Kevin Owens Makes His WWE Debut

.@WWENXT Champion @FightOwensFight powerbombs @JohnCena on @WWE #RAW! #NXTTakeover http://t.co/KLu2HtSHo0

— WWE (@WWE) May 19, 2015

Wrestlemania 31 Odds

(Odds courtesy of Bovada.)

WWE World Heavyweight Title Match

Brock Lesnar (champ, +130)

Roman Reigns (-170)

**That was pre Lesnar announcement that he wasn't going to the UFC.**

Updated Odds for Title Fight

Brock Lesnar (champ, -130)

Roman Reigns (-110)

Singles Match

The Undertaker (-350)

Bray Wyatt (+225)

Singles Match

Sting (-700)

Triple H (+400)

Singles Match

Seth Rollins (-135)

Randy Orton (-105)

United States Title Match

Rusev (champ, +275)

John Cena (-450)

Intercontinental Title Ladder Match

Daniel Bryan (3/2)

Dean Ambrose (9/4)

Dolph Ziggler (8/1)

Bad News Barrett (champ, 9/1)

Luke Harper (20/1)

Stardust (25/1)

R-Truth (35/1)

Divas Tag Team Match

A.J. Lee & Paige (-350)

The Bella Twins (+225)

Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal

Damien Mizdow (5/4)

Sheamus (7/4)

Ryback (6/1)

Mark Henry (8/1)

Big Show (12/1)

Curtis Axel (18/1)

Kane (18/1)

The Miz (18/1)

Titus O'Neil (25/1)

Fandango (25/1)

Goldust (40/1)

Heath Slater (40/1)

Jack Swagger (40/1)

Sin Cara (40/1)

Zack Ryder (50/1)

Adam Rose (50/1)

Darren Young (50/1)

Konnor (50/1)

Fatal 4-Way Match

Tyson Kidd & Cesaro (7/4)

The New Day (11/4)

Los Matadores (5/1)

The Usos (6/1)

And be sure to listen to the Keefer Madness: Wrestlemania 31 Preview tonight at 9:55 on 98.5 The Sports Hub. 

***CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE MADNESS

WWE Night of Champions Picks

Brock Lesnar over John Cena for WWE World Heavyweight Championship
Cesaro over Sheamus for United StatesChampionship
A.J. Lee over Paige and Nikki Bella for Diva's Championship
Dolph Ziggler over The Miz for Intercontinental Championship
The Usos over Goldust & Stardust for Tag Team Championship
Randy Orton over Chris Jericho
Mark Henry over Rusev
Roman Reigns over Seth Rollins

Look for potential run-ins:
Bray Wyatt during Ziggler-Miz
Harper & Rowan during Tag Titles Match
Dean Ambrose during Reigns-Rollins

WWE Money in the Bank Results

The Usos defeat The Wyatt Family (to retain the Tag Team Championship)

Paige defeats Naomi (to retain the Divas Championship)

Adam Rose defeats Paul Revere 

Seth Rollins wins Brief Case Ladder Match

Goldust & Stardust defeat Rybaxel

Rusev defeats Big E

Layla defeats Summer Rae

John Cena wins WWE World Heavyweight Championship Ladder Match. 

C+

WWE World Heavyweight Title Ladder Match Set

Boom.

The field is set for the World Hvt. Title #LadderMatch at #MITB! #RAW #BattleRoyal #StretcherMatch pic.twitter.com/vVRgtSOgtb

— WWE (@WWE) June 17, 2014

Money In The Bank = Sunday, June 29th at the TD Garden

WWE Extreme Rules

It's the first PPV after Wrestlemania, Extreme Rules.  Tonight starting at 7:30 with a WeeeLC match between Torito and Hornswaggle. (Little dudes)

Some big time matches on the card including my man Bray Wyatt vs. John Cena in a steel cage!

The Shield vs. Evolution

Daniel Bryan (c) vs. Kane

Cesaro vs. Rob Van Dam vs. Jack Swagger

Should be solid. 

I'll be tweeting either at @Keefe21 or @TheSportsBrief haven't decided yet. 

Both are great follows. 

Wrestlemania XXX Preview

This Sunday it's Wrestlemania XXX from the Superdome in New Orleans.  It'll be a massive 4 hour extravaganza (7-11pm).  Lots of matches scheduled, Hulk Hogan is your host (whatever that does), and as I am for every Mania, I'm optimistic.

What I'm Looking Forward To:

1. Daniel Bryan vs. Triple H

These two have been going back and forth forever.  It's been a long build if you will.  Should be the opening match and should be sick.  The winner will be involved later in the night against champ Randy Orton and Batista in a 3-way for the WWE Heavyweight Championship.  (This thing could turn into a Fatal-4-Way, HHH has that kind of control.)  But everything involving Bryan has been terrific, so I expect the same with these two matches.

