In life, in politics, in professional wrestling – it sure can be challenging to react to things that don’t really have much of a plan behind them in the first place.
Do we have to react?
Not necessarily.
But I do this thing every week called Week in Review so I’ll continue to.
Whether something is bad or good, I don’t know. I know Baron Corbin on offense is bad. I know Johnny Gargano vs. Velveteen Dream was good.
I also know that there was a lot of stuff this week that might have been bad and might have been good, but that’s not what we’re here for. For talking of things in terms of “bad vs. good” doesn’t always help. Sometimes, you must talk ABOUT them, and not judge them by some stringent method. You know?
The story of this show and the entire week was the top four guys (Tommaso Ciampa, Johnny Gargano, Aleister Black and Ricochet) in NXT randomly getting called up to the main roster and winning some matches.
It would be nice to live in a world where this didn’t reek of desperation or one where they were brought in with some care, but the counterpoint is that it doesn’t really matter. There are plenty of stories of guys having bad intros and failing because of that, but there are also plenty of stories of shit just happening and cream rising to the top. We don’t even know if they’re officially called up or if this is a temporary thing to push NXT as a legitimate third brand.
Either way, it was a cool thing that happened, and these guys going over who they went over feels like a bigger deal than them running through a few enhancement guys first.
Not everybody needs the RAW After Mania pop. That pop for THESE four sure would’ve been cool, but too often wrestling fans react to the world as it should be, and not as it is. And as of Monday, this is what it is. Sometimes you just get guys on the show and the rest figures itself out.
RAW (2/18/19)
So RAW had itself an intriguing premise and some fresh matches, though outside of the NXT guys it wasn’t much of a show and nobody has much momentum. The show couldn’t not be better than usual though because it was less, “OK, I see where this is going to go and it’s all really lame” and more, “WTF is going on here?”
One more thing: this crowd sucked.
Outside of his lame smiles, Ricochet had the type of debut you want to have – all the flying looked good, he got to team with Finn Balor, and he went over Lio Rush & Bobby Lashley. I will say, on Monday Night RAW he felt a hair slower – maybe nerves, maybe instruction. Either way, it was a fun match and great debut. Plus, that part where Ricochet did a backflip off the barricade over Lashley followed by a Jon Woo dropkick from Balor followed by Ricochet jumping into the ring with a springboard dropkick and then doing the 630 splash was was a HELL of a sequence. Great teary-eyed babyface promo later on too.
Tommaso Ciampa & Johnny Gargano made their RAW debut as a team against THE REVIVAL, which is incredible. It was some very good wrestling in front of a crowd that didn’t care, but also a crowd that couldn’t not pop for a few of the things they did. Even Diet #DIY vs. Revival is top-tier wrestling, and it was nice to see Johnny working full babyface again. That Shatter Machine counter with a jackknife cradle was awesome too.
Aleister Black had probably the weakest showing but nothing he didn’t recover from a day later. I just don’t get why in this guy of all guy’s debuts, they had him talk and be put in multiple Elias chinlocks. It’s about the mystique, people! C’mon! That Black Mass connected though.
The rest of the show was OK but without Becky Lynch running around I’m not sure any of it really mattered.
Triple H announcing the NXT debuts immediately followed by a Braun Strowman vs. Baron Corbin Tables Match wasn’t ideal, and between Corbin working a long stretch of offense and Strowman selling an injury they didn’t exactly stick to anyone’s strengths.
With Seth Rollins off TV recovering from either injury or overexposure, Brock Lesnar was featured with a video package titled the Story of Brock Lesnar along with a Paul Heyman promo, and… there’s worse ways to spend on a wrestling show, but we’ve seen it before.
Loved Dean Ambrose bitchslapping Drew McIntyre in front of Triple H, but this weird purgatory Ambrose is in where just a few months ago he beat up his friend a couple hours after their other friend announced to the world he had cancer but now he says funny things and is leaving soon so he’s likable again feels a little strange. And then Drew legitimately squashed him in 2 minutes, which was… wow! Wild!
Can someone tell Bayley she is REALLY REALLY quiet on her promos? Her and Sasha Banks with the Women’s Tag Titles feels right but that was some rough television for this out of touch white male who has spent three decades on earth.
Ronda Rousey vs. Ruby Riott closed the show and had a solid match. I’m not sure this instead of the squash at Elimination Chamber would’ve made the show any better, but Ruby going down in a minute sandwiched between the underwhelming Balor vs. Lashley/Lio and Strowman vs. Corbin matches wasn’t very nice. Riott threw an all-time great Riott Kick here and her face when Rousey grabbed her in a sleeper was tremendous.
