This is another video walk-through of the new house, to show progress since the first one. This one includes the new siding, electric, plumbing, lighting, and A/V wiring.
WWE WrestleMania 34 Postscript
April 11, 2018 by Leave a Comment
WrestleMania 34 week is in the books. Some critics are calling it the best four nights of wrestling in history. That may be a bit of hyperbole, but between NXT Takeover, WrestleMania 34, Raw, and Smackdown, the WWE sure did give the fans what we want.
WrestleMania stood by itself as a very good show. It may have fallen flat in a few places, but overall, it was certainly well worth the WWE Network subscription fee! There were unexpected moments, thrilling matches, and the right amount of comedy throughout the evening. The Styles/Nakamura match was an unexpected dud, but it didn’t help that the show ran so long and the crowd was exhausted before it started. As usual, there are winners and losers coming out of WrestleMania.
WrestleMania 34 Winners
Ronda Rousey: I’ve been nothing but extremely critical of the Women’s division in the WWE for years. It was probably a generation’s worth of calling them Diva’s, bad wrestling, and stupid gimmicks like bra-and-panties matches that put me off to the division for good. When I heard Ronda Rousey was coming to the WWE, I had low expectations, given how poorly she left things off in UFC. Her early promos on Raw were embarrassingly bad. Then something unexpected happened. She put on a really good performance in her debut WWE match at WrestleMania. Her match told a story and was very entertaining. I’m not going to say that she can turn the Women’s division around, it is a complete mess right now. But Rousey certainly is the best member of the division already.
Nicholas: How great is it that some random kid became the youngest champion in WWE history? Of course, we found out on Monday that he wasn’t so random, he is the son of a WWE referee. Either way, it was a feel-good story, and the crowd loved it.
Braun Strowman: There’s something about this guy. He is involved in one ridiculous storyline after another. He flips ambulances with his bare hands, he enters tag-team-battle-royals by himself (and wins them), and he picks a 10-year-old out of the audience as his tag team partner and wins a championship at WrestleMania. In this reality-based era of wrestling, there is something to say about a wrestler who can get silly storylines like this over time after time. Watch this space, Braun Strowman is trending upwards.
Unlikely WWE Raw Tag Team Champs!
Corey Graves: In just a short period of time, Graves has turned himself into the top announcer in the WWE. His comedic wit and timing during his WrestleMania calls where impeccable. How great was it when Ronda Rousey tagged into the match and he exclaimed “Call the cops!”?
Seth Rollins: Finally, something went this guy’s way. After his program with Jason Jordan was scrapped due to injury, he walked away from ‘Mania with the IC title instead. Not bad.
Brock Lesnar: Shocked the world with a win and title retention. Nobody would have bet against Reigns, but for some reason, they decided to keep the strap on Lesnar. Good for him, well deserved.
The Undertaker: Long live The Deadman! We were lead to believe he was going to walk away after WrestleMania 33. And with no official announcement, he returned to WrestleMania 34 to quickly destroy John Cena. That match told a story, and an important one. The greatest WrestleMania performer of all time still has some gas left in the tank.
John Cena: The squash loss didn’t hurt him one bit. This was the highest profile match Cena had at WrestleMania in five years and he carried his end of it well. His days as a full-timer are over, but he can still deliver at WrestleMania.
Daniel Bryan: A three-year layoff due to brain damage, and he returned to The Grandest Stage of Them All with a convincing performance. He’s too fragile to be the face of the company, but he’s back and will be featured prominently as long as he is healthy.
Shinsuke Nakamura: His match laid an egg, but nothing like a swerve and a heel turn at WrestleMania to make up for it!
The Miz: This guy looks great, even when he loses. He truly did restore greatness to the Intercontinental Championship during his run. He keeps getting better, don’t be surprised if he gets another WrestleMania main event in the future.
