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”The Doc” Chad Matthews has been a featured writer for LOP since 2004. Initially offering detailed recaps and reviews for WWE's top programs, he transitioned to writing columns in 2010. In addition to his discussion-provoking current event pieces, he has written many acclaimed series about WrestleMania, as well as a popular short story chronicle. The Doc has also penned a book, The WrestleMania Era: The Book of Sports Entertainment, published in 2013. It has been called “the best wrestling book I have ever read” and holds a 5-star rating on Amazon, where it peaked at #3 on the wrestling charts. Follow @TheDocLOP QUESTION OF THE DAY: To date, what is your choice for WWE (w/ NXT included) Match of the Year in 2016? The following is a case study of WWE’s product for the month of August 2016. Is It Time To Impeach The Night Mayor Of Suplex City? My name is “The Doc” Chad Matthews; and I am the advocate for changing up the routine for the Beast Incarnate...The Conqueror!...The Night Mayor of Suplex City!...BRRRRROCK LLLLESNAR! If you do not listen to the various shows on LOP Radio, then I highly recommend them. I would put our podcasts up against the very best and expect feedback to reflect it. I personally listen to them regularly and my favorite has always been the Right Side of the Pond, featuring the combination of current and former LOP writers Maverick, 'Plan, Shinobi, and Mazza. Their opinions often vary from my own and I respect their thoughts enough that they often create talking points for my own show and, as you'll note momentarily, for this section of this month's case study. One of the biggest stories of August 2016 was Brock Lesnar. His failed drug tests stemming from his July return to UFC certainly prompted some to lose respect for and/or tolerance of the Beast Incarnate's cushy position in the WWE hierarchy in the midst of a so-called New Era. Coupled with my primary source for daring to be sour on the Conqueror – yet another lackluster, uninspiring, call it “lazy” performance – it would seem as if there is a growing list of reasons for people to become disenchanted with Brock (and I didn't even include his part-time status and all the contempt it is prone to bring). On the Summerslam Preview edition of the 'Pond, Mav and 'Plan added a more WWE-centric reason to the fold; their issue was with Lesnar continuing to be booked so strongly when the angle that prompted such dominance no longer seemed to have any basis or direction - no Streak, no WWE Title, so what is he conquering? I found that train of thought particularly insightful. Piggybacking off of the 'Pond, if you rewind the clock 18 months, Lesnar was the hottest act in the game because the booking strategy seemed the means toward a specific end – someone was going to beat the “1 in 21-1” (as it was at the time). It harkened back, as I mentioned last week on my own podcast, “The Doc Says,” to a time when WWE rode the character that was peaking to a logical point (usually WrestleMania) at which time the story would meet its conclusion and then they would move in a different direction. Do you remember the first time that you saw The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King? Do you recall thinking, as I did, that the movie was about to end about two hours or so into it, only it just kept going for like another six hours? You couldn't help but think, could you, that it would've been a better movie had it just ended in a more timely fashion? Well, WrestleMania 31 was the time that the Lesnar story ideally would have concluded. Unfortunately, Roman Reigns did not connect to a degree that ultimately warranted him to get the rub of being the guy who conquered the Conqueror and that particularly engrossing chapter in the Book of WWE was actually never finished. Lesnar vs. Taker resumed, further distancing the story from a satisfying ending. Brock's lackluster 2016 Royal Rumble appearance that largely amounted to a waste of time didn't help either, but with these last two matches featuring Lesnar against Ambrose and Orton respectively, it almost seems as though WWE no longer has any intention of finishing the story they were once crafting. To use another entertainment analogy, Lesnar the Conqueror is like one of those American TV shows that has a great premise for one season but catches on, prompting its writers to try to extend it so far beyond its true limits that it then becomes boring and starts reverting to ridiculous hooks like the dead father coming back to life when his death was the entire purpose of the show's plot or sixty-seven teases about who the terrorist will be. Instead of the payoff being exciting and satisfying, the payoff mercifully puts the story out of its misery. If we see another Orton match – and why should there be another match given how completely and utterly the Viper was annihilated? - or we're subjected to the McMahon vanity project that would be Shane vs. Brock, then what was ever the point of any of this with Lesnar? Was not the point of using Taker's Streak as a way to revitalize Brock to at the very least create compelling Lesnar feuds and at the very most to solidify an emergent talent by having Brock transfer his heat? There is nothing compelling anymore about the Beast Mode style, it has run its course, it needs to end, and it is time