Prediction: Daniel Bryan wins.  The YES! fans will be in full force and finally get the show ending and result they've been waiting for.  
(However I am tempted to bet (yes you can bet) on Triple H, Orton, and Batista, they are all huge under dogs and it would be a nice payout... thinking about it.)

2. Bray Wyatt vs. John Cena

Wyatt is my favorite wrestler going right now and he has a real chance to be my favorite all-time.  His promos are off the charts and now that CM Punk is out of the picture, Bray is far and away the best on the microphone.  Despite popular opinion Cena puts on some solid matches.  I'm not expecting this to be Wyatt-Bryan from the Royal Rumble, but this has the makings for Match of the Night.

Prediction: Bray Wyatt... he may get some help from Erick Rowan and Luke Harper... and perhaps a mystery partner/ new addition to the family??? (I have no clue on this, just a guess.)

3. Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar

I mean, it's the Undertaker at Wrestlemania, you're going to watch.  I'm not as in to this one as the recent Taker-Punk, Taker-HHH, Taker-Michaels, but we'll see.  And are we going to get Sting, showing up on Sunday or more likely on Monday?  That I could get excited about.

Prediction: 22-0

CM Punk Does NOT Return At Monday Night Raw In Chicago

The show opened on Monday with CM Punk's music, but it was his former manager Paul Heyman who made his way out to the ring in front of Punk's hometown.  Well played WWE.   Heyman did his thing.  He mentioned CM Punk, the first time the name has been uttered on a WWE broadcast since he left the company.  Heyman said Punk was NOT in the building.  He blamed the fans for why Punk wasn't there and referenced his loss last Wrestlemania to the Undertaker, which allowed him to introduce his current guy Brock Lesnar.

Solid start to the show.  I was still thinking Punk would arrive and blow the roof off the place.

First match was for the Tag belts where The Usos beat The New Age Outlaws to become the NEEWWWW WWE TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD!   Good for them.

Big E and Cesaro have a match.  Fine.

The Wyatts vs. The Shield is next.  Once again it's terrific.  Without these two factions, I'd be out on the WWE right now.  Bray Wyatt is the best on the mic (since Punk is gone, remember) and Dean Ambrose isn't bad himself.  All 6 can wrestle and put on great matches.  Crowd chanted "This Is Awesome" a few times for this one, even before it started.

First hour of the show was great.  No CM Punk, but his name was mentioned and the crowd chanted it a few times.

Then a bunch of crap matches follow including Sheamus vs. Christian.  No thanks.

Jesse (Aaron Paul) from Breaking Bad comes out with Dolph Ziggler for his match with Alberto Del Rio.   Gotta promote that movie.

John Cena comes out, says he won't be wrestling and then talks about the Wyatts.   Least the WWE realizes Bray Wyatt is legit, as he is in TWO rivalries/ storylines right now.

Main Event time:  Batista vs. Daniel Bryan.  And of course Randy Orton is out too.  He's the champ.

Looks like Bryan will win and then shockingly Orton comes in and it's a DQ.  Next thing you know Triple H, Stephanie, and Kane are all in the ring beating up Bryan.  This would be a pretty good time for CM Punk's music to hit again... but it does not.  The WWE knew it was the perfect time and once again ended the night with Triple H and Steph reigning victorious.  Weak sauce.

Remember when the WCW had too many of their wrestlers (Hogan, Nash, NWO, etc.) in charge of creative and the whole operation went in the trash?  Well Triple H is doing a hell of a job trying to recreate that mess.

Daniel Bryan not being good enough is getting tired.

Triple H and Steph as the lead villains is getting tired.

Randy Orton sucks.

Batista sucks.

Sheamus sucks.

I'll probably still watch through Wrestlemania, but they are making it tough.  If I had the feeling that they were setting us up for something awesome it would be one thing, but the storytelling/ writing is so bad there is almost no hope.   Do they write this stuff day of?  How much of a long-scope do they have?   Remember when Kane was kidnapped by the Wyatt Family?  What about Daniel Bryan?  Do they remember?

I'll end with a quick Pros vs. Cons list of the current state of the WWE.

PRO:
Daniel Bryan
The Wyatt Family
The Shield
CM Punk
Paul Heyman

CON:
Randy Orton
Batista
Triple H/ Steph as the main heels
Writing
Sheamus
Christian
Kane
Lack of CM Punk
IC Belt
Divas Division

And John Cena probably lies somewhere in the middle.

Brock Lesnar Returns to WWE

This is old news, but in case you missed it Brock Lesnar made his return to the WWE this past Monday on Raw. The rumors had been swirling for sometime that the former WWE Champ & UFC Heavyweight Champ (still ranked in our Top 5 in the weight class... we should edit that.), would be coming back to wrasssling. But after Lesnar said he was retiring from MMA, it appears he wasn't kidding, like so many fighters and boxers and Brett Favre.

