WWE TLC Reaction

The Barclays Center is Sold Out for the final pay-per-view of 2012 and the last stop before The Road to WrestleMania begins. The card itself looked very impressive. Let's see how the show stacked up.

WWE TLC Preshow

Santa's Little Helper #1 Contender Divas Battle Royal:
Alicia Fox vs Rosa Mendes vs Layla vs Kaitlyn vs Tamina vs Aksana vs Natalya vs Cameron vs Naomi

Nothing much to say here. Just your standard Divas Battle Royal. Best looking goes to Layla, but the winner of the match was Naomi. Yes, one of Brodus Clay's dancers, Naomi. But don't get it twisted, Naomi can actually wrestle. She last eliminates Kaitlyn and has earned herself a shot at the Divas Championship later on in the show.

#1 Contenders Tables Match
Rey Mysterio & Sin Cara vs Damien Sandow & Cody Rhodes

These two teams facing off again, to determine the #1 contenders for the tag titles AGAIN. I'm pretty sure there are other teams that need some air time, but I digress.

This match was pretty solid. Lots of fast pace action, Rhodes & Sandow dominated for a good portion of the match, but at times all four of them looked lost like they were missing spots or something, and Sin Cara looked legitimately injured. But they made up for it with a great spot to finish the match. Sin Cara springs off the ropes and only to be pushed off by Cody Rhodes and go flying through the table on the outside. Great spot to make up for the sloppy match.

Nice way to set the tone for the night with this match.

WWE United States Championship Match
Antonio Cesaro (c) vs R-Truth

Another short match, and a little better than their match at Survivor Series. Cesaro wins the Neutralizer. They are finally looking to push Cesaro to the next level now and I say good. He gets better with every match and brought some much needed prestige to the US Title. Prestige that it hasn't had in a LONG time. This guy is the real deal. Looking forward to seeing how he gets handled heading into WrestleMania.



Miz TV:

Miz hosts Miz TV and his guests are 3MB. Good God...

They ramble on for a while until 3MB decide to make fun and bully the Spanish announce team. Then, out comes Ricardo Rodriguez to help them and from here I think people knew what was going to happen next...

Alberto Del Rio comes to the aid of Ricardo and attack the 3MB. Then, The Miz gets involved and helps Del Rio clear the ring of the 3MB. 3MB then makes the challenge to Miz, ADR, and a partner of their choosing.

For a minute there, I was worried that this segment was going to absolutely suck, but this was actually pretty good. Miz wasn't too over the top as a face here and ADR got a good reaction when he came out to help Ricardo. I didn't mind this segment and it sets up another match for tonight at TLC. I guess that explained the two short matches to start off the show. Still think this sort of thing should've been saved for an episode of RAW, but meh.

WWE Intercontinental Championship Match
Kofi Kingston (c) vs Wade Barrett

The action continues with Kofi putting his IC Title on the line against Wade Barrett. Another great, solid match and surprisingly good. Not too many slow moments and was pretty fast paced for the most part. Kofi hits the Trouble in Paradise and retains the title.

I gotta tell you, there were moments in that match where I thought that Wade Barrett was gonna win the IC Title, but Kofi lives to defend his title another day.

On another note, the crowd was pretty hot for this match. This crowd is pretty damn good so far. There hasn't been a quiet moment for them. They aren't rowdy, but their making some noise.




CM Punk Segment:

CM Punk is up in his skybox sporting a shirt that says "Knees 2 Faces." Hmm.....sounds VERY familiar to The Rock's "Boots 2 Asses". Oh, the irony...

He talks trash about Ryback and says nobody can take the WWE Title from him. Usual stuff. He has a Bird's eye view of the next match: Ryback and Team Hell No vs The Shield.

6 Man Tag Team TLC Match
Ryback & Team Hell No vs The Shield (Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, & Roman Reigns)

Already? Ok. Here we go!

The Shield entered the ring like Edge & Christian circa 99-00 and this match was just superb. It had the chaos and carnage and the TLC stipulation made it even better. I can't even begin to say how great The Shield looked in their debut. Reigns was dominating, Ambrose is so skilled in the ring and sells like a champ, and the same with Rollins. Best spot of the night is a tie between Rollins and Ambrose delivering a double superplex to Bryan or Ryback sending Rollins crashing through four tables! A spot you had to see!

All 6 of these guys put their all into this match and the crowd was loving every minute of it. Nonstop action and even some great wrestling in between. There were so many spots throughout this match that had the crowd on their feet. It was like we were re-living the glory days of the Attitude Era through this match. Ending of the match saw Reigns and Ambrose drive Bryan through the table to get the win.

I LOVED this match. This is what I missed about the WWE. Simply put, this was a WAR. Great action, great spots, and great wrestling and The Shield gets that much needed win! This could be a late Match of the Year candidate. That match was just way too good, and way too perfect. I can't find a bad thing to say about it. One of the best matches and brawls WWE has put on in a LOOONNGGG Time. It was anything and everything you could ever want in a match and more. Good luck following this act.

THIS is Match of the Night and it's not even close. Ziggler and Cena won't touch this.

Divas Championship Match
Eve (c) vs Naomi

What is there to say? Naomi started the match off strong, but once Eve took control, it was a done deal. I thought they were actually showcase what Naomi could do in the ring, but silly me, this is the Divas we're talking about. WWE gives Zero fucks about the Divas anymore.

For those who care, Eve won.

The Divas Division CAN be saved. It takes effort, the right storyline and the right Divas to make it work.

Chairs Match for the World Heavyweight Championship

Big Show (c) vs Sheamus

The Third Act of Big Show vs Sheamus and I can't say a lot about this match. For starters, the crowd is still out of breath after being so loud during the 6 Man Tag Team Match.

I loved the last two matches these two had, but this was easily the poorest of the their three matches. For starters, it was short, both men hardly displayed as much as they did and the ending was rather anticlimactic.

I guess I forgot that the first person to hit their opponent with a Chair wins. Show went under the ring and pulled out a HUGE chair. I mean a Chair that was almost the size of Big Show himself. He hits Sheamus with it and that's it. I think they need to change that little rule of theirs. I was disappointed and quite underwhelmed.

That's pretty much it. No drama and no Ziggler surprise cash-in. This should be the end of the Big Show/Sheamus feud......hopefully. Losing three times in a row usually means you're done getting title shots for a while.

6 Man Tag Team Match
The Miz, Alberto Del Rio, & The Brooklyn Brawler vs 3MB (Heath Slater, Jinder Mahal, and Drew McIntyre)

The Miz and Del Rio's mystery partner is the Brooklyn Brawler. Yes, the Brooklyn Brawler. Yes, he is still alive. Yes, he's from Brooklyn and Yes he's even sporting a Brooklyn Nets Jersey.

You can already guess who won this match. Yup. And guess who got the pinfall? Yup.

3MB gets all that air time earlier and lose to the team of the newly face turned Alberto Del Rio, The Miz, and The Brooklyn Brawler. As far as the match goes, it wasn't anything technically sound. It was pretty made to be an entertaining little filler match. Not too horrible, but not that good either.

Ladder Match for Ziggler's Money in the Bank Briefcase
Dolph Ziggler vs John Cena

John Cena and Dolph Ziggler for the Money in the Bank Contract. Here we go!

