married since 1984, and by Summer Slam there marriage had fallen apart. Back then, the fans wouldn't have known about any of that.

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The big difference between the two story examples there place in history, one very recent and one more than two decades old. So the huge fundamental problem with the illegitimate son angle is that it's using an out dated narrative method in the modern age. These days, everyone knows wrestling is fake but still fun.

There are no secrets about pro wrestlers personal and in ring lives anymore, so now when fans see something the know for a fact is fake they refuse to just get on board. There's nothing to stop a casual person for going on wikipedia to learn that Jason Jordan isn't related to Kurt Angle. Not to mention that fans aren't naive and can clearly see that this is all a strategic move to give Jason Jordan major push with only half the effort.

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Maybe this is just a rocky start to a great WWE career for Jason Jordan, or not. It's still little to early to tell for him, but even the greatest of wrestlers took time to get over with the fans.

So here's a question I'd like you to answer in the comment section... what kind of storyline would you use to get a younger talent over with the crowd? Let me know in the comment below.

Why AJ Styles vs Finn Balor killed Bray Wyatt's momentum

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Let me take a moment to get you up to speed on Finn Balor's current storyline. So after last years WrestleMania Bray Wyatt was drafted to Monday Night Raw, having lost the WWE World Chamionship to Randy Orton. The writers at Monday Night Raw were basically given the task of building Bray's momentum back up again. Bray Wyatt's character could go in any direction at this point. So after he had a fatal-5-way match with Seth Rollins, Samoa Joe, Roman Reigns, and Finn Balor at Extreme Rules. The two superstars got into a simple feud after that, leading up to SummerSlam. It was an ok match, with Finn Balor winning by pin fall. Then Bray Wyatt continued to attack Finn Balor on every Monday Night Raw Leading up to the next pay-per-view No Mercy. Only this time, Finn Balor would leave his demon alter-ego at home. Again, Finn Balor won. The following Monday Night Raw, Finn Balor stated he would focus on pursuing the Universal Championship, which he originally lost at SummerSlam 2016 after he was forced to relinquish it due to a shoulder injury that put him out of action for 6 months. But then, Bray Wyatt injected himself into the picture again stating his Sister Abigail wanted a piece of Finn Balor. Bray would tease audiences with this new gimmick until the reveal her two weeks later. Turns out it was just Bray Wyatt possessed by Sister Abigail. Unassuming to say the least, but we'll get to that later. So it was then announced that at TLC (Tables Latter's and Chairs). However, less than a week before TLC, it was announced Bray caught an illness and wouldn't be participating. But the show must go on, and it was announced his replacement would be AJ Styles. Finn Balor verses AJ Styles was a fantasy match that fans have been waiting a long time for. With that said, no one was gonna miss Bray Wyatt.

No let me explain why this was bad news for Bray. First off, now that he's ill he'll probable be out of action for six months which sucks for him and his fans. Second, his match against Rany Orton made him look weak. Typically in a wrestling storyline you want new wrestlers to beat older wrestlers to get them over with the fans. Going into WrestleMania, it would have helped Brays reputation if he went in as a baby face and Randy Orton as a heel. Second, no one wanted to see Finn Balor fight Bray, they wanted to see Finn go after the Universal Championship. Finn Balor was forced to forfeit his title reign due to injury, so in a way, he never lost it. This is all on top of being a fan favorite. So his feud with Bray Wyatt felt like a road bump at the very least. Third, we didn't need a Bray Wyatt vs Finn Balor trilogy to carry out over 6 months. It felt drawn out after the first pay-per-view match. Fourth, his replacement was AJ Styles. Finn Balor verses AJ Style is a dream match. Both men were leaders of The Bullet Club, one man found success in TNA (now Impact Wrestling) while the other found success in NXT, and both men are considered the best wrestlers in the sport today. It's the perfect 50/50 booking. Lastly, the Sister Abigail reveal sucked... hard. After weeks of build up, all we got was Bray Wyatt in a dress with a voice filter they probably got of an interns iPhone. It was a week pay off that could have been handled better. I don't know where the WWE will take Bray Wyatt's character after this. If it was up to me, I would have him reappear after this years WrestleMania, and start a winning streak. just to get him back some momentum.

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Why the Undertakers fight with Roman Reigns should be his definitive retirement.

Last year at WrestleMania, the wrestling world watched one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time hang up his hat and coat. I am of course talking about the one and only Mark Calaway, The Undertaker. The man has simply racked up one of the greatest wrestling resume's of all time. His first debut match was at Survivor Series 1990 and his last should be last years WrestleMania, and here's why.