Jinder Mahal: This guy gets a lot of criticism, but he keeps the hits coming. I’m a fan, and I’m glad he had a WrestleMania moment as his great year continues. The token ethnic heel wearing the US Championship is always entertaining. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn: These guys carried Smackdown with their months-long feud with Shane McMahon. The feud came to an end with their loss at WrestleMania, but it was a job well done, especially by Sami who had nothing going on before his heel turn.
The Bludgeon Brothers: Well-deserved tag-team championship victory for these two often-overlooked veterans. They have all the talent in the world, and they will show it.
Sheamus and Cesaro: Sold their end of the tag team championship with veteran savvy. These guys are still at the top of their game, even without the straps.
WrestleMania 34 Losers
Elias: Deserved a match, not a quick appearance before the Cena match.
AJ Styles: Failed to deliver during his highly anticipated match. Maybe it was placement on the card, but they put everyone in my apartment, and everyone in the Superdome to sleep during their match. I didn’t expect much from Nakamura, but I had higher hopes for AJ.
Finn Bálor: This scrawny little punk needs to go to the 205 division, never to be heard from again.
The Usos: After waiting all of those years to finally have a match on the WrestleMania main card, they dropped the straps in a quick match. Maybe next year, they’ll get at least 10 minutes in the ring.
The New Day: This gimmick is stale. Time to split up.
Randy Orton: Plodded through another WrestleMania match. Is this guy ever gonna show some fire again?
Roman Reigns: Is anybody in the WWE C-Suite listening? People DO NOT LIKE ROMAN REIGNS! Time to find a new top guy! At the very least, he didn’t win the match, so that’s good for us.
What’s Next?
The WWE is a story that never ends. Homer couldn’t have written a longer tale than this. Raw and Smackdown laid the foundation for what’s coming next. A host of returning stars from injury, a few NXT callups, and the surprise return to the WWE of Bobby Lashley will freshen things up in the near-term. Of course, the Superstar Shakeup will shift the lineups on both shows next week.
And how cool is the “Greatest Royal Rumble” card going to be. It looks like it’s more ambitious than WrestleMania itself, and it is crazy that it takes place just three weeks from the big show!
We have all the ingredients in place for an interesting year ahead of WrestleMania 35 in East Rutherford, NJ in 2019. Daniel Bryan vs. The Undertaker anybody?
WWE WrestleMania 34 Analysis and Predictions
April 7, 2018 by 1 Comment
It’s the best time of year to be a WWE fan! No weekend out of the year is better than WrestleMania weekend! WrestleMania 34 in New Orleans will have a stacked card from start to almost the finish! Roman Reigns is set to ruin a fourth straight WrestleMania main event, but even the lack of suspense surrounding the outcome of his match won’t dampen my enthusiasm for the card.
In fact, there is enough mystery baked into this card to keep us guessing for most of the night. In addition to there not being too many obvious winners on the card, there are a lot of questions that we don’t have answers for right now:
- What is this “performance” that Elias has promised us going to entail?
- What’s up with John Cena calling out The Undertaker to no avail? Is Cena really not going to have a match? Would they have an unadvertised Cena/Undertaker match on the card? Is something else going to happen?
- Who is Braun Strowman’s TBD tag team partner? Or is he not going to have one and use some sort of reverse Feebird Rule to win the tag title himself?
- Is this Brock Lesnar’s last match before returning to the UFC?
- What happened to Bray Wyatt in the Lake of Reincarnation at the Hardy Estate two weeks ago? Is he going to make a surprise return with a new persona?
- Is there going to be a heel turn we don’t see coming?
- Is a WWE alumnus going to make his return? Will an NXT call up have an impact on the card? Will someone from NJPW crash the show?
The WWE is at its best when it can actually keep storylines secret and you don’t have any idea what is going to happen. It makes the show all the more enjoyable to sit back and watch. I expect that this could be one of the best WrestleMania’s we’ve seen in the past 10 years, and we could be treated to at least one or more top-10-all-time best WrestleMania matches.
On to my expert predictions.
