Outside of another kind of shit edition of Monday Night RAW (with costumes!), this was a fun week of WWE TV, with another great SmackDown, decent C-shows, and an interesting episode of NXT with some strong wrestling.
RAW actually had quite a few decent matches, but was pretty skippable overall outside of some campy Halloween stuff highlighted by Enzo & Big Cass dressed as Woody and Buzz Lightyear and Corey Graves as DAVID PUMPKINS. Not surprised at how much WWE has lost the buzz with the Goldberg return, though Heyman taking a spear and Rusev getting involved was a decent attempt at getting it back. I like how Rusev has now traded shots with The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and Goldberg. What a legend. Yeah the brawl was a little awkward at first, but it got to where it needed to.
As I talked about last week though, that’s just the thing with RAW sometimes – they usually get to where they need to (Heyman takes a spear, Rusev takes a Jackhammer, Goldberg looks strong), but in the lamest possible way (Last week’s Heyman promo, Rusev looks like a chump, Goldberg falls down).
Highlights of the show centered around getting to Survivor Series – the Shield vs. Best Friends stuff, Charlotte’s promo leading to Bayley vs. Nia Jax, and BRAAAUUUUNNN!!! But most of it fell victim to that rule – they get to where they need to, but in the lamest possible way.
Take the main men’s story – they get to where they need to (Owens as champ, Jericho re-invigorated, Reigns/Rollins reunion), but in the lamest possible way (Triple H helps Owens then disappears, JeriKO feuding with Foley more than anything, awkward pushes of Rollins and Reigns).
Or the main women’s story – they get to where they need to (Charlotte as champ, Bayley and Sasha as her main opponents, Nia Jax waiting in the wings), but in the lamest possible way (all the MAKING HISTORY bullshit, Foley involvement, weird presentation of Sasha and Bayley).
At least we have Braun.
Truly, though, the re-invention of Chris Jericho in 2016 is legendary. His best work in the AJ Styles feud was the character stuff, as despite his best efforts he just couldn’t keep up with the in-ring. And so after that feud, he pivoted to being pretty much all character, and outside of some truly terrible matches with Ambrose, stuck to his strengths as an in-ring WWE main event style guy. If Jericho stopped working after the 2012-2013 runs, I don’t think he’d get the respect he deserves, despite all the great incarnations of him – WCW cruiserweight, WWE midcarder, WWE main event heel, JeriShow, etc. With this year though, he has really cemented himself as a guy that re-invented himself in every era he was in, and that’s an incredible feat.
Jericho hamming it up against Reigns in the mid-show promo was fantastic, and the Reigns match was really good – they kept things moving, built to the Superman punch well, and the KO involvement wasn’t overdone. Top shelf television work right there. I really wish everything involved in the Rollins/Reigns reunion could’ve been more awesome, as it’s really been the easiest lay-up WWE has had for a while. As it was, it was fun – the “WE WANT ROLLINS!” chants and the big pop for his music, his crazy tope’s, and the big “sup bro” staredown. But man. Between the weird motivations for Rollins as a good guy and Reigns still awkwardly being pushed as a major good guy, it didn’t click as well as I had hoped.
I liked Charlotte’s promo, as it felt like an old JCP studio promo where everybody hit like twenty topics at a time – she knocked Sasha, talked being the champ and being the captain for Survivor Series, talked shit about the SmackDown women, and pivoted to Bayley. Bayley calling her a JERK was so great. Poor timing by the boys in the truck on the Nia Jax entrance though – should’ve gotten a bigger reaction. Liked the Bayley/Nia match, as they have a classic dynamic and it works. Nia cutting Bayley off on the WHOAAA corner spot was great. Bayley getting thrown to the outside after the top rope Bayley-to-Belly tease was great too. Nia quickly transitioning to stare down the hard camera on the pin shows a true trainee of the Performance Center, for better or worse.