Ziggler comes out and the crowd LOVES him. Same thing can't be said for Cena though. This is nowhere near as good as the 6 Man TLC Match, but still great. A lot of wrestling for a Ladder match and a couple of good spots, but I liked it. Throughout the whole match, the crowd loved Ziggler and he put on a show. He made Cena look better than he actually is with his great selling. One thing that I love about Ziggler besides the fact that he's a hell of a wrestler is that he can sell moves like nobody else and make people look like GOLD.

A lot of fast pace action and a few times with Ladder use, but here comes the ending. Ziggler is sent spilling to the outside and it looks like Cena is going to win. Vickie comes out with a chair to stop him, but AJ comes out and takes care of Vickie. Cena sets up the Ladder as AJ skips around and you can feel that it's coming. Once Cena is halfway up, AJ topples the Ladder and sends Cena down. Ziggler caps it off with a superkick knocking Cena out. AJ smiles at Ziggler and leaves the ring. Ziggler climbs, gets the briefcase and the crowd went absolutely CRAZY for it!


Although, if they really wanted AJ to turn heel, when she and Dolph had that staredown, they would've made out. That would've been the ICING ON THE CAKE. It would've been awesome if Dolph and AJ planned this from the beginning making both Cena and Vickie look like complete fools. Dolph and AJ have the potential to be the next Edge & Lita of the WWE and that's saying something. A heel turn of that magnitude would've been MASSIVE.

But I guess they're going to have AJ going back to being crazy like she was before.


But more importantly, Ladies and Gentlemen, Dolph Ziggler has officially arrived in the WWE. In the Main Event of a pay-per-view with the crowd behind him taking on the top face in the WWE with his Money in the Bank contract on the line and he not only puts on a great match, but he defeats John Cena. Tonight was perhaps the biggest win in Ziggler's WWE career. After tonight, this man DESERVES the World Heavyweight Championship. I will riot if he is not Champion by WrestleMania. This was Ziggler's night. Job well done Dolph.



All that being said, this pay-per-view was a BLAST. The crowd was amazing and HOT the whole night, great action and overall great show. I'm giving this show an 8/10. I WILL be re-watching that 6 Man TLC Match tomorrow.

I could've done without the 3MB vs Miz/Del Rio/Brawler match, the Divas match and the tables match was meh, and the World Heavyweight Championship Match disappointed me. Everything else was great.

Cesaro & Kofi retain, Miz TV wasn't too bad, The Shield stole the show, AJ's turn was well done and Dolph Ziggler has finally arrived in the WWE. Well done WWE. Well done.

But now, The Road to WrestleMania starts and things are going to get very serious, very fast.


Feel free to Comment.

By: Gerald "Showstopper" Prophete

Who needs to win at WWE TLC - Ryback or The Shield?

This Sunday is the WWE TLC pay-per-view and since CM Punk is injured, the replacement Main Event is Ryback and Team Hell No vs The Shield. And here's the kick, it's a TLC Match too. I admit, I like this match better than ANOTHER CM Punk vs Ryback match ending in ANOTHER screwjob. It's cool when you do it a couple times, but three pay-per-views in a row is an overkill.

Here we go again where it's hard to see who walks out with the win. If WWE are serious about Ryback, they can't have him lose three pay-per-views in a row. It could do something to his credibility. On the other side, we have The Shield who are completely new to the WWE competing in their FIRST match. A loss makes them look like scrubs and their initiative of being the Shield of Injustice and everything they stand for will mean squat. Ok, maybe not mean squat, but it'll hard to take them serious going forward.

So, who wins?

The Shield should win. You see, this is where the WWE went so wrong with The Nexus two years ago. They dominated the Summer with their Invasion angle, and in their payoff match with Team Cena at Summerslam, they lost when they should've won. I know that this is a double edged sword and some are complaining that these three guys are rookies and shouldn't go over three top stars, but at the same time these three "rookies" have already made a name for themselves by jumping and beating down people and they haven't even competed in a match yet. Losing their FIRST match isn't going to make them look like any sort of real threat. It would make them look like three guys who can't hang in a Main Event match with the big boys. Look what that sort of thing did to The Nexus.

Who's going to take them serious if they lose? We've seen that Ryback can still look strong even in a loss and I doubt he's the one that's even going to get pinned. I'm pretty sure if The Shield win, it'll be Bryan, or Kane who take the pin, leaving Ryback free of any momentum killing. Also, I'm pretty sure regardless of the outcome, Ryback is gonna beat all three of them down afterwards.

But alas, I don't think they will win. In this PG WWE, the good guys almost always win. I remember the times when WWE wasn't afraid to pull the trigger on having the bad guys win. They weren't afraid to see make that move. In most people's eyes, if Ryback loses, his credibility takes another hit, and makes him look weak. I don't know how. It's not like Ryback has been pinned straight up in the last two months. It took a crooked ref to beat him at Hell in a Cell and it took The Shield putting him through a table to lose at Survivor Series. I don't know how this makes him look weak. Losing clean is one thing, but being screwed doesn't make you look weak. It makes you look legitimate because it shows how far heels will go to win.

So, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say this win goes to The Shield. They need it more. No harm will come to Ryback's credibility and Team Hell No will be just fine. But I wouldn't be surprised in the least bit if Ryback and Team Hell No win. The Shield has made a lot of noise the last month and if they lose...then what?

Food for thought.

On a personal note, I can't wait to watch The Shield wrestle. I've been following Seth Rollins more than Dean Ambrose, but I've heard good things about Ambrose. Can't wait to see what these guys can do in their first match on the main stage.

I'll be back on Sunday Night after TLC with my post-ppv blog.


Feel free to Comment.

By: Gerald "Showstopper" Prophete

Who's going to the Super Bowl?

After Monday night and the 28 point beatdown New England gave to Houston, everybody has tooted Brady's horn and ESPN has dubbed New England as the team to win the Super Bowl, but will they get to the Super Bowl?

I say no. New England may look like the juggernaut in the AFC, but there's one person road blocking him from a 6th Super Bowl appearance. Peyton Manning. Peyton Manning and the #3 ranked defense of the Denver Broncos, who have won 8 straight games, are the only team that can spoil The Patriots trip to New Orleans. Not Houston, not Baltimore, not Indy, and not Pittsburgh. Denver isn't the same team New England blew out in Week 5, things are A LOT different now. THIS Broncos team can beat New England in Foxboro. What people are forgetting is that since Brady won his 3rd ring in 2004, he's been 7-6 in the playoffs. Clearly, he isn't the same guy in the playoffs anymore. They got lucky against Baltimore last year with a dropped TD pass and a missed FG.

Houston maybe the #1 seed, but they've proven time and time that they are overrated. If they run into Denver or New England they WILL be eliminated. Only way Houston makes it to the AFC Championship is they meet Baltimore in the Divisional Round. They have a better shot at beating them than beating the Broncos or the Patriots. Baltimore clearly isn't the same team that they were earlier in the season, but they seem to get better come playoff time.

