wrestling / Columns

Building To Owens vs. Reigns Post-WrestleMania

January 18, 2016 | Posted by Mitch Nickelson

It’s time once again for your weekly dose of good vibes that have been gathered from the world of professional wrestling. I’m Mitch and I call this series The Power of Positivity. It serves as my chance to talk about many of things that I think are right regarding the squared circle. I try to keep all complaints to a minimum because if I can’t find any good in this form of entertainment then why am I watching it?

There are plenty of reasons why I watch including the vicious WWE Intercontinental Championship Feud, the steady screentime of the Social Outcasts, and the looming 30-man melee that we all love, the Royal Rumble. It’s a fun time of the year, so let’s get to it…

A Very Physical Feud

Dean Ambrose, the current Intercontinental Champion, has had quite the thorn in his side as of late. The man he beat for his title, Kevin Owens, has been decidedly angrier since losing the gold that used to be around his waist. Owens has taken every opportunity to brawl with Ambrose and it almost always has ended in destruction.

On the December 28th episode of Raw, Owens launched a post-match attack on Ambrose that ended with Dean getting Powerbombed through the announce table. The following week on Raw, January 4th, Dean offered a post-match attack of his own by exacting revenge in the form of a dropped elbow on Kevin through the same announce table. These guys faced off inside the ring on a recent SmackDown, this time with the IC Title on the line, and it ended with a countout double DQ brawl through the crowd. That brawl also gave us an awesome crash and burn off some high perch through some production boxes and tables.

These guys have been very physical and it’s been great. I’m totally buying into how much vitriol that Owens has over the loss of his former championship. Why don’t more guys take the titles as seriously as he does? Also, Dean Ambrose is more than willing to put his body on the line as has been seen in the previously stated examples.

I’m hoping that these guys get a proper blowoff at the Royal Rumble. I’m slightly disappointed in the Falls Count Anywhere stipulation. I thought a simple No DQ or perhaps a Fall Count Anywhere Match would’ve served them better, but it should still be great as long as there is plenty of weaponry and brawling in the midst of the crowd. But at the end of the day I want a clear winner from this feud. It’ll help whoever walks away with the IC Title and it’ll help the title as well.

Social Outcasts DOMINATE

Maybe ‘dominate’ is too strong of a word but this new collective fronted by Heath Slater is doing pretty darn good for themselves. Sure, they had the help of Ryback when they sent the Wyatt Family running away like scared dogs with their tails between their legs, but the were still standing tall. And perhaps Bo Dallas did inadvertently take out Slater via Running Bo Dog on SmackDown before claiming victory over 4 wrestlers who have historically suffered from the same terrible booking as them, but a win is still a win. These guys are entertaining. Here’s another awesome interview segment by them to prove their worth…

“I apologize. They’re my best friends.” I lost it when Bo said this line. Even though I’m a Slater mark, Bo is winning me over as the true star of this group.

The losers from that SmackDown tag match (Goldust, Damien Sandow, Zack Ryder, and Jack Swagger) should consider joining Social Outcasts or making a rival group of lovable misfits for themselves. Damien Sandow should front the new group of what would in essence be Social Outcasts Black & White. Slater’s group would be Red & Black because that was the cooler NWO faction.

More Serious Royal Rumble Predictions

Last week, I had some fun and speculated on the idea of AJ Styles winning the Royal Rumble. That was a fairly unrealistic bit of fantasy booking and admittedly a very long shot. At this point, the odds are probably slightly better that he won’t even debut at next Sunday’s event, let alone win it. Taking out New Japan guys and others who don’t really have a chance, I’ll lay out what I would like to see happen among the more serious possibilities.

Brock Lesnar needs to win the Rumble and go on to main event WrestleMania. WWE should make sure there’s a ring full of guys when he comes in as one of the very latter numbers of the 30-man contest, having him wreck as many guys as possible. It can then come down to him and Roman Reigns as the final two. If they go about 8 minutes or so on their own, that should be enough to be good but not too much that people won’t want to see the return match.

Where does Triple H factor into all of this? Honestly, I wouldn’t even book him in the Rumble. His most logical WrestleMania contest is against Roman. All he really needs to do is be a screwy factor in the final minute of the Rumble. Brock will eliminate Roman with Triple H being a very involved player. Roman will need his rematch against Brock and they can do that at Fast Lane. Roman will lose but not without more Hunter shenanigans. After this point, Roman will focus all his attention onto The Game until they face off in Texas.

Moving Roman out of the WWE Title picture after Fast Lane does leave Brock without a challenger for WrestleMania so there will need to be a Number One Contender crowned at the February Pay-Per-View. I might be straying into long shot fantasy booking again, but I think the one of the guys from the current Dean Ambrose/Kevin Owens feud should be in that spot. It’s hard to imagine Vince McMahon pulling that big of a trigger on either of those guys, but they’re totally positioned for it. They both could handle the physical match that Brock would demand. They’re both lucrative upper mid-card stars who are top merch sellers. If anybody in WWE is in the business of creating new stars, simply flip a coin over Ambrose and Owens – you can’t go wrong either way.

Even if Ambrose or Owens lost to Brock in the main event of WrestleMania, it could still serve as their coming out party as legitimate main eventers. I’d rather them win, but a loss against Lesnar on that stage wouldn’t be a career killer. My pick between the two is Kevin Owens, simply because he’s the heel. Even though I argued that he’d be fine if he lost, I’d book him to win. Roman should also go over HHH in his Mania match so that will set up the top heel and face (once Brock goes away again) as Owens and Reigns. A couple of months of Roman and Owens would be awesome. Recall how great this moment was from Raw on October 26th, 2015…

A post-Mania rivalry between Owens and Reigns can last until some of the big names on the injured list return. It’s something that I’d be excited about. With so many people injured, I can’t think of too many alternative options.

One Thing To Complain About

According to The Wrestling Observer, Tyler Breeze’s main roster push was derailed by none other than Vince McMahon himself. He apparently didn’t see what Triple H saw in him and was willing to make another prime candidate for the future Social Outcasts Black & White instead of giving the NXT star a chance. Tyler’s awesome entrance was minimalized until they just stopped doing it and the breakup with Summer Rae with no build or followup was because Vince didn’t care to have a story to accompany that development. What’s the point of having a developmental brand when you’re not going to use it? Also, the Breeze main roster call-up was the big finale to Breaking Ground. He crapped on the ending of his own Network show simply because he didn’t get the character. Hopefully the money is at least better for Tyler.

Final Ramblings And Plugs

So I guess I only wrote about WWE this week. I promise that I watch other companies, but I did get behind on stuff. I did catch TNA this week and saw Ethan Carter III singing some entrance music for Shynron but didn’t feel like I could write a few hundred words on it. EC3 is still fantastic, though.

In other excitement, my wife and I are attending a WWE house show this Saturday night. The last time we went to one I tweeted about some dumb fan who threw a water bottle at Sheamus’ head and my tweet became a news story. I’m not hoping for any more incidents this time around but I’ll definitely hit up social media should something happen.

As always, follow me on Twitter @MitchNickelson. Also, follow my wife @km645. She uses the name Rosie Piper in honor of her Doctor Who love. Her favorites are the Ninth and Tenth Doctors, as are mine. We actually haven’t seen much more than those eras but we’ll catch up one of these days.

Wrestling Date Night is mine and my wife’s podcast. Search for us (and subscribe!) on iTunes, Stitcher, or Spreaker…or you can just click on the embedded player below.