Professional wrestling in 2019 moves so fast that I feel it is very important to reflect on just how awesome this week of WWE TV was.
I cannot remember a week where BOTH RAW and SmackDown were on fire, and then NXT and NXT UK and 205 Live all had a bunch of sweet matches. What a close to February.
Stuff is HAPPENING, people! Roman Reigns is back! Bruce Prichard is back! The NXT guys are here! Becky Lynch! The American Dragon! DAVE BATISTA!!! At a moment of changes in the industry, there’s still nothing like the chaos of WRESTLINGMANIA SEASON.
Also – something was in the water this week. And it seemed to be something… good.
I’m not sure this sustains, but there was some STUFF going on this week that made it what I called in a text message the “greatest week of WWE TV ever.” And that’s a big statement, but between Roman Reigns’ big announcement and pieces finally getting in place for WrestleMania and a whole bunch of great in-ring wrestling, it might just have been.
The changes were abundant – for once, RAW and SmackDown felt like properly formatted wrestling shows. There were hooks. There were setups. There were stupid little things like guys entering while other leaves, or backstage interviewers acting like legitimate journalists.
A lot of big stuff happened (i.e.: Roman Reigns is CANCER-FREE, BATISTA IS BACK, The Hardy Boyz are reunited, Kofi is out of the Fastlane main event), but the real big stuff was all the quality setups and hooks that surrounded it. This week – BOTH main shows, not just one of them – felt like a throwback to when rassling shows used to explain why things were happening beyond “LOL it’s the WWE Universe!”
It felt like the heat, whatever that means these days, was derived from actual plot twists and story threads and not the assumed heat that exists because these competitors are on this big important wrestling show.
Just a few examples:
Potentially regretful bad guy Dean Ambrose interrupts lays out the guitar-playing jerk Elias, which sets up Elias interfering later in Ambrose vs. Drew McIntyre, which sets up a save from Seth Rollins and the returning Roman Reigns, which leads to a dramatic staredown of the former Shield brothers.
Lio Rush calls out Finn Balor to try and impress Bobby Lashley, his meal ticket who is mad at him, and then Lio actually talks his way into an IC Title shot and has a great competitive match with Balor, leading to Lashley to ask Lio before they go to the ring for Bobby’s match whether he can trust him or not.
Becky Lynch gets arrested and Ronda Rousey quits, so neither is around for Ric Flair’s Birthday Celebration despite the assumption for weeks that Becky would attack the Nature Boy to send a message to his daughter Charlotte Flair. With none of the ladies around, it sets up a surprise BATISTA return to setup a likely Batista/Triple H match at WrestleMania.
Company Man Kofi Kingston enters for his much-deserved contract signing for a WWE Title shot with deranged radical left-winger Daniel Bryan, but not before his career is recounted by Shane and Stephanie McMahon. He enters, runs around ringside clapping hands with all his adoring fans, and cuts an impassioned promo about his career before Mr. McMahon cuts his balls off by hastily replacing him with Kevin Owens. Bryan stares ahead and says nothing during the entire affair, while Owens later uses a Stone Cold Stunner to subtly babyface himself against Bryan, en route to an assumed Kofi/Bryan match on the big stage at Mania.
Are you sensing a theme here? I think it all boils down to effort. And this company, with all its hours of TV and billions of resources, could really use some effort. The proof of that is in just how much fun this week of TV was.
RAW (2/25/19)
My review is this: welcome back, Big Dog!
The story here is that Roman Reigns is cancer-free again and that’s the best story of all. What a feel-good story. Just six months ago everybody was shocked into a stupor, and now here’s The Big Dog spearing dudes and yelling OOOOOWWWWAAAHHHHH.
Also – this was a great wrestling show. Even without Roman Reigns announcing he was in remission, it was a loaded show that for once felt alive – instead of feeling like they stretching for time, everything flowed into everything else and something interesting was happening in every segment. Guys attacked each other before the bell, people’s entrance music hit while dudes were recovering, even Lio Rush and Finn Balor got to let loose in the ring for 10 minutes.
It wasn’t a hodge podge of bullshit to get to a pay-per-view. There was a showcase for the new babyfaces, a legend squashing a douchebag, one (just ONE) good long wrestling match, a No DQ match, forward momentum for the big Mania matches, the setup for another. This was a WRESTLING show! I can’t believe it!
The big talk is Bruce Prichard is back full-time and the real test is in the next few weeks, but for now: welcome back, Brother Love.
Aleister Black & Ricochet vs. The Revival was just a showcase for the new guys versus the wild thing it was on paper, but showcases are a good thing. Black didn’t have much luck on a couple spots, but Dawson’s bump on the Black Mass was all ya needed. Something should probably be said about the tag champs losing again, but I know plenty of folks who have already said it!
