Let’s talk about Bruno Sammartino.
He was the original The Guy, the sole superstar that made this whole professional wrestling thing make sense. He was THE CHAMP. The guy you could point to and say, “OK, OK – I know all those prelim guys might seem like sleazeballs doing this fake wrestling thing but look at this classy guy, this working class son of a bitch. This guy is real.”
He was The Guy a young wrestling fan who came of age in the 90s always heard about as The Guy, but outside of facts and figures on paper never understood how much of The Guy he was until advances in technology brought us YouTube and the WWE Network and provided us footage of his actual wrestling matches, at the same time interest in nostalgia made the eager pro wrestling fan wanting to see what wrestling was pre-Hulkamania.
And yeah – this was definitely The Guy.
Bruno had an unmatched reign as the WWF World Heavyweight Champion and was an awesome working class hero of a professional wrestling character. He made MSG into the wrestling legend it is today. By all accounts, he was just a good guy, a dude not just respected by the working class but appreciated in the business, who took moral stands against things, who had respect from people ranging from Arnold Schwarzenegger to the POPE.
And he was also, if it even mattered, a really good wrestler. Bruno was good in the ring because he was good in the ring, but he was also good in the ring because he was OVER. He wasn’t doing springboard planchas or handspring headscissors but what he was doing was taking a beating, selling his ass off, and making comebacks. And god damn were they comebacks. Expressive, heated, smash mouth comebacks. Every Bruno match was all about Bruno taking heat and then just kicking ass as throngs of fans lived vicariously through this good-hearted MAN.
From his early championship days working every rotating heel that came to down to his later years firing up late-80s WWF crowds and kicking the asses of Rowdy Roddy Piper and Macho Man Randy Savage, Bruno was a special talent.
He was a worker for sure, but he didn’t buy into Vince McMahon’s bullshit either, and he let everybody know that for twenty years before he got inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. And even then, from the footage shown, Bruno kept it at arms’ length – it was nice to have the glory, but this was a guy who just wanted to go home and watch his grandchildren. This wasn’t just a great wrestler, this was a great guy.
Rest in Peace, Bruno.
RAW (4/23/18)
This was a show all about the new Monday Night RAW landscape breaking in its’ new shoes and it was honestly a lot better than I expected. Lots of good solid tags but also another pretty sweet Jinder Mahal (!) match and some strong angles here and there. Certainly a good night at the office for Jinder, Chad Gable, Drew McIntyre, Braun Strowman, and Ronda Rousey.
Also, for a show filled with a bunch of tags and guys who didn’t seem so over on SmackDown, this crowd was HOT.
Respect to Bruno Sammartino. That video package brought the FEELS. Bruno always reminded me of my grandpa if my grandpa could bench press 600 pounds.
Hope this whole Brock vs. Roman things comes to a close Friday in Jeddah, but I was hoping it’d come to a close in New Orleans. Roman and Brock are Big Stars who are stuck in this death slot of an angle after the gross Mania finish. The Paul & Brock promo was the same Paul & Brock promo they always do, the light close-up “RO-MAN” chants was depressing, and Roman’s promo was short and to the point but still somehow not good. Roman Reigns is clearly a cool cat but also has Red Light Syndrome – we need more Roman wrestling and less Roman talking.
Love the Greatest Rumble hard sell though, with Corey Graves and Michael Cole acting as if people on the West Coast are going to wake up on a Friday and start watching wrestling and people on the East Coast are going to take a 5-hour lunch break to watch wrestling. Incredible.
Bobby Roode got his start on Monday Night RAW having an OK match with Elias. I love watching Elias do his thing, just clubbing Bobby in the back of the head, being all rough and tumble, but like most Bobby Roode matches this was very basic and fine but kinda cold. Nice rollup finish for Elias.
The Ascension got their start on Monday Night RAW getting squashed by Matt Hardy & Bray Wyatt. It was a fine enhancement tag. Matt’s “wonderful” spot is great and Bray was wrecking fools. I still like Viktor. I still think Konnor stinks.
