Was the Seth Rollins Gauntlet Match just LAST WEEK? How fast does time move in wrestling?
RAW (2/26/18)
The good wrestling shows just have to get bloated as we head into Mania, eh? We might just be moving away from the awesome tight, focused RAW’s of the last year as Mania season heats up. The highlights were still there this week – Bayley not tagging Sasha, The Miz’s promo, Cena cock teasing The Undertaker match, Roman calling Brock a bitch – but the show wasn’t popping me like it usually does. Hopefully I eat all these words next week.
Ronda Rousey replay, Alexa Bliss promo, and 6-woman tag filling up the first 45 minutes of the Road to WrestleMania – I see you, WWE.
The 6-woman tag was just kind of a collection of moves before Bayley deserted Sasha, which was awesome. Love Bayley FINALLY showing some spine. Nia’s takedown of Sasha on the outside was cool too.
The John challenge of The Undertaker tease brought out such a range of emotions in me. First, Cena’s performance as Old Man Cena should be up for an Emmy. The 15-year unstoppable force that is big John Cena coming to grips with his mortality and questioning if he still has it as another layer for the Cena character is high art. Second, he challenged THE UNDERTAKER and it felt SO GOD DAMN HUGE. The crowd popped. The seas parted. All was right in the WWE Universe until he said NEVERMIND, IT WASN’T HAPPENING, piercing the hearts of millions of fans around the world. And then he says he is going to SMACKDOWN to try and find a way to WrestleMania. SmackDown? Kami SmackDown? Top 10 List SmackDown? New Day with Pancakes SmackDown? SMACKDOWN!?
This was a cool but confusing deal, cool in that it was a great swerve and adds some intrigue and played with the wrestling fan heartstrings, confusing because Cena said he didn’t make the matches when he has made at least four thousand matches in his career, and then decided to go to SMACKDOWN to find a way to Mania. This continues Cena’s journey to Mania which is cool, but SMACKDOWN? Lobotomized Shane McMahon SmackDown!?
Bray bringing back the dancing Sister Abigail as he attacked Slater & Rhyno was neat, otherwise it was Bray.
High-end Miz promo once again, snapping on THE MACHINE and wanting a big WrestleMania spot so bad that he almost lost his voice. But it’s kind of a bummer that this hotness set up him losing twice in a row the night after he went down like a nobody in the Chamber.
Seth Rollins vs. The Miz (a first time match) had a lot of strong smooth sequences but the intensity was lacking a bit. Both these guys work kind of light and are usually at their best opposite someone who can really kick some ass (AKA The Big Dog). It was a good match that didn’t entirely grab me until the finish, but hoo boy what a finish. A frog splash won the match!
Miz wrestling twice in a row felt weird – I know Miz is a dick, but why would Balor eagerly sign up for this match? I love Mike Mizanin with all of my heart and his promo was money but he is not the right guy for two lengthy matches in a row. Nothing with Balor really clicked, they performed their spots competently but it was very much just a match.
“I don’t respect Brock Lesnar… and I damn sure don’t fear that bitch.” I don’t care if Roman isn’t captivating on the mic; he is incredible in-ring and more over than anybody on the roster. And him spitting hot truths on Brock was genuinely compelling. I am all in on Brock vs. Roman: They had the best Mania main event ever three years ago and though it isn’t the buzziest or most surprising match, it is the right one.
Kind of interesting that WrestleMania 34 is paying off two angles from WrestleMania 31: Brock vs. Roman getting finality, and Rousey vs. The Authority.
The Bar vs. Titus Worldwide in a completely random 2/3 Falls match was solid, but honestly the 20-second first fall with Cesaro distracting Titus leading into a Brouge kick was my favorite part. Well, that and Titus just wrecking Sheamus with a Dominator.
Elias did another great promo, but him stalling and bumping for Braun Strowman around was just kind of OK. It was a match that ended with a fire extinguisher being sprayed into a man’s face. These guys are awesome, but the crowd seemed a bit hesitant on this one, and I think everyone just really wants to know what Braun is doing at Mania.
