Working Man’s WWE TV Review: 2/9/20 – 2/15/20

It was a busy week, and the lackluster efforts of WWE just washed over me like lukewarm water. A pair of great Women’s Title matches aside, it’s the Road to… Super ShowDown.

Not exactly good, but RAW has got enough going on that it can carry a time-killing show: Seth Rollins and his crew as new heels, Drew McIntyre‘s main event push, Randy Orton being a psycho, Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley trading words. In between all this Ricochet is challenging Brock Lesnar for the WWE Title soon.

Plus, Becky Lynch stole an ambulance! And she… got bit in the neck? By Shayna Baszler? Hold on.

Becky vs. Asuka for the RAW Women’s Title opened the show wrestling-wise and ruled, right between their epic Royal Rumble 2018 match and very good Royal Rumble 2019 match. Becky talks like their matches will be big fights and they deliver on that, with both frantic credible grappling mixed with big moments that all counted because they took their time on it. If anything it detracted when they got too cute, like Asuka’s double knee bit.

Was the Shayna Baszler debut amazing or weird? Memorable or something to be swept under the rug? Time will tell.

Kevin Owens always gets stuck in this loop where he’s in a main event program that takes up a LOT of showtime and it sure could be worse considering he’s pretty good on the mic but it is also absolutely repetitive and boring. His rivalry with Rollins & Friends didn’t have a good outing this week, though Jared Leto Seth Rollins with that stupid bear fuzz would be a good hook.

MVP begging to be Drew McIntyre‘s manager was a great character moment, an almost perfect write-off of the MVP character if they go that route.

Speaking of write-offs, Matt Hardy may or may not be gone from WWE after a great promo from a guy who was never much of a promo. He gave the business to Randy Orton before taking a chairshot to the head in a fine, fine pro wrestling angle.

Remember when Rhea Ripley cut through all the BULLSHIT? No more! On the way to WrestleMania and Charlotte Flair, everything is out the window.

The rest of the show was populated with middle-of-the-road stuff – RAW keeps attempting to give Humberto Carrillo an edge, while Angel Garza vs. Cedric Alexander was fun but disappointingly short. Mojo Rawley and Riddick Moss may already be broke up but at least we know the Street Profits‘ finisher now. Ricochet beat Bobby Lashley 1-2-3 clean, and I’ll say this: Bob Lashley is one of the best catchers in wrestling.

Also, is Vince McMahon just writing Kane promos again for Aleister Black?

Rating: 4/10

A weaker outing than usual, as they did the main roster thing where they’ve already told the entire story but have to throw the stars on TV one more week, so they’re just blatantly stretching out these stories until TakeOver: Portland on Sunday. Regardless, there were a few quality matches, a great squash, and The BroserWeights Road Trip.

Anything Matt Riddle and Pete Dunne are doing these days feels like killing time until a big spot, but if you’re going to kill time then a few promos directed by Jeremy Borash will do it. Throughout the show they traveled by car, swan boat, and finally the landing gear of Triple H‘s plane which was a phenomenal punchline. Loved it.

Also love a guy storming out at the start of a show and demanding a mic, as Roderick Strong did here. He ended up having a fine slugfest with Bronson Reed that went a little too long and was a little too back-and-forth before more Velveteen Dream MIND GAMES.

Feel like I’ve seen Dakota Kai vs. Candice LeRae and Tegan Nox attacking Dakota all before. Bro, let’s get to Portland.

Johnny Gargano vs. Cameron Grimes was a good Gargano match, a rarity these days not because he’s no good but because he just barely wrestles. There were strong waistlocks and tilt-a-whirls and a great build to the finish. It maybe could’ve been more to the point in advance of TakeOver but Grimes can go.

Lio Rush vs. Angel Garza for a shot at the Cruiserweight Title was another great outing by these two, maybe on the lower end of their series but also more straight-up: great rope running, intensity, and drama, all brought up by Lio Rush just being an absolute freak of nature. The deadlift Angel’s Wings was so cool too.

Mark Henry was called into promote the Keith Lee/Dominik Dijakovic match and he should promote more things. Or maybe he shouldn’t. Him coming in for this felt special.

Bianca Belair absolutely ripped up Santana Garrett, a wrestling match that felt like she had to win in the quickest way possible. The stuff afterwards with Rhea Ripley is what you do when you’re out of ideas though.

Adam Cole vs. KUSHIDA ended up a solid Best of Super Juniors main event from a spot show that MAYBE aired and got English commentary because Kevin Kelly was willing to travel.

Rating: 5/10

The most main event Main Event I have seen in a long time, with No Way Jose vs. Eric Young and Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins vs. The O.C.. I swear they could’ve just replayed this from months ago and I would not have noticed. I also swear I have made that joke before.

Rating: 1/10

At the end of this it appeared to be a show about re-building Gallus, which… oh c’mon. Joe Coffey threw a great lariat vs. Amir Jordan but he also has nothing to say in his promos and his boys Mark Coffey & Wolfgang had maybe the weakest big Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch match I’ve ever seen. It was for the NXT UK Tag Team Titles too! Mark threw the absolute lightest leg slap kick on the finish too, so light in fact that maybe it actually hurt.

Aoife Valkyrie made her in-ring debut and she looks cool but the match with Amale wasn’t much. Bomber Dave Mastiff squashed a guy. Johnny Saint was awkward backstage again.

Rating: 3/10

A couple seriously good matches, but there continues to be not much going on here. Remember when Canada crowds felt distinct and different?

Bayley vs. Carmella for the SmackDown Women’s Title was great, the second awesome Women’s Title match to open a main roster show this week. Bayley put out her most confident heel performance yet, which lots of subtle shutdowns and nothing showy. They had all kinds of twists and turns that kept Carmella alive and by the end of the match they were battling for the win like it was a RINGS match. Carmella’s Frankensteiner near fall was awesome and she came out of this a CONTENDER. Then Naomi showed up! Let’s go!!!

It’s going to be a journey to get to Goldberg/Fiend in Saudi Arabia, but at least we got nWo Bray Wyatt screwing with Hulk Hogan in what looked like a podcast dungeon.

The Sami Zayn and Cesaro vs. Elias and Braun Strowman feud is a thing. This week Sami and Cesaro played a song before they got beat up. Cesaro’s ad lib to throw down the cowbell after it got over was great.

Dolph Ziggler interrupted poor Otis and Mandy Rose‘s Valentine’s Day date. I don’t have a commentary, that’s just what happened.

The main event was from some alternate universe where SmackDown actually wanted to use Roman Reigns, Daniel Bryan and The Miz & John Morrison as stars. Miz and Morrison on the mic beforehand was awesome (“You don’t boo The Miz!”), Bryan’s pop as Reigns’ mystery partner was awesome, and though the Morrison pairings with Reigns and Bryan weren’t all they were cracked up to be this thing got bumping by the end.

Rating: 4/10

This was a week about re-building Brian Kendrick and Ariya Daivari. Somehow worse than Gallus.

In a bizarro segment vaguely worth watching, The Singh Brothers got an over-the-top Vancouver hometown welcome from the crowd before they turned on them with sports references and had a very average match with Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch. At one point Burch screamed after he threw an uppercut, which made it seem like Samir Singh was screaming as he fell. Samir should add that to his game.

Love 205 Live debuting a new tag team – Tony Nese & Mike Kanellis – and having them go 50/50 with Kendrick and Daivari. Tremendous work, everybody.

Rating: 2/10

WWE TV Match of the Week: Becky Lynch vs. Asuka from RAW and Bayley vs. Carmella from SmackDown

WWE TV MVP of the Week: Carmella