The Battle Royal was pretty neat with some fun Braun spots, specifically the sweet bump to the floor, the exchange with Neville, and the POP when he left his feet right before the Zayn elimination. They accomplished a lot for what was basically a Superstars Reunion match – Zayn got put over, Sheamus and Cesaro did their bullshit, and Braun looked like the beast he is.
Kendrick vs. TJ was a fine 5-minute match… giving Kendrick a mic before the match was a smart move considering the zero reaction their match got the night before. TJ’s rana to the outside was wild, though he had quite the rough landing. I liked the finish, though it was the second point in the first hour where they blatantly shat on the crowd (the first being the Brock tease). Cruiserweight 6-man was fine, though we’re definitely hitting a formula with these fellas – chain wrestling, rope-running, heels takeover, hot tag, dives, finish. Everything in wrestling is a formula to an extent but with not many characters established it’s starting to feel cookie cutter. Was impressed with the Shining Stars in the Cesaro/Sheamus match – yeah they’re not over and have been around forever with endlessly shitty gimmicks, but they did some sweet double teams and bumped all over the place. Gallows vs. Enzo was really the only stinker on the show, but sometimes a seven-foot tall guy dressed as a cowboy struggling for 20 seconds to put a pumpkin over a big bald guy’s head is what you really want from your pro wrestling.
By the way – RAW Talk after Hell in a Cell was pretty fun but also 45 god damn minutes. Renee Young was clearly exhausted having to spend another hour doing this bullshit. Show was highlighted by Booker T – his suspenders, the promo he cut for Bayley, and his HEATED CONVERSATION with Brian Kendrick. Renee’s “I would not look through that” in regards to Jerry Lawler’s phone was phenomenal, as was Jericho revealing Cesaro was giving him a crotch chop off-screen and putting everybody on THE LIST.
SmackDown, meanwhile, continues to be great TV. There are so many stories, everything flows well, and it’s just FUN. You’ve got the Ellsworth saga, AJ vs. Dean, the Orton/Wyatt mystery and Harper’s skepticism, Baron Corbin getting built up, Becky as the women’s ace and the rest of the ladies in interesting situations, Miz vs. Ziggler pivoting to something new, and John Cena waiting in the wings. It’s not a show that will show up on Best Of matchlists or something with a ton of individual matches to recommend, but it’s better than that – it’s an entire episode of wrestling television worth watching. I’m not going to say you need to go watch Boogie Woogie Jimmy Valiant squash some scrub on a JCP 6:05 show, but I will wholeheartedly recommend the entire show knowing that Valiant is just another fun cog in the awesome machine.
SmackDown right now has a bunch of fun segments and mini-matches that lead to awesome bigger matches. Literally every thing on this show got its’ participants and the next thing over logically. Plus they’re making an effort to make it fun to watch live – last week there was the Orton turn; tonight there was Ellsworth opening the show, Hawkins debuting and getting squashed, and The Headbangers making another random appearance. They also make effort to make everything interesting – yeah some incarnation of AJ vs. Dean has happened a bunch now and it’s main eventing a pay-per-view over a month from now, but each encounter has some kind of hook that keeps things fresh.
Kane vs. Orton wasn’t much as a wrestling match, but it was a proper angle with the Wyatt’s backing up Orton and Harper staring him down. The women’s match was cut up by commercial, but Alexa pinned Becky and it all made sense. Sweet finish with Alexa’s eye rake to the DDT too. Alpha vs. The Spirit Squad was a really fun minute of a match, with Kenny bringing out the epic legdrop. Daniel Bryan vs. The Miz continues to be an excellent feud that probably won’t lead to a match. Love SmackDown just listing off their Survivor Series team and not doing some bullshit angle to set up a main event while awkwardly putting guys together. Ziggler/Hawkins was a hilarious re-introduction to Hawkins – he’s destined for Main Event, but this has been a fun way of getting him there. Love Ziggler calling out a RAW guy – a shockingly interesting way for WWE to go about for Survivor Series. Headbangers/Usos’ was quick and effective. And AJ vs. Dean was a another good match based around James Ellsworth involvement, and I do not mean that sarcastically. This was actually more reliant on Dean than Styles – lots of offense strung together well, and selling dat leg. Security chasing Ellsworth through the crowd was so great. Ellsworth having Ambrose of all people as a pal is great. What if Ellsworth doesn’t turn on Ambrose, but Ambrose turns on Ellsworth??
