This past Monday and Tuesday night, I had the pleasure of attending 2 nights of World Wrestling Entertainment at the Allstate Arena. Living in or around Chicago my whole life, the former Rosemont Horizon has been my home base for taking in live WWE for a long time. My earliest memories there include doing the Bushwhackers dance up and down rows of seats (business was down, brother), being legitimately scared of The Undertaker, and seeing Bret Hart work like 3 times in one night for a TV taping. Around 2002, I got to see the debut of John Cena (plus Jericho vs. Hogan and the return of Edge – what a show). More recently, my favorite pro wrestling live experience ever took place there when CM Punk and John Cena went head-to-head at Money in the Bank. The last show I went to was Extreme Rules last year, so I was jonesing for some rasslin.
With that being said, I bring you this week’s WWE TV Week in Review from a perspective of being at the shows live and in person. Because I’m nuts, I also watched these shows on TV, so will be bringing both perspectives.
Before I get to each show, some quick general thoughts on the live experience on Monday and Tuesday…
There isn’t really a bad seat to view wrestling at the Allstate Arena, but sitting way up top can be trouble. You’ve got that stupid bright light above the ring staring you down, and way up in the nosebleeds Allstate’s got real #TightSeats. Sitting down was real uncomfortable for most of the show, especially 3+ hour shows, and especially shows with a billion video packages (we’ll get to that). Plus being so high up top you feel like a weirdo any time you stand up. I mean did I flip out and jump up and down for Braun Strowman and AJ Styles? Of course. But that doesn’t mean the poor family behind me enjoyed it.
You know what’s a weird phenomenon? Hipster wrestling fans. It’s these guys with pretty hair decked out in Enzo Amore or John Cena merch, and every single time they have a hot girlfriend with them decked out in Nikki Bella merch. If you are this type of person and reading this, talk to me. Explain your story. Tell me how it came to this.
The theme of this blog since around September has been how SmackDown has been the runaway champion of the brand split. This tended to hold true for seeing both shows live too – on TV I found SmackDown to be a far better show, but live at times RAW was almost unbearable while SmackDown was a ton of fun. Live WWE in 2016, especially RAW, feels more like an investor presentation than a wrestling show. You can barely hear the ads over the live speaker system – what is the point of airing so many of them? Everything just oozes that classic desperation you know all too well if you’ve been watching WWE for a long time – “LOOK AT US. WE ARE ACCEPTABLE TO THE MAINSTREAM. CELEBRITIES SEE US IN PERSON. SPORTS ARE GOOD. JOHN CENA IS THE GREATEST. THE ROCK. THE ROCK. THE ROCK!!!”
It is downright astounding how much dead time there is, especially at RAW. Forever I’ve been thinking crowds aren’t so hot these days because the stars are lacking or the show just sucks – now I am convinced it is the current presentation of the live show. At one point during RAW there was a long WrestleMania 32 recap video (there were 4 of these on Tuesday and like 55 on Monday) followed by a Brock Lesnar video followed by 2 long backstage skits followed by a commercial.
The best part of RAW by far was Braun Strowman – at over 2 hours in of a pretty dead show, they ran the Shining Stars vs. Bo Dallas and Darren Young match that the crowd practically groaned for. So a minute in BRRAUUUUNNNNN runs out and GRABS A CHRISTMAS TREE WITH HIS BARE HANDS and CARRIES IT TO THE RING. Bo Dallas leaps at him and BRAUN THROWS THE TREE AT HIM MID-AIR, then blocks a tope, no-sells a chairshot, throws steel steps around, and the crowd is going apeshit. It was some kind of meta-admission that the show had sucked and BRAUN was here to fuck it in the ass. IT WAS DESTRUCTION. THERE WERE STROW-MAN CHEERS ALA GOLDBERG-CHEERS. PEOPLE WERE CRYING. TRAFFIC WAS STOPPING. THE DOW JONES WAS RISING. IT WAS COMPLETE OBLITERATION. A STAR WAS BORN. And then we got a Welcome to My House video for 5 fucking minutes.
