The Wrestling Examiner

Yes, I know the PPV is already over, but I have no idea what happened, so these predictions are totally legitimate, I promise. Now, to get to the PPV. TLC is the last PPV of the calendar year and the last PPV before the road to WrestleMania starts up again. As a result, this is where a lot of rivalries are tied up before the 'Mania and pre-Mania feuds begin. For example, TLC 2012 saw the closing of the Big Show/ Sheamus rivalry and led to the Show/ Alberto Del Rio feud. This year, some feuds will end while others will continue. Not only will I make predictions, I will try and identify which feuds will continue. Let's get started. The New Day vs. Gold & Stardust- This tag match is scheduled for the Kickoff show. It will feature Kofi Kingston and Big E taking on Goldust and Stardust. The New Day has already lost (talk about poor booking), but there's no way they're losing at TLC. They need the win to be taken seriously, which they might not be in a few months. Winn...

The most recent episode of WWE Raw was the Slammy Awards special. Though the awards carry very little prestige and have almost no weight with the IWC, it's still fun to look back at the entire year and highlight the best of the best. In this recap, we're not going to look at the Slammy Awards themselves, but rather the rest of Raw. The Slammys don't really serve any purpose going forward so we're just going to skip right past them. One guy who did good work all night long: Seth Rollins. He had a good match with Dolph Ziggler and did some great mic work and talking. When he was with The Shield he was a good talker, but was always overshadowed by Dean Ambrose. In recent months, Rollins has really come into his own as a talker, only helping the case that he deserves to be a top star. Also, we need to see a real feud with Rollins and Ziggler. They have great chemistry and are both among the best workers in the WWE. Give them a Falls Count Anywhere match next year at Extr...

Last week, Survivor Series , the annual WWE Big Four pay-per-view that takes place in the fall, happened. It was good. It was really good. Survivor Series  may be one of the best pay-per-views of the year. The main event match (which was over 40 minutes long) was one of the best matches of the year and proved that the modern WWE Universe can appreciate longer matches. The rest of the card was pretty good. The Ambrose/Wyatt match was great, the tag title match was one of the best tag matches of the year, the Divas elimination match was pretty good (though a little long), and we had  a new Divas Champion. The event has drawn criticism for being too focused on the main event, but it all worked out in the end, Let's check out the biggest stars of Survivor Series . Before we get to the actual list, two honorable mentions: Tyson Kidd and Fandango. Kidd didn't have a match, but his antics after his wife's match were fantastic. Fandango meanwhile, was repackaged and is now a sal...

Survival is on everyone's mind as Survivor Series is right around the corner. This is one of the Big Four pay-per-views, along with the Royal Rumble ,   WrestleMania, and SummerSlam . Survivor Series  has a rich history with the Traditional Survivor Series Elimination Tag Match which has showcased many WWE Legends, including The Ultimate Warrior, The Undertaker, Hulk Hogan, Randy Orton, and Big Show. This year, like in 2012 and 2013, we have two of those matches on the card, including one which will be the main event. There are only two championships on the line. Besides  Royal Rumble 2014, this will be only event in more than five years (I gave up looking past 2009) for an event in which only two championships are on the line. In fact, there are only five matches advertised right now. That's really low, which means the main event match will be at least thirty minutes long. We will probably get some unadvertised matches, most likely involving Cesaro, Bo Dallas, Jack Swag...

Superstars have incredibly hard jobs. They put their bodies on the line day in and day out just to put on a good show and entertain us. It's hard enough doing just one match at a time. However, superstars often have to perform multiple matches on the same night. This can be incredibly taxing on them, but sometimes necessity calls for it. Putting on multiple matches on the same night is impressive enough, winning them is even more impressive. In this article, we'll  identify seven superstars who won multiple matches on the same night. We'll only be covering PPV matches, which are more impressive than regular matches. 11. Curtis Axel at Night of Champions  2013- Michael McGillicutty became Curtis Axel in June and became managed by Paul Heyman in May of 2013. The WWE seemed ready to push him to the moon. In his first month since his repackaging, Axel beat Triple H, beat John Cena, and won the Intercontinental Champion. By September, it was becoming clear that this push wasn...

This is my first Worth of the Month article since May. Why? Because the WWE has been absolutely fantastic since then! Of course, that's a total lie. There have been a lot of slip-ups, errors, and mistakes made by the company. I just haven't written any articles about how bad these errors have been. But, it's time for that to change. The last month was not excellent by any means. Sure, the Hell in a Cell PPV was a success, but the build-up was shaky. The last Worst of the Month article was all about specifics, this article will be more about general problems. Rather than highlight specific incidents, I'll be talking about general things, as most of the problems are not single incidents, but spread out over a period of time. Let's get started. 10. WWE Network Subscription Numbers- Let's face it, the WWE Network Subscription numbers are disappointing. The WWE has yet to reach its goal of 1 million subscribers. In fact, they are still about 300,00 short. The WW...

