The guy the entire WWE was built around for the last 5 years was just put out of commission with leukimia, the WWE is acting as a propaganda arm for not one but TWO tyrannical governments, Linda McMahon is a part of the Trump Administration, women’s wrestling is more prominent than ever, and Daniel Bryan and Shawn Michaels are back in the ring.
What a time it will be to look back at this time.
Watching it in real time though it’s pretty boring.
RAW (10/29/18)
There’s nothing exciting going on this show that isn’t a maybe. Like, maybe Dean Ambrose as a heel will be cool. Maybe Elias as a face will be cool. Maybe Braun Strowman as top face will be cool. Maybe Drew McIntyre as top heel will be cool.
Maybe.
Paul Heyman repeating himself with another “spoiler” promo, the frustrating reality of the RAW tag division, and Balor vs. Bob having the most RAW of RAW matches were especially weak points of this show.
Balor waving to to the laid-out-by-Braun-Strowman Baron Corbin on the ramp was good. Lio Rush remains suitably annoying. Becky Lynch vs. Ronda Rousey is a very cool match.
The big 10-man women’s tag with Trish/Lita/Sasha/Bayley/Natalya vs. Mickie/Alicia/Riott Squad had some real uncomfortable moments with Lita but was otherwise a crowd-pleasing tag. Sasha Banks will sell your beating and make it count, baby. And God bless Liv Morgan: “Yes, I will do the tilt-a-whirl headscissors with Lita and yes, I will take a Lita moonsault because god damnit I am a professional.”
I am in on babyface Elias but to be honest I updated my DVR when he wrestled Jinder Mahal.
The “you got this, Roman” with the kids wishing Roman Reigns well was a swell part of this bad TV show.
Dean Ambrose staying silent and scowling was a fine follow-up to his heel turn but Seth Rollins YELLING VERY LOUDLY wasn’t the best.
She’s the War Goddess, she’s the Shenom – not to mention her actual name is Ember Moon! And after a cool bit at Evolution I do not believe Ember Moon is in line for any interesting wrestling coming up, considering her match was a setup for a Nia Jax/Tamina angle. The Tamina push always seems odd, but I would be into seeing tag wrestler Nia Jax.
Corey Graves, Renee Young and Michael Cole might have finally arrived as a cohesive trio during The Revival/Lucha House Party tag. Great banter.
So Lucha House Party is on RAW now and if they’re going to keep the same noisemaker gimmick it’s dead not just in the water but literally anywhere. If they just let them do dope shit while wearing masks there might just be something. Let’s get Mustafa Ali on RAW already too OK?
Of course Dolph Ziggler would finally cut a great promo in the lead-up to the Saudi Arabia show. He and Apollo had an OK match.
The DX/Brothers of Destruction angle at the end was just a bunch of millionaires playing dress up. Very basic-ass angle from a crew that should be doing better.
A funny thing happened as Triple H worked on building towards the future – all these guys became irrelevant.
SMACKDOWN (10/30/18)
This was a TV show that started with AJ Styles vs. Daniel Bryan for the WWE Title for 30+ minutes and so it was a good show.
AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan in 2018 are not the professional wrestlers they were when they got the buzz that got them to WWE, or even when they first found their success in WWE. They always look good while wrestling, but the list of their must-see matches recently is kind of short.
Here’s a must-see one though. It wasn’t the big title classic you hope they have in them, but it was two maestros getting a half-hour to do their thing. These guys do the style everyone does now but every part of it looks better. Most of the match was Styles working over Bryan’s leg to setup the Calf Crusher, while the rest of it was them doing crazy shit.
Like, of course they did a perfect backflip DDT during commercial. And then Bryan countered another one later with a cravate. Styles’ dropkick to counter the Knee+ was both surprising and perfectly executed. Bryan just casually took a suplex to the floor. Bryan tried a hurricanrana which was countered with a top rope Styles Clash setup which was countered with the hurricanrana.
And the finish was a double underhook suplex into a cross armbreaker into a YesLock into a Styles Clash into a Calf Crusher.
These two rule. Great match.
It would be an incredible bit of bullshit if Samoa Joe actually wins the WWE Title off Styles at Crown Jewel.
THE BROOD entrance and costume from The New Day was an inspired moment of Halloween WWE hijinks.
