Working Man’s WWE TV Review: 7/26/20 – 8/1/20

Rest in peace, Regis Philbin.

Nothing is really worth it here still, though Friday night was more inspired than usual.

RAW (7/27/20)

I still can’t get into this show. There are so many people that are trying so hard, but it still began with individual Randy Orton and Nia Jax segments and didn’t get much better from there.

Sasha Banks vs. Asuka for the RAW Women’s Title carried the show, again, but you can’t just have Sasha vs. Asuka every week. Well maybe you can, but there are only so many variations of even the coolest match. When it comes down to it all wrestling needs is a must-win attitude and cool chain wrestling counters, which Sasha and Asuka bring a ton of. Sasha running full speed into an Asuka boot and her post-match celebration were both premium moments.

Otherwise – ah. Bah. Agh. Poor Drew McIntyre is literally running through last year’s Kofi Kingston title reign beat for beat, slumming it up with Dolph Ziggler and taking an RKO outta nowhere Orton. Dolph went so hard for Drew it felt like he was auditioning for work.

Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler brawling would’ve been cool a year ago; doing it now just shows how bad all their heat died down.

Seth Rollins and Rey Mysterio doesn’t have enough juice to last through SummerSlam and Rollins really doesn’t have enough juice to keep talking his way through these 3-hour shows. Love Aleister Black just being the biggest lame-o in the world too. Meanwhile Murphy and Humberto Carrillo went harder than anyone would expect for a late-third hour match.

Cedric Alexander is CUT but the entire tag division and midcard is useless until Apollo Crews comes back and WWE figures out whatever the shit they want Zelina Vega‘s boys to even be. MVP remains good at his job and it was nice to see Mustafa Ali returning to bumping all over the place for Bobby Lashley.

Rating: 3/10

NXT (7/29/20)

This was more actively bad than NXT usually is – did the Wednesday Night guys agree to just suck? The Undisputed Era might’ve turned babyface but in this era of no real people in the crowd, I am honestly not sure. Keith Lee as NXT ace is the right call, but having him ACTING with Karrion Kross is TV I wouldn’t recommend to anybody.

Everybody else just seems on pause, even if they’re kind of building to a TakeOver. I hope Io Shirai is getting good cash for the title run because as much as I dig the folks in this division, NXT doesn’t seem interested in making any of them interesting anymore.

Johnny Gargano vs. Roderick Strong genuinely did rule, all the best bits of last week’s Triple Threat Match with genuinely impressive work that went from chain wrestling to chain back-breakering.

Bring me Ridge Holland. As one of the three-hundred people who watched NXT UK, I can tell you that Ridge Holland is good.

Timothy Thatcher in a Triple Threat Match should be illegal, though I did appreciate his contributions to the match being relegated to just grabbing people or tying them up. Of course his other contribution was passing to a Dexter Lumis hold though, which no matter which way you look at it is a really stupid problem.

Rating: 3/10

MAIN EVENT (7/29/20)

Main Event brought feels like a “Where are they now?” show sometimes, case in point the Titus O’Neil vs. Riddick Moss match on this week’s show. Shayna Baszler vs. Ruby Riott was OK.

Rating: 3/10

NXT UK (7/30/20)

Greatest Hits was the theme again this week, though this is a strikingly average library of wrestling matches. Respect to Isla Dawn for introducing her match from some kind of leafy green alternate dimension.

Rating: 2/10

SMACKDOWN (7/31/20)

We’ve got the SNME-like show intros every week now, Gran Metalik in random title matches, and a Big E singles push. There were actual angles this week too, and not the kind where one guy frames another guy for a DUI. If this wasn’t good, it could be a lot worse.

I didn’t love Metalik’s IC Title match with AJ Styles being a retread of the same both guys have been lifelessly working for the last few years, but you take what you can get.

I did love King Corbin just going along with Drew Gulak‘s shtick, selling leg takedown after leg takedown because the King isn’t here to learn how to counter your chain wrestling.

Big E kicking out of the SkullCrushing Finale was a little much in the way of “HEY WE ARE PUSHING THIS GUY” but if I can take a bright spot away from this summer of WWE, a coordinated Big E singles push would be a good one. Beating The Miz and establishing the STRETCH MUFFLER as his finisher was a good start.

Shorty G as a heel is a move. It’s a thing.

With all the benefits that two days of hindsight brings, I liked that baseball slide Destroyer that Naomi did.

Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville got violent but those are still their names.

Bayley vs. Nikki Cross as the main event for the SmackDown Women’s Title is awesome, and they had a match just as good if not better than the one at The Horror Show. Cross is finally showing up as a babyface on WWE TV – would be nice if there was a crowd there to react to it!

The Fiend attacking Alexa Bliss sure was a close too. I think it creeped me out more than got me interested for another Braun/Bray match, but we’ll see.

Best SmackDown in months.

Rating: 6/10

205 LIVE (7/31/20)

Hey, Ariya Daivari is back. He is on a boat.

The rest of this show was one match, Tony Nese & Isaiah “Swerve” Scott vs. Joaquin Wilde & Raul Mendoza. It was good stuff, four guys who have been around for a while doing mostly nothing finally having a wrestling match with some meat to it. Nese vs. Swerve should go to Mania.

Rating: 5/10

What Made the WWE Move This Week?

Best Match: Asuka vs. Sasha Banks for the RAW Women’s Title on RAW

Best Promo: Big E opens up SmackDown

Best Angle: The Fiend puts down Alexa Bliss

Who made this worth it?: Sasha Banks, Asuka, Io Shirai, Big E, Bayley, Nikki Cross

Notable Trends: Women Rule WWE, Big E Might get Pushed, SmackDown is Trying a Little