I thought being live for the CM Punk title win at Money in the Bank was the culmination of my wrestling fandom, but it has ended up the dragon that I have been chasing for the past seven years.
RAW (8/6/18)
This show sucks. We’ve still got Roman Reigns selling, Bo Dallas bumping, Paul Heyman crying, and Ronda Rousey arm-baring, but YIKES.
Well, RAW has Baron Corbin in a lot of talking segments now.
I feel like Corbin would be a great top heel of an independent show that I’d go to and think, “He should be in WWE.” But he is not a great top heel actually in WWE.
Roman Reigns vs. Baron Corbin was kind of good. I missed Roman selling in singles matches – the grab of his throat and big eyes after he kicked out of Corbin’s clothesline was pure art. The pre-match attack angle and Superman punch near fall were nice too. Might be an indictment of Corbin that it wasn’t like really really good as opposed to just kind of good though.
Balor hitting his finish on a down and out Baron Corbin was stupid. He’s not Stone Cold.
Mojo Rawley vs. Bobby Roode was the stupidest most boring shitty match.
Tyler Breeze doing a bit with THE SHIELD was great. More like this more often please.
Titus Worldwide vs. Authors of Pain singles matches to flesh out a tag feud is the darkest possible timeline. This is like Trevor Murdoch vs. Robbie McCallister or some shit.
Kevin Owens having an old school WWF talk show setup was awesome, even if it was setup for Braun pushing the stage over. Braun doing just that was kinda cool – kinda. This whole feud is dumb and reeks of killing time but props to Sunil Singh for that bump on the Braun boot.
The Roman Reigns interview/video package felt like Roman was stumping for your support in the midterms. Kind of lame and it continues to be tone deaf but ignoring the insanity that surrounds the Roman Reigns Experiment it was pretty good.
The Rollins vs. McIntyre/Ziggler Handicap Match was fine. Just fine. These guys are all good vs. each other but you can just feel the heat escaping.
Alright let’s give it up for Bo’s insane bump into the ropes after that arm-wringer from Scott Dawson. Otherwise B-Team vs. Revival was a buncha bullshit to setup The Deleters of Worlds run-in. WWE turning Matt Hardy into just another guy who does the Bray Wyatt lights out effect is both hysterical and deeply depressing.
Paul Heyman brought he acting for his interview. I thought it was great, but not life-changing like some of the reaction I saw to it. Call it Paul Heyman Fatigue, which is not a thing that should exist.
Can we give Bayley/Sasha vs. Riott Squad something a little earlier in the show so they don’t have to have a match in front of a crowd that has given up on any possibility of the show they are watching getting any better? Match was fine but pretty dead. The Ruby Riott return was neat.
Shouldn’t Riott Squad want to beat ass and not escape with finishes? I dunno.
Ronda Rousey vs. Alicia Fox hit the notes it needed to, aside from Natalya awkwardly being involved. It’s sometimes frustrating to see WWE produce something when the WANT it to work vs. all the other shit they’re pumping out on RAW lately.
SMACKDOWN (8/7/18)
Solid Randy Orton promo to open this wrestling show. We are totally getting Randy vs. AJ all fall.
Charlotte/Becky vs. The IIconics was a TV tag, baby – nothing deep and didn’t have to be. The bad guys cut a promo and the good guys got some steam.
KRAMER KINGMAN~! Kofi Kingston doing his white voice to interview New Day was good sports entertainment.
AJ Styles being all, “Ya made it personal when ya talked about mah family” is so WRESTLING. They should lean completely in on this but they probably won’t. Probably could’ve used a little more than Joe’s completely random original mention on them.
Can’t say Lana vs. Zelina Vega was a rematch anybody needed.
Miz laid own another great promo from the set of Miz & Mrs, then Daniel Bryan attacked him and Miz hit him with a flower pot. It was all pretty good.
Love R-Truth coming back into our lives and reminding us of his brilliance. “I’m gonna pin Carmella” AHHHH. How is this guy the best written character in WWE?
What a match-up R-Truth vs. Nakamura was – fun character stuff before Nak hit the Kinshasa. At 46-years-old R-Truth is still just casually doing ranas and the splits – amazing. He is having my favorite squashes this year.
My god WHAT A BLUDGEON BROTHERS SQUASH. They faced 3 guys, dropkicked 2 of them off the apron, cornered another guy, beat everybody’s ass outside, then dragged the first guy back in the ring and hit a Doomsday Device. WHOAAAA.