SmackDown on Tuesday night was a little bit better. It’s a better show, the characters are more over, it has SUPERSTARS like Randy Orton and John Cena, and what helped more than anything is that most of the time instead of a long commercial for a Scooby Doo movie or WWE shop, SmackDown’s commercial time was filled with in-ring stuff. Helped that SmackDown was just 3 title matches, so no quick bullshit matches or angles… there was meat to everything. Even though SmackDown had the more quality show overall, live it also flowed a lot better and was a lot more fun.
A couple other new things that are kind of sad to watch is that with the new set, the action isn’t on the Titan Tron anymore. It’s on the digital scoreboards up top, but those are pretty small. So some of the camera shots of facial expressions that would’ve gotten a bigger response in day’s past don’t work as well. They also darken the ring now during commercials, so you’ll have like Charlotte standing in the ring for like 10 minutes as they do commercials and backstage shit. Or, you had Corbin cut a promo and make his entrance, then Ziggler make his entrance, then everybody gets hyped for AJ Styles, and then… the ring goes dark and there’s a WWE Shop commercial. It all felt new and grossto me … heels jaw jacking the crowd during breaks is what live wrestling is all about. I get you can’t have someone doing shtick for 10 minutes, but maybe make it so it doesn’t have to take 10 god damn minutes.
Allstate actively booed against a lot of this… by the end of the 2 nights the commercials were among the most heels on the show, and not being able to hear the ringside interviews despite seeing them happen on the screen didn’t make many folks happy. Plus since when do all matches become no countout matches when there’s a commercial break? Is this normal? Has this always been happening??
Far be it from me to make a grand proclamation about professional wrestling (wait – that’s all I end up doing), but it is like the TV presentation handicaps the live presentation and vice versa. The live fan demands a GOOD SHOW! and big matches and forward movement, when sometimes a New Day squash is probably a more effective use of TV than another New Day in-ring promo and Tag Title match. With that setup though it’s hard to pace a show and hard not to over-expose guys. Meanwhile, the current TV setup demands commercial breaks and plugs and backstage stuff that hurts the live show. It’s all eating each other up… it shouldn’t be so complicated but it seems like it is.
Hmmm. Got a little fired up there with the complaining and the philosophizing and all that jazz. I forgot to mention one thing – when there’s not another WrestleMania 32 video package running, live WWE is still fun as hell. You’re singing along with The New Day or Enzo Amore, chanting for AJ Styles, putting up the fireflies for Bray Wyatt, or feeling the sheer electricity of being in the same arena with a John Cena or Randy Orton. You are in some weird wonderland where everyone’s into the weird shit you are, or at the very least taking their kids to it and fascinated by the craziness they are taking in. It’s always fun imagining WTF the ushers are thinking – there is nothing like this thing. Maybe Monster Jam or something, but that’s nowhere near as crazy and you’re not selling lemonade to folks with unicorn horns taped to their foreheads.
I also got to see a ton of wrestlers for the first time… the roster has seen such a wild change since April 2015. Kevin Owens, AJ Styles, Charlotte Flair, Bayley, Becky Lynch, Alexa Bliss, Enzo & Cass, BRAUN, Gallows and Anderson, American Alpha, Baron Corbin, Nia Jax, and every single cruiserweight outside of Neville were people I was seeing wrestle for the WWE live for the first time. Arguably every single one of these talents has been turned into a major player by the McMahon Machine… Styles felt almost as over as CM Punk and Braun became a damn superstar before our eyes. Styles and Becky impressed me the most… Styles is just so damn impressive to watch, and every leap and bump he takes is just SO much higher and bigger than anybody else’s and the crowd reacts accordingly. Meanwhile Becky has people popping for matwork and got a major reaction off a missile dropkick near fall. So she rules.
Anyways. Let’s talk about the wrestling this week.
DAY 1 – MONDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2016
Monday Night started well enough. It was the day after Christmas, a Christmas in which I got a CHAINSAW and had more glee in my eyes than any number of Hasbro wrestling figures I had received in year’s past.
