It is TOURNAMENT TIME in Japan but for some reason WWE is still airing television.
The Week in Review
Best Promos: Sasha Banks Exclusive Interview (SmackDown 9/18/20)
Best Angles: Kyle O’Reilly confronts Tommaso Ciampa (NXT 9/16/20), Big E returns and attacks Sheamus (SmackDown 9/18/20)
Who made this worth it?: Mickie James, Io Shirai, Roman Reigns, Jey Uso
Notable Trends: RAW is Retribution, NXT UK Returns
RAW (9/14/20)
The lone highlight was Asuka defending the RAW Women’s Title against Mickie James. Mickie took getting more than 5 minutes of TV time as cue to have a match up there with some of Asuka’s recent battles with the Four Horsewomen before a confusing referee stoppage disappointed everybody.
Lots of half-baked wrestling. Montez Ford wrecked himself a couple times vs. Cesaro & Nakamura but this mini-feud is clearly just killing time. Ricochet wrecked himself on Cedric Alexander‘s lumbar check, but their match made me sad. The Hurt Business is for real, but it’s wild how insignificant Ricochet vs. Cedric feels in September 2020 and Apollo Crews‘ promo made me kind of hurt inside too.
I don’t think Seth Rollins vs. Dominik Mysterio in a Steel Cage Match or even Rollins turning on Murphy were concepts with anything new to say.
I accept that they have finally figured out what they want Retribution to be, but YIKES what a rollout. In the final segment they ran in on McIntyre vs. Lee only for The Hurt Business to even the odds and kickstart a big brawl that ended with a double dive by McIntyre and Lee. On one hand the chaos was fun, on the other there are five layers of laziness to this.
I respect Drew Mac but this is just not it. Is Braun Strowman vs. Dabba Kato in RAW Underground it? Probably not!!!!!
NXT (9/16/20)
Before that though, I’ve got some questions.
Why did Drake Maverick suddenly decide his enemies are two members of The Undisputed Era? Is it good that Killian Dain is getting to show more range now? What is the play with Candice and Tegan? What kind of match does the new Johnny Gargano character actually pay off? Did KUSHIDA go back in time and see the creeps creeping? Did they quietly split up The Undisputed Era? Is Kyle O’Reilly going babyface? Is Kyle O’Reilly my new favorite wrestlers? Is Finn Balor gonna make me care again???
Anyways, the matches: three good ones! There are good wrestlers on this program and occasionally they wrestle.
Io Shirai vs. Shotzi Blackheart wasn’t just a good solid fun match; it effectively established Shotzi as a player in a variety of ways: going long with Io, visibly keeping up with her, and hitting or taking some buck wild moves. There were a few moments where it seemed like Io was going to run with her usual offense but Shotzi was right there waiting to stop it. Shotzi’s Tiger Suplex hold and Io’s German suplex on the apron were gorgeous in their destruction, while Io’s moonsault ended up a knee-sault which had to hurt but what a finish.
Breezango vs. Imperium for the Tag Titles was a blast, with a really impressive heel tag performance by Barthel & Aichner where they kept the pressure on better, did double teams better, and put together a better clever finish than the FTR/Jurassic Express tag on Dynamite this week. Tyler Breeze delivered some tremendous hot tag work here too.
It is insane to me NXT isn’t doing more with Thatcher, and I say this not even based on his wrestling but his PROMOS!! Regardless he not only isn’t dominating the roster, he has lost multiple high-profile matches – a strange approach, if you ask me!
Thatcher vs. Damian Priest was pretty good though. Priest is a Cool Dude, but the athletic big man thing might have jumped the shark. Thatcher didn’t play that game, instead spending his time reacting to taking an armdrag and blocking a dumb slingshot dive and chopping Priest in the throat. They pulled together some surprising drama for the finish too, like a fresh approach led to better results. Priest hit one of the greatest top rope spin kicks EVER here too.
MAIN EVENT (9/16/20)
NXT UK (9/17/20)
On first watch they might be the least impacted filming with no crowd, as most of the non-TakeOver UK crowd pops always felt so forced anyways. Kenny Williams & Amir Jordan vs. Wolfgang & Mark Coffey opened with a 20+ minute tag that felt like they were going long just to back in ring shape, and it was just as basic and boring as most NXT UK matches always kind of were.
Kay Lee Ray and Piper Niven exchanged lines that seemed scripted to be as basic and boring as possible, then Aofie Valkyrie beat Isla Dawn and Ilja Dragunov beat Noam Dar. Both were kind of basic and boring. I’m not saying bring back Superstar Picks but introducing old matches is probably easier on the body.
SMACKDOWN (9/18/20)
Real tired of the silly tag feud matches though where they don’t even really wrestle, just kind of get in place for interactions with guys on the outside of the ring to cause conflict. This week it was Cesaro vs. Gran Metalik – I mean, of all the matches!
Not sure why Matt Riddle is on TV if he’s going to suck and you’re going to make fun of him, but I’m not a lawyer. The Sami Zayn vs. AJ Styles match felt like a lesser version of something from another time. Speaking of, they’re going to wrestle Jeff Hardy in a Ladder Match!
Loved the Big E return – they are doing this so well and carefully that I’m starting to stress out.
Not sure if Sasha Banks crying post-Bayley turn was the move but I no longer question THE BOSS.
Cena is the babyface who never gave up hope, Roman the babyface who lost it. Ass kicker with a vengeance e is real.
The Roman Reigns/Jey Uso vs. Sheamus/King Corbin wasn’t much but the Jey’s timing on the post-match WWE Title raise/toss to Roman followed by Roman’s face transforming from loving brother to sociopath once Jey’s back was turned was AMAZING.