And I can hear the Giants fans now. Relax, I'll get to you people. Technically, The Giants should be favored to go back since they won the Super Bowl last season, but they're inconsistency plays a role. Even after beating down San Fran, Green Bay, and New Orleans, here they are up by just 1 game over Dallas and Washington. There's no guarantee that'll even win their division. They need to play perfect down the stretch to maintain their lead. So far, they're off to a good start. Giants have proven that when they get in, they can make some noise.

Outside of New York, the best team in the NFC is San Francisco. But, I have a problem with them. I don't believe in Colin Kaepernick to lead the Niners to the Super Bowl. They have a better shot with Alex Smith as their starter. You'll see. Colin can't even beat The Rams and he's got a tough match with New England this Sunday night. And, here comes Seattle with their 5-0 home record. If they steal the division from San Fran, WATCH OUT. They don't play around at home. The last time they lost at home in the playoffs was 2004. Since then, they've been 5-0.

Only reason I didn't mention Atlanta is because of their playoff past. They're 0-3 since Matty Ice took over and the last time they were the #1 seed, Green Bay beat them by 27 points. I think even Green Bay can make a push even though they haven't played up to their potential. If RG3 gets in the playoffs, things could get very interesting.

You never know what can happen come playoff time and how teams change their game.

For now, I'll still hold on to the prediction I made before the season: Denver vs San Francisco. I didn't foresee Colin Kaepernick geting the starting job by TYING with the St. Louis Rams and beating a Jay Cutler-less Chicago Bears team.

Then again, New England is the greatest team in the history of the NFL. Let's just call off Super Bowl 47 and give them the trophy. Let's save every other team the embarrassment. Right?


Feel free to Comment.

By: Gerald "Showstopper" Prophete

WWE Survivor Series Reaction

The Survivor Series used to be one of the most celebrated pay-per-views in WWE, but not anymore. I was thinking about doing a predictions thread, but this show has been built up so poorly, there's so little to look forward that I didn't bother. Since I always do a post-ppv blog, I have no choice. Let's see if Survivor Series could actually be good.

Pre-show:

Team Co-Bro (Santino & Zack Ryder) vs 3MB (Slater & Mahal w/McIntyre)

Not too much to say about this match. I like the attire, teamwork, and overall look of the 3MB. Although they're a cheap knock off of 3 Count from the old WCW, I like this stable. Who's 3 Count? Look them up and educate yourself. The match was pretty standard with Drew McIntyre providing outside interference helping Slater and Mahal get the win. 3MB needed this win  because I see their a new stable that looks like it could be big. This win made sense.



Survivor Series:

Classic Survivor Series Elimination Match
Rey Mysterio, Sin Cara, Justin Gabriel, Tyson Kidd & Brodus Clay
Vs
Primetime Players, Primo, Epico, & Tensai

A rematch of the awesome 8 man tag match from RAW, but this time with Tensai and Clay thrown in there. This was a great way kick off the show with a Classic Survivor Series match. Clay and Tensai were the first people eliminated and this allowed the other 8 superstars to showcase their talent to the world. I would've liked the match to go a little bit longer because it didn't have the excitement or high-flying like the match on RAW did, but I guess I can live with it.

Team Mysterio gets the win with Mysterio, Kidd, Gabriel, and Sin Cara as the sole survivors. Good match to kick off the show and set the tone.

Divas Championship Match
Eve (c) vs Kaitlyn

Before the match, Kaitlyn makes her way to the ring and Kaitlyn is attacked by Aksana in a blonde wig. It's funny because Kaitlyn was attacked by an unknown assailant with blonde hair at Night of Champions taking her out of the Divas Championship match. And she was supposedly doing Eve's bidding. That was also TWO MONTHS AGO. It would've made sense if she was attacked again by the assailant a few weeks after Night of Champions but it's NOVEMBER. Kaitlyn fought off Aksana and pushed down Eve who happened to be there at the time. Lazy booking. Moving on.

Unlike the crowd, I actually enjoyed this match. Kaitlyn has come a long way and gets better in the ring each week. I was hoping they would finally pull the trigger and give her the title and see what she can do with it, but then I remembered it was the WWE I was dealing with here. They like to stick with the flavor of the month and right now, it's Eve. Kaitlyn's just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe if they would take the time and actually make this division mean something again, I would be wrong, but Kaitlyn will have to wait for another day for her chance.

United States Championship Match
Antonio Cesaro (c) vs R-Truth

Besides CM Punk, Antonio Cesaro is one of the champions I like to watch. Why? He has the look, the build, charisma of a champion and on top of all that, he's a hell of a wrestler. He NEEDS more air time. We barely see him from time to time and he's been doing a good job keeping the US title somewhat relevant, but I need to see more to take him serious. Him just showing up at the pay-per-views to defend his title isn't enough. I want him in a long feud with somebody.

Getting to the match, I expected more from the match too. It was a good match. It was solid and pretty standard, but I felt like the match barely went by 10 minutes and these guys didn't showcase what they could really do. Cesaro retains and continues his Anti-USA character. I expect big things from Cesaro. Then again, it's not up to me.

AJ/Vickie In-ring segment:

This ridiculous storyline continues between AJ and Vickie. AJ comes out looking good in short shorts claiming she has her own proof against Vickie. Vickie comes out and AJ puts up some obviously photoshopped photos of Vickie with people like Jim Ross, Ricardo Rodriguez and Brodus Clay on the titantron. They ramble on at each other until AJ gets jumped by Tamina! Who? Exactly. Tamina tears AJ apart as Vickie laughs and leaves the ring.

I would be more interested in this angle if it was going to lead to a match between AJ and Vickie. These two have been at each others throats for months now and on the so-called fourth biggest pay-per-view of the year, they pass on the opportunity of having AJ get in the ring with Vickie? Obviously it's not going to be an instant classic, but fans of AJ would've loved to see her finally get her hands on Vickie and shut her up.

This scandal SHOULD lead to an AJ/Vickie match down the road with the GM job on the line, but I don't see it happening. It should've been tonight and put an end to this angle.  But now, Tamina is probably going to now be some sort of bodyguard for Vickie. If not, what business does she have attacking her?

God knows I'm ready for it to end unless we get some shocking development.

World Heavyweight Championship Match
Big Show (c) vs Sheamus

Rematch of their great match at Hell in a Cell. Now, this match didn't top their Hell in a Cell match, but once again I enjoyed these guys fighting one another. They've got some great chemistry with each other and once again their match didn't disappoint. There weren't submissions or any of that. These two brawlers and they fought. That's what they did. Nothing more, nothing less and I loved it.

Now, towards the end, Sheamus goes for the Brogue Kick and Show pulls the referee in and he takes the hit. The other referees come out and check on the downed referee. The bell hasn't rung and Show knocks Sheamus out. One of the referees leave the group and counts the fall. Show wins and the officials start arguing with the one who counted the fall down. One of the referees goes to the announcer and changes the call and says Show has been disqualified. Sheamus wins by DQ, but Show still remains the Champion. The controversy was that since the bell never rang, the match was never over. Show took advantage and won, but because he pulled the referee into the brogue kick, he was disqualified.

This isn't over yet. Show was arguing with the referee and Sheamus took advantage and beat him down with a steel chair. This feud isn't over, and I'm not too upset with that. Their storyline isn't exactly a work of art, but it's been better than what either man has done in months. They both bring the best out of each other and I'm not mad with it.

