Ric Flair opened up RAW this week feeling a little unscripted, demanding bigger names from the Cleveland Browns in the front row and name-dropping “Saudi.” On SmackDown he embraced the role of old asshole, a man who doesn’t use his legend to have fun but to look down on others. One minute he’s giving off Classy Freddie Blassie vibes and the next he’s giving off Gary Hart vibes and either way the man still has it. And it’d all be so cool if it wasn’t some depressingly cynical cash grab. I mean, cash is cash. You can do a lot with cash. I just wish the cash didn’t come from such a corrupt and murderous source.
RAW (10/21/19)
RAW’s got a brand spanking new roster (kind of) but all we got was this yawner show. Remember when there used to be cool confrontations and shit? This had some re-establishment of cold acts and Saudi Arabia BS, highlighted by THE STREET PROFITS getting love as some new kind of Public Enemy. Also, NO women? NONE?
Only real positive that might not actually be a positive is that all the squashes felt more competitive than normal. Could be a concerted decision, could be not wanting to have guys be demolished their first night after the Draft, could just be time-killing.
New member of Team Flair at Crown Jewel Drew McIntyre is a bore but he will do a heck of a deadlift move on a guy, in this case Ricochet. I’ll also gladly take a Flair promo during a McIntyre hold, thank you very much. I liked the thing where Ricochet failed to lift Drew into a fireman’s carry, then did a superkick and managed to lift him and hit a Death Valley Driver and a Shooting Star Press for a very nice near fall.
The positioning of Andrade, Aleister Black and Buddy Murphy as The Future of RAW in that video package was very cool, though poor Buddy still feels MIA. Black squashed a poor fella who took the kicks like a champ, and Andrade vs. Sin Cara wasn’t some banger but it was neat to see the returning Cara get showcased before the inevitable loss. He brought back the sunset flip powerbomb and did the over-the-top-rope rana to the floor, and the little feature on his community outreach before the match was awesome.
There was also a lot of pure trash on this show. The Rusev/Bobby Lashley/Lana is channel-changing bad, just all the worst stereotypes of WWE rolled into one terrible package. The Singh Brothers skits with R-Truth over the 24/7 Title were embarrassing. Shelton Benjamin continuing his role as Brock Lesnar’s Pal and bullying Rey Mysterio was GREAT, but everything involving Cain Velasquez right now sucks, most notably his worked punches that looked worse than Kelly Kelly’s.
Positives here and there. Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins‘ “I wonder if we’ll get some pyro tonight” line cracked me up, and I hope The Viking Experience are paying for Hawkins’ road meals because he takes their finish better than anybody. Humberto Carrillo‘s promo was adorable and the RAW debut match with Seth Rollins was good – they ran the ropes and flew around, Rollins took Carrillo’s handspring armdrag, and perhaps most notably Rollins embraced the role of trash talking asshole. Humberto is a suitably sexy man, like I bet market research just exploded when this man’s face popped up.
The show ending with The Street Profits celebrating was great, but Kevin Owens as their backup for their tag with The O.C. was a pretty disappointing surprise. Owens positioned as a Top Guy is cool, another feud with Styles not so much. Also what was with making it seem like it’d be a 6-man and then making it a tag? C’mon.
NXT (10/23/19)
Show-ending angle outside, NXT is doing this thing where despite ***1/4 match after ***1/4 match it basically feels like this little studio show and weirdly positions TRIPLE H’s promotion as the underdog opposite AEW Dynamite, which has the good wrestling but also throws the kitchen sink at you with some gimmicky BS that doesn’t always hit but you accept as necessary.
NXT doesn’t need the necessary – it’s just here, with this embarrassment of riches of a roster having good solid match after good solid match. The matches just need to start mattering more. I appreciate a guy like Damian Priest beating Pete Dunne clean as a sheet, but are they going to actually get anything out of it? I liked this week’s show, but if we’re talking a “war” it doesn’t come close to the must-see feel of Dynamite.
Not sure I would’ve gone with Rhea Ripley on defense opposite Bianca Belair had I been a person involved in the making of their match, nor would’ve I had Io Shirai and Candice LeRae out there muckin’ it all up with their interference. They went like 10+ minutes and execution-wise everything worked but layout-wise it was a bore, even if Rhea’s boot to counter Belair’s leapfrog was very very cool.