Talking Smack was a blast too. Oblivious Cat Lady Natalya is the best Natalya. “Listen. When I go to the gym, I throw around a lot of weight.” I’d like to think Shane and Bryan are becoming best bros and we’ll live in a future with the least creepy member of the McMahon family running the show and wrestling-lover Bryan as his right hand man. But I do not sense that they have spoken more than ten words to each other since Shane returned, nor has Shane even watched a full episode of SmackDown yet. Loved Bryan marking out for Gable throwing shade at New Day. Dean’s request for an Ultra Iron Man Match (2 hours!) with Styles so sounds like something they would do.
I love when NXT goes on the road. The shows at Full Sail have the atmosphere and amped up crowd but at the end of the day are still slickly produced WWE TV – when NXT goes on the road, it’s the closest you get to WWE running an indy promotion. Interesting dynamic with this show, with all the Dusty Rhodes Classic Round 2 matches. Thought Roderick Strong vs. Shane Thorne (in place of Strong/Aries vs. TM61 due to Aries’ eye getting shattered by Nakamura) was GREAT. Big chops, elbows, uppercuts, backbreakers – a match that built and built but was consistently fun and got extra intense towards the end. That backbreaker to the top by Roddy was insanity, as was Thorne’s monster dropkick. The DIY/Revival promo was great work by The Revival, who already have the rasslin’ down and have become a strong promo too. Cannot wait for these teams to go at it again – hope it’s just a straight crazy brawl as I think they already peaked what they could do with a standard tag match.
The Dancing Fools (Swann/Jose) vs. Authors of Pain was a fun little match – Authors still look a little awkward but looked better than expected taking offense. Jose’s plancha and Swann taking the Bret Hart turnbuckle bump were highlights. Swann beatdown was a little ugly but did what it needed to, and things finished off hot. Kota Ibushi/TJ Perkins vs. SAnitY was alright – Kota and TJP just running through their stuff on the Performance Center fellas was a bunch of fun, and thought Wolfe especially kept up really well. SAnitY is still a little buggy, but in this situation it worked.
Main Event was alright – Jack Swagger and Simon Gotch actually had themselves a little match. I haven’t been Gotch fan ever since he sucked ass in that Lucha Dragons tag title match on NXT, but both Vaudevillain fellas may be better singles guys than tag guys. Rhyno/Slater vs. Breezango was the match you’d expect, and a fine one at that. A decent but skippable episode of Main Event, and when isn’t it these days?
Superstars had a pair of okay matches including a Superstars Match Worth Watching!! Alicia Fox vs. Dana Brooke was a shockingly good 5-minute match, with some big time intensity (the lockup and Alicia’s slap at the start were tremendous), nice pops for Alicia’s comebacks, and a couple sweet dropkicks and scissor kick by Alicia. Dana still looks awkward sometimes but she’s got the right ideas, and Alicia continues to be low key awesome. Curtis Axel (now a good guy) vs. Jinder Mahal was your basic Superstars match, though Axel’s comeback got over big as well.
WWE TV Match of the Week: Both AJ Styles vs. Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns vs. Chris Jericho were strong TV main events, but as a standalone match I thought Roderick Strong vs. Shane Thorne was the highlight.
WWE TV MVP of the Week: A lot of folks actually had a strong run this week… Chris Jericho’s promos and match with Reigns on RAW, Shane Thorne’s dropkick and first legit good performance on NXT, The Revival’s promo on NXT, Braun’s Battle Royal work on RAW, any of AJ/Dean/Ellsworth on SmackDown… let’s just call it one big ass tie.
