The sports entertainment was strong this week. RAW and SmackDown had fine episodes of television, 205 Live had its’ best episode yet, and while NXT was underwhelming we got Tribute to the Troops which was a damn blast. I don’t remember the last time WWE seemed to put in this much effort heading into the holidays.
RAW had two good matches and a couple strong angles – a few weak ones too, but I didn’t regret my decision to still enjoy pro wrestling as I head into my thirtieth year like I usually do on Monday nights. The big thread of the show (yeah! I like this trend!) was the New Day setting their WWE World Tag Team Title record by outlasting not one but two Triple Threat tag matches. Though they’ve been treading water, it felt fresh having them in a top position and all 3 can go in the ring. First match was Kofi & Big E vs. Cesaro & Sheamus vs. Gallows & Anderson and it was pretty good outside of a big stretch of Gallows and Anderson just kind of brother’ing around in the middle. Cesaro and Kofi always tear it up and Sheamus busted out a damn Mohammed Yone spin kick in the corner. Cesaro’s run of offense towards the end was total batshit insanity – I am all in on Cesaro becoming WWE’s Jackie Chan, and if they gave a shit enough to stress it it totally fits in with the secret agent man gimmick. Oh and Xavier Woods getting a chant for his grandma was GOAT-level stuff.
Xavier & Big E vs. Jericho & Owens vs. Reigns & Rollins was not just a fine way of killing time, but also putting more drama on the New Day title record and interweaving the top stories into the tag angle. Woods/Rollins and Reigns/Big E were fine exchanges early in this – I really hope we get to a point one day where Reigns vs. Big E is a money match. Woods’ ability to look competitive with all these guys is impressive – that elbow/chop flurry on Owens was great, and guy was trading shots with the Big Dog at one point. Tower of Doom was a grand ol time I am sure, but what the hell was Rollins trying to accomplish leading up to it? He basically just climbed the top rope and went “Hey guys, I want in on this! Gimme a superplex!” Finish was really fun, including JeriKO busting out what was basically a Shatter Machine. More dissension for the Best Friends at the end with Owens being pushed onto Jericho, though I loved Owens being all logical and shit: “Why would I fall on you? On purpose!?”
The other stuff with the main event folks just wasn’t much – Owens vs. Rollins on the mic has zero sizzle, and Rollins as a babyface is quickly becoming just the fucking worst. “WHADDYAGONNADO SPARKLECROTCH, HUH!?” Rollins and Reigns attacking Jericho and Owens to deafening silence is probably a sign that none of this is working.
I just got done watching ECW’s Hardcore TV run from 1994, so have a lot of classic Cactus Jack promos in my head. And at the start of this show, watching Mick Foley do the GM shtick, I weeped for what he has become. By the end of the show, I was thinking – “Nah this guy still rules.” The Sami Zayn/Eva Marie trade tease deal was pretty hilarious, and the whole angle and promo between Zayn and Foley was really well-done. Zayn has felt like he’s been missing a step for a long time, and though some of that’s on him – the reason he worked in NXT is because the crowd was completely invested in him, and main roster WWE has done zero to invest anyone in him. His status in NXT was built-in a bit from the goodwill he had from the indy run, but the Cesaro, Neville and Owens feuds were were really well-done. On the main roster he’s just the dorky guy that fights with Kevin Owens sometimes. So this whole thing is very encouraging and I am all about him taking it to Big Braun Strowman on Sunday night.
Rest of the show was alright, though not very notable. The Rusev/Cass brawl was good stuff. Any show with a Braun Strowman squash (this time of Curtis Axel) is a better show, though real talk: Braun needs a new singlet. The Bayley squash of Alicia was OK, though for all the good they’ve done with the women having Alicia just be some one-note nutjob girlfriend is silly. Cruisers did their thing – Lince looked great, hitting a bunch of smooth and sensible stuff on Daivari. Jack Gallagher announcing his intention to interfere was amazing, though I get the feeling he’ll be the next Zack Ryder – cult following, fun moments, doesn’t go as far as anyone wants. Unless the idea is to make him intentionally annoying to set up a heel turn, no more mic time for TJP – sometimes it’s OK to make a guy mysterious. He had a pretty heatless affair with Brian Kendrick. Oh and I liked them keeping Charlotte and Sasha Banks off the show like the god damn attractions they are.
