Professional Wrestling Discussion

> The Royal Rumble, with just one Raw left, still has only a few things announced. The 1/25 show at Minute Maid Stadium in Houston is expected to draw about 36,000 fans and be packed. The advance was more than 30,000 a few weeks ago. There are tons of secondary market tickets out with a $34 get in price. Unlike in the past when they would run four shows in the same market on big show weekends, this time the 1/23 Smackdown show will be from Dallas and the 1/26 Raw will be from San Antonio.

> There are two shows in Houston, the Rumble, and the Worlds Collide show the night before at the Toyota Center. Worlds Collide ticket sales are very weak, basically ringside and most but not all of 100s as they haven’t sold out the side of the hard camera, and the rest of the building isn’t for sale. Similarly, the 2/16 Takeover show in Portland also has a weak advance. About 60 percent of the 100s that would normally be for sale are on sale, not including what you’d expect not for sale due to the stage. They are not opening up any other seats at this point for Worlds Collide. The secondary market get in price is $26 for lower level tickets.

> Portland is a little better, with about 60 percent of the 100s and 60 percent of the 200s up for sale and a $38 get in price.

> Announced for the Rumble, besides the two matches, are Bray Wyatt vs. Daniel Bryan for the Universal title, Becky Lynch vs. Asuka for the Raw women’s title and Roman Reigns vs. King Corbin. Reigns and Corbin are also scheduled for the Rumble, so they could do a thing where one of them loses but then comes back and wins the Rumble. There’s no obvious Rumble winner this year, but Reigns winning to challenge Wyatt is a possibility. Brock Lesnar, the WWE champion, will be entering the Rumble at No. 1 and whoever he is to face at Mania, that would probably be a guy that either eliminates him or shoots an angle with him.

> Names announced for the men’s rumble are Lesnar, Reigns, A.J. Styles, Erick Rowan, Randy Orton, Rey Mysterio, Ricochet, Drew McIntyre, Elias, Corbin, Dolph Ziggler, Otis, Tucker, Rusev, Bobby Lashley, Aleister Black and Buddy Murphy. Cain Velasquez has been told that he will be in. From that list, I only see Reigns and McIntyre as strong shots of winning with Corbin, Black or Orton as outside shots. The only names announced for the women’s match are Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss, Sarah Logan and Nikki Cross.

> Bayley vs. Lacey Evans for the Smackdown women’s title and Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Braun Strowman for the IC title continue to be built up. Both were on the TLC schedule, but the decision was to move the former to Rumble, although it hasn’t been announced for Rumble. The latter didn’t happen due to Strowman’s injuries and not being cleared in time for TLC, but Strowman pinned him on television this past week. Andrade vs. Humberto Carrillo was being groomed for the U.S. title, but Andrade first has a ladder match for the title with Mysterio on Raw. Carrillo should be returning soon for that program but whether it’ll be on Rumble isn’t clear. Additionally, New Day vs. The Miz & John Morrison is the Smackdown title match they are starting to build.

> World’s Collide at this point has five matches announced, and when it comes to Takeovers, that could be the entire show. The bouts are Imperium (Walter & Alexander Wolfe & Marcel Barthel & Fabian Aichner) vs. Undisputed Era (Adam Cole & Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong & Bobby Fish), Rhea Ripley vs. Toni Storm for the women’s title, Tommaso Ciampa & Johnny Gargano vs. Tyler Bate & Trent Seven, Angel Garza defending the cruiserweight title in a four-way and Finn Balor vs. Ilja Dragunov.

> On paper, all of those matches look very strong and there have been angles shot for all on television, but they are more thrown together with one angle and little follow-up in most cases aside from the eight-man tag. In the cruiserweight match, one of Garza’s three opponents will be Isaiah Scott, while the other two will likely Jordan Devlin and Travis Banks. Devlin vs. El Ligero and Banks vs. Brian Kendrick are both being taped this coming weekend at the NXT U.K. tapings to determine the other two slots.

> Tessa Blanchard was the center of controversy on 1/12 for her past on the day she was booked to become the first female pro wrestler to win a male world championship on a PPV show. The Impact Hard to Kill show was to culminate a year-long storyline where Blanchard continued to wrestle men, in particular Sami Callihan, and came close but never beat Callihan (who later became world champion) nor won the X Division or world title.

> The company made the call a long time back to make Blanchard. 24, its top star. The idea was to push her by having her come close and fail in multiple big matches against men, with the idea they could showcase the chase of a woman to the world heavyweight championship level as a calling card. It was a storyline that wouldn’t be duplicated since none of the other promotions that have national television in the U.S., WWE, New Japan, AEW, MLW or ROH were doing intergender singles matches, which Blanchard among others had made popular on independent shows the past few years.

