I was reading an article by Mike Birbiglia in the New York Times where he references an interview with super famous and awesome director Ron Howard. Howard was talking about audience tests for his movies, and said that he tests rough cuts of these movies with a ton of audiences, not because he wants to be told what the movie’s vision should be, but to understand whether his vision is coming cross. To all the good brothers at WWE – I know you don’t need any more fantasy booking ideas, but ask yourself: is the vision actually coming across? Is this really what you want to be presenting?
I thought about this first when watching RAW this week. When a crowd chants “ECW” and “CM Punk” during your stupid promo, do you really think you’re telling an interesting story, or are you happy that the fans are just having fun? When a crowd chants “this is awesome” during a match but boos your supposed top good guy and cheers your supposed top bad guys, is that just a casualty of modern wrestling? Is the vision just that this is a circus and the fans are gonna do what they’re gonna do now? I can understand that, but everything WWE does makes me think that’s not really what they want. They are so meticulous with certain things that it can’t be. Right? Right??
I thought about this again when watching SmackDown. WWE has their most interesting promo in forever, and follow it up by having Dolph Ziggler defend the missing-in-action Daniel Bryan. Because he’s the best example of “good technical wrestler” on SmackDown, I guess. Which is probably true, but that’s sad – RAW has like 15 of those guys now. Or he’s who WWE thinks Bryan fans would want in that spot. Are they just still playing the damn long game? They know it’s stupid, but they’re just going with it because they’ve got like 500 hours of TV to fill a year. Either way, the promo on Talking Smack felt legit. But WWE trying to bring “inside” talk on their main show in an attempt to be “in touch” actually makes them seem more out of touch, somehow. Pulling back the curtain is fine. Pulling back the curtain to play lip service to needy wrestling fans that you really don’t even understand is not. Blending reality is a good way to go, doing it in a marky wrestling way is not.
And then I thought about it again when watching the Cruiserweight Classic and said, fuck it. Stop thinking, idiot. This is the best wrestling organization on the planet.
This wasn’t a bad week of TV – it was actually pretty good, with some really fun spots, but there were also parts of it that were super boring. Overall, I enjoyed watching the wrestling. It’s definitely not all connecting with me, but I didn’t actively hate it, either. And of course Kevin Owens is the new WWE Universal Champion, and though a lot might be written about whether the way they got there was good, that it is happening is good enough for me. This conservative-ass company doing anything ballsy and different is a good thing.
Outside of a few segments, RAW was kind of a bore. The wear of 3-hours for RAW with a depleted roster is starting to get to them … there’s a lot of bloat and lot of filler. There was definitely some good stuff though – strong build for the main event title match with the opening promo and video packages on each guy (though the recent use of only a few weeks of recent TV in these videos is strange), another good Cesaro/Sheamus match (a little more on that in Top 25 Matches of the Month – August 2016), Bayley doing stuff with the New Day, and a wild finish to the main event with a brand new champion. I’m really digging the new set too – the big videos behind all the entrances look amazing. The opening segment was kind of unique but also kind of lame… only Owens is really captivating enough to carry a segment like that. It’s not saying anything new, but Jericho is crushing it right now – the scowl, limp hand and scarf combo are great, and the banter with Todd Phillips is fun. His shtick in the Neville match was fun too, though Neville just seemed to be running through his shit – it’s pretty-looking, but there’s not much behind it right now. Bayley and The New Day was a lot of fun and a nice follow-up to the debut… I like that she marked out for New Day, basically going back to what made her popular in NXT in the first place. Cesaro and Sheamus had another good match; these guys have great chemistry and the Cesaro bump into the post was of course insane. Americo’s reaction to Braun entering was great, as was the mask removal. The main event was fun… it started kind of clunky, but eventually became your standard fun WWE multi-man match. Again I wish they played more to the characters than having your standard “fun” match with dives and signature spots and whatnot, but that’s just not what they do anymore. Pop for Enzo and Cass was again insane, and it’s actually really impressive how they’re using both guys right now – Enzo is obviously way over and takes the beatings, while Cass gets the push with his buddy always lurking around to make sure they’re still reacting. The Cass boot to Reigns was incredible. And I love the guy, but once he was out it got a lot better. Inherent issues with Triple H giving Owens the win himself, more Authority stuff, etc. – but Kevin Owens is the Universal Champ, and sometimes you just have to take your wins. Nobody does an “OH SHIT” moment like WWE, and this was certainly one of them.