Booker T on Hardy and Wyatt: “It’s weird, man… it’s weird.” This man needs to be back on Mondays permanently.
Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens got their start on Monday Night RAW in a pretty prominent position, having their own talk show and antagonizing Kurt Angle and getting their asses beat by two big boys named Braun and Bobby. Sami & Owens as annoying podcasters is kind of best case scenario, hope it takes. The lawn chair and Jason Jordan line were nice bits.
The Miztourage trying to join The Shield was great – wonder what the payoff will be.
Their match with Braun Strowman and Bobby Lashley was pretty sweet too. Lashley was a bit awkward here and there but Zayn’s bump off of Lashley’s suplex and Owens’ bumps off of Braun into the barricade were insane. The build to and delivery of the BRAUN hot tag was magical too. Crowd was SO into Braun tonight.
Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler got their start on Monday Night RAW making a god damn name for themselves. Drew especially – looks great, wrestles with a new vigor, and has a great story going from the Chosen One to 3MB and back again. Loved Drew going off on the locker room, almost appearing to be a conduit for Vince’s mindset. This bubba is ready to do main event professional wrestling.
The tag vs. Titus Worldwide was a match that got a point across… liked Dolph getting beat up and Drew just wrecking shit. The record scratch cut-off of Drew’s theme is so bad it’s good – payoff to Drew dropping Dolph’s dead weight is going to be so worth it.
Chad Gable got his start on Monday Night RAW absolutely killing it against Jinder Mahal. Any time Gable gets 10+ minutes he always gets it done… hell of a match that was perfectly laid out to set him up as a big time babyface. This just had a heated feel to it, from the pre-bell attack by Jinder to Jinder staying on offense and the crowd buzzing any time Gable got a shot in. I loved how simple Gable putting his boot up as Jinder dropped knees on him was as a comeback. Gable’s big-ass bumps added to the fun, highlighted on him going all Bret Hart chest-first into the corner. The flapjack to Jinder’s big kne was AWESOME, as was Gable going all Bret Hart once again for the finish by using the turnbuckle to rollup out of the Khallas. So, so good – perfect old school new-in-town babyface getting a shock win over hated heel stuff.
Baron Corbin and No Way Jose got their start on Monday Night RAW with a fun little angle, yes they did. Always a proponent of stuff like this that moves both characters forward but doesn’t give a ton of stuff away. A fine intro for both.
The Miztourage trying to join Baxel Club was great – wonder what the payoff will be.
Rollins/Balor vs. Miztourage was a fine time-killer between Rollins and Balor doing something more interesting. The finish with Rollins doing a curb stomp, which led into Rollins doing a pescado, which led to Balor doing a Coup de Grace was too sweet.
10-woman tag main event was a fine ending to the show as well, highlighting the new RAW women’s division and giving everybody some time to shine. Riott Squad especially looked the best they have yet. Liked the Liv/Logan early attack on Sasha, the SCORCHING tope by Ember, and the hard sell on Logan’s chop block. And then – RONDA!!! One thing WWE continues to do well with is make it seem like a shock when Ronda shows up, even though I am pretty sure that she is there every single week.
I’m still not sure who’s set up as a credible challenger to Nia Jax after Alexa Bliss, but this division is looking purty good. Give me Ronda vs. Mickie.
SMACKDOWN (4/24/18)
Where was Paige?
This was a fun wrestling show! How about that, SmackDown Live!? It’s pretty interesting that SmackDown in 2016 had the “We make the stars and RAW takes them” vibe, but now it feels like RAW has a whole bunch of guys who need re-building while SmackDown has been injected with all these hot new acts. The whole show just has a new energy to it and I dug it all the way through.