Matt Riddle vs. Cameron Grimes was basically a Riddle showcase with him tossing Grimes around with a tight waistlock, throwing barefoot kicks, and hitting all his spots. Grimes’ backflip to German suplex hold was a great spot, even if Riddle’s wait for it felt eternal. Riddle hit a knee to the face, GTS, and German suplex hold at the finish which really felt like it should’ve been a 3-count but ended up a 2-count. I would’ve been more into a Riddle squash but they had a fun match that was a bit much sometimes.
Tyler Bate just casually hanging out with Pete Dunne in Dunne’s outside interview, then being in the crowd, then doing a little angle with Cameron Grimes to put him on NXT TV was something I enjoyed.
Breezango & Mystery Partner Isaiah “Swerve” Scott vs. The Forgotten Sons was an ol’ basic 6-man as any Forgotten Sons 6-man will be, though Tyler Breeze and Fandango and Swerve Scott made for fine random babyfaces. Swerve did a couple spots that were partially impressive and partially looked like crap. Like, a step-up light kick to the neck? What are we doing here? What was with everyone telegraphing their bumps over the top too?
Jack Gallagher vs. Angel Garza was a heck of a match, couldn’t have been over 5-minutes but they kept a fast pace and brought a good energy. I liked Garza’s spot where he teased a tope and ended up just smacking Gallagher on the back.
Dakota Kai and Tegan Nox, together at last. They wrestled Marina Shafir & Jessamyn Duke for a shot at The Kabuki Warriors’ WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles, and Duke began the match with a sneak knee to the face to start heat on Dakota right away which I thought was very cool. It was a real quick match with the good guys going over, and though I worry for the kneebraces that Team Kick sports I am excited for them versus Asuka and Kairi Sane next week.
NXT was trying real hard at doing SPORTS with the North American Title match promos throughout the show and I respect it. The title match – Roderick Strong vs. Keith Lee vs. Dominik Dijakovic – was pretty much as promised, with wild Lee/Dijakovic spots between Strong being a little shit who causes trouble and bumps around. They’re going all in on Lee vs. Dijakovic matches early, which isn’t the worst idea to get them noticed, but Strong added a new flavor that felt needed. Once they began going for pins the crazy got crazier until Strong stole the win.
Also: Lee throwing Strong into a reverse GTS by Dijakovic followed by a Pounce from Lee… TAG TEAM.
Following the match, The Undisputed Era beat up Lee which brought out Johnny Gargano, Tommaso Ciampa, and finally Finn Balor… who attacked Gargano as Undisputed Era went after Ciampa.
I didn’t expect that, and it completely popped me. Like some kind of fantasy booking thing, though a desperately needed switch-up for Balor. They could’ve easily gotten away with the Undisputed Era vs. Balor/#DIY/Lee WarGames setup confrontation, but NOPE: we’re going somewhere else. The Prince is back and for the first time since the jump to USA Network I can say I am very interested to see where this all goes.
MAIN EVENT (10/23/19)
Mojo Rawley cut a little promo on this show where he called No Way Jose a failure, and then he beat him real quick with a punch. So that doesn’t seem good. Meanwhile, Natalya and Sarah Logan worked the mat a little bit – I don’t know. AEW Dark should figure out how to counterprogram this garbage.
NXT UK 66 (10/24/19)
Arghghghgh … actually the wrestling was pretty good this week.
Ashton Smith & Oliver Carter vs. The Grizzled Young Vets had an impressive showing from Carter, as basic as everything else was. The Vets were running around backstage trying to remain relevant in a tag division led by freakin’ Gallus.
Speaking of Galluas, Imperium opened the show with a real basic “raaa raaa the mat is sacred no one can beat us” promo that was interrupted by Gallus, which seemed to confuse everybody more than anything. I mean where does this lead? Who does this help? Why is this happening?
Travis Banks vs. Ligero felt like match #2 at a WWF house show in 1985, Les Thornton vs. Jose Luis Rivera or something, real respectful and hold-based and vaguely cool but also incredibly boring and something a less patient crowd could’ve easily turned on. Once Banks started upping the intensity and leaning into a heel vibe it began to work, until they double pinned each other. Banks should’ve turned after the handshake.