Brock returned to the WWE one day after Wresltemania 28. John Cena was closing out the show and wanted The Rock to come out to the ring so the two could shake hands. He did not get The Rock, he got this....

Pretty good stuff. But it still doesn't compare to this gem from 1999.

-Keefe

Summer Slam Spoiler?

WWE's Summer Slam is this Sunday night. If you have been paying attention at all to wrestling recently (and I think you should, it's getting good again) you know that the New Hampshire native Triple H has become the new on screen COO. He is very much involved in the main storyline between John Cena and CM Punk.

One member of the twitter universe created an image of what the end of the night could look like if HHH (a big time spotlight hog) gets to really call the shots back stage. I enjoyed it.

-Keefe

The Rock Is Back!

So after I went to the Royal Rumble a few weeks back I half-jokingly said I was going to start watching wrestling again. Two nights ago I was flipping through the channels around 10:45pm EST and I stopped on Monday Night Raw. Let's see what they're up to, I said.

"We will finally reveal the Wrestlemania host, next...." I didn't realize that the Wrestlemania required a host, but you never know. Before they got to commercial they showed a woman getting out of a limo, just her feet. Ok, maybe it's Stephanie McMahon, Trish Stratus, Sable, whatever I'll wait and see who it is.

It seemed like 5 minutes went by of just lights dim to lights off in the arena. And just before everyone was about to freak out we heard it.... "If Ya Smellllll... What The Rock... Is Cookin!!!" Yes sir, it was The Rock, he was back.

The People's Champ received an unreal ovation. By the time he got to speak I thought he would have like 2 minutes, but he bumped the Raw end time of 11:05 to 11:18. Not only is The Rock the Wrestlemania host, but he is straight up back.

He called out The Miz and John Cena, spending some time ripping on the latter. I'll tell you what... if The Rock is back, so am I. See you at Wrestlemania!

-Keefe

My Experience at the Royal Rumble

From the ages of 6 to 16 I was a die hard wrestling fan. On Monday nights I was glued to the tube flipping back and forth between WWF's Monday Night RAW and WCW's Monday Nitro. I loved it all. The gimmicks, the fights, the characters, the soap opera aspect, didn't matter. I found out it was fake, fine, I was still hooked. But like most of us the middle of high school comes and you have different priorities and you move on. Thanks wrestling.

Well last Sunday I attended the Royal Rumble at the TD Garden in Boston. Always my favorite event of the year back in the day, there was no chance I was passing up the opportunity even though I would know roughly 5-6 of the 40 (that's right 40) wrestlers taking part in this year's Rumble.

My buddy DA (from the DA Show, weeknights 6-11pm on 98.5 The Sports and on twitter @theDAshow) was offered two tickets to the event, and he asked if I wanted in. I'll tell you, the fact I haven't followed wrestling in a decade did not even cross my mind. "The Royal Rumble?" I said. I'm there.

So on Sunday I witnessed my first live wrestling event since 1997 while DA was finally able to scratch something off his extended bucket list.

We grabbed our tickets from will call and made our way to our seats, which happened to be Row 3 in the Loge. (I sat 3 rows from the ceiling back in '97). I was overwhelmed by the crowd. This was a true sellout. No fudging the numbers here, every seat was occupied, or in most cases had a fan standing in front of it.

Side note: I was at UFC 118 at the Garden back in August, which they also billed as a sellout, and the crowds looked nothing alike.

As I understand the now WWE (its been forever but I still hesitate wanting to call it the WWF) is broken up into two shows and two rosters, Raw and Smackdown. I arrived at this conclusion a few years back when my buddy Shark and I were playing the video game for 360, wisely titled Raw vs. Smackdown where you battle the opposing brand for top ratings. One catch is the big Pay-Per-View events use guys from both. I knew this going in, and for the purpose of the Rumble what do I care if Edge is in Raw or Smackdown.

Speaking of Edge, he hit lead off on the night putting his World Heavyweight Title belt on the line against Dolph Ziggler. (At this point I am 1 for 2 as far as knowing dudes is concerned. One difference however is when I knew Edge he essentially was a Vampire and part of the stable "The Brood." Now he is the Rated R Superstar. Whatever. Good for him.) He won what was actually a very entertaining match against Dolph. Some really ugly chick was backing Dolph and must have some kind of power as she told Edge he couldn't use his spear or he would have lost the title. But both that bitch and the ref got knocked out, so guess what happened? Edge speared the crap out of Ziggler and got the 1-2-3. Sick match. Great start.

The second match was for the WWE Championship. Confused? Me too. World Heavyweight Title and WWE Championship? Gotta be the brands. Moving on. The Miz (from MTV's Real World, Season 10: Return to New York) is the champ. Pretty incredible. Who had that 5 years ago? He squared off against Randy Orton. (I am a surprising 3 out of 4 knowing guys, or course 1 out of 4 I met while he lived in a house with 6 strangers.)