And then there’s the crap stuff. Really confused on how they’re presenting Reigns right now – I know THE PEOPLE like an asskicker, but he’s just beating up guys left and right for no real reason – Rusev at his wedding celebration, a sucker punch to Owens. I hope the Rusev feud gets back on track next week, because here it seemed like they had no idea how to present him. Show really dragged in places, especially the block with the mediocre Nia Jax squash and the awful Gallows/Anderson segment. I was stoked for squashes coming back, but wish they’d give a guy like Cesaro or even The Club a nice squash to re-establish who they are and why you should give a shit. They’re just going back to the same shit trope of building up a monster with squashes, though this time there’s two monsters. The Gallows/Anderson doctor thing has to stop, just terrible stuff. The mixed tag was fun though, and making up for the lack of roster depth in the women’s division with mixed tags is not a bad idea. Stephanie seemed super confused in the stupid segment with Heyman – welcoming people to RAW two hours into the show, saying they were crowning the first Universal Champ, and suddenly deciding that she has to avenge her brother. No idea where they’re going with Heyman – in theory it could be interesting, but track record says they’re just killing time and have no idea either. I appreciate the attempt at a Titus/Darren feud too, but man is it cold. No Rusev was sad too, though he had a sweet match on Superstars. Hope they don’t fuck up the cruiserweights.
SmackDown was again alright … not must-see television, and it’s rare you’ll get a high-end match, but things tend to move forward and make sense, and it’s not as bloated and confusing as RAW gets. Dolph Ziggler going from a World Title challenger to the IC Title after an angle based around him not being good enough for the World Title is the most Ziggler thing ever. The Miz with Ziggler thing was an alright follow-up, but like I said above – Zigler picking up the mantle for Bryan just doesn’t seem right. He’s just not over enough, and doesn’t have the wrestling credibility to do it. The crowd chanting “coward” at Miz is so professional wrestling though. The Hype Bros/Vaudevillains match was totally solid TV tag team wrestling, basically a shorter version of their slightly better Main Event match last week. JBL marking out for Mojo’s right hand was great, as was Mojo’s CHOO CHOO PLAYBOY promo. Loving AJ Styles right now, wish he had some muscle behind him but not sure who would work – Corbin maybe? The Revival? Shit, AJ + The Revival would be incredible. AJ & The Revival vs. Cena & Alpha could main event ten SmackDown’s in a row. Glad they gave Apollo Crews a shot here but I just can’t get into him as generic WWE babyface #807. The match with AJ was short but had some fun moments, one of AJ’s weaker outings but really one of Crews’ best outings outside of the Bubba Ray and Tye Dillinger matches. There’s just nothing behind Crews’ character so all his matches are super cold outside of a few cool spots. The women’s match was alright, and they’re doing a fine job right now with Carmella and Nikki Bella.
Heath Slater was probably the highlight of the whole damn show. You had the trailer park, Heath’s Kids signs, he and Rhyno doing their thing on Talking Smack, and the tag win… all fine stuff. The Miz and Heath Slater as SmackDown’s first projects is wild. The Headbangers looking exactly the same is amazing, though them not having a Titan Tron or theme is sad. Match wasn’t great but served its purpose as a way to move Heath/Rhyno on without hurting anybody on the active roster, and ya got to see your boys Mosh and Thrasher. Stage Dive was ugly but I’m amazed they can still do it. Kane chokeslammed a guy in his underwear and I really have nothing bad to say about that. Dean Ambrose vs. Baron Corbin was fine… Corbin looked OK, but for a guy that says people compare him to Terry Funk, Dean Ambrose does nothing like Terry Funk. He’s a very basic WWE-style professional wrestler, and he really does work as a top guy, but not as well as you’d hope. Dean basically leg dropping Corbin for the Deep Six was ugly. Nice near fall off the elbow. Dumb finish, though I get why they’d want to protect Football Tom. Hammy AJ Styles is tremendous. Basically, SmackDown feels like pieces are falling in place for an interesting show; RAW feels like they’re back to being confused on how to produce an interesting 3-hour live TV show – truly an astonishing development.
Talking Smack was great again – Bryan drinks Boom Juice, admits he can’t continue the Miz angle if it’s not leading a match, and compares torso size with AJ Styles. Plus, our Twitter made the show. Yeah!
NXT is in an interesting place right now. The top dogs have left the territory, and they’ve got a couple solid feuds and interesting guys, but it’s very much in a “we’re figuring shit out right now” phase. Which isn’t a bad thing… it’s an interesting thing to watch. Tye Dillinger/Buddy Murphy was a really solid match, probably worked just as well as the Blake match but only had a slightly bonkers crowd versus a completely bonkers crowd. Still have no idea why Blake and Murphy aren’t a team anymore. Kenneth Crawford/Steve Cutler was an alright Young Lions match, with some impressive athleticism from Crawford. No Way Jose looked really good against Dawkins; the gimmick is fun but I’m becoming a fan of the wrestler now. Whoever told Dawkins the “stirring” taunt is OK should get a bonus for being an all-time great ribber. Aliyah/Liv Morgan was an OK match… execution for both isn’t all there but a lot else is. Aliyah as a heel is a million times better. And the Nakamura promo was a Nakamura promo – YEA-OH!
