“You just gotta do… the only thing you know how to do, what you always do.” – Dean Ambrose
WHAT JUST HAPPENED
On Monday Night RAW, WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns announced that he not only was diagnosed with and overcame leukimia in 2008, but that he is fighting it again. Right now. And far less importantly, he is vacating the WWE Universal Championship.
And then later in the show Roman Reigns’ Shield brother Dean Ambrose turned on Roman Reigns’ Shield brother Seth Rollins and viciously attacked him to shocked silence.
In this weekly posting of WWE TV reviews, this will go down as top 5 most insane.
Wrestling is crazy. That’s why I like it.
It’s real but it’s not. This GUY. Roman Reigns. JOE. This story. This THING that has happened in history. Tragic. Beautiful.
WWE TV churns onwards, and how they react to the sudden removal of the guy that the company has essentially been built around for the last 5 years will be a fascinating thing to see.
I do not personally know Joe A’naoi but I root for him, for he is a top tier professional wrestler and what seems to be from recent testimonials a top tier man and father and fellow human man.
RAW (10/22/18)
“I want to make one thing clear. By no means is this a retirement speech.”
Roman Reigns has cancer.
Even when the stories suck in wrestling, real life is right there.
How do you even talk about this show?
Finn Balor vs. Bobby Lashley had the dubious task of following the Reigns announcement and they had a dull first match of what I am sure will be way too many. It was a match that just felt… necessary. How many weeks until LASH-LEY LASH-LEY is added to the theme music?
Sasha Banks vs. Ruby Riott had some fun bits of wrestling from two underutilized wrestlers wrapped in an uneventful 5-minute package.
D-Generation X vs. Brothers of Destruction is a bad feud because it is so transparently fake. You’ve got Michaels coming back for a money grab show vs. The Undertaker and Mayor Kane, Triple H just suddenly being DX guy again, DX trying to be serious and act like this match matters, and The Undertaker’s bell playing only to have him and Kane to a spooky pre-taped promo… FAKE.
It is nice to see babyface Braun Strowman back on the hunt. It was also nice to see Drew McIntyre lay babyface Braun Strowman out. As WWE scrambles to fill the vacuum that Reigns leaves, it is going to be cool to see the steps they take to do what they should be doing every single week but don’t: heat their talent up. Notice the camera pan up from Ziggler to tall-ass Drew in their backstage promo. A Project has begun.
Paul Heyman said some classy stuff about Roman somewhere in there too.
I was very happy to get an official announcement that Apollo Crews is no longer with Titus Worldwide, though that probably cements the end of that gimmick, which was a cool idea that they gave up on like 2 weeks in. Having a very OK match then losing clean to Elias was not exactly a good reboot for Crews, but then it became clear why.
See, Elias is a good guy now. There’s that vacuum. And the angle to turn him was very very good, going back-and-forth with dickhead Constable Corbin and laying him out with a guitar. There’s a possibility of something cool happening here. It involves Elias playing songs that dunk on guys the crowd hates, Elias stepping up in-ring as a babyface, and WWE not over-writing Elias’ lines and making him a dork. I do not have a lot of confidence.
I don’t know if this Nikki Bella or Ronda Rousey thing is working or not because I’m so disconnected but hey it’s here and people in the crowd seem to care and tickets are apparently getting bought so it might not be good TV or a decent entry point for someone who isn’t into wrestling but it might just be working anyways.
Michael Cole brought up a good point though: why is Nikki Bella inciting Ronda Rousey and acting like she’s no big deal? Perhaps the greatest achievement of the WWE Women’s Evolution is the roster just casually looking credible against Ronda fucking Rousey.
WWE has to do something with Ember Moon besides “the War Goddess” and her bad promos. Make her do some magic or something. She’s good but not over.
The Fatal 4-Way with her vs. Nia Jax, Dana Brooke and Tamina was a short, bad match.
Titus O’Neil doing Susan G. Komen promos got me thinking that he will be either GM of RAW or Governor of Florida one day. Maybe both.
I don’t take pleasure in burying the women’s stuff on this final RAW before WWE’s groundbreaking earth-shaking glass-shattering all-women’s pay-per-view Evolution, but Trish Stratus and Lita cut a terrible promo on Alexa and Mickie. Be wrestlers, guys. Jeez.
Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose vs. Drew McIntyre & Dolph Ziggler for the RAW Tag Team Titles was a great match. It was the match they do, and have done a lot of lately, but it’s a really good match. All these boys can work and they worked what will probably be their last ever match with this dynamic. Classic hot tag build, cool tag sequences from Seth and Dean, incredible back-and-forth finish with all their big stuff used well. And then BRAUN. And a title switch.
And look – I read a spoiler. I would have enjoyed to see Dean Ambrose make his long-desired heel turn without reading about it beforehand. But the Roman Reigns announcement is going to bring a person to the Internet.
Either way – wow. WOW. On tonight of all nights.
I read about it before and thought, “oh these pricks.”
But I watched it and I can’t deny it. The feel-good tag title win hug. The perfect timing of the Dirty Deeds. The stunned “WHOAAAAA” reaction from the crowd. Cole’s “NOT TONIGHT. Not on this night!” The ugly beatdown. The Dirty Deeds on concrete. The complete and utter silence from commentary.
It’s so transparently out of a need for a new direction quickly but also kind of awesome.
Wrestling is crazy.
SMACKDOWN (10/23/18)
This episode of SmackDown had good wrestling matches, an angle from the best feud in wrestling, and what appeared to be a 19-year-old Rey Mysterio wrestling The Miz.
The New Day’s response to Big Show helping The Bar – “BIG SHOW!?” – was WWE completely in touch with their audience.
Big Show vs. Kofi Kingston, a battle of legends, was just a couple minutes of Kofi getting tossed around.
Can ShowBar get a manager or something?
AJ Styles/Daniel Bryan vs. The Usos was like last week in that it’s not the banger you want from these guys but still really cool.
Styles and Bryan backstage had better banter than all Mixed Match Challenge Season 2 episodes so far: “Too sweet, brother – right?”
Charlotte Flair gave a speech to the WWE Performance Center ladies and they asked some lame questions but it led to an amazing angle with Becky Lynch invading the gathering, slaying a promo, and attacking Charlotte. Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair is the best feud in professional wrestling.
After Rusev beat Aiden English following Lana throwing a shoe at Aiden English, commentary literally said that their rivalry had come to an end. They never do that. So this has to be really really ended. And I think both might be worse off, so that’s bad.
The Miz and Rey Mysterio trading barbs on MizTV was fun – Rey hasn’t had a re-introduction yet and Miz is the guy to do it. Loved Rey’s “dusty talk show” line – what an insult.
Rey got to fighting The Miz and had a heck of a match. Rey is Rey, but lighter and smoother than when we last saw him. And he’s wrestling The Miz, who can do whatever Rey wants to do and remind everyone how great Rey is. So this was great stuff. The precision of Rey’s baseball slide body splash and Miz’ big boot near fall were highlights.
ANOTHER STUPID BATTLE ROYAL ANGLE: The Battle Royal at Evolution is a fine idea – get people on the show, get nostalgia pops, make everybody feel warm and fuzzy, bla bla blaah. But god damn is the journey to get to that Battle Royal excruciating. There is nothing like a stupid brawl over nothing that kills everybody’s characters all at once.
Randy Orton vs. Jeff Hardy was a fine house show main event with a fine sadistic Randy Orton beatdown and Jeff Hardy being a fine gentleman and doing a Swanton Bomb off the ring apron onto the floor.
Sweet Twist of Fate to RKO finish.
MIXED MATCH CHALLENGE (10/23/18)
B’N’B vs. Team Pawz – Bobby Roode put on Finn Balor’s jacket and Finn Balor put on Bobby Roode’s jacket. That is literally the only thing I remember from this match, and I just watched it half an hour ago. I don’t know if that’s a commentary on me or the match.
Team Awe-ska vs. Day One Glow – The banter here was a little higher quality, with Asuka and Naomi friendship banter, hugging banter, and The Miz being outraged banter.
205 LIVE (10/24/18)
The taped-before-SmackDown 205 Live has a modified formula – a match that goes a bit too long between two not quite over characters, a promo or a few, and big-ish main event. It’s all OK but still remains surrounded by a cloud of nobody knowing whether to invest in any of this despite the fact that it’s been on for 100 episodes.