AJ Styles (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura in a Singles match for the WWE Championship
It’s hard to believe how far Shinsuke Nakamura has come in just one year on the Smackdown roster. He showed up on the Smackdown following WrestleMania 33 with a violinist playing in his bizarre entrance. He called himself the “King of Strong Style” and got the crowd to sing along with his entrance music in the following weeks. He started to stand in the middle of the ring, do a squat, and scream “Come on!” at his opponents and the crowd ate it up. Lastly, he came up with the catch phrase “Knee to Face” and that seemed to put him over the top. I can’t figure out where the substance to any of this is, but the fans seem to really like it.
AJ Styles, conversely, is one of the top performers in the company right now, both on the microphone and in the ring. His in-ring work is unparalleled on the WWE main roster right now and that has earned him the fans respect. He reminds many of a master wrestling technician who can also sell and tell a story, like a young Shawn Michaels. Even in his early 40’s, he’s the subject of anybody’s dream match right now.
The build for this match has been lackluster. Anytime you have a big babyface vs. babyface match, the angle is a bit of a creative trap. They have to protect both guys image, and nobody can generate any real heat. They have to pretend like there is a mutual respect for each other, and that is a very uninteresting way to promote a match. Either way, when they get to the ring they should deliver.
There’s a lot on the line in this match. Styles gets his first opportunity to defend a championship at WrestleMania and Nakamura has never wrestled a bigger match in his life. His Tokyo Dome experience from NJPW is the little league compared to having to perform on the Grandest Stage of Them All. Both of these men, at this stage in their careers will want to make a statement in this match. It has the potential to be the match of the night, and perhaps a top-10 greatest WrestleMania match of all time.
Prediction: Winner and still WWE Champion, AJ Styles
The Miz (c) vs. Seth Rollins vs. Finn Bálor in a Triple Threat Match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship
The Miz has come a long way since his WrestleMania XXVIII main event against John Cena in which he successfully defended the World Championship. In many ways, he’s a better wrestler now, and his reign as Intercontinental champion has been more impressive than his World Championship. He is the best heel in the business and is considered by many to the WWE MVP.
Seth Rollins has lost a great deal of momentum since he lost the WWE Championship following an in-ring injury. He was the feel-good story coming out of WrestleMania 31, when he stole the championship from Brock Lesnar in the main event with a surprise cash-in of his Money In The Bank contract. Since the injury which cost him a spot at WrestleMania 32, he hasn’t had too many noteworthy moments. He flip-flopped back and forth as a heel, he re-united The Shield, but that angle fizzled due to illness and injuries to the other two. He had a slow-burn angle with Jason Jordan which came to a quick end when Jordan himself was injured. Rollins needs his luck to turn around, and a big match at WrestleMania 34 would certainly do that.
Finn Bálor is a one-trick-pony. He has a slick entrance with audience participation. Other than that, he’s a scrawny little twerp who wears tights with a leather jacket. He should be in the 205 division, wrestling guys his own size. He doesn’t look right wrestling guys who outweigh him by 75 pounds. He has zero personality to make up for his lack of size. I don’t expect him do much of anything interesting in this match.
I’d prefer to see this as a two-man match, but this is better than the typical 5-man ladder match they usually put on for the IC title at WrestleMania, so I’ll take it. Triple-threat matches are all about timing the big spots between the three competitors and are stylistically very difficult to pull off. The Miz and Rollins are going to have to be at their best to pull this off and carry Bálor.
Prediction: Winner and still WWE Intercontinental Champion, The Miz
Randy Orton (c) vs. Bobby Roode vs. Jinder Mahal vs. Rusev in a Fatal Four-Way Match for the WWE United States Championship
Not to be outdone by the triple threat match for the Intercontinental Championship, the United States Championship will be decided in a fatal four-way match. A match like this will be either memorable for years because it was so good, or bowling shoe-ugly. Everybody will try to get a signature move in at some point in order to stand out.
Randy Orton continues to plod through the later stages of his career. His championship win at WrestleMania was noteworthy because the crowd of over 70,000 was mostly silent throughout the match. He’s going to need something better out of this year’s WrestleMania match.