SmackDown wasn’t their best show recently and that’s honestly very encouraging since it was still pretty good. First of all HOW MUCH FUCKING HAND SANITIZER DID SHANE MCMAHON POUR IN DANIEL BRYAN’S HAND? What a ribber, that Shane-O-Mac! The show’s main event was a 4-Way WWE World Title #1 Contender’s Match with Dean Ambrose vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. The Miz vs. Luke Harper. They set it up with a MizTV with Miz and AJ and man oh man has Mike Mizanin not only brought up the in-ring and character work this year, but he really looks like a legitimate main event professional wrestling superstar again. It was at this point I realized that both shows have similar things going on – two big heels (Owens/Jericho, Styles/Miz) that are more over than their two big faces (Rollins/Reigns, Ambrose/Ziggler) along with a 3-man unit waiting in the upper midcard wings (New Day, Wyatt Family). The Luke Harper appearance in that segment was so random and so awesome. 4-Way was good – Harper was excellent here, with a wild run at the start and that great cut-off of the rebound lariat on the outside. The sequence after the Harper torture rack was amazing. Didn’t completely get me until the last few minutes, though it was a pretty sweet last few minutes. AJ vs. Dolph? OK. That’ll get us to 2017, I guess.
The Alexa Bliss/Becky Lynch thing was good stuff – this is a low-key awesome feud and doing a great job making Alexa into a legit player. I think Carmella and Natalya had a better brawl than Carmella and Nikki. That SmackDown is making a Total Divas angle seem good is a testament to its’ greatness. Outside of a couple wild bumps, the Tag Team Battle Royal was complete and utter shit. While a few of those bumps looked like they could cause injury it was the one that didn’t – by Zack Ryder – that actually did. Was so ready for Hype Bros vs. Wyatt’s – we’ll see where it goes. The Usos running down the SmackDown tag division on Talking Smack makes you realize how light it is – just go with American Alpha already. By the way – a condom joke by Daniel Bryan, Mauro straight-up saying skank, and Miz almost saying “shit” – what is going on!?
Talking Smack remains great. Daniel Bryan opened the show with the now-legendary quote “SMACKDOWN IS REALLY INTO FISTING!” This is quickly becoming a show where people are trying to pop each other and/or make each other break and that is a wonderful thing. The Alexa Bliss interview was awesome… felt like Bryan and Renee were throwing curveballs at her and she improvised the fuck out of them – so awesome.
205 Live was the best one yet. It’s still got its’ issues – suckass 3-way feud, taping after SmackDown, Noam Dar – but everything was good tonight. Jack Gallagher vs. Drew Gulak was a blast. Gallagher busted out rolling crucifixes, and he AGAIN DID THE ROPES POSE AFTER THE ASS KICK!!! Gulak just booting the fuck out of Gallagher after all the cute shit was great. TAJIRI IS COMING BACK!!! Lince Dorado vs. Mustafa Ali (in a CWC rematch) was a fine few minutes – maaaan is Lince an impressive flyer. The headscissors off the apron was nuts, and that was a fucking incredible Asai moonsault. I think TJP vs. Rich Swann was as good as their awesome CWC match, just in an arena environment where people weren’t popping as much. Blessed that they finally took the strap off TJ for his entrance ramp LED. Cool moves, cool knee work, cool selling, and the crowd was legitimately into it towards the end. Love these guys – just have TJ shut the fuck up and give Swann something more interesting to do than a tired 3-way feud where everybody somehow looks like a geek.
