EOTR Retro: Wrestlemania 30 Review

By @TrueGodImmortal

The day is approaching. Wrestlemania 34. In New Orleans. The last time the WWE was in New Orleans for Mania, things went extremely well.... for the most part. Considered by many to be the best Mania of the last 7 or 8 years (maybe longer), Wrestlemania 30 saw a company that had alienated their audience in a way try to right their wrongs and fix everything. After the disastrous Royal Rumble win by Batista and the nonsense that Daniel Bryan had to endure to get to the main event, the WWE set up a dream scenario for the biggest event of the year where Bryan would face Triple H earlier in the night and then go on to take on Batista and Randy Orton for the WWE Title if he was able to defeat Triple H. Along with that, WWE would bring back Hulk Hogan for the event and have him become the host of Mania, and they would tease appearances from The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin. Also on the card, The Undertaker vs Brock Lesnar, John Cena vs Bray Wyatt, and more.

After a Pre-Show match between four teams over the WWE Tag Team Titles, the show would kick off with Hulk Hogan in the ring as the host to a resounding cheer. Hogan would be interrupted by Stone Cold, giving us a once in a lifetime moment with Austin and Hogan at Mania together. The Rock would interrupt later and we would be treated to a segment with the three biggest stars in the history of the business. It was a great moment for nostalgia and one of my favorite moments of Wrestlemania, but it was merely a precursor to what would be a shocking and inspiring night in WWE. What about the rest of the Mania card? Let's revisit it, shall we?

*Daniel Bryan vs Triple H

-The best match of the night opens the show and it was excellent. Daniel Bryan was essentially at the top of his game, and he was the most popular wrestler at the time. He had fought to get a title shot and he would have the opportunity to do so during the early part of the show if he defeated Triple H. If Triple H won, he would have the chance to fight in the main event, but it was clear what the plan was. Bryan would defeat all remaining members of Evolution and move on to become the World Champion. The action here is excellent as there is technical wrestling, brawling, and an amazing finish that saw Bryan notch a huge career victory over Triple H and prepare himself for the main event. It was showtime. 

*The Shield vs Kane and The New Age Outlaws

-The match was a squash match and it was more comedic than anything. Lasting only three minutes, The Shield would destroy Kane and The Outlaws, staking their claim as the best force in the company. There isn't much to say about this match aside from the fact that The Shield dominated and walked away as the winners without an issue. This was dominance for sure by The Shield.

*31 Man Andre The Giant Battle Royal

-Another match that didn't have a substantial build to it, this match didn't seem to really have a purpose. It was clear that the match would be full of the leftover superstars who wanted a spot on Mania and of course, this match would feature names like Rey Mysterio, Cody Rhodes, Kofi Kingston, and more before Cesaro would pull off the big victory. Cesaro was essentially the most over guy in the match and eliminating Big Show gave him unprecedented momentum that of course, the WWE messed up. Still, this was a big moment for Cesaro.

*John Cena vs Bray Wyatt

-So, Wyatt was on the verge of becoming a big star, he just needed a win over Cena. Cena, a man who had been a main eventer for over 8 years at this point, should have put Wyatt over at the highest stage for wrestlers. Instead, Wyatt would put up an amazing effort before he would end up losing the match cleanly, and it didn't nothing positive for his career. The truth is, when we look back at the match, it all builds up to the inevitable and it was clear from a mile away. Cena defeats Wyatt and ruins his momentum before moving on and becoming champion a few months down the line. Wyatt however, seemed to lose his footing after this match and never recovered.

*Brock Lesnar vs The Undertaker 

-So, this is the match. This is the end. This is where Undertaker decides to end his streak. This is where Brock Lesnar ends his streak following a relatively boring match. This is where Brock finally ends the streak. This is where the world of wrestling changes. Well, that's a bit dramatic. Still, one could truly look at this match and see the end of an era. Taker hasn't been the same since. Now, I'll be honest. Brock became a much more lazy wrestler after this match and honestly, this battle just didn't have the action I hoped it would. Taker had a concussion halfway through and that definitely was important to the outcome, as he seemed out of it and the match suffers as a result. It ended so strangely and I didn't expect to see him actually lose the match. When he did, time stood still. Brock became the one in 21-1 and the wrestling world was never really the same for The Undertaker as a result.

