Brains beat out brawn this time

Courtesy: WWE

By Kevin Hunsperger

@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter

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The Superstar Shakeup is already proving to be good for the Raw Women's Division. The Fatal Fourway match for the number one contender to the Women's Championship added two new faces to the mix. Alexa Bliss and Mickie James recently joined the roster after being a big part of the division on SmackDown Live. Those ladies joined Nia Jax and Sasha Banks to find who would be the number one contender to Bayley's championship.

I fully expected Banks to win and set up an eventual heel turn against her best friend, but I was pleasantly surprised when that was not the way the match went down. In the closing moments, the ever dominant Jax took out James by using Banks as a battering ram. She then sent Banks to the mat with a thunderous Samoan Drop. But before she knew what happened, Bliss recovered from outside, dropkicked Jax and sent the Samoan Superstar to the floor. Bliss took the opportunity to then pin Banks and officially take her rightful place as the number one contender.

Kick to the face
Courtesy: WWE

The execution of the finish was brilliant and I look forward to seeing what all Bliss can do on Raw. Honestly, I didn't pay much attention to her on NXT, but when she was drafted to SmackDown Live I took notice. But couldn't you, after she won the championship on the blue brand twice. I liked it last week when she immediately called out Bayley and then backed it up by winning the Fatal Fourway. Next step comes at Payback and the crowning of a new Raw Women's Champion. I'm sure that'll leave some people blissed off...

Let them eat squash

Nia Jax in action
Courtesy: WWE

By Chad Smart
@chadsmart & @my123cents on Twitter
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Monday Night RAW ushered in the new era of the brand separation with something wrestling fans haven’t seen in awhile. No, I’m not talking about a show that was pretty much entertaining the entire time. RAW saw the return of squash matches. 

Braun Strowman taking care of business
Courtesy: WWE

Nia Jax made her main roster debut squashing Britt Baker in the first hour of the show. Later in the show, Braun Strowman, making his first appearance separated from the Wyatt Family, demolished the pretty fly for a white guy jobber, James Ellsworth. Both matches combined were 11 minutes shorter than the shortest match on the show. 

I’ve seen some comments online about how the squash matches exposed there’s not enough talent to have two separate brands.  Now, I don’t know the wrestling history of the people making these comments. If they are fans that became fans during the Attitude Era or later, I can understand not understanding the purpose of a squash match. For wrestling fans that remember life before the Monday Night War, squash matches were the majority of matches on television. 

Big Cass & Enzo vs. The Shining Stars
Courtesy: WWE

I think bringing back squash matches is an idea that is way past due. Using the matches from Monday night, new talent got to look impressive without sacrificing the credibility of any other wrester on the roster.  For example, later in the show Enzo and Big Cass fought the Shining Stars. It’s probably safe to say given the way the Colons were presented before and after they make Los Matadors, fans don’t see the Shining Stars as credible threats to any other tag team on the WWE roster. If WWE wants to push the Shining Stars as potential tag-team champions, they’ve got a lot of damage control to do before fans will accept them as anything other than a jobber tag team. 

Obviously WWE can’t have every match on the show be a squash, however utilizing two or three matches per show is not only a solid way to establish talent, it will also help stretch out feuds. Instead of seeing Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn fight each other week after week, KO can squash some unknown local talent then run down Sami in a post match promo.  

The brand split is still fresh so who knows if the current changes will last more than a month. Right now though, I am on board with the changes I’ve seen so far. If WWE would get rid of the opening 15-minute in-ring promo, I think they’ve got all the tools to make me interested in their shows again. If they revert back to their old ways, well, I’ll be hoping at some point “Broken” Matt Hardy will show up and delete them all.

Battleground predictions

By Kevin Hunsperger

@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter
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Battleground is just a few hours away and will serve as a send off for several Superstars prior to heading to their new shows. We know the Club will no longer include AJ Styles and the new threesome of John Cena, Enzo and Big Cass is over too. Here are my picks for the show. Be sure to listen to the analysis of Battleground on the My 1-2-3 Cents podcast.

Dean Ambrose will retain the WWE Championship only to have Stephanie McMahon present Seth Rollins with the World Heavyweight Championship the next night on Raw. The only way the brand extension can truly work is to have two separate heavyweight champions. At one point I was for just one champ, but if WWE is going all in on the split two champs have to be the way they do it.

Sasha Banks and Nia Jax will beat Charolette and Dana Brooke. Bayley won't be the mystery partner. Sasha will keep the feud with Charolette going strong and the two will face off at SummerSlam. There's no need to throw Bayley into that mix just yet. 

