It’s the Holiday Season, which now means cleaning and re-arranging my house and building toys for my child. Also, family. Also, professional wrestling.
RAW (12/24/18)
This show was a good time. Outside of the Women’s Tag Titles announcement, WWE was always going to go light on the taped holiday show, so we just got stuck with a buncha ***1/2 wrestling matches.
Things got a little time to breathe on Christmas Eve too, from a nearly full Elias song to a 10+ minute Revival tag.
The obligatory Miracle on 34th Street Fight between Elias and Bobby Lashley was a masterclass in the Keep in Simple, Stupid principle – a fun babyface/heel match with Elias firing up and Lashley being a cock. Plus Christmas trees and presents used as weapons and whatnot. The bump onto the Legos was a certifiable keeper.
Gable & Roode vs. The Revival was pretty awesome, mostly because it was so much fun to see Revival and Gable do their thing again. Gable backflipping off the top to setup the Chaos Theory German suplex was so good, and the finish – an assisted gourdbuster setup countered with Roode taking out Dash and Gable rolling up Dawson – came off perfectly.
McIntyre vs. Ziggler vs. Balor was a fun Triple Threat – everything flowed well, they all got their shit in, and Drew got over. Mission Accomplished.
What the Women’s Tag Team Titles really mean is a direction for the midcard and more paydays for everybody, baby – let’s do it.
Ronda Rousey worked holds with Natalya for around 10 minutes and I loved it. All the holds felt legit even if Natalya has done a number to her legitimacy over the years. There were some awesome spots here, including Natalya throwing a hellacious dropkick that saw Ronda just collapse on impact. Ronda might throw a bad clothesline, but she will also sell a vertical suplex like DEATH. Respect.
RHYNO IS BACK.
Seth Rollins vs. Baron Corbin was mostly about freakish Seth Rollins just completely transparently busting his ass to make this good at the end of a LONG taping. It mostly worked. Corbin is a blank slate at this point but has stuff that can be worked into a fun match, including the Deep Six which is always cool.
SMACKDOWN (12/25/18)
This was a show that started with Daniel Bryan attacking R-Truth dressed as Santa Claus, so I kind of loved it.
It helped that the first wrestling match on it was Mustafa Ali vs. Andrade “Cien” Almas, which like three weeks ago was a dream match ya just fantasy booked in your head. Now here it is, live on the TV. It was very cool. Both these guys rule and had a fun match in like 8 minutes. Almas did his incredible back elbow. Ali took an insane bump to the floor. I loved the way Ali’s leg dangled after taking a double stomp, one of those little things that comes packaged with a great professional wrestler. Almas took the satellite DDT towards the end like a complete psychopath. Awesome match.
The Usos & The Club vs. The Bar & SAnitY was alright, I dunno. They kept it moving but did anything really happen?
The Miz, as will happen pretty frequently, cut a promo on this show that felt like one of the greatest of all-time. His use of pathos to convince Shane McMahon to form a tag team with him was one of the finer things on WWE TV this year. Unless the canned pop has fooled me, the ability of this entire organization to get the “Best Tag Team in the World” thing over clarifies a larger concept that professional wrestling will always exist – try something, and they will come.
Jeff Hardy vs. Samoa Joe was a fun match, two pros who are over, yadda yadda.
So the Fastlane match was good, SmackDown match was good, Crown Jewel match was good – I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that Nakamura vs. Rusev in a main event setting is really really really good. Rusev feels like the only guy on the roster that Nakamura respects and Rusev the only guy on the roster who “gets” Nakamura in-ring. These two basically had a G1 Climax Night 5 main event with more working of the hard cam.
They threw strikes and took their time and got dueling Nakamura/Rusev chants. The finish was wild – Rusev’s reaction to the kickouts, the Macha Kick counter of the Kinshasa which is always the best. Nakamura setting up the Kinshasa only for Rusev to just lariat his ass and hit another Machka Kick to win was amazing. Cannot believe it took until last SmackDown of the year for Rusev to get put over and Nakamura to have a great match.
Also AJ Styles punched Vince McMahon out… HOOO BOY HERE WE GO BABY — also there might be some implication that Mr. McMahon is the only guy who can get a story over BUT — WOOOOO!!!!!
205 LIVE (12/26/18)
This was a Best Of 205 Live 2018 show, though any Best Of 205 Live show that glosses over the Cruiserweight Title Tournament with a video package is trash.
Cedric Alexander vs. Mustafa Ali from WrestleMania, Cedric Alexander vs. Buddy Murphy from Super Show-Down, and Buddy Murphy vs. Mustafa Ali were featured, and exemplify how cool the long arc of 205 Live has been.
Also, there were promos from Cedric and Buddy and Gulak and Ali, as well as New Year’s Resolutions, the best of which came from Hideo Itami:
“You will respect me, or I will break your face. There – that’s my resolution.”
NXT (12/26/18)
Good episode of NXT.
The #1 Contender Women’s Title 4-Way just made me emotional about how far the NXT women’s division has come – from the Four Horsewomen rising up the ranks, to the confusing era where Asuka was on top and nobody else was really working, to now with these four dynamic competitors battling for a shot at the dominant Shayna Baszler, all while Kairi Sane and Dakota Kai are around too and the Mae Young Classic just introduced a billion people.
It was definitely a 4-Way though, which at points felt too concerned with getting over that it was a 4-way (the Bianca/Evans dissension especially) that it felt a little dumb in between Io Shirai doing some very cool stuff. Awesome finish, and Bianca’s win came off like a big shock. I don’t know if Shayna vs. Belair works but hell yeah I’m here to see if it does.
The Jaxson Ryker squash was apparently dark match but edited in, and I am all for more dark matches out in the wild. I dug the no commentary thing, it was kind of a crap squash but felt kind of interesting anyways – Ryker rubbing the dude’s head into the mat felt more gritty without Mauro crowing about it.
Undisputed Era vs. Heavy Machinery was a solid tag with an epic O’Reilly/Strong performance. The first thing they did in this tag team wrestling match was confuse poor Tucker Knight to gain the upperhand – it was magical. Then they were just masters at selling for Tucky and Otis and logically trying to take them down. Strong getting whipped into the corner, catching himself and jumping as if Otis was going to run into it, then getting splashed by Otis anyways was incredible wrestling. Era got in as solid beating, Otis a solid hot tag, and crazy Tucky hit a moonsault before Era ultimately retained their championships. Another fine outing for O’Reilly and Strong to close out 2018.
MAIN EVENT (12/26/18)
Another holiday edition of Main Event, AKA Scott Stanford in front of a green screen introducing the usual RAW/SmackDown recaps. Nice! I didn’t watch.
WWE TV Match of the Week: Rusev vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
WWE TV MVP of the Week: Ronda Rousey
Bye, 2018!
RAW: 9/10
SmackDown: 9/10
NXT: 6/10