> Blanchard is the daughter of Tully Blanchard, but who was raised from childhood by Terry “Magnum T.A.” Allen, her father’s most famous career rival when Allen married Blanchard’s ex-wife. Blanchard has been controversial for years, since she was a standout for WWE at the Mae Young Classic, but due to a number of issues, even with her looks, heritage and ability, they passed on signing her. There was always talk of attitude issues and other problems, including issues of not getting along with talent, that followed her career in its early years including in Japan. It was those issues that in a sense also helped make her career, because she became the biggest female star on the independent scene, and popular in matches against men, including a notable bout with Brian Cage.

> Although both Don Callis and Scott D’Amore at Impact have long tenures and have in the past had a more traditional view on wrestling, they felt from the start of their tenure running the creative end in late 2018 to make Blanchard into the top star, basically remove her from the women’s division and work with almost exclusively men, feeling that there could be a fan backlash of pushing a woman that hard and having her beat men. It did seem to work as when she didn’t win the X Division title on PPV, there were fans complaining about how Impact would never let her hold a men’s title, which was the exact reaction they were looking for.

> For whatever reason, the day before the PPV, Blanchard sent out a tweet saying, “Hey women, try supporting one another. Cool things happen.” This touched a nerve with women who had worked with her in the past. Most notable was Allysin Kay, who was women’s champion in Impact as Sienna in 2016, who wrote, “Remember when you spat in a black woman’s face and called her the N word in Japan? Was that you `supporting women?’ The audacity of this tweet.”

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> When the Superstars of NXT clash with their NXT UK counterparts for brand supremacy at WWE Worlds Collide 2020, one of the most highly-anticipated showdowns will see the forces of Undisputed ERA go head-to-head with the full might of Imperium in an Eight-Man Tag Team Match. NXT Champion Adam Cole, Roderick Strong and NXT Tag Team Champions Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish have come together to form a deadly faction that has captured every championship in the black-and-gold brand. Since their formation in the summer of 2017, Undisputed ERA have run wild though NXT and unleashed several brutal beatdowns on those who oppose them. They will have no love for the rising brand across the pond and will once again be out to show that their superiority is … well … beyond dispute.

> NXT United Kingdom Champion WALTER may have been on the NXT team against Raw and SmackDown at Survivor Series 2019, but his only true allegiance remains with the sacred mat and with his Imperium cohorts Marcel Barthel, Fabian Aichner and Alexander Wolfe. The destructive foursome from NXT UK does not care how much gold their Worlds Collide opponents are holding. They will be out for all-out dominance when the two factions meet on the eve the Royal Rumble. Which faction will emerge victorious?

> A whole new chapter in the storied rivalry between Rhea Ripley and Toni Storm is about to be written as The Nightmare will collide with her rocking adversary for the NXT Championship at WWE Worlds Collide 2020. Among the epic past showdowns between the intense competitors, Ripley made history by emerging victorious over Storm in the finals of a tournament to be crowned the first-ever NXT UK Women’s Champion. Storm then regrouped and conquered Ripley in their rematch at the first NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool to seize the title in January of 2019.

> Ripley has since traveled across the pond to defeat the dominant Shayna Baszler for the NXT Women’s Title. In the meantime, Storm returned to NXT UK after losing her title to Kay Lee Ray and battled "The Scary Queen of Scots" and Piper Niven in a Triple Threat Match for the championship at the TakeOver: Blackpool II event. Nevertheless, even as Storm prepared for that total free-for-all against two of her former best friends, her competitive nature brought her to Full Sail University in order to rekindle her rivalry with Ripley and boldly challenge the dangerous titleholder. Ripley accepted and the contest has been made. Who will reign supreme in the highly anticipated return matchup?

> Two of the most influential tag teams in NXT and NXT UK history will square off at WWE Worlds Collide tonight, when Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa reform #DIY to battle NXT UK’s Moustache Mountain. The match came about after Gargano rescued Ciampa from a beatdown at the hands of The Undisputed ERA on the Jan. 15 edition of NXT, leading the Brits to issue a challenge via Twitter, which Gargano & Ciampa were happy to accept. #DIY’s roots in NXT go back to 2015, when they joined forces to enter the inaugural Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic and won over the hearts of the NXT Universe. Gargano & Ciampa went on to be one of the most beloved tag teams in NXT history, thanks in part to their incredible competition with The Revival over the NXT Tag Team Championships.

> The rivalry culminated at NXT TakeOver: Toronto, where they won the titles in a thrilling 2-out-of-3 Falls Match. Trent Seven & Tyler Bate have, perhaps, been the heart and soul of NXT UK, dating back to their participation in the WWE Un…

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