The Miz will retain the Intercontenial title against Darren Young. I just don't see Young as IC champ material, but that's not to say he can't or won't be one day. I do like the pairing with Bob Backlund. Time will tell.

Rusev will beat Zack Ryder. I love Zack, don't get me wrong. But WWE has yanked him around so many times in the past he's not a credible threat to the monster heel Rusev. He needs to stay strong and face stiffer competition at SummerSlam next month. 

The Club and AJ Styles will beat John Cena, Enzo and Big Cass. I'm breaking my own "never beat against Cena" rule. Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson can carry on with the feud against Enzo and Cass on Raw and Cena and AJ can wrap things up against each other at SummerSlam on the SmackDown Live side of things.

I like the Becky Lynch-Natalya feud going on right now. Since they're both on SmackDown Live, I'd add the stipulation that the winner of this match becomes the number one seed in the tournament for SDL women's championship, because like I said earlier there needs to be two sets of champs.

The New Day will beat The Wyatt Family. My only reasoning for this is my assumption the Family as we know it is splitting up. Braun Strowman is going to Raw and Erick Rowan and Bray Wyatt will be on SmackDown Live. Plus as the tag team champions, I'd like to see New Day going into the SummerSlam storyline looking stronger.

Despite saying the match is their final battle, I see more life in the Sami Zayn-Kevin Owens feud. I'd rather see this culminate at WrestleMania and if WWE doesn't wait that long than Hell in a Cell with Zayn winning and finally breaking that 'underdog' stature.  

The Usos will win against Breezango. I'm not sure WWE is firmly behind Fandango and Tyler Breeze just yet.

I'm probably mostly wrong with these predictions, which isn't a bad thing. I like when WWE comes up with things I'm not thinking.

My 1-2-3 Cents Draft picks (NXT choices)

By Kevin Hunsperger

@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter
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The upcoming WWE Draft has been the talk of the Internet Wrestling Community. It's the topic of discussion on this week's My 1-2-3 Cents podcast. When Chad and I recorded we did not know WWE was pulling six names from NXT to draft. So you can listen to the main show here and check out our NXT picks in this blog. We each picked three.

Chad:

Finn Balor, Tye Dillinger & Nia Jax

Kevin:

American Alpha, Bayley & William Regal (who I'd turn into a manager)

Who would you have on your show?

They are women, hear them roar

The revolution begins 7/13/15
Courtesy: WWE

By Kevin Hunsperger

@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter
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One year ago the Divas Revolution officially kicked into high gear. Sasha Banks, Charolette and Becky Lynch all made their main roster debuts. I wrote about it the day after in this post. Some people on social media have been critical of the evolution of the women's division since last year's coup. The change was overdue and the division continues to improve.

The only thing I'll be critical about the women's division is the inability to have more than one angle occurring at a time. That was a huge problem with the Divas. It was almost always a storyline with the champion facing a challenger and then moving on after said feud ended. Or creative would just throw them all in some sort of gimmicked battle royal, just so you could see them all at once. The situation has improved with the Charolette-Sasha rivalry brewing as Becky and Natalya engage in combat.

Women's wrestling will continue to evolve in WWE. Removing the term Diva and giving the women more time and better placement and promotion for pay per views has done wonders. There are plenty of hungry talent on the main roster and several ladies ready to make the jump from NXT. However, there are a few familiar faces and a fresh one I'd like to see added to the division first.

Courtesy: WWE

I've wanted Kharma to come back since the second she left WWE several years ago. She's a huge missed opportunity. The company needs to do whatever it takes to bring her in, but they tend to only go with one "dominate" force in that division at a time and it looks like Nia Jax is filling that role.

Courtesy: WWE

The same could be said for Beth Phoenix. She was the total package of women's wrestling. Motherhood is treating her well and while it's doubtful she'll lace up the boots again, it would be nice to see her back even on a short term basis. The women in both NXT and WWE could learn a lot from her as they have from Natalya. 

Courtesy: WWE

Tessa Blanchard is a young, up and coming women's wrestler. She's made a name on the indy scene and has the training of both her famous father Tully Blanchard and step-dad Magnum T.A. Tessa has had a few matches on NXT. With some more seasoning, she will be no doubt be a future WWE Women's Champion. How sweet would a feud against Charolette be?

Don't read too much into this. I'm not discrediting Bailey, Aska or Nia. These women will all eventually be called up to the main roster too. I just wanted to bring in some established talent and a new face to help keep the division viable and growing.