Tribute to the Troops was a breezy show with a bunch of fun 5-minute house show matches. The Troops shows hearken back to a time when good guys could be good guys and bad guys bad – even Roman got over. Goldust looked very good in the 4-Way #1 Contenders tag (Cesaro/Sheamus vs. Golden Truth vs. Gallows/Anderson vs. Shining Stars) – the corner bump, hurricanrana, powerslam, and his selling were all on point. Apollo Crews vs. The Miz as a 2-minute match based around Gabriel Iglesias taking selfies was ideal stuff. Miz and Maryse are such a great act, heeling on the troops but making it seem like it’s all in good fun anyways. Based on the Steve Austin podcasts, Fluffy is a good mark brother like the rest of us – happy he got to do that, and it beats a guy doing stand-up on an entrance ramp. Wyatt Family vs. Dolph/American Alpha was a fun little match that in the future could be awesome with some more time. Gable landing that German suplex hold on Wyatt was nuts. Jordan vs. Harper was good stuff. I like that the Wyatt’s beat guys named American Alpha (one of which is a former Olympian) on a show for the Troops and it still felt like the good guys won – love the Wyatt Family.
Bayley vs. Dana Brooke was like 2 minutes and might have been the most professional wrestling thing this week: you’ve got an uber-babyface, a heel taunting a dog, and eventual comeuppance. Honestly, what else can you possibly want? Cruiserweight 6-man was neat – dive train was wild, as was Swanny’s hot tag. New Day/The Club/The Shield segment was of course tremendous stuff. The main event (Roman Reigns/Big Cass vs. Kevin Owens/Rusev) was so fun – just a classic Vince McMahon tag team match. For a guy who kicks ass a lot, Roman is an amazing face-in-peril. His bump off the apron was great, as was him just looking straight fucked as Owens and Rusev took it to him. Nice near fall by Owens on the frog splash, and an epic spear from Roman for the finish.
NXT had five singles matches that looked fine on paper but ended up kind of sucking. There wasn’t much to the Shinsuke Nakamura/Samoa Joe cage match from Melbourne – I guess they clipped it as only 10 minutes were shown on TV, but what they kept in did not seem like much. Like I really don’t even know what to say. Nakamura did a funny taunt. Took some bumps into the cage. They hit each other. That’s all I got. I did like Nak closing the door and finishing Joe off with a pin. Otherwise, I dunno. This Joe/Nakamura thing has been alright matches that happened too many times and an alright feud that went too long. All four NXT Title #1 Contender matches were incredibly short and the last 3 were basically TV squashes that didn’t have anybody actually looking dominant. Tye Dillinger vs. Eric Young was an OK 2-minute opening sequence and then a DQ and Damo run-in. Kinda love the new Andrade Almas pyro – match with Jose had an impressive rope-running sequence after Jose teased doing Almas’ taunt, otherwise it was another forgettable one. I love a good rapid leapfrog spot – Roddy Strong did a nice one vs. Drifter. Otherwise eh. Oney Lorcan/Bobby Roode at least had a little meat to it. Think Oney would’ve been a better fit for SAnitY.
No matches on Main Event this week due to 205 Live being taped at RAW and Tribute to the Troops being taped at SmackDown. Cathy Kelley! Holiday Flashbacks! Heenan! Monsoon!
WWE TV MVP of the Week: Man, Jack Gallagher was on TV three times this week and had a great moment every time – hilarious run-in on RAW, fun match with Gulak on 205, and the dive tease spot on Tribute to the Troops. Atta boy, Jacky!
WWE TV Match of the Week: I liked Reigns/Cass vs. Owens/Rusev for being a classic good guy vs. bad guy tag match and thought Swann and TJP really crushed it on 205 Live, but the RAW Tag Team Title main event match with New Day/Reigns & Rollins/Owens & Jericho was probably the best overall match this week. Think I’ll remember those first 2 and even Gallagher/Gulak more fondly though. Ranking wrestling matches – what a hoot.
