One thing that is important to know about WWE, especially when talking about their weekly television offerings, is that they can really suck sometimes.
Not to say there’s not Quality Content coming from the worldwide leader in sports entertainment right now – SmackDown, NXT and 205 Live aren’t exactly hot, but they’re doing fine.
RAW though is the show that drives THE CONVERSATION around wrestling and right now it is a show that is not just bad but actively regressive. There’s something off about every piece of business on this show outside of maybe Ronda Rousey and Dean Ambrose.
It’s not just the sometimes strange choices WWE makes, but the execution of those choices. Roman Reigns as the top star and Braun Strowman as a bad guy aren’t terrible choices on paper, but the delivery of that story has been so half-speed and boring. As has been written about many times here on this Site, WWE usually gets to where they need to but in the stupidest possible way.
It doesn’t help that it’s wrapped in the awkward stale WWE presentation, but that’s a complaint for another day.
Oh well. Maybe it’ll get better. Or maybe it won’t.
RAW (8/27/18)
For a show that had Rollins vs. Owens for 20 minutes, Owens quitting, Trish Stratus, and a Braun Strowman heel (?) turn, it’s remarkable how not a big deal this show felt like.
I like Roman Reigns the Workhorse, but the guy still can’t carry an opening segment. Weak opening 20 minutes, especially with Braun going from “I’ll cash my Money in the Bank contract in right now I don’t give a fuck” until “I won’t cash this contract in until September 16th at WWE’s Hell in a Cell.”
Baron Corbin vs. Finn Balor was very boring and very bad. There’s nothing left here and they were just running through the motions of the most passable RAW TV match that was given 15 minutes for some reason.
If Corbin’s going to be a big boring chinlock guy, he should at least have the courtesy to have some oomph to what he does between the chinlocks or some other hook. But no – he’s just a bald guy wearing slacks.
Corbin seems to be doing a parody of WWE GM cliches but it is very challenging to do a parody if the thing itself already is a parody.
WWE Legends filming canned promos on their cell phones to hype Taker vs. HHH in Australia was a thing. Kevin Nash opting to call-in instead of film a video was fantastic, as was Booker T being the only guy actually in hype mode. I need to see the full promo Booker cut.
Dana Brooke vs. Sasha Banks was not good and Dana Brooke is not good. I thought she had potential a couple years ago, but we’re here now. Can’t believe Titus Worldwide is still just hobbling along. What a run.
Seth Rollins and Kevin Owens had their usual match designed precisely to get a couple This is Awesome chants and it was fine, even if Seth’s offense was looking particularly crappy at points. Like watch that clothesline he does off the stairs – it was all limp wrist. These boys got some time though and the back half was hot, with KO getting all desperate to win and the Stunner near fall being good stuff.
After the match, Kevin Owens quit. Guess we’ll let that play out.
Very much done with B-Team vs. Revival – for all I know it was a great match but I just can’t get into it anymore. Nice Shatter Machine at least.
Elias bantering with TRISH STRATUS in Toronto was very nice, even if Trish took a few minutes to remember how to project on a WWE microphone. Some great burns were packed in here. Best part of the show.
Fascinated by how much hubbub and ringside activity there was around a NATALYA vs. ALICIA FOX match. I don’t even remember what happened in the ring.
The Bella Twins as the Triple H and Undertaker of the women’s division, returning only for the big shows and immediately slotted as major deals, is my favorite.
Bobby Lashley wrecking The Ascension was fine, that uncomfortably long front facelock not so much. Konnor not able to bump over the top might be a great running gag that all the boyz in the back pop for.
The Reigns/Strowman vs. Ziggler/McIntyre main event was a potentially fun match that ended up being just some stuff to get to Braun joining up with Ziggler and McIntyre to beat down Roman.
All for seeing how it develops cause I’m WWE-addicted masochist but Braun possibly going heel to try and cement Roman as top face is the cherry on top of them negating all the good that was RAW in 2017.
SMACKDOWN (8/28/18)
This was a fun show – King Booker showed up, The Miz and Maryse were assholes, Daniel Bryan wrestled Andrade Almas, Samoa Joe cut a great promo, and Becky Lynch is a god damn phenomenon.
Completely utterly flipped out for KING BOOKA!!! showing up to coronate New Day as 5x champs. Wrestling is fun sometimes!
Triple Threat Tag Team matches are kind of stupid so while it was nice to see Primo & Epico back, the match with them and The Bar and Gallows & Anderson was eh. Great Brogue Kick on Primo though.
Randy Orton and Jeff Hardy talked to each other and now they will be wrestling inside Hell in a Cell. Cool.
Tye Dillinger’s “This is my life” line after the R-Truth/Carmella deal was kind of sad, wasn’t it?
Billie Kay and Naomi wrestled. Cool.