Ronda Rousey is no natural on the mic but seeing Stephanie heel it up, Triple H ham it up, and Kurt Angle hallucinate it up is great stuff and the star power is alive with Rousey. This angle just has a fun chaos to it; you know Triple H and Stephanie are extra careful about making this work and you’re never 100% sure what Angle or Rousey will say. They actually got RIP IT OUT chants in regards to Stephanie’s arm, which is very cool. The Triple H punch to Angle was kind of awkward but kind of awesome.
SMACKDOWN (2/27/18)
The first hour of this show felt bad on purpose. Once The Usos and New Day did their thing at the top of the second half though, it ended up kind of good.
John Cena is acting the hell out of this WrestleMania story, but I find myself dumbfounded by the hoops they are jumping through to tell it. John comes out on SmackDown and simply asks for entry into the Fastlane match so he could get to WrestleMania, but he can’t simply ask for The Undertaker match at WrestleMania? And he can’t ask for the Undertaker match because he doesn’t have matchmaking ability? Daniel Bryan has matchmaking abilities, right? So hear me out: Bryan makes Cena vs. Taker. Or Shane does. Or Angle. Because it would be a cool as hell match.
Also, Daniel Bryan just asked Shane McMahon to go home like 45 minutes into the show. And Shane was like, yeah bruh go for it. And Bryan just LEFT.
And Dolph Ziggler, Record Screech Dolph Ziggler, is now some kind of good guy?
And Shane McMahon is chomping on popcorn and saying “Brie doesn’t like it when you guys are late for dinner” to Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, who feel like complete and utter chumps?
Ziggler? We are doing a thing with Ziggler again?
The Cena/Shane opening promo got a reaction and it was funny to see Shane looking like he forgot what it was like to actually get a reaction. But the whole thing was so painfully convoluted. I’m still not sure why Shane actually decided to come to the ring. Like what point was he trying to make? John asked for a WWE Title shot so he could go to WrestleMania, and Shane enters and does his dance and reminds him that if he wins the match he will be WWE Champion and go to WrestleMania? Hey – AJ vs. Cena though. I can dig.
Heel Zayn vs. Heel Corbin was a weird pairing that did not click. Outside of the wrestling being heatless and chinlock-heavy, who really cares about this? Who is invested? They put some smoke and mirrors on it with the awkward Bryan/Shane cut-ins during the match and Ziggler attacking Owens, but everything just felt stupid and confusing.
I did enjoy the Rusev Day chants two segments in a row. The biggest heel on SmackDown now appears to be whoever is writing it.
Naomi vs. Ruby Riott was an OK match but again, who cares?
Josh Duhamel showed up to plug his Biggie and Tupac show. It got Breezango on screen and WWE to finally reference that Big E sounds like the Biggie in Biggie Smalls, so I guess that is progress.
That Usos/New Day promo though. WOW. I like that we are getting to the point with SmackDown where half of the show is basically a satire on a bad WWE show, while the other half is performers just scraping and clawing to make this thing watchable.
Really liked The Usos calling out The New Day for goofing around for so long – adds another layer to New Day and I hope it’s actually followed up upon. Usos dropped another completely out of body promo about how many times they’ve missed WrestleMania and how this is their year, which was amazing – but then BIG E stepped up and cut his own incredible fired up angry promo. It was as if The Usos finished their promo and dropped the mic but Big E caught it.
The Bludgeon Brothers interruption was the icing on the cake – this was the most visceral reaction I’ve had to anything on SmackDown in over a year.
Nakamura vs. Aiden English meanwhile was ultra basic but totally serviceable. Sometimes ya just have to get back to basics on this stupid show.
The John Cena vs. AJ Styles main event was pretty awesome. Old Man Cena vs. AJ Styles was a fun dynamic, they did their usual stuff but also had John trying to keep AJ down with those straight rights he’s started throwing. Some real cool power spots here, and I can’t believe they did Styles Clash and AA near falls during the break. Tremendous countout tease off the AA through a table too.
