The Lowdown

This weeks top rumours - 16/12/13 

So this last week has been full of little rumours flying around the IWC and I want to give you all a chance to give your input. So in no particular order we shall delve into some of these rumours and try and identify truths and lies. PLEASE BE AWARE THERE IS A POSSIBILITY OF SPOILERS WITHIN THIS ARTICLE.

AJ Lee vs Michelle Beadle

This week at the Tribute for the Troops filming there was an apparent backstage argument between AJ Lee and Beadle. This altercation was due to something Beadle had said to CM Punk that had allegedly  upset him this in turn set AJ Lee off. Backstage sources were claiming that AJ Lee was talking very much like her character and acting like she was ready to fight with Miss Beadle. Beadle later posted the following online, 

"I've known CM Punk for years. Considered him a friend. When I saw him at the arena, I said 'hey f&$?face'. The exact same way I talk to everyone. His girlfriend was no where near this. And I kept walking along with my assistant and two members of WWE PR. Next thing I know, I'm being yelled at. I honestly thought it was a joke. Period. The event went on and it was amazing. So I hope we can move on from this ridiculously lame 'story.' As for the crazies, BLOCKED! And Happy freaking Holidays!!!"

Beadle apparently felt the whole incident was a joke and later posted on twitter,

"Lost another friend to CGFN….crazy girlfriend neutering. It's real people. Check your buddies. Affects everyone."

On top of all of this AJ Lee has also suffered from backstage issues as a cartoon mocking her has made it's way round the locker room. The cartoon makes fun of the fact that she met former Diva Lita when she was younger claiming she "wants to be just like her." The cartoon also makes a point of showing the fact Punk also used to date Lita and is now dating AJ Lee.

AJ Styles and the forever open contract

AJ Styles was yet to sign a new contract with TNA at the beginning of the week but it would appear now that he has. TNA has originally asked Styles to take a pay-cut from his 350000 dollars down to 200000 dollars which is clearly a big loss in Styles case. TNA have apparently offered Styles his contract back with his original pay and he has signed. Expect to see Styles on TNA programming again around the summer after his match with Magnus.

Laying the Smackdown

It seems as though WWE have finially decided it could be time to put Smackdown back to being a live show and they could also be changing the day of its broadcast. The internal feeling is that WWE can afford to make the show live again in order to create a better product and that this would mean they no longer need to edit sounds or crowd noises in order to create an atmosphere. Most of this idea is being pushed by Triple H.

Mr Wrestlemania to have one more match?

With HBK's current appearances on RAW the rumour mill is pushing the idea that Shawn Michaels could in fact be in line to have one more match at Wrestlemania 30. The current opponents that have been mentioned would be CM Punk or Daniel Bryan but the over all feeling is that even though CM Punk had a face off with Michaels this week, it would in fact be Bryan who would face Michaels at Mania. 

The Walrus, The Beast and The Viper

The creative mastermind that is Paul Heyman tweeted something that caught my attention this week,

"I had a fascinating conversation today w/ @BROCKLESNAR regarding the NEW @WWE World Champion @RandyOrton"

In my eyes this would be an amazing moment. Imagine Brock enters as the 30 man in the rumble and wins. Randy Orton looks worried watching on and Paul Heyman stands by Brocks side. GENIUS.

The animal uncaged?

This weeks biggest rumour is the possibility of the return of The Animal Dave Batista.

Lets not lie, Dave is in great shape. This rumour had came about due to a ticket website WWE uses showing that he is due to return at an event soon. Let it happen and let Roman Reigns be the man to beat him. Batista would be due to stay on until the promotion of Guardians Of The Galaxy in November so that would give more than enough time for a great programme with whoever he works with. 

So what do you think? Do you see any problems arising for AJ Lee? Do you see Styles returning before the summer? Do you think Brock will return to take on Orton? Will Batista show up or will it all be a ruse by WWE in order to gain attention?

Let me know your thoughts and keep up with all the updates and new articles at the Levels of wrestling facebook page.https://www.facebook.com/LevelsOfWrestlingLOW

or get me on twitter @CraigKelly123

Booking at a new level

Total Non-Stop Invasion

Premise

I have been asked for another fantasy booking and this time its the age old classic - the invasion angle. Since the WWE/WCW/ECW storyline back in 2000's people have been hunting for that perfect invasion story. In this instance I will be using the wrestlers of the current rosters of Impact Wrestling and WWE. We will look at how Impact would lead an invasion on WWE and try to prove they can "hang with the big dogs."

