THIS WEEK!
The Revival and ReDragon showed that tag team wrestling is still alive, while Alexander Wolfe and Ilja Dragunov showed shoot-style grappling is too.
Also – FIGHTING! FIGHTING!! FIGHTING!!! EVERYBODY’S FIGHTING!!!!
All of WWE’s brands are fighting for supremacy as we head into Survivor Series, and it sure has been fun while it lasted.
Meanwhile, Tony Nese sits in the purple-hued darkness… waiting.
RAW (11/18/19)
Survivor Series is Sunday. And you might have heard: the brand supremacy fighting roster stuff is soooooooo LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMEEEEE.
Once again, guys in color-coded t-shirts are fighting among themselves with less passion than a Battle Royal, just like they do every year now. It’s a tradition, but one of those bad traditions that should stop.
Otherwise… this was kind of better than usual?
It was mostly about the in-ring. Lots of good in-ring. Rey Mysterio passed the Latin Love to Humberto Carrillo and brought us home with another legitimate promo on Brock Lesnar, but otherwise – all the good was in-ring. Seth Rollins is just THIRSTY for a great match and opposite Andrade he got close to one, trading holds and building intensity before the Lucha House Party ran-in with their bright blue shirts to… keep Rollins in the Survivor Series match? I don’t exactly know, but I don’t think plot holes have really been a core focus since 1984. A dumb finish to a good match that really needed a good finish. Andrade is teasing a face turn which would sure beat Zelina Vega promos over silence to kick off every match.
The tope catch into a vertical suplex on the floor came to RAW tonight, as Buddy Murphy battled Akira Tozawa. Not a single soul stood up when Tozawa’s entrance music hit, but damnit if he didn’t HAW HAW HAW his way into their hearts by the end. This one actually showcased Tozawa, who threw enough big strikes to play with the expectation of a Buddy squash. He also did the only reverse rana that has ever made sense, followed by the always-amazing tope headbutt and a massive senton bomb. Very cool.
Kevin Owens vs. Drew McIntyre was a snoozer for a good 10 minutes before they kicked it into gear and got the folks chanting This is Awesome. The crowd has such a goodwill for Owens and he always seems to find a way to close his matches hot. The pop-up powerbomb and Claymore near falls were great, while the Stunner and FutureShock ones just felt like overkill.
Then Triple H ended up being the expected NXT interference, as he cut a promo about… Owens… history… in NXT? Was he trying to recruit him? Did he just want to go over the history for no reason? It didn’t matter because everybody started fighting, just like they always do. Another November, another Triple H angle with no payoff.
The other half of the show kept people on TV and wasn’t as depressing as usual but I’m still not sure anyone got done any favors. Becky Lynch & Charlotte Flair vs. The IIconics was a real crap match and segment, with diminishing returns on the Shayna Baszler run-in. Becky’s The Man – time to start throwing more scripts in the trash. Karl Anderson was a good guy to take Humberto Carrillo‘s cool moves, and the reversed inside cradle as the Street Profits grabbing Gallows was a fun finish. Erick Rowan destroying the 24/7 Title division while squashing a guy was a good bit actually. Natalya vs. Asuka should’ve ended with the backfist. Also, Bobby Lashley vs. No Way Jose. With SEX.
The Viking Raiders were set to defend their RAW Tag Team Titles against Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins, but AOP showed up and put the hurt to the Major Brothers. So Randy Orton stepped in and chose Ricochet as his partner for what ended up being the main event, where Ricochet traded stuff with The Viking Raiders for a bit and it was really really cool.
Then everybody started fighting again.
It was just wild enough to be aight.
NXT (11/20/19)
Meanwhile, on NXT – the brand supremacy stuff was kind of cool. I dunno. Weird.
This show had an injection of absolute crazy with the Survivor Series World War Crazy Happy Party Time. I wonder where we go from here.
Becky Lynch opened the show coming off as the biggest star in the world again and she wrestled Rhea Ripley who seems like every bit of the keeper WWE is making her out to be. She was aggressive on the beatdown and threw a sweet dropkick, while Becky got in a hot comeback and they both generally beat he shit out of each other. Loved the hammering of the back to setup the superplex, that’s my kind of wrestling. Full Sail loved it too.
Ricochet‘s dropkick outta nowhere to Kona Reeves was nearly as good as Darby Allin’s tope out of nowhere to Jon Moxley, and that is some serious praise. I cannot believe these cocky pricks at WWE just put on Ricochet vs. Matt Riddle with no warning. It went by pretty quick but ruled while it lasted, with all the high impact madness one might expect from these two.
They weaved a lot of stuff in after: Ricochet got a spotlight with a big dive INTO THE CROWD on SmackDown’s Cesaro, Shinsuke Nakamura went after Roderick Strong, and Finn Balor went after Riddle. I swear, WWE wishes they were doing these brand wars all the time – it’s the easiest way to setup the matches they like to setup and when in doubt you just give CHAOS!!!!
The Revival vs. Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish actually may have been better than advertised. It was a ridiculously cool match to watch unfold, throwing WWE tag formula out the window and just providing a bunch of no bullshit straight WRESTLING carried by all kinds of ‘tude. You could practically feel Scott Dawson fall in love with the ring again. A very good time.
