Life is busy, but by GOD is the professional wrestling compelling. NXT is on USA, SmackDown is on FOX, Paul Heyman is in charge on RAW, new sets and pyro are coming, AEW is about to have a two-hour weekly TV show, NJPW seems to be figuring out how to promote shows in the U.S., Impact by God Wrestling has clawed its way onto AXS, Rush and Dragon Lee left CMLL in a story I’m still not sure I understand, and on top of all that we’ve got Dave Meltzer dropping rumors that CM Punk might want back in to WWE.
It’s like WWE saved the usual hot summer angle for the FOX debut or something. And I’m not even sure what the angle is, other than that I am pretty sure after next week’s Season Premiere Week, wrestling is about to get even more wild and interesting than ever before.
Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in…
RAW (9/23/19)
What’s going on with Braun Strowman?
Like, I’m all for the Seth Rollins feud and the second-in-command babyface role, but after the blue balls that was Braun with the Money in the Bank and Braun unable to beat Brock, him losing clean to Rollins at Clash of Champions then getting laid out by The Fiend on Rollins’ behalf to end the show seems like an odd way to present a professional wrestler.
Rollins promo to start the show was a yawner, and the main event with Strowman was just a TV version of their solid PPV match with a lot of cat-and-mouse stuff that didn’t quite connect because Rollins won’t completely lay it in before the inevitable THE FIEND interference. Rollins cowering in fear of Fiend to end the show was hilarious, though unlike last week’s comedy-filled RAW I don’t think that was on purpose.
The Viking Raiders and The O.C. had a decent modern day IWGP Tag Titles match, with the Raiders looking maybe the best they’ve looked yet – tossing around Gallows & Anderson, the Boot of Doom kickout, and Ivar tope’ing into Gallows after the Viking Experience on Anderson to ensure victory. Cedric Alexander attacking AJ Styles during the match was a blast too.
The Becky Lynch/Sasha Banks feud continued with a nice serious sit-down interview by Becky – nothing must-see but good world-building stuff. Sasha wrestled Nikki Cross in a real cool match that included a STIFF crossbody by Nikki on the floor and an amazing Bank Statement counter of a top rope crossbody. Cross and Alexa Bliss provide a nice anchor around the Four Horsewomen stuff.
Because we can actually have more than one or two women’s feuds now, Ember Moon vs. Lacey Evans did a nice job of keeping Lacey’s feud with Natalya going even if Ember’s scream for her entrance is kinda weird. Ember did an Eclipse on the Floor and Lacey did a Women’s Right elbow off the top. I’m not sure I support the idea of a multi-week Natalya feud with newcomer Evans, but I can’t say they’re doing a bad job with it right now.
Rusev squashed poor EC3, who got the no-intro jobber entrance. Remember when EC3 beat Ambrose? I do. I do. Rusev should’ve had a feud with Roode over their mustaches, but Roode just went and grew a beard again like a coward. The Firefly Fun House in the middle of the show suitably creepy. Carmella pinning R-Truth for the 24/7 Title leading to a new crop of women contenders was harmless fun. And AOP pausing their own interview, having the camera crew follow them so they could go kick ass, and returning to their interview was AMAZING.
The real meat of this show was two glorious wrestling matches. King Corbin, who I can’t believe is getting the full dumbass King gimmick even with the slightly more relevant robe, proved the King of the Ring Finals versus Chad Gable wasn’t a fluke – these two crushed it again. It was a match laid out brilliantly with a brilliant performance from Gable especially, the first quarter or so all about Corbin tossing Gable and Gable rallying back only to be tossed even further. He went absolutely balls to the wall on every bump, especially the one in the corner, and I loved how many times he sold by just slumping over.
Gable also took to finding unique ways to make a comeback – Corbin sets him up top so he rolls backwards over him, or a mule kick to the knee before he got wrecked by a big boot. Corbin hit two splashes in the corner and all seemed lost, until Gable avoided a third and then blocked the under-the-ropes lariat with a pair of koppou kicks (bless this move being on WWE TV in 2019). Corbin got some near falls off of new offense like a backdrop slam and chokeslam, while Gable got a nice near fall off a moonsault and had the crowd again all in on him before the DQ finish. Boooo but give me Part 3 NOW.
The Fatal 5-Way Elimination Match – Ricochet vs. Rey Mysterio vs. AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Robert Roode for a shot at Rollins’ Universal Title on next week’s RAW season premiere was a match filled with talent that delivered. Roode stood out like a sore thumb on paper but he DID pin Rollins at Clash of Champions and I’m glad they followed up on that. Plus he totally fit in – him vs. Rey at the end was incredible.