Please bare in mind this is all made up and just fantasy booking. This is my opinion and thoughts. I'm interested in hearing yours so let me hear how you would book it. The following sections will include how I believe the invasion would come about. I'm not booking the entire invasion as I believe it would take forever to perfect.

Situation

On the current WWE roster there are 2 men in high power positions who have worked for TNA before, Road Dogg Jesse James and Bad Ass Billy Gunn. These men during their time in TNA both showed dislike for their previous employers as The Voodoo-Kin Mafia by showing impersonations of Vince and HHH and even challenging them to an open fight. But now that these two "Benedict Arnolds" have jumped back to their original "home" could it all have just been a plan to get back at Vince and HHH?

Road Dogg is currently working as an agent and producer for WWE and Billy Gunn is working as the head trainer in WWE's training facility and NXT. With these powerful positions both men slowly work their way into the pockets of old friend HHH who begins to let them have trust in who they hire and work with. With The Outlaws promising potential in everyone who is hire HHH lets them control all hiring of ring performers. 

With the night after Wrestlemania almost becoming a one night show in itself I believe this is where the story would begin. 

Raw after Mania and we hear that its a new era and a new time on the WWE landscape and that its time to expect change, its time to expect new talent to shine. With WWE's new take on realism HHH comes out and cuts a promo on how things are going to be shaken up and he has the right men for the job. Out come The Outlaws to a huge pop and they explain that  they have been hired for some time now and that things will certainly be shaken up with them cutting the challenges to enter the WWE locker room.
Over the next few weeks things continue as normal, Road Dogg comes out on the go home show before Extreme rules announcing that he and Billy Gunn will be setting a challenge for one new superstar to face none other than Christian in a TLC match for a contract. All they have to do is get up there before Christian does and the job is theirs.

At the PPV Cole and King hype the match as a massive opportunity for the young superstar who is yet to be announced. Christian makes his way to the ring and gets a nice welcome back with the "You Still Got It" chants. The music hits and out sprints Samoa Joe. Christian stands smiling happy to see an old friend get an opportunity at the big time again Joe gets in the ring and hugs Christian. Out of nowhere Joe sets in the sleeper hold and takes Christian out. Joe climbs the ladder and takes the contract. As promised HHH comes out and shakes his hand and signs the contract. 

Next night on RAW, in the second hour, Christian comes out and brings Joe down to the ring and says its good to have a friend and a brother back. Joe thanks him and explains how hard it was to be under the thumb of a Carter and thanks Vince and the fans for the chance to work for the company. Christian asks Joe for "One More Match" for old time sakes. Joe stands for a moment or two and he looks at Christian. Christian says, "It would be like fighting a brother. It would be a phenomenal match."

Joe replies,

"Joe already has a brother, Joe already has a family." Christian looks at him confused and Joe floors him and begins to stomp him. King and Cole are complaining on commentary when all of a sudden they are cut off and the camera shows two more men attacking the commentary team.
Both Road Dogg and Billy Gunn run to the ring to the ring. The push Joe off Christian and then they push the two others in to the ring. They go at it and Joe gets into it helping the two men take on the Outlaws. They irish whip The Outlaws and bend down to set up a back drop but as The Outlaws rebound off the ropes they just stop. The two men and Joe stand up and stare into the faces off The Outlaws and the camera pans to Road Dogg who is seen laughing and smiling. All the men in the ring begin hugging and embracing each other laughing and celebrating. The Outlaws stand raising the hands of the three men. Joe stands proud and the two others drop their hoods. We see Kazarian and Christopher Daniels. 

Christian stands up and explains how he let Joe win last night and that it felt great for Christian Cage to be back.
Road Dogg goes to cut a promo on the events they have just seen but is cut off by HHH who stands at the top of the ramp screaming that they are fired and they should get out before security arrives. HHH is furious that his "friends" would do this to the company. 
HHH says, "get out of my company, get off of my show, get out of my life and get out of the WWE universe"

SMACK. AJ STYLES ATTACKS TRIPLE H AND HITS THE STYLES CLASH OFF THE RAMP. HE STANDS OVER TRIPLE H AND SAYS,

"This aint no WWE universe anymore. This is the impact zone BITCH. They told you change would happen. Well here......it......is"

Don't forget to check out The Levels Of Wrestling on Facebook. The page will be posting up to date blog posts and will post the occasional rumours and keep you up to date with all things wrestling related. 