Kay Lee Ray vs. Dakota Kai was a quick match between two gals who have been hitting 100% on everything they do recently. Heckuva brawl between all the ladies afterwards, highlighted by the Io Shirai/Kairi Sane staredown where Io was all “OOOOOH SO THAT’S WHERE YOU’VE BEEN HUH”
The Viking Raiders vs. The Forgotten Sons was another Raiders tag that should’ve ended with the Ivar splash. The NXT tag division cries for your help.
Adam Cole wrestled Dominik Dijakovic in a Ladder Match for WAAAR GAAAMEESSS Advantage and poor Cole was just bumping his head off after a wild couple of weeks and in advance of his wildest. It was more a fun showcase vs. a match that meant anything, and Dijakovic selling his knee and taking the Panama Sunrise just felt goofy as hell.
After Cole got the W all kinds of crazy stuff happened like Drew McIntyre taking the biggest possible bump on a Keith Lee powerbomb, a double fat man dive from Lee and Ivar, and Seth Rollins showing up wwaaaaaooowwww.
MAIN EVENT (11/20/19)
Did I dream the Mojo Rawley vs. Boston Bob squash match? That happened right? Mojo had fun with it, though I’m not sure anyone else did.
Oh hey – Eric Young bumped big for Cedric Alexander.
NXT UK 70 (11/21/19)
This was all about the main event, a phenomenal match between Alexander Wolfe and Ilja Dragunov that had some of the realest snuggest grappling you ever will see in WWE. I would wager that if another Alexander – that being Alexander Otsuka – watched this match, he would be proud. Each guy was hitting hard and fighting for everything and there was matwork here that involved a guy just chucking the other to the mat. If you’re into fighting for suplexes, this is the one.
The other notable thing was Ridge Holland making his debut with his trainer Marty Jones in the crowd, and based on the scary vignettes and accent I did not expect him to have such an uplifting theme and seem like the absolute GUY. Dude is jacked and plays rugby, and he tossed poor Oliver Carter around. Might be something to pay attention to.
Otherwise, this was the usual mix of so-so stuff if you have the time – and who does? Trent Seven vs. Kona Reeves was a fine learning excursion for Kona but did they really have to do a Seven-Star Lariat kickout? Eddie Dennis creeped on Seven in the crowd, so he’s back. Jinny and Jazzy are still talking shit about Piper. A-Kid and Jack Starz did some fun grappling. Grizzled Young Veterans cut another promo. Jordan Devlin was a cock. And Joe Coffey seems like he might be challenging WALTER next.
The journey continues.
SMACKDOWN (11/22/19)
Friday night on FOX also involved a lot of brawls and interference and brand supremacy as WWE took one last gasp before Survivor Series. They didn’t really do anything new to hype it up, but they did continue to rely on the chaos that’s been running through WWE since they decided to involve NXT in this. It was more goofball stuff, but at some point this week the silliness was eaten by the insanity and it became kind of fun.
NXT was way over Chicago too, partially because we are obnoxiously loud and on the pulse and partially because it’s just fresh compared to the usual highjinks.
Sasha Banks was the absolute star of the segment – Roman Reigns rallied the troops but Sasha brought it home then charged to the ring with Team SmackDown to cut a promo where she came off like the only thing that matters. Rhea Ripley showed up with her troops too, and it’s jarring how much energy she and Shayna Baszler add to these shows.
Ripley vs. Banks vs. Charlotte Flair was more a TV angle match vs. the big time match it legitimately could be, and then everybody fought again. MIA Toni Storm just randomly popping up at Ripley’s side cracked me up.
Not sure why they did the backstage bit with Sami Zayn calling out King Corbin. I thought TV time was important – don’t they always say that?
Zayn gifted Shinsuke Nakamura a brand new Intercontinental Title, which looks… I don’t know, does it really matter what it looks like if you don’t do anything with?
The Undisputed Era showed up to wrestle The New Day and Heavy Machinery in a real basic kinda match carried by how cool it was to see Undisputed Era on SmackDown. The Otis catapult into Tucker slam on O’Reilly was awesome. The Undisputed Era makes for a fine midcard backbone, don’t they?
I’m going to Survivor Series on Sunday, and I ask myself: will the CM Punk chants return to Chicago? They did tonight, as AJ Styles spoke. And he responded to them too!
I wish they leaned harder into the dad-to-dad stuff with The Miz trying to convince Daniel Bryan not to fight The Fiend, but oh well. They did a decent little bit of wrestling before Fiend showed up and started Fiending all over the place.
Roman Reigns, Mustafa Ali & Shorty G vs. King Corbin, Dolph Ziggler & Bobby Roode was the fun enough tag these guys can do in ther sleep. Heck of a bump by Shorty on that table.
The post-match saw basically the ENTIRE NXT ROSTER led to the arena IN A TANK by Triple H, Shawn Michaels, and Road Dogg, in what was the lamest and most masturbatory and COOLEST GOD DANG THINGS I’VE EVER SEEN. The show ended with a big brawl, as they are to do these days. Love how Keith Lee keeps getting spots in all this stuff. Who’s the biggest beneficiary of this entire thing? KEITH LEE? OK. That works.
No 205 Live this week. Good. INTEGRATE THE ROSTER.
WWE TV Match of the Week: Alexander Wolfe vs. Ilja Dragunov from NXT UK or Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish vs. The Revival from NXT
WWE TV MVP of the Week: Kyle O’Reilly
A fun but moderately concerning week of WWE programming.
RAW: 6/10
NXT: 8/10
NXT UK: 5/10
SmackDown: 6/10