SMACKDOWN (2/19/19)
Much like RAW, this was a show all about the four new NXT guys filling out the card, as they too are doing the Lacey Evans & Friends thing where they can be on either brand until I assume after WrestleMania. It’s typical WWE non-committal booking, but I kind of like it – nobody is immediately pigeonholed and they have a few weeks to see what fits.
This show rocked, and in between a shorter runtime, better stuff beyond the NXT guys, and the fact that SmackDown is actually a good TV show, it smoked RAW.
Aleister Black had a much better showing here, taking on Andrade in a heck of a match. The NXT guys getting focus provided a lot of good in-ring stuff this week, like a lot of ***1/4 type matches, and even with #DIY/Revival I think this led the pack. These guys running ropes and doing armdrags and hitting each other is good stuff whether it’s for the NXT Title at TakeOver or opening SmackDown. Plus Andrade is way better at the 50/50 thing than Elias. I am shocked that WWE of all places is going with Workrate Aleister versus Undertaker Aleister but it made for fun TV. Another epic Black Mass too.
Tommaso Ciampa & Johnny Gargano once again teamed up to take on THE BAR and it was really good. It was very much a TV match, but a much better version of a TV match than you usually get. Cesaro did a couple great deadlift spots, Cesaro vs. Johnny was a blast, and Sheamus seemed extra motivated either because he had some new dance partners or was actually on TV. There was also a sunset flip powerbomb spot that appeared to both wreck Ciampa’s knee and Sheamus’ spine, and even though I think they’re OK between this and the Rollins injury can we throw this spot in the trash?
Also, WHY IS NOBODY TALKING ABOUT SHEAMUS’ SPINAL STENOSIS ANYMORE? I AM NOT A DOCTOR BUT IT DOES NOT SEEM LIKE HE SHOULD JUST KEEP ON GOING HARD LIKE THIS.
Eric Young and SAnitY came out of hibernation to shine up Ricochet too.
Before Black/Andrade, the show started off right with THE USOS. If they really are leaving in April, they are going out on the highest of notes. These guys are AMAZING. Shane McMahon & The Miz did that thing where they’re genuinely buddies who have a shared bond of wanting to make their dad’s happy and it was great, but the big UUUUUU-SO’S theme music interruption followed by Jimmy and Jey charging out going all WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA was elite television. Such ENERGY.
Oh, you know what’s awesome? How big Asuka‘s pops are, every single time. Her vs. Mandy Rose (plus a random Lacey Evans cameo) was alright. Asuka is very good and Mandy has suddenly become a psychotic bumper. She went flying off that dropkick. Flying! Mandy acted hurt then rolled Asuka up for a straight-up 3-count and maybe that’s silly but eh the magic around Asuka ended last summer – we must persevere.
“Thomas Becket never fought in the Elimination Chamber!” God bless Daniel Bryan.
Bryan, Samoa Joe & Randy Orton vs. AJ Styles, Jeff Hardy & Kofi Kingston was fun stuff for like 8 minutes of TV time. Kofi got a hot tag and pinned Bryan and got a one-on-one match with him at Fastlane and those are all very positive developments.
205 LIVE (2/19/19)
This was a strong show, mostly thanks to the New Orleans crowd. I appreciated that they were a lot more lively on SmackDown than the Lafayette RAW crowd, but I REALLY appreciated that they were even into 205 Live of all things. They got into Humberto Carrillo‘s comeback, they chanted LET’S GO CED-RIC at the top of the Cedric Alexander/Mike Kanellis main event… great work, everybody.
Drake Maverick announced an 8-man tournament in the lead-up to WrestleMania to see who faces Buddy Murphy for the Cruiserweight Title, and I think that’l be pretty cool. 205 is a lot better when guys are going balls out to get noticed as opposed to whatever Maria Kanellis is trying to do.
TJP vs. Humberto saw them pull off some real cool stuff in the confines of an eh wrestling match. TJP is really leaning into the scuzziness. I remember when he first won the Cruiserweight Classic, with the video game intro and the hoodie I thought we were looking at a top-level babyface. How wrong I was… how wrong I was.
Ariya Daivari squashed a guy. I dunno. Either actually rename him Daivari Dinero or check back with me later.
I don’t know how it happened but Mike Kanellis vs. Cedric Alexander was AWESOME. Cedric was selling his leg and getting hot spots out of it, and even with body part work they kept a good pace. Kanellis matches can easily die a vicious death on live TV, but he is also a guy that is clearly really really trying to show his stuff in the confinements of so many pointless WWE TV matches. When a crowd is willing to play with him, it ends up pretty good. The finish had a real frantic pace and I dug him being all desperate and angry with his stomps after Cedric escaped a countout at the last second. He also at one point tried to just force Cedric down into a pin and I found that very cool. They even did a false pin before Kanellis ate the lungblower that had a great WHAT reaction from commentary/the crowd/Kanellis, and an incredible subtle kickout by Cedric. HECK. OF. A. MATCH.