The Miz and Daniel Bryan feuding as a pair of New Fathers is just the best. Miz as heel New Father is so good – he should start every sentence with, “As a father…”
The Miz’ triumphant return to SmackDown with MizTV was a strong segment – Miz did a fine promo, but Big Cass of all people knocked his out of the park. The chants for Daniel Bryan leading to his shitty entrance music was so good, as is the idea of Cass being jealous of Bryan’s injury clearance overshadowing is. “He looks like he should be laying tile in my kitchen” – AMAZING. The closing line with the sarcastic “Yes, yes, yes” was great too – what a freaking mic drop.
Haha The IIconics are such great professional wrestling characters. They had a solid quick TV match with Asuka and Becky that got a point across – IIconics looked good taking it to Becky and Asuka was over as hell.
ANDY ALMAS AND ZELINA VEGA ARE ON THE WAY!
Kind of obsessed with the fact that they had this Make-a-Wish Uso fan in the front row forced to watch his boy versus the scary-ass BLUDGEON BROTHERS. Jimmy vs. Rowan was another fun singles sprint by these two teams, no four-star classic but a real fun use of TV time. Dug Rowan starting the match with a straight-up dropkick, just refusing to accept Jimmy’s tope, and just pushing Jimmy off the top as he tried to get something going. Good stuff.
The Charlotte/Carmella Contract Signing had Carmella hamming it up but it was another Contract Signing in a long, long line of Contract Signings.
Randy Orton vs. Shelton Benjamin’s OVW Offer Match was good solid stuff – I like the idea of Shelton as this veteran picked to be fodder for an eventual Randy/Jeff feud, working a good solid version of each guys’ style of match. The Sunil run-in was a nice little hook for the Hardy/Jinder match too… and then BENJAMIN PINNED ORTON BENJAMIN PINNED ORTON BENJAMIN PINNED ORTON.
The Bar interrupting The New Day’s pancake feast like they were George St. Geegland and Gil Faizon was some STUFF, let me tell you. Liked it.
All In on Daniel Bryan vs. Big Cass at Backlash. Cass is one lucky guy – Enzo gone, return match with Bryan, a focal point of this stacked SmackDown roster… good for him. Time to deliver, big boy.
Shinsuke Nakamura’s new theme is god damn special.
Nakamura & Rusev Day vs. AJ Styles and his Good Brothers was a fine enough 6-man tag, liked Nak just wrecking Gallows and pinning his ass clean. Styles blindsiding and attacking Nakamura sure was better than the actual match though, as was Anderson taking a bullet (club) for him.
205 LIVE (4/24/18)
I definitely liked the idea of 205 Live doing its’ own hour-long Gauntlet Match than I actually reacted to and enjoyed it in the moment. It was good. Maybe a little bit better than good. And Mustafa Ali is very good.
But the crowd was quiet and it had more just a bunch of consistently solid wrestling than any crazy peak. That’s fine – I like consistently solid wrestling. But it’s also not anything anyone needs to go run out and see either.
And that’s 205 Live for ya.
Mustafa Ali vs. TJP. was a solid smart match with a whole lot of impressive movements, even if the crowd was dead. There was so much pretty fluid wrestling that was a marvel to watch. Was a big fan of TJP’s dropkick to knee + kneebar and Ali’s hesitance as he hit the tornado DDT and 0-5-4.
Drew Gulak just bodyslamming Ali’s knee on the top rope and grinding and gnawing at it as a good follow-up. The rana counter with the single-leg crab hold was Too Sweet. “You like high-flyin’, huh!?” said Drew Gulak, as he proceeded to slap Ali really hard on the back of the head before he finished him off with a Dragon Sleeper.
Tony Nese showed more fire than he ever has as he went after Gulak but it still wasn’t all that great. I’m not sure why 205 Live guys are instructed to talk trash as if there’s always a live mic on them – this isn’t community theater, it’s god damn arena wrestling. Did like Nese having his big run and Gulak just trapping him in the Dragon Sleeper and tapping him anyways.
Kalisto took some ridiculous bumps as he rassled Drew Gulak and they got some solid near falls off that Dragon Sleeper. Good for Kalisto! I hope after the show he had himself a House Party.