“So you’re saying that your responsibilities running RAW were more difficult than Roman’s fight with leukemia?” What a line by Charly Caruso to Baron Corbin. And you know there’s a part of the top brass in WWE that would answer that in the affirmative.
Ronda Rousey & Natalya vs. The Riott Squad was a solid match that ended with a way better than solid angle. Ruby Riott and Sarah Logan are what you’d call a couple of good hands and Liv Morgan is a crazy person for taking that Hart Attack on the floor. Ronda got to kick some ass too and they pulled off a great near fall off her Superman punch thing.
Becky Lynch crashing the show was incredible, as it tends to be. Her getting arrested was a nice bit, though they might want to be a little more subtle with the Stone Cold cosplay. That there were even like 14 people chanting “TRIPLE THREAT” during her showdown with Stephanie McMahon prior to the arrest is a testament to the power of the World Wrestling Federation.
Jinder Mahal vs. Kurt Angle was random but ruled, and was maybe the best possible 2019 Kurt Angle match: short, to the point, with a finish that had everybody going apeshit. Tremendous wrestling.
Then Finn Balor and Lio Rush wrestled and crushed it. It felt like a match where they told em to let loose and they had not just a fun flippy match but one with a thread, in this case Lio going after Balor’s leg. Lio did some wild dives here AND the leg work kind of paid off – that’s a good match!
Loved Bobby Lashley attacking Braun Strowman from behind to start their match, though the match was like 2 minutes long and ended with… Braun’s music… just… playing? I don’t know, maybe I missed something.
Dean Ambrose vs. Drew McIntyre was a throwback, and by that I mean a throwback to the Attitude Era in that this wasn’t some great match but it was fun as hell – Ambrose going at McIntyre during his entrance, taking off his belt to reveal ANOTHER belt, whipping the shit out of him with that belt on his comeback, and slamming his head repeatedly on the steel steps. It was all very good wrestling trash. I loved it.
Then Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns rode again and kicked some ass to save Dean from all the boring top RAW heels and then they stared down Ambrose from afar and I was like: this might be the best episode of wrestling I have ever seen in my life. OOOOOWAAAAAAAAA!!!!
Bayley vs. Nia Jax was not bad but the 10 minutes before the final RAW segment are usually a death slot unless you’re Chad Gable, who was on this show in the form of looking at a television set while two newcomers defeated the guys who just beat him and his dad for their championship. Anyways, I am very pro-Bayley beating Nia with an elbow drop.
Going from Roman Reigns to a Black/Ricochet tag to a Ronda Rousey tag to Becky Lynch was an incredible hour by itself, and after that you had Kurt Angle wrestle a match, Balor vs. Rush, Ambrose vs. McIntyre, the Shield kind-of reunion, Bayley beating Nia, HBK, STEAMBOAT, ANGLE, STING… and BATISTA.
I am very hesitant on watching Triple H play upstanding good guy for a couple months, but I am beyond 100% in for Big Dave back in WWE. I loved the chaotic feel of the angle too, with the setup for a basic in-ring birthday bash leading to a shot of a camera backstage that JUST caught Batista walking through the shot, dragging a poor cameraman to Ric Flair’s locker room. This was horror movie shit. And through it all, Batista was wearing a bright blue NOSE RING.
DID YOU HEAR ME
SMACKDOWN (2/26/19)
This was another show that just flowed – the Mr. McMahon appearance, Kofi Kingston bait-and-switch, random Matt Hardy return, R-Truth doing comedy, Rey and Andrade doing their thing, Charlotte Flair being a jerk, Black and Ricochet going over again,
As discussed earlier, this show started with an extraordinary buzzkill in building up Kofi Kingston‘s first WWE Title shot only to have it taken away from him. This wasn’t just a formula angle because there’s a title match coming up and they have TV to fill, it was an angle because of something that preceded it that extends the story in an interesting way and will likely lead to a satisfying payoff. WOW! I dug all the layers here too… Big E and Xavier Woods all fired up, Kofi all “OK, OK – I’ve been here a while, gotta remain cool,” Bryan just staring ahead and not saying a word. I also dig that it’s pretty obvious it’ll be Kofi vs. Bryan at Mania, but there’s still heat to having him taken out of the match at Fastlane.
AND THEN MATT HARDY JUST RANDOMLY RETURNED WITH JEFF HARDY! Surprises are fun! And they had the most wonderful basic tag with The Bar, a tag that is absolutely nothing anybody should go out of their way to see and yet one of the finest examples of crowd-pleasing wrestling there is.
Ricochet and Aleister Black have got to read lines on live TV, it’s a part of the job, but it still feels too early to have these guys doing awkward backstage talking segments. Let’s relax a bit.
