The Wrestling Republic Weekly – May 4th, 2017

Welcome to the first ever The Wrestling Classic Weekly! It will have reviews, news, rumours, match reports and more! It is written by me Ben Allison (WrestlingRepublic on IG) I hope you all enjoy it!

PAYBACK REVIEW

Kickoff Show
Enzo and Cass vs The Club
I am really not happy that Enzo and Cass beat The Club cleanly as it really does make the Club look weak! Even if The Club won controversially it would still be better than this! IMO if Enzo and Cass needed to win then it should be by a roll up pin or something like that!

MIZ TV With Finn Balor
I really enjoyed this segment! Plus it was the first time we have heard Balor have a long promo on the main roster! I also thought Miz did a great job as a heel host! However I find it weird that when Miz asked Finn what’s next for him he replied ‘getting my title back’ even though two weeks ago Wyatt interrupted Balor and told him he was coming for him after Orton! Plus Braun is set to face Lesnar next! So unfortunately Balor going to get his title back is not next!

Main Show

Jericho vs Owens
This match was really entertaining! We all thought that Owens would win as Jericho is going on tour with Fozzy which made the match even better! So now it will be Jericho vs Styles at backlash for the title! Unless of course Owens wins it back on SDLive! The Fozzy tour starts in 5 weeks I believe so Jericho will undoubtedly have to leave in 3 at the most! So he will lose the title at Backlash or before! Now a lot of people are saying they wanted to see Owens vs Styles and yes I would have loved to see that match! However I’m not gonna moan if we we do see the GOAT vs The phenomenal one again!

The Hardy Boyz vs Cesaro and Sheamus
I really enjoyed this match as well! It was really entertaining and I really do feel this match has kinda upgraded the tag team division! The heel turn for Sheacesaro was a really good move as the Raw tag team division is lacking heels while the Revival are out injured! Plus the attack on the hardy boyz later is apparently what will make them ‘broken’ but the real reason they are becoming broken now is that WWE have purchased the broken gimmick off TNA for a large sum of money!

Neville vs Austin Aries (cruiserweight match)
I felt this was an extremely good and entertaining match! And was better than their WM match! I also thought the ending was great! As it showed that Austin Aries can beat Neville and Neville can beat Austin as we saw at mania! So this just builds up to Aries winning the title at extreme rules! And making it an even bigger moment when he beats the King of the cruiserweights!

Bayley vs Alexa Bliss (women’s match)
In my opinion this was the best women’s match in some time now! Probably since the Charlotte vs Sasha iron man match back at Roadblock! I’m really happy that Alexa won as I am a huge fan of her and in my opinion she is the best female heel in the company! But I’m pretty sure Bayley will win it back soon as WWE are building up Bayley vs Heel Sasha at Summerslam!
Seth Rollins vs Samoa Joe
Personally I found this match a little boring and felt it could have been a lot better! Also I’m really not happy that Seth was the one who won controversially! I thought that Joe should win controversially by cheating behind the refs back or something! Or Rollins could just win clean! However as I said in my predictions I think they will have another match at Extreme Rules!

Randy Orton vs Bray Wyatt (house of horrors match)
This match was the most debatable thing of the night! The crowd hated it! Personally I enjoyed the match however some changes should have been made to the match! Orton should have entered the house one side and then have to survive the house and get out the other where 2 cars are! Bray’s aim should be to injure Orton so he can’t leave and and then leave the house and take 1 of the 2 cars (similar to what he did) then it would be a race to the arena. Then to win the match it should be a 10 count! So when Bray got in Randy should have had 10 seconds to get in the ring and if he doesn’t make it he loses! If he does make it then the only way to win is by KO, pinfall or submission! It kinda was like that but WWE really didn’t explain it! The match itself was very entertaining! I’m still laughing that Jinder still has the title! Anyway I’m glad Bray won!

Roman Reigns vs Braun Strowman
So first off I wanted to say I really enjoyed this match! A lot better than I thought it would be! The thing that annoyed me was that Roman sold the moves really well! Roman was the one who made this match great! Braun isn’t too good at selling but at least it was Reigns who has to sell for the majority of the match not Braun! And Roman did all this just a couple of week after his brother died! You have to respect him for that! And yet the Crowd still chanted ‘you deserve it’ when he was getting beat up! I personally felt like this was very disrespectful after the week Roman has had! Roman has a passion for the business and how can he help it if he gets pushed! He wants to turn heel but they won’t let him! So don’t blame him for that either! Undertaker has ALWAYS said he wants to lose his final match! And Taker wanted to vs Roman! So don’t blame Roman for that either!

