UnWrest

As of this writing, I am preparing for the 2019 Royal Rumble event to kick off. So, what better way to celebrate the annual Royal Rumble event than to watch what many (including myself) consider to be the greatest Royal Rumble match ever: The 1992 Royal Rumble Match. The context of this event is that the WWF President Jack Tunney has vacated the WWF Championship after a series of controversial finishes revolving around The Undertaker, Hulk Hogan, and the ever-interfering Ric Flair. Tunney decided to strip Hogan of his newly won championship and hold it up for the first time ever as the prize for the winner of the annual 30-Man Royal Rumble Event. Hogan and Undertaker were given preferential numbers later in the Rumble. However, as we would find out, Ric Flair was not so fortunate. For the NWA/WCW superstar who was proclaiming to be "The Real World's Champion," this was the night Flair won perhaps his greatest victory: a championship win by Vince McMahon over most of hi...

It's time to Rumble! IT'S TIME FOR THE ROYAL RUMBLE! For wrestling fans of a certain age, this will likely be the theme that plays in their mind as Vince McMahon reads off the names in that classic Vince voice: "SETH ROLLLINS! DREW MCINTYRRRE! RRR-TRUTH! BOBBY LASHLEYYY!" You get the idea. Lol. That's right, ladies and gentlemen. We have arrived at my favorite event of the calendar year: The Royal Rumble. This promises to be a big event for the company as it comes from a large baseball stadium in Phoenix, Arizona. Also, there are a TON of possibilities going into this event and nothing is truly set in stone in terms of WrestleMania. That, coupled with the Rumble concept, makes this one of the most exciting events in recent memory. Pre-Show WWE Cruiserweight Championship Buddy Murphy (c) vs. Akira Tozawa vs. Hideo Itami vs. Kalisto I don't see Buddy Murphy losing the title yet. Then again I'm not a regular viewer of 205 Live. (Then again, w...

NXT TakeOver Phoenix January 26, 2019 We get the usual promo putting over the desert of Arizona and how tonight it is the home of tonight's NXT TakeOver. Mauro welcomes us to the show. NXT Tag Team Championships The Undisputed Era (O'Reilly and Strong) (c) vs. War Raiders The lights go out in the arena and fire shows up in the entrance way. A bunch of knights are lined up on the stage. Fire is shown on the LED boards behind them. The War Raiders come out. And the knights are pounding their shields to the beat of the "War" chant. (Yeah. They aren't losing this match with all these shenanigans.) The Undisputed Era's big entrance includes Bobby Fish coming out on stage with them. If entrances won championships, The War Raiders would be ahead by a lot. The bell rings. The Undisputed Era goes to work immediately on the Raiders to try to catch them offt guard. Rowe forces both men to the outside where Hanson double clotheslines them. Rowe picks u...

NXT TakeOver events have come at a rapid place over the past couple years, and this one in particular seemed to be lost in the shuffle just about a month ago. But the last couple weeks have done some work to help build to the big event (especially the way NXT ended this past week). And let's be honest with ourselves: It's NXT. They bring it on these shows almost every time and end up overshadowing whatever the main roster does most weekends. So, without further ado, here are my predictions for the 5 matches on this card: 1) Matt Riddle vs. Kassius Ohno If you would have asked me about this 4 weeks ago, I would have responded with an easy "Riddle. Next." But they've done enough with Kassius Ohno to make me wonder a little bit. I can see Ohno getting a win over Riddle and pushing this feud on into NXT TakeOver Brooklyn for WrestleMania Weekend. On the other hand, do you really want to hand Matt Riddle his first loss already? Keith Lee hasn't exactly p...

It is hard to believe that NXT has another of their signature TakeOver events coming up this weekend. These events start feeling a little less special as time goes on. And this event, for some reason, has me less excited than the previous few TakeOvers. So, will this "go-home" episode of NXT insert the excitement for a TakeOver back into the heart of this fan? Let's find out! NXT Thoughts - The first person out to greet the NXT audience is the Velveteen Dream! (Velveteen Dream currently has nothing going on for NXT TakeOver.) Velveteen has a sparkle of gold in his eye: the sparkle of North American Championship gold. Adam Cole comes out to interrupt. Adam Cole swears that the Undisputed Era will capture all the gold this year. Bobby Fish shames Dream for getting the fans' hopes up. 2019 will continue to be the Undisputed Era's year. Cole and Fish charge Dream, but he disposes of both men to the floor. He runs out of the ring and backs up the ramp. (Nice s...

I've finally defeated a cold. So, it's time to play "Catch Up!" With NXT TakeOver Phoenix coming Saturday 1/26/19, I've got 2 episodes to watch. So, here's the first episode which features Keith Lee taking on Kassius Ohno. Will we bask in Keith Lee's glory? NXT Thoughts - Street Profits take on the Metros. The Metros look like some knock-off Deuce and Domino. In fact, one of them looked like a knockoff Kenny Omega from 2015. The interesting part to me was when Street Profits were doing a bunch of pushing in the ring to hype each other up, and Dawkins pushed Ford down hard to the mat. Ford didn't know what to think of it. (Possible split tease here for down the road?) After the Street Profits put away The Metros, The Forgotten Sons sneak attack The Street Profits and leave them laying. The fans chant "We Forgot You" and "Stay Forgotten" at the Forgotten Sons. (Interesting opening here with The Street Profits looking domin...

This might be another jaded review as I'm still on cold medicine. As with last night's review, I may go a little off-the-rails. No apologies in advance. SmackDown Thoughts - THE MAN kicks us off. That's right: Becky Lynch, NOT Seth Rollins. The Man has something to say. She goes over all the attention she's getting lately. Lynch makes it clear: She wants to main event WrestleMania. LOUD ovation. Becky starts talking about Asuka and that she's one of the best in the world. But Becky's better. Lol. Asuka is warming herself on the fire that Becky lit. She's going through The Empress to get to what she wants. Here comes Asuka. Loud Becky chants while Asuka holds her title in front of Becky. And now, here comes Charlotte Flair. Charlotte is looking forward to winning The Royal Rumble and the choices of who she's going to beat at WrestleMania. Charlotte is "The Main Event." Asuka attacks Becky from behind, and we have a brawl. Agents and referees...