I sat in the Thunderdome for SmackDown last night and I can’t stop thinking about the producer’s crowd work at the start of the show where he asked everybody how many times they had been in The Thunderdome then told the winners they had too much time on their hands.
The Week in Review
Best Promos: Jey Uso and Roman Reigns Have Words (SmackDown 9/25/20)
Best Angles: Roman Reigns attacks Jey Uso (SmackDown 9/25/20)
Who made this worth it?: Kyle O’Reilly, Bianca Belair, Roman Reigns, Jey Uso
Notable Trends: SLAPJACK, MACE, T-BONE
RAW (9/21/20)
There is technically a roster here but they are scattered across a never-ending Rey Mysterio/Seth Rollins feud, 5-minute Drew McIntyre/Keith Lee matches, and just a lot of nonsense to setup what’s pretty much a bunch of rematches at Clash of Champions.
There was also the REALLY bad stuff: Seth Rollins talking DNA tests while his boys are killing it on Dynamite and SmackDown is something else, while I am pretty sure the WWE office is just bullying Mickie James and Lana at this point. Then Braun Strowman wrecked Daba-Katto???
There was also Retribution. The masked weirdos narrowed down to a core group of the former Dominik Dijakovic, Dio Maddin, Shane Thorne, Mia Yim, and Mercedes Martinez… who are now basically SAnitY in loose-fitting Bane masks cutting leftover Kane promos with the stupidest names WWE has ever given anybody. I… just don’t want to talk about it.
NXT (9/23/20)
Speaking of direction, there should be one for the NXT Women’s Division! How do you go with the same old #1 Contender’s Battle Royal a couple weeks before TakeOver to setup Candice LeRae as Io Shirai‘s next challenger when that’s the easiest layup of a story? Oh, is it because Tegan Nox tore her ACL? Maybe? Get well, Tegan.
If WWE is going to employ over-complicated rules, having Johnny Curtis explain those dumbass rules is an ideal approach. Roderick Strong & Danny Burch vs. Fabian Aichner & Raul Mendoza to setup a #1 Contender’s Match (yawn) next week was silly but SOMETHING different and pretty good. Strong’s toss backbreaker into the corner was insane, but Burch getting a clean win on TV might be more insane.
The Gauntlet Elimnator as a match concept is eh, but the match was good – mostly because Kyle O’Reilly opened it with his old pal KUSHIDA and lasted to the end for the big win. O’Reilly vs. Timothy Thatcher was a big tease while Bronson Reed and Cameron Grimes brought the action.
MAIN EVENT (9/23/20)
Mustafa Ali vs. Ricochet happened again too and it was more safe fun wrestling.
NXT UK (9/24/20)
WALTER vs. Saxon Huxley opened and was undeniably awesome though, with big Saxon bringing it non-stop to WALTER and WALTER game to throw it back. They were trying out some camera angles here too to give it a studio feel and I dug it. The Hunt vs. Pretty Deadly was rock solid too.
Kay Lee Ray vs. Piper Niven for the NXT UK Women’s Title was pretty good but way overwhelmed by a fake injury angle that they played way too seriously at first then made way too complicated after.
The Heritage Cup stuff is nice and all but is Pete Dunne going to wrestle or not?
SMACKDOWN (9/25/20)
The Universal Title feud continued to carry this show, with Jey Uso cutting what would have been the Promo of the Year: “There goes the Big Dog, there goes Roman Reigns, there goes Mr. Main Event, Mr. WrestleMania – you know what they say when they see me, Uce? Which one are YOU?”
I say would have because dang Roman Reigns cut the actual Promo of the Year, knocking Jey out at the end of the show and screaming at him with a passion unseen from him or professional wrestling in general in years. This is about FAMILY.
Elsewhere…
They did a Triple Threat Match before the Triple Threat Ladder Match on Sunday. Nakamura and Metalik had a really fun really short match. Corbin and Riddle had a really lame really long match. Alexa Bliss is acting Fiendy, and they sent Bayley out there to kill time too.
