Can AJ Styles Win The Rumble?

The past week in professional wrestling has been exciting, to say the least. Four men have single handedly caused the whole landscape to be sent into a tizzy; anticipation is at an all-time high. People have been speculating non-stop about what impact these wrestlers might have in WWE’s Royal Rumble and on the upper card throughout 2016 and I’ve been one of the wrestling authors leading this charge.

But enough about Heath Slater’s Social Outcasts, did you all hear about AJ Styles and those New Japan guys? They’re supposedly coming to WWE. That’s pretty cool, right?

Okay, even I’ll admit that I never thought someone like Shinsuke Nakamura mitch compete in a WWE ring. It’s exciting to think about it and I’ll go as far as to say that it’s the most exciting news story in wrestling right now. Just don’t tell Heath Slater I said that. I still need to represent.

In addition to the NJPW Four and the Social Outcasts, I’m also going to give some props to Smackdown’s Mauro Ranallo as well as TNA’s new Miracle Man, Mike Bennett. I’m in a very positive mood this week and I hope you all are too.

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The Social Outcasts Are Taking Over!

If you read my last installment of The Power of Positivity, then you read a considerable amount of fawning over Heath Slater. I was begging for this horribly underutilized talent to be thrown a bone of something by the company that employs him. Not even 24 hours after that article was published, Slater pinned former World Champion Dolph Ziggler clean on Raw. I was ecstatic, to say the least.

To add even more icing onto my One Man Rock Band cake, Slater also formed a heel stable with three other guys who’ve fallen pretty far off the booking radar as well. Adam Rose, Bo Dallas, and Curtis Axel are now by his side, poised for…something. Maybe they’re not the next Evolution or Shield, but I’ll be happy with an Oddities reboot at this point. At least those guys were getting TV time.

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Are the Social Outcasts more than just a band of jobbers? Maybe not. I wasn’t blown away by the time they were given as a collective on Raw but hopefully everyone viewed the Raw Fallout video they made with Rich Brennan. If you missed it, here it is…

I was wondering how these Social Outcasts might blend together if they’re committed to keeping their previous gimmicks, but I’m pretty sold on the funny after this minute of backstage footage. I especially liked the Bo Dallas dorkiness at the end when he gave Rich his glasses back. I’m hoping that humor translates onto more than just Youtube.

Let’s Go Mauro!

Smackdown’s newest play-by-play announcer took the reigns this week and he was a breath of fresh air. I’ve only had a tiny bit of exposure to Mauro prior to this – the scant amount of NJPW on AXS that I’ve been able to view – and knew ahead of time of his distinct voice. He’s good, but I was cautious of how he might blend in to a three man team who primarily tell stories instead of play-calling.

So far, Mauro still sounds like Mauro, and it’s good. He was naming moves and presenting the action that I saw on screen as a legitimate sporting event. It’s crazy how much more enjoyable it is to watch wrestling when announcers make the action the focus. That’s what Ranallo does.

Possibly just as nice is that I didn’t hear one instance of Mauro playing into the usual “picking on Byron Saxton” vibe that seemingly every other announcer plays into. Byron acts a little dorky, sure, but I’ve never understood why that’s cause to treat the man like dirt. And if Michael Cole is picking on someone – and he’s just as guilty as anyone else on this – then they can’t be that bad. Please Mauro, keep calling those moves and don’t play into the weird announce table drama that nobody cares about.

Bennett Is TNA’s Miracle Man

TNA started their newest second chance on PopTV and I’m hoping for the absolute best for them. Ethan Carter III reclaimed his TNA World Championship by defeating Matt Hardy in the finals of the World Title Series, which is good. I’ll endorse Carter all day as the best man for that belt. Let EC3 be synonymous with that strap through these tumultuous times because he’s the best man to bridge the gap to what I hope are eventually greener pastures ahead.

It’s no secret that Ethan Carter is the man… but who’s The Miracle?

