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Triple H, October 2011:

“When I grew up, I hated Hogan. I thought he was terrible and didn’t like to watch him. I was like Punk in a way. I liked the Steamboats and Flairs and the ones that could go. Would I be right in saying that Hogan was the wrong guy to go with, and they should’ve changed directions and gone with Steamboat because he was the better wrestler? Ludicrous.” - Triple H. October, 2011.

The Road to Wrestlemania 39 - 2

Friday, March 01, 2024

Part 1

(I don't want to say it's unprecedented, but it's super, super rare - between writing Part 1 and writing Part 2, my planned finish in a prominent match has changed; I had already written down in longhand the results of the PPV and something IRL in real time has caused me to flip....a lot of future booking.  A lot.)

In Part 1 we set up the 5 title matches:

WWF TITLE: ROMAN REIGNS v. CODY RHODES
-Roman's been champ for a year, can he extend that reign or does Cody take the WWF Title and the Triple Crown?

IC TITLE:       PRINCE DEVITT v. RICOCHET
-It's the biggest rival for each man in their respective WWF careers; will history repeat, with Ricochet taking Devitt's IC Title - or does the Prince get his redemption?

TAG TITLES: NO DQ:  DANGEROUS ALLIANCE (WALTER/LESNAR w/Heyman) v. HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE (MCINTYRE/GABLE w. Lashley)
-Walter/Lesnar look like a superteam, do they win this No DQ rematch against the HRE?

WOMENS TITLE: BIANCA BELAIR v. RONDA ROUSEY (w/Heyman)
-Rousey's taken two pinfall losses in WWF, losing the title to Belair was one of them, she looks to regain the belt here.

WOMENS TAG TITLES: FIGHT FOREVER (BECKY LYNCH/CHARLOTTE FLAIR) v. HORSEWOMEN (RHEA RIPLEY/SHAYNA BASZLER w. Stratton)
-Its the inauguration of the modern womens tag title belts, who will become the first WWF modern womens tag team champions?

7 More Matches Now Announced:

2 OF 3 FALLS: ASUKA v. IYO SKY
-The 2 time Womens Champ Asuka returned after long injury layoff to find her former stablemate Sky with a fully Americanized persona; Sky defeated Asuka, who then turned on her - Asuka got revenge in a brutal Rumble win and here's the rubber match; it's sold as potentially the best womens wrestling match in promotion history.  

MONEY IN THE BANK: KEVIN STEEN v. SAMI ZAYN v. JEY USO v. JIMMY USO v. TYLER BLACK v. ?
-Why not have a big multi-man ladder match?  Winner can challenge for any title over the next year.

Steen and Zayn's relationship is now one of the epic stories in promotion history; over the course of this wrestling year Steen has given up in an attempt to repair their relationship; one talking point mentioned by announcers for months has been that while Steen had occasion multiple times to "save" Zayn, attempting to cut against the claim that he has been selfish in their long friendship. Zayn, however, has never shown appreciation or reciprocated, and while Steen did commit the sin that ended their friendship (I'm not going through that whole thing, you can look it up) there's a lot of miles in the rear view such that fans in 2023 should find themselves saying that its Zayn now who needs to step up.

The Usos are 4 time tag champs, but are broken up now, Roman's rejection of them as part of his stable caused a fissure that couldn't be repaired.  

There's a moment in the build that teases the tag match that never happened - "I mean, obviously we're not ever going to have this match...but if we did...who do you think would win...."

They do a tag in the build - Jey and Zayn beating Steen and Jimmy when Jey (the only heel in the mix) pulls out some knucks and knocks Steen out - Zayn maybe could have stopped it - but does not, taking the win instead of aiding Steen.

Add Black - who spent the previous wrestling year chasing the IC in an attempt to win the Triple Crown - he's focusing on the briefcase and teasing that maybe, if he won, it's that IC belt that he'd be going after.

Add a mystery 6th entrant and you've got the match.