Classic Survivor Series Elimination Match
Team Foley: Randy Orton, The Miz, Kofi Kingston, Daniel Bryan, & Kane
Vs
Team Ziggler: Dolph Ziggler, Alberto Del Rio, Damien Sandow, Wade Barrett, & David Otunga

Despite the poor build and constant changes in the team lineups, this match was pretty damn entertaining. Mick Foley still looked out of place, but I digress.

The match was simply great. I won't get into the entire match, but I'll tell you that all the superstars really gave it all they had. The Miz shined in his first match as a true face character and did a good job at that as the fans loved him. It came down to Orton and Ziggler and here's where it got weird. Orotn dropped Ziggler with that DDT that he always does and didn't pin him. Instead, he backed up and tried going for his punt and ran into a Ziggler superkick. And that was game over. Ziggler beats Orton continues to keep himself relevant and not fall into obscurity. This was HUGE for him.

The 5-on-5 match was very good, it wasn't too long and wasn't too short. It was back and forth, with great pace and near falls. Well done.The ending was weird. It should've probably ended earlier than it did, but still good. I feel like and Orton character change is coming soon. The look on his face was....something new. I want to see if they're going to capitalize on it, or just forget about like they do with most things these days.

Triple Threat match for the WWE Championship
CM Punk (c) vs John Cena vs Ryback

So, it's all come down to this. CM Punk defending the WWE Championship against John Cena and Ryback. The Main Event of the evening and let me say, it didn't disappoint at all. Well, the match was ok. Nothing spectacular, but it was the ending that's going to have people talking.

Let me backtrack, the match wasn't that bad. It wasn't what I expected. They exceeded my expectations. There were a quite a few spots in this thing. Ryback showed he could hang with the big boys in Punk and Cena in the Main Event match of the night. THE spot of the night, of course, is Punk and Cena double suplexing Ryback through the announce table. It's been so long since we've seen somebody go through the announce table and when Punk and Cena started tearing it apart, the crowd went crazy. With Ryback out, Cena and Punk wrestle for a little while like they always do, kicking out of finishers and whatnot until Ryback got back in there. Now, get ready for this one.

Ryback shellshocked Punk, but Cena broke it up. He shellshocked Cena and as he was going for the pin, these three guys dressed in black posing as security guards mauled Ryback relentlessly. The attack resembled how Nexus attacked John Cena 2 years ago if people remember that. These guys were revealed as popular Indy wrestlers Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, and Roman Reigns. People who follow the Indy scene know who these guys are. It took a while to see their faces cause they were all over Ryback, but when they stopped and we saw it clearer, I won't lie, I got excited. Probably cause I knew two out of those three guys and know what they can do. I've been waiting for Ambrose to debut for some time now.

But getting back to the match, these three triple teamed Ryback and drive him through the Spanish announce table! They stared at him and Punk crawled over to Cena and picks up the win! I loved the ending. It keeps people guessing and makes me want to watch RAW tomorrow to see if they'll expand on this. I know I've got some questions:

Why did these guys even attack Ryback?

Why didn't these guys go after John Cena?

Why did these guys wait until the ref counted to three to leave?

Are Punk and Heyman behind this, or did these three guys act on their own like Maddox supposedly did?

Ryback is 0-2 in the Main Event, but he isn't the one getting pinned so his "Monster" appeal isn't dwindling. Like I said in the Hell in a Cell blog, to take down a Monster, you need numbers, you can't get it done on your own, unless you're an even bigger Monster. Cena doesn't lose anything cause he's Cena. Punk stays the Champion and looks strong. Ryback isn't ready to be a Champion, but he's got a place in the upper mid-card/Main Event scene.

I really want to see what happens on RAW. Are Punk and Heyman linked with Maddox, Ambrose, Reigns, and Rollins or do these Indy guys have something against Ryback? Either way, the WWE Championship scene keeps on getting more and more interesting. Now, if only WWE would put that much time and effort into the rest of the roster and give us intrigue like that with all their titles, their product would be a lot more watchable and interesting.

But let's not get it twisted, just because the ending of the match was really cool, Survivor Series as a whole was average at best. I'll give it 6/10. If the Main Event was anything less than that, the score would be a lot lower, but the ending of the WWE Championship match bumped it up a little.



Feel free to Comment.



By: Gerald "Showstopper" Prophete

Sports Monarchy: NFL Week 9 Wrap-Up and look ahead to Week 10

Sports Monarchy: NFL Week 9 Wrap-Up and look ahead to Week 10: NFL Week 9 is in the books and halfway through the season, and we now have a good idea of who's real and who's not. Who's Real: India...

NFL Week 9 Wrap-Up and look ahead to Week 10

NFL Week 9 is in the books and halfway through the season, and we now have a good idea of who's real and who's not.


Who's Real:

Indianapolis Colts: The Colts are 5-3. That win against Green Bay back in Week 5 has really propelled this team to new heights. They currently own the #5 seed and have surprised a lot of teams. Luck is playing better than people expected and their team as a whole is really playing solid football. Remember when I said that this team could challenge Houston? I think they can.

Pittsburgh Steelers: People had them dead at 2-3 and now they're 5-3 and threatening to dethrone Baltimore in the AFC North.

Seattle Seahawks: That win against Green Bay is still an asterisk, but they've still been playing well. They're unbeaten at Home, have a top 5 defense, and Russell Wilson is a playing very effectively. They won't win the division, but they have a good shot at making the playoffs.

Denver Broncos: 5-3 and in command of the AFC West. And people were saying Peyton Manning didn't have it anymore. Tebow who?

Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Don't look now, but the Bucs are 4-4 and have found their rhythm on offense. They can shock a lot of teams down the road if they keep playing the way they are.

Houston Texans: I still haven't forgotten about the BEATDOWN Green Bay gave them, but they're still 7-1 and the best team in the AFC. That must count for something.

Atlanta Falcons: 8-0 and still keep finding ways to win. Can't beat that.

Chicago Bears: I personally think The Bears as a whole team is better than Atlanta. They're playing lights out on offense and defense. Who had them in the NFC Championship Game? Oh yeah, I did.



Who's Not:

Arizona Cardinals: They started out 4-0 and have lost 5 straight. They are NOT who we thought they were.

Minnesota Vikings: Started strong, but are slowly cooling down. They're too inconsistent. Can't trust them to beat the class of the NFC North in Green Bay, or Chicago.

New York Giants: When they beat down San Francisco in their hometown, they looked like one of the best teams, but with narrow wins against Dallas and Washington and losing to Pittsburgh, they are slowly looking like the inconsistent Giants that I know.

Philadelphia Eagles: Such high hopes for this team, but they can't protect Vick, can't play defense and struggle to move the ball.

Washington Redskins: Same as Minnesota. Started out strong, but now they're 3-6. Technically, they're not out of it like Philly, but I think this division is gonna come down to Dallas and New York.

San Diego Chargers: They ALWAYS do this. They start HOT and then they just go up and down. They gave up a 24 point lead against Denver, scored 6 points, 6 POINTS, against the Cleveland Browns and beat the lowly Chiefs. Still can't take them serious.



