By Charlie Scott
Embed from Getty ImagesHello everyone and welcome to Top Turnbuckle Weekly, where we take a look at all the wrestling from the last week and discuss the biggest talking points, match of the week, my views on things and much more!
The biggest talking point of the week has to be the Elimination Chamber PPV on Sunday night in the Wells Fargo Centre, Philadelphia. For a full review on every match from the card take a look at my piece here http://www.overtimeonline.co.uk/top-turnbuckle-elimination-chamber-2020-review/.
The biggest moment from the PPV saw Shayna Baszler win the Raw Women’s Number One Contender Elimination Chamber match to book her place against Becky Lynch at Wrestlemania. Becoming only the second confirmed Women’s match for the big show, alongside Rhea Ripley vs Charlotte Flair for the NXT Title.
#TheMan has a MESSAGE for @QoSBaszler following the domination at #WWEChamber!#RAW Women’s Champion @BeckyLynchWWE awaits @WrestleMania. pic.twitter.com/qSYQv6peXj
— WWE (@WWE) March 10, 2020
The Man hand-picked Baszler as her choice to face at Mania prior to Elimination Chamber and sent a strong message to her opponent on Monday Night Raw this week. Telling The Queen of Spades not to underestimate her and that she will beat Baszler just like she did to her friend Rhonda Rousey a year ago at Wrestlemania 35.
WWE Championship Number One Contender Drew McIntyre was in action this week against Erick Rowan on Raw. Just 27 days before he faces the biggest challenge of his career in the form of Brock Lesnar in the main event of Wrestlemania. McIntyre made light work of the 6ft 8inch Rowan, throwing him around outside the ring and showing the entire world he is ready to slay The Beast.
UN 👏 BE 👏 LIEVABLE!#Raw @DMcIntyreWWE pic.twitter.com/mAhNFNMRru
— WWE Universe (@WWEUniverse) March 10, 2020
One of the other biggest talking point from Elimination Chamber was the return of The Undertaker, who once again choke slammed AJ Styles to cost him his match against Aleister Black. The Phenomenal One came out on Raw and ripped into The Dead Man, claiming he is just an old man named Mark Calaway. The former WWE Champion even brought the Undertakers wife into things, saying Michelle McCool is going to run him into the ground.
Styles would then go on to challenge the greatest Wrestlemania performer in history to a match in Tampa next month, with the contract signing set to go ahead next week on Raw. The build for this match has been somewhat interesting, there is only so much you can do build wise when one of your performers only shows up a few weeks before their match every year, but WWE have done a good job of certainly getting me interested in seeing the 54-year-old Undertaker take on the man I believe to be the best wrestler on the planet.
.@AJStylesOrg crossed the line to get #Undertaker‘s attention on #RAW and issued a challenge for #WrestleMania! pic.twitter.com/W45Q69zg2e
— WWE (@WWE) March 11, 2020
The breaking of the fourth wall from Styles by using ‘Takers real name was something quite surprising for fans. The Undertaker is one of WWE’s longest running characters and they somehow have managed to keep up his Deadman persona for nearly 30 years. So to hear someone calling him Mark really breaks down the barriers that the character has built over his WWE tenure.
Two more Wrestlemania matches were confirmed on Smackdown last week in the fall out of Super ShowDown in Saudi Arabia. After winning his second Universal Title, Goldberg came down to the ring to celebrate and was greeted by Roman Reigns. Reigns starred down the former WCW man and simply said “I’m next”, setting up the long-awaited Spear vs Spear match at Wrestlemania for the title.
The rage that came from fans after Goldberg defeated The Fiend for the title in Saudi Arabia was unprecedented and many fans aired their frustrations at how once again WWE are using an old guy to get Roman Reigns over. But this match was always going to happen, the passing of the old guard onto the new needed to happen between these two. Just not for the Universal Title, Bray Wyatt has created one of the most interesting characters in WWE history with The Fiend and most fans wanted to see him walk into Mania as champion.
But instead, we are getting The Fiend vs 16-time WWE Champion John Cena at Wrestlemania. This was the match that everyone wanted to see for the Universal Title, with The Fiend spending the last year trying to take down everyone who wronged Bray Wyatt in the past, it was only natural he wanted to wrestle the man who defeated him at Wrestlemania 30.
As with the Styles vs Undertaker match it is hard to have a long build when one of the wrestlers is a part-timer, but these two have a fair amount of history together and The Fiend is so over that whoever he wrestled at Mania the fans would get behind the match.
The final talking point this week was Edge vs Randy Orton and this was what I wanted to discuss most on Top Turnbuckle Weekly. This feud began when Edge returned at the Royal Rumble this year and eliminated his former tag team partner Orton.
The next night on Raw The Viper brutally attacked Edge by putting his head in a steel chair and jumping on it. With The Rated-R Superstar not being seen since, Orton has been on a rampage. He beat down Matt Hardy in a brutal encounter and even went as far as hitting an RKO on Edge’s wife Beth Phoenix last week on Raw.
This week Edge returned to exact his revenge on Orton, and after an attempted sneak attack from Orton, Edge hit an RKO onto Orton. Edge was incensed by the beat down onto his wife from the week before and took it out on MVP as well, doing to him what Orton had done to Edge weeks prior.
The build-up to this Wrestlemania match has been electric from the start, with Edge’s amazing return at the Rumble after nearly a decade on the shelf through injury, to Orton returning to his sadistic heel persona. It is a well-known fact Orton is at his best when he is a maniac heel, with his best run being against Triple H back before Wrestlemania 25.
Having returned to that dark place we are truly getting the best out of The Viper, from his promo work to his attacks on wrestlers, he has turned into the best heel on the red brand, potentially even the entire company. With the ultimate face to oppose him in Edge, the man fans have been crying out for years to return to in ring action, this build has been near perfection from WWE.
Edge could never return and just be thrown back into the shuffle of the mid-card and rightfully shouldn’t be inserted directly into the main event scene. So, having him face a man who he has a lot of history with already, coupled with the new aspects of their rivalry since his return is the perfect formula. This is why I truly believe this is one of the, if not the best built WWE match in some years. The excitement amongst fans to see Edge finally get his hands on Orton at Wrestlemania along with anticipating seeing Orton wrestling back as a full-fledged heel is really going to make their encounter a special one and worthy of being on the biggest show of the year.
Match of the week!
My match of the week is a must-watch for every wrestling fan and it’s Daniel Bryan vs Drew Gulak from Elimination Chamber. The match opened the show and is a mat wrestling masterclass, showing the true ability of Gulak and he pushes Bryan to the limit in this encounter.
For any NXT and AEW related content stayed tuned for the Top Turnbuckle podcast that will be starting over the next few weeks! I will be joined by my co-host Dane Stackable where we will discuss everything in Top Turnbuckle – The Wednesday Night Wars!
For more of Charlie Scott’s Top Turnbuckle click here.
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