I was in Greenville, South Carolina this entire week. Traveling for work. Hitting the road. Eating the local food. Exploring the downtown area. Driving a rental. Flying in a plane.
For THIS. BUSINESS.
RAW (2/12/18)
A real nice bridge of a show… no crazy high-end angles but ya had strong Elimination Chamber build, Braun Strowman playing a cello, an incredible Asuka hype package, and four really good matches. RAW does it again.
“WrestleMania can bring a legend back from the dead” – we hear you, John Cena.
The Cena and Miz promo at the start was solid but felt very 2013… as did their match, actually. Love John, love Mike, but even though the match was good it was kind of shocking how far behind the weekly TV matches guys like Roman and Braun have been churning out it felt. They brought the back-and-forth, the big spots, the Cena selling, the 2 commercials, and it got real hot for the finish with the AA and SkullCrushing Finale kickouts… but in general it kind of felt like a half-speed version of a great WWE main event. Fine TV wrestling but nothing special.
John needed that top rope AA to beat Finn Balor and now Miz – hmmmm.
Revival vs. Gallows & Anderson was a solid little match. Dawson pulling up Gallows’ pant leg and punching at his hurt knee, then taking him out on the outside so he and Dash could wreck Anderson with a Shatter Machine is life.
I liked how Kurt Angle’s two announcements were Ronda Rousey signing with RAW and Jason Jordan missing WrestleMania, and it was the Rousey news that was just kind of said quickly and brushed under the rug. Seth Rollins coming out to demand a top spot again was a fine way of getting the Rollins character cracking again. Kind of incredible how commentary can remind you a billion time about Seth beating Brock and Roman at Mania 31, about Seth missing Mania 32… but it’s like Seth beating TRIPLE H at Mania 33 never happened.
Sasha Banks vs. Bayley was awesome. They did what they should’ve – worked some holds, countered each other’s stuff, built up the intensity, and finally just brought it. Sasha in particular was incredible – acting all cocky, taking massive bumps that made a couple key Bayley comebacks look amazing. Bayley’s shoulder gave it a thread to follow and she did a fine job selling, and then she pulled out the big W with the top rope Bayley-to-Belly. Just a tight, well-worked match that hit all the notes it needed to. Post-match Nia Jax angle was done well too – it ain’t time for that heel turn yet.
Man was that Asuka hype video incredible, they put her the fuck over – comparing this gal to Ric Flair, The Rock, and ROMAN REIGNS. Oh my GOD.
Alexa Bliss/Mickie James vs. Mandy Rose/Sonya Deville was a match and probably the weakest part of the show, but it still got a point across. Yay RAW!
Elias getting the Top Of The Hour spot should not go overlooked, especially when Roman Reigns and Sheamus were following. Elias rocked his little segment but oh my WORD – WHAT A SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT THIS ENDED UP. Braun Strowman bringing out a CELLO, SINGING A SONG, and CRACKING THE CELLO OVER ELIAS’ LIMP BODY. Amazing television. So what if John Cena had a moment with a Make-A-Wish kid, Braun Strowman just SANG A SONG.
I get very uncomfortable any time Luke Gallows smiles. Is that just me?
Not a surprise at all – Roman Reigns vs. Sheamus was a great, heated, physical match. Like really, really physical. Armbars that felt like someone’s arm was gonna break off. Sheamus holding his EAR after getting knocked outside. Sheamus putting Roman in a hold and just kneeing the shit out of his ribs. Just beautiful, glorious, toughman pro wrestling.
Dug all the counters and big near falls towards the finish… the Superman Punch blocked with a White Noise, the Brouge Kick blocked with a Superman punch, a straight-up KNEE TO THE FACE. Well laid out finish too – Cesaro gets bodied by Roman, the Drive-By gets countered with a Sheamus lariat, but Sheamus heads up top to hit his shoulderblock and jumps into a SPEAR! Tremendous. Always. Tremendous.
How about that Sheamus and John Cone staredown after the Sheamus knee by the way? Go back and watch that.
Rollins vs. Balor vs. Hardy vs. Crews vs. Wyatt was WWE doing a Four Corner Survival – just fun stupid fast-paced stuff with guys bumping all over the place and Matt Hardy randomly CLAPPING. Rollins was an absolute freak in this match and just running all over the place, looked like a guy both after a big Mania spot and also asking for an injury. Liked how they teased the Tower of Doom spot early, then delivered it for the finish… which was a DOUBLE PIN~!
The CONTROVERSY~!
Love Monday Night RAW.
SMACKDOWN (2/13/18)
On the other hand, we’ve got SmackDown.