Actually, here’s a couple Wrestling Christmas stories real quick:
One Christmas I got a Hulk Hogan wrestling buddy who had white milk dribbling from his mouth and my uncles found it SO funny. Didn’t realize what they were laughing about until a few years later.
One Christmas I got a Sting action figure when I wanted WWF action figures and threw a fit. I was a real piece of shit.
One Christmas I got a WWE Alarm Clock with John Cena and Rey Mysterio on it. That Christmas was this year.
The doors opened earlier than they usually do both nights (freezing children might be bad for business), giving ability to walk around pretty freely and grab a trash hot dog without waiting in line for 20 minutes. Wrestling shows are fun. Everyone’s a little bit of a weirdo and it’s OK. I got to hold a door open for a guy in a Sin Cara mask. I took a piss next to a fully-grown man in Becky Lynch goggles. It was magical.
Right on the marquee for RAW are Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, and Charlotte Flair. Both shows were announced as sold out but I don’t buy it – it was packed for sure, but there were empty seats – and Mauro said RAW had around 12k and SmackDown 13k. WHICH IS IT??
Being in Chicago, the most common merch being worn wasn’t for any stinking pro wrestler but the Chicago Cubs. They had pretty much the same shirts at the merch stands both nights, though I think they replaced Styles with Rollins for SmackDown. You know what I didn’t see? Any Kevin Owens shirts for sale.
Ya sit down an hour early for a WWE show in Chicago and ya get a lot of Woooo’s and New Day chants. Plus a couple half-hearted CM Punk chants. The Punk chants in Chicago are now firmly split – those that do them, those that look around disapprovingly but do them for Stephanie McMahon, and those that don’t know what the fuck is going on.
The Monday show started with two Main Event matches. Both were not good, and really didn’t even do the one job they had in getting the crowd going. Lince Dorado vs. Tony Nese had Lince doing some flippy stuff that was aesthetically impressive but didn’t connect. It was less “WHOAAA” and more “oh, cool.” Tony Nese’s muscle flex pose was like a top 10 most over thing on the show though – HEAT!!! Titus O’Neil vs. Curtis Axel sucked – WTF was this? Long Titus beatdown and then he just won. At least it was short. None of these were any better on Hulu.
I will always find it hilarious that Michael Cole gets a full intro and Titan Tron. Just makes me smile every time. Big boos for him and Byron Saxton and a big ovation for Corey Graves.
RAW was quite honestly a piece of shit show. The Reigns/Rollins/Owens/Jericho bullshit just overwhelms this show with so much apathy that Braun Strowman might become the biggest babyface in wrestling for simply injecting some life into it.
Steph/Rollins/Reigns segment was what it was, yes indeed. Love that Steph McMahon does not give a shit and appears live at every Chicago RAW that she can. The slaying of the crowd on the Punk chant was tremendous… though to be honest live I thought it was just a commentary on how long he lasted in WWE. Only when I read what she said online did the true genius sink in. Rollins is definitely over like nobody else on RAW (outside of maybe Jericho), though over like a lot of guys on RAW – a big pop for the entrance, then silence for the match. The boos for Reigns in Chicago are absolutely merciless, though the Shield reunion tease got a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUGEEEE pop live. New Day entrance for the tag match was just tremendous, sing-along with Big E is one of the best things money can by.
New Day vs. Sheamus and Cesaro was a fine fine match. The early double teaming by Kofi and Woods was solid and Woods continues to impress me with how legit he looks going at it with big-ass heavyweights like the Celtic Warrior and the Swiss Superman. The spot where Cesaro struggling a bit to press slam Kofi to the outside on Big E came off real awkward live with E standing there forever, but man did it look nice on TV. Sheamus and Cesaro did a tag-in/tag-out shtick with European Uppercuts during the commercial break, just a pitch perfect way to not take a bump and keep the crowd jamming during a lull. Finish with the #BrougeKickOuttaNowhere was tremendous. Lady behind me on Sheamus: “Oh my god. He is HUGE.” Yes. Yes he is.