On the last episode of Raw, it was announced that John Cena and The Authority would square off in a traditional five-on-five elimination match at Survivor Series . There are only three episodes of Raw left before the Big Four event. Seeing as how WWE World Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar won't be at the show, this will probably be the main event. It's a little hard to believe that Cena, the #1 Contender for the World title, isn't clamoring for a title shot but is fighting The Authority instead. In this article, we'll be projecting the ten contenders in that match, and who we want to see. Let's start with Team Authority. The obvious members are Seth Rollins (who Cena was feuding with) and Kane. We could also see Triple H get involved, as this is one of the Big Four events. As for the other two members of the team, that's a little tricky. We could see Joey Mercury and Jamie Noble, as they're the only other male members of The Authority. Besides, they'...

Earlier this month, TNA held its annual Bound for Glory pay-per-view, which is their version of WrestleMania. This year's event was different than any previous edition. In fact, it was something they had never done before. Rather than have an event showcasing just TNA wrestlers, they featured a lot of wrestlers from Wrestle-1, a Japanese wrestling promotion. Most of the matches were This did annoy some fans, as TNA did not even build up to a lot of the matches, they just sort of happened. It was a pretty good event, with some pretty good matches, That event got me thinking: what if we had a cross-over event between the TNA and WWE? It's extremely unlikely, seeing as how WWE likes to pretend they are the only wrestling promotion and TNA might go out of business soon. But that's the point of fantasy booking, we can dream up matches that will probably never happen. But what if a cross-over event did happen? Let's say TNA is about to go out of business and the WWE buys t...

WWE's annual Hell in a Cell pay-per-view was this Sunday, and it delivered up to expectations. Ever since WWE adopted a PG attitude, matches have gotten less bloody and more wholesome. When fans think of Hell in a Cell matches, they think of crazy spots like Mankind going through the Cell roof after a backdrop from Triple H, Mankind getting thrown off the roof by The Undertaker, and Mankind getting chokeslammed through the ceiling by The Undertaker. Nothing like that has ever happened in recent memory. As a result, people don't get as excited for Hell in a Cell matches as they did before. This time however, the WWE delivered spectacularly. Both Hell in a Cell matches were pretty good, especially the Seth Rollins/ Dean Ambrose match, which contained some excellent spots (more on that later). All in all, it was a good PPV. As always, WWE did some good things and some bad things, though this PPV had more pros than cons. Let's see what 5 of those things are. 5. Rusev Wins ...

It's been a bit of a wait since the last pay-per-view (six weeks to be exact), but Hell in a Cell is finally here. The wait has seemed torturous at times (especially due to some terrible booking and creative decisions), but we can finally rest easy now. In fact, the rest of the year should prove to be quite exciting. HIAC is today, Survivor Series (the last of the Big Four) comes next month, and TLC takes place in December. After that, the road to WrestleMania begins again. Just a little bit longer! There have been all sorts of problems with the build up to this event. First, it felt like the WWE had forgotten all about their WWE World Heavyweight Champion (even though he is their only world champ). Also, no matches were announced for this PPV for a few weeks, leaving people wondering what exactly the WWE's plans were, and if they even had any (a valid point, that). But the WWE has cleaned up its act as of late, building up well to HIAC. So far, eight matches have been annou...

The WWE is the premier sports entertainment company in the world, no doubt about it. No other organization, whether it be NJPW, AAA, or ROH, even comes close. So, when a wrestler ascends to the top ranks of the WWE, they automatically become one of the biggest professional wrestlers in the world. When a wrestler becomes the top star of the WWE, they become the face of wrestling worldwide. So far, there have been five top stars in wrestling history: Bruno Sammartino, Hulk Hogan, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, The Rock, and John Cena. No offense meant to guys like Ric Flair and Sting, but those five are the only wrestlers worthy of being called the face of wrestling. So who will be the next top star? Well at this point, all signs point to Roman Reigns. Two months ago, the WWE Network reported breaking news: Roman Reigns would be out of action for out six weeks due to an incarcerated hernia. Later, it was announced that he would actually be missing up to 3-4 months. Even with thi...

