Super Tuesday II? In September? Another sick ploy by these monsters to sow confusion in this election…
The Week in Review
Best Promos: Bayley explains Herself (SmackDown 9/11/20), Timothy Thatcher prepares for Damien Priest (NXT 9/8/20)
Best Angles: Cedric Alexander joins The Hurt Business (RAW 9/7/20)
Who made this worth it?: Mercedes Martinez, Roman Reigns, Bayley
Notable Trends: Retribution is SOOOOOOOOOOOO BAD, Finn Balor wins NXT Title, Heel Roman Reigns, Heel+ Bayley
RAW (9/7/20)
Otherwise – messy, embarrassing show.
It’s cliche to spell it out at this point but WWE ran two tag splits (Cedric Alexander from Ricochet and maybe Angel Garza from Andrade) in a row followed by Peyton Royce vs. Billie Kay as a throwaway match – all necessary things in one way or another, but why here and why this way?
Cedric Alexander went heel and that was messy too – blowing through a few weeks of angles and matches in one night is appreciated for the glacial WWE but in this case it just felt weirdly paced. They setup an 8-man with The Viking Raiders, Apollo Crews and Ricochet against The Hurt Business and that’s not some big match but it really should feel bigger, right?
Then Ivar got injured during it. WTF?? Who’s in charge here? I need to speak to a manager.
The Mysterio Family payback on Murphy to end the show felt as forced as the sudden Tag Champ vs. Tag Champ feud, though neither read as strange as Liv Morgan pinning Shayna Baszler and not even that came close to the pain endured at the fact that Retribution have moved on from breaking down wrestling rings to hacking wrestling webcams.
Will Randy Orton and Drew McIntyre ever have anything new to say?
RAW Underground provides a welcome change of pace but hasn’t quite delivered yet. Is the play just a Dabbo Kato push??
NXT (9/8/20)
They’re good at The Style: wristlocks, momentum shifts, well-timed superkicks, callbacks, kickouts, etc etc. It’s occasionally very pleasing. But too many do it and there never seems to be enough motive or impact behind what they’re doing. The delivery itself is the type of thing I’m sure 99.9% of young wrestlers aspire to be capable of, but they’ve got to throw a twist in at some point or they really are just proving some bitter old timers right.
NXT commentary is a strange beast but I swear to you they were not buying it either – Beth Phoenix randomly spouting “what a war!” didn’t feel right, even if they were laying down and tired and whatnot.
Meanwhile, the Rhea Ripley vs. Mercedes Martinez main event – inside a STEEL CAGE – was INCREDIBLE. NXT’s cage matches can sometimes be a little too safe or cute, but this felt like the war a Cage Match should probably feel like all the time. Ripley attacked pre-bell and they didn’t let up, always moving or throwing each other into the cage. Martinez made sure to bring the pain and Ripley was completely game – it was like Martinez beat the ass-kicker back into her. There were weapons and a spider German suplex and Ripley did a freaking dropkick to the top rope. The table bump finish is wild too. Awesome, awesome match.
Bronson Reed did a great diving shoulderblock this week against Austin Theory. Seriously, one of the greatest. I think Theory might’ve been trying to pop the boys selling a strained back too, and it made for a fun match. Elsewhere, Candice LeRae threw salad in Tegan Nox‘s face and an Io Shirai/Shotzi Blackheart program kicked off with a more complex version of the Kane/Y2J coffee run-in.
MAIN EVENT (9/9/20)
NXT UK (9/10/20)
Matches aired were a pretty sweet Toni Storm vs. Kay Lee Ray in an I Quit Match from earlier this year and a low-key MOTYC in WALTER vs. Trent Seven from last summer.
SMACKDOWN (9/11/20)
“Ding dong?? Hello? Yes, I did. And I loved every single second of it.” – Bayley on trying to murder Sasha Banks
It isn’t often WWE takes a big swing and gets the tone right, let alone two at a time. Somehow though, some way – here we are. WWE ran the Roman Reigns heel turn and Bayley/Sasha Banks split in the last month and they can probably get away with doing nothing else, but the SmackDown surrounding them just seems like a more focused show in general now. Good vibes prop things up.
Roman Reigns, Paul Heyman at his side, not flinching as he told Jey Uso he was going to kick his ass at Clash of Champions – just like when they were little kids – and then things can go back to normal – just like when they were little kids – was tremendous wrestling. Easy to notice how good wrestling gets when Roman and the Usos get to do stuff together, even easier to notice how natural Roman is in this role – makes you wonder what took so long.
Bayley‘s purposeful walk to the ring was God tier heel stuff and she 200% smashed her promo, walking a special line between silly ol’ Pam and this new tortured soul produced by a decade under WWE management.
Everything else at least moved things forward, even if it didn’t move me. AJ Styles vs. Jeff Hardy for the IC Title was OK for 5 minutes. Otis/Morrison and the Bliss vs. Cross vs. Tamina vs. Lacey match were kind of washes, to be honest.
The Sheamus/Corbin vs. Jey Uso and kind of Roman Reigns main event felt very 2014 SmackDown with like 6 minutes of TV time, but Roman and Jey are spinning an absolute story. Just hit me how much history there is between Big E and Jey Uso too. At this point I’m declining to process the possibility of The Fiend facing Reigns at Mania like Biden not winning 2020.
205 LIVE (9/11/20)
I’m enjoying the growing confidence of Ever-Rise‘s Matt Martel – let him run his mouth on Friday nights.
Oney Lorcan/Danny Burch vs. Joaquin Wilde/Raul Mendoza has some sort of greatness in there but it was a pretty generic 205 closer this week.