The Owens/Jericho/Braun segment with Jericho’s “Squash em down, maaaan” was pretty fun… greatly enjoyed Braun Braun just casually choking a guy backstage. In between all the video packages and the commercials and the promos and the dead air though it wasn’t the best. It’s hard to argue against the Owens/Jericho shtick when it’s an entertaining part of the show, but it’s just another awkward piece of a real shit puzzle, with Owens and Jericho as basically Abbot & Costello going up against humorless jocks Rollins and Reigns.
They announced Nia Jax’s enhancement gal (Scarlett Bordeaux of ROH/AAW) as from Chicago on commentary but she didn’t even get an entrance so the live crowd could know – WHY!?!?! Vince McMahon, why must you anger the wrestling gods so!? Match served its’ purpose.
Stephanie’s announcement of Reigns vs. Owens as the main event got ZERO reaction. NONE. NOTHING. This thing happened like 3 times in September, just happened at Roadblock, happens tonight, and is happening again at the Rumble. And they’ve got like 4 weeks to the Rumble… there’s nothing stopping it from happening like 4 more times. And the only hook the Rumble has is Jericho in a damn shark cage, when half the audience actively doesn’t want Reigns to beat Owens and the other half doesn’t seem to really care. C’mon, maaaan…
Bayley was super over and it was awesome seeing the wacky inflatable arm-flailing tube men live, but Bayley vs. Charlotte was a lot like Reigns vs. KO in that you wonder why it’s even happening right now and it’s not very good anyways. This show had two potentially marquee matches that A) were super average on TV since they obviously have to hold back and B) won’t feel like a big deal when they happen on PPV. Match was indeed just an average thing… Dana Brooke as ref did get a classic “ugh” reaction from the crowd though. Highlight for me was the young fella behind me’s casual commentary on selling: “nowadays they get up slow… they used to get up fast.”
TJ Perkins vs. Neville was some fun wrestling. Started with TJ Perkins throwing his shirt into 2 rows of empty floor seats. I’m actually impressed that the people seem to care for TJ… guy got a big Let’s Go TJ/TJ Sucks chant, it was incredible. Crowd was into the early stuff here, though they lost ’em a bit at the end. Strong interview by Neville even if the live crowd didn’t hear it.
It was fun seeing Enzo & Big Cass do their thing live, but the segment was crazy short and Enzo stuck in a wheelchair and not flailing around took away the mystique a bit. Shout out to the Tyler Labine-looking fella who caught Enzo’s wig, put it on and mugged for the camera. In one night guy got a mouthful of Booty-O’s, perfectly handled the wig toss, and was wearing a damn light-up Jericho jacket that he turned on when the show went dark. What a huge night for that guy. As with most stuff on RAW, it wasn’t a terrible segment but it was kind of a short nothing segment and on a 3-hour show of short nothing things presented as if they should be big amazing things it was more eye-rolling bullshit.
Emmalina makeover promos are #OVER.
Everything that was BRAAUUUNNN!!! was by far the best part of Monday night. A true superstar is being born. As with most WWE stuff, they are good at starting things and awful at finishing them – that might hold true for Braun too, but he’s a really impressive and intimidating big guy who moves well, hits hard, and seems like a good brother. For a guy with so few matches it’s even more impressive that he’s able to look this good. Bo/Darren vs. The Shining Stars was the most meta “are you fucking kidding me” match, and as mentioned above the absolute annihilation of them by Braun was amazing. A week later I still cannot get over that he picked up the Christmas tree with one hand and carried it to the ring. The Braun/Rollins match was pretty awesome short stuff, though made me realize a glaring issue with a lot of New Era guys – the crowd cheers for them but doesn’t connect with them. Seth gets the pop, but no one’s engaged in him making a comeback or anything. As a big man/small guy endeavor though the match was fun, with Rollins bumping big, Braun cutting off Rollins’ tope by running into the ring and taking him down, and Braun’s awesome corner shoulder bump. On top of all that there was the Sami run-in and man was Sami over HUGE taking it to Braun. Big time SA-MI, SA-MI chants. Jericho run-in after all that to take out Rollins was the cherry on top. Then Braun chased Sami into the crowd and pushed a god damn fan. Hot, hot segment that flowed really well and got like 10 things over.
