The Year in PPV- 2015, Part II

Let's continue 2015 by seeing how the WWE would restore life to the King of the Ring Tournament...


5. King of the Ring

STOP IT! Stop it RIGHT NOW! WWE, what is WRONG WITH YOU!?!? After a 5 year absence, the King of the Ring Tournament was brought back for a one-hour special on the WWE Network. It took place 2 days after Extreme Rules and the qualification matches occurred on Monday Night RAW the night before. Let's stop right there. That's a bad call. A one hour special? This prestigious tournament is brought back unceremoniously, barely announced at a PPV that took place 2 days before, and is only given 1 hour of thought on a WWE Network special? Make it a full PPV. Give it at least 2 hours to work off of, put some higher profile stars in the tournament. Make winning the tournament seem important to the superstars and to the fans. They didn't do that. AT ALL!

I was fine with the match between Sheamus and Neville, which did good things for getting Neville over as a new talent and continued the rivalry between Sheamus and Dolph Ziggler. Bad News Barrett fought R-Truth. In what universe is R-Truth relevant in 2015? He won a number of Pre-Show matches throughout the year, started off the Royal Rumble match, competed at WrestleMania, and was in the semi-finals of the King of the Ring Tournament. HUH!?!? Anyways, it came down to Neville and Barrett, and I was heading in being ok with either of them winning. 7 months removed and I know they made the wrong call. Neville has since become a regular midcarder with no real momentum heading forward, and Barrett has gone on to become what many wrestling fans consider the worst King of the Ring ever. What makes him stand out with other King of the Ring failures like Mabel and Billy Gunn is the flow of momentum given to him after winning the tournament. Barrett loses. A LOT. In fact, he was given an almost jobber-like status for a number of months, while also suffering a handful of minor injuries during his 2015 run as the King of Bad News. My goodness, guys like Stone Cold Steve Austin and Bret Hart won this tournament. They need to handle this show better if they decide to bring it back in 2016.

Skip It


6. Payback

Now we have the opposite response to a show like Extreme Rules with Payback. When I can care about the main events and NOT the midcard, it makes for a show that's solid, but could be better. I didn't care about the Divas tag match, Neville vs. King Barrett, or the thrown together feud between Ryback and Bray Wyatt. I couldn't have cared less about those matches. However, the opening match between Sheamus and Dolph Ziggler really helped get me eased into the show. That match had great storytelling that felt like a proper payoff for their bitter and personal feud. Following that match with a 2 out of 3 falls match for the WWE Tag Team Championship was another good call. I was just getting into really liking The New Day gimmick heading into this match, and was already onboard with Tyson Kidd and Cesaro, so this match did a great job of tag team storytelling.

The John Cena and Rusev rivalry came to an end in an "I Quit" match for the United States Championship. I'm sure EVERYONE knows who's winning this one, but these guys still have great chemistry together, and the there's some good moments and spots throughout the match. The main event saw Seth Rollins finally put up or shut up against his existing rivalries with Randy Orton, Roman Reigns, and Dean Ambrose. In a Fatal 4-Way match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, they provided non-stop action and chaos that made this a very fun match to end the PPV with. It also featured one of the biggest pops of the year when the SHIELD reunited for a minute. That moment alone is worth the watch and it's attached to a good main event, so that's a plus.

Mild Recommendation


7. Elimination Chamber

For those who were disappointed in Fastlane replacing the Elimination Chamber as the February PPV, have no fear. The Chamber makes a return to PPV in another WWE Network exclusive. After Daniel Bryan was deemed (yet again) too injured to compete, we were given a traditional Elimination Chamber match for the vacant Intercontinental Championship. Dolph Ziggler, R-Truth, King Barrett, Sheamus, Ryback, and Mark Henry all battled in your standard Chamber match. Not to say that the match was bad, but nothing was added to the Chamber that we haven't seen before. And for the first time ever, we had a Chamber match that featured six tag teams. The New Day defended their WWE Tag Team Championships against Los Matedores, The Ascension, The Prime Time Players, The Lucha Dragons, and Cesaro and Tyson Kidd. This match was the better of the two Chamber matches, but that's not saying a lot. Some eliminations happened too quickly, the remaining three teams were a bit too slow to keep the audience riveted, and tag team dynamics almost felt thrown away in favor of some heavily telegraphed spots. On this night, the Chamber played second fiddle, as two matches were able to outshine the gimmick match that inspired the show.

The first match that stole the show was the epic first encounter between John Cena and Kevin Owens. I love NXT, and having the NXT Champion debut against the United States Champion (and a 15 time World Champion) is the best way to go. Let them go at it and tear the house down for 20 minutes, give the fans an ending they never saw coming, and tease a rematch by the end of the show? I'm all for it. One of the best matches of the year. Fantastic. And the action doesn't stop there. In possibly the most underrated main event feud of the year, Dean Ambrose proved how much star power he actually has in the main event by challenging Seth Rollins for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. I'm not a fan of the finish, at all, but the 20 minutes of non-stop action showed me that in this current generation of wrestling, I would have no issues with Ambrose and Rollins wrestling each other every night.

Recommended


8. Money in the Bank

I'll start off by saying that it was in very good taste on WWE's part to dedicate this show in memory of Dusty Rhodes, who passed away a few days before the event. The entire company was affected by the loss, and the show served as a good tribute to the life and legacy that Dusty left on the world of professional wrestling. That being said, there's a lot of filler on this show. The midcard felt like nothing special to watch, and the conclusion to the Divas Championship match between Nikki Bella and Paige seemed like a confusing match to involve a dedication to Dusty. If you're gonna dedicate a match to someone, it's probably best that you let that person win the match. Just saying.

Sadly, the match that the whole PPV is focused on, the Money in the Bank ladder match, was just kind of there. I didn't mind the participants: Randy Orton, Neville, Sheamus, Kofi Kingston, Dolph Ziggler, Kane, and Roman Reigns. There are a few good spots, but nothing really wowed me about this one. It just didn't click. There was another great match between John Cena and Kevin Owens, but it didn't have that impact that their match at Elimination Chamber had. Still, an amazing match. You should check it out. Just a minor nitpick. The main event had a proper payoff for the Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose feud with a Ladder match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Remember what I said about Rollins and Ambrose fighting every night? This match further proved my point. Add to the fact that they're fighting in my favorite gimmick match, and you have a match that had me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end. Fantastic effort on their part. I just wish the show that this match, as well as Cena/Owens II, was featured on was a better overall show.

Mild Recommendation


Thoughts: Some of these shows were rough, but there were some highlights. The Cena/Owens feud and the Ambrose/Rollins feud led to 2 great matches each in this block of PPVs. Not much else to write home about with this block. Go see those matches that I praised, skip what I verbally destroyed, and hopefully we get some better stuff on the road to SummerSlam.

Continued in Part III...


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