*Vickie Guerrero Invitational 

-A match for the WWE Divas title that didn't really capture my attention. I don't remember much of the contest and I honestly don't want to revisit it too much. All that I know is that it was full of women with name value like Layla, Naomi, Natalya, and more, but they would all fall to the woman who had the division on lock, AJ Lee. Aside from that note, this match is useless, but AJ gets another notch under her belt.

*Daniel Bryan vs Batista vs Randy Orton 

-The main event was excellent. Batista won th Rumble and Bryan won his way into the contest, so the stage was set. Orton had been a subpar champion and Bryan was the most popular guy at the time, so this was the perfect storm. Bryan came into the match injured but that just added to his legend. The action here was fast paced and it's the best Mania main event of the last 5 to 8 years honestly. Bryan would step up big time and the crowd would be on his side, with him making Batista tap to win the title to the excitement of the fans who witnessed it. Yes, Wrestlemania is a big event, but no big event is complete without good execution. The execution for WM30 is one of the best in recent years, and the crowning of Daniel Bryan makes this Mania a true classic.

-True

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Eyes on the Ring 2:40 AM  No comment

Eyes On Royal Rumble: The 5 Worst Rumble Wins

By @TrueGodImmortal

The Royal Rumble is creeping up on us. It's just about two weeks away and of course, it would be Royal Rumble month without having a look at some of the horrible moments in the history of the show. Today, we take a look at the 5 worst Royal Rumble wins and why. You may not agree with some of these choices, but each pick is valid. Let's take a look at the 5 worst Rumble wins.

5. Alberto Del Rio 
Royal Rumble 2011

-This could have been ranked higher. It really could have. However, the fact that this is one of the final times that the WWE attempted to actually go out and put over an upcoming guy with a Rumble win has it right at the end of the list. The truth is, Del Rio wasn't that good at the time, but he had the momentum slowly starting to build. Despite this, Del Rio walked into the first ever 40 man Rumble match and won it. While I have some thoughts on that idea as a whole, Del Rio winning wasn't the right call. I would have preferred to see CM Punk win and move on to face John Cena or at least become a part of the WWE Title match after all of the attention he would receive due to the New Nexus. Still, whoever you would give the Rumble to, Del Rio had a very anti climatic win.

4. Roman Reigns
Royal Rumble 2015

-This would be at the very top if it wasn't for the fact that the top 3 are actually just a little worse. Reigns was not the guy. Shit, he still isn't. However, in the beginning, I don't think it was set to be that bad. I think many of us expected Reigns to get the win and while we weren't excited about that, the biggest thing that sticks out to me in this situation is the fact that the WWE attempted to pull out all of the stops for Reigns..... AND IT STILL DIDN'T WORK. That is probably the most surprising part of this. First, Daniel Bryan was coming back and essentially, he was seen as the biggest threat to Reigns winning and being the GUY that they were trying to force. So, with that, they would end up eliminating Bryan early while forcing Reigns over Kane and The Big Show to the boos of the crowd. Not even an appearance by The Rock to get him cheers worked and essentially backfired, as it should have. In reality, this was one of the most ridiculous scenes to watch in WWE history, as Reigns definitely didn't deserve the win or the amount of effort they put in to force it. This Rumble win has haunted Reigns ever since.

3.  John Cena
Royal Rumble 2013

-The truth is, Cena won in 2008 and I still don't know if that was the right idea. However, I can for sure say the idea to make him win in 2013 was the worst call possible. Honestly, I have no idea what the hell WWE was thinking in 2013.... or now for that matter, but the point still stands. Regardless, Cena winning the Rumble at a time when you could have given it to anyone else is criminal. The WWE roster wasn't stacked like you'd expect, and the worst part about that is the fact that they really had no one ready to take the next step due to investing way too much into Cena. No one wanted Cena vs Rock 2 and no one wanted to see Cena win the Rumble AGAIN, thus.... It shouldn't have happened. But, good old WWE booking.

2. Batista
Royal Rumble 2014

-Another example of Vince McMahon ruining what should have been and could have been. The story was perfectly set up. Bryan enters the Rumble, wins it, and the Corporation go out of their way to deprive him of the title shot. They could have went with Daniel Bryan to win like everyone wanted... yet for some reason, they decided to go an entirely different route. Vince wanted Batista vs Randy Orton which... I'm not quite sure why. Regardless, there was no Daniel Bryan, there was no one left in the final 4 that even made sense to utilize in this instance as a replacement for Batista. All in all, this is one of the most confusing decisions ever.