Dont Try This At Home

We all hear the warnings at the beginning of wrestling programming. We all hear the stories of injuries caused by those who try to imitate wrestler and the moves they perform in the ring and there have been severe cases of accidental death/murder. With this in mind we can see why WWE has turned its focus to TV-PG programming. But the question posed to me by Marc McPherson, who at some point will write an article or two for this blog, is "Can or will WWE ever go back to TV-14?"

What made the change

WWE had been TV-14 for years and was at its highest ratings during the attitude era but at some point in time WWE decided that its best to change. For me this moment was when the Chris Benoit tragedy/incident occurred. 

This incident brought so much bad publicity to the WWE ball game that they had to completely remove all existence of him from record until recently on an episode of Main Event. But this was only the beginning. 

Everyone remembers the blood pouring down Austin's face, everyone remembers the brash trash talking from The Rock, everyone remembers Undertaker crucifying Austin, "killing" his parents and attacking his brother. So let me ask would these moments have been as memorable for good reasons if Austin hadn't bled? If Rock spoke politely to everyone? Of course not and this is one of the issues a lot of fans have now a days. 

A lot of today's fans believe the product has become to watered down, to child friendly and to some extent I can agree. But is this not a good thing in some ways? In my opinion blood had become too much of a common thing and there were only so many times I could be shocked by certain events. Why would we need controversy all the time? 

So now we come to today's product. We have more child friendly characters such as The Funkasaurus and Khali. We have more child friendly programmes such as Saturday Morning Slam (where head shots and any move above the neck is not allowed) and of course we have less violence in certain matches. While this is annoying long time "fans" it is bring in the company huge revenue. The WWE has gained more profit every single year since they have gone TV-PG. Is this not a good thing? Will this not lead to bigger budget productions etc? This boom in revenue is due to sponsors. WWE has sponsors who are only within the company business due to the fact they are now child friendly. If WWE was to go back to TV-14 they would lose profits and could quite realistically lose a lot of fans. 

Lets just take a look at WWE's outside work;

• Make-A-Wish Foundation
• Be-A-Star
• Tribute to the troops
• National Guard charities
• Susan G

Now with this in mind, does it not make sense that WWE stays PG? All of these companies are very family orientated. WWE provides free tickets to events for members of the armed forces and quite often give free tickets to be-a-star and make-a-wish members. So why would WWE give up the opportunity for positive publicity after the appalling Benoit moment? They wouldn't! It's just that simple.

For one moment lets just imagine WWE hadn't turned TV-PG. Would CM Punk pouring Paul Bearer's "ashes" be so shocking or would we have just got used to these moments? Would we have been so attached to characters like Undertaker and Kane who give us that much loved nostalgia moments. Would we all be amazed at the physicality of Brock Lesnar's matches or would we still expect more?

This can be linked to Hollywood. Back in the 60's horror films were timid in comparison to today's product. If they had tried to make Adam West's Batman as realistic as Christian Bales one no one would have paid attention and it most likely would have been removed from TV. The public back then didn't want realism but now they do.

TV SHOWS ARE LIKE WRESTLING. THEY ARE BASED OFF OF PEOPLES REACTIONS AND ARE AIMED AT WHAT THE MAJORITY WANT. The majority of people do not want their kids seeing people bleed or get hurt and while most people would say "don't watch," WWE have said well we will give you what you want. 

My thoughts

WWE has some of the most vast fan bases and as JR put it;

" You can impress someone all of the time but you cant impress everyone all of the time"

What WWE is doing now is great. By taking the rating to PG they have given themselves another glass ceiling and as we all know, the greatest moments come from breaking through that glass ceiling. They have made themselves a nice box to stay within and they can now let stars try and push those limits in order to get a reaction.

WWE did something astounding in the 80's. They had the rock and wrestle connection. They did it again in the 90's with the attitude era (THEY EVEN JOKED ABOUT CENSORING) and then in 00's with the "ruthless aggression" era. All of these timelines have something in common. THEY STEPPED UP THE COMPANY.
What people need to remember is that WWE first and foremost is a company. A companies goal is to make profit. WWE wants profit and by being PG that's what they get by working with all these other groups and gaining fans via free tickets and good publicity.  When WWE is happy with their situation and happy with their profit they provide fans with better products.

Take it with a pinch of salt but I believe that this PG boom will slowly die off just as the other eras have and they will begin to create an edgier show and they have already started that by producing darker characters such a Bray Wyatt and letting CM Punk drop the pipe bomb.

So can WWE ever go back to being officially TV-14? I don't think so. Will we get edgier viewing as time goes on? YES,yes we will.

