Is there any single entity on TV that has so much of its’ fanbase hate-watching it?
There might be a sports joke to make in there somewhere, but I couldn’t tell you.
WWE has like seven hours of first-run television to fill every week while trying to put together a cohesive story and, since they no longer use outside talent to get beat every week, keep everybody somewhat relevant. A setup like that is really impossible to succeed with, but damned if WWE doesn’t try it every single week.
And so, being in the bubble, I watch it every single week. And while there’s good stuff here and there, a lot of it is still pretty stupid.
But I still watch, because in between the stupidity and overproduction and all the other explanations of why wrestling TV these days is pretty good but mostly sucks, the WWE has one of their best rosters of wrestling talent in a long long time. And for every ten piles of bullshit, there’s usually a good match or two in there, along with the added bonus of keeping up the most fascinating story in television: The Decisions of Vince McMahon.
And so this week summed up most weeks of WWE television – no money angles, some dumb stuff, a lot of filler, but some really strong wrestling matches.
RAW had basically thirty minutes of good content – a lot of good individual moments, but filler that just killed it dead. Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins in the main event was the highlight, a stronger match than their Money in the Bank match the previous night which was good but not great. These two kept this thing compelling the entire time up until the double contout finish. If you are going to be suspended for 30 days, at least go out on a good note – and Roman Reigns did here, proving that this man can, indeed, wrestle. The Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn match was short and thus one of their weaker matches, but their chemistry still made it fun. Brawl afterwards was another good one, though weaker on the Owens/Zayn brawling scale. Enzo and Shane McMahon yucking it up was awesome, the Big Johnny cameo was fun, Titus O’Neil and The Miz both cut tremendous promos, Titus and Rusev had a really good brawl, Sasha Banks made her main roster return to a huge reaction, and the Wyatt’s and the freakin’ New Day interacted. Good moments spread across a weak show.
The C-Show rocked it this week, highlighted by Zack Ryder vs. Rusev in a good match. Main Event usually has one or two matches where they just let guys go, and they usually deliver. Rusev did his monster thing and Ryder did his underdog-who-might-just-surprise-you thing and it totally clicked. Enzo & Cass vs. The Ascension was a fine Enzo & Cass match, though The Ascension are real bores on offense. Sin Cara vs. Corbin was fine for what it was, with Cara basically throwing himself around for Corbin.
NXT this week was another good one, as they try with varying degrees of success to figure out just what the hell their during as the WWE Brand Split looms. Top moments were a great No Way Jose/Austin Aries angle with Aries dancing on television for like a full minute before attacking Jose (which really marks his official heel turn, which is impressive since Jose has been on TV for like 2 months and is already a good sympathetic babyface that can get guys over), as well as a tremendous Shinsuke Nakamura enhancement match with Buddy Murphy (Murphy, seemingly no longer teaming with Blake, appears to have gotten his first name back). The women’s division had two decent enhancement matches in Bayley/Deonna and Nia Jax/Liv Morgan. And while the match wasn’t much, Oney Lorcan over Tye Dillinger was a shocker. Not sure what they’re planning with Oney with the weird name and no gimmick. Is he just a weird ugly guy? Cause that didn’t work out great for Marcus Louis. Between all this and the Authors of Pain and Samoa Joe vignettes, NXT crushed it this week.
SmackDown! this week was really an awesome show – not a ton got moved forward but all the wrestling was great. Cesaro vs. Alberto del Rio was a sweet match, with Cesaro fighting from behind with the always-hurt arm and some really smooth sequences, with a hot crowd as well. Apollo Crews vs. Sheamus was good too, better than Money in the Bank – very physical and fast-paced. If Apollo in this incarnation is going to work, this series will help. AJ Styles vs. Jimmy Uso was another good AJ vs. undercard good guy match – hope they keep running these wherever AJ ends up on the brand split. New Day/Vaudevillains was a decent squash match. Becky Lynch vs. Dana Brooke, at about 3 minutes long, actually made me think about WWE TV time constraints and how everyone is forced to tell kind of the same story in each match, even if something different would be more effective – so, a lot of stuff happens way too fast. Becky takes this problem though and actually has probably Dana’s best main roster match. I hope they figure out where they’re going with Dana – if she’s going to win matches, make her look dominant, and not force her to work these back-and-forth matches that she doesn’t look competent in, which makes her look bad and her opponent look worse. After all this good stuff Seth Rollins and Sami Zayn main event, and even though it goes under 10 minutes they pack in a really fun sprint, constantly moving with some great sequences. This was the best Rollins has looked since returning and really it’s one of Zayn’s better outings on the main roster too.
Superstars had two decent tag matches: Golden Truth vs. The Ascension, and The Lucha Dragons vs. The Dudley Boyz. Most of these guys are stuck doing nothing but they try to make the most of it.
WWE TV Match of the Week: While Alberto/Cesaro, Rusev/Ryder and Rollins/Zayn were all good, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins had a PPV-quality match on RAW that built well and got really hot towards the end.
WWE TV MVP of the Week: Welcome back to Seth Rollins, who main evented both shows in great, different matches with Reigns and Zayn.