EMANCIPATION MATCH: REY MYSTERIO v. DOMINIC MYSTERIO
-After a couple of years of stumbles, Dom has achieved some success as a chickenshit heel - Rey is disgusted by this and so a deal is struck - if Rey wins, then Dom has to give him the rest of 2023, allow Rey to train him, do what Rey asks entirely - and if, at that point, Dom still wants to do things his way, Rey won't stand in his way anymore.  However - if Dom wins, that freedom comes now, Dom (an adult) is emancipated, and he doesn't ever need to listen to Rey again.  Dom's a masked wrestler, like his dad - and as part of this build Rey gives Dom a special mask from his career (maybe the one he wore when he became WWF Champ, lets say).  It's a touching moment, from a father to his boy.

LEGENDS MATCH: JOHN CENA v. LOGAN PAUL (Special Guest Referee: Pat McAfee)
-Paul ended Edge's WWF career at the Rumble and is at the highest possible level of cockiness; he declares himself the only real WWF legend - Cena returns to challenge; they insult each other - Paul promises a legendary Mania to his followers.  McAfee returns here to resume the Paul rivalry and is named guest referee.  

SHEAMUS v MIZ
-Former rivals, then partners, now rivals again - Miz does a "I'm a vet, who are you" thing with McDonagh, talking about how his big brother Devitt is too busy to protect him - that leads to Sheamus emerging; the backstory of Sheamus bullying Miz comes into play - the two of them becoming tag champs with McIntyre and then it all blowing up provides the backdrop.

BAYLEY/NATTY/TRISH v. LIV/RAQUEL/CHELSEA
-As part of the launch of the tag belts, a documentary about the evolution of the role of women in WWF is shot, unsparing look at the misogyny evident earlier days of the Mania era.  Trish and Natty, representing the Clique and the Harts, come to detente over the course of the shooting; they get called out by Bliss and Morgan doing a "can you get your old asses out of our ring" thing - Bliss gets hurt and Morgan grabs another young team, Rodriguez and Green, and they stomp out the vets.  Bayley then comes in near the end and we've got a 6 woman match.  

STREET PROFITS v. VIKING RAIDERS
-Straight opening tag, the babyface Profits against the heel Raiders.

And that's the show - multiple dark matches, including Dragon Lee defending the Dark Ride title against Ilja Dragunov.  

We're off to Los Angeles for Wrestlemania 39 - coming in April.


The Road to Wrestlemania 39 - 1

Thursday, February 01, 2024

Rumble

Wrestlemania 39 is in Los Angeles in April; 12 match card, here, we'll cover the 5 title bouts.

WWF TITLE: ROMAN REIGNS v. CODY RHODES

IC TITLE:       PRINCE DEVITT v. RICOCHET

TAG TITLES: NO DQ:  DANGEROUS ALLIANCE (WALTER/LESNAR w/Heyman) v. HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE (MCINTYRE/GABLE w. Lashley)

WOMENS TITLE: BIANCA BELAIR v. RONDA ROUSEY (w/Heyman)

WOMENS TAG TITLES: FIGHT FOREVER (BECKY LYNCH/CHARLOTTE FLAIR) v. HORSEWOMEN (RHEA RIPLEY/SHAYNA BASZLER w. Stratton)


Reigns v. Rhodes: Roman's been telling the same story since Covid: Punk, throwing down the WWF title, GDI, all the home grown talent pushed down, the sleeper cell for AEW - and he's now defeated the 4 guys he centered: Zayn, Steen (in a tv tag) Styles, Black.  Roman thought that was it - he'd do that and maybe retire to a private island - but then....then one year ago at Wrestlemania, AEW came right up to the front door and won the IC Title.

Roman admits he was wrong - he tried to take it out immediately, send it back home - but now he sees that the better move is - on the sport's biggest stage - to mark his 1 year as WWF Champion, to beat AEW right in the middle of the ring.  

And he calls Cody out.  

As the build continues, it's clear Cody doesn't still work for AEW - but Roman's narrative has been that AEW is bad for WWF, bad for WWF fans, bad for WWF wrestlers - and Cody is as responsible as anyone for creating it.  Roman says Tony Khan isn't showing up to take his beating, so this is the next best thing.  

