This and That

It's that most wonderful time of the year for WWE fans, as we head along toward the Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania Texas beyond that. We have a new champion in Roman "Believe That" Reigns and a new less-than-effective heel stable in the League of Nations.

That's my first rub, right there. Sheamus, Del Rio, Barret, and Rusev working in tandem should be a scary things to the likes of Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose. It should terrify the locker room and the League should be racking up wins left and right in both singles and tag matches. We all know this won't be the case. Roman's going to Superman punch his way through all of these guys like they were jobbers.

It also doesn't help the League that there are already two stronger-looking heel groups on the roster. Both the Wyatt Family and the New Day dominate (for the most part) in their respective roles. I realize they needed to do something with the likes of Barret and Rusev, but maybe putting all the villains together in a hastily constructed bad guy team wasn't the best thing to do right now.

But that's enough about the 'E. Get to the Rumble already . . .

Ring of Honor's latest PPV event went down last Friday, with War Machine winning the tag titles from The Kingdom and Jay Lethal retaining against AJ Styles. There was also a passionate match between Bobby Fish and Roderick strong for the ROH TV title, with Strong retaining. As usual with any ROH show, each match was great, all the way down the card. The only adjustment a WWE viewer might have to make when getting into ROH is the slightly faster pace the guys work at and the pacing of the show in general. Seldom is there ever a "popcorn match" on an ROH show. The talent is trusted to get themselves over with the crowd and whole thing feels less produced.

This was my first ROH show in a few months. I'm currently working on a spotlight similar to my Samoa Joe post about one of ROH's alumni. Also want to try and cover some New Japan stuff, as well as some Lucha Underground once that returns. If you want a wrestling show with a very different flavor than Raw or Smackdown, I urge you to check out Lucha Underground. I know a few fellow fans who would've dropped wrestling like a bad habit if not for that show.

Anyhoo, thanks for reading and follow me on Twitter for weekly NXT reactions and other shenanigans at @ChrisBComics