Bobby Roode is the least interesting competitor in this match. Over-produced entrance, an underwhelming personality, and way past his prime. Nothing to see here.
Rusev snuck into this match because he suddenly has a popular catch phrase: “Rusev Day”! It’s kind of weird but it works for him and should last for a little while longer. I thought he was better as a monster heel, but I guess he’s selling more merchandise this way so good for him.
Jinder Mahal is the biggest home-grown star we’ve seen in years in WWE. He’s had an amazing rebound from being fired from the WWE to his return and eventual ascension to WWE Champion. He’s got a great look and played the part of the cliched ethnic heel to the best of his abilities. If anybody deserves a WrestleMania moment and a win in this match, it’s Mahal.
Prediction: Winner and new WWE United States Champion, Jinder Mahal
Alexa Bliss (c) vs. Nia Jax in a singles match for the WWE Raw Women’s Championship
If you’ve ever followed this blog, you know what I’m about to say.
Prediction: This match will suck
The Usos (Jey and Jimmy Uso) (c) vs. The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston, and/or Xavier Woods) vs. The Bludgeon Brothers (Harper and Rowan) in a Triple threat tag team match for the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship
Big build up all around for this match. The Usos finally get a match on the main WrestleMania card for the first time in their careers. They’ve put in the time and they did a good job re-inventing themselves after their bland Hardy Boyz-ripoff gimmick they started off with. This is a big opportunity for them.
The New Day is as stale as can be, and this team is dying to be broken up. Big E will go straight to the top, Xavier Woods will go straight to the middle, and Kofi Kingston will go back to being a jobber. They’ve had a fantastic run, but it is high time for a swerve and a heel turn for one of them, bringing this faction to an end.
The Bludgeon Brothers are hot right now. Harper and Rowan (having just lost their first names!) are the two most underrated big men on the roster right now. These guys have all the tools to be the best in this game. Their outfits are a little over the top, but everything else about this team screams heel champions. Their build to this spot was masterful, having them lay waste to a host of jobbers and making them look unstoppable. Watch this space, these guys are going to be big.
Prediction: Winners and new WWE Smackdown Tag Team Champions, The Bludgeon Brothers
Cesaro and Sheamus (c) vs. Braun Strowman and TBD in a tag team match for the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship
How great is this? The best tag team on Raw takes on the hottest talent on Raw, with a bone-fide mystery partner by his side! This is WWE at it’s best, creating a ridiculous situation that we’re dying to see. Could you imagine paying to see the Yankees play a home game against a mystery opponent? Wouldn’t ever happen! But in professional wrestling, this is creative gold!
People have argued that this isn’t the best spot for Braun Strowman and that he deserves to be in the main event. I’m a huge fan of his, but I think this is a great spot for him. Roman Reigns is the “chosen one” and there’s nothing we can do about it. Strowman is still going to get his push, and he’s going to take the ball and run with it. He does monster heel, he does comedy, he performs ridiculous feats of strength. What’s not to love about the guy? Just because he’s not in the main event, doesn’t mean he can’t be awesome.
Who is his partner? I’ve read all kinds of speculation that it could be a returning hero, an NXT call up, or someone else already on the roster. What’s the point in trying to figure it out now? Just sit back and let the show come to you!
Cesaro and Sheamus always deliver. They are going to nail their parts in this match and you can count on that. When they lose the title, it will be fun to watch them chase it back down.
Prediction: Winners and new WWE Raw Tag Team Champions, Braun Stroman and TBD
Charlotte Flair (c) vs. Asuka Singles match for the WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship
Out of respect for Ric Flair, I won’t disrespect his daughter. But this match is as good as it gets for women’s wrestling because the bar is set so low. Asuka is average at best and her gimmick is annoying.
Prediction: Winner and still WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion, Charlotte Flair
Kurt Angle and Ronda Rousey vs. Triple H and Stephanie McMahon in a mixed tag team match
Kurt Angle made a hero’s return to the WWE last year at the WWE Hall Of Fame ceremony, and then re-joined the regular show as Raw General Manager. Rumor had it there would be a big build to a WrestleMania 34 match for the Olympic gold medalist. Instead, he got saddled with this abortion of a match.
