SmackDown is the tortoise; RAW is the hare. It’s silly to already be judging either flagship WWE show when they completely revamped their rosters only two months ago, but some trends do seem to be emerging. RAW tends to rely on its’ star power and continues to push McMahon family drama. They have a lot of big moments and matches on every show – really, so much has happened recently: Balor debut/title win/injury, Bayley debut, Triple H turn on Rollins, Owens title win, cruiserweights debut, and a ton of marquee matches just thrown onto TV with no build (Rusev vs. Reigns, Jericho vs. Rollins, Bayley vs. Charlotte, Rollins vs. Rusev, Owens vs. Reigns twice). All of those matches and moments were good, but suffered from the common issue with these long-ass RAW’s: most of them didn’t really matter. They just happened to serve some grander story involving Mick Foley, Stephanie McMahon, Triple H, and probably Brock Lesnar, and then they moved on.
SmackDown, meanwhile, despite having less roster depth, started putting pieces of its’ puzzle together immediately, and did a few things really well: pushed some new stars with actual direction (American Alpha, Alexa Bliss), made some necessary character tweaks (The Usos, Carmella), and gave relevance to a few folks who are really running with it (Miz, Ziggler, Heath, Becky). And with Ambrose, Cena, and Styles as your top guys, with Orton and Wyatt just kind of hanging out waiting for one of them to go away, you’ve got yourself a heck of a show. Yes Daniel Bryan is a focal point of the show and in some kind of on-again off-again feud with The Miz, but two things are happening there that makes it interesting: it’s actually getting a guy over, and it’s Daniel fucking Bryan.
RAW was weird. It made me think of the Louis CK bit, Of course, but maybe. Of course WWE is actually building to something, of course they are. Of course it’s impossible to judge WWE’s stories week-to-week and not factor in that they are all part of a larger canon. Of course we hated Daniel Bryan’s September-November 2013, which led to Daniel Bryan’s January-April 2014, which was great. So of course all these random big matches, use of Sasha Banks and Bayley to get Dana Brooke over, Cesaro/Sheamus time-killing, middling use of potentially hot acts like New Day, Enzo/Cass, Jericho and Sami Zayn, and lukewarm face turn for Seth Rollins – all of it is leading somewhere, of COURSE. But maybe…….
Opening segment was what it was – gotta’ hook the casuals, I guess. Member Mick Foley? Member Stephanie?? The kids in the front row going NUTS for the steel cage announcement was amazing, but it just felt so icky and desperate. Rusev vs. Seth Rollins (a first time match, mind you) was the first match on the show and was alright. Rusev is one of my favorite guys to watch right now, and Rollins flew around and did his thing – but without a real babyface turn, it’s all feeling a little cold right now. The Falcon Arrow on Rusev was impressive, and I liked Rollins’ comeback before the dumb finish. It was decent work from two guys I like but didn’t really tell any kind of story – it just happened. The women’s division on RAW right now has a couple good puzzle pieces going but nothing is coming together. It is completely insane that WWE teasing Sasha vs. Bayley two weeks in a row is already getting no reaction. They seem to be using three of the Four Horsewomen, who should really be presented as three of the biggest stars on RAW, to get over… Dana Brooke as a face? And I like Dana Brooke. Watch Breaking Ground on the WWE Network and don’t tell me she can’t be a big time face. But to do that at this point when you still have work to do on Bayley (who just debuted) and Sasha (post-awkward disappearing act after Mania) just seems insane – all three of these girls are being treated like Bray Wyatt, in that it seems like Vince McMahon already feels he has made them stars and now they can just do whatever and people will buy into it. You still gotta’ tell a story you motherfucker. And now we’ve got Charlotte vs. Sasha vs. Bayley with a week of build, great work everybody.
I guess everybody liked Braun Strowman catching Sin Cara off the Lionsault from Superstars, so they did it on RAW. Superstars match was a better whole wrestling match; RAW match was probably more effective overall. Bo continues to beat fools up and I’m all about it – and now he jacked the Crossroads, good move buddy. Sheamus’ sigh before saying “championship opportunity” in his promo before the sixth match with Cesaro really says it all. It was another good match… hard shots, back work, Vince Carter running away, Celtic Cross on the apron, Celtic Cross backbreaker. While it sucks that these matches just seem to be happening in a vacuum, a re-watch of all seven in a few years is going to be great. Actually, this might be a fantastic example of binge watching for WWE – all seven of these in a row might be more epic than any of us even knows right now.
