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WWE WrestleMania 35 Preview/Predictions
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
NXT TakeOver: New York (or TakeOver: Brooklyn V?) came, conquered and impressed everyone in all its glory.
300-pound Heavyweight Hanson performed a handspring back elbow and a top rope senton to the floor, Velveteen Dream was the GODDAMN STATUE OF LIBERTY and the main event between Johnny Gargano and Adam Cole delivered more wows than a summer blockbuster.
To be frank – WrestleMania will pale in comparison to its NXT counterpart and that’s to put it nicely, despite the fact that Mania will run more than twice the amount of time and contain more than three times as many matches.
Below are our predictions to shape Mania into a halfway decent show. If you’ve followed the Raw side (without falling asleep), the build has been abysmal while SmackDown has held themselves together better thanks to Kofi Kingston’s journey, but there are still some flaws here and there.
Let’s get to it.
Notes In Observance – WWE 205 Live 2/14/17: Blazing Trails
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 2/14/17)
Blazing Trails
– The opening video recapped last week’s excellent Fatal Five-Way Elimination where it was Gentleman Jack Gallagher who’d go on to become #1 Contender and take on WWE Cruiserweight Champion Neville at Fastlane on Mar. 5. It feels like the right time to go with a tease of Gallagher in a “changing of the guard.”
Notes In Observance – WWE 205 Live 2/7/17: Five For Fighting
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 2/7/17)
Five For Fighting
– With perhaps the most intriguing match to date in the Cruiserweight Division, we were set to see a Fatal Five-Way Elimination main event between “The Premier Athlete” Tony Nese, Cedric Alexander, TJ Perkins, Noam Dar and Gentleman Jack Gallagher to determine WWE Cruiserweight Champion Neville’s challenger for Fastlane. It all made sense.
Notes In Observance – WWE 205 Live 1/31/17: Gentleman Wrestle Factory
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 1/31/17)
Gentleman Wrestle Factory
– In the land where the guys weigh 205 or less, we had a new king. Ever since Neville returned with a heel vengeance at Roadblock: End Of The Line, his newfound persona has taken the fledgling division and turned it upwards towards casual interest. His defeat over Rich Swann to become new WWE Cruiserweight Champion at Royal Rumble was inevitable and now we can finally get to see what the division will behold under this “Reign Of Tyranny.” The opening video discovered all of those facts and more.
Top 20 Of 2016
Graphic by Salwinder Singh.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“It.” “Delete.” “Obsolete.” “The List.” “10.” “The Champ That Runs The Camp.” “Stupid Idiot.” “Glorious.” “Too Sweet.”
The list above describes a fiesta of phrases commonly found in pro wrestling jargon that made 2016 possibly its best year ever.
The one below describes select moments that help seal that argument and make us forget about things like The Titus Brand, The Cruiserweight Division, Raw’s Third Hour, WWE’s overloaded Pay-Per-View schedule, TNA’s X-Division and Matanza Cueto.
If you want to remember that bad stuff, check this out.
Notes In Observance – WWE 205 Live 11/29/16: A Life-Changing Kick
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 11/29/16)
A Life-Changing Kick
– The Cruiserweight Division has been a blessing and a curse for WWE, dependent upon where you look. If you followed the Cruiserweight Classic, the style was presented as excitable aerials with innovative technical maneuvers. It went over with the people and the Tourney was a nice introduction. Then we get to Raw, where the same six men partook in spotfests. Generic storylines breed generic wrestling, which breeds generic interest. That said, the opening video was similar to the CWC with stock footage of the slow-motion fancy spots, because it’s 205 Live, don’t you know. Yup, we won’t blink. The opening theme reminded us of the opening verse of New Politics’ “Yeah Yeah Yeah,” but that’s a compliment if anything. We also had the commentary team of Mauro Ranallo, Corey Graves and Austin Aries. Whoever decided that, go and buy that person a drink. Stat.
Notes In Observance – WWE Raw 9/19/16: Clash Of Emotions
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 9/19/16)
Clash Of Emotions
– With this the go-home show before Raw’s exclusive Pay-Per-View, Clash Of Champions, WWE had some final touches to put on the card. We hoped for the best with a few standouts, but could always be skeptical. The opening video took us back to last week when we saw everybody’s favorite “bad wrestler” Roman Reigns get screwed over twice in an attempt to put himself in the same COC main event for the WWE Universal Championship between WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins. This, of course, happened because of Rollins’ rage that he couldn’t get his hands on Owens sooner, to the point where he even ignored a warning from Raw General Manager Mick Foley not to interfere. The other cause was from WWE United States Champion Rusev, who distracted Reigns to help Owens get the victory. We also knew that Foley would “have a talk” with Rollins. We’d have this week to continue the obvious storyline of attempts to get Rollins over as a babyface while they also kept Reigns in check.
Notes In Observance – WWE CWC 9/14/16: The Finale
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 9/14/16)
The Finale
– From its inception to the two-hour live finale, the Cruiserweight Classic was treated like the hand-crafted gift to the IWC it was meant to be. Where else on a WWE platform would you see the likes of Zack Sabre Jr., Cedric Alexander, Johnny Gargano, Rich Swann, Drew Gulak, Kota Ibushi and TJ Perkins among others do what they truly are known for? On top of it all was a credible commentary team of Mauro Ranallo and SmackDown Live General Manager Daniel Bryan. Through it all, we saw the rise of relatively unknown talent like Gran Metalik and Noam Dar to an American audience while indie mainstays like ZSJ, TJP and Alexander stepped their own games up to prove their worth. The opening video highlighted all the tourney’s happenings with a voiceover from Triple H as he talked about how far they’d come. From 32 men from 16 countries, it was now down to four men from four countries. We also heard separately from the final four, who were GM, ZSJ, TJP and Ibushi about how much the tourney meant to them.
Notes In Observance – WWE Raw 9/5/16: An Enraged Architect
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 9/5/16)
An Enraged Architect
– Headed in, we were eager to see the follow-up to arguably the year’s biggest move last week – Triple H turning on Seth Rollins to cost him the WWE Universal Championship and practically hand it to Kevin Owens at the same time. The opening video brought us back to how it all started with the “time” theme which was cool. We also liked the screenshots of various fan tweets that sold the moment as a true shocker. In many ways, it was.
Notes In Observance – WWE CWC 8/31/16: The Great Eight
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 8/31/16)
The Great Eight
– The Cruiserweight Classic has been exactly that from the moment it became reality. As the weeks pass on, the 32 men that the tournament started with has dwindled itself now to “The Great Eight,” which were shown in the opening video to be Noam Dar, Brian Kendrick, Rich Swann, TJ Perkins, Gran Metalik, Akira Tozawa, Kota Ibushi and Zack Sabre Jr.. This show would feature Quarterfinal Round action from Metalik-Tozawa and Kendrick-Ibushi.
