This week was not very good for WWE TV pro wrestling, was it?
There were a few notable matches that happened. Kevin Owens and AJ Styles had their first match on the main roster, and it was a lot of fun. It was basically them doing their big moves non-stop for ten minutes before Chris Jericho interference. It was neat. I’d like more.
Superstars and Main Event also had a couple solid offerings – The Ascension had one of their rare good matches versus the Lucha Dragons, and Sami Zayn vs. Stardust was a lot better than Roadblock but still not great. Superstars had maybe Summer Rae’s best ever performance vs. Natalya, as well as another good Zack Ryder C-show match, this time with Tyler Breeze (also featuring Ryder inexplicably pointing to the Mania sign before his ElBro drop [YES!] finish, as if Ryder has just decided to treat all his matches like epic main events at this point).
But yeahhh .. let’s get to the best TV match this week, Triple H vs. Dolph Ziggler.
What a weird, forced angle to set this one up. Triple H and Stephanie are talking shit, and out comes Dolph Ziggler to … I dunno, golf claps? It’s always fun to hear a wrestling pop that amounts to, “Wait, why is this happening? OK, I guess”
There have been plenty of openings for Dolph Ziggler to be a star, but he is one of the more clear victims of WWE’s modern day booking style that treats it’s week-to-week stars as second-class workers. They trot him out when they need an anti-Authority figure, but because they never capitalized on his initial push it just feels empty every time they bring it up again. That’s because he’s on TV every week, being a spunky babyface who’s actually kind of a veteran right now. Jobber to the Stars, I believe they call it. You need ’em. But don’t try and treat them like anything more than they are.
So Triple H needed that type of guy to work against to try and garner a last shot at heel heat before the impending performance art that will be the Reigns/Triple H Mania main event.
So he and Dolph wrestle each other, and if Dolph wins, he can choose any Mania match he wants. And they have a match. And it’s good. They’re working holds early, Dolph gets some well-timed comebacks, the crowd is into it. They play off the Roadblock finish which was a nice touch. Triple H, as I went over in the Roadblock Quick Thoughts, has been really good now that he’s a lot leaner and is working with smaller workrate guys.
But the match also had faults, in that it just felt inauthentic. Like, what a weird match to choose this week, but it sums up this week as well as modern day Triple H.
It was GOOD! It was the best thing this week! But it felt empty. I’d sum it up this way: Triple H having a good wrestling match on RAW is like when your boss calls you into his office and wants to show you how to do your job. Yeah he’s good at it, but it doesn’t feel right. He isn’t in the trenches every day. He doesn’t have to do your job every day. So he does what you do once or twice every year, and it’s quality … but it just doesn’t feel right folks.
And that… that was the Match of the Week. Here’s to better times.
