Every week, Kevin Eck will run down his burning thoughts from "RAW," "SmackDown Live" and the rest of the pro wrestling world.
‘RAW’ thoughts
Am I the only one who …
… thinks it’s absurd that Stephanie McMahon is being portrayed as a serious athlete who has no fear of Ronda Rousey?
Super Shane is bad enough, but now we have to deal with Scary Stephanie, too? Anyone who follows Stephanie on social media knows that she is fond of posting photos of her doing intense workouts. While her dedication to physical fitness is admirable, that’s the real-life Stephanie. Heel character Stephanie has never been portrayed as an athlete, and certainly not as an ass-kicker. She should be scared to death about facing any WWE competitor much less a fighter with Rousey’s credentials.
The video of her training on “RAW” should’ve been less on the nose and more “entertaining.” Like when Shane McMahon trained Vince McMahon for the Royal Rumble in 1999.
… wondered what the heck was going on with Ronda Rousey’s eyes?
I have no idea what Rousey was going for with that red makeup under her eyes, but it was jarring. Before I realized it was eye shadow, I thought she may have contracted conjunctivitis from one of Vince McMahon’s legendary protein farts (anyone who has been in a production meeting with the WWE Chairman knows all too well what I’m talking about).
Perhaps Rousey was hoping the audience would be so preoccupied with her red eyes that it would distract them from how wooden she is on the microphone.
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… thought The Miz’s diss of his hometown of Cleveland was the line of the night?
When cutting a promo on his lackeys, Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas, about their recent lack of success, Miz said, “If I wanted failure I never would’ve gone to L.A., I’d have stayed home in Cleveland.”
Honorable mention for line of the night goes to Elias, who made fun of the Cleveland Browns in his song and then stopped and said, “Seriously, how bad are the Browns?” One of the announcers could be heard trying to suppress a laugh.
But enough about how bad Cleveland is. Oh wait. The Rock has something he wants to say.
… thinks John Cena is being a jerk?
Why can’t he just let The Undertaker R.I.P. (retire in peace)? It’s not like Cena doesn’t have other options for WrestleMania. He could always enter the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal. Or, if he wants to be part of history, he could enter the first-ever women’s battle royal at WrestleMania.
… hopes Sasha Banks is finally turning heel?
“The Boss” has been miscast as a babyface for a while now. She has a heel aura about her, and I never understood why Bayley — or any babyface — would want to be friends with the self-obsessed Banks.
… wondered why Mickie James didn’t come out to her own entrance music for her match?
I get it that James is playing the role of Alexa Bliss’ sidekick, but coming out to Bliss’ entrance music seemed a bit much. It’s not like James is a six-time WWE women’s champion or anything.
‘SmackDown Live’ thoughts
Am I the only one who …
… was pleased to see WWE finally add another layer to Shinsuke Nakamura's’ character?
Nakamura’s in-ring skills and charisma are undeniable, but he’s not as over as he should be and it’s because he hasn’t had great storylines and his character lacks depth. Having him play mind games with AJ Styles on this week’s episode was a step in the right direction.
I’d love to see WWE do a sit-down interview with Nakamura or put together a package with sound bites from him and Styles about their match at WrestleMania. What makes Nakamura tick? Why is winning the WWE Title important to him? We don’t know the answers to these questions, and it’s making it difficult for the audience to fully invest in him.
On a side note, I can’t believe WWE hasn’t produced a “Knee to Face” t-shirt yet.
… thought the interaction between Randy Orton and Bobby Roode during their tag match was an example of cliched, lazy booking?
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Two babyfaces who have a match against each other in the near future are forced to team together in a tag match. They argue about who should start the match and then continually blind tag each other in a game of one-upmanship. They argue some more. Then one inadvertently hits the other and they get into it, which leads to them losing the match.
That’s exactly what happened in the Orton and Roode versus Jinder Mahal and Rusev tag match. As former WWE head writer Brian Gewirtz was fond of saying, “That’s literally the least creative thing we could do.”
The only surprise — and a very pleasant one at that — was that Rusev scored the winning pin on United States Champion Orton and subsequently was added to the U.S. Title Match at WrestleMania between Orton, Roode and Mahal to make it a Fatal 4-Way. And he did it on Rusev Day!
… loved that New Day mocked how everyone points to the WrestleMania sign?
It was cool seven years ago when Triple H confronted The Undertaker and pointed to the WrestleMania sign without ever saying a word, but “the point” has been run into the ground.
If it hadn’t already jumped the shark, it most certainly did at this year’s Royal Rumble when Ronda Rousey looked like she was channeling Tony Manero.