Appreciated the effort on the Bo/Young team continuity BTW.
Gallows and Anderson got a shockingly big pop followed by a freakin’ New Japan chant that against all odds somehow had legs. The whole thing with Goldust was trash though. Backstage segment was fine enough – Bayley gives Goldust a Dusty Rhodes teddy bear. She gives tribute to Dusty. Crowd chants for Dusty. Goldust says it was the nicest gift he ever got. Then those assholes Gallows and Anderson tear up the bear. The crowd boos. They are ready to see Goldust kick some ass. Are they gonna get Goldust kicking some ass?? Nope. Rollup finish with R-Truth rapping to the ring. You had a stupid segment that could’ve been redeemed by a hot angle; instead you get Goldust dancing around, hitting a cute bulldog on the guy who disrespected his dead dead, then getting rolled up and losing. The rollup finish did nothing for Gallows and Anderson either. Fuckin’ RAW.
Rich Swann squash of Ariya Daivari was a Rich Swann squash of Ariya Daivari. Took the ring crew guys longer to change the ropes purple than the actual match did. I hope they eventually do a heel stable with the rope changer people. “Gran Metalik, we have had ENOUGH OF YOUR SHIT.”
Reigns vs. Owens kind of stunk, with a couple highlights (how about that sit-out powerbomb) but long stretches of “ummm OK.” Fell victim to the overexposure of the match stuff I talked about earlier. Show ended with Rollins and Reigns celebrating and then I waited like an hour to get out of the parking lot. FUCKIN’ RAW!!!
DAY 2 – TUESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2016
Saw the new Colt Cabana OneHourTees pic on the way to the arena – seems like they changed on Tuesday as it was still the cartoon one on Monday. S-M-A-R-T!
Curt Hawkins vs. Apollo Crews was the dark match and as will happen with your first guys out they got both got a shockingly big reaction. Crews rocks live – all his shit looked great.
Fun Fact: Mauro Ranallo SPRINTED to the ring. Is this what he normally does?? Is this Mauro Ranallo showing tribute to New Japan’s Young Lions!?!?!? Oh my god.
SmackDown was so good. On TV, live, whatever. So, so good. Three title matches with actual stakes that delivered, a huge moment with John Cena and AJ Styles shaking hands to close 2016, and a few other storylines (Miz/Ambrose, Nikki/Natalya, Carmella/Ellsworth) extended logically. Plus, as mentioned above, commercial time was filled with less commercials where Sting and Zack Ryder hawked Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figures and more actual professional wrestling.
The return of John Cena and his promo was AMAZING. The crowd booed the shit out of him but the arena was still unquestionably electric for Big Match John. He put all 3 guys in the main event over more than they ever have been put over, especially with the hard sell for Styles. Love that aging main eventer John Cena has actual character motivation… wish more guys in WWE had that, but John’s a good start. No matter how good the in-ring stuff is in WWE these days, nobody is touching Cena for sheer superstardom. It’s just another level. The crowd was going insane and even if they booed, they still hung on every word. Love the history Cena has built in Chicago too… the debut vs. Angle, the first major rejection of him at Mania 22, the Punk match at Money in the Bank, and now him laying down the law and saying he is sick of the New Era BS. RECOGNIZE.
The Miz/Ambrose hijinks were fun stuff and a perfect way to follow-up on last week’s Slap Heard Around the World. Nice use of Goofy Dean while also letting him dish out a great beatdown. Miz was such a cock too. According to the young feller behind me, Miz is “fruity.”