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Fist let's rack up his achievements as a pro wrestler. He's won WWE championship four times, been The World Heavy Weight Champion three time, the 2007 Royal Rumble Winner, and of course The Steak. No one can mention the Undertaker without bringing up The Streak. A WrestleMania winning streak lasting from 1991 to 2013, the Undertaker has wracked up 21 straight victories, finally ending to Brock Lesnar in 2014. This is one of the greatest wrestling accomplishments in history, paralleled by none else. This record is treated sacredly by Vince McMahon, giving it a sense of awe and legend. Right now it's perfect, and it should be left as is. 

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It's secret the the Undertaker is now and older man and a wrestling veteran. He started his professional wrestling career in 1984 (pre-WWE days) and his latest match was this year (2017). That's 33 years of fighting. So it's no shock to anyone when someone says he's earned his retirement. Also it should be said that having wrestlers stick around for a long time past there prime is a bad idea. We don't need to see an old wrinkly person try and recapture the glory days. If you lived a moment perfectly, why relive it? It will always be in your memory, but life isn't about going backwards, it's about going forwards. Wrestling isn't going to stop with the Undertaker, so lets not drag him out to his breaking point.  

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I only bring up this topic because the WWE chose Kurt Angle (who technically is retired), to replace Roman Reigns at the last WWE pay-per-view at TLC. The thing is, the company has a full RAW locker room of super stars they could have utilized, but they didn't. That could have been a huge opportunity for an upcoming star, but no, the company decided to nostalgia pander. This is risky decision making because WWE needs new stars to get over with he fans. Nostalgia is always fun, but we still need something original at the end of the day. The Undertaker currently has a fair-tale ending and we need to keep it that way for the sake of good narrative story telling.

Survivor Series Predictions and Expectations

Survivor Series 2017 is right around the corner and now we get to guess whats going got happen. So lets begin, first to last.

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First we have Enzo Amore (heel) vs Kalisto (babyface) for the Cruiserweight Championship. Now it should be stated that in the grand scheme of things this match isn't relevant to the RAW vs Smackdown theme of Survivor Series, to making it the first match makes sense, but it really just feels like they're just knocking it off the list early. Regardless, I expect Enzo to win. The WWE likes to put there heels on winning streaks, like Brock Lesnar, Jinder Mahal and the Miz. However, what I believe would be a perfect scenario for Kalisto to win would go like this. Enzo is on the offense with Kalisto struggling. Kalisto begins to get the upper hand, so Enzo starts playing dirty. Enzo is about to win when all of the sudden... Big Cass makes his return and absolute assaults Enzo, giving Kalisto the win. This would make perfect sense from a narrative for everyone. Big Cass gets his big return in a relevant way, Kalisto gets to be the Cruiserweight champion, and Enzo will be less annoying.

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Next we have the Women's Survivor Series Tag Team Match. Now RAW's team hasn't fully been established yet, but this brings us to a story line from last year. At Survivor Series 2016, Eva Maria was supposed to be on team Smackdown, but was unable to attend the show. But her it was all staged to allow a big return for fan favorite Nikki Bella. Now this year could be a big opportunity for them to give Paige a huge return. There's no doubt she will get a huge reaction from the crowd, and it will open up many new storyline opportunities for the RAW women's division.  In terms of the actual match, I picture team Smackdown winning this year, since team RAW brought home the win last year.

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After that we have the mens tag team match. Last year team Smackdown brought home a victory, so I feel it will be team RAW winning this year. Everything in the past couple of weeks supports this as well. Given teams Smackdowns heel actions and RAW personal difficulties, I see them being the underdogs in this match, along with Kurt Angle returning to the ring. He of course is still technically filling in for Roman Reigns, but there is no one better for the job. This is a huge story arch for him that could pay off huge for the WWE.

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Then we have the Intercontinental Champion Miz vs United States Champion Baron Corbin. Now there are 2 ways this can go for very logical reasons. Scenario one, Baron Corbin beats Miz in less than five minutes. Short, simple and to the point. Scenario two, the Miztourage interferes with the match giving Miz the win. Overall the match's build up has been nothing but back and forth tweets and videos, but nothing on the main shows. So I see Miz and his crew taking home the win.

