WHAT A WEEK OF TV OH MY GOD SASHA BANKS AND BAYLEY BABY HELL YEAH
RAW (9/2/19)
A good show with positive momentum: storylines were running through multiple segments, the wrestling was quality, and there was a big ol’ SWERVE at the end.
A thing about RAW lately is motivations. We’ve always needed them, and now they’re showing up. AJ Styles is mad Braun Strowman got a title shot just for looking at the title. Becky Lynch is telling Sasha Banks she’s jealous that she wasn’t the game changer like her. Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode are continuing their quest to remain relevant. Meanwhile, The Fiend is lurking.
This was also a show that had some good delivery: Baron Corbin‘s “A TRIPLE THREAT MATCH!?” and Rey Mysterio‘s “I’m not done” were well-done pieces of television.
Also, ALSO – appreciation for WWE finding all these creative ways to do the King of the Ring promos: the backstage interview, the Earlier Today promo, the in-ring promo, the classic inset promo.
AJ Styles was on fire at the start of this show: mocking Strowman getting a shot at Seth Rollins because he looked at his championship, barking “don’t look at my championship!” at Karl Anderson, yelling “SHUT UP MICHAEL COLE OR I’LL SHOVE YOUR TEETH DOWN YOUR THROAT.”
It all led to Rollins/Strowman vs. Anderson & Luke Gallows for the RAW Tag Team Titles, which despite a nice Braun hot tag was a match to setup a beatdown on Rollins and Strowman with Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode joining in.
Ziggler and Roode proceeded to have themselves an OK squash match with Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins, followed by a Natalya vs. Lacey Evans match that was legitimately good in that it felt like they were given a directive to just go HARD. Later on The Viking Raiders squashed a young Honky Tonk Man with a bald spot and a guy who, as Corey Graves said, looked like an extra from Trainspotting. Meanwhile Cesaro seems to be settling into a role of guy they send out there before the main event to have solid TV matches and I am VERY into that. This week he wrestled The Miz.
The King of the Ring continued being the best King of the Ring Ever, with two quality Quarter Finals matches. Cedric Alexander vs. Baron Corbin was ESPECIALLY quality, just pitch perfect big bad guy vs. small good guy stuff with all kinds of great bits: Cedric getting tied up in the ropes and Corbin taking advantage by slamming his head into the post, a Neuralizer countered with a spinebuster, and more than anything the shot of the little boy with the title belt straight-up applauding after the End of Days cradle counter and Michinoku Driver kickouts. Crazy cool finish too, even if Cedric’s run has come to an end.
Ricochet vs. Samoa Joe meanwhile was a match I’m mixed on. On one hand Joe took a mad man bump over the top and cut a great ass-kicking and Ricochet continues to be a god damn artist but the wrestling was also a little slow and unbelievable at times. I’m into this over a lot else though. They did some cool stuff but were like 50/50 on it coming together, especially compared to the STOMPING GROUNDS match. Double pin finish probably didn’t help.
Meanwhile, the real story is that The Man is on RAW and her name is Sasha Banks, who is delivering a PERFORMANCE in this feud with Becky Lynch: the confidence in her championship challenge, the scaring off of Charly Caruso, and finally the evil genius vibe at the end of the show with the Bayley turn. Oh yeah, did I mention Bayley turned heel? Well, 2019 heel? I probably should’ve led with that.
Becky’s promo to setup the Sasha title challenge was not just a good promo but a good script. And that angle was good enough. But the real meat happened at the end of the show, with Becky and Bayley wrestling Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross in a real basic 5 minute match building to a Becky hot tag before Sasha inevitably came to the ring and… well, wow. I was not expecting Bayley to viciously attack Becky Lynch with a chair. No I was not.
SMACKDOWN (9/3/19)
Heck of a show: Sasha/Bayley follow-up, TWO MORE great King of the Ring matches, Fire & Desire finally getting a showcase, a couple sweet squashes, and what felt like an old school beatdown of Hulk Hogan to end it.