I liked the Tag Titles match a lot better on TV than live – live there was quite a bit of dead time, and The Usos early beatdown of Jason Jordan had me checking my phone for what time Jiffy Lube was open. But TV cut all that shit out and gave you a fun sprint of a tag with a great feel-good moment for new tag champions American Alpha. No shocker here – Wyatt Family entrance live is great. Randy Orton is SO over. As stale as they’ve gotten over the years, no one on either show had the crowd going INSANE from just standing around and staring at them as Cena and Orton did. Styles had buzz, Rollins got a big pop, Reigns got big boos… otherwise nobody came close. Alpha looked great here suplexing everybody around and being all fired up, and ol’ local boy Jason Jordan had 3 separate attempts at chants for him. Early stuff with Usos and Slater/Rhyno was solid; I think the Usos covered up 2 botches with Heath tripping on the rope and then Alpha losing one of them on the Doomsday Device setup. Once it got down to Wyatt’s vs. Alpha it got really really good… Orton was peak Orton, not doing much but whipping everyone into a frenzy. Gable’s nasty bump to the outside off the bottom rope catapult, purposeful or not, got a great reaction. Can’t remember if it made TV or not, but Harper letting Gable rest on the outside and then just throwing his ass back out was a neat moment. Slingshot suplex by Orton was excellent, as was the bump on the Grand Amplitude. Can’t believe Gable went over Orton basically clean – New Era, indeed. Alpha celebrated and went to the back as the Wyatt’s argued, and then ran out again and hugged friends and family in the front row to a big “YOU DESERVE IT” chant. Awesome. Can’t believe the New Wyatt’s dropped the titles already, but this is SmackDown, baby – we move quick ’cause we know where we’re going.
James Ellsworth got a big pop on the Titan Tron and probably would’ve been more over if he came out. Kids all around me were talking up Ellsworth, Neville, and Swann – oh my.
Becky Lynch vs. Alexa Bliss was a real solid thing… Alexa looked a bit off when I saw this on TV, though not live, which is weird… her stuff up close feels a little sloppy and not in a “this is legit” kinda way but more a “I am a Performance Center-trained professional wrestler” kinda way. She’ll get there. Regardless this was a good match – Becky looked phenomenal, popping the crowd with mat spots and armdrags. Was actually surprised to see some folks booing Becky – HOW DARE THEY?? Crowd got on the ref’s case a lot as during commercial Becky was selling on the floor and he just… stopped… counting. And then he had some issues where his ear piece wasn’t connecting and he was trying to get it back in. Always fun to see the panic set in, and enjoyed fantasy booking Vince’s flip-out in the back. Becky’s arm-breaker was insane and the Disarmer got a massive pop, as did the crowd totally buying a near fall on a MISSILE DROPKICK. I’m not one in love with nitpicking selling, but was kinda sad to see Becky try and break Alexa’s left arm then put the Disarmer on the right one. Outside of a few issues it was still a damn good match. More La Luchadora??? Sure
There were exactly five claps for Nigel McGuinness in the WWE UK video.
Dug the Corbin and Ziggler promos leading to the main event. RAW has backstage comedy sketches; SmackDown has pro wrestling PROMOS.
3-Way for the WWE World Title with AJ Styles vs. Baron Corbin vs. Dolph Ziggler was an excellent TV match and very good live match. A couple lulls live, as Baron Corbin was on offense for most of the commercial breaks and as much as I dig Corbin he’s not there as a compelling guy to watch dish out moves. Match actually got a This is Boring chant at one point, though it also got a This is Awesome chant because it is 2016 god damnit. Hot Take: AJ Styles is SO good. His bumps had the crowd mesmerized… love that I got to see an AJ Styles back body drop bump live. Best in the business. Once Dolph and AJ did their Thelma & Louise thing through the table this got AWESOME, with Corbin throwing guys around, the neat Corbin double clothesline spot after AJ and Dolph were trading blows, Dolph’s awesome counter of AJ’s springboard with a superkick (and AJ’s wild bump), the superkick near fall, and Corbin getting the rub on the finish with Styles pinning Ziggler after End of Days.
