I think they are on to something!

Hello readers of wrestling

I have been gone for a little bit of time. I wanted to give the brand extension 2016 some time to find its way. Now that we have SummerSlam, Backlash, and a month to figure out what is going on in our WWE wrestling world, I am here to give you the things that I have noticed from the perspective of a black wrestling guy. And remember peeps, this is a positive blog, for the most part. Yes I know there are things that could be better, and things we all don’t like, but can we just be happy that we are getting some entertaining wrestling.

                The Universoul Championship (sorry I could not resist, some of you out there get it)

Okay, let’s get it out of the way I have to say that at I was not quite a fan of the Universal Championship. And when the belt was unveiled, and I still was not much of a fan. I think that for the sake of WWE the fans, and all of us belt geeks, it would have been cool to either call it the World Heavyweight Championship, and/or bring back the Big Gold Belt. That is one of the most iconic belts to ever come from wrestling. For us belt geeks this is maybe 1 or 1a of the reason why we all got into belt collecting ($5 to the 1^st person who can answer what the other belt is). So as someone who loves belts, and the lineage of the titles, the creation of a brand new one, not one from WCW, ECW, WCCW, USWA, AWA, or any other territory it engulfed in the past 60 years of doing business, but instead they bring some belt out of nowhere that no one has ever heard of. But after watching the matches for the title (there have been 2 since Fin Baylor the 1^st winner of title hurt himself in the title match at SummerSlam) I am becoming more of a fan. RAW has to have a champion, the show is too big, and has too long of a legacy. If the WWE championship was just on RAW, there is a good chance that we would not pay attention. So RAW has to have a title. And it seems like they are looking towards the future. With that being the case, I don’t think they want to bring back any old belts, much to our chagrin.  

Now let’s get to the belt design(s). I know I was just talking about the Universal Championship, but I am not a huge fan of all of the belts looking the same, especially the Tag Team belts. One is copper, and one is silver. The silver ones look like 2^nd place belts. Why not just they have with the same design, but make the leather a different color, or here is a radical idea, if both brands are totally separate; why not just both belts look the same have. The 2 champs should never cross paths, so why not just have 2 tag team championships that look the same.

But again this is not a blog about how much I am not into the new belts. Let’s talk about all of the great things that I am seeing on TV. Okay, let me start with SmackDown. I love the new SmackDown, or should I say SmackDown live, even though RAW is live, and we don’t say RAW live. I think they are doing some great things. Although I am still not a fan of Dean Ambrose, he on SD works. And I love the fact that guys like John Cena, and AJ Styles are there. That says to me even though RAW has some built in advantages, SD will not be swept under the rug. I love the Tag Team Tournament, and the aftermath of it. The whole Health Slater angle has been hilarious, and I am looking forward to the Usos’ heal turn. I feel like they have gone as far as they can go being nice guys and I am digging seeing them be mean. The SD women’s division has a new champion, Becky Lynch. I am not that into Becky, but the audience seems to be, but I think she is a good inaugural champion. I don’t really know what is going on with the Intercontinental Championship picture, but I love everything the MIZ is doing. He makes me care about the IC title more than I have in a long long time. Oh, and I also want to say that as of the time that I am writing this, AJ Styles has won the WWE Championship. If you all remember from an old blog (insert blog here), someone tried to tell you all who were not watching TNA about this dude named AJ Style (Shout out Jeremy Dotson, love you bro!), and now he is the top guy in WWE. Everything they are doing is giving me the confidence that they will be able to sustain their momentum in the years to come.

                And now on to Monday Night Raw. I know a lot of people are down on RAW, and I can’t say that I blame them too much. The show is 3 hours, and they have been having trouble trying to fill the time. But I will say they I am enjoying most elements of RAW. I don’t necessarily like the pre-match interviews before the matches from the 2 monsters on the roster, in Braun Stroman, and Nya Jax, but I love to watch these massive human beings have squash matches against the home town talent. I think it makes both of them look unbeatable, and to build up the credibility of the roster, you need people like that. The women’s division is so interesting right now. Although I think on the mic Sasha Banks, and Baily, are light years behind Charlotte, I think that they are good in the ring. And for as much hell as Dana Brooke takes, she carried that match between her Sasha and Baily. And might I add that every time I see Charlotte in street clothes she could not look more like a champion. She and her father have an uncanny ability to just look so regal in clothes. They look like they were born to be champions. I think that keep Roman in the mid card spot right now is what is best; until they decide to turn him heel anyway. And finally the WWE Universoul (that is a play on the Universoul Circus) Championship, I like what they are doing. The SummerSlam match was good, and that is with Fin Baylor separating his shoulder (can we say that Seth has a tendency to do hurt guys in championship matches i.e.: Sting). Then after he vacated the title, the fatal four way match was spectacular, including the surprise return of Triple H, to turn on his guy, his “plan B”, and basically hand the title to Kevin Owens. Now Owens is the face of RAW.

                I am looking forward to see what WWE has to offer in the weeks to come of the new era. Let me know what you think, and let’s try to keep it positive. I know we as wrestling fans can be very opinionated, and jaded, but this is the business that we love, so let’s remember why we enjoy it in the 1^st place, and stop acting like we know better than the people who are doing this and have been doing it since way before most of us were even thought of.