NXT UK 31 (2/20/19)
This NXT UK, once more taped in Phoenix, was a show filled with a whole lot of FINE stuff, headlined by a darn good NXT UK Women’s Title match.
Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster vs. The Coffey Brothers was real FINE. I thought Joe Coffey did a real slick pivot from on his back to getting his knees up for Webster’s Swanton.
Nina Samuels and Kay Lee Ray had a couple video packages that didn’t exactly instill confidence. Nina is kind of… cocky? And Kay Lee is… smart? I dunno.
As will happen in WWE, somebody somewhere noticed that Trent Seven is real good at selling his arm and making comebacks so all his matches are like that now. He wrestled Shane Thorne and it was FINE.
Better than fine was Toni Storm defending her NXT UK Women’s Title against former champ Rhea Ripley. It was a match between two people who have gotten used to having top-of-the-card matches with each other. Rhea is upping her intensity and aggression and the way she strings moves together. She threw some amazing lariats too. The match definitely followed the Toni gets her ass kicked then hits a few moves formula, but hey – welcome to New York (by way of Phoenix by way of UK).
NXT (2/20/19)
A sweet beatdown book-ended by two strong matches – that’s a great episode of wrestling TV.
Aleister Black vs. Roderick Strong was the third Black match that got some time this week and I’ve got to say the guy is pretty good. He played a solid babyface-in-peril, Strong busted out some freakish backbreaker variations, and they gave us 3/3 great Black Masses.
Mia Yim vs. Xia Li was only like 5 minutes but Xia Li is GOOD – wow. I thought she had potential in the first Mae Young Classic, loved her vs. Karen Q in the second, and now here she is on NXT TV with a presence, working tight holds, and hitting complicated spots like a seasoned pro.
After the match, Shayna Baszler and her posse ran out and kicked everybody’s ass, including any random NXT lady scrub that ran out to try and stop it. Hell of a knee by Baszler to lay out Yim. This was Four Horsemen in the parking lot gritty, baby.
Matt Riddle being interviewed by Jeremy Borash is not something I expected to spend Wednesday doing but here we are. Cool little feature on a guy that screams superstar, even if he’s got that Jim Breuer thing where every word sounds like it followed a gravity bong hit.
Johnny Gargano vs. Velveteen Dream for the NXT North American Title was awesome, and right now neck-and-neck with Mysterio/Andrade as my early MOTY. It felt like a match of two guys who wanted to see who could impress Shawn Michaels the most, but they didn’t over-do the theatrics – they just moved like superhuman athletes and had a lot of ups and downs and brought the match to an incredible crescendo. Dream is SO good, and between this match and the Worlds Collide match has gone from amazing character capable of good matches to legitimately great pro wrestler. Even between the impressive feats of athleticism he is so aggressive, so cocky, always working – a total keeper. His big slap after he went toe-to-toe with Johnny on the chain wrestling early was awesome, his bump over the turnbuckle to the floor was so smooth, and they even pulled off a great back-of-head collision out of the corner spot which seems way harder to do than it seems.
The finish was wild and frantic and beautiful – the last-second kickout of the slingshot spear was enough but they followed it up with a missed Purple Rainmaker and a Gargano superkick and a 2-count and a super Death Valley Driver and a superkick counter of a plancha and a TILT-A-WHIRL DEADLIFT DEATH VALLEY DRIVER…. THING. It was like an indy dream match that remembered to have character from bell-to-bell. Amazing.
MAIN EVENT (2/20/19)
I might say this every few months, but: I know No Way Jose was always meant to be a Main Event lifer, but that he got here so quickly bums me out. It’s definitely a role, but also one that’s easily replaced. He lost to Rezar this week, because, I mean – why not?
The B-Team & Tyler Breeze vs. Jinder Mahal & The Singh Brothers PART 2 happened this week and was just as OK as it was last week. Somebody on Hulu should play a rib on me and just start putting up repeats of these shows. See how long it takes before I notice. I use the first person because seriously who else is watching this show?
WWE TV Match of the Week: Johnny Gargano vs. Velveteen Dream for the NXT North American Title
WWE TV MVP of the Week: Aleister Black, Johnny Gargano, Tommaso Ciampa, Ricochet
Exciting times are ahead, and at the same time I have no idea what is happening. Great week of in-ring professional wrestling though.
RAW: 5/10
SmackDown: 9/10
205 Live: 5/10
NXT UK: 5/10
NXT: 8/10
