Working Man’s WWE TV Review: 2/23/20 – 2/29/20

WHAT’S ANOTHER WORD FOR BLEAK

All I can think of is mailed in. RAW is looking past Super ShowDown, but still had to build it up here and it was like they were trying hard to not try at all.

Ricochet beat an O.C. guy again, Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar did their promo, R-Truth did jokes. They even did the gimmick where teams going into a Tag Titles match wrestle in singles matches – Angelo Dawkins vs. Murphy which was nothing, and Seth Rollins vs. Montez Ford which had some fun stuff but didn’t get over like anybody could have wanted.

There was a Contract Signing too – c’mon! A Becky Lynch/Shayna Baszler brawl didn’t save it.

Drew McIntyre had a fine sit-down interview thing and Asuka was a mad woman during that contract signing and but neither was a needle mover.

Has to be appreciated how Humberto Carrillo and Angel Garza are just part of the show, and their tame but fun match was the highlight of the show. Aleister Black vs. Erick Rowan wasn’t any “good” either but you’ve got to respect the near falls and genuine “ooOOOOoooOo” from the crowd when Rowan’s cage fell off the stairs.

Kevin Owens vs. Randy Orton was the main event.

AEERRGGHH

Speaking of mailed in – last week kind of stunk and this was worse.

Charlotte Flair having a painfully average main event with Bianca Belair just put a rotten cherry on top of the whole night, as Flair is good at the big match and Belair has the potential of a GOD and it didn’t come close to delivering before Charlotte just won straight-up.

Names like Dijakovic, Priest, Grimes, Reed, and Dain desperately need definition – week after week of Very Exciting Match isn’t helping anybody. Dominik Dijakovic vs. Cameron Grimes was like a bad version of that Very Exciting Match, and Damian Priest‘s interference seems like it will lead to Dijakovic vs. Priest in a Very Exciting Match. NOOOOO

Meanwhile NXT decided that definition was needed for The Forgotten Sons, who went from trailer park assholes to American Veteran Heroes overnight with zero explanation. And it might work? If there’s one thing that brings a casual patriotic wrestling fan and hardcore ironic wrestling fan together, it’s a chant for the U-S-A.

I love unleashed Finn Balor but could do without the “I’m shooting here” lines, you know. The crowd FLIPPED for the tease of WALTER confronting Balor, then got awfully quiet when it was just the other Imperium guys. Is Balor a good guy again? Is it because he knew Goldberg was going to break The Curse of The Fiend?

Mia Yim vs. Xia Li kind of sucked. So did the Dakota Kai and Raquel González interference.

Tommaso Ciampa vs. Austin Theory just didn’t hit – Theory came off less future top guy and more just any other guy. Johnny Gargano‘s powder blue jacket was something else though.

We’re pushing The Grizzled Young Veterans in the middle of all this too?? HUH?

Main Event Favorite No Way Jose vs. Shelton Benjamin opened the show this week, and all I’ve got to say is that Shelton has a cool arm-lock finish now.

Hope Riddick Moss bought Cedric Alexander a meal after the show, because Cedric made him look like a beast. Moss sending Cedric flying with a warp-speed shoulderblock is almost worth subscribing to Hulu.

There has got to be a template floating for NXT UK out there. You’ve got 3 basic matches that provide little forward movement for anybody, 3 promos to setup next week’s matches that will probaly do the same, and a moderately intriguing main event. Who is fooling the New York office into thinking booking this show is a lot of responsibility?

This week’s basic matches: The Hunt vs. The Grizzled Young Veterans, Jack Starz vs. Kassius Ohno, and A-Kid vs. Brian Kendrick. The latter was pretty good, with some rock solid grappling before Kendrick took the nastiest head bump off of A-Kid’s ridiculous springboard backflip DDT.

The promos for next week: the occasionally present Isla Dawn commented on newcomer Aoife Valkyrie, Travis Banks filmed himself on his phone calling out Alexander Wolfe, and Bomber Dave Mastiff growled about WALTER.

The main event: Kay Lee Ray vs. Toni Storm in an I Quit Match, and they got pretty nasty and crazy for a feud and match that maybe didn’t completely deserve it. The work was solid, the big spots were crazy, but I don’t think anyone watching bought in.

I take back what I said about RAW – THIS is how you mail in a show. They setup Goldberg vs. Roman Reigns and John Cena vs. The Fiend for WrestleMania in the most lame and lazy “Who will I wrestle now? You will wrestle ME!” kind of way. One day after Fiend unceremoniously loses his Universal Title to Goldberg, everybody flies back to the States we are just MOVING ON. There’s 5 weeks to explain, but history tells us they probably won’t.

In other news – old man yells at wrestling.

Rest of the show was forgettable, which sucks because on paper it wasn’t bad. Sasha Banks made her triumphant return in a lame tag with Bayley vs. Naomi & Lacey Evans, which was highlighted by Lacey doing a Manabu Nakanishi pescado.

There was a Contract Signing on this damn show too, this one resulting in a 3-on-1 Handicap Match for the Intercontinental Title. WHY

Daniel Bryan wrestled Curtis Axel and worked a spot in where Axel countered the YesLock, what a man.

The Miz & John Morrison vs. The Usos was good but not good good. Morrison is finding a groove but he still elbowed his tag opponent into their own corner, while The Usos were pointing and motioning around at each other like REAL tag team wrestlers. The top rope Canadian Destroyer to Superfly Splash finish was a CHOICE.

The good thing about 205 Live this week was that it was half an hour.

The bad thing is that the show still sucks. They probably shouldn’t use it to intro guys. Joaquin Wilde still has a one-note character and taunt/move repertoire that’s not just weak but actively embarrassing. The match with Raul Mendoza was bad, made only worthwhile by hilariously being what they chose to put out there after The Fiend spooked out John Cena.

Lio Rush vs. Tony Nese (accompanied by Mike Kanellis) was the main event, a CAPTAIN’S CHALLENGE MATCH, and I’ll say this: Lio can pretty much get any crowd up.

Jack Gallagher‘s new and horrifying chest tattoo made its’ debut to close the show.

WWE TV Match of the Week: Humberto Carrillo vs. Angel Garza from RAW or the Kay Lee Ray vs. Toni Storm I Quit Match from NXT UK, but I’m really not sure – crap week for wrestling

WWE TV MVP of the Week: Finn Balor? I don’t know