 

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Later in the night we have RAW tag team champions Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins vs Smackdown tag team champions the Uso Brothers. Normally, I would like Roman Reigns to make a surprise return and help his SHIELD brothers gain a victory, but I won't for a specific reason. The Uso's and Roman Reigns are family, cousins to be exact. They've helped Roman in the past and it wouldn't make any sense. So if the WWE is smart, no Roman return for Smackdown. Personally, I don't know who could win this one, which I prefer. It just leaves everyone guessing and that's always fun. But I will say that I prefer Dean and Seth to win, SHIELD forever!

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Second to last we have the RAW Women's Champion Alexa Bliss vs Smackdown Women's Champion Natalya. Again, there isn't a whole lot of build up to this match, it's just happening. If it is just a standard match, I see Natalya winning this one for team Smackdown. However, I do think there's a strong chance that Carmella will finally cash in her Money in the Bank contract on Natalya and become the Smackdown Women's Champion. They've been building her cash in up for a while now and this is the only was to add a wild factor to the match.

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Last we have The Universal Championship Brock Lesnar vs the WWE World Champion Jinder Mahal. All I want and what I believe the WWE fans want is a squash match with Brock Lesnar winning the night. It feels like they are gonna give the win to Jinder, just so they can make him feel like a legitimate champion. Of course this won't work or feel natural since Jinder's title riegn is to appeal to foreign audiences. Not to mention he's going up against Brock Lesnar, one of the greatest of all time.

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So those are my Survivor Series predictions. Let me know what you think in the comment section down below.

Smackdown Live Recap and Review (Part Two)

Later in the night, we caught up with The New Day backstage dressed as famous past wrestling icons. Kofi Kingston was dressed as Brother Love, Big E was Akeem, and Xavier Woods was Jimmy Hart. It was a great call back to past wrestlers. The three then had a brief encounter with Rusev the Bulgarian Brute and Aiden English. Rusev and Aiden are currently working side by side. Rusev then went on to crush Big E's candy and talk trash in his thick Bulgarian accent. This brief encounter would lead to a match, naturally. Overall the segment was good old Halloween fun, but not without its  flaws. This segment wasn't really a story arch so much as a tribute. In the overall long term, this doesn't mean anything unless Smackdown is making this into a filler feud leading up to Survivor Series, WWE's next big pay-per-view. Also it's clear Aiden English just feels out of place since his tag team partner was released from the company.

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On the show we also had a match between Shinsuke Nakamura vs Kevin Owens to decide who will join team Smackdown for Survivor Series. It starts off as a normal match, with Shinsuke getting the upper hand when all of the sudden... Sami Zayn interferes and saves Kevin Owens! However this would also lead to Randy Orton also coming out, but not to save Kevin, but to attack Sami Zayn. In the end, Shinsuke Nakamura wins the match and becomes a member of team Smackdown. So this segment of the show serves as a continuation of the previous episode, with Sami Zayn following up on his heel turn, an unlikely alliance between Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura, and drama over team Smackdown. This feels like an overall natural progression of story telling with each character.

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Lastly we have AJ Styles vs Samir Singh. If it wasn't for AJ Styles, no one would be even remotely interested in Jinder Mahal and the Singh brothers segment of the show. AJ is literally the best thing in the WWE right now. He won by pinfall, which lead to Jinder and Samir's brother interfering. It's all about the over arching story arch here. There is a strong chance they are gonna take the belt of Jinder Mahal after Survivor Series where he will face the Universal Champion Brock Lesnar. Preferable, I would like Jinder to loose to Brock in a squash match and drop the belt to either AJ or Shinsuke. Someone WWE knows the fans will be able to get behind and make the WWE World Championship relevant again.

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Smackdown Live Recap and Review (Part One)

Smackdown Live's Halloween episode is in the books and now I get to talk about the good, the bad and the ugly. So lets get started.

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The show started off with Shane McMahon giving fans an explanation for the RAW locker room invasion. He said the invasion was to make a statement that Smackdown is not an inferior brand to Monday Night Raw, and the WWE has always treated it as such. During the Superstar shake-up, RAW got twice as many picks as Smackdown, clear favoritism. People have more respect for RAW since it's been around on TV much longer the Smackdown. Shane also took this opportunity to announce he would be captain of team Smackdown at Survivor Series. Over, this was a solid opening. The logic behind the siege was sound and had some historical weight to it. It also gave us Shane McMahon vs Kurt Angle to look forward to.