I'll be sure to make a blog post with my updated playoff predictions but that's my opinion on which teams are real, and who's not. Let's look ahead to Week 10.

Matchups To Watch:

Indianapolis at Jacksonville - A chance for the Colts to go 6-3 and make their case for being the second best team in the AFC behind Houston.

San Diego at Tampa Bay - Tampa Bay has a chance to make it 3 in a row and make some noise in the playoff race. The Chargers have a chance to catch Denver in the AFC West.

New York at Cincinnati - Giants need this game to bounce back and if the Bengals want to get back to the playoffs, they need this win too.

Atlanta at New Orleans - 8-0 Atlanta Falcons vs Drew Brees and The Saints in New Orleans. Need I say more?

New York at Seattle - The Jets come off their bye and travel to the toughest place to play: Seattle. The Seahawks can make some people look at them with a win.

Dallas at Philadelphia - This game isn't as attractive as I thought as both teams are playing so poorly, but still a pivotal NFC East match.

Houston at Chicago - Both teams are 7-1 and are the best teams in their respectable conferences (yes, I think Chicago is better than Atlanta). Oh yeah, this should be a good one.



Week 10 is gonna make the playoff race look even more interesting.

Feel free to Comment.

By: Gerald "Showstopper" Prophete

Reaction To Survivor Series Main Event Change

Due to Hurricane Sandy, I didn't have any power for a week, so I haven't been on the blogs lately. But now I'm back to talk more NFL, NBA, and WWE. And also, those who were affected by the Hurricane, you're all in our prayers here at Sports Monarchy.

Let's start with the WWE and how they can't book proper storylines anymore.

So, originally the main event for Survivor Series was:

Team Foley: Ryback, Randy Orton, Kofi Kingston, Kane, & Daniel Bryan

Vs

Team Punk: CM Punk, Alberto Del Rio, The Miz, Damien Sandow & Cody Rhodes

The night after Hell in a Cell, a little showdown between Foley and Punk led to that match. At first it sounded good because it's been a good 7 years since Survivor Series had a Classic Survivor Series Elimination match that was worth watching and this had promise even though all the major titles were in that match putting the card in jeopardy. 

But here's where it gets serious. Apparently, the "Powers That Be" in the WWE received a lot of negative buzz for that match and last night, rather awkwardly, they changed the main event and the Survivor Series Elimination match. So, now the main event of Survivor Series is:

CM Punk defending the WWE Championship against both Ryback and John Cena. THIS should've been the main event in the first place. I see what they were trying to do with Team Punk and Team Foley: They were building towards a Punk/Foley match along with combining three other feuds (Orton/Del Rio, Kofi/Miz, Bryan&Kane/Rhodes&Sandow) into this match to progress those feuds even further, but Ryback needed his rematch sooner than later after what happened in Hell in a Cell and Foley seemed to pop out of nowhere. The only way this Survivor Series match would've been a bit more interesting was if it was Winner Take All and all the titles were up for grabs. If that was the case, THEN you've got something.

But for as much hype as they've been putting in CM Punk's title reign, it HAD to be defended at Survivor Series. Maybe Punk vs Ryback II with Foley as the guest referee would've been more appropriate?

And then you have John Cena. This match tells me that WWE NEEDS Cena to be in the Main Event for the pay-per-view to be successful. The WWE can't depend on the new star they made and the Current WWE Champion to carry Survivor Series. John Cena had this pointless storyline with AJ and Vickie Guerrero which will now get no payoff because Cena is in the WWE Championship match. I thought they were going for Cena/AJ vs Dolph/Vickie type of match or maybe they could've done a Team Ziggler vs Team Cena sort of thing, but obviously none of that is happening. 

Don't get me wrong, I am VERY pleased that they made this match instead. They just did it too late. Survivor Series is next Sunday. They don't have a lot of time to properly build this match, (or the show for that matter) the way that it should be built up. I mean this match is BIG. You have the face of the WWE vs the Current WWE Champion vs The Rising Star. I am a fan of good build. Build a good story, and make me interested to see the payoff to the match. If no time and effort is put into a story, or it's poorly built, I won't give two shits about the match. This is why WWE these days isn't that good. But that's a blog post for another time.

So now Ryback and Punk are no longer in the Survivor Series Elimination Match and Team Punk is now Team Ziggler. This is what we're left with:

What point is there for Foley to even be around in this anymore? The sole reason he was Team Captain is for CM Punk. Now that he's gone, what point is there? Why is Ziggler here? None of this is any of his business. They couldn't have just done 4-on-4? And what happened with The Miz? Why is Wade Barrett there? Barrett deserves better than to be involved in some Survivor Series match. 

Also, let's be honest, it's no longer Team Foley, it's Team Orton.

And Team Foley has a "surprise" member now. Gee, I wonder who it's gonna be. Could it the guy that left Team Punk in the first place? Maybe surprise us and have Christian come back. 

The pay-per-view is in one week and they have three matches signed. Even with a Divas match and another Survivor Series match thrown together with random jobbers, you still have 5 matches which means more filler matches including the continuous disrespect of the US Title and its Champion. What about AJ and Vickie? Give those two a match or something.

At this point, they can't salvage Survivor Series. This has been one of the poorest pay-per-views in a long time which is sad because this was once a great event. But now, Money in the Bank is better, Elimination Chamber is better, hell even Extreme Rules is better! They continue to shit on tradition and instead of building stars for the future, they put all their chips in one basket and have to depend on Attitude Era stars to bring in fans. They continue to improperly build feuds, develop poor storylines, cater to the little kids, try to push people who we don't care about and plugging a bunch of nonsense. The only time they even get remotely serious is WrestleMania Season. I mean, what happened to the WWE?!?!

My rant is over. Feel free to Comment. I'll be back with my Survivor Series Predictions.

By: Gerald "Showstopper" Prophete

WWE Hell in a Cell Reaction

Pre-show:

John Cena comes out and addresses the "scandal" between him and AJ that cost her the GM job. Anyway to get John Cena on WWE programming I guess. I wasn't really paying attention because this angle doesn't really interest me, but maybe RAW tomorrow will change my opinion.


Hell in a Cell opens up with a damn good intro which could've been better without Show and Sheamus in it, but I digress.

Randy Orton vs Alberto Del Rio

Orton and Del Rio kick off Hell in a Cell with a average match. Not one of their best encounters, but it was still solid, yet sloppy. Del Rio was the aggressor telling a story and really going to work on Orton's arm selling that point. The match ends with Del Rio scaling the top rope, but landing into an RKO. Pretty sick spot. Orton picks up the win.

WWE Tag Team Championship Match 
Daniel Bryan & Kane vs Cody Rhodes & Damien Sandow

Great tag team match between two great teams. Sandow & Rhodes did the traditional tag team wrestling with quick tags, teamwork and everything in between. We saw some great ring action with Daniel Bryan and Damien Sandow who seem to work well together. But let's get to the meat of the matter. The end of the match sees Kane going completely ballistic and hammering away on Sandow and Rhodes so furiously that the ref has to call for the bell. Kane and Bryan seemed to "self-destruct" during the match as well. So, Kane and Bryan lose the match, but they keep the titles because of the disqualification. Didn't think they would go this route. The feud between these two teams is going to continue, but does this mean Rhodes and Sandow are going to capture the tag titles soon, or is this just something WWE came up with so that Kane and Bryan don't get old?