This match was entertaining, well the parts I saw. DA and I made an amateur mistake and hit up the concourse for some food right after the Edge win. I ended up talking to a friend from college who was there and missed half the Miz fight. Shame on me, I know. And the real kicker is the final match before the Royal Rumble was a Divas Match. At least I didn't have to wait in line for my hot dog and nachos.

Gotta love this; first bout was a singles match, went just over 20 minutes, second bout also a singles match went just under 20 minutes. The Divas busted out a Fatal Four Way Match for the strap (3 title fights!) and lasted 5 minutes. The WWE hasn't lasted this long by making bad decisions. DA and I are the ones with the bad decision to eat during a good match then come back for all of the Divas, but it didn't matter we were still genuinely jacked up for the Rumble to start.

After two rival gangs err stables rushed the ring to start the Rumble, order was restored with the two true combatants. CM Punk (sort of heard of) drew the #1 spot while Daniel Bryan (no clue) took #2. (They ran some vignette with this guy Bryan and an Asian chick and two twin chicks they all ended up in a brawl.) Both of these gentlemen were prepared for a battle as Bryan lasted over 20 minutes and as DA pointed out on several occasions had a "big heart."

Punk is the leader of one of the aforementioned stables called the New Nexus. It got to a point where he was and 3 other members of this crew were the only ones in the ring, and they just waited for the next entrant. 7 dudes must have come and gone at the hands of this 4-on-1 assault. DA and I were ready to crown these guys the champs... who could possibly stop them?

Many tried, but it was Massachusetts own John Cena who put an end to the New Nexus. When he tossed Punk and a couple of his lackeys over the ropes DA and I literally high-fived and yelled with excitement. We were hooked. That was the highlight of the night, but definitely not the only memorable moment.

The WWE will trot out older wrestlers in the Rumble, something I remember from watching years ago. And Sunday was no different. Booker T returned to the ring and he did so behind thunderous applause. Now I have been to Bruins games, I have been to Celtics regular season and playoff games, and as I said I was at the first ever UFC event in Boston, but I have never heard the New Garden as loud as when Booker T's music hit the speakers. I thought the roof was going to come off. The excitement was short lived however as Booker managed to last just over 1 minute and half of that was spent break dancing in the middle of the ring. You can't have everything.

The other old timer to come back? None other than the 1995 Wrestler of the Year, Diesel. I was legit pumped to see him as he walked out to his old school music and jumbo screen montage. Just great stuff all around. He did not last long either, but had a very cool moment as when he was walking off The Big Show was entering. The two squared off in a classic stare down. Lot of bad blood there going back to WCW when it was the Giant vs. Kevin Nash. Rematch? I don't want to get ahead of myself.

It looked like it was going to be a predictable finish as only four fighters remained (well really 5 cause we later find out 1 asshole was hiding under the ring the whole time) but it was John Cena, Randy Orton, and a couple of dudes I never heard of. The Miz, who wasn't a participant, comes in and eliminates Cena (you guessed it the ref wasn't looking). Next thing you know Orton is out too and friggin Alberto Del Rio (who drove to the ring earlier in sick car) wins the 2011 Royal Rumble. Fans left the Garden irate and looking for answers. Why? Does Del Rio deserve to main event Wrestlemania? Who am I to question the WWE after decades of success?

Like me, fans come and go for the WWE, but they just keep banging out an entertaining product. I went in with no expectations, just hoping for a few laughes and some "holy crap" moments (which definitely took place, most of which from Rey Mysterio who is still getting it done.) I left the night saying, maybe I'll turn on Raw tomorrow for a few minutes, see what's going on.

I thought wrestling was no longer popular, mainly because my friends and I had stopped watching it. Maybe there aren't as many characters who interest me (I do like this John Morrison guy and CM Punk seems to be a great heel), but I'll be damned if its not still an entertaining product. People are still watching this stuff. I feel that the WWE's biggest problem now is that they have really eliminated all of the competition, therefore they have to rely strictly on themselves to improve. Now I don't think this is better than the late 90's, but it doesn't suck and its not going away.

Rick Rude, Owen Hart, The Junkyard Dog, Brian Pillman, Big John Studd, Kerry Von Erich, Andre the Giant, Fatu, Test, Crush, Chris Benoit, Bam Bam Bigelow, Luna Vachon, Earthquake, Mike Awesome, Eddie Guerrero, Big Bossman, British Bulldog, Hercules, Crash Holly, Road Warrior Hawk, Miss Elizabeth, Mr. Perfect, The Sheik, and Yokozuna may all be dead, but wrestling is still alive and well. (Jesus that's a lot of dead wrestlers, and there are many more.)

-Rich Keefe