Hyped before the PopTV debut, TNA had a Miracle that they were excited to debut and his name is Mike Bennett. Of course, this also means that TNA got a two for one deal because Bennett debuted alongside his manager/valet and real life spouse, Maria Kanellis. She called herself the first lady of professional wrestling while Mike committed some mild heresy by calling himself a wrestling Jesus.

411’s own Larry Csonka called it right in his review of the show when he said “he far from knocked it out of the park with his interpretation of Chris Jericho’s WWE debut promo.” When compared to that standard, Mike and Maria fell far short of gold, but that’s a lofty standard. Comparing it to Chris Jericho’s recent WWE return from just one day prior, Bennett’s TNA attempt was far better. And overall I liked it. Where they go from here is up to them but they’ve at least got my interest. Since Bennett mentioned Matt Hardy by name, that is the feud to be expected.

Can A New Japan Guy Win The Royal Rumble?

Considering both John Cena and Sasha Banks are being added to the injured list at the time of me writing this article, the near future of WWE could easily have a very pessimistic forecast. Even so, with the recent signings of Shinsuke Nakamura, AJ Styles, Karl Anderson, and Doc Gallows, a major buzz of anticipation is in the air. Apparently Vince and company were hoping to save these surprises for the Rumble itself but that cat’s been let out of the bag way early.

How will these guys play into WWE programming? Will any of them be sent to NXT or are they all doing an Invasion-style angle onto the main roster? Since this is my article, here’s a quick bit of fantasy booking…

Roman Reigns needs to enter the Rumble at #1. Have a bunch of Authority-sympathetic guys come out during the first ten spots or so, but Roman then eliminates them all. Finally, Triple H himself enters the Rumble and with some illegal help from his buddies, he eliminates Roman from the match. Don’t worry about Hunter because angry Roman will come back and eliminate him as well. Scattered up until around entry number 25, bring in all the NJPW guys along with Finn Balor. Let them be the last guys remaining before the final entrant, Brock Lesnar. Lesnar throws all out but AJ Styles (or Nakamura or Balor, but I’m going with AJ here), but then falters after the other guys hit him with some steel chairs or something. Styles has the advantage and goes goes toe-to-toe with him for a solid 8 minutes or more. AJ will win, but only after another bits of distractions and interference from his buddies. At Fast Lane, Roman will get his rematch for the title he lost in the Rumble against Styles but will lose after Triple H interferes, setting up their WrestleMania singles match (not for any title). Styles will then go on to face Brock Lesnar for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in the main event of WrestleMania Texas.

Okay, that was my attempt at booking the Rumble into WrestleMania. I could see Nakamura or Balor also in the Styles spot I proposed. Maybe Balor is more likely since he’s already been putting in his WWE time over the past year, but I’d rather have Balor keep his NXT Title so a bunch of gold can be on the new group. Did WWE buy the Bullet Club name? It’s not known at this very moment (Thursday night), but I hope so. That’s the coolest and most marketable name they can use. I don’t mind “Balor Club” as Finn’s play on his wildly popular former group, but I don’t want that to be the new group name at all.

One Thing To Complain About

It’s not John Cena’s fault, but his injury sucks. He’s undergoing shoulder surgery and should be out for 6-9 months. I know in Cena time that should end up being only about 4 months, but he’ll still miss at least until WrestleMania. I would’ve liked to see him wrestle on that card.

Final Ramblings And Plugs

That’s all the positivity that I’ve got for this week. With most of the weekly shows back in full swing, it’s quite the chore to watch and keep up with the multitude of shows and write and podcast about it all. It’s fun, it’s just time consuming. At least it’s that good time of year where WWE tries just a little bit harder to make their TV stuff good. They might not always succeed, but they do try harder.

If you want to follow me on Twitter, do so @MitchNickelson.

My wife and I recorded our first episode for 2016 of our podcast, Wrestling Date Night. We mostly went over the crappiest moments of 2015, so give us a listen. We’re also on iTunes, Stitcher, Podbean, and Spreaker, or just click play below.