In practice, the story is, “Brie Bella doesn’t know how to do anything.”īrie Bella trying to drag Charlotte to the ground with HAND LEVERAGE and only getting a crucifix when she talks her opponent into lying down and doing it to herself is piss-poor. For her Divas Championship match, maybe the last one she’ll ever have, she wears Bryan’s kickpads and throws Nikki’s forearms. She has to carry Daniel and Nikki on her shoulders. Brie’s the last one standing - the smallest, least confrontational, least successful of the bunch. These are people who could legitimately die if they keep their jobs. Her husband just had to step away from the thing he loves most in the world because his brain won’t cooperate with his body. Her twin sister had to have major neck surgery and might not ever get into the ring again. Brie’s entire WWE family is either injured or retired, or so injured they might have to retire. On paper, ignoring the Bella Twins’ fluid alignment that allows them to simultaneously be heels and faces and not succeed at either, this is a great story. Worst: Brie Bella Does The Opposite Of WrestleMania 30
Without the Bellas around, we don’t even have a kayfabe excuse. Hell, let Bayley take a loss to Asuka on Friday and get her in there, too. Becky, and I hope we get some combination of Horsewomen at the big show. Sasha at WrestleMania or even Charlotte vs. Banksy doing stereo submission finishers was the perfect call. Let them be friends and tag team partners, but acknowledge that Becky’s a likable, gullible, fired-up babyface and Sasha’s a talented but jerky borderline heel who is simultaneously a little unconfident and up her own ass. Her look is there, her athleticism has always been there, and I feel like it’s all finally kinda coming together.Ĭall me crazy, but I think a semi-permanent Sasha/Becky team with a sort of Kevin Steen/El Generico dynamic could be money.
Naomi still cuts a promo like she ran English through translate and back a few times, but her character work, particularly how she maintains her persona while she’s actually wrestling, is on a major upswing. I don’t think I expected much from this match, but it was (for what it was) honestly pretty good. So Brie’s gotta stand there with her finger in the air, stalling, to no reaction. Sasha hits the running knees in the corner, turns to the crowd and goes “ONE MORE?” The Cleveland crowd was pretty Cuyahoga River-quality all night, but they’re like, “YEAHHHH!” During Brie/Charlotte, Brie hits her running knee, turns to the crowd and goes “ONE MORE?” The crowd just kinda looks down at their phones and pretends like they don’t hear her. If you want to know the difference between Sasha Banks and Brie Bella (and you don’t have eyeballs or anything resembling taste whatsoever), watch this WWE Fan Nation clip. The League of Nation is a bunch of f*cking schmucks, huh Let’s all hope that this means Kalisto is the actual better man this time, no takebacks, and that he gets something fun to do besides “wrestle Alberto Del Rio” at WrestleMania. That was very creative, and a nice misdirection. I think my favorite moment was the finish, with Kalisto going for Salida del Sol and Del Rio blocking it, only for Kalisto to change direction and snapmare him into the buckle. It definitely should’ve been on the show proper. When you’re bigger and stronger than the guy, there’s no reason to put yourself in the hole just to make an already even match even.īut yeah, no, this was fun. WWE loves the “heel gets DQ’d in the first fall to get an easy win in the second” trope and always puts it over as great strategy, but I feel like a guy who can beat Kalisto straight-up like 70% of the time should’ve just stuck it out for a few more minutes and seen where it went. It had a lot of the problems every Del Rio match has now - particularly the tree of woe double-stomp, which takes half an hour to set up even when he’s setting it up quickly and could be countered by just not holding yourself up and choosing to be tree of woe double-stomped - but it had some fire and a sense of urgency, so I liked it. I think I’d put it behind the Reigns match at Survivor Series, but it was still pretty good. That happened, and it was probably Alberto Del Rio’s best or second best match since his return to WWE.