1. Vince McMahon
Royal Rumble 1999

-Do I even need to explain this one? I mean let's be serious here. Let's be serious. Vince didn't deserve to win anything, let alone the fucking Rumble. Why? What was the point? To stop Austin from winning the Rumble a third straight time even though he probably should have. I don't even need to go into detail about this. It was ill advised and one of the worst decisions I've ever witnessed in WWE history. I have nothing left to say here. It was essentially one of the worst moments in WWE PPV history and quite possibly the worst Rumble moment ever. It did make for some good comedy however, and there's the silver lining.

-True 

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Eyes on the Ring 12:54 AM  No comment

EOTR Match Of The Week: The Undertaker vs Batista

By @Phranchize19

Starting off the next chapter of our match in the week series, we take a look back at the best matches at Survivor Series that aren't traditional Survivor Series matches. Today, I wanted to start with a gem, Batista vs The Undertaker in the Hell In A Cell match for the World Heavyweight Championship. Building up to the match, there were big implications at stake and their year long feud would finally culminate at one of the big 4 PPVs. Who would leave the Cell victorious?

The Match
We start out with both men going back and forth. Undertaker attempts the first pin and then begins to take control. Undertaker would attempt to bring in a chair but Batista spears Him. Batista attempts to use the same chair but Taker counters him. Undertaker would take the battle outside of the ring and take control of the match again. Undertaker would dominate until Batista counters Old School. Batista would then start a small rally and start ramming the Undertaker into the cell but Undertaker would counter and bust Batista open. Undertaker would then attempt old school but Batista would counter once again.

Next, Batista would bust the Undertaker open. Batista would attempt to hit punches while Taker was in the corner but Taker would counter with the Last Ride. Batista would again take control and hit the Undertaker with the spinebuster twice. Batista would then bring a table into the match and uses it against The Undertaker. Then, Undertaker would rally and perform a tombstone on Batista who would surprisingly kick out. Undertaker would then tombstone Batista on the steel steps and seem to be near victory. Edge would then interfere and cost the Undertaker the match, allowing Batista to retain and beginning the next chapter.

Highlights
-Undertaker drives Batista’s throat into a chair.
-Batista counters Old School into a spinebuster.
-Batista would ram the steel steps into the Undertaker's head 4 times.
-Batista hits the Batista Bomb through the table.
-Undertaker counters a Batista Bomb and Batista lands on the steel steps.

Fun Fact
Batista is the only man to have defeated the two men who have dominated this match in Undertaker and Triple H. Batista is also the only man to walk in as world champ at multiple Hell In A Cell matches and leave with the title still in tact.

Grade and Analysis
This was as physical as it gets. JBl and Michael Cole added to this with great commentary. I thought both men performed very well. This match was relatively short considering but with that Survivor Series card being as stacked as it was I get it. Edge interfering added to this great story and left us with a cliff hanger and more questions than answers. I thought Batista did a fantastic job letting Undertaker lead the match and Undertaker as usual gave us a superb performance. A little more brutality wouldn’t have hurt though, but overall this was really solid.

Rating: 8.5/10

-Phranchize

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Eyes on the Ring 9:11 AM  1 comment

Eyes On WWE: Is JBL The Greatest Heel Of The 21st Century

By @IOnlySayFacts

(Note: This is about his career, not about his backstage stuff with Mauro. That I do not have an opinion on in this piece)

John Bradshaw Layfield.

Before this turn, he was just Bradshaw, a brawling beer loving Texan who beat up people for money with his best friend Faarooq. Behind the scenes, JBL was a financial analyst who appeared on Fox News and had written books about finance. The turn resulted from when Bradshaw and Faarooq lost a championship match against Rikishi and Scotty 2 Hotty. Faarooq was fired and JBL stayed and did not stick up for his partner. The week after this event showed a whole new side of him.

JBL was a mix between George W. Bush and JR Ewing from Dallas fame. He was a morally bankrupt blueblood that was also a Texan. Immediately when Bradshaw debuted his new gimmick, the first thing he did was change his name to his whole full name. The way he was able to get the crowd to turn on him so quick was amazing. By saying that he didn’t bring back Ron Simmons when he had the opportunity showed that he was a scumbag. Trashing a very popular group while saying that he was a person that is similar to the government made people hate him so much.