R-Truth and Carmella got some time on this show and Truth again maximized those minutes, wearing an American flag vest to go with his U.S. Title and saying he grew up watching his hero John Cena. This led to a U.S. Title Open Challenge, which was answered by both Andrade and Rey Mysterio, leading to a Triple Threat Match for the U.S. Title.
Said Triple Threat Match was like 5 minutes long but saw Andrade counter Rey’s tope baseball slide splash with a dropkick in mid-air AND a springboard hurricanrana Doomsday Device, so I mean – WOW. Plus Truth did some Cena comedy spots in the middle and it all worked.
Charlotte Flair‘s promo about WrestleMania wasn’t bad or anything but was nothing new. No hate for this.
Aleister Black & Ricochet vs. Shinsuke Nakamura & Rusev got some time but probably should’ve been shorter, as this week was all about getting to the point. Regardless, Black ducking a kick and sitting down was everything I wanted from him vs. Nakamura. There was definitely that weird moment after the bearhug from Rusev where Aleister just stood there with his arm around Rusev like they were buds and clearly called a spot, but then Ricochet distracted from that by flying all over the place before Black countered the Kinshasa with the Black Mass, which was AWESOME.
Addressing AJ Styles having a slump is good TV, though Randy Orton opposing him might not be. I really hope this is just a Fastlane detour and they’ve got something wild for Styles at Mania.
Kofi Kingston & Kevin Owens vs. Daniel Bryan & Rowan was very much a SmackDown TV tag main event, but Owens wanting to team with Kofi to “make it up to him” and playing it straight is pretty good stuff. Basically, in between the formula wrestling this got a point across and had some fun sequences. I’m not sure Bryan getting pinned so much lately is a good thing, but KO using the Stunner as a finish might be nice.
205 LIVE (2/26/19)
WWE ruled this week and even this show had a great match but 205 Live continues to be the most pointless show they have going and Aiden English as a worse David Otunga isn’t helping.
Two first round matches in the #1 Contender’s Cruiserweight Title Tournament this week.
God, I am so sick of watching Tony Nese and Kalisto. It’s not even really their fault. I’ve just had enough with this formula sanitized bullshit that I’m supposed to pop for because they have mastered the backflip or something. Kalisto takes a back body drop on the floor and I’m just like, c’mon man – that’s not necessary. And like, ENOUGH, Tony Nese – I get that you’re the fuckin’ premier athlete. Maybe a guy who is a premier athlete shouldn’t be putting guys in bodyscissors for 5 minutes every match, eh? In a vacuum this was fine, but I fucking hated it.
Drew Gulak vs. Brian Kendrick was kind of amazing though, with these two having a casual Japanese-inspired classic in front of an impatient crowd. 205 Live being a bunch of chinlocks as opposed to crazy dives has always been a bummer, but 205 Live providing new age BattlARTS type stuff is always great. This had them working holds, finding unique counters out of those holds, doing fish hooks, dropping powerbombs, throwing big desperate shots at the end. And it was fascinating because the crowd was restless and so not into a bunch of matwork to end their night. They got some “this is boring” chants and there were legit boos for almost every kickout – yet it didn’t matter. It was like that Bryan vs. Styles match from the Rumble – the work was too good, too rooted in reality to even need a crowd. Tremendous stuff, and though I’ll cheer if they ever kill off 205 Live, the opportunity for random classics like this is something I’ll miss.
If Cedric Alexander wins this tourney, which I think he will, it will be the most poetic end to the 205 Live arc (Cedric beats Mustafa Ali for the title at Mania to kill off the Enzo era, Buddy Murphy beats Cedric for the title in Australia, Ali can’t beat Buddy at Survivor Series, Ali moves to SmackDown, Cedric enters tournament to win his title back at Mania) and also most boring possible outcome.
NXT UK 32 (2/27/19)
This show ruled because outside of a few video packages for newcomers and a questionable Ligero promo, it was three sweet matches that were completely different from each other.
Jack Gallagher made a surprise appearance to wrestle Tyler Bate and it was so much fun to see Jacky Boy back doing his charming British-infused professional wrestling, especially against Bate who is a great match for him. They did a bunch of fun grappling and countering for 10 minutes before Bate eeked out the win with a cradle. This type of style shouldn’t be unique on NXT UK of all places but it is. Treasure it.
WALTER vs. Kassius Ohno was as promised, though in a sub-10 minute exhibition match kind of way. They brought the big stiff nasty shots and built it to a crescendo and WALTER won with a freakin’ powerbomb. Big heavyweight wrestling is another thing to be treasured in WWE. I also loved Nigel’s comparison of WALTER to a young Andre the Giant.
Grizzled Young Vets vs. Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch was pretty basic, as they followed a pretty stringent tag formula, but it was a good kind of basic as these guys have their shtick down. Fired up Oney always rules too. One too many bald dudes though.