Tyler Bate might be wrestling A-Kid soon, and it might be Bate’s NXT UK farewell.
Trent Seven vs. Noam Dar ruled, I can’t deny it. Seven selling a limb can easily become a trope but the bearded bastard did it again, creating big drama off both his arm or leg. There was a ton of each guy just smacking at each others’ bodies as they fought out of holds and I dug Seven using Dunne and Bate’s signatures to vanquish Dar, the little shit.
SMACKDOWN (10/25/19)
A show all about some Crown Jewel bullshit, a Team Hulk Hogan vs. Team Ric Flair match that should be cool but is a lazy depressing bunch of nothing and a Brock Lesnar vs. Cain Velasquez match being carried by Paul Heyman sparring on the mic with Rey Mysterio. Not great, guys.
This Hulk Hogan/Ric Flair stuff feels like such a waste but respect to Flair for still having it and embracing playing the meanest old bastard he can. I like how nobody’s really proud of this whole Saudi Arabia thing so guys like Ali and Shorty G (shudder) probably aren’t getting any possible rub by association with Hogan. Shorty treating his height like he came out or something, embracing who he is and all that, is pretty terrible too.
The New Day minus the injured Xavier Woods wrestled Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode for 90 seconds before Kofi got pinned OOOOOO BOY. Lacey Evans had herself a phenomenal squash/angle, teasing a walkout then ambushing her opposition with the Women’s Right for a quick 3. The Daniel Bryan and Shinsuke Nakamura/Sami Zayn stuff was real good but I want that trio to happen real bad now and I don’t think it’s going to. Nikki Cross vs. Mandy Rose was real short, but Rose threw hands and Nikki fired up and Sasha Banks and Bayley talked shit on commentary
Drew Gulak didn’t quite get his heat back after the Braun Strowman squash last week, but he did get another good bit of TV time: “Before we begin, let me re-introduce myself,” the PowerPoint Presentation, and a brief bit of fun with Kalisto. The Braun vs. Tyson Fury stuff already feels like old news, but mixing these the new 205 Live guys into it isn’t the worst idea.
Stupid angle/storyline/show aside, holy shit Brock Lesnar F5’d Cain Velasquez onto Dominick Mysterio on a stretcher. Cain yelling at Brock in Spanish from the site of the incident was the best thing he’s done in WWE too.
The best thing to come out of this Team Hogan/Team Flair nonsense will definitely be tonight’s Roman Reigns/Shorty G/Ali vs. King Corbin/Shinsuke Nakamura/Cesaro main event, with Hogan and Jimmy Hart in the good guys corner and Flair and Sami Zayn with the baddies.
This had Nakamura and Gable working the mat, Ali and Cesaro providing a trailer of what they’re capable of, Ali taking a beating, and eventually Reigns taken off the apron by Corbin as Ali climbed to him which soon led to Shorty G getting a hot tag on his old rival Corbin. This all led to Reigns finally getting the hot tag. Cesaro gives Reigns trouble, then springboards into a Superman punch. Spear, Ali tag, 450 splash. AWESOME. Formula is good when the notes are right and this hit all of them.
205 LIVE (10/25/19)
Lio Rush vs. Oney Lorcan was pretty quick and more about Lio getting a decisive frog splash win, but Oney worked holds and got his stuff in.
Raul Mendoza crushed it vs. Tony Nese and deserved the upset win.
Brian Kendrick reminded us he’s a professional wrestler.
Isaiah “Swerve” Scott might not be ready for prime time just yet, though a 205 Live main event against Ariya Daivari might not be the best place to decide that. That 6-man on NXT could be though. Better kick to the neck this time, at least.
WWE TV Match of the Week: Roderick Strong vs. Keith Lee vs. Dominik Dijakovic for the NXT North American Title, though respect to Trent Seven vs. Noam Dar and the 6-man SmackDown main event
WWE TV MVP of the Week: Finn Balor
The Balor turn was a moment, but otherwise the mind-blogging journey to Crown Jewel continued this week and it wasn’t very good.
RAW: 3/10
NXT: /7/10
NXT UK: 4/10
SmackDown: 4/10
205 Live: 4/10