It’s not like you’re getting anything cohesive in a 5-Way, but this had Ricochet and Rey running the ropes with AJ and Nak for a blissful 10 seconds, a beautiful quebrada from Rey, Ricochet doing a pescado and getting clobbered with a lariat by AJ, Ricochet backflipping off of Nak’s stomach, Roode tossing Rey into the baseball slide body press, and a backflip tornado DDT by Rey CAUGHT by Ricochet to setup a wild deadlift suplex.
Basically a whole lot of stuff happened and it was very fun to watch. I also think they made a bit of an effort to keep things mostly one-on-one, which led to a lot of laying around on the floor but it also wasn’t so obvious.
Ricochet got eliminated, then Nakamura, and Roode incredibly pinned Styles. I love it when a crowd rallies knowing Their Guy is going to pull it off, and that happened as soon as it was down to Rey vs. Roode. It helped what was a really well-put together finish: 619 countered with a spinebuster, Rey springboard rana caught, Roode throws Rey down and tries the Glorious DDT…619 AND FROG SPLASH! Tremendous.
SMACKDOWN (9/24/19)
The final episode of SmackDown on USA before moving to FOX didn’t have much must-see stuff but was Solid Wrestling TV and had two sweet matches in Bryan/Rowan and Nakamura/Ali.
I loved the suddenness of Daniel Bryan confronting Rowan to start the show and squaring up for a match. It was a good match, and Bryan brought a dramatic mini-David vs. Goliath out of a guy who isn’t always known for his in-ring prowess ala the matches with Big Cass last summer. Bryan sold for most of it, with well-timed cut-offs and some fantastic shaking as he mounted his comebacks. He did a missile dropkick to the BACK and countered a chokeslam with a guillotine into a YesLock and damn did I miss babyface Daniel Bryan. Before Rowan could tap, Luke Harper ran out, leading not just two choke bombs and a 3-count but also Bryan’s leg very nastily getting stuck in the ropes for an uncomfortable whole minute.
Fun angle/promo afterwards, with Roman Reigns rescuing Bryan and Bryan slapping him away before very quickly going full-on LET’S KICK SOME ASS!!!
Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Ali, which took place later in the show, was just quality stuff: Ali will bump and backflip his way into a great match with anybody. He did almost land on his head off a tope on the floor, but he also caught a Nak leap off the top with a dropkick after doing a backflip and countered the Kinshasa with a superkick. Zayn running from Ali to setup the out-of-nowhere Kinshasa was a great finish too.
The Kofi Kingston sit-down on Brock Lesnar was alright, with Kofi showing so much confidence to a point where it really might’ve helped if he had SOME hesitation. I mean I’m all for a confident champ, but read the room Kingston.
Mike Kanellis, not King Corbin, continued the mostly counterproductive short jokes about Chad Gable tonight but I’ve got to appreciate the milking of Gable’s King of the Ring run as well as Gable squashing Kanellis in seconds. Plus Elias is back!
Sasha Banks & Bayley are upping the game of the entire WWE women’s division, and like last week’s RAW they had a strong TV tag match with Charlotte Flair & Carmella. Carmella fit right in and Sasha was on fire: saving Bayley from the Figure-Eight and dragging her to their corner for a tag, and just throwing knees and elbows any chance she got.
Carmella got chased off by her 24/7 Title challengers, naturally, which was highlighted by Kairi Sane using her invisible telescope. Then Sasha and Bayley beatdown Charlotte before Becky Lynch made the save and business is picking up, bay-beee.
Nice to see Big E & Xavier Woods in action against The B-Team, as quick as it was. Nice to see The Kabuki Warriors in action against Fire & Desire, as quick as it was.
Also nice to see WWE has some attention to detail in that their casting for Shane McMahon‘s stock lawyers was pretty spot on. The thing with him and Kevin Owens tonight setup a Career vs. Career Ladder Match and it’s all so vaguely logical but I’m really over it. Face Owens good, Career vs. Career Ladder Match interesting, but blah blah blah.
Sasha vs. Becky is your main program anyways, as we were reminded when Sasha ambushed Becky to end the show.
205 LIVE (9/24/19)
This show had Humberto Carrillo vs. Angel Garza, a match between real-life cousins and two of WWE’s most impressive young luchadors, and I can’t even recommend it. It had an insane Garza moonsault to the floor, Garza kicking a Carrillo handspring, the very over Garza pants-rip spot, and a moonsault countered with a wheelbarrow countered with a wheelbarrow, but those ended up being a few fun spots scattered across a long slow-paced match in a heatless environment.
Same with Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch vs. Drew Gulak & Tony Nese – a few fun spots scattered across a long slow-paced match in a heatless environment.
Damn you, 205 Live.
NXT UK 62 (9/25/19)
Outside of a vignette with WALTER again being the trainer from hell, this was a B Show of the C Show.