to move on. Even Paul Heyman's promos have become skippable because there's so little substance in these stories for him to sink his teeth into. Lesnar has become a part-time, extremely high profile version of Braun Strowman, squashing his foes with relative ease but doing so seemingly with no more creative intention than keeping him stronger than everyone else. So, for the love of God, WWE, can you please just tie up the loose end with Lesnar's arc and go with the newest, hottest act in the game? WrestleMania is around the corner now; don't waste Lesnar's presence on another boring Suplex City re-run. Pay it off, pay it forward, and let the Night Mayor ride off into the sunset. Otherwise, let's impeach him and just burn Suplex City to the ground. WWE Summerslam 2016 Review Match of the Month: AJ Styles vs. John Cena at Summerslam I think it's fair to ask about August's Match of the Month if it is also the new frontrunner for Match of the Year. At present time, I would consider Nakamura vs. Zayn, one of the Revival's four best tag team matches, Styles vs. Reigns (from Extreme Rules), Rollins vs. Reigns, and Owens vs. Zayn (from Battleground) the leading candidates among a slew of four-star matches produced by WWE/NXT in 2016. Each match on that list offers something unique to the conversation. As you may recall from past breakdowns of how I judge great matches against each other, there are many things that I will ultimately take into account in December when it comes time to make a decision about MOTY. Right now, Nakamura vs. Zayn had the best atmosphere, the Revival matches have offered the most exciting action, Rollins vs. Reigns was the most historic, Owens vs. Zayn had the best pre-match build, and Styles vs. Reigns was the most engaging story told in the ring. If you're making your case for Cena vs. Styles as the leader in the clubhouse, you could build your argument around it being the superior combination of all aspects that make one match among a list of great ones the greatest; it featured very good storytelling, it was excellently executed, it was innovative, it produced a wonderful atmosphere, it was certainly historic, it had a solid if not spectacular pre-match build, and – in addition to all of that – it might well have been the most exciting match, a content-laden spectacle cut from the mold popularized last year during Cena's critically-acclaimed US Title run but really established by HBK vs. Taker in 2009 and 2010. So, as of right now, though I haven't analytically sat down and dissected the candidates against each other thoroughly (as I will later this year), I think it's quite reasonable to put Cena vs. Styles at or near poll position through eight months. Previous winners: Ambrose vs. Owens at Royal Rumble (Jan), Ambrose vs. Reigns vs. Lesnar at Fast Lane (Feb), Dean Ambrose vs. Triple H at Roadblock (Mar), Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Sami Zayn at Takeover: Dallas (Apr), AJ Styles vs. Roman Reigns at Extreme Rules (May), Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins at Money in the Bank (Jun), and Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens at Battleground (Jul) Wrestler of the Month: AJ Styles There is really no getting around it, this was Dean Ambrose's award for the taking heading into Summerslam. Despite a controversial month that saw him borderline bomb in his appearance on Austin's podcast, clearly and strangely out of his element with perhaps a world record for the number of times a typically charismatic figure can say “um,” he owned his role as the #1 guy on Smackdown. Unfortunately, his match at Summerslam didn't go over so well and, though I disagree with anyone who says that his match with Dolph Ziggler was anything less than a good WWE title bout, PPV is the most important spotlight in the game and the general consensus is that Ambrose under-performed. When you evaluate the landscape, then, the question to ask becomes: do four weeks of consistency as a character while doing some of the most best promo work in recent memory trump a performance that while good still didn't quite live up to expectations and a WWE Network exclusive appearance that, it could be argued, made the WWE Champion and the company look bad? Let's look at his nearest competition – Seth Rollins, AJ Styles, and Finn Balor. Rollins was fine on the mic (though I've got to dock him for putting emphasis on the wrong syllable when saying “Demon King,” making it bring back awful memories from 2015 of his feud with “Demon Kane”), but he wasn't Ambrose and his match at Summerslam though much better than the Lunatic's did not conclusively put him ahead. Balor had an awesome month and was maybe the Lunatic's closest competitor, pre-Summerslam, but unless you don't have WWE Network, what you saw from Finn was nothing mind-blowing (well, that said, popping your own dislocated shoulder back in place and finishing a headlining match is pretty amazing). And then there's AJ Styles. Going into Summerslam, he was not really in the running. His promos were retreads of the same tired arguments against Cena spewed by indy darlings for the last five years; Ambrose, meanwhile, carried Smackdown with mic work that made a guy who hadn't been relevant in three years at a main-event level seem like an interesting contender. However, Styles had the best match at Summerslam