The Daniel Bryan & Brie Bella vs. The Miz & Maryse angle is turning into some kind of workrate Boogie Woogie Man vs. Paul Jones deal and I am here for it. Bryan calling Brie a “hot momma” was the best.
BRYAN VS. ALMAS!! What a fun match. I want to see this with the juice of a PPV, but for a random TV match it was a great time: slick chain wrestling, a DEEP Gory special, Almas’ big bump to the floor, and an awesome finish highlighted by a moonsault countered with the YesLock and the CHAOS of Miz and Maryse running in. Almas pivoting from a boot to his spinning back elbow was incredible too.
Great angle post-match with Miz and Maryse laying out Bryan and Brie. “LOOK AT HER! LOOK AT HER!” – great stuff. Dug Vega and Almas getting in their parting shots too.
Samoa Joe cutting weekly promos on AJ Styles’ family is a wonderful idea.
Charlotte Flair vs. Carmella was a good solid WWE babyface main event, with Carmella carrying the load with headlocks and slaps and ropes and ranas and Charlotte making a comeback to win. Solid. Carmella’s sell of the Figure-Eight was great too.
Lol at everyone (me included) being babies about the Charlote/Becky angle and now Becky is a super over babyface in the hottest feud in the company. Amazing post-match angle, had me straight-up hootin’ and hollerin’ at the TV.
205 LIVE (8/28/18)
Imagine hearing in 2012 that WWE was gonna have a TV show with Akira Tozawa vs. Spanky, KENTA squashing a guy, and Samuray del Sol killing it with a guy from developmental. And outside of the match with developmental guy it wouldn’t be that good.
Tozawa and Kendrick definitely like working each other and they had an OK match – didn’t reach the stuff from their actual feud a year and a half ago, but a good solid match. Liked how straightforward the Tozawa win was.
Hideo Itami beating dudes weekly to remind us that he can, in fact, beat dudes weekly is very nice.
Hey Mustafa Ali looks like you’re concussed and all fucked up how bout you take ummm… like 2 weeks off.
Kalisto and Buddy Murphy are very good at blowing minds and had a tremendous match. Such chemistry. Such insanity. Such a completely different feel from everything WWE is putting out these days. And it’s always special when these guys actually have a crowd chanting not just This is Awesome, but 2-0-5.
These guys just pulled out all their STUFF and the thread of Buddy the Juggernaut vs. Kalisto the Flippy Guy carried it the whole way through. So much wild stuff here, mostly hurricanrana-based: the triple kip-up rana on the ropes, the rana over the ropes, reverse ranas, head spike ranas. Can’t forget Kalisto leaping onto Buddy only to get caught with a VERTICAL SUPLEX, a spot so nice they did it twice.
Great near falls and counters towards the end too. What a trip. The first match was great because it was like WHAT IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING, and this might’ve been better. Couldn’t take my eyes off this thing.
NXT (8/29/18)
This show was solid. Nothing great but stuff mostly made sense, so that’s good.
Serious Psycho Emo Johnny Gargano is NOT GREAT but if this all ends with a Candice LeRae embrace it’ll be somewhat worth it. Velveteen Dream is one of those NXT guys like EC3 that doesn’t seem to fit in and probably just needs to sink or swim on the main roster already.
Dakota Kai vs. Aliyah was OK. The pivot on Dakota from Little Girl Scared of Shayna Baszler has been good.
THE FORGOTTEN SONS debuting by gently explaining themselves during the Aleister Black investigation was hilarious. All the Aleister Black investigation skits with Regal were solid – digging Regal as straight guy up against his insane roster.
Cannot believe we were robbed of a Raul Mendoza match – damn you, Lars Sullivan!
Keith Lee squashed Rugby fella Luke Menzies and I liked it. Love when WWE is building up a big boy so they have him squash another big boy.
Adam Cole replacing Kyle O’Reilly vs. Ricochet/Dunne was THE WORST. The absolute WORST. They had a pretty good TV tag match that if it was O’Reilly/Strong could’ve been a PPV-level banger. If anything we need a Ricochet vs. Roddy singles match ASAP.
MAIN EVENT (8/29/18)
No Way Jose vs. Curt Hawkins – yuck.
Ember Moon vs. Ruby Riott randomly being dropped on Main Event is very cool. They had a match that would’ve made a fine Kickoff Match, and that’s not a knock at all.
WWE TV Match of the Week: Kalisto vs. Buddy Murphy
WWE TV MVP of the Week: Becky Lynch with an honorable mention for KING BOOKA
RAW kind of sort of tried but still stunk. SmackDown was good. 205 Live wasn’t interesting but had a good match. NXT was fine. So it goes.
RAW: 3/10
SmackDown: 7/10
205 Live: 5/10
NXT: 6/10