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Next we have Bobby Roode vs Dolph Ziggler in a two-out-of-three pins match. Bobby Roode defeated Dolph Ziggler 2-1. Doph is still doing his "intros don't equal talent" gimmick. In terms of character progression, Doph Ziggler is only here to get Bobby Roode over with he crowd. That's actually pointless considering everyone already knows him from the WWE's subdivision NXT. They've been doing this with all there upcoming stars and it's getting old. This match would be pointless if it wasn't for the fact Bobbies victory earned him a spot on team Smackdown for Survivor Series. So the match did have a purpose in the end, but Dolph Ziggler got the short end of the stick.

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Next we got a segment with Becky Lynch addressing the women team for Survivor series. Natalya came in and talked trash, James Ellsworth was dressed like a dog, and the rest is history. Aside from once again having the whole women's division in one segment, this really just felt like canon fodder, and is just here to remind you there is a women division. What it ultimately comes down to is the main issue with the women's division in the WWE, screen time. The women's division has only a fraction of air time on both RAW and Smackdown and they are trying to come up with excuses to have all the women in a single slot even if its unnecessary. It's unnatural story telling due to backstage politics.

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We then had a Fashion Files segment with Breezango, the Ascension, and Tye Dillinger. This episode was a parody of Stranger Things, and it was lackluster at best. Wasn't Tye Dillinger competing for the United States Championship two weeks ago? It really feels like they have no idea what they are doing with these tag teams and characters. This segment has pretty much become wrestler limbo.

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Later in the night we had a United States Championship match between Baron Corbin and Sin Cara. The match ended in a no contest, with the referee incapable of containing the two wrestlers. It was a decent brawl, but it's really just another part of an over arching story line to make Sin Cara US Champion... still should have been Tye Dillinger.

A Night of Returns (RAW October 30th, 2017)

If you've been following Monday Night Raw for a while, you'd know that many favorite wrestlers have been making there return to Monday Night Raw in the wake of a backstage infection. For that reason it was an eventual night that natural makes wrestling fans exited and on the edge of there seats for the future. Lets go down the list.

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First we have Stephanie McMahon making her return to Monday Night Raw to chew out General Manager Kurt Angle for allowing the Smackdown Live roster to invade the Raw locker room. Stephanie hasn't been heard from since last years WrestleMania where Seth Rollins defeated her husband Triple H. So the reason for her return was to chew out Kurt Angle and make him the captain of team RAW for Survivor Series. Realistically speaking, Kurt is being used to fill in Roman Reigns shoes since he's still out sick. But ya know what, that's ok because he's the perfect replacement right now. He's a fan favorite WWE veteran, and he now has a reason to wrestle again. Stephanie was the perfect person to do make this decision. It all makes narrative sense. 

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Next we have Nia Jax making her return after a month. It was rumored that she walk out on the company due to mismanagement of her character, which audiences agree with. She a fan favorite and always gets the short end of the stick every time an opportunity comes around. Well if Emma, Summer Rae, and Darren Young taught us anything it's that if you really are done with WWE, they will make a social media announcement about it. Anyway, she was introduced by Alicia Fox, who is going to be captain of the RAW women's division for Survivor Series. She beat Bayley and was Alicia's first pick for the women team. Personally, I liked it. This segment put fans at easy on Nia Jax's status in the company, show cased her dominance, and established future plans for her. An overall great way to build back her momentum. 

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Next we have Daniel Bryan makes a surprise return to RAW. Kurt Angle was naturally alarmed thinking the Smackdown roster was planning another raid. However, Daniel said he was simply there to make peace, but Kurt won't by it. The rest is a bit random. Kurt leaves the room, the lights go out, and Kane (Daniel Bryans former tag team partner) attacked Daniel, and thats were the segment ends. While I do see what they were going for with this segment, building heat between rosters before Survivor Series, it just felt random and as fan service. So narratively speaking it felt flat. But still, it's always good to see Daniel Bryan. 

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Next we have Samoa Joe. His return to the show was solid. He came back unannounced and cut a great promo reminding everyone he's a badass. He went on to have a squash match with Apollo Crews, and finish the segment of by chocking out Titus O'Niel. After months of absence due to injury, he came back and made a simple statement, he means business.

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Finally, we have Braun Strowman. His return was easily the best of the night and they wisely saved it for last. After team Miz betrayed him at TLC by throwing him in the back of a garbage truck, he ironically returned by coming out of the back of a garbage truck. He slowly rose from the trash and went on a rampage, absolutely destroying Miz, Curtis Axel, and Bo Dallas. While the segment started cheesy and cartoonish, it's conclusion left you with an adrenaline rush. It was silly-action-pack fun that all wrestling fans could enjoy. A rock solid finisher to Monday Night Raw.