The “List of Jericho” is inspired stuff. The segment with him, Enzo & Cass, Shining Stars, New Day, Gallows & Anderson, and Sami Zayn, as well as the 10-man tag match, had a colorful cast of characters and was a fun quick TV match. But RAW’s treatment of their midcard vs. SmackDown’s really exposes the differences in both shows… New Day literally saying they were out there because they had nothing better to do was part funny meta-admission and part depressing as fuck.
THE CRUISERWEIGHTS!! debuting was the highlight of the show. It was a promising start, but WWE always starts things off pretty well – it’s the follow-up that kills them. Either way though, these matches are going to add variety to a stale institution, and that is a good thing. I thought this was a perfect intro for them – Foley out there gave them some credibility, and they had a really fun match that showcased everybody well and at the same time didn’t give away too much. Highlights for me were the look of light in Rich Swann’s eyes when he entered, Cedric Alexander’s theme and overall demeanor, the Man with a Plan theme returning to WWE television, the Cedric/Swann exchanges, Metalik looking flawless, and the Sliced Bread #2 counter that ended up a swinging DDT. I thought everything flowed really well to … it was an awesome Statement Match – we are here, people. These guys got to do a ton of stuff you rarely see on RAW – how long til they get heat??
I liked the Reigns/Owens Cage Match … Owens’ early escapes, the cage bumps, the Superman Punch to counter the pop-up powerbomb, and the finish were all great. Kind of a classic example of my issues with RAW though too – big random match that technically made sense for existing but felt desperate and gave a potential marquee match away 2 weeks in a row on TV with little build, and while it was a FUN match … Reigns just beat the new Universal Champ, who should probably get a LITTLE credibility on him considering Triple H basically awarded him the Universal Title. Rusev and Owens double teaming Reigns and Rollins making the save probably seemed awesome on paper, but didn’t feel like the huge moment it could’ve been, probably due to all these aforementioned issues. It was a cool moment and Owens/Rusev as top heels and Reigns/Rollins as top faces is something I am all for, but I just wasn’t feeling the big angle here.
SmackDown was a very fun two-hours of professional wrestling. Everything flowed well, felt important, made sense, and there were three great matches. You can’t ask for much more outside of Stan Hansen, Terry Funk, Ric Flair and Kenta Kobashi becoming 30 years younger and signing with the Blue Brand. This really felt like Backlash 2.0, with a ton of big matches… and here is where SmackDown differs on RAW: yes they threw out a few big matches on free TV with minimal build (I think all Dean fucking Ambrose vs. John fucking Cena got was a quick commercial the night before on RAW), but they made them seem like they mattered or used them to get to a logical place and ultimately build up a bigger show. Basically, SmackDown has the common sense that RAW lacks.
The Becky Lynch/Alexa Bliss contract signing was a mighty fine piece of business… Becky is one of the best pure babyfaces in WWE right now, both on the mic and in the ring, and Alexa is just crushing it as the bratty girl who’s ready to fight. I was a little concerned about American Alpha vs. The Usos as the Alpha return seemed kind of random and the first couple minutes was Alpha gingerly working over an Uso’s leg, which seemed silly considering Chad Gable was returning from them trying to break his. Buuuut… then it became an awesome fucking match, with a nice beatdown by the re-vitalized STREET THUG USOS, and a Shakespearian finish: Jordan gets the hot tag, Jordan gets hit with a Superfly splash, great near fall with a hurting Gable saving, a hurting Jordan refuses to tag Gable because he knows he’s hurting more, and then Jordan gets pinned while Gable slowly crawls to him, unable to make the save. Amazing. Usos talking shit to Heath and Rhyno backstage was wonderful too.
I think the agents are getting in Apollo Crews’ head. Probably told him to go out there and be a tough guy, and none of it worked. Crews right now is kind of terrible but I still wanna give him a hug. Corbin/Crews was a pretty decent squash match, and while it was a weaker moment on the show it still put Corbin over big and furthered Corbin/Swagger. Miz vs. Ziggler for the IC Title was another great match, like a TV version of the awesome Backlash match. So much good stuff here… the early fight for control, Miz on offense, Miz doing Bryan spots, more nice comebacks from Ziggler. Maryse getting kicked out was a nice follow-up from the PPV match, and the stuff post-commercial had so much drama to it. I totally bought the Zig Zag near fall, and the cheating finish was so well-done. Jim Ross better be Miz’ biggest fan right now.
