Damnit.
Becky/Alexa and DIY/AoP were good matches. SmackDown was good. RAW was bad. Whatever.
RAW felt longer than usual with some painful stretching for time – three long-ass mostly terrible talking segments with the Survivor Series teams followed by just as long crap matches, two Brock/Goldberg video packages that they’ll replay a lot over the next 2 weeks, an inexplicably long Golden Truth/Shining Stars match… just unreal. I’m relying a lot on wrestling for escapism now – you all better step it the fuck up.
The show ended with two decent matches that I probably would’ve liked better if the first 2 and a half hours weren’t so bad. There were some good bits in Sami Zayn vs. Rusev – Rusev crushed, Sami sold. Thought they could’ve hyped up the Zayn win a little bigger. Hoping for a Rusev face turn now. The 5-way main event had some fun stuff: everyone working around Braun early on, the Shield teasing their table spot, Owens tearing up a guy’s sign and the guy just being indignant as all hell, the Jericho/Braun table spot, fun string of moves at the end, and the onslaught of boos for each Superman punch. Finish with Owens/Jericho was the right sports entertainment result but Roman just high-tailing out of the ring to set it up looked awful. Thought Stephanie waving like the Queen, force feeding a U.S. election joke in the UK, and being just disgusted with Sami Zayn was funny.
Otherwise, this show was straight trash. Hoping for the best for the cruiserweights and happy for this Noam Dar fella, but I just don’t know what the answer is – there needs to be more spectacular stuff in these matches if no one’s going to give them much character, or there needs to be more character if the matches are going to be so cold. There should be like six more vignettes about how Rich Swann’s parents are dead. Every match was sub-Superstars level – just so basic WWE style and not fun. Gallows and Anderson are actively starting to look like very bad wrestlers. New Day’s promos are getting to be very bad. I appreciated the effort put into the Shining Stars/Golden Truth story, but the story was bad. This was all very bad.
SmackDown was a good show – not stand-out great like some from the last couple months, but stuff continued to make sense and I’m into everything that’s going on. I’m like a dog who just got rescued with this show – cautiously optimistic that this is a safe place for me, but apprehensive of it all quickly falling apart.
Highlight was Becky Lynch vs. Alexa Bliss for the Women’s Title. Forgot how long it had been since I saw Becky wrestle an actual match. Ain’t she great? Lots of good stuff here… the early pretty chain wrestling, Becky selling the Bliss beatdown, Bliss making faces at everybody and her desperation towards the end… the DEADLIFT!!! Good match. Breezango vs. Vuadevillains was a pretty quick nothing match to set up what team gets to be the first eliminated in the Survivor Series match. Naomi/Natalya was an okay TV match – Natalya’s “YAAAAY” spot is so great, though Naomi selling an elbow for like two minutes to set up the Carmella going after Nikki was pretty bad.
I’m digging Baron Corbin’s gimmick being that he’s just a brat. This whole thing with him off the Survivor Series team will probably do more for him than him being on it. SmackDown referencing his feud with Kalisto from three months ago is why we watch SmackDown. As is Corbin clotheslining Kalisto right after the flip entrance. Corbin SLIPPING to set up a beatdown by KALISTO is so un-WWE of everybody – it felt a little weird, but it’s a basic angle that I thought worked. A lot of statements were made with the Curt Hawkins/Apollo Crews match – that SmackDown’s attention to detail made it so they saw fit to rehab Hawkins, as well as that Apollo is in a very purgatory-like state. Like the Kalisto vs. Kendrick for Survivor Series and Miz vs. Ziggler for SmackDown Next week announcements… interesting stuff.
The opening promo with all the guys on Team SmackDown for Survivor Series felt pretty forced, though AJ continues to be shockingly awesome on the mic and Ellsworth continues to be a treat. The main event (Dean/Kane/Ellsworth vs. Orton/Wyatt/Harper) was alright and the opposite of the RAW main event – a pretty average match brought up by the quality hour and a half that preceded it. Ellsworth tagging in to the adulation of the crowd was pretty wonderful though. Shane on Team SmackDown? On a micro level I think it will make the match more fun, on a macro level the use of Shane McMahon since the return has been pretty shit.
Talking Smack was pretty cathartic as I laid in a fetal position on Wednesday morning. Love Daniel Bryan – “I’ve got to go to RAAAW?” Also: lol @ Miz.
NXT was alright – a pretty tight build for TakeOver: Toronto with the Dusty Classic semi finals, Roode/Dillinger promos and the Nakamura/Joe contract signing. #DIY vs. The Authors of Pain was a blast. Liked the fast-paced brawling at the start, and there were some amazing spots here – the Authors throwing Gargano into the Tommaso tope was amazing, as was the fallaway slam/Samoan drop combo on both guys in DIY. Gargano’s sell of the beatdown was dandy, as were Ciampa’s slaps and the crowd flipping out for his German suplex. That double rana spot on the Authors towards the end could’ve ended up very bad but looked pretty. SAnitY vs. TM61 was okay, mostly a beatdown on Thorne. I think I like this Wolfe fella. I know TM61 are capable professional wrestlers, but man. I think they’re less interesting than the Basham Brothers. Ember Moon/Rachael Evers was a pretty good few minutes… I know Rachael will be signed eventually but it felt like a weird move to have her control the match as if she was a heel while still basically being a face. Nakamura/Joe contract signing had some personality to it but man is there just no hype for this anymore. Why is Nakamura beating up innocent security guards!??!?!? Also – love Tom Phillips shilling Cricket.
You know what my favorite thing is? When you can hear the audible disappointment when The Ascension’s music hits. Main Event wasn’t terrible. Ya ever watch a lot of matches and sometimes ya can’t pinpoint it but the work just feels GOOD? Like ya probably wouldn’t even recommend it to anyone but the work is just so damn SOLID? Viktor vs. Jason Jordan was one of those matches. Just rock solid stuff by two fellas who are pretty good. A couple nice cut-offs with Ascension interference, and Jordan’s pissed off look when he does get the win is awesome. Hype Bros vs. Usos was a perfectly fine tag team contest held after a 2-hour live television show. An interesting, eerily quiet atmosphere if anything. Did a nice spot where Zack hit Jey with a baseball slide but walked into a superkick from Jimmy. But the crowd just dies as they realize this thing is actually going kind of long and it’s kind of fascinating.
Sad to see WWE did not fly Bob Backlund to Scotland to work Superstars. Both Darren Young vs. Jinder Mahal and Titus O’Neil vs. Neville were fine matches that worked within the confinements of a live arena match but kind of felt like duds on TV. This makes sense, considering Superstars is pretty much televised dark matches packaged to fulfill international TV deals. I just wish the dark matches were more interesting sometimes.
WWE TV Match of the Week: Completely torn between Becky Lynch vs. Alexa Bliss and #DIY vs. Authors of Pain and Becky Lynch vs. Alexa Bliss. Becky/Alexa was your classic WWE-style big arena match, while DIY vs. Authors of Pain was clunkier but more fun overall.
WWE TV MVP of the Week: It was a sad week, but one high spot was watching Becky Lynch do the wrestling.
