WWE Royal Rumble 2016 Recap

Join the Main Event Status Radio crew as they recap the WWE Royal Rumble 2016 pay-per-view!

Was it a surprise that Triple H entered as number 30 and won the Rumble? Thoughts on the shocking surprise appearance of AJ Styles! What are Mr. Beverly Hills and the Dirty Dawg Darsie’s early WrestleMania 32 predictions? So much more was discussed, check us out!

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Could the WWE Network Devalue the WWE World Heavyweight Championship?

Could the WWE Network Devalue the WWE World Heavyweight Championship?

By Eric Darsie

One of the biggest moves the WWE has made in the last decade has to be creating the WWE Network. On the opening day, I subscribed to the Network, excited to watch older pay-per-views from World Championship Wrestling and from mid-90s World Wrestling Federation. Another thing I’m thrilled about being a subscriber to the WWE Network is getting the current pay-per-views for free (technically it’s included with the $9.99 a month).

The pay-per-view name is starting to be phased out and the term “special events” are being used over the traditional pay-per-view name, since cable providers aren’t carrying the cards as pay-per-views anymore. After WrestleMania XXX, I’m starting to be concerned with how these “special events” will be booked.

First off, I find the “special events” name to be silly because I grew up with the pay-per-view name and loved the “supercard” name that was thrown around whenever I watched 80s WCW or WWF television. Whenever there’s a title match on Monday Night Raw or Friday Night SmackDown, those matches should be seen as something special, because it’s not usual to see championship brawls on television.

I feel if WWE booked these “special events” like they did for traditional pay-per-views or old Saturday Night’s Main Events, current fans and old-school fans who bought the Network off of the classic programming would tune in to watch the monthly “supercard.”

But with how the booking, in my opinion, hasn’t been as good as it once was over a decade ago, I’ve been in-and-out interested on the current product the last five or so years, depending on what storylines are a-happenin’ on the television every week. The Shawn Michaels-Chris Jericho feud from 2008, or the 400+ day WWE title reign of CM Punk, or the rise of Daniel Bryan and the Yes Movement, feuds and storylines like such are a few things that peaked my interest in WWE since WrestleMania XXV.

Secondly, and the biggest problem I have with the WWE Network is the WWE World Heavyweight Championship being devalued with the “special events.” The reason why I’m concerned that the WWE World Heavyweight title will be devalued is I’m concerned that the WWE Creative Team would consider the “special events” as an extension of Raw’s and SmackDown’s that they write for every week. Since the buyrate of the pay-per-view doesn’t matter anymore, why should they build-up storylines and have them climax once a month or why should they book a storyline that ends with a plot twist or an ending to the story once a month?

I am sure I am overreacting on my concern, since WrestleMania XXX was the only pay-per-view to be offered on the Network and only way we would know the pay-per-views/“special events” are simply an extension to weekly television once a month is waiting for WrestleMania 31 and see how things were booked between WrestleMania’s, but I feel like this is something that should be a concern for WWE and for the fan of the WWE product.

What would I suggest WWE Creative to do with my concern? I hope they prove me wrong by booking these Network pay-per-views like they had before when they were still offered on cable providers and deliver on the “special events,” making people want to turn into Raw every Monday night and SmackDown every Friday night and keep subscribing to the Network for they can continue watching to see what’s next for the following “special event.”

Yes, I am saying the Creative Team inside the WWE should do what they’re hired to do and give us angles and storylines that brings us back every week and give us a reason (or better yet, reasons) to give up our hard earned money to see what they have next week-in-and-week-out, and more yet, month-in-and-month-out. I guess, in the end, I don’t have much faith in the WWE Creative Team. They have put on awesome shows the last three months with the Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber, and WrestleMania. The build for Evolution versus the Shield for Extreme Rules. The beat-down that Kane gave to WWE World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan on Raw on Monday, April 21^st.

I am looking forward to seeing how the six-man tag match will climax at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view and I am excited to see how Daniel Bryan retains the WWE World Heavyweight strap in a Extreme Rules match against the Big Red Machine. I hope the Creative Team keeps this trend up because if they do, my faith will be built back up in them and they’ll bring me back into the current product.

So, could the WWE Network devalue the WWE World Heavyweight Championship? As a whole, I don’t think so. But the Creative Team can by how they book pay-per-views. That’s with any champion and any era. I feel like the WWE Network could help bring value back to the WWE World Heavyweight title, and any other title the Creative decides to put value back in. Like said above, I hope the Creative Team keeps up with how they’ve been booking feuds and storylines so far this year, things are slowly starting to look positive.

WWE WrestleMania XXIX Review and Opinion

WrestleMania 29 Review and Opinion

By Eric Darsie

Sunday, April 7^th, 2013 – East Rutherford, New Jersey – MetLife Stadium – 80, 676 people jam packed the MetLife Stadium, located on the outskirts of New York state, where the Undertaker continued his streak to 21 and 0, Alberto Del Rio retained his World Heavyweight Championship, Triple H came out of retirement to defeat Brock Lesnar in a No Holds Barred match to continue his couple-match-a-year career, and John Cena defeated the Rock to capture the WWE Championship for the record-setting eleventh time.