CWC was again the best thing this week. This whole thing is brilliant. The first round introduced you to the stars, the second round gave you great matches, and the third round is guys putting everything on the line. Both Gran Metalik/Akira Tozawa and Kota Ibushi/Brian Kendrick were great matches and ended up high in the Top 25 Matches of the Month – August 2016, a month so good I had to change it from Top 10 to Top 25. Metalik/Tozawa was just an awesome mix of styles. Pacing is an interesting thing in wrestling… you really only notice if it’s bad or good. This was good, and that’s impressive because even the early stuff was super interesting. And it just kept getting better… amazing tope’s, Tozawa’s dropkick to reverse the handspring elbows, Metalik’s shotgun chops, Tozawa’s straight right to end the chop battle, Metalik’s springboard dropkick followed by the big springboard tope, the struggle on the turnbuckle leading to the hurricanrana. So good. And while there have been many stand-out matches in the CWC, Kendrick’s performance through the whole thing will go down as one of my favorite things from the whole tournament. A lot of the CWC is stuff you can show to anyone to see how great wrestling is, like a bunch of beautiful big budget superhero movies. Brian Kendrick in this tournament is like a great indy movie… an old man trying to get his last run and doing whatever the fuck he can to do it. In a tournament of big moves, Kendrick’s neckbreaker on the turnbuckle may have been the nuttiest thing. Ibushi’s ability to moonsault from anywhere is amazing … the guy is just so polished and impressive. He might be getting undersold in this tourney because of all the hype behind him – everything he’s done has been great. All the bully choke teases were hot, as was Bryan cheering on Kendrick to the point of tears. Just a great match, the desperate Kendrick trying to break down Kota’s neck but being outmatched by him being a god damn superhuman. And then the Kendrick/Bryan hug… just incredible. Tozawa/Metalik you show to a non-fan to reel someone in; Ibushi/Kendrick is what you show to keep them.
Main Event had two okay but un-notable matches… Jey Uso vs. Konnor and American Alpha vs. Breezango. There was a nice strike-off in Jey/Konnor at least, and at one point David Otunga drops the hot scoop that Rikishi is filming a movie with Jennifer Hudson. The Alpha match was probably the worst Alpha match there’s been, as they went for a competitive match versus a squash and it got pretty clunky in places. There was an obvious blown spot towards the end where Breeze didn’t get up all the way for a double team that they edited really awkwardly. It was still fine, but more lifeless C-show match than anything else.
Superstars, however, brought the greatness, and had a Superstars Match Worth Watching. It started off rough with Golden Truth vs. Shining Stars, a match only notable for some solid rope-running exchanges by Goldy and a surprise Stars win. But then Rusev vs. Jack Swagger happened. Rusev and Swagger have this insane chemistry and this might have been my favorite match of theirs. First of all, you’ve got Lana looking insane still wearing the wedding dress. Next, you’ve got Rusev still selling the ribs. And then there was just so much good stuff here from start to finish. Rusev wailing away on Swagger at the start was great. Then Swagger whips him into the corner, which hurts the ribs. Swagger does punches in the corner to the tune of the U-S-A chants (!) but then does his over-the-top-rope stair bump. Rusev tries to keep Swagger outside for a bit to recover his ribs, just knocking him off the apron every time he tries to enter the ring. And when Swagger does get his comeback, there’s a ton of urgency, including a HUUUUGE lariat. Rusev’s reactions to everything are so great too, in tears that he can’t put away Swagger so easily and that he has to keep fighting on with his hurt ribs. His sell when Swagger gets the ankle lock on is awesome and his hand/arm movements really have the crowd buying a tapout. Then Rusev reverses the ankle lock into the Accolade, but Swagger reverses it to another ankle lock that Rusev fights out of and pushes Swagger outside. Swagger comes back in and gets hit with the Macha kick, which receives a 2-count and an all-time great reaction by Rusev. The Accolade goes on, Swagger almost powers out, but collapses and taps. Fucking awesome match.
WWE TV Match of the Week: The CWC is really screwing with this, as main roster TV provides fun matches but rarely high-end matches. So Kota Ibushi vs. Brian Kendrick was the top match this week, but Rusev vs. Jack Swagger deserves mention too.
WWE TV MVP of the Week: Kevin Owens carried RAW’s opening segment, looked great in the 4-Way Main Event, won the Universal Title, got a huge reaction for it, got his hand raised by Triple H, and then some douchebag at ESPN got in trouble for making a dumb joke about wrestling and Owens’ kid. Godspeed, Big Kev.