Of course, pretty great that nobody wanted to even attempt to put together a Best Of for the 100th Episode of 205 Live.
Is that a worthwhile project?
Probably not.
Lince Dorado vs. Mike Kanellis had Kanellis taking all off Lince’s stuff really well and darn it I just want him to succeed already. But I also want Kalisto to succeed (even if he blocked me and thousands of other people on Twitter like a weird person) and I also want Gran Metalik to succeed and I also want Lince Dorado to succeed and none of these guys seem like they’re succeeding right now. A too long but very rock solid wrestling match.
Brian Kendrick wants to beat some ass. He should bring Daniel Bryan in for a 205 Live loop. Kendrick/Bryan vs. Gulak/Gallagher tell me you wouldn’t drop that $9.99 for it.
Hideo Itami vs. Mustafa Ali, Falls Count Anywhere, was – well – Itami and Ali worked hard. Itami is shell of his former self but I still root for him and he’s completely capable at pulling off the type of match they did here. And Ali is a guy who needed to be unleashed on RAW in the heavyweight division a year ago.
But this was just an Occasionally Entertaining WWE Gimmick Match. They did stuff in the confinements of what they jad available – a commentary table, the steps, and a ramp to take a backflip bump on. WE WANT TABLES chants were always going to happen, and to their credit they made that the finish. The tornado DDT off the propped up steps and 450 splash to the outside through a table finish were very, very, very cool. It was all very fine but just fine and I can’t tell if it was just fine because Itami isn’t good or Ali is lacking something or if it’s because they had to work under the weight of being on 205 Live doing very basic WWE gimmick match formula.
NXT (10/24/18)
It’s the first episode from the latest set of tapings and we are taking it slow… nope, I take that back. NXT is FULL SPEED AHEAD. This was a fine episode of intros for new characters or directions and then it became an epic show when it ended with what appears to be the climax of the big Aleister Black attack angle.
…and you’re not going to believe who did it.
Adam Cole vs. EC3 on paper is a complete void of a wrestling match, two mis-cast characters who are absolute black holes of in-ring enthusiasm. In-ring it was like Bobby Roode vs. Dolph Ziggler or Christopher Daniels vs. Christopher Daniels with slightly less clean delivery. They did their moves, they got their half-hearted chants, and EC3 got to show off his back muscles on NXT TV.
Nobody saving EC3 from The Undisputed Era’s vicious assault at least confirms that NXT writing knows that his face character is still a turd of a person.
MIA YIM! People seem to like Mia Yim as a person and that makes me pleased that she is now here in NXT. What’s with the sirens in the intros though? Does anybody really want that? She vs. Aliyah was saw Aliyah apply holds and Yim do a bunch of her offense and it was a fine debut for Yim.
Ohno hitting a guy really hard a few times and also busting his mouth is a good wrestling match. Hope guy is OK.
Matt Riddle is wrestling next week – let the games begin, professional wrestling brothers and sisters. Another crazy journey begins.
I’m proud of NXT for pulling off a layered angle like the Aleister Black attack, no matter how clunky it might have gotten. It lasted months of TV’s, had the cool multiple suspects video early, the weekly William Regal investigation which gave everybody a bit of character development, Kassius Ohno maybe got implicated, Nikki Cross with the scoop but being crazy, Tommaso Ciampa as the evil new champ who won the title from Black, Lars Sullivan just kind of hanging out for some reason.
And then there was this special episode of NXT, starting from the first frame of the show: Regal instructing security to watch for Black, Nikki Cross lurking around teasing his arrival, the lame potential Ciampa/Lars/Dream setup angle pivoting into Black showing up, wrecking security guards (that poor guy who took the Black Mass in the door frame!), storming to the ring, and ROCKING Lars with a Black Mass after Ciampa ingeniously bailed. Legitimate great performance by Aleister Black here.
And then … G-G-Gargano? Johnny? Johnny Wrestling attacked Aleister Black? And he now wears… all black?
Does he want to be a bad boy now? Reunite with Ciampa and come full circle? Extend his stay in NXT before he inevitably is sent to the main roster and they reboot him as a face with no warning and he has to adapt to the insane pressure of easily obtainable failure in this cruel, unforgiving business?