Overall review
Overall I freakin loved this PPV and I rated it 4.5/5! In my opinion it was the best brand exclusive PPV since the brand split! I hope Extreme Rules is just as good! So the pressure is really on for SDLive at Backlash!

RAW REVIEW

Raw was a fairly good show this week and I enjoyed it!
Alexa Bliss opening the show with her ‘coronation’ was great! It showed how much of a good heel she was! Also her rivalry with Bayley seems to be continuing for a possible match at Extreme Rules as she got Bayley really mad when she told Bayley that her family finally had a champion to look up to! Which resulted in Bayley attacking Bliss!
The main event was an amazing match between Balor, Rollins and The Miz in a No.1 contenders match for the IC Title. The match was very entertaining and the crowd were on the edge of their seats for the hole match! It ended in Joe interrupting Rollins and costing him the match and then Wyatt interrupting Balor also costing him the math and The Miz won! I thought this was a great booking decision as WWE shouldn’t let Rollins or Balor be pinned clean yet unless it on a PPV because Rollins has just beaten the King of Kings HHH and there is also still a lot of hype from the Finn Balor return! It also set up The Balor vs Wyatt rivalry and continued the Rollins vs Joe one! It should be entertaining to see another Miz vs Ambrose rivalry as their last one was short but very good! I think Ambrose will probably retain his title when the match happens in the near future! Presumably at Extreme Rules

SDLIVE REVIEW

SDLive was below average in my opinion this week! The opening segment was good and it was interesting to see Jericho and Styles together again! The crowd were booing the crap out of Owens and it is a rarity for talented heels to get booed these days so this showed how good of a heel Owens is! The main event was also good although it was the worst Owens vs Jericho match out of the three they have had! I still enjoyed it though! Jericho sold his head injury really well! It was fairly obvious that Owens would win the title as Jericho is doing a tour with Fozzy (his band) for 2 months! Meaning that he will return in late June! It was interesting to see that wwe are pretending Jericho is injured while he is on tour with Fozzy! Which is probably the best way of doing it on my opinion! Plus it will get KO even more heat! But in my opinion the rest of the show really wasn’t that great!

Overall this week I feel like Raw has the better show!

WEEKLY NEWS, RUMOURS AND REPORTS

The biggest piece of news this week is that NJPW have confirmed that Omega will get a rematch against Okada at Dominion in June! The last match they had I rated a perfect 10! And only a few matches ever have had that rating! So who knows what they could do this time! The pressure is really on for them! Omega is the current favourite to win! As NJPW reportable want an American champion to go into the American G1 NJPW tour in July!

It is also being reported that almost every single wrestling company is interested in signing Adam Cole as his ROH deal is almost up! NJPW, TNA, ROH and WWE have offered him big money! But he is expected to be paid by event for ROH while he makes his decision of what’s next for himself! I wouldn’t be surprised though if he did go to the WWE as he has said on many occasions that is his goal!

Sean Waltman (aka X-pac) was arrested on early Saturday morning and this is reportedly because he was trying to sell drugs abroad! He has declined such claims and has said that ‘I wasn’t using anything. Even my closest friends, I understand if they doubt me. At least in the back of their minds. I get it.’

Earlier this week it was reported that Alexa Bliss had, had her nudes leaked! She claimed they were false but now Charlotte Flair has had her real nudes leaked! She took to social media to say this ‘Private photos of mine were stolen and shared privately without my consent. These images must be removed from the Internet immediately.’ As we all know once pictures like these are on the Internet there is no getting them down! It’s really sad and disrespectful that whoever has done this did it! Not only is it sad and disrespectful but it is also seriously against the law! Best wishes go to Charlotte and remember a few leaked images don’t change the fact that she is genetically superior and the first ever new women’s champion!

WEEKLY MATCH RATINGS

(Only matches rated over 7 make it on the list)

Rollins vs Miz vs Balor (Raw 1/5/17) = 7.5/10
Kevin Owens vs Chris Jericho (payback 2017) = 7.5
The Hardy Boyz vs Cesaro and Sheamus (payback 2017) = 7
Neville vs Austin Aries (Payback 2017) = 7/10
Bayley vs Alexa Bliss (payback 2017) = 7/10
Roman Reigns vs Braun Strowman (payback 2017) = 7/10

That’s it for this week The Wrestling Classic Weekly! I hope you all enjoyed it! And if you did make sure to share it! It really helps us out! Thank you!