The Cena/Styles post-match handshake got a massive reaction. 2016 ending with those two shaking hands in advance of their match at the Rumble is so so great.
Not a unique perspective to say it’s still really stupid that they are taping 205 Live after SmackDown, but it is still really stupid. I’d say about 10% of the crowd left, which is a good chunk, and they don’t even cue us to pop for the intro! What blasphemy is this?? The wrestling fans tried to care and this was definitely a good show, but it’s in such an awkward place. 205 Live is especially weird right now as we’re not even watching fans figure all these new characters out… we’re watching Vince figure them out. It’s fascinating and also really lackluster at the same time, but it gets better every week. Neville helps.
Cedric Alexander vs. Tony Nese was a fine match but SUCH a tough sell for the crowd, especially after watching Styles kill it. The crowd tried for Cedric and there were some impressive moves but it just didn’t click. God bless Drew Gulak as a suit and red power-tie wearing guy who probably frequented the Pizzagate subreddit – hysterical. Gulak faking an injury and Alicia Fox getting thrown out over it is as fine a metaphor for 2016 as any.
The Noam Dar/Alicia Fox mistletoe thing had some fine work by Dar… somehow, some way, Noam Dar is getting over.
The Neville interview with Renee was a fine bit of exploration into the Neville character, though not sure I’m all in on Anti-American Neville over King of the Cruiserweights Neville. Also not sure how I feel about Neville doing an interview in his trunks – put on a shirt, man. Renee’s pause and question over him saying “doddle” was tremendous.
Shocked and delighted they gave Mustafa Ali a hometown squash. Guy was legit super over. For a match worked around a guy who’s knee was fucked it was pretty interesting… plus the reverse 450 is insane. Interesting direction for the Ali character… only Vince McMahon would approve of an angle where an angry brown guy is proven wrong by the white people who have accepted him.
The Gentleman’s Dual with Jack Gallagher and Ariya Daivari was a fun bit of sports entertainment. I love that Jack is not only over, but can carry a long talking segment already. Who is this guy?? UMBRELLA HEADSHOT! SCOUNDREL CHANTS!!
Massive pop for the Tajiri video.
One more live note – the outside-the-ring camera guy HUSTLES. Jumping in and out of the ring, running all around to get shots at the right time. Man.
Neville vs. Rich Swann was a fine match and right for the story, though not the greatest thing live… appreciated that they went for a brawl vs. doing rope-running sequences though. There were some good spots but too much dead air and a restless crowd… lots of time on the outside and a chinlock early made things very very quiet. Swann’s pop was a lot bigger at 205 Live than it was on RAW though. I am digging Thousand-Yard-Stare Neville. An uppercut and a superplex finished matches on the last cruiserweight show of 2016… unbelievable!
The dark match was John Cena & Dean Ambrose vs. AJ Styles & The Miz, which is a pretty hype match on paper but it being a dark match you could already tell how it was gonna go. I looked around at the crowd and thought about last night’s parking lot exit, and after seeing The Miz enter I jetted out. I was out in 30 seconds – no stalling, no traffic. FUCKIN’ SMACKDOWN!!!
Talking Smack was incredible this week. You had John Cena openly discussing being a part-timer and backing off on his claims that The Rock was an ass for stepping away, an AJ/Cena showdown, an American Alpha interview with JBL putting them over hard and telling them to drop the quirky “ready, willing, and gable” bullshit, and an awesome Ambrose interview with him putting Miz over hard. Amazing. Tremendous. Astounding.
WWE TV Match of the Week: Asuka vs. Nia Jax from the NXT Osaka show was my clear Match of the Week but since I didn’t cover it here, I’ll go the Styles/Ziggler/Corbin match. A blast live, a blast on TV, and one more amazing AJ Styles performance to close out the year.
WWE TV MVP of the Week: For in-ring entertainment, nobody touched AJ Styles. For sports entertainment, Big Match John demanded that we all recognize.