Honestly, in-ring this show was way better than usual but it was also a show centered around Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Baron Corbin and Dolph Ziggler – even if they all did deliver on the matches, YIKES.
I liked the chaos at the start of the show, but WHERE WAS THE HEAT!? I actually kind of dug the beating Owens and Zayn dished out, and I REALLY dug them preventing us from a Corbin vs. Ziggler match, but overall everything just felt not credible and confusing. That’s really not what you want the big crazy start to your show to feel like – even if I do give SmackDown credit for trying SOMETHING interesting.
Here’s the thing about the SmackDown women’s division: it is terrible. And they actually have a great roster. But I mean WOW. How boring and transparently bad is this? It’s such a clear example of SmackDown’s failures – no effort to make any character unique, Becky freakin’ Lynch acting as just Generic Babyface #3 – there’s no layers to this stuff and it sucks. And then we’ve got ANOTHER 6-man next week!
Here’s the thing about Charlotte Flair vs. Sarah Logan: it was really good. They were just kind of throwing bombs at each other, working holds, busting out cool spots – I kind of liked it, even if the live crowd couldn’t give a damn. The German suplex off the top and Logan taking a head drop off the Natural Selection was wild. Logan maximized those minutes.
The whole Shane giving Corbin and Ziggler a shot at Mania over Owens and Zayn thing is so weak. Competition is good, but at the end of the day WHY would you replace ANY of these guys with AJ Styles to face Shinsuke Nakamura at motherfucking WrestleMania? Why would Daniel Bryan or Shane McMahon get in the way of that? Why is Shane McMahon still reciting booking sheets word for word? What the fuck is going on at SmackDown Live?
Baron Corbin vs. Kevin Owens would easily make my list of most unanticipated possible matches in modern day WWE but hey what do you know it ended up really good. They just kind of went at it and beat each other up and didn’t let up. Plus, since it was heel vs. heel they didn’t have to follow the bullshit Corbin or Owens chinlock formula. Owens got in one chinlock but that was IT. That was ALL. Everything they did had some extra intensity to it too – Corbin’s punch on the top rope with Owens’ reaction/bump and the HUUUUGE Deep Six were highlights.
Bobby Roode calling Orton out for RKO’ing him is pretty cool. That wuss Nakamura sure didn’t.
I have nothing to say about the Roode, Orton and Jinder thing. Nothing.
New Day’s pancake bullshit is dumb.
I like Big E but truth be told he hasn’t really advanced as a character or in-ring guy in like two years. I like how his singlet straps look like shoulder pads because his traps are so big though. New Day vs. Gable/Benjamin was super formula stuff, though I dug Gable’s amazing koppou kick and the Chaos Theory on Big E.
HOW IS DOLPH ZIGGLER STILL SUCH A BAD PROMO?
The Usos meanwhile continue to be an amazing promo – FROM THE WOMB TO THE TOMB. Loved the Bludgeon Brothers bit too. Shit is going down.
Dolph Ziggler vs. Sami Zayn was good. Just good. They went for an epic match and they… kind of succeeded. Everything surrounding this angle just sucks so, so much. And Ziggler never feels like a main event wrestler, no matter how hard he tries. The dropkick counter of the crossbody, Sami’s bump on Dolph’s DDT, and the top rope Exploder were all neat. Liked the Zig Zag near fall too after the Helluva kick. Good. It was good.
MIXED MATCH CHALLENGE (2/13/18)
Look. I love Elias and Rusev but it is an indisputable fact that they had the weakest MMC match yet. There just wasn’t much here, even if Rusev and Lana’s matching gear was completely fantastic. There were actual BAY-LEY chants here too, which we haven’t heard in over a year. Elias seemed more into selling the Braun beating than actually engaging with the fun, while Lana tried her heart out but it didn’t make for a very compelling piece of business. And then Lana won haha poor Bayley.
205 LIVE (2/13/18)
A highlight of this episode of 205 Live was Mark Andrews quickly realizing that his “wave your hands” deal doesn’t work in a big arena.
This might have been the weakest show of the Maverick Era, but it was still like a top 5 205 Live ever.
Tozawa and Mark Andrews slowly workin’ holds and throwin’ shots in front of a very suspect crowd was not a great look. The idea of a technical British guy wearing babyface Tozawa down is good in theory, but Mark freakin’ Andrews? C’mon. There was some neat stuff here but nothing really clicked until the last couple minutes. The big frankensteiner was very cool though. Send Tozawa back to Titus Worldwide, PLEASE!