Disingenuous Bayley is an absolute TRIP and I love it so so so so much. “Think about the kids! … I’m the role model, and I’m trying to show your kids what it means to be loyal.” After she assaulted Becky Lynch with a CHAIR. This reads like the Eddie Guerrero heel turn on Tajiri where it was actually a face turn because he became the Eddie everybody always wanted, but we’ll see – either way it’s awesome, especially when she’s doing it alongside noted Eddie Guerrero fan Sasha Banks.
King of the Ring again ruled on this show, even moreso than on RAW. Ali was SO GOOD against Elias, and it was so cool to see him and Cedric having big babyface performances on back-to-back shows, even in defeat. He absolutely LAUNCHED himself several times and made Elias look like an absolute beast, and I cannot believe they did the top rope backflip to the floor (owwwww Ali’s feet) which was followed up by an ELIAS PLANCHA into a superkick.
Did you SEE Chad Gable‘s eyes as Samoa Joe talked shit to him? It informed him having a wild match with Andrade, which didn’t have a ton of time but was maybe better for it as they just went at it with fun fast-paced wrestling. Gable took Andrade down like the greatest possible B. Brian Blair, and after the Three Amigos countered with a German suplex I got some uncomfortable Eddie/Benoit flashbacks. The ability of the underutilized Gable to get LET’S GO GABLE chants almost any time he gets actual time is amazing. Zelina lunging to try and stop the Chaos Theory near fall, then Andrade nailing an all-timer back elbow and setting up his finish, only to get caught with a sunset flip and pinned as he desperately grabbed for the ropes – SOOOOO good. The little guy won the match! He did it!
Hey longer women’s matches, I see you. Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross vs. Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville was a strong tag with a decent false finish or two. Mandy backpacking Cross into the ring apron was wild. AMAZING jumping knee/legsweep double team finish by Rose and Deville too.
I don’t know how they’re doing it but there was another compelling Kofi Kingston/Randy Orton feud. They’re taking the obvious built-in dynamic between them and actually… utilizing it. Kofi’s brief fire up on Randy and The Revival before the super RKO was awesome. So much hair-pulling too.
Aleister Black vs. Shelton Benjamin had this wonderful performance by Shelton Benjamin: Shelton staring at Black in disbelief after Black’s quebrada and sit-down, then dodging the Black Mass at the last second, then getting nailed with a jumping knee. Black ducking the Benjamin spin kick hitting the Black Mass was incredible too. GREAT squash.
Shinsuke Nakamura‘s ring jacket is so good there should be a guy posting on forums named nakamura’s jacket. Sami Zayn is funny in this role that will quickly get annoying. Nak squashed a poor local competitor as Zayn screamed KINSHASAAAA~~~!!!!, which is one thing that might not ever get annoying.
The whole Daniel Bryan/Roman Reigns/Erick Rowan thing at the end of the show was… well, I really don’t have any idea where any of this is going but not in a good way more in a confusing I think they’ve lost the plot way. Was ROWAN the entire answer to Roman’s attacker? Is that IT? I mean if you’re running with that then run with it but I hope they’re not running with it because there’s no other satisfying conclusion.
Bryan crushed a promo, Rowan dished a nice beating, but if we’re building an angle around Rowan monologues there might be some trouble ahead.
205 LIVE (9/3/19)
Mike Kanellis and Tony Nese wrestled for 20 minutes and I sure couldn’t do .001% of what they did in that ring but it still doesn’t mean I enjoyed watching it. Kanellis did some jumping boot from the apron with Nese draped on the barricade where he really just fell on his ass and it looked SO DUMB, but was the one memorable thing from this match. They got things bumping at the end, but my goodness – these two. I don’t know, man.
Tozawa & Kendrick squashed a couple guys – alright.
Poor Oney Lorcan just wanted to cheer Nese up and got his ass beat. Can’t wait for that to lead to a match I regret hating because it still has Oney Lorcan in it.