2018’s Trick or Street Fight wasn’t the best Trick or Street Fight there ever was but the blood mist was funny and I’ll be honest, a bump on straight-up pumpkins seems like it might hurt. I really really dug the “mysterious red liquid” callback by Graves.
Nakamura vs. R-Truth for the U.S. Title had a couple fun moments but it’s really more about how Nakamura is probably going to be secretly have a long U.S. Title reign because nobody employed by WWE is invested in actually giving him a feud for the title.
This show had a great Becky Lynch promo.
Rey Mysterio/Jeff Hardy vs. Randy Orton/The Miz was a basic-ass tag from 2009 that was still pretty good. Rey looks amazing.
MIXED MATCH CHALLENGE (10/30/18)
It’s not saying a lot but this was the best episode of Mixed Match Challenge Season 2.
The Mahalicia backstage interview felt very 80s in a good way. Alicia Fox is the Ultimate Warrior for a new generation.
Monster Eclipse vs. Mahalicia – This had a fun Braun/Jinder strength contest, a sweet Ember tope on the Singhs, and a looong Alicia Fox chinlock. Foxy doing shtick with the captain’s hat until Braun took it so she could be crushed with the Eclipse from Ember was a top Mixed Match Challenge moment.
Fenomenal Flair vs. Ravishing Rusev Day – Best MMC match because they not only completely leaned into the non-canon pointlessness of this tournament, but went beyond that into some other dimension. It was an incredible thing to watch play out.
75% of this match was a chop battle between Charlotte/Lana and Rusev/Styles and it was kind of awkward at first but then Lana chopped Charlotte’s tit really hard and they both kind of cracked up about it as the chop battle kept going and going and going. Lana and Styles finally went down but that wasn’t it, as Charlotte and Rusev had a chop battle of their own.
As Michael Cole deadpanned halfway through it, “This is one of the best matches I’ve ever called.”
Then AJ and Rusev briefly crushed it and everybody went home. An Actually Fun Mixed Match Challenge Match.
205 LIVE (10/31/18)
I’ve got to praise another Tony Nese match? Really?
Brian Kendrick vs. Jack Gallagher had a really nice baseball slide by Kendrick. Otherwise, Gallagher on offense for a while wasn’t great.
Gran Metalik squashed a guy.
Tony Nese is inexplicably Mr. October and he had a very good match here against he always-on Mustafa Ali. They did a lot of cool hyper-speed wrestling sequences and counters and kept it grounded with Nese going after Ali’s midsection, which led to a nice nasty finish – I am a mark for bandages being ripped off a guy. Awesome superkick combo by Ali somewhere in there too.
NXT (10/31/18)
Another good NXT, highlighted by Matt Riddle and Humberto Carrillo.
Nikki Cross vs. Mercedes Martinez was a nice TV match with some credibility but not a banger or anything. I liked Cross slapping herself on the comeback.
The Mighty vs. Street Profits was way too bad of a match for everyone’s experience and even low place on the card. Glaringly awkward timing, a weak beatdown, just not good. Ford’s big frog splash didn’t save it.
And so it begins. Matt Riddle had himself a fine debut. He brought charisma, a monkey flip into an armbar, elbows to the head, and barefoot kicks. Rugby guy in a singlet Luke Menzies was a good first match too and helped it all feel legit.
Raul Mendoza & Humberto Carrillo need to be lighting up rings on my TV screen more often. Here they faced Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan, who are pretty great themselves and made great bases for these two. Humberto’s HUGE springboard armdrag and his neck bump off of Oney putting his foot up on a big moonsault were both tremendous spots.
The WarGames setup brawl was cool enough. Adam Cole being thrown head-first into a truck, Strong’s big bump over the barricade, and the massive pop for Pete Dunne were highlights. I like most of the guys in WarGames as individual talents but it all still feels a bit random, like not enough care has been put into building up the Raiders, Ricochet and Dunne in NXT.
MAIN EVENT (10/31/18)
Mojo Rawley vs. Titus O’Neil was 70% a chinlock.
And B-Team vs. Heath Slater & Rhyno wasn’t much better.
WWE TV Match of the Week: Daniel Bryan vs. AJ Styles for the WWE Title
WWE TV MVP of the Week: Becky Lynch
I can’t hate on SmackDown and the C-shows are doing OK but man is RAW dragging this entire enterprise down. Well that and all the dumb stuff they do.
RAW: 3/10
SmackDown: 8/10
205 Live: 6/10
NXT: 7/10