Booking at a new level

The Phenomenal Icon

Premise

Every year for the last 4 years or so we have had the same rumors running round the internet; WILL STING SIGN WITH WWE?
On this occasion I am going to give you my view of fantasy booking for that one iconic match that we all dream of - Sting vs The Undertaker at Wrestlemania 30. Please bare in mind this is only opinion and that currently this is all rumor. 

Situation

As it stands at this point in time We have just begun on the road to wrestlemania and it is getting to the time where the build of anticipation for Undertakers return begins. It should also be noted that at this time Sting's current contract with TNA runs out in January 2014 and although he is booked until then there would still be plenty time to sort out booking. So let us begin. 

The month of January passes by and WWE have been hyping the Royal Rumble for the last month. The winner of the Rumble has the opportunity to go for Orton's unified championship and headline Wrestlemania 30. 

The night of the PPV happens and John Cena gets his rematch with Orton only to lose again but be told he can enter the Rumble just like everyone else because "thats whats best for business." Cena enters the Rumble at number 21 only to eliminate everyone in sight until the clock counts down to number 28. Bryan sprints for the ring attacking Cena and brawling with him for a further 2 minutes until number 29 is called. CM Punk "the best in the world" makes his way to the ring and attacks both Cena and Bryan. Everyone brawls for the next 2 minutes and the "YES" chants make their way across the arena for Bryan. The countdown for number 30 begins. 10....9....8....7....6....5....4....3....2...1...GONG HITS. Taker makes his way to the ring as Punk, Cena and Bryan look on in shock.

As Taker is nearly at the ring Punk is gearing himself up for another go at the deadman and Cena is eliminated by Bryan. Taker enters the ring and both Bryan and Punk go at Taker until eventually Undertaker eliminates both Bryan and Punk at the same time. 

Undertaker stands victorious. His music hits and he poses in the middle of the ring but as his gong sounds the lights go out and crowd goes nuts. All thats is heard around the arena is an eerie whisper resembling that of the undertakers theme saying, "he's here." The lights come back on after a minute or two and the Undertaker is laid out in the entrance ramp and a crow sits on the ropes of the ring. The crowd goes nuts. 

The following night on RAW Undertaker addresses the situation and does something he has never done before, he claims that Sting will be the next streak victim. The authority comes to the ring telling him he cant do that and that he must face Orton for the title as that is what is required of the winner of the Rumble. Undertaker argues and Punks music hits. Punk comes to the stage and claims he has no problem with this situation as that means there is an open spot at Mania for him. On this note both Cena and Bryan walk out claiming they two could have an opportunity. The authority tells everyone they will let them know their decision the following week on RAW. 

The authority announce on RAW that they will allow Taker to fight Sting in a match at Mania and that the final 6 competitors in the Rumble will go into the Elimination Chamber to fight for the right to see Orton in a match for his title. 

The weeks pass by and Elimination Chamber comes around and Undertaker comes out surrounded by druids to the ring to cut a promo. He claims that Sting has been too afraid to come and see him face to face and that he has had enough. Undertaker tells Sting that mind games don't work on him and that its time to face the music. Stings entrance theme hits but Sting is no where to been seen and Undertaker tells him that he is sick of waiting and the he is coming for him. As Undertaker leaves the ring his druids do not follow, they stand motionless in the ring. Undertaker turns to look at them and in one motion they all remove their hoods to show the crow face paint. Taker furious with the situation attacks the druids only to be engulfed in a sea of fake Stings.

Undertaker returns two weeks before Mania announcing that the match between himself and Sting will be a No DQ match and that if anyone interferes they will have to answer to him. HHH walks out telling the Undertaker that he doesn't have the power to make those decisions to which the Undertaker replies "You gonna stop me? You couldnt before". Triple H leaves the ring in anger and heads back up behind the curtain. Takers music hits and we get a replay of what happened only for it to be cut short. Triple H has laid Undertaker out with a baseball bat at the top of the ramp and stand over him yelling, "I couldnt beat you but I know someone who damn well can." 

Sting walks out and takes the bat from HHH and they shakes hands.

The final RAW before mania and HHH explains he brought in Sting because its what the fans want and its best for business. Taker is put in a match with Ortons opponent for mania. Undertaker has them up for a chokeslam when Stings face flashes up on the tron. Orton and HHH come out of no where and attack both Undertaker and his opponent. But Undertaker fights off HHH and Orton brawls around the ramp with his Mania opponent. Taker looks up at the Mania doing his rest in piece taunt only to see Sting standing up on the sign bat in hand. 

