The last days of 2019 bring an end to not just a year, but a decade.
And it’s been a long decade – as in, I know a decade is technically a finite span of time, but these last few years have somehow felt twice or three times as long. It’s probably because my wife and I had a son, but it might also be because of… eh, I’m bored talking about Trump.
It might not be because of any of that too. I just might be over-thinking things to bang out an introduction to this WWE TV Week in Review.
Here’s to 2019, and expect an overwhelming amount of year-end recaps right here at Happy Wrestling Land over the next few weeks.
RAW (12/23/19)
At a holiday time like this, when no one is watching and you’ve just got to just grim and bare it until the WrestleMania build begins, you’ve got to rely on your pre-established characters and viewer goodwill. WWE doesn’t have that, so we got RAW is Squashes – and that wasn’t a bad idea. I thought this was an OK quiet show, less eye-rolling and more actual building up of guys, including a legitimately awesome show-closing angle with Samoa Joe.
But first – THE SQUASHES! Kevin Owens squashed Mojo Rawley with a No DQ Match stip complete with a wild bump into chairs. Drew McIntyre wrecked Zack Ryder and got in a great line, imagining what Ryder and Curt Hawkins would say to him if they weren’t KO’d: “you are equally wise as you are jacked.”
Aleister Black and Buddy Murphy waved their dicks around at each other in a pair of quick squashes opposite Local Competitors. Tony Nese got in a few cool things before Ricochet hit the Recoil or Ripcord or whatever. Charlotte Flair beat Chelsea Green, who’s theme in a big arena felt crushingly awkward. Can’t believe they went to commercial teasing a Rowan squash too.
Feel like I’ve seen the Randy Orton & Viking Raiders vs. The O.C. match like ten times before, even if I haven’t.
Bobby Lashley vs. Cedric Alexander (yeah! him!) was actually pretty good, as instead of a squash Cedric got to show some cool stuff in the middle of a boring Bobby Lashley match. Then they did a sweet tilt-a-whirl into Dominator (you forget how hard this stuff is sometimes) and put together a quality last few minutes that played with the very obvious result. Lana just entering the ring and interrupting the match early to drunkenly announce her and Bobby’s wedding was maybe the best part of this dumb story too.
The R-Truth and Akira Tozawa bits with the 24/7 Title on the streets of New York ended up kind of adorable too, to be honest.
STORY OF THE SHOW was Seth Rollins and AOP bein’ dicks, cause they are now. Rollins vs. Rey Mysterio for the U.S. Title was pretty surface level 2019 Rey but still 2019 Rey, who I think I might be putting at #1 for Wrestler of the Year right now. Rollins wishes he could keep up. The catch of the springboard crossbody to a buckle bomb was pretty cool. AOP ran in for a DQ, because… I don’t know, no one’s really trying anymore.
As Rollins and AOP walked to the back they came into the view of wise old commentator Samoa Joe, who didn’t back down: “If I get up, it’s not to move.” I SCREAMED. Rollins’ casual “finish him” as he walked away from Joe to setup AOP putting Joe through the table felt like the real cementing of the Rollins heel turn, even if he did stomp Kevin Owens’ head into concrete a couple weeks ago.
Low stakes made for a fine show. Just fine.
Rating: 5/10
NXT (12/25/19)
As Emil Jay astutely pointed out on Twitter, this show felt like a Prime Time Wrestling with our hosts throwing to matches at different locales – in this case, a couple at Full Sail University and a couple at Barclays Center, where NXT’s black ring mat looked really cool.
Even on Christmas Day there was stuff moving on this show, with two showcase debuts and a vignette for karate man. I’m still waiting for THE CLICK but NXT is by far the most fun I have watching weekly wrestling TV these days.
Highly touted EVOLVE guy Austin Theory made his debut at Full Sail answering Roderick Strong‘s Open Challenge for the NXT North American Title and it was really good. These two just casually went 20 and did that thing a wrestling debut is supposed to do: showcase a guy. He might have some of the follies of Modern Wrestler Guy but Theory really does appear to have all the stuff a wrestling promoter would want – looks, strength, athleticism. Not sure on the charisma yet – we’ll see. What sets him apart though is he has an ability to go with the new school too, like the prototypical WWE ace guy who can go toe-to-toe with the athletic style that permeates WWE these days. A promising debut and just a fun match to watch play out.
Isaiah “Swerve” Scott and Jack Gallagher battled over an armscissors in Barclays, and it was pretty cool depending on who you talk to. Swerve is a classic guy with potential who I hope develops in NXT and doesn’t regress, while I won’t say Gallagher has regressed but I can’t say his time on 205 Live has been used wisely.
Still waiting for Taynara Conti to hit but that’s why Candice LeRae is here, and they had a very solid wrestling match together. Candice tying her hair up ready to beat some ass was a great spot.
Arturo Ruas video! This was like the EVOLVE 10th Anniversary Reunion Show.
Shotzi Blackheart was the other debut, and her psychotic dive at the EVOLVE show made me curious even if that thing shouldn’t be encouraged and so forth and wahtnot. She wrestled Bianca Belair, and though she did not win she definitely popped off the screen between the green hair and that near-tornado DDT on the apron that was very cool in its simplicity. Belair still rules too – loved how she just shoved Shotzi into the turnbuckle to setup the KOD.