conclusively. Epic was the style in which it was wrestled and epic was the feeling that it generated for most who watched it and, as a result, AJ came out of Summerslam the hottest act in the game with a decisively clean win over Cena, joining an exclusive club of all-time greats who have defeated the Golden Boy clean on one of WWE's grandest stages. This was one of the most difficult choices of the year, but while nobody had a better character month than Ambrose, nobody out-performed AJ Styles when it mattered most, nobody was more over than AJ Styles when it mattered most, and nobody came out of the second biggest PPV of the year looking better than AJ Styles. Previous winners: Dean Ambrose (Jan and Feb), Chris Jericho (Mar), AJ Styles (Apr), AJ Styles and Roman Reigns (May), Seth Rollins (Jun), and Dean Ambrose (Jul) NXT Takeover: Brooklyn II Review September Predictions “The Doc Says” is going to be busy with 5-Star PPV Previews next month with a Raw and a Smackdown brand-only special on the WWE Network just two weeks apart. I love that Smackdown's Backlash is going to start this brand-specific PPV reboot with Dean Ambrose defending the title against AJ Styles; they're the two hottest acts in the game if you ask me. I foresee a slam dunk of a match and a title change that I never would have anticipated until recently. With a victory over Cena at Summerslam, Styles has to win the title now to maximize the momentum he received from it, but would they really take the title off of Ambrose already? The result in question will offer the best kind of unpredictability in pro wrestling. Sticking with Smackdown for a moment, the finish to the Wyatt vs. Orton match will also be very interesting; both of them could use a victory, perhaps Wyatt more so than Orton given the year he's had and perhaps Orton more so than Wyatt given how RKO was owned by the Beast at Summerslam (and since he just returned from injury hiatus). Most will expect American Alpha to become the new Smackdown Tag Team Champions, but it would be better for them in my opinion if another team cheaply beat them or if the Usos reasserted their prior dominance in a new division and kept Jordan and Gable on the chase. The Women's Title on Smackdown probably should just stick with its alpha female as the first champion, so the question boils down to who you think that to be – Nattie, Nikki, or Becky? I believe it to be Becky Lynch, so I'd go with her. What happens between Miz and Ziggler will also be a major source of intrigue for the blue brand at Backlash. Over on the Raw side as we head toward Clash of Champions, we've only just begun to see the fallout of Finn Balor winning and relinquishing the new title; Kevin Owens is the new champion and absolutely deserves to wear the red, gold, and diamonds and, with Triple H presumably backing his play for the foreseeable future, who knows what that could mean. Are Triple H and Owens the protagonists in this situation? Rollins is a heel, Trips turned on him; everyone hates Reigns, Trips continued his characteristic dislike for him; everyone hates Stephanie and it was clear on Raw that Triple H's actions were done without her knowledge or consent. It's going to be interesting to follow which narrative that they use, though admittedly the heel Owens and heel Hunter makes the most sense logistically, with perhaps the finish to the Fatal Fourway sparking the beginning of the Rollins face turn that has been talked about throughout the year. A triple threat involving Rollins, Reigns, and Owens might make good sense for the upcoming PPV, but as someone sick to death of multi-man matches, I'm definitely on-board with just sticking with Rollins vs. Owens and letting the character dynamics organically evolve as the situation matures. How KO's buddy, Chris Jericho, reacts to the Prize Fighter's new alliance will also be a story to watch. Is Reigns vs. Rusev over, by the way? Will Cesaro vs. Sheamus, which is turning into a really intriguing Best of Seven Series, be done in time for the "championship opportunity" to come to fruition on September 25th? What of this Brock Lesnar situation and Paul Heyman's engaging but confusing interaction with Stephanie McMahon? Can Sasha Banks make it back to invoke her rematch clause by then or will Bayley be the one challenging Charlotte for the Women's Title? Charlotte's first title defense of her second reign undoubtedly has my attention. If it's Bayley and Bayley alone challenging for the gold, she will be like Finn Balor was for me in that the booking of her initial month on Raw will go a long way toward my opinion of her ceiling on the main roster. Fans of NXT might suggest that the sky is the limit and I pray that is the case because she's arguably been the face of NXT's rise to its peak position in the wrestling world, but I need to see it from creative like I saw the creative for Balor. Raw sure has one healthy women's division; you don't need a ton of depth in a division that only has one match of any real importance every month (the one on PPV) and they have the three best women on the main roster. About the only certainty at present time for Raw's upcoming special event is that the Tag Titles will again be defended by The New Day against Anderson and Gallows, to which I predict new champions will finally be crowned.
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