Not sure I have much to say about New Day vs. The Bar that hasn’t already been said, but it was very good. The action and the timing and the tag work by all four guys was good, but the true MVP’s of this match were the crowd, as they were just INTO THIS: the EXCITEMENT of the Big E hot tag, the huge pops for some of the near falls on New Day, the EXCITEMENT of the Kofi hot tag.
Loved The Bar’s tag work too: blocking a monkey flip and just knocking a fella over the top, hitting a big European uppercut, pulling Kofi’s hair. New Day looked downright hopeless eventually as they continued to act as a UNIT.
All the good work got them to a hot finish. Cesaro leaping at Kofi and knocking him off the top to block the Midnight Hour, then jumping onto Big E to hit the White Noise double team, leading to a last-second Kofi save was great wrestling. Cesaro locked E into a Sharpshooter and dragged him back to the middle of the ring. Kofi did a tornado DDT on the floor. Cesaro modified the Sharpshooter with a Crossface. Big E LIFTED OUT OF THE CROSSFACE TO HIT THE MIDNIGHT HOUR. Incredible.
205 LIVE (8/7/18)
Those Lucha House Party In Your House shirts are vaguely cool. Unfortunately Lucha House Party is like a never-ending cycle of unrelenting purgatory. They do the same spots in endless matches with some pair for a few weeks: first Itami/Tozawa, then Kendrick/Gallagher, now Buddy/Nese. Can’t wait for those dead Lucha House Party vs. Noam Dar/TJP matches in a few months.
The match – Kalisto/Lince Dorado vs. Buddy Murphy/Tony Nese – had some neat stuff but honestly Charlotte/Becky vs. IIconics was a better use of time.
SEAN MALUTA! With an ENTRANCE! Is great. Didn’t really care about the match though. Noam Dar? We’re really doing this?
God, the Mustafa Ali/Hideo Itami match would’ve been nuts a few years ago. As it was, it was pretty good with flashes of greatness, and the finish was wild. Ali selling Itami kicks got me real jacked, baby. They threw strikes. Ali was selling. There was a powerbomb. A tornado DDT to the floor. Ali went for the 054 but basically collapsed on the buckle, and Itami followed it up with three vicious running dropkicks for the 3.
Drake Maverick as the only authority figure in WWE who genuinely cares about the health of his roster is tremendous.
NXT (8/8/18)
Decent show with a sweet Kassius Ohno match and notable Keith Lee debut.
But the Nikki Cross squash wasn’t much.
I’m not sure what the last year of Kassius Ohno was, because if he could just boot guys in the face like he did vs. karate men Adrian Jauode there might be something. The match was 3 minutes long and really cool. Ohno walloped Jauode with strikes while Jauode busted out a DEADLIFT BACKDROP SUPLEX. It felt like the safest possible BattlARTS match but still – it’s a BattlARTS-type match on WWE TV.
I wish Keith Lee didn’t come in as Keith Lee. He should’ve come in as the Big Bossman or something. Either way, the debut match with the also-debuting Marcel Barthel was a solid showcase for Lee kicking ass – but I’m more interested in Barthel.
Remember when Taynara Conti joined the Undisputed Era for a week? The match with Vanessa Borne was not very good. Not sure what Conti is going for with the awkward fighting spirit screams.
Aleister Black vs. Johnny Gargano was a match that actually happened on this show but was just a few minutes of wrestling before Tommaso Ciampa ran-in. All I wanted was the kick counter of the slingshot DDT and I got it, so I’m good.
Black vs. Gargano vs. Ciampa at TakeOver – the match nobody wanted but still might be kind of good maybe.
MAIN EVENT (8/8/18)
You know – Curt Hawkins and No Way Jose managed a couple decent near falls actually, but Main Event is gonna Main Event.
The Gable/Rhyno/Slater vs. Kanellis/Ascension match was a special little match in which Chad Gable took a beating and then when he knocked Viktor or whoever down he crawled for his hot tag and his partners opted to get in the ring for a big brawl which seemed like an odd choice when they returned from commercial and Chad was still taking a beating. I will say this – Mike Kanellis is TRYING. His reaction on the Gable German Suplex was astounding. Todd Phillips calls chad Gable one of the scrappiest superstars in WWE and that about wraps it up.
WWE TV Match of the Week: The New Day vs. The Bar
WWE TV MVP of the Week: R-Truth
Eh. Ehhh. Ehhhhhhhh. A few neat moments because wrestling is still awesome but c’mon guys. Step it up.
RAW: 2/10
SmackDown: 6/10
205 Live: 4/10
NXT: 6/10