Ronda Rousey left the UFC as a loser and a shell of her former badass self. In the time between her UFC days and her WWE days, she did nothing to repair her reputation. Thus far, she has completely bombed on the WWE stage. Her promos are embarrassingly awkward. As one of my readers pointed out to me “she had the personality of a wet blanket in UFC” and apparently, her ability to memorize and read lines the WWE creative team feeds her is zero. Who even knows if she can wrestle? Probably not very well.
I can’t feel too sorry for Triple H, he’s had some very good WrestleMania matches in his career. But Kurt Angle deserved better than this. I don’t think either one of them can save this mess.
Prediction: Winners, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon
Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon vs. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn in a tag team match and if Owens and Zayn win, they will be rehired to SmackDown
Daniel Bryan’s surprise return to Smackdown changed the current landscape in the WWE in a way nobody saw coming. He was close to the Shane McMahon rivalry with the Owens/Zayn duo for months, and he is perfectly positioned to return in this match.
Kevin Owens is the top heel on SmackDown, and the story arc of his simmering feud with Shane McMahon has taken on many Shakspearian twists since it began in 2017. It’s now involved Sami Zayn, included the both of them sending McMahon to the hospital, and then getting themselves fired by Daniel Bryan before beating him up on the night he announced his return to active competition. This was top heel work and WWE creative at its best.
This could be the most entertaining match of the night. It has three of the best workers in the WWE right now, along with Sami Zayn who will play his supporting role as well. It has “win” written all over it for Zayn and Owens, and it will be fun watching the aftermath on Smackdown when it’s all over.
Prediction: Winners, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn
Brock Lesnar (c) (with Paul Heyman) vs. Roman Reigns in a singles match for the WWE Universal Championship
A fourth straight WrestleMania event is about to be ruined by Roman Reigns. It’s a good thing this card is so stacked because the show will end with a thud with this match. We’ve known for a year that Reigns is going go win the match. The “like me because I’m a full-timer and Brock is a part-timer” angle is boring and has not helped Reigns improve one bit. He still sucks on the mike and his in-ring psychology is poor. No matter how many WrestleMania main events he gets, he never improves.
Brock Lesnar is about to walk out on the WWE. His act has gotten tired and it will be good for the WWE to move on from him at the top. He had a great run since his return as a part-time special attraction, and something needs to be said about how less exposure can actually help a superstar in the WWE. But it is time to go.
This match is going to fail to entertain. The crowd will be tired, Lesnar will have his eye on the exit, and Reigns will continue to stink. Try to stay awake if you can.
Prediction: Winner and new WWE Universal Champion, Roman Reigns
Working the Shoot for WrestleMania Season
April 1, 2018 by Leave a Comment
WWE fans like to think that we’re smarter than our predecessors from 30 years ago. We think we know what is going on behind the scenes because we can read about backstage news online. Now that kayfabe is dead, we know all the insider wrestling terms that the wrestlers give away on their podcasts. We know what a “work” is and what “shoot” means. We’d rather not cheer for the “babyface” or the “heel” based on their on-screen persona, we’d like to choose who we like and cheer or boo depending on how we think the WWE is using him. We want to feel like we’re on the inside and we know what is going on.
Well, I have news for all of you. We are, indeed, a bunch of “marks” during this WrestleMania season. The WWE is giving us all sorts of “reality” storylines and promos to make us think that the setup behind WrestleMania matches is based in reality. In fact, nothing can be further from the case. The WWE creative team is working us all on the way to WrestleMania, both with true-style angles, and completely over-the-top ridiculousness, and the fans are eating it all up!