So what do you think? Let me know and as always thanks for reading the Levels Of Wrestling.

TLC - The beginning of the road to wrestlemania

TLC - The First Step Down The Road

The TLC PPV was one that had me hooked. I was actually interested in seeing a good 75% of the card and I have to say I wasn't disappointed. There was a lot of potential showing in this PPV and its clear that WWE has some kind of thought process again. With superstars such as The Shield, The Wyatts, Punk, Bryan, The Real Americans, Brodus Clay and Goldust all giving great performances this should be a PPV you go out of your way to watch.
While some of the matches (the main event) weren't wrestling perfection they were all telling stories. This PPV has began to shine a light of hope on WWE.

Please be aware that from this point on there will be spoilers

My Thoughts

WWE from the beginning of the build for this PPV had me on the edge of my seat because there was a chance for so many things to happen; Would The Shield split? Would Reigns turn on Ambrose and Rollins? Would Brodus make the hinted heel turn? Would Bryan join the Wyatts? Would Cena join the authorities? Would there be a screwy finish?
WWE had everything going for this PPV and with only 3 weeks really to build the card I have to say I don't think they did a bad job and when you compare it to Battleground it looks like a hunk of gold.
So lets take a look at what happened.

The undercard 

CM Punk vs The Shield 

This match could have been anywhere on the card and I would have enjoyed it but WWE were clever and gave the crowd something they were interested in straight away. Shield have been fantastic recently. There have been so many points where the little things they do have caught my attention. The seeds have been planted to make them break up and I could see it officially happening at Elimination Chamber and then having a triple threat at Wrestlemania. However, in this match The Shield were a strong unit once again continually giving a strong opposing threat to the "best in the world."

The match had some great spots with Reigns hurting his eye and Ambrose and Rollins using psychology to get into Punks head and vise versa on the part of Punk. As much as I like this pairing of opponents I hope this match was just for this PPV as I want to see both sides progress towards Mania.
With Reigns delivering a hell of a spear to Ambrose due to Punk side stepping, Punk got the pin and Rollins stood having words with the damaged Samoan as Ambrose lay out cold on the mat. Could this be a sign of things to come?

match score - 8/10

AJ Lee vs Natalya

Dear WWE make this feud more personal and I will believe it. We all know that AJ can put on a stellar performance as the twisted minded diva, however, on this occasion Natalya stepped up her came something big. The Hart Dungeon has done this girl well because last nights performance was magical. Both AJ and Nattie giving it a bit of depth from the divas. I also loved seeing Tamina at ringside with AJ because she is such an imposing character.
The match had some fantastic back and forth moments but in the end it was AJ who rolled Natalya up from the sharp shooter (which by the way was fantastic to see.) My only concern now is where do the divas go from here? 

match score - 7.5/10

Big E vs Damien Sandow

This was my first lackluster moment. While I care about both guys in the ring I had zero interest in this match. Big E is great but WWE need to sort out his theme and let him have some say in whats going on because both he and Sandow are going to be great in the future. Sandow as per usual was golden on the mic before the match started and again he looked just as aggressive as he did when he cashed in on Cena.
I want to hear Big E talk more and I want to see his personality because his 5 count gimmick was great. 

Big E wins the match after Sandow does most of the offensive work. 

match score - 6/10

The midcard

(yes this was higher up the card)

Brodus Clay vs R-Truth

I have a confession. I love Brodus Clay. I think he is brilliant in the ring and now that we got a glimpse of the monster he can be I believe WWE should run with it. I tried looking for a preview of the match for you guys but I cant find any as of yet. Please make sure you watch it and just see how good Clay can be. 

Clay hits the majority of the offense through out this match and Tensai does a great part of continually questioning why he is being so heavy handed and why he doesn't go for the pin. This eventually leads to an arguement between Clay and Tensai and the apparent split of Tons of Funk. With Clay distracted R-truth hits the scissor kick and hits a quick roll up for the win. This in my opinion was bad booking on WWE's part. If anything the match should have been with Woods.

match score - 6.5/10 because it made a statement for those involved.


Tag Team Fatal Four Way Elimination match

I loved this match. The teams that were involved should have been changed though. WWE wants to make the tag division relevant and they do this by putting two random stars together when in fact they have a perfectly good tag team called The Usos. Why were they left out? They have proven they can put on great matches just look back to The Shield vs The Usos on one of the preshows because it was phenomenal.

