5 Good/5 Bad – This week in WWE

Elimination Chamber is in the books and it has given us a clearer view of the path to WrestleMania, especially considering the multiple title changes.

But some of the title changes this week were good and some were bad, the same can be said for the rest of this week’s events from the world of WWE.

 

#1 Bad – Emmalina

17 weeks. 17 bloody weeks!

That’s how long it took for Emma to transform into Emmalina, and now she’s just going to revert back to Emma. What was the point in all of that build-up then?

I feel bad for Emma, I was big fan of her work in NXT and she seemed to be on the right path after evolving into a more serious character and teaming with Dana Brooke before her injury setback, yet know she appears to yet another victim of WWE’s unimaginative and short-sighted booking.

Let’s hope she can still become a success on Monday Night Raw.

 

#2 Bad – It’s all backwards!

It’s Dolph Ziggler again. I don’t want to keep putting Dolph on the ‘bad’ list, but the booking of him since his heel turn has been very frustrating.

Firstly, having him feud with lower mid-carders like Apollo Crews and Kalisto has done nothing to establish him as a heel as the fans don’t care for them. But to then have them team up to face Ziggler in a handicap match, as they did at this Sunday’s Elimination Chamber PPV, only made things worse.

Having the heel outnumbered by the faces makes no sense whatsoever and only goes to get the fans behind Dolph even more so than they already were. He’s arguably getting bigger face pops from the crowd now than when he was supposed to be a babyface, it’s all wrong.

 

#3 Bad – Just end it already!

Nikki vs Nattie, when will it end?!

It’s been dragging on for far too long as it is and I presumed we’d finally see the back of this lifeless feud. But no, instead it ended in a double count-out and then yet another backstage brawl between the two rivals, thus prolonging the feud.

Thankfully however, seeds were planted for a Nikki and Maryse angle during the aforementioned backstage brawl, so hopefully next Tuesday’s ‘falls count anywhere’ match between Nikki and Natalya will be the end, but I’ve hoped for this before.

 

#4 Bad – Orton relinquishes Mania match

I’ve changed my mind a few times on this one, but as it currently stands, Randy Orton refusing to face Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania for the WWE Championship has to go on the ‘bad’ list.

It makes the Royal Rumble match last month utterly pointless. I still expect Randy to compete for the WWE Championship at Mania, but WWE will have to find another way to get there, rather than ‘because he won the Royal Rumble’, which hurts the prestige of the event.

I also thought it was an odd way to end this week’s Smackdown Live as it just lead to confusion and the atmosphere in the arena was fairly flat as it went off the air. Still, this is something different and has the potential to be quite interesting, but for now, it makes the ‘bad’ list.

 

#5 Bad – Bayley wins Women’s championship

Another thing I’ve gone back and forth on this week was Raw’s main event which saw Bayley defeat Charlotte to claim her first Women’s Championship on WWE’s main roster.

While that is great, and it was yet another fantastic Women’s Championship match on Raw, it didn’t feel anywhere near as big as it could, and should, have done. Charlotte losing again in a title match on Raw felt wrong and is always going to take away from her impressive undefeated PPV record, as people are always going to say “yeah, but…”.

Also, surely Bayley’s crowning moment should have come on a bigger stage like WrestleMania, not just a regular Raw, especially a Raw where her title victory wasn’t even the most talked about moment.

 

#1 Good – Festival of Friendship

The most talked about moment from this week’s Raw was undoubtedly the heart-wrenching break-up of Jeri-KO.

The Festival of Friendship was brilliant from beginning to end and must go down as one of the best segments that WWE has ever produced. It was full of genuinely funny moments, none more so than Jericho revealing the ‘creation of Kevin’ painting, which all contributed to establishing Jericho as face prior to Owens’ attack.

The promo was perfectly executed by both Owens and Jericho and, although we all knew it was coming, the moment when Owens finally turned on his former best friend was still heartbreaking. Congratulations to everyone involved for creating what will surely go down as a classic Raw moment.

 

#2 Good – Harper vs Orton

During a fairly lacklustre Elimination Chamber PPV, the only match that stood out, besides the main event, was Luke Harper vs Randy Orton.

The was a lot of intrigue surrounding this match heading into it as people were keen to see how Luke Harper would fare in a high-profile one-on-one encounter. Although he lost, this could be considered a breakout moment for Harper if WWE to continue to give more focus to the former Intercontinental Champion and include him the main event scene of Smackdown Live.

Luke Harper’s role at WrestleMania is still unclear, but he showed this past Sunday that he can deliver in a marquee match should WWE decide to showcase in one.

 

#3 Good – Era of Wyatt

The biggest news coming out of Sunday’s Elimination Chamber pay-per-view was the crowning of the new WWE Champion, Bray Wyatt.

As with Bayley’s title win on Raw, some people were of the opinion that Bray’s first championship victory would have been better served happening on a bigger stage such as WrestleMania, but nevertheless, his win was met with an outpouring of support from fans and fellow wrestlers alike who believe that Bray’s crowning moment has been long overdue.

If booked correctly, this could be a significant moment in not just Bray’s career but for everyone on Smackdown Live. Wyatt’s persona is exactly the type of character that could dominate WWE for years to come and this time period could be looked back on as the ‘Era of Wyatt’.

 

#4 Good – Corbin in a meaningful feud

The long awaited push of Baron Corbin seemed to kick into another gear this weeks as he began a feud with former WWE Champion, Dean Ambrose.

After Ambrose eliminated Corbin from the ‘Chamber’ match on Sunday with a quick roll-up, Corbin refused to exit the structure and instead viciously attacked Ambrose, leading to his elimination from the match. Their feud continued on Tuesday where Corbin would once again attack Ambrose and throw him into the production area, causing an ‘explosion’.

This can only be seen as a positive for Corbin who now has the chance to show what he can do in a feud with an opponent the calibre of Dean Ambrose.

 

#5 Good – Smackdown main event

Another positive from Smackdown’s side of things this week was Tuesday’s main event, which saw Bray Wyatt defend his newly won WWE Championship against AJ Styles and John Cena in a triple threat match.

The match was 100mph from the opening bell, or prior to the opening bell in fact as Luke Harper attacked Wyatt before the match had even began. There was plenty of action in and out of the ring during this bout and the number of false falls made the fans genuinely believe that Bray may lose his championship after just 2 days after winning it.

Bray Wyatt would ultimately prevail and retain his Championship and arguably looked stronger for winning this match than he did on Sunday.

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