From there, the first big feud he had was with then WWE Champion Eddie Guerrero. Eddie, popular with the masses, was the face of the brand, as Lesnar left and Angle was on the shelf. During this feud, I realized that what JBL had was special. He developed into such a sleaze bag that took shortcuts to win and when he did win he was not anything special. JBL did so many despicable things, that it made me hate him when I was young. JBL did everything from causing Eddie Guerrero’s mother to have a heart attack, to kicking out Mexicans in the border. All this did was get so much heat on him and people paid to see him get his ass beat. At Great American Bash (the worst PPV of the year), when he won his only WWE Championship, was sold out in California because of the fact that people wanted to see Eddie beat JBL. JBL won the bullrope match by touching the last corner in a fluke way. The fact that this feud worked so well is a success to both guys. Bradshaw, an American got heel heat against Eddie Guerrero, a man with Mexican heritage. They tried to do a similar thing with Jack Swagger and Alberto Del Rio minus the extremism that went into the feud, but it did not work at this level.

Following the feud with Guerrero, he had feuds with The Undertaker and Booker T. No matter what he did, he’d always find a way to win. The way he’d play a coward heel was just amazing. His ring work purposely became worse and he rarely won matches cleanly. It wasn’t like other cowardly heels of today, who have shown dominance at some point in their tenures. He ended up giving John Cena the belt at Wrestlemania 21 in a feud that was built a year in the making. JBL was the perfect guy for Cena to pin. This elitist vs scrappy underdog feud can work, and it paid off major dividends. It was the one that made Cena the potential face of the company.

After that feud, JBL started a feud with Batista for his championship, and while they tried to make Batista the face of Smackdown like Cena was about to be, it did not work to the same scale because the Cena/Batista prototypes were different. He still was the chickenshit heel that everyone wanted to beat, but it didn’t have the same affect as others. Eventually after winning the US Championship from Benoit, and losing the World Heavyweight Championship match to Rey Mysterio, JBL’s star status wained. This was also due to injury, and eventually he retired in embarrassing fashion.

JBL worked, because unlike Triple H (who had a longer and worse reign of terror), he made himself look like an ass on a decent amount of occasions. His run at the top was also fairly short. The thing about JBL is, unlike Triple H, is that he got ‘’it”, that a heel can only last so long before fatigue gets in place. Compared to other top heels, JBL’s run was fairly short in both his debut run and his return run at the top. In my mind, he was the best heel in the 21st century.

-Doug

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Eyes on the Ring 1:22 AM  No comment

EOTR Tag Team Tuesdays: Evolution

By @AmeenKnows 

Contrary to popular belief on Twitter, my favorite wrestler is Triple H and not John Cena. One of my favorite things about The Game is his mind for the business and in 2002, he put together one bad ass stable. Today, for Tag Team Tuesday, we will talk a stable and not just a tag team. Let's take a look at Evolution.

Around late 2002, Brock Lesnar won the WWE Championship and declared he'd only defend the title on the Smackdown brand. A few weeks later, Eric Bischoff introduces the World Heavyweight Championship and apoints Triple H as the Red brand's Champion. Ric Flair, unsatisfied with Bischoff just handing over the belt to Hunter, challenges Triple H to a match which Triple H would go on to win. At Unforgiven, Flair helped Hunter defeat Rob Van Dam to retain the World Heavyweight Championship. So far, you have Flair and Triple H and the pieces slowly start to put themselves together.

Within the passing months, Flair began accompanying both Triple H and Batista to the ring for their matches. Orton was recovering from a shoulder injury during this time. The group was finally united on January 20, 2003 after an attack on Scott Steiner. However, Batista's impact would be put on hold after injuring his triceps. With Flair and Orton flanking his side, Triple H was able to escape with his World Title reign in tact night in and night out, including wins over Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash and even Goldberg in the Elimination Chamber at SummerSlam. Orton would also begin to come into his own developing one of the most popular gimmicks among fans, the Legend Killer. At Unforgiven 2003, Orton would kill his first legend in Shawn Michaels, but Triple H would lose his World Heavyweight Championship to Goldberg. Batista would make his return by crushing Goldberg's ankle between a steel chair. At Survivor Series, Orton's star continued to rise as he became the sole survivor on Team Bischoff while Goldberg was still able to defeat Triple H again despite Evolution's help. At Armageddon, as everyone knows, Evolution completed a clean sweep of Monday Night Raw's Men's Championships with Flair and Batista winning the World Tag Team Titles, Orton winning the Intercontinental Championship, and Triple H winning back the World Heavyweight Championship.