However with that said, The Rhodes are looking strong still which makes me wonder are we actually going to get Goldust vs Cody? I for one hope so.
This match showcased all those involved with The Real Americans getting the most benefit from this because they delivered some of the best old school tag teaming in ages. Constant back and forth tagging and power moves. I love that tag team.
The finish came down to Big Show and Mysterio vs The Rhodes. THIS SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN BOOKED THIS WAY! Let the tag teams do the tag teaming dammit! Let them look strong!
Rey and Cody set up the finish beautifully with so many counters going back and forth that I found myself getting upset at the thought of Rhodes losing to Rey.
Cody Rhodes picks up the win here and then both teams congratulate each other on a good match.

match score 8.5/10  

Miz vs Kofi Kingston in a No DQ match

Those of you who know me will know that I am high on Kofi. I think he could be a brilliant heel or he could be a fantastic face with an aggressive side but he is booked so badly and it doesnt help when they put him against someone who can't distinguish what he is. Is Miz face, heel or tweener? One thing he isn't is entertaining. I am sick fed up of seeing him on the TV when he has no where to go. Give Ziggler Miz's spot and let him put on those fantastic matches with Kofi.
Considering the match was a No DQ ruling there was not enough physicality for me. Kofi started strong only to have Miz go after a damaged leg.
In what was a short match Kofi got the win. 

match score - 4/10

The upper card

Daniel Bryan vs The Wyatts

Let us just take a moment to appreciate how glorious these men are. I haven't been so enthralled about watching brawlers in a long time. We all know Bryan can go but tonight was about highlighting the younger talent. Luke Harper does his gator roll brilliantly, Eric Rowan is the perfect bruiser and the flapjack press slam he did looked dangerous. These men will go far so long as WWE believes in them and lets them continue to dominate. 

The build to this match was great and it had me speculating whether Bryan would join the family or not. I believe he should but hey that's a different story. 

Some good strong spots in this match. Harper's gator roll, Bryan with the flying headbutt and Bray giving us all the in ring shouting and trash talk followed by that creepy crab walk. Follow the Buzzards my friend because that man is going to be the future. Im calling it now, Bray Wyatt has the potential to be the next Supernatural character that will last in time. 

The match finished with Bray hitting Sister Abigail on Bryan and then holding him laughing while he cradles Bryan's head.

match score - 9/10

The main event

Lets clear something up, this match was my reason for watching this PPV live. The hype made it seem this match was going to be huge or that we would have some huge moment. Did we get that? NO! 

This match was poor in my opinion. There was a lot of time left for this match and it really didn't deliver. Both Cena and Orton got in some good offence but there just seemed to be very little in the way of aggression. Orton attempted the punt kick only to be put through the announce table via F-U. Time after time each superstar would climb the ladder for what seemed like an eternity only to be knocked down.
The highlight of the match was when Orton handcuffed Cena to the ropes. Orton climbs the ladder and Cena soon follows after untying the ring ropes. Orton stumbles off the ladder as Cena reaches for the belts and Orton begins a tug of war using the ropes. Cena takes what looks like one of the most painful spots of the night and lands on his face on a table in the corner that barely breaks. Orton climbs the ladder to claim victory.
The match was over and I was bothered by the ending. It was dull. It wasn't really all that memorable and I felt conned. However, The McMahon family come to the ring and I believe that something is going to go down. Seems I was wrong as all they did was congratulate Orton. 

match score - 7/10

MVPS

Let this man lead an army. Let this soldier go to war. Let this man tear down the machine and destroy the authorities with Bryan. Bray Wyatt shows each and every week that he can be that damn good. he can be that sinister yet enthralling character. This image alone shows so much. Bray Wyatt believes every word he speaks and in return that makes me believe his character. THIS WWE IS WHAT YOU NEED! In a time when spoilers ruin wrestling and celebrities get spotlight on PPV, realism is what you need. Characters who believe their own hype.
Bray is so before his time its great. The last time I felt this way was watching Raven.

Honorable mentions - Ambrose, Goldust and The Real Americans

Overall Thoughts

The PPV itself was good. It wasn't brilliant but it was good. WWE has begun to sow seeds that will lead hopefully to wrestlemania matches. Coming out of this PPV I'm interested to see where they go with the following;

• Where does CM Punk go from here?
• How long does The Shield have left?
• Is Brodus ready to be that monster?
• Whats next for the Divas?
• Where are The Wyatts going and will Bryan join eventually?
• How are they going to explain the ending to the night?

As always I'd love to hear your thoughts. Write to me about topics you would like me to cover and make sure and keep up to date with the Levels Of Wrestling.