Drake Maverick shooting on Jack Gallagher’s weird-ass formal gear attire is amazing. Normally wouldn’t love a new guy coming in and crapping on the stuff that preceded him, but when it’s 205 Live it is completely necessary. Fuck you and your lack of character Tony Nese! Fuck you and your shit attire Jack Gallagher!
BUDDY MURPHY IS ON HIS WAY AND HE HAD TO DO A WEIGH-IN! Incredible.
Drew Gulak vs. Tony Nese was a freakin’ blast. Goofy Gulak is incredible, ANGRY GULAK is something more. It wasn’t an amazing straight-up wrestling match or anything, but it was an awesome angle with some cool stuff thrown in every couple minutes. You had Nese’s cockiness and speed vs. Gulak’s takedowns and grappling, Gulak backdropping Nese on the floor, Vic Joseph freaking out over Gulak leaving his feet to do a dropkick, Gulak grabbing Nese’s beard and just slapping the shit out of him, and Gulak’s ROOOOAAARRR as he trapped Nese’s ass out. Very cool.
NXT (2/14/18)
Not much happened here but it made for a tight, focused show – U.K. Title match, Johnny/Almas hype, the Black/Dain showdown, a TM61 squash, and the Ember/Shayna/Kairi angle.
I don’t think Roderick Strong ever felt like a legitimate U.K. Title challenger in the match with Pete Dunne but there was still a ton of cool stuff here. Some of the strikes they threw were completely mind-altering. Dunne also throws so much cool weird shit in his matches, whether he’s playing Pete the Ripper and trying to F up a guys’ hands, or nearly decapitating Roddy with a catapult into the ropes, or selling like he just had a stroke.
They did a perfect dropkick counter of a top rope dive too – between the height, Roddy’s connection, and Dunne’s landing and sell – if you are going to do that spot, do something like that. Finish came together real nice too – the Bitter End countered with elbows leading into a huge knee smash, and Dunne doing the finger snap like an asshole, punting Roddy in the head, and dropping him with the Bitter End.
Aleister Black looked like a total geek wearing a suit and reciting a script. I get them wanting to do a whole monster showdown with Killian Dain, but the whole thing was poorly done.
It’s time to just say it: Nick Miller looks weird walking down the Center Stage stairs.
TM61 feel more like big tag match guys not squash guys, so their match wasn’t much even if the finish was nasty.
Ember Moon vs. Shayna Baszler for the NXT Women’s Title was a good match while it lasted. I like how Shayna is always moving when she’s warming up pre-match – she looks like a Street Fighter character. First few minutes of this were Ember just going after Shayna and WRECKING her – just swatting and kicking the shit out of her and laying everything in. Amazing tope too. Then Shayna took over and locked in a nasty arm submission that looked like Ember’s arm was going to snap. Can you imagine watching this as a CHILD?
Just when it seemed like all was lost for our hero Moon, KAIRI SANE just casually walked out from the crowd and did a phenomenal forearm to Shayna off the steps. Good stuff – NXT post-Four Horsewomen was a little bleak, but between these three and Nikki Cross things are seriously back on track.
MAIN EVENT (2/14/18)
This is Season 7, Episode 281 of WWE Main Event.
Hawkins vs. Slater is the most Main Event to ever Main Event, except it didn’t actually Main Event Main Event because it actually went on first on Main Event. It was a fine little match that pleased the crowd it was presented for. Hawkins is now trying to get DQ’d to end his losing streak which is really kind of good. Slater took a wild bump on the apron when Hawkins aggressively pulled his arm/neck into the top rope and they actually got a decent near fall off the Heatseeking elbow, which was followed by another rollup lost for the Partystarter.
Cedric Alexander vs. Ariya Daivari was another ultra-short Main Event 205 Live match. Opening stuff was fun, with both guys feeling each other out and milking spots and working like Drake Maverick was watching. The Hulu edit army saved us from a Daivari beatdown. Major bump on the lumbar check from Daivari.
WWE TV Match of the Week: Liked Sasha vs. Bayley a lot but Roman Reigns vs. Sheamus was too good, another Roman Reigns classic.
WWE TV MVP of the Week: Sasha Banks has quietly cemented herself once again as a great wrestler. Really impressive performance vs. Bayley.
A bit of a middle-of-the-road week of TV, even if RAW was again a blast. SmackDown was brought up by a few strong matches but still kind of sucked, NXT had a couple quality matches but not a lot of juice, and 205 Live was fun but probably the weakest of the Maverick Era.
RAW: 8/10
SmackDown: 6/10
205 Live: 6/10
NXT: 6/10