The WWE is getting a lot of criticism right now, especially for their lackluster Raw episodes. The product has been suffering as of the last few weeks. Some of the current problems: a lot of talented wrestlers are being underutilized, a lot of storylines are being underdeveloped, and the lack of the regular presence of a WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Still, there's a lot of good things with the product right now. In this article, we'll look at five. 5. Great Matches- Fans are always raving about how much talent there is on NXT. What often gets overlooked is that there is also an unbelievable amount of talented wrestlers on the main roster as well. Sure, they may not always be booked well, but at least they're there. Guys like Stardust, Seth Rollins, Jimmy and Jey Uso, Luke Harper, and Bray Wyatt are all very talented and are very entertaining. When they are booked correctly (and even sometimes when they are not), the results are tremendous. There have been some excelle...

I don't expect this to become a regular series, but you never know. The point is to identify the top ten faces in the WWE at the moment. Of course, these things change at any point. I started compiling this list at the beginning of the week and have changed it three times. So what does it mean to be a top face? Well obviously, a superstar must be a face in order to make this list. Also, the superstar must be a real face, not a cool heel. So, John Cena qualifies, while Bad News Barrett does not. And how do I rank them? It's a combination of factors, including how successful the superstar is, how over with the fans they are, and how relevant they are. If this works out well, I may also rank the top heels and tag teams. But until then, enjoy this list and any possible future updates. 10. Mark Henry- The World's Strongest Man has been teasing a heel turn for a few weeks now, but is a face as of right now. He had a good feud with Rusev, but his feud with Bo Dallas has been uni...

The recent episodes of Raw have been okay, at best. In fact, they've gotten some historically bad ratings and horrible critical reception. It seems like the WWE is stuck in a creative rut. The last few episodes have seemed like carbon copies of each other. If you miss one episode, chances are you can just watch next week and not miss a thing. Has the WWE forgotten they have a WWE World Heavyweight Champion? Or that they have a pay-per-view in a few weeks that they need to build up to? In fact, up until this episode of Raw, a single match wasn't even announced for the upcoming Hell in a Cell  pay-per-view. This episode of Raw broke that streak of ordinary Raws. Who new all it would take to increase the ratings would be a guest appearance by one of the top superstars in WWE history? We'll take a look at that and some of the other big (relatively speaking) from this week's episode. Let's start with the biggest segment of Raw: The Rock making a surprise return to co...

In terms of talent, the WWE product is at a fantastic level. The roster is chock-full of talented wrestlers, including Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Cesaro, Dolph Ziggler, and Sheamus. Even though this talent is not always utilized correctly, it's a delight to see it put together in great matches, such as Daniel Bryan vs. Bray Wyatt at the Royal Rumble , the Usos vs. Luke Harper and Erick Rowan at Battleground, and Sheamus vs. Cesaro at Night of Champions . However, there is always room for the roster to improve. And with the current talent pool at NXT, that is very possible. The stars at NXT are well-proven wrestlers who can more than carry their weight on the roster. However, all of the wrestlers on this list are not all NXT stars, but they are associated with the WWE in some way. Let's check out the list. 10. CM Punk- Come on, did you really think Punk wouldn't be on this list? The list is for guys who we want to see on the main roster, and Punk is a guy we definitely...

The Internet Wrestling Community makes up a big portion of wrestling fans nowadays. Members of the IWC includes anyone who does anything wrestling related online. If you are reading this article, then you are a member of the IWC. So why not make the most out of your IWC membership? Learn everything you can about the business by reading articles, watching old matches, studying up on wrestlers' movesets, listening to a podcast, etc. Here are ten sites/pages that every IWC member should be aware of. 1. Profightdb.com- The annals of professional wrestling can be confusing at times. Things get mixed up a lot of the time. Some reigns are not official, some wins are vacated, etc. The Internet Wrestling Database is the perfect place to go to in order to check up on wrestling statistics. For example, did you know the superstar with the highest win percentage in the history of the WWE is Adam Rose? True story. 2. Whatculture.com- WWE is only one of Whatculture's sections, but they p...

The Night of Champions  pay-per-view on Sunday was interesting for a lot of reasons. Almost every match was a rematch, but the creative team managed to make things interesting. The critical response to the PPV is mixed (as it always is). None of the matches were terrible, which is a big positive, but it was also hard to find ten top stars. I may have stretched it a bit here, but all of these stars deserve recognition. Before we get to the best, let's look at who didn't make the list. First, Triple H. In his lone appearance, he yelled at Dean Ambrose and security. That's it. For a guy who is supposedly a tough guy, he didn't look tough at all. Another guy who didn't make the list: Cesaro. He and Sheamus had a great match, but his main purpose was to put the United States Champion over. There doesn't seem to be any plan for him whatsoever. The last entrant to this list: Brock Lesnar. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship lost to John Cena by disqualification, ...