WWE Intercontinental Championship Match
Kofi (c) vs The Miz

So far, this match is the Match of the Night. It was fast pace, back and forth and so fluid. Miz and Kofi have tremendous chemistry in the ring with each other and despite having no story going into this one, this match was great. In the end, Kofi hits Miz with the Trouble in Paradise for the win retaining the IC Title. I really do hope the IC Title launches Kofi's career. He deserves it. I feel like this is just the beginning.

WWE United States Championship Match
Antonio Cesaro (c) vs Justin Gabriel

Well what do you know? The United States Champion does have a match..

GREAT match. Wow. I never really watched much of Justin Gabriel in singles competition, but on a pay-per-view stage, this kid can GO. By go, I mean he's a great wrestler and phenomenal athlete. Despite the crowd being dull as dishwater since the opening of the show, these two guys put on a great match. I already know how good Cesaro is in the ring, but Gabriel is so agile, making him so mobile and his moves look so fluid, especially working with a guy like Cesaro, they can make each other look good. But getting off that, Cesaro picks up the win the Neutralizer and retains the US Title. What I noticed is that he didn't have Aksana at ringside? Cesaro isn't the best on the mic, so he needs some sort of mouthpiece.

Rey Mysterio & Sin Cara vs The Primetime Players

Nothing really special. Haven't seen PTP in a while, and they're really trying to push Mysterio and Cara as a legit tag team as the new school version of Mysterio and Guerrero, but those are HUGE shoes to fill. Better yet, their teamwork reminds of Brian Kendrick and Paul London. Never heard of them? Of course not. Look them up and educate yourselves.

Getting to the match, I didn't pay much mind to it. I've seen these teams wrestle before and this really was nothing new. Maybe this should've been.....I don't know....a #1 Contenders match? But nonetheless, it was an enjoyable match. Mysterio and Sin Cara get the win.

On another note, Cara took what looked like a sick bump to the outside landing on Titus and he looks to have injured himself.....again. But he got up and celebrated with Rey. I guess we'll know more later.



While we have some time, let's recap so far. 3 title matches, all 3 Champs retained, the crowd sucks which further proves how some crowds can affect a pay-per-view. You would think after WrestleMania 27, WWE would know Atlanta crowds are bad WWE crowds. But meh. At this point, Kofi and Miz had the Match of the Night so far. The only thing, on my mind at least, is the WWE Championship match.

World Heavyweight Championship Match
Sheamus (c) vs Big Show

Well, I was wrong on two things:

1) I actually liked this match. It didn't go as long as I thought. They made it short and sweet. Well, sort of. A good portion of this match was DOMINATED by Big Show. I mean pure domination. Sheamus got beat down to the point where he had welts on his chest. This match told a great story of how dominant The Giant really is. It took a while for Sheamus to get his offense going, but when he did, the match really picked up. Sheamus got Big Show up for the White Noise move, and even kicked out of Big Show's KO Punch which FINALLY woke the crowd up a little bit. But he didn't do it again. Sheamus geared up for the Brogue Kick, but Show hit him with the KO Punch in mid-motion and won the World Title.

2) I was wrong about Big Show and the World Title. Upon Big Show's return to the WWE, they were really pushing the fact that he's a Giant and since they don't want him carrying the WWE Champion, the World Heavyweight Championship seems more his game right now because who's going to take him down? Obviously, Sheamus is going to want revenge and has a rematch clause somewhere, so this feud isn't over. And no Ziggler cash-in, so we'll still have to wait on that.

Good match. Really surprised me. Hope Big Show has a good reign with the World Title this time around.

Triple Threat match for the Divas Championship
Eve (c) vs Layla vs Kaitlyn

Despite the crowd being dead as usual, this match was pretty solid. Even though the division has been so bad, there have been some good divas matches. In this match, Kaitlyn really shined. We know how good Eve and Layla are, but Kaitlyn had some pretty good ring time in this match and showed people what she can do and she's improved in the ring in the last few months. But even after all that, Eve retains the Divas Title. Not too surprised there.

Hell in a Cell Match for the WWE Championship
CM Punk (c) vs Ryback

This was it. The Main Event. The Big Fight. THE MATCH. CM Punk vs Ryback for the WWE Championship. After the well done video package highlighting their feud, CM Punk makes his way out first, followed by Ryback. This match had a great big fight feel and they really sold the fact Punk was staring death in the face. The match started the way I figured. Punk was avoiding Ryback until he finally got caught and beatdown. He waited for the right distraction and pounced on the opportunity. This match was moving at a slow pace which was just fine for me. In a match of this magnitude, you didn't need to rush anything. This match told a good story that Punk needed to do more than usual to take Ryback down. Punk needed to depend on multiple weapons to bring him down and for short amount of time was in control of the monster Ryback. You can't make Punk look like a complete rag doll. The man is the WWE Champion so it was only a matter of time until he started dominating for a little bit.

And now, we come to end of the match. Punk was hitting Ryback with a Singapore cane, but Ryback had enough, grabbed the cane and tossed it out of the ring. He did the usual moves which included his meat hook clothesline. He got Punk up for the shell shock, but was stopped and low blowed by.......wait for it..........THE REFEREE. Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, the referee stopped Ryback and dropped him with a low blow. Punk rolled him up and the ref fast counted Ryback's shoulders down. Punk wins and retains the WWE Championship.

But wait, there's more! Punk and the crooked ref try to get out of the Cell, but the referee outside was fumbling with the keys and couldn't unlock it in time. Ryback got up and he made both men pay. The referee took quite a bump. Ryback brought him into the ring and tossed him outside the ring right into the Cell. Punk climbed to the top of the Cell to get away from Ryback, who followed. I was going through every possible scenario in my head of what they were going to do up there until I remembered that WWE is PG so, instead of somebody flying off, or going through the Cell, the best we got was just a simple shell shock onto the top of the Cell. The show ends with Ryback literally with his foot on Punk's chest doing the "Feed Me More!"



Ok, so Brock Lesnar didn't show up. Let me get that out of the way right now. But this match did what it had to. Punk kept the WWE Championship and Ryback's character wasn't damaged. As a matter of fact, after his actions after the match, his Monster character grew immensely and looked every bit as strong as he did before the match. It looks like WWE did create that new star that they wanted.

Now, I bet people are going to complain about the screwjob ending. This tells a few things. First of all, people were going to complain no matter how that match ended. Second, WWE backed themselves into a corner and had no clue how to really end this match, and that was the best they could come up with. But the ending really isn't as bad as people are saying. Let's be honest, did any of you see the referee screwing over Ryback? Better yet, did you call it a few weeks ago? If you did, you can either see into the future, or you're a damn liar. People are always saying that the one thing WWE doesn't have anymore is unpredictability. I certainly didn't predict the referee getting involved. If you didn't like how it ended, then please enlighten me on how you would've ended the match given the complications going into it.

I don't like the referee screwjob either, but I give them points on the swerve I guess. CM Punk needed to win and Ryback couldn't become the WWE Champion. Like I said in my last blog post, I don't think he was ready, but I also said him winning the title down the road won't mean as much if he were to win here.