Keith Lee & Lio Rush vs. Damian Priest & Tony Nese closed the show from Barclays, and that latter team is one for the record books in terms of making zero sense. I guess Keith Lee and Rush teaming only makes sense because they’re black though, so this is probably on me. My stupidity regardless, Keith Lee ruled here – now that he’s got credibility from the Survivor Series Match and is being put in positions of dominance, we’re really seeing what this guy in capable of and it’s a lot. Him wearing the Santa hat rising up into the camera shot to staredown Priest was worth the price was admission, and after he caught a Nese tope, put him in a tree of woe on the barricade, caught a Priest tope con hilo, threw Priest into Nese, then powerbombed Priest on the apron, I’m pretty sure the fans should have been throwing money at the ring.
Rating: 7/10
MAIN EVENT (12/25/19)
Like last week, a double taping for RAW meant Scott Stanford hosting a match-less Main Event this week.
Rating: 10/10
NXT UK 75 (12/26/19)
This was the Best of 2019 show, and it’d be easy to make a joke about it being an empty show but despite being a slog of weekly TV, NXT UK’s peaks this year were real good. Unlike the 205 Live Best Of’s, they stacked this up with content and used it to build up TakeOver: Blackpool II.
Mostly they chose title changes. WALTER’s WWE U.K. Title win, Toni Storm and Kay Lee Ray’s NXT UK Title wins, The Grizzled Young Veteran’s NXT UK Tag Titles win, and Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster’s NXT UK Tag Titles wins were all shown. Toni Storm, Dave Mastiff and Andrews/Webster reflected on 2019. Moments like Travis Banks’ dive onto Jordan Devlin in the crowd, The Grizzled Young Veterans promo at Download Fest, Devlin beating Mastiff, and WALTER’s in-ring debut were shown. A few minutes of Tyler Bate vs. WALTER were shown too, and I was getting real hot as the show went on and I wasn’t seeing that at least mentioned.
The show ended with a Joe Coffey promo on WALTER, hopefully not a harbinger of things to come for NXT UK in 2020.
Rating: 6/10
SMACKDOWN (12/27/19)
The first few months of the SmackDown on FOX run being such a disappointment is one of the most disappointing stories of the year, and King Corbin as their heel linchpin has a lot to do with it. The guy is a solid performer both in and out of the ring but asking him to carry the load for both the Roman Reigns and Universal Title feuds is a hell of an ask and I can’t say he’s delivering. Plus with the king stuff he just looks like an idiot.
The Fiend is a fun character, but right now a weak top champ in which outside of some funny promos nothing seems right. Nobody actually seems scared of him anymore, and he’s positioned as untouchable but The Miz wants a piece. I dunno, man.
Anybody involved in any of it on down seems incapable of rising up right now. Outside of maybe Mustafa Ali. Good promo. “I refuse to stand in the dark.”
Remember when Shinsuke Nakamura, Cesaro and Sami Zayn were all at one point the best wrestler in the world? They came out together as a unit looking like a pair of nerds on this show to wrestle Big E, Kofi Kingston & Braun Strowman. It was a fine match – WWE is good at this kind of thing. I liked the spot with Nakamura goading E into coming in the ring, then attacking him from behind when he was escorted out. The build to the Braun hot tag was solid, and the crowd went INSANE. I mean WILD. NUTS. COMPLETELY OUT OF THEIR MINDS!
Then Braun danced.
Women’s division on this show is what they used to call Sasha in NXT. Until they do the Sasha Banks and Bayley split there’s no protagonist to give a shit about right now, as much as Lacey Evans is busting her ass. Sasha and Bayley vs. Lacey and Dana Brooke went like 200 seconds and maybe 30 of those were any good, though Dana trying to trick them with a blind tag only to get tapped out right away cracked me up.
The Otis angle with Mandy Rose is fun, but Mandy Rose vs. Carmella was not.
Daniel Bryan vs. The Miz vs. King Corbin that eventually became Daniel Bryan vs. The Miz was covered in the malaise of The Fiend and King Corbin, as much as I appreciate the Bryan/Miz pairing. At least they did a sweet struggle on the finish before Bryan tapped Miz out.
Rating: 2/10
205 LIVE (12/27/19)
205 Live was again a Best Of 2019 Show, with Aiden English and Tom Phillips taking us through another four matches for the second half of 205 Live’s 2019. They went with Chad Gable vs. Jack Gallagher from July, the Drake Maverick vs. Mike Kanellis Unsanctioned Match, the first Lio Rush vs. Raul Mendoza match, and from NXT Angel Garza defeating Lio Rush for the Cruiserweight Title. Strong choices. The 205 Live seems to know what’s actually good on their shows, so it’s weird they don’t do more of it.
Rating: 7/10
WWE TV Match of the Week: Roderick Strong vs. Austin Theory for the North American Title, though the Cedric Alexander/Bobby Lashley finish and Braun Strowman hot tag hit me deep.
WWE TV MVP of the Week: Samoa Joe
WWE TV Week in Review: NXT still brought the goods, but it is sleepy season. Has been since NXT was running around the main roster, to be honest.