Cody's story is essentially his IRL story - his dad and brother never won the WWF Title - Cody is a WWF Title win away from the Triple Crown; he and Roman have a lot in common, both felt they hit a glass ceiling, Roman smashed through it to win the WWF Title - Cody smashed the entire sport, built another promotion and now he is going to beat Roman in the main event of Wrestlemania and win the WWF Title.  

Devitt v. Ricochet: This is the best rival either guy has had in his WWF career, a few years ago they had a long program spanning both main roster and Dark Ride, Ricochet taking Devitt's IC.  Now - here we are again, Devitt's taken on all comers in the run - and Ricochet presents his WM challenge.  Ricochet's a babyface; Devitt's a tweener, but given the number of wins, likely to get babyface reactions consistently at this point.  Devitt's formed an Irish alliance with McDonagh (there's a name coming and perhaps an added member or two, but that's a spoiler and not part of the build) and that can be part of the build with the other two members of Blood Warriors International (Alexander/Tozawa) supporting Ricochet.  It's a workrate program backed up by the history of the Ricochet/Devitt feud.  

Dangerous Alliance v. Holy Roman Empire: Walter and Lesnar are a superteam, they're the MegaPowers, they work once - say the Viking Raiders - and it's a squash.  They're an unstoppable force.  One would assume Roman  would be hot with his guys after the Rumble (Cody beat Gable, McIntyre/Lashley lost the tag belts) but instead he's warm - "hey, you guys were all in over your heads - this was my fault - go home, get some rest" - the return is midway through the build to set up a Gable match against Shelton Benjamin that occurs two weeks out from Mania.

Prior to the Rumble, came Nic Nemeth's last match, Gable beats him and at Roman's direction, McIntyre chairshots him while Lashley/Gable (Nemeth's former stablemates)  hold him (Gable didn't want to do this).

They do that again here - that should be seen as an escalation; Gable and Benjamin are both in the Angle lineage (part of the Angle tree) and were close as members of Shoot Nation. Gable demonstrably does not want to go along with this - and here is where Roman's attitude shifts 180 degrees as he goes off on Gable, fully screaming at him to show his loyalty or get out of the ring - once again, they do it - Benjamin is laid out - Gable exits without talking to his stablemates.

That writes Benjamin off - the other consequence, of course, is Lesnar is going to totally freak out, given that Benjamin is one of the only relationships he's ever had in WWF, and Gable's having been a part of this won't go unanswered.  

That turns out to be a set up - a week later is the go home RAW and in the main event angle, Roman's doing a Heyman Hustle, he and Paul together in the ring - when Lesnar arrives at the arena, he has to break down a door - kill a bunch of security guys - but it's a trap - waiting for him are the other 3 members of the HRE, they assault him in the back (Walter and Rousey are known not to be here for whatever reason) - on the video wall we see the 3 other members of HRE batter Lesnar down - Roman smiling/laughing in the ring -- when he's laid out by an entering Rhodes.  Cody holding the WWF Title aloft as the go home RAW ends.  

On Fight Night - we learn the actions of HRE toward Lesnar have led to the No DQ stip - which raises the likelihood that all 3 non Roman members of HRE will be involved in that match, which adds to the possibility the heels regain the titles.

Belair v. Rousey: All babyface match, the tension in the program coming from discussion that Rousey would have beaten Belair at Survivor Series if not for the concussion suffered prior to the event.  Eventually, that talk gets to Belair who says she'll prove to everyone that she's better than Ronda.

Fight Forever v. Horsewomen: A women's tag belt is launched, it appears that the importance of that will lead these two rivals to go "straight up" at each other - but a Lynch/Stratton match ends with a Horsewomen run in, they beat Lynch down - Stratton joining Ripley/Baszler to give the heels a third member of the stable.

Those are the title matches.

7 matches to come next month - it's Wrestlemania, so that means an opening tag and a legends match, which will feature a special guest referee.  We've got a Money in the Bank, a 2 of 3 Falls and a Trios Match - we've got an Emancipation Match, I say - an Emancipation Match- Coming next month, the rest of the card for Wrestlemania 39.

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