Humberto Carrillo vs. Lince Dorado with Lince added to the Cruiserweight Title match at Clash of Champions if he wins was a real good match, but outside of all the cool shit they did I think the most impressive part was Humberto deadlifting Lince when Lince didn’t go all the way up to setup a toss into a backflip. In a world of reverse rana’s, a SPRINGBOARD reverse rana is sumthin’ too. Stiff-ass sit-out powerbomb by Humberto too.
Speaking of STIFF, Drew Gulak attacked post-match a stiff lariat and it looks like Tony and Drew are back together. Yaaaaay…..
NXT UK 59 (9/4/19)
35-minute NXT UK is the way to do it.
This was post-TakeOver: Cardiff, with not a ton of post-match interviews because I’m not positive the NXT UK powers-that-be really has a great grasp on what’s next. Either way, two fun matches on this show.
Rhea Ripley vs. Piper Niven went around 12 minutes and rocked – Rhea did a great job working over Piper’s back and the delivery of the Riptide was impressive as hell. I liked the spot with Piper fighting out of the chinlock and slamming her back down on Rhea, including Nigel calling back to Big Show/Mankind from WrestleMania 15. It was like the best Joe Coffey/Bomber Dave match so far.
Jack Gallagher vs. Kassius Ohno sure would’ve been cool but alas Gallagher did not appear on this show, replaced by Assistant to the GM Sid Scala undoing his tie and ripping off his suit jacket in what was undeniably an awesome moment. Ohno and Scala had themselves a decent squash with Ohno targeting the leg and Scala showing a trick or two. Plus the leg played into the finish. Whoa!
NXT (9/4/19)
As NXT embarks on its move to USA, one of the thing that stood out to me on this show was the match layouts. They weren’t the usual shine-chinlock-comeback stuff so many WWE matches are – there was some variety here, baby.
Breezango had a squash match opposite top-tier WWE enhancement talents 3.0, now known as Matt Martel & Chase Parker. The 3.0 entrance was tremendous – Martel’s hands outstretched, the big hug – that’s how you set a tone. I liked their heat setup too which was as simple as throwing Breeze into a knee, and the Breeze hot tag was made simply by Breeze escaping the grip of his opponent’s hand.
Velveteen Dream had a squash match opposite top-tier WWE enhancement talent Kona Reeves and I dug it – quick heat by Kona, he holds the ropes for a cover and the ref stops him, then Dream hits two superkicks and the Dream Valley Driver. Boom.
Love Roderick Strong, loved the burning of Dream’s couch thing, but him appearing on the Titan Tron talking over the fire and sounding like a rookie wrestler trying to be tough was baaaaaad.
Taynara Conti wears a gi now, and she was essentially squashed by Bianca Belair who did a whole lot of cool stuff based around knocking Conti out. The handspring backflip followed by an elbow smash was purty.
Adam Cole vs. Jordan Myles for the NXT Title was a good old-fashioned cocky champion vs. undersized newcomer match that’s always fun when it comes around. Cole does what appears to be his best to be a Flair type but instead of fun bumps and shtick he does superkicks and bullshit. Myles meanwhile played his role perfectly and I loved that they gave him time post-defeat to walk to the back and get those cheers.
MAIN EVENT (9/4/19)
“Something’s gonna click for this man, and he’s just gonna catapult to the top,” says Renee Young about Mojo Rawley. I can’t say it’s impossible, but I’m not sure the Johnny Gargano TakeOver gear and Samoan facepaint is gonna help. He wrestled No Way Jose in the same match they always have.
Love Sarah Logan and Dana Brooke and damn are they laying it in at this point but ENOUGH.
WWE TV Match of the Week: Cedric Alexander vs. Baron Corbin
WWE TV MVP of the Week: I wanted to say Sasha Banks, but it was Bayley wasn’t it?
GOOD TV
RAW: 7/10
SmackDown: 8/10
205 Live: 6/10
NXT UK: 4/10
NXT: 7/10
