WWE at this point in the year is something I continue to watch week-to-week, with some occasional fun spots and some really solid wrestling, but that’s because I’m a weirdo wrestling fan. This is absolutely nothing I would recommend to anybody else. A low key hope for the brand split is, beyond RAW and SmackDown getting separate rosters, WWE does something to change up the presentation. I’m imagining most of the overproduction and general creepiness of the product stays the same, but you would at least hope that they will start attempting to make some stars on this very talented roster.
You don’t get a run at the top for a guy like Mark Henry in this current WWE environment, with one maybe two top programs allowed to go at once. You got it in 2011 when the rosters were last separate. You also arguably don’t get runs at the top for guys like Daniel Bryan (the first World Title win), CM Punk (the first WWE Title win/Straight Edge Society run), and even John Cena (the feud with Paul Heyman’s Monster Squad and first WWE Title win) without a good program with some room to breathe.
But let’s talk about whatever the fuck this week of WWE TV was.
RAW was highlighted by the bizarre Seth Rollins promo on Roman Reigns’ Wellness suspension, as well as a pair of solid matches in Seth Rollins vs. John Cena and Dean Ambrose vs. AJ Styles. Rollins vs. Cena was basically a by-the-numbers Rollins vs. Cena match, and thus probably their weakest TV/PPV match together, but still – they’re on such another level that even their weak stuff is pretty good. It was pretty much a house show match on TV, which isn’t a terrible thing. Totally flipped out for Enzo & Big Cass getting an enhancement match – really hope we see more of those as the brand splits, as keeping folks away from each other makes it feel like a bigger deal when they actually match up. The Owens/Zayn Highlight Reel with Jericho was pretty fun too. That’s a lot of good stuff to make me think this was a show still filled with filler garbage, but it kind of was.
All Tag-Team Edition of Main Event this week. I think they just put everyone on the show they have nothing for, and midway through realized – my god, it’s all the tag teams. Three kind of nothing matches and one good one. The Shining Stars had what felt like their re-debut, intro promo and all. They looked pretty good against the random team of Jack Swagger and Zack Ryder, but the match never got going. Both The Lucha Dragons vs. The Ascension and Golden Truth vs. Breezango were short and not very notable, though Breezango debuted a pre-match bit where they offer 30 Seconds of Thrills (think 5 Second Pose) which has potential. Really liked Enzo & Cass vs. The Dudleys – Bubba has gone from one of my least favorite guys on the roster to one of my favorites. Was just a total dick to Enzo but ate shit when he had to. Enzo & Cass have their formula, and when they’re with a team that tries different things it can be really good. And in current WWE environment, Dudleys are a weird highlight.
NXT continues to be good not great as they continue to try and guess how the show will look in a few weeks when probably half their roster gets called up. Hype Bros vs. Johnny Gargano & Tomasso Ciampa was a solid tag match, as was the angle afterwards involving The Revival and Authors of Pain. I don’t know anything about the Authors of Pain as wrestlers but the presentation of them right now is great. The Nakamura/Balor Talk About Each Other videos were neat, treating this whole thing like an actual sport. Carmella and Alexa Bliss tried some new things in their match – it didn’t all come together, but the effort was appreciated.
SmackDown was actually a good show. Love the pre-taped promo stuff to open the show – at two hours, two good matches and a couple decent angles is really peak WWE right now. Pre-taped promos for the Fatal 4-Way Opener were awesome – simple, to the point that immediately got over everyone’s character. My God, it is all so simple. Fatal 4-Way itself was alright, but the match after was your show highlight. Cesaro got a U.S. Title shot from winning the 4-Way, and Rusev entered saying their match was starting. Great drama, great selling, fun finish. Wrote more about it in the Best WWE Matches of the Month. Women’s division had a couple decent things – Billie Kay from NXT got beat by Dana Brooke in a match where Dana looked probably the best she’s looked yet, and Summer Rae vs. Sasha Banks was actually pretty good. Both ladies are capable, but haven’t had a breakout main roster match yet. This was solid though. Wyatt’s getting an enhancement match was great fun, as was MizTV with Ambrose. And the Miz/Ambrose main event was a really good for what it was – top guy vs. midcard bad guy, just a top notch TV main event.
Superstars was Superstars. There’s a reason people don’t watch Superstars. Golden Truth vs. The Ascension and Baron Corbin vs. Jack Swagger were both really solid WWE TV matches, but I wouldn’t expect anyone to care. I’ve got to stop ending these things with Superstars. Such an anticlimatic ending. Oh well.
WWE TV Match of the Week: Rusev vs. Cesaro for the U.S. Title from SmackDown was your Match of the Week, as Rusev continues to have a great title run and Cesaro is always very good. More letters on this at Top 10 WWE Matches of the Month – June 2016.
WWE TV MVP of the Week: Tough for many guys to standout this week, as most were on the Japan tour as SmackDown was being taped. I’m going Rusev just cause the Titus match on RAW was decent and the Cesaro match was great. Miz, Ambrose, and Enzo & Cass all had solid weeks of TV wrestling too.
