So that was interesting.
After a slow build (NXT, Cruiserweight Classic), WWE as a whole made its’ long-awaited babyface turn.
The brand split is complete and with that both of WWE’s flagship shows have essentially been reset, not only freeing up space on each show to push more guys on the roster as focal points of a program, but giving a much-needed shot in the ass to said shows.
RAW was just one of Vince McMahon’s once-in-a-while love letters to hardcore fans that give a shit about things like interesting television.
It was filled with all kinds of great new stuff – new commentator table location by the entrance ramp, new commentator in Corey Graves (and the subsequent kill-off of JBL), new top title in the Universal Title, new protagonist in Finn Balor, new camera angles and production choices, new supporting characters like Nia Jax and the rebooted Braun Strowman. Also helped that it had two really great wrestling matches.
It was just a great top-to-bottom show, certainly carried by the fact that it was a lot of new stuff. Reset shows are always weird – they can be fun for the monumental occasion you are watching, but can they sustain themselves? Will WWE just revert back to all the shit people usual complain about it? Truthfully – probably, but this was definitely a fun ride and had all kinds of steps in the right direction. Beyond all the aforementioned stuff, things like the rundown of Finn Balor’s international accomplishments and the seemingly regular return of squash matches were awesome. You had four good wrestling matches, a couple effective squashes, and a show-long angle that immediately established a new top star. And it was all paced really well. One of my favorite RAW’s ever from a quality, history, and storytelling perspective – and that’s pretty much all the perspectives.
The 4-way matches were both fun. First with Balor/Rusev/Owens/Cesaro had everyone bumping around for Balor and guys out on the floor for extended periods of time, which can be goofy but also meant you got a lot of quality singles wrestling. Liked that a bit more than the Reigns/Zayn/Jericho/Sheamus one, which was still good and had what I thought was an amazing performance from Zayn. Reigns’ presentation of just powering through all the boos and getting his shit in is really fascinating to watch right now too.
Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte for the Women’s Title was great. It’s the closest they’ve gotten to recreating the NXT Four Horsewomen magic outside of a few Charlotte/Becky interactions. This was just a great match given time and presented like a monumental wrestling match. The lock-up struggle, Sasha’s wave to Dana after the Eddie tribute, and the slaps while Sasha was in the Figure-Eight were highlights. Oh and Charlotte’s fucking insane moonsault. I don’t get the Charlotte hate from some circles – if any other lady came in and started doing moonsaults off the top rope to the outside people would be losing their minds. There were a couple choppy moments, and Sasha at this point is becoming Sabu-like in her bumping, where you know you’re probably going to get a couple nasty falls. But it was still fun as hell. Great promos by Sasha too – one backstage earlier, and the post-match. Awesome moment, proving that this can all be something special if they want it to be.
And Reigns vs. Balor was a really good 10-minute match – they basically made it a sprint where every move looked like it had a purpose. Really impressive. The pop and holy shit factor of the finish was wild.
And then SmackDown happened.
There was definitely some interesting stuff on the rebooted SmackDown, but there also wasn’t near the “new” presentation type stuff on this show, and it turned out JBL was not killed off but now doing commentary only on this show. And maaan am I not sure how they keep this roster compelling without some NXT call-ups. Cena, AJ, Orton and Wyatt are great, but the Battle Royal to see who got into the main event was literally a C-Show Reunion Match. Plus all I could think about the whole time was how cool it would have been if Samoa Joe just wrecked everyone in the Battle Royal and won the main event to face Ambrose at SummerSlam. You also get yourself a fun Shield vs. NXT theme. But Dolph Ziggler won the right to face Ambrose, and while it was a shocker and interesting moment, it was kind of like if you suddenly made Marie the main character in Breaking Bad. All the vets like Dolph, from Pat Patterson to Ric Flair, and Ambrose and Ziggler did have a great match last year in the WWE Title tournament, so I’m cautiously optimistic – but he has just not done anything interesting in years and is really a shit promo.
Highlights of the new SmackDown were Eva Marie’s insane entrance, the Heath Slater promo, and the Six Pack Challenge main event. Low lights were basically everything else: the lame intro for Shane and Bryan, JBL’s commentary, American Alpha debuting by standing idly on the apron during the intro, the weak attempt at kickstarting a women’s division. It was an hour less than RAW but somehow felt like more of a chore to get through.
With the draft complete, it appears that both C-shows will be 2-match shows – Superstars always was, but Main Event usually had 3-4 matches. For WWE TV completist sanity, this is a great thing, but we might have to lament the loss of the hidden gems on Main Event, as 2-match C-shows are usually where you go for lifeless 2-star matches. And Main Event had two lifeless 2-star matches – the Hype Bros vs. The Vaudevillains and Tyler Breeze vs. Jey Uso. Mojo did look great in his main roster debut and the Vaudevillains were bumping around like crazy for them, otherwise it was a standard WWE undercard tag match. Superstars had Bo Dallas vs. Sin Cara and Titus/Swagger vs. The Dudleys, both of which certainly happened. Bo’s got a new ring jacket – how about that.
NXT was a fun show, with Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Blake (now wearing tassels on his boots) and Kota Ibushi vs. Murphy both being great matches. Nakamura/Blake was just your ideal squash match – great wrestling sequences, Nakamura being a star, effective comedy spots. And Kota vs. Buddy was just as good, and more of a complete match. The Joe promo at the end was solid too, and now we’ve got Nakamura vs. Joe which could be great.
Cruiserweight Classic was probably the weakest show yet, though everything was at least decent. Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Tyson Dux was good, and real British style – working to get out of a hold, limb work, a slow pace that builds to small high spots to pop the crowd – on WWE TV was a treat. Everything else was just alright, highlighted by Brian Kendrick looking awesome.
WWE TV Match of the Week: Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte for the WWE Women’s Title from RAW – that’s right, WOMEN’s wrestling. The same week we nominated a WOMAN for president. That’s right!
WWE TV MVP of the Week: The WWE was da real MVP this week.