Overall, this show was ok. I wasn't really expecting a stellar show, but it wasn't bad. Miz/Kofi had the best wrestling match of the night, the Show/Sheamus match shocked me not only by the way the match went, but with Show winning the World Title, and Punk retains his title, Ryback is still the Monster. Everybody goes home happy. The only problem I had was the crowd. They were AWFUL.

I'll score this show a C+. The only reason I tuned in was to see Punk vs Ryback and while that match didn't disappoint me, I can't say the rest of the show filled me with joy either. Today's new WWE PG fans are going to remember Ryback standing over Punk on top of the Cell for quite some time. It would be interesting to see how they follow up with this. Do they go back to Punk/Cena or is Ryback going to get his rematch?


Feel free to Comment.



By: Gerald "Showstopper" Prophete

CM Punk vs Ryback: Final Thoughts and Analysis

Well.....this is it. This is the ONLY match that I am looking forward to tonight. Because let's be honest, this WWE Championship match is selling the pay-per-view. Wrestling wise, there's gonna be some great wrestling. No doubt about it. But as far as storylines go, as always, there's not a lot of intrigue in any match on the card besides CM Punk vs Ryback. I'm not invested in the other matches, and this card has been so rushed and so poorly built, the wrestling and this match is the only thing that can save it. But I will be fair and give my predictions on the rest of the matches before I address the BIG one. I'll make them short and sweet.

They tried so hard to build a story between these three divas, but because the division has become so horrible and storylines cease to exist with the divas, it's hard to be invested in this. Eve is somewhat over, Layla isn't, and Kaitlyn is just fluttering around. I would say give the title to Kaitlyn since she got "taken out" at Night of Champions, but I see Eve retaining.

The match is going to be great, but there's no story. Why does Del Rio hate Orton? Why does Orton have to fight him? Why do I even have to care about this match? There has been no story built to make me invested. Orton wins, and Del Rio continues to flutter around just like Kaitlyn.

They've worked extremely hard in re-building the tag team division and even harder building credible tag teams. They have two winners right here. Kane and Bryan dominated the end of August and all of September with their chemistry, but does it end here? I don't think so. I like this team of The Rhodes Scholars. I'm a fan of Cody Rhodes, and an even bigger fan of Damien Sandow. But Bryan and Kane are way too over to not win.

This is another match that's going to be fun to watch, but again no story, no investment. They started out good building one up on Miz Tv a few weeks ago, but they haven't carried it and extended it. Kofi won the title on WWE's Main Event for god sakes, and since there's been no promo exchanges and no storyline progression to make me care. The Miz didn't do much with the IC Title when he had it, and Kofi will probably do even less. Kofi just won it, so he's gonna retain.

Oh boy...*sigh* I don't know where to start with this one. You talk about a match that I absolutely do not care about. The only thing they've done to somewhat build this match up is the Brogue Kick vs Big Show's KO Punch. While that's a starting point, that's not a good enough reason to make me care about this match. Sheamus' title reign in general has not been interesting and his character doesn't help that much either. What can you say about Big Show. He's been doing this for a long time. There's not much else he can do to make me care any more. Obviously Sheamus is going to win, cause what reason is there to put the title on Show? Maybe unless Dolph Ziggler comes out to cash in the briefcase? That's a factor worth mentioning.


Antonio Cesaro will defend the United States Championship against.....oh wait. The United States Champion doesn't have a match on the card. Go figure.

And for all the little kids, age 8 and above, John Cena will be on the pre-show. Even when he's not on the card, we still need to see and hear from him.


And now onto the MAIN EVENT. The match that will sell this show: CM Punk vs Ryback for the WWE Championship. This match has got a lot of people talking. WWE will once in a while get back that shock value where you never know what's going to happen, and they've done it again with this match. People may have an idea of what may happen in this match, but they don't know for sure. We don't know which way WWE is going to go with this one. We really don't. And that's what makes this match so appealing.

But I'm gonna break down this match, scenarios and give my final thoughts on what'll happen.

You cannot harm CM Punk's current title reign. If not for the fact that The Rock has a WWE Championship match waiting for him at the Royal Rumble, then by all means, I would say Ryback would be the new WWE Champion tonight. But if you keep the title on Punk until the Rumble extending his current reign past a year, his match with The Rock means a lot more that way if Punk were to lose tonight and regain it at Survivor Series, or at TLC. Punk's 1-year title reign vs The Rock pretty much sells itself.

Ryback cannot lose clean. Ryback's character since his debut has been a MONSTER. That's what he does. He comes in, destroys his competition, and leaves. You cannot have your Monster lose clean without any type of interference because that makes him look weak. CM Punk's title reign has certainly made him the alpha dog in the WWE, but he cannot beat Ryback clean. Same reason why Goldberg never lost a clean match. To beat a Monster, you're going to need a little help. You can't do it on your own. Ryback has gained so much momentum in the last few weeks and if he loses clean, you take all the wind out of his sails. But at least if takes a mounted effort to beat him, you know the Monster still is strong because it took a lot to put him down.

And also, for some odd reason, this match is inside the Hell in a Cell. So you can forget about ending the match on a DQ, or any sort of countout or double pin nonsense to keep the title on Punk like they did at Night of Champions. There MUST be a winner.

Can Ryback work a long match? The biggest problem with Goldberg was because he was so dominant, he was used to the short, quick matches, but when the matches got longer, you saw that he was average at best, but got better as his career moved on. Ryback's matches have not even exceeded 5 minutes. And you can't have a 5-10 minute Main Event Hell in a Cell Match for the WWE Championship. That just won't do. This match has to go 15 minutes or longer.

Do you take the chance? Is this the night where you make a new star in Ryback? A lot of people, myself included, have complained about Cena constantly being the main event because there's nobody else at "that" level. Now due to Cena's injury, there's a new face in the main event. Do you pull the trigger and give Ryback the title? All these months of hype and squash matches won't mean jack if he doesn't win the WWE Championship. But is Ryback the superstar of the future? Is he ready? Can he carry the WWE as its Champion? Can WWE survive the backlash if Ryback turns out that he's not ready? Will Lesnar interfere? Will Cena have a role in this match? You only get one shot at this sort of thing. If Ryback wins the WWE title somewhere down the road, it won't mean as much. If you're looking for that moment to make a new star, it would have to be tonight.

Ryback can't lose, CM Punk can't lose. If Ryback is going to get beat, it's going to take numbers. I said it before, if Ryback is going to lose, Brock Lesnar will be the reason, unless WWE pulls something completely out of left field. If CM Punk loses, then you have a star for the future, but you have to think about the booking going forward and how things will be when The Rock comes back to hype his Royal Rumble match.  Recently, WWE has never thought of the long term effects of some things.

I say CM Punk is going to retain the WWE Championship. CM Punk's title reign has been very good, almost a year now. If you want his match with The Rock to have that extra something, he needs to keep the title and milk his reign for all its worth so when he faces The Rock, it's BIG. Ryback has to lose, and I hate that it has to happen, but I just don't think he's ready to be the WWE Champion.

