Bang for Your Buck PPV Review: Royal Rumble 2015

Natalya & Paige vs. Nikki & Brie Bella

Worst Case Scenario: It’s odd to say this, but it’s hard to imagine this match being anything worse than “pretty okay”. All four of these performers are reliably entertaining and if they are all on their game, this could end up being the best tag match of the four.

This match was about as bad as it could have been expected, which is to say, unevenly paced with some execution issues throughout but ultimately a few steps above “totally passable”. The four performers in the ring prevented it from stalling out at any partiuclar point and while it started to hit it stride only shortly before it ended, the stride looked good while it was there.

Paige continues to be a compelling performer and what the Bellas lack in technical acumen, Nikki makes up in being Queen Hoss. Like a power hitter in their prime, that girl can rake, and ending the match on an absolutely destructive forearm to the side of Nattie’s head made an impact and not just on her skull. It’ll be interesting  to see who will challenge for the title going forward, however, because it’s tough to imagine her losing it any time soon as they build value back into the championship before they give it to Charlotte by the end of this year but they need to have believable contenders for the whole thing to work in the first place.

Perhaps more importantly, it brings up the question of what will become of Paige and Natalya’s seemingly random pairing moving forward even if it didn’t mean to. Vacuums create opportunities and without AJ in the picture a number of possibilities remain: Will they continue their run as the “Inexplicable Ones” whose motivations make only slightly less sense than their allegiances? Or will this be the one friendship that last in either of these character’s lives? Will the tag team of Cesaro and Kidd play a role in their progression? Will we finally found out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real?

Match .55 | PPV 1.8

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