Features

Sasha Banks a Success on WWE 205 Live, Goldust is Back and Other Thoughts by Mitch Nickelson

By Mitch Nickelson • Published 4th June 2017
TJR Wrestling

Hello TJRWrestling faithful, it’s time once again for another weekly dose of my wrestling banter. This time around, I cover several diverse WWE topics but don’t go too heavy on the Extreme rules show. You can full find reviews elsewhere but there is one thing I would like to point out here in the intro and it’s regarding the 5-Way main event. I’m not much of a gambling man but the current odds are quite surprising to me.

According to betwrestling.com, Samoa Joe is the favorite to win and by a pretty fair margin. It’s probably silly to put too much stock into gambling speculation on a fixed event, but still, I didn’t realize he had any momentum to win. The future Great Balls of Fire challenger is going to mostly be just Brock Lesnar fodder for his bigger SummerSlam match and I’d rather Joe not be the person simply penciled in there to lose. But then again, this might be the only time Joe gets the chance to face off against Lesnar as well as challenge for the Universal Championship. There are positives and negatives and I’m definitely conflicted on a potential Joe win.

I’ll sort out how I think about what’s going down on Sunday between now and then. Until then, here are some other issues that I’ve had more of a chance to think over.

Keep Putting Bigger Names On 205 Live

If you read my work often then you’ll know that I adore 205 Live. Neville vs. Austin Aries and Akira Tozawa vs. Brian Kendrick have been two of the best WWE feuds of 2017. I even like the goofy Alicia Fox/Noam Dar crazy couple shtick. It breaks my heart that the show struggles to consistently crack into the WWE Network’s most watched list, but when considering how little the live audience cares it’s not that surprising.

The inclusion of Sasha Banks in the opening match of this past week’s episode did wonders for curing the audience’s complacency. If there’s any saving of this show, this is a tactic that must continue. When she and Fox lost a little hair in a tussle near the end of the Dar vs. Swann match, the crowd made real, actual noise. Hearing a genuine reaction was so refreshing.

The Boss isn’t currently being used on Raw, so she can probably hang out on Tuesday nights at 10pm for the next month or so. Or hopefully a little past her mixed tag match on Sunday. Other wrestlers that have solid fan support should be penciled in for a month in 205 Live when they aren’t really doing anything. When Enzo finally figures out who beats him up and then goes through a proper feud, he should plan on a few weeks inside those purple ropes. Maybe Tye Dillinger as well since he’s not doing much of anything on SmackDown right now, even though Wikipedia tells me that he’s actually 225 lbs.

Goldust vs. R-Truth, More Than A Walk-On Role

I’m writing on Friday and as of now, this isn’t an announced match at Extreme Rules. There’s only six matches on the card so far, so there’s a strong likelihood that it will be. It would’ve been nice if Goldust and Truth had more of a build because the very few director’s chair promos they’ve done have been super intriguing. Hopefully, whatever random match they get thrown into is just the first part of their story. The real payoff could be a singles match at Great Balls of Fire.

To plant the seeds for a bigger match down the line, these two should fight to a DQ by getting counted out as they brawl backstage. Then, in a segment or two later on the pre-show (yes, I expect this to be on the pre-show), they should interrupt an interview piece with their tussle.

I don’t think this has to lead to a Parking Lot Brawl per se, but since we’re getting a throwback Goldust character it would be appropriate to try to recreate a little bit of the magic of one of his most memorable matches. I’m not trying to imply that Truth and Piper are interchangeable, because they’re not, but he could still put his own twist on this.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BUfyAjcFWDg/?taken-by=trinity_fatu&hl=en

Get Naomi Involved Somehow In that Ladder Match

It still breaks my heart that because Naomi is the current SmackDown Women’s Champion, she technically won’t be in the upcoming ladies’ MITB Ladder Match. That doesn’t mean she can’t do a run-in, and here’s how I see that happening…

James Ellsworth will help Carmella in the late stages of the match. He can’t punch any girls in their faces because this is 2017 WWE, but he can still give an assist. Perhaps he’ll take a chair out of somebody’s hand while they’re winding up or pull out a fire extinguisher and use it – something like that. Then, when it appears that absolutely everybody else is indisposed except for the Queen of Staten Island, he’ll prop open a ladder in the middle of the ring and hold it steady for his homegirl.

This will be the perfect time for Naomi to run out and spoil a potential win. After tipping Carmella off of a ladder, she could dump Ellsworth out of the ring then springboard crossbody onto a pile of people. I’d pop big time for that.

Naomi’s motivation would be that she didn’t like James providing an unfair advantage, so she’d be cheered for getting involved. Plus, this gives her an instant feud with someone that didn’t win the briefcase, assuming Carmella isn’t winning.

Final Thoughts

Keeping up with all the wrestling has been exhausting lately, but that’s a good thing. New Japan has a Super Juniors show pretty much everyday and Lucha Underground returned this week. I’m loving it all but if anybody knows how to both consume all of the squared circle goodness AND get more than four hours of sleep at night, give me your tips.

I’ll be watching Extreme Rules on Sunday like everybody else and my expectations are actually pretty high. That 5-Way Match is loaded with talent and I foresee it getting at least 30 mins. Also, the Hardyz are getting locked inside with a superb wrestling alliance of Sheamus & Cesaro. Throw in the fact that Aries and Neville are completing their trilogy of Cruiserweight Championship contests and I’m sold for this show.

If you want to keep up with all of the content I put out across the web, following me on Twitter @MitchNickelson is the best way to do that. I’ll specifically plug my podcast, Mitch Nickelson Radio which features conversations with my real life brother about all of the current stuff going on. I almost had to throw down with him this week because he talked ill of The Big Bad Booty Daddy on a few occasion, but I think I straightened him out.

https://twitter.com/MitchNickelson/status/870287512220127232

Thanks for reading, check back here at TJRWrestling again in about a week and I’ll give you even more of my thoughts on the current wrestling landscape.