Ligero and newcomer Oliver Carter had a decent babyface/babyface match with Ligero weirdly doing chinlocks once in a while. Tyler Bate was interrupted by Jordan Devlin in a decent angle, but cut the talking: get me the match. Dani Luna brought an intensity opposite Nina Samuels that made me like a Nina Samuels match.
At the end of the day, it was a show headlined by Trent Seven vs. Noam Dar. And I can’t say this was anywhere close to bad, but it was a tough pill to swallow on a TV show eternally finding its footing. Dar’s a dirty bastard, from grabbing a nose or throwing Seven into the ropes, while Seven is always a special seller: the wild swing, the missed twisting senton, the crazy man tope. He hit an epic Seven-Star Lariat too, but Dar kicked out to get to a finish where Seven got DQ’d because he wouldn’t stop punching Dar.
NXT (9/25/19)
The excitement continued this week, especially with Keith Lee vs. Dominik Dijakovic opening the show, though the last two weeks has definitely settled into a deal where the first half on USA is a big deal and the second on the WWE Network isn’t. I imagine they change that up once the whole two hours are on the Network.
Undisputed Era raising their championship gold on an elevated stage followed by the Lee and Dijakovic entrances was some tremendously cathartic pro wrestling.
Lee/Dijakovic in WWE Part 3 ruled again, just two big tall boys putting on an incredible heavyweight battle where they treat each other like cruiserweights and everything still comes off as a legit. At some point it no longer becomes a mere wrestling match, but a desire to out-do each other. Loved the leapfog, drop-down, and monstrous diving crossbody by Lee early. Lee in general just throws Dijakovic around like a baby – he Pounces him to the floor, he lifts him like he’s a bag of bubble wrap to slam him down. Dijakovic did a great job not just going up for everything but reacting to it as well.
They pulled off of some great near falls towards the end, mostly because everything was so crazy that any brand new move could’ve been the finish. That ended up being a Dijakovic moonsault which Lee kicked out of by deadlifting him up, only for Dijakovic to yell OWAAA and try to counter only for Lee to roll through and pick his ass back up and THEN lift him higher into a fireman’s carry leading to a Jackhammer for 3. Fuuuuuck yeah.
Dakota Kai vs. uhhhh Taynara Conti was a fine re-introduction to the fact that Dakota Kai kicks. Hope she’s healthy and is a big player in the women’s division ASAP.
Matt Riddle vs. Killian Dain was an actual match this week as opposed to the battle royal brawl it became last week, and it kind of ruled. It was a big stunt show slash smash mouth brawl, with less dragging each other around the arena and more Riddle sizing up Dain to get in shots. The Riddle Alabama slam on big Dain was impressive as hell, and the knee to the chair face kickout got me.
The Network show was mostly squashes, and I can’t hate on that.
Hekuva showcase for young Kayden Carter opposite Rhea Ripley – she ultimately lost, but brought the fight. Not sure I follow the “Ever-Rise” tag team name but fuck yeah at 3.0 finally, FINALLY getting a gig on NXT TV. They were on the losing end of a fun little tag squash versus Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch. And Cameron Grimes vs. Raul Mendoza went a little longer this week, highlighted by a springboard headlock takeover by Mendoza. You read that right. On paper, maybe goofy. In reality, perfectly executed. Mendoza rules.
Deonna Purrazzo and Chelsea Green are here! And their lighting wasn’t working for a hot minute!
Breezango as KUSHIDA’s partners versus Imperium wasn’t the most buzzworthy surprise but it got a big pop and was adorably simple. They had an inoffensive basic 6-man with Breeze taking heat and KUSHIDA unloading on Barthel to get the win, which I found just awesome.
Seems like they’re stacking up next week for some reason.
MAIN EVENT (9/25/19)
MICKIE JAMES was on commentary this week with Dio Maddin and Vic Joseph, who are about to be called up to the great red brand in the sky.
Slater Gator again re-united to battle Eric Young & EC3 in a real compact quick tag where Young had trouble going all the way up for the Clash of the Titus finish. Clearly they were saving Slator Gator backstage so they could re-introduce them for this prime time in wrestling history.
Cesaro vs. Zack Ryder was the random kind of match I can still appreciate Main Event for – if it happened on RAW it’s going 3 minutes, but here they got some time to play and I can’t say it was “good” or anything but I’m glad it exists. They did a cool spot where Cesaro hiptossed Ryder into the post while Ryder was on the apron. Yup.
WWE TV Match of the Week: THREE matches I’d throw 4+ stars at this week, but Keith Lee vs. Dominik Dijakovic outshined everything.
WWE TV MVP of the Week: Keith Lee and Dominik Dijakovic
It’s been a good run, a near 20-year run of what’s ultimately felt like the same thing, even if at some point The Shield replaced John Cena. Next week is going to be exciting.
RAW: 7/10
SmackDown: 7/10
205 Live: 4/10
NXT UK: 3/10
NXT: 7/10
