By Brian Argabright
After a brief hiatus, I have returned!
The reality is there was a whole lot of wrestling going on recently, so I needed to take a week break from the column to catch up and reset. It helped that my friends Adrian Garcia and Jose Zavala, hosts of the podcast Power Hour Wrestling, were there to fill in some of the blanks for me.
With just a few weeks left until WrestleMania, the biggest pro wrestling event of the year, now’s a good time to jump back into the deep end of the pool and start swimming again.
Matches are still being determined for the two-day event, but the whole week leading up that event should be a pro wrestling fan’s dream come true. Aside from the regular programming on Raw, Smackdown, AEW and Impact, NXT will host its first-ever two-day Takeover that includes a what I feel will be a match of the year contender in Adam Cole vs. Kyle O’Reilly in a no holds barred grudge match.
If you want a preview of this match, check out Ring of Honor’s Final Battle 2016 or their Hybrid Fight from Ring of Honor’s Best in the World 2012. Both matches are on YouTube in various qualities, but both are worth your watching. There’s blood involved in both matches, so watch with caution, but it shows why their newest showdown in 2021 has a lot to live up to and, in my opinion, will do exactly that.
As for WrestleMania, there are three matches you should really keep an eye on and could also be contenders for match of the year.
The first is Cesaro vs. Seth Rollins. Cesaro has been one of the best pro wrestlers in the world for years, but he’s been lost in the shuffle since he’s been in the WWE. I felt he would win the Elimination Chamber match this year, but alas it wasn’t to be. But now he gets a chance to steal the show against Seth Rollins, a man who seems to turn it up to 11 whenever he wrestles on the big show.
Secondly will be the WWE World Title match between champion Roman Reigns, Royal Rumble winner Edge and former world champion Daniel Bryan. Bryan and Reigns had an excellent match at Fastlane that was marred by interference from Jey Uso and Edge, but it set the stage for this triple threat match. Those kinds of matches at WrestleMania really bring out the best in everyone involved, and I expect the same in this situation.
The last match was just announced on this week’s Smackdown and it pits Kevin Owens against Sami Zayn. Owens and Zayn have a history that goes back to their days in Ring of Honor and the independent circuit when Owens wrestled as Kevin Steen and Zayn wrestled as El Generico, the best worst kept secret in pro wrestling. Even their feud in NXT was memorable, and now they bring it back for one more run. The fans are the lucky ones here.