Big Match John feels just a tad overplayed right now (i.e.: the roll-through and top rope AA’s starting to become commonplace) and I am not sure if it is overkill or an actually good story. I did flip out for Cena’s ANGER at not being able to finish off Cena, then his using the power of the WrestleMania sign to escape the calf crusher and deadlift into an AA for the 3 count.
Cena in the Fastlane main event feels like some serious time-wasting before the inevitable setup of Cena’s real WrestleMania match, but it’s only 2 weeks I guess.
MIXED MATCH CHALLENGE (2/27/18)
Finn Balor & Sasha Banks vs. The Miz & Asuka was two teams of STARS – Mixed Match Challenge is back, baby. Asuka afraid that Miz would blow her streak was a great bit. Liked them working things around character stuff again – Miz mic work and refusing to tag out, Finn trying to rollup Miz and Asuka freaking out. Asuka vs. Sasha was awesome too. Seemed like everyone was laying their shit in for FACEBOOK. Great save off the SkullCrushing Finale later in the match, and the double submission finish was a hair awkward but creative enough. Them pushing Asuka’s streak in this thing is weird, as it makes it kind of inevitable Team Awesuka will win. OR DOES IT?
205 LIVE (2/27/18)
Had a laugh at TJP’s stupid theme intro after his serious pre-match promo.
Cedric Alexander vs. TJP as a 20-minute match was an interesting choice but not good. They did a lot of holds and let them breathe, but it was a bit much and kind of quickly went from interesting matwork to boring shite. Felt very 2017 205 Live at points, and TJP’s offense was a drag. The match was kind of building to a couple TJP kneebar near falls but neither of them got over. Credit for trying, might have been better with a different audience, etc etc but this just didn’t work.
Roderick Strong vs. Kalisto meanwhile was a lot of fun. It was a more compact match too, which stood out after enduring the last one. Roddy was taking all of Kalisto’s stuff like he was born to take it and they did a bunch of fun spots – the rana off the barricade, Roddy pushing Kalisto into the apron then x-plexing him onto the table, the Salida Del Sol counter that ended up with Kalisto on the ropes. I like that Roderick Strong of all people has gotten 2-0-5 chants in both his tournament matches. The big… bodyslam? off the top was weird, the End of Heartache finish was incredible.
NXT (2/28/18)
Pretty middling episode, to be honest. Sane vs. Baszler was good but nothing else was really clicking.
Velveteen Dream vs. Tyler Bate was a couple of (super) young bucks having a wrestling match. Bate has some neat signature spots and Dream continues to be a fun guy to watch but it didn’t go anywhere beyond OK. More than anything, a fine match to continue Dream’s ascent.
Cool camera presentation from the bottom of the stairs for the Authors of Pain Promo.
Well – I for one am glad that Adam Cole vs. Cezar Bononi was more of an angle than an actual godforsaken professional wrestling match.
Kairi Sane vs. Shayna Baszler was good. It was a rematch of the Mae Young Classic Finals! I dug this a lot – it didn’t overstay its welcome, everything felt legit, and the finish was clean and straightforward. Baszler’s style is so cool in WWE. Those knees were awesome.
The show-closing Andrade Almas promo along with the Aleister Black and Killian Dain involvement was very much… OK, this is where we want to get to, so this is what we will do, but there is not gonna be any juice to it. It was fine. But just fine.
MAIN EVENT (2/28/18)
What is there to say about an Akira Tozawa vs. Ariya Daivari match that has already not been said? I still like Tozawa’s tope, at least.
Goldust vs. Curt Hawkins had Goldust working a crowd and running the ropes and it was a decent Main Event match. I want to see a 2-week Goldust vs. The Big Dog program.
WWE TV Match of the Week: John Cena vs. AJ Styles
WWE TV MVP of the Week: John Cena, for adding a layer to his character and somehow even more to his legacy.
RAW is setting itself up better, but it had a bit of an off week while SmackDown really got moving with The Usos and New Day on the mic and Cena and AJ in he ring. First week in a while that I’ve had SmackDown higher than RAW. It was a solid week of TV overall.
RAW: 6/10
SmackDown: 7/10
205 Live: 7/10
NXT: 5/10