Heading into 2004 on top of the world, Evolution retained the World Tag Team titles and the World Heavyweight Championship at the Royal Rumble. At WrestleMania, Orton, Flair and Batista defeated the Rock N' Sock Connection while Triple H once again dropped the World Title, this time to Chris Benoit. The loss to Benoit planted the seeds for the eventual split of the stable as Benoit, with help from Edge, defeated Batista and Flair for the World Tag Team Titles. Orton would also drop his Intercontinental Championship to Edge at Vengeance. At SummerSlam, Randy Orton finally broke through and won the World Heavyweight Championship by beating Benoit. The next night on Raw, he was kicked out of Evolution due to Triple H's jealously.

At Unforgiven, Triple H would defeat Orton and take back the World Heavyweight Championship. At Survivor Series, Orton won a traditional Survivor Series Elimination Match granting his teammates the right to be GM of Raw for a week. With his turn as GM, Orton cost Triple H his World Title in a controversial triple threat match which led to the title being vacated. Triple H would regain the title once again at New Years Revolution 2005 in an Elimination Chamber match.

As 2005 rolled in, there were now three members of Evolution. Soon though, there would only be two left. At the Royal Rumble, more seeds of doubt were planted amongst the group between Triple H and Batista. Batista, who was scheduled to perform in the Royal Rumble match, wanted to go get his number for the match. Triple H, who had a title defense against Orton to worry about later that night, wanted to talk strategy and they began to argue. Ric Flair would patch things up between the two and when Batista went to get his number, Eric Bischoff notified him that Evolution was banned from ringside, meaning Triple H's strategy talk would become meaningless. Hunter would retain his title as Batista would go on to win the Royal Rumble match. Afraid that Batista would come after him, Triple H tried to talk him into challenging JBL for the WWE Championship, even going as far as setting Batista up and blaming JBL. The night Batista was to choose who he'd face, he overheard Triple H telling Flair of his plans. This in turn, led to Batista attacking Flair and Triple H later that night, choosing to challenge Hunter at WrestleMania and effectively ending his run with Evolution. At WrestleMania 21, Batista defeated Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship. The two would battle for the World Title two more times at Backlash and Vengeance before Batista was drafted to Smackdown ending the feud. After Vengeance, Triple H took time off but would return in October and turn on Flair, effectively ending Evolution.

Evolution's original incarnation is in my top 5 stables of all time. I went a little outside the box because this group is just too good to focus on only Flair and Batista. I also tried to keep this short because everyone knows the history of Evolution. Its just a rehash of how things were. The Raw roster was in a terrible state during most of the group's run. The midcard was weak so WWE really didn't have much room to just snatch guys like Jericho or Christian randomly and turn them into main event stars out the blue. They were pretty bad at character development at that time also, so they filled out the main event scene with old WCW talent and it was pretty bad, but Triple H made out the best that he could with it. The thing I loved most was Triple H's speech that Flair was the Past, He was the Present and Orton/Batista were the future. They played to that to the absolute fullest. Randy Orton showed from early on that he was a star. His Legend Killer helped him hit the ground running. He didn't face scrubs either. His top kills included Shawn Michaels, Mick Foley and Sgt. Slaughter. So he went from Legend Killer to Intercontinental Champion to World Heavyweight Champion all in his 2 years with the group, thus cementing his status as a star. Batista took a bit longer but as the Arn Anderson enforcer type, he was always primed and ready to attack and defend his teammates when called upon. I remember at SummerSlam 2004, he was in a triple threat match with Edge and Chris Jericho for the IC Title. He didn't win but I really wanted him too. Next thing you know he's the World Heavyweight Champion.

People give Triple H a lot of flack for the shovel job he gave to damn near the entire Raw roster, but what you can't deny is he took 2 very young and talented guys and he got them to where he envisioned them making it to. He got them to the launching pad of stardom and it would turn out that all 4 of these men will one day be together again in the Hall of Fame. I wasn't a big fan of the 2014 return, however their purpose was to put The Shield over and they did that to perfection and proved once again why they are one of the greatest ever. The only thing I would change is Orton dropping the World Heavyweight Championship one month after winning it, but that seemed more like a backstage thing than Triple H being selfish. Also Goldberg, as much as I don't like him, should have won the World Heavyweight Championship in the Elimination Chamber match at SummerSlam 2003 instead of Unforgiven. Otherwise, the run for Evolution was perfect.

-Ameen

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Eyes on the Ring 9:45 PM  No comment