I had several old college buddies and a handful of co-workers head over to my place tonight for WWE WrestleMania XXIX and for a few of us; we made it an all-day event. Three of my co-workers and I got up early to head over to our local Godfather’s Pizza chain and had their lunch buffet, catching up since we normally don’t work next to one another and discuss the 29^th installment of Vince McMahon’s SuperBowl of wrestling. It didn’t dominate our conversation, which I enjoyed, since I’d be making it an all-day shindig anyway.

Came home and we all separated for a few hours and I listened to Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, talking Saturday night’s WWE Hall of Fame and tonight’s pay-per-view. Enjoyed their Hall of Fame discussion, since Alvarez was there live, and was excited for their discussion on WrestleMania. Only thing they mentioned was, everything other than the Ryback/Mark Henry match remained the same. I scratched my head, knowing that Ryback had a lot of PPV loses under his belt, thinking that it’d make sense if Ryback won in regards to rebuild him for the future, if McMahon and the Creative Team wanted him to be the future of the company.

Knowing that you can easily find the results to Mania (to go to WWE’s official site, click here, which I used for this blog, or Wikipedia, which was the second site I used for this blog), I won’t talk much about the results of the event, rather, I’ll let you readers know about what I thought of the show.

As a whole, I thought it was decent, better than WrestleMania XXVII, but not as good as WrestleMania XXVIII. I say that in regards to the fans not seeming interested in the No Holds Barred or the WWE Championship matches, since they came after the Undertaker/CM Punk match. Once the DVD comes out, I’ll be re-watching the Lesnar/Helmsley match and the Rock/John Cena match, to see if it was coming directly after the emotional Streak versus Punk match.

Something that I was surprised at was the four billed main events were all consecutive for this year’s WrestleMania, since the last few years, that wasn’t the case. I figure that’s why the fans seemed a little down for the two matches that followed the Undertaker’s win, I feel that’s something needed for this year’s WrestleMania and future Mania’s, since filler matches, in my opinion, really don’t add anything to the show, other than taking time away from matches, or giving the fans a bathroom break, which I’m sure McMahon doesn’t want.

Several surprises came for my buddies when Fandango defeated Chris Jericho in 9:13. I mentioned that I learned through listening to the Wrestling Observer Radio that Jericho was back only through Mania, wanting to come back for short sprits over being gone for long periods of time. I, as with everyone in my living room, was happy for Jericho, to seem him back, and to see him put over the new-comer in Johnny Curtis.

Another surprise came when Mark Henry defeated the Ryback. I mentioned it a few paragraphs above, and I’ll write it again, I am surprised much-so that Henry went over Ryback, since the end of 2012 and the early weeks of 2013, it seemed that the Ryback was the future of the WWE and a future main-eventer of WrestleMania. Maybe he will be, have to wait to see, I suppose.

For the first time ever in WrestleMania history, the Rock and John Cena main-evented consecutive years. For me, the Rock and John Cena outshined last year’s match and both guys put on a better show this time around than last. How so?

The WWE Championship helped me keep interest in the match. Yes, Rock missing two Raw’s a few weeks back and Cena missing the first Raw the Rock missed, but I feel like tonight’s match was our “sorry for that” kind of receipt. Granted towards the end of their match, the crowd at my place and I felt it was too much when Cena kept going for the Attitude Adjustment and Rock countering and trying to Rock Bottom him.

The torch was passed tonight in the middle of MetLife Stadium after Cena reclaimed the WWE Championship when the Rock shook Cena’s hand and hugged him. Cena let the Rock take center-stage to soak up the fans’ appreciation for coming back, mouthing, “Thank you, I love you.” Even if the Rock is done wrestling, I do appreciate him coming back and having the tag match at Survivor Series 2010, last year and this year’s WrestleMania, and the Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber from this year.

If the Rock is done with this run-through, thank you Rock for taking time out from Hollywood to compete a few more times.

To conclude, hands down, the Undertaker defeating CM Punk was the best match of the night. The World Heavyweight title defense was better than I imagined, so Del Rio and Swagger put on a great showing. The No Holds Barred match between Lesnar and Triple H wasn’t as fast paced as I expected, but hard-hitting, and I appreciate them putting their bodies on the line for our entertainment. Granted the fans live didn’t seem as into as the match last year, I enjoyed the WWE Championship match between current champion John Cena and former champ, the Rock.

Match results (and times, thanks to Wikipedia):

John Cena defeated the Rock – WWE Championship – 24:01

Triple H defeated Brock Lesnar – No Holds Barred – 24:00

Undertaker defeated CM Punk – 22:08

Alberto Del Rio defeated Jack Swagger – World Heavyweight Championship – 10:30

Fandango defeated Chris Jericho – 9:13

Team Hell No defeated Dolph Ziggler and Big E Langston – Tag Team Championship – 7:19

Mark Henry defeated Ryback – 8:03

The Shield defeated Randy Orton, Big Show, and Sheamus – 10:35

The Miz defeated Wade Barrett — Intercontinental Championship