Wild angle.
MAE YOUNG CLASSIC 2018 – EPISODE 8 (10/24/18)
1. Mae Young Classic – Semi Final: Toni Storm vs. Meiko Satomura
Here is a match where the MYC went full NJPW and did it way better, with an ultra-violent to-the-death false-finish-filled finish but also big intensity and and lack of bullshit all the way through.
This was a credible wrestling match bell-to-bell and credible wrestling matches are the best wrestling matches. I like how Meiko carries the aura of somebody who has absolutely not one fucking thing to prove to the crowd that surrounds her. She is focused only on the job in front of her, like she’s performing surgery or something. Wrestling is real when Meiko Satomura wrestles.
There was so much to love here: the sweet beautiful matwork on WWE TV, Meiko’s transcendent spin kick, Meiko’s slow torture of Storm, Storm bringing it with an incredible big boot and a torque so hard on an STF chinlock that Randy Orton stopped whatever weird thing he was doing. The match kind of hit that special wrestling place in that STF, as Storm just keeping Meiko in it and trying to choke her out was not just a turning point in the match but an awesome, realistic way to beat somebody’s ass.
Meiko selling when Storm finally got a comeback was great, and Meiko’s comeback to Storm’s comeback was better than great.
And just a wild trip of a finish: Storm kicked Meiko straight in the chest followed by Meiko just dropping a knee on the back of Storm’s head. Storm kicked out after a Death Valley Driver and everybody flipped out. Meiko kicked out of the Storm Zero and everybody flipped out. They both kicked and kneed each other HARD and then Meiko hit a Scorpion Kick that Toni Storm kicked out of and everybody flipped out and I mean REALLY REALLY flipped out. I loved how Storm had to really hook Meiko for her finish too (a second Storm Zero) and her sell of surviving an absolute war afterwards.
This match even got the Renee “This is Women’s Wrestling!” soundbite!!!
Incredible stuff. Special. It might be hyperbole in the moment but I’m racking my brain and this felt like the only experience of straight-up joshi we’ll ever get in WWE, with not just the insane awesome wrestling but also emotion and a young gal being put over by this ultra-credible legend and the facial expressions and the crying and the respect and the wow.
I… I’m doing it. *****
2. Mae Young Classic – Semi Final: Io Shirai vs. Rhea Ripley
Rhea Ripley has the theme music I probably would have wanted to use when I was 21 years old and I like that about her. I’m not 100% why they aired this one second. It was OK but, you know. This was a much more traditional match with Io getting in offense early before Rhea wore her down with holds before Io came back and then they fought back and forth until it was over. It was pretty good! Io is fun to watch and Rhea doesn’t feel ready yet sometimes but then she randomly does something awesome like that bump off of Io’s missile dropkick and I am into it. ***
MAIN EVENT (10/24/18)
Former WWE Champion Jinder Mahal opened up WWE Main Event against former U.S., Tag Team, and INTERNET Champion Zack Ryder and how blessed are we? Not too blessed, as this was an ultra-standard wrestling match that ended when the Jinder continued his journey to the backseat of WWE with a loss to Zack Ryder.
It’s an Revival vs. American Alpha rematch with Bobby Roode in there instead of Jason Jordan and the venue being Main Event instead of a TakeOver. Also, The Revival beatdown was cut. So… that’s a few detractors. Still, this was quality wrestling and very much a Main Event Match Worth Watching. It felt like the most “Revival” match in a while: they got out-wrestled then came back with some double teams and busted out some cool complex sequences using all four guys.
WWE TV Match of the Week: Toni Storm vs. Meiko Satomura
WWE TV MVP of the Week: Roman Reigns
Let’s recap: Roman Reigns has cancer, Dean Ambrose is a heel, Elias is a face, Braun Strowman is a face again, Johnny Gargano was the suspect who attacked Aleister Black and is now a heel, Meiko Satomura and Toni Storm wrestled a five-star match, and Jey Uso pinned AJ Styles.
I don’t know enough about leukemia but I really hope Roman Reigns can beat it and yeah I hope he can wrestle again too.
RAW: 7/10
SmackDown: 8/10
205 Live: 7/10
NXT: 8/10
