For a guy who clearly hates having his back against a wall, Vince McMahon is at his best when his back is against a wall.
Being a wrestling fan into your adult life is a weird thing*. For me, I only watch WWE week-to-week, and with that comes fascination with WWE as a business and enjoyment when big moments and cool matches happen, but it also comes with a total self-loathing, as most of the time the shows are really shit. I keep watching, and I have fun sometimes, and it’s incredibly fun watching and discussing it with friends, and the big shows are really awesome, but a majority of their TV shows can be a real drag. If the goal if WWE is to attract more fans, I don’t understand how they actually think presenting what they present can fly.
* For anybody reading this who doesn’t watch wrestling, I understand how obvious this statement is. For anybody who watches wrestling, I hope this statement got a nod of affirmation.
These last few weeks though have been the most actual fun I’ve had watching WWE TV in a long time. Splitting up the rosters has brought some fun changes to WWE television. A new set, new commentary team and new camera angles for the first time in ages is fun but the novelty will wear off. What won’t wear off is them making matches seem like they matter, the pacing of the shows, and giving guys actual reasons to do what they are doing. Most WWE superstars stuck in the vacuum of the overcrowded WWE before the brand split happened seemed like they had no chance; now they are forced to do interesting things with them. I mean WWE gave Fandango a blowoff for Orton’s shot at him at Battleground.
3-hours of RAW is still crazy, but for the first time, I haven’t been bored 2 weeks in a row. They’ve been good shows. SmackDown Live had a rough start, but had a pretty strong show this week too. RAW made everything that appeared on the show matter – giving Henry/Rusev, Titus/Young and Sheamus/Cesaro all actual reasons to happen versus just throwing them out there and saying, “HEY! They’re SUPERSTARS!” The opening promo and mixed tag was a nice different way to start the show, even if it got awkward at times I’m glad they tried. The Big Cass save of Enzo was AWESOME. Rusev/Henry was a solid short tough guy match with an all-time great Machka kick. Reigns/Rusev showdown was awesome, and my God is them choosing to go this route confirmation that this is a New Era. This is the feud Reigns should’ve had a year and a half ago at WrestleMania 31 – he might still be over to this day. Rusev is a great foil and it’s not THE feud so everyone who isn’t into Roman Reigns can calm the fuck down. The Finn Balor/Seth Rollins showdown was rough – Balor in long WWE mic exchanges is not the way to go with him. Just have him and Rollins in singles matches doing cool shit, reminding you they do cool shit, and do a bunch of video packages making this out to be the battle of a new generation of professional wrestling that it is. Rollins had his cool shit match – I hope Balor gets one next week. Rollins/Zayn really was great, with Zayn constantly preventing Rollins staying on offense with a bunch of nifty stuff, and a strong finish. Cesaro/Sheamus and Titus/Young we’re both short but really solid – Titus and Young actually had some really impressive sequences. The Club/New Day angle, Jinder return and the Pokemon Go Tribute Match weren’t great but had their moments. Orton RKO out of nowhere made for a hot finish. There were 10 god damned matches on this show! If they ran this same card with none of the new quirks of the band split it might have been weak, but it fucking rocked.
SmackDown is doing their best with what they have, but really needs more depth in their women’s division and a few more marquee call-ups from NXT. The cold opens and Matt Facts as guys go to the ring are good additions. Triple Threat was alright and at least had a reason for existing, but all 3 guys (Corbin, Crews, Kalisto) desperately need something interesting to happen with them. The Ziggler/Ambrose exchange got good towards the end but I cannot believe how bad of a promo Ziggler still is. Ziggler vs. Ambrose begins a long line of feuds on SmackDown where you just wish Daniel Bryan was there instead. The AJ Styles/John Cena showdown was fine, impressive at times, but the amount of mic exchanges these guys have had is excessive. Lesnar invading was neat, though this seems super early to be doing invasion angles. Dolph vs. Bray Wyatt really was a good match, and I do think Ziggler/Ambrose as a match is going to be a lot better than expected, but they’ve got to do something more interesting with Ziggler than giving him a Daniel Bryan push if the build is going to be believable.
Despite all this, the Cruiserweight Classic had the best wrestling match this week. Johnny Gargano vs. Tomasso Ciampa was an awesome match that told a story, had high drama, and was just intense as fuck – all in around 10 minutes. It took me a bit to see what the buzz was about with these two, but after the strong tag work and now this match I am sold. Jack Gallagher vs. Fabian Aichner was really good too – Daniel Bryan just falling in love with Gallagher was incredible. Aichner did the Mustafa Ali thing where the match was all about his opponent but he brought out some really cool stuff himself. Rich Swann was impressive but the Jason Lee match was too short to be anything. The Sihra/Noam Dar match was pretty weak – neither Bollywood Boyz match was much, though I’d be interested to see them as a tag.
NXT was solid. Between the Hideo Itami return, the tag division heating up, Samoa Joe being a psychopath, the Ember Moon vignette, excellent Bobby Roode promo, the Authors of Pain getting a big rub and tossing American Alpha out of NXT, and Oney Lorcan apparently doing… something, it seems like NXT is finally doing stuff again and moving on from the era of guys who were clearly going to be called up really soon.
Main Event is officially another Superstars. Long live Main Event. Jey/Breeze rematch and Hype Bros/Ascension were both fine matches, but that’s really all I have to say. For Superstars, Neville vs. Curtis Axel was alright – I like how Neville is immediately back to looking great. Dudleys vs. Swagger/Cara was ok but why? And what’s the difference between alright and ok, anyways? Both these shows just caused my mind to wander into fantasy booking – came up with Dudleys as Kevin Owens’ personal scurity, Axel dropping weight and becoming bully of the cruiserweights, and The Ascension as the Jersey Boys with Carmella as their second. Konnor the Krooner, people.
WWE TV Match of the Week: Johnny Gargano vs. Tomasso Ciampa was the best thing WWE did this week. Told a better story than most TV matches and had in-ring action better than most PPV matches.
WWE TV MVP of the Week: Randy Orton. Gargano and Ciampa did great and all, but Randy Orton is back to being a god damn star. You had the RKO outta nowhere to Brock and the subsequent celebration, the selling of the F5 on SmackDown, and even the match with Fandango. The match wasn’t amazing or anything, but it was really a perfect TV match with Orton milking every single movement for a huge reaction. Guy is just on another level.