Erick Rowan’s creepy clown mask is great. The Randy Orton squash of Rowan was perfectly fine. The Bray Wyatt promo was perfectly fine. Whatever. The Hoffman Family (winners of Little Cesar’s front row fan experience or some shit) dad rooting on Naomi was… weird. I get what they were going for with the women’s tag, but the finish wasn’t timed very well. But, as an angle as opposed to a match, it wasn’t terrible. Cena/Ambrose was a good match… nothing blowaway great, but it didn’t have to be and probably shouldn’t have been. Two top guys going at it in their first TV match, doing their thing… trading holds, fighting for control. Cena’s sell of the punch/chop combo was great. JBL saying Ambrose won’t be around long he way he performs every single night was odd. Finish was a legit shock. Then they actually promote a big match for next week. This was a great show. You’ll know the brass thinks SmackDown is good when Triple H publicly takes credit for it.
Daniel Bryan appeared to at least kind of give a fuck on Talking Smack this week, though his rant on #ReleaseTheBear was inspired stuff, as was his randomly booking a No DQ Match between Nikki and Carmella that he probably just came up with on the spot. Carmella had a solid interview and is so much better as a heel. Ambrose’s promo/interview was great. Bryan asks, do you really think Cena is a lazy part-timer? “Oh yeah for sure.” He also stressed that AJ was no longer a rival but an enemy, which was a nice touch. Bryan asks at the end in relation to the Dean/AJ title match next week, are we going to see more of a fight than a wrestling match? “Yeah.” I sure hope so.
NXT is finding its’ footing again – the women’s division is weird and the main event scene isn’t on fire, but there’s a lot of stuff going on in the midcard. Using cruiserweights regularly is a tremendous idea. Oney Lorcan vs. Austin Aries and Andrade “Cien” Almas vs. Cedric Alexander were both good matches. Oney is a guy I can’t imagine on the main roster in this current incarnation but I really like him. This is a guy that Vince McMahon will want to give some weird-ass troll gimmick, but right now he’s just a straight pro motherfucking wrestler. As a solid undercard hand taking stars to the limit he’s great. Loved all the headlocks early on vs. Aries, and the backdrop over the top was insanity. Lots of intensity too. Cedric/Almas was just insanity, god damn cirque du soleil shit. And not goofy pussy ass cirque du soleil shit, real pro wrestling cirque du soleil shit. I loved it. The lungblower remains an awesome finish. Them hugging at the end… insert Thinking Face Emoji here. The women right now aren’t terrible, but nobody has a character so a mediocre match becomes a straight bad match. The fuck is a Billie Kay??
Both Main Event matches were fun little matches worth watching. The cruiserweights showed up!! Rich Swann vs. Lince Dorado was a fun match, basically a second round CWC match in the confinements of WWE C-Show television, complete with a couple chinlock spots around all the flying and cool maneuvering. Nowhere near their actual second round CWC match, but still pretty fun. Rhyno & Heath Slater vs. Breezango was your basic undercard WWE tag match, but Rhyno/Heath have some juice to them and Breezango are really solid on control so that brought it up a notch. I guess RAW is in more international markets, because choosing RAW recaps on the SmackDown C-show over SmackDown recaps is whack. Superstars had Darren Young with Bobby Backlund vs. Curtis Axel, and Golden Truth vs. Titus O’Neil & Jinder Mahal. Young/Axel had a little more energy than your usual Superstars match, and the tag had Jinder Mahal blatantly missing a call for a bulldog from Goldust, which I guess was interesting… but, you know. Superstars.
WWE TV Match of the Week: The Miz vs. Dolph Ziggler for the WWE Intercontinental Title on SmackDown was an easy Match of the Week choice. It was a shorter version of their PPV match, which was already an amazing match. It was basic professional wrestling milked for all it’s worth. Loved it.
WWE TV MVP of the Week: A bunch of stuff happened this week, but I thought young Cedric Alexander had the finest showing. The guy debuted on two TV shows (RAW and NXT) and looked great in both of his matches. He is quickly becoming my favorite wrestler. I wrote last week that he reminded me of AJ Styles, and then listened to his Art of Wrestling interview where he says he tries to emulate AJ. So there you go. Good guy to look up to.