Take a look at the yet-to-be-announced John Cena vs. Undertaker match. The Undertaker has yet to make an appearance during WrestleMania season at all. But John Cena has been selling a story line that has brought him from Raw to Smackdown in a futile effort to have a match at WrestleMania, all the while hinting that he should wrestle The Undertaker. Finally, he called out The Dead Man on Raw one night and pretended that “they would cut off his mic because they told him the match wouldn’t happen”. Guess what? Whoever “they” is, wrote every line he spoke that night. It was a total work, and an extremely effective one. What probably would have been a dull match is now very highly anticipated.
Contrast the Cena/Undertaker angle with the Cesaro and Sheamus vs. Braun Strowman and his yet-to-be-announced tag-team partner storyline. How ridiculous is Braun Strowman? He’s strong enough to pull down lighting rigs, flip ambulances, flip tractor trailers, and turn the entire Raw stage upside down. Kurt Angle announced a tag-team Battle Royal to determine #1 contendership for the Raw Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania, and Brawn Strowman inserted himself into the match by shouting at the referee, and he proceeded to win it without a partner. From a reality standpoint, this guy is totally ridiculous. Yet Strowman is the hottest guy on the roster right now, getting more and more popular every day. We love it!
How about Daniel Bryan? Who saw that coming? Out of nowhere, the guy we thought was forced into retirement as a result of brain damage, was medically cleared to wrestle. He started off Smackdown the day the story broke with a heart-felt promo about how grateful he was that his family and fans supported him while he was in retirement and he was so happy to be back. That was as real as it gets on the WWE microphone. How does the show end? By him taking a worked beating at the hands of Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens and leaving the arena on a stretcher. Starting with a shoot and ending with a work, we got the best storyline on Smackdown all WrestleMania season!
Finally, there is the Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar WrestleMania rematch that pretty much nobody wants to see. This match was rumored as far back as WrestleMania 33, so there wasn’t much suspense leading up to Reigns’ clinching of the spot at Elimination Chamber. As usual, Roman Reigns can be counted on to be a boring dud on the microphone, and the WWE needed to find a new angle to use to sell this rerun of a match. Somebody in WWE creative noticed that the WWE and UFC were both in Las Vegas on the same weekend, and that Brock Lesnar was photographed with Dana White on The Strip, while he didn’t attend the WWE show. They got the brilliant idea to tell Brock to no-show Raw and have Roman Reigns cut a shoot-style promo saying that Reigns was abusing his part-time status by not showing up to Raw, and that we should take Roman’s side because he “shows up for work every day”. As if that would somehow make him a good wrestler for a change.
At first, the wrestling rumor sites ate it up, and published stories that it appeared to be true that Lesnar really did no-show Raw due to some sort of altercation or disagreement with WWE brass. The WWE faithful ate it up. “How dare he disrespect us? He really is like they say, he doesn’t care about the business he only cares about himself and money! Screw him!!!” Suddenly, Roman Reigns sounded somewhat interesting, not because he did anything noteworthy or good, but because people really started to hate Lesnar because he didn’t come to Raw.
The lines between reality and fantasy began to blur and crack the following week when Lesnar no-showed Raw again. After the third week, it was apparent the storyline was a complete work when Lesnar no-showed for a third time. The WWE took the unusual step of having the cameras follow Reigns into the “Gorilla Position” behind the entrance ramp curtain to confront Vince McMahon about the situation. Doesn’t get any more “real” than that, right?
Well, none of the above was “real”. The Lesnar storyline was a work. All of it is a work. We’re all marks and we are eating it up headed into WrestleMania 34. In today’s wrestling landscape, the WWE has found a way to transform itself from “good guy vs. bad guy” to reality-based angles, and it is working very well right now.
It is the best time of the year to be a wrestling fan and I couldn’t be more excited for WrestleMania week. Watch this space for expert analysis for all important WrestleMania matches and storylines. I’m looking for your feedback, too, so stay in touch.
By the way, how cool was that Matt Hardy vs. Bray Wyatt Ultimate Deletion match on Raw two weeks ago? Why don’t they do more stuff like that more often? And what does it mean for WrestleMania?
The North Jersey Nonconformist 