Tonight is the night. Do you have your WWE Champion end the unbeaten streak of the Monster that you've pushed so much, or do you look toward the future and make this Monster the Champion and prove that you don't need John Cena on the marquee every pay-per-view? Tonight is going to answer A LOT of questions. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Week 7 Wrap-Up and look ahead to Week 8

We're almost at the end of October, and we're starting to learn a lot about these teams. Let's go through a few of the games.

Seattle 6

San Francisco 13

If there was any doubt that San Fran was still the class of the NFC West, this game should've quieted down the critics. Russell Wilson and Seattle isn't ready to dethrone San Fran in the NFC West. That defense still continues to make The Niners look strong, but Alex Smith needs to change how he does things. It's not necessarily him, but the offensive coordinator in charge. They're trying to make Alex Smith into Joe Montana. That's not his game, he proved already twice this season, that The Niners can't win games on his arm alone. He's just a game manager, nothing more, nothing less. Last season, he wasn't throwing the ball 50 times, he was just making the small plays to get his team over the hump. They gotta evaluate things cause they have to travel to Arizona Monday night.

Baltimore 13

Houston 43

I mean, this complete domination by Houston. Baltimore couldn't move the ball and they couldn't stop the Texans offensive attack. Not to mention, the defense was all over Flacco all day long. With the Ravens losing, Ray Lewis, Ledarius Webb, Haloti Ngata, and maybe Ed Reed, The Ravens are on the verge of collapsing.

But then again, I just think Baltimore had a bad day and Houston had a really good day. Nothing more, nothing less. The Ravens are on their bye next week so they have time to figure things out. Houston feels pretty good about themselves going into their bye week as well.

Washington 23

New York 27

In one of the more entertaining games of the day, RG3 took on Eli Manning in a great division battle. And to be quite honest, RG3 didn't disappoint. The Redskins, in my opinion, outplayed The Giants, but where they messed was on turnovers. Too many turnovers, too many mistakes that could've given them the win. Not like Eli played better himself throwing 2 picks, but he threw the game winning TD to Cruz for a 27-23 lead with under a minute to go.

The Redskins now know that they can beat The Giants but they can't these mistakes in doing so. They need to shape up because they have a tough challenge at Pittsburgh this Sunday. The Giants have a crucial game against The Cowboys.

New York 26

New England 29

I'll hand it to The Jets, they fought valiantly. I thought they would for sure get blown out, but their defense helped them out a little bit and kept it close. But Brady proved just why he is the man. When the game went into OT, Brady led the Pats down the field from their 20 in about 3 or 4 plays. Sanchez on the next drive got sacked and fumbled the ball giving The Patriots the win.

The Pats continue to prove their overratedness. The Jets defense isn't as good as it used to be when Rex fist started, but they still held Brady in check. Sanchez simply has nobody to throw to. The only trustworthy receiver he has is Jeremy Kerley and now that Keller is back, he'll get more help, but still needs more. Stephen Hill dropped a pass in the fourth that could've given the Jets a first down and a chance to probably win the game. The New England defense again surrendered a lead in the fourth quarter. The Pats pack their bags for London to take on......The St. Louis Rams. That should be fun to watch. The Jets have a strong division foe in Miami coming to town. 

Pittsburgh 24

Cincinnati 17

Down 14-3 on the road to a division foe, The Steelers made just enough plays to come back and get the win. Even when Big Ben threw a pick and fumbled the ball, The Steelers still didn't give up. The Bengals played solid football balancing their passing and rushing game, but it still wasn't enough. They pretty much dominated the first half, but after that, Pittsburgh took control and tipped the game back in their favor. Their defense may be old, but they still found ways to win. The Bengals are growing, but they're still not ready to take down Baltimore or Pittsburgh.

Things to learn from Week 7:

1) So far, Houston looks like the best team in the AFC. After them, the rest of the teams are struggling to find their identity. Most of them are either 4-3, or 3-4. Not bad, but not good either.

2) Arizona isn't who we thought they were. They've got one last shot to prove their still alive in the NFC West with a game at home against San Francisco.

3) The Saints and Packers are slowly getting back on track. Brees is determined to turn this team around, but I still don't believe they'll make the playoffs. The Packers are determined to prove they are still an elite team.

4) I'm still not sold on the Vikings. They're 5-2, but they've only played one division game against a Detroit team that clearly isn't the same team from last season. The jury is still out on Minnesota until they play Green Bay and Chicago.

5) Cam Newton and The Panthers are in quite a slump. Cam looked great last season, but it's not looking too good for him this season. It doesn't get any better for him playing at Chicago on Sunday.



Matchups to watch in Week 8:

Miami Dolphins at New York Jets

The Dolphins aren't the same team The Jets earlier in the season. Miami has gotten better, but playing on the road makes this a tough test. Nonetheless, with the AFC East looking so wide open, this is a must win for both teams.


Atlanta Falcons at Philadelphia Eagles

Unbeaten Atlanta goes on the road to take on The Eagles. This smells like a trap game. Philly, coming off their bye and with all their problems, are looking to do anything to get a moral victory to keep themselves relevant. They fired their defensive coordinator after blowing another fourth quarter lead to Detroit. The Falcons maybe a heavy favorite heading into this, but with a new defensive coordinator and an offense that can combat Atlanta's, this could be a trap. Then again, I could be wrong, but this is just a gut feeling. Vick needs to watch out because the Falcon's defense has been playing extremely well this season.


Washington Redskins at Pittsburgh Steelers

RG3 vs Big Ben. Two guys that can move out of the pocket and make plays with their feet. But who's mobility will help them out in this game? Playing in Pittsburgh is always tough, but with RG3's performance in New York, I can't see them getting blown out. It's going to be close, good game. Both these teams are looking to make some headway in their divisions.


New York Giants at Dallas Cowboys

I think is THE game of the weekend. This is such a crucial division match. On opening night, in New York, after the ring ceremony and all the hype and fanfare, Dallas marched in and beat The Giants. But can they do it again? Eli Manning and The Giants have beaten Romo three straight seasons in Dallas' new stadium, if that means anything. The Cowboys NEED this win for themselves. If they sweep The Giants, I predict that they just might win the division. The Giants already lost to Philly, but I feel like Dallas is the more prominent threat here. Giants fans may think they have in the bag, but I wouldn't be too sure about that. It's hard to predict, but with all due respect to RG3 and Michael Vick, the winner of this game wins the NFC East.


New Orleans Saints at Denver Broncos

Now, THIS is going to a good one. So many storylines heading into this one: Peyton Manning vs Drew Brees for the first time since Super Bowl 46, and you know Peyton still wants his payback from that. After what Drew Brees did to the Bucs, can the Denver defense stop The Saints' offense? Can Denver win a game without spotting the opponent 20 points and have to rely on another comeback win? Can The Saints handle the altitude at mile high? All this and more equal one hell of a Sunday night game. If The Saints want to make the playoffs, they need this win, and with a 3-3 record, The Broncos also need this win.



San Francisco 49ers at Arizona Cardinals

The Niners already put down Seattle, and now they face Arizona. The Niners can take full command of this division with a win here. If Arizona wants to remain relevant and prove that they are who we thought they were, they need to win this game.


Pretty much the theme of Week 8 is must win. For most teams, is must win to keep themselves relevant and staying alive hoping to make the playoffs. We'll see just who wants it more this Sunday.