NXT (4/25/18)
A fine hour of professional wrestling was seen here as NXT kills a little bit of time before TakeOver in two months – Undisputed Era got some love, the NXT women’s division got some love, and there was another hot Johnny/Ciampa angle. Also, Aleister Black and Eric Young wrestled for some reason.
Sometimes, I wonder how Undisputed Era comes off to children. When I was young and impressionable, I saw the Four Horsemen as such badasses. And I still do, but maybe that’s because they have that built-in credibility with me. All I know is without the benefit of hindsight, these four guys feel like dorks to me. And maybe that’s the point. Or maybe it’s not? I don’t know.
I mean leave it to Adam Cole to have the lowest energy Oney Lorcan match there ever was. It had its’ moments – dug Oney going after Cole’s ribs, Oney’s occasional wrecking of Cole (really not enough wrecking, to be honest), and Kyle O’Reilly’s fake “X” call – but the match just never really hit.
Is Cole’s finisher the fuckin’ Kinshasa?
Heavy Machinery vs. Tino and Moss was a match between four guys with potential that I’m not positive will ever be reached. Tino turned on Riddick. OK.
The reminder of who is in the NXT women’s division was appreciated. Legit hyped for Shayna Baszler vs. Nikki Cross and Candice LeRae.
Dakota Kai legit scared of Baszler is some good stuff.
SO did not see the Ciampa attack on Gargano coming – AWESOME. So AWESOME. Heck of a brawl, boys. Killer stretcher job for Johnny Wrestling too, complete with distraught crowd, Ohno as Johnny’s concerned dad (in a Larry Sweeney shirt!), champ Aleister Black looking concerned, and Johnny’s WIFE. The Ciampa wave from atop the truck was total insanity, amazing.
Aleister Black vs. Eric Young just isn’t my kind of a match. Never was gonna be. They could’ve re-created Misawa vs. Kawada and I still probably would’ve been like, eh. It had some action. It had some strikes. The Black quebrada was awesome and the #BlackMassOuttaNowhere always gets me. But I just don’t know what else to tell ya.
Black sending SAnitY to SmackDown with Black Masses for each guy is something I personally approve of.
MAIN EVENT (4/25/18)
Welcome to the NEWWWW era of MAIN EVENT! ZACK RYDER! MIKE KANELLIS! Probably MOJO RAWLEY! And The ASCENSION! And TYLER BREEZE! And still The Revival because whatever.
Still kinda fascinated that Mike Kanellis is just here, wrestling (or barely wrestling) in WWE. This was a very solid wrestling match. Both guys were clearly going a bit harder than normal – Kanellis threw some great strikes, while Ryder did a WIIIILD crossbody over the top rope into absolutely nothing.
The Revival vs. Rhyno & Heath Slater got some time and had Revival doing their thing but the spark is GONE, baby. I hope it comes back. The match was technically fine but there’s just no reason to invest. Revival are at their best when they actually appear to be Top Guys, when their tag shtick actually means they are the best tag team in WWE – not a couple of goofs that take 10 minutes to put away Heath Slater.
Incredible setup for the Shatter Machine though. A GIF waiting to happen.
WWE TV Match of the Week: Chad Gable vs. Jinder Mahal – good guy, bad guy, and a hot crowd that bought into everything. Gable ends up more over, Jinder ends up more interesting. Big winner of a TV professional wrestling match.
WWE TV MVP of the Week: Big Cass just absolutely mercifully crushed that promo. And now he’s gonna wrestle Daniel Bryan.
Overall I had a good time watching the WWE television this week, with a lot of new directions and re-introductions post-Superstar Shake-Up. Even if Big Huge Stuff isn’t always happening, watching WWE navigate the post-Mania waters can be a lot more interesting than watching the build-up to Mania itself. The tables seem to have turned on the quality output too: this was a GREAT start for the new SmackDown Live, while RAW was a pretty good show but is filled with a lot of acts that need some work.
RAW: 7/10
SmackDown: 8/10
205 Live: 7/10
NXT: 7/10