NXT (2/27/19)
This was a SHOW, baby. RAW and SmackDown had some big stuff happen but this was the sleeper of the week – #DIY shook hands, Ricochet wore a tuxedo, the NXT women’s division Young Lions got a showcase, Keith Lee and Dominik Dijakovic finally had a match on WWE TV and went balls out, and Shayna Baszler added another TV classic to her resume.
The #DIY show opening promo, with Johnny Gargano agreeing to team with Tommaso Ciampa in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, was a decent segment with a big moment in the form of the two shaking hands. Needed a little more Mega Powers vibe though. Gargano is growing into his heel voice… he’s got that drawn out WWE promo down. You can feel the Shawn Michaels notes through the TV.
Again – Ricochet’s TUX.
Taynara Conti & Xia Li vs. Vanessa Borne & Aliyah was a fun little thing – it wasn’t at the level of some Wrestling Dontaku match but I dug the vibe of a Performance Center Young Lions showcase.
Aliyah is a freaking vet at this point, 4 years under contract. Her and Borne feel like gals that don’t completely fit in a workrate division, but can probably flesh out some cards if they become compelling characters. Borne seems miles ahead of Aliyah in that department.
Conti meanwhile continues to be a work in progress… her yelling stuff out with her accent during matches is good for development, but feels like something that’ll be axed if she ever gets called up. I’m into the jiu-jitsu shtick, even if it’s going to take some work to feel like wrestling and not just shtick.
And then there is Xia Li, who freaking RULES. She signed in late-2016 with a lot of hype as the first Chinese woman signed to WWE, and though a lot of those Chinese recruits didn’t work out, here she is with more charisma and seasoning than some folks on the main roster. She had her FIRST MATCH in the Mae Young Classic 2017, only started working regularly in early 2018, had that awesome kung fu match with Karen Q in the Mae Young Classic 2018, and now she’s here on TV and impressing. She has a style, she stands out, she isn’t afraid to rassle, and when she was on the apron watching Conti mount a comeback she exclaimed, “You can do it! Go go go!” Keep an eye on this one, people!
Speaking of eyes, Dominik Dijakovic wrestled Keith Lee for the first time on WWE TV and OH MY GODDDDD. This was the match everybody was waiting for when they signed and it completely delivered, the type of thing that immediately established both guys. It was two big heavyweights doing straight-up old school cruiserweight spots, but the thing about this was it wasn’t just jaw-dropping spots, even if jaw-dropping spots rule and my jaw dropped like 15 times. The way Lee can just toss Dijakovic around is beyond impressive – the HEIGHT on some of this stuff!! But they also reacted to stuff and sold it… every big spot had a reaction and facial expression to go along with it. The staredown after Lee defied logic and landed on his feet off a monkey flip was everything I want from my wrestling. The double countout didn’t take a thing away from this modern day Masato Tanaka vs. Mike Awesome shit… DEAR GOD PLEASE TAKE THIS TO TAKEOVER.
Sasha Banks & Bayley returning to Full Sail with their WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships was so cool. They got a positively GODLIKE reaction.
The show closed with Shayna Baszler vs. Mia Yim and to break The Kayfabe for a second, these guys are (or were) roomies down in Florida. And this was very much the match that pals have, the type of thing only possible when you’ve been up late talking about it. It was a fun brawl that they kept moving as if they were in the Attitude Era, and then despite Mia’s very vocal pleas Shayna tried to break her leg. I loved that Shayna didn’t draw her beating out – she fucked Mia’s leg up with like 3 things and then Mia sold the crap out of it as they built to the finish. I thought the slingshot tornado DDT from the apron was a swell way to get some offense despite your leg being bum. Shayna won, and you know who else did?
The fans.
MAIN EVENT (2/27/19)
No Way Jose vs. Rezar Part 2 was about the same as last week’s Part 1, what with Jose dancin’ and havin’ fun before getting chokeslammed. Not even sure it warmed the crowd up properly.
Apollo Crews vs. EC3 meanwhile was a surprise, with dueling LET’S GO APOL-LO/E-C-3 chants and an all-time great kip-up by Apollo for his comeback. There was a big double crossbody, some decent near falls… EC3 still feels a bit too stiff but this was promising.
WWE TV Match of the Week: In a week of some great in-ring stuff, Keith Lee vs. Dominik Dijakovic impressively led the pack.
WWE TV MVP of the Week: OBVIOUSLY ROMAN REIGNS
Best week of WWE TV ever. Consistency was key – RAW and SmackDown didn’t just rule, the rest of the shows ruled too. Good angles, wrestling, feel-good moments, setups… everything was clicking. Even Main Event had a decent match.
RAW: 10/10
SmackDown: 9/10
205 Live: 6/10
NXT UK: 8/10
NXT: 10/10
