Are you ever amazed that there is still just so much wrestling?
The Week in Review
Best Promos: Timothy Thatcher on life grinding you down (NXT 10/7/20), Roman Reigns announces an I Quit Hell in a Cell Match (SmackDown 10/9/20)
Best Angles: Mustafa Ali is revealed as the leader of Retribution (RAW 10/5/20), The New Day splits in the WWE Draft (SmackDown 10/9/20)
Who made this worth it?: Mustafa Ali, KUSHIDA, Roman Reigns, The New Day, Kevin Owens, Ashante “Thee” Adonis
Notable Trends: Mustafa Ali is the Leader of Retribution, NXT’s Injury Curse, The WWE Draft, New Day Splits
RAW (10/5/20)
Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler defended the Women’s Tag Titles against The Riott Squad and are now 2/2 for quality title defenses on TV. Ruby and Liv are solid babyfaces in need of a role and seemed to find that role as Nia & Shayna delivered some of the straight-up meanest arm work you’ll see in WWE. I can do without Nia putting Lana through another table, but Nia driving Ruby’s shoulder directly into the apron or cutting off Liv’s hot tag with a big clothesline is THE good shit.
The McIntyre/Street Profits vs. Orton/Ziggler/Roode 6-man main event was pretty good too.
The Seth Rollins, Murphy and Mysterio Family saga took up a lot of show but has lost the plot beyond belief, though I would like to apologize to Aalyah Mysterio for spelling her name wrong this whole time. The soap opera will always be on RAW, I just don’t know why the soap opera has to be so lame and bad.
Also, Keith Lee roared as he brawled with Braun Strowman and Bianca Belair won a Trivia Contest
Throughout the show, The Hurt Business teased finally recruiting either Mustafa Ali or Ricochet to their group – but when Ali and MVP wrestled before the 6-man, Retribution showed up (as they do) and … Mustafa Ali appears to be the leader of this mysterious bunch of ruckus-causing weirdos.
This, in a twist, all kind of makes sense (Ali was off TV forever, talent hates creative, the shine a light stuff) – though it also doesn’t, which is what happens when your shows are bad. Mustafa Ali rules and is one of those guys that is so good and likable that he might be able to cut through the garbage and do something special if given a spotlight. Might. Maybe.
NXT (10/7/20)
The tag main event with Ember and Rhea Ripley vs. Dakota Kai & Raquel Gonzalez wasn’t much but dang did I miss that Ember Moon tope.
Otherwise this show is just all over the place and all the people getting injured sucks too.
KUSHIDA and Tommaso Ciampa had a real fun match before Velveteen Dream ran-in. Indi Hartwell tried to make herself known by buying skeezy Johnny Gargano and skeptical Candice LeRae a 65″ TV. Drake Maverick & Killian Dain (in his TOOL t-shirt!) are trying the odd couple thing out and probably have Tag Titles in their future.
Quite honestly I thought BOA was released earlier this year but it looks like he was just injured and now he’s back and maybe with fellow Chinese person Xia Li.
Timothy Thatcher cut a kickass promo about what life does to a man, but he has lost too much. Austin Theory seems very capable every time he’s on TV (this time a squash against the also very capable Leon Ruff), but I know too much.
Ridge Holland vs. Danny Burch to setup Ridge vs. Oney Lorcan as a 2-week heat up for Ridge was the perfect idea and then Ridge got shoot injured. On the same show Finn Balor did a promo explaining that he is also injured but will not vacate the NXT Title. Which was a promo made necessary because the last guy who won the title vacated it the next day because of an injury.
MAIN EVENT (10/7/20)
Andrade wrestled Akira Tozawa too and used a lot of headlocks, but in an interesting way.
NXT UK (10/8/20)
At least Saxon Huxley was rewarded for his performance against WALTER 2 weeks ago by getting his very own squash match.
Toni Storm is off to America and both Kay Lee Ray and Piper Niven are ready to move on, so I think this particular women’s division might be in the roughest shape despite bad creative all over the company. KLR closed this week with a State of the Union promo that brought out the seven or so gals employed by NXT UK – nothing BIG was setup, just a lot of small things that will result in small matches over the next 2 or 3 weeks.
This week’s Heritage Cup match – Flash Morgan Webster vs. A-Kid – had more psychology and less guest ref BS than last week’s, but it still wasn’t much. The Pure Wrestling Rules aren’t changing things up enough on a show that has needed a change since before COVID – there is no British Wrestling charm here, just the same generic presentation and boxed in formula with maybe 10% more matwork and round breaks every few minutes.
SMACKDOWN (10/9/20)
I just want to help you.
I love you.
The first night of the WWE Draft was WWE’s best TV effort of the COVID era, probably a long while before that. Even besides a desperately needed facelift for each roster, they loaded this up: great promos, matches, returns, and at the end of the day a pretty straightforward pro wrestling build for the two top matches at Hell in a Cell.
The Draft itself put Bianca Belair in a big spot and sent the Rollins/Murphy/Mysterio Family saga to SmackDown, while AJ Styles, Naomi and Miz & Morrison are going to RAW.
Also, The New Day split up. Kind of.
Big Promo Roman Reigns‘ held up one pillar of this show and The New Day held the other. Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods returned and won the SmackDown Tag Titles from a tag team I’ve already forgot, a nice nod to BROCK coming back a year ago and winning the WWE Title off poor Kofi. The tag match kind of freaking ruled too, Kofi & Woods just seamlessly back into epic tag match mode.
Before all that, Big E and Sheamus had a Falls Count Anywhere match that was more ridiculous than grudge match, but they eventually found a balance. Michael Cole also brought an all-time great call for this of all things, just losing it over and crowbars and car stunts. A Big Ending off a car through a table is a heck of a finish too.
After the tag match, Kofi & Woods were drafted to RAW without Big E E, who was quickly drafted to SmackDown. Kofi and Woods’ reaction here was phenomenal – “Say E’s name. Say E’s name!” This is KIND OF a split, but really more of a development. I mean, it’s the same place. There is no ThunderDome 1 and ThunderDome 2.
Did you notice how they called Matt Riddle and Jeff Hardy “Matt and Jeff?” Did you get it?? Ha ha. Did you??
Respect to The Miz for doing business for basically everybody during this SmackDown run.
You know, there * looks around * WAS something there with Lars Sullivan before all the message boards and videos and whatnot *looks around *.
Sasha Banks/Bayley inside Hell in a Cell will rule, but everything in this feud since the turn has been iffy. It’s like they keep giving away the big moments (the title match here, Sasha’s revenge beatings) without actually doing anything important.
In some parallel universe, The Fiend vs. Kevin Owens match on this show is a really cool PPV match. It’s definitely The Fiend’s best and most interesting match besides the Daniel Bryan series, something that both brought the action while playing with how Fiendy the Fiend is.
205 LIVE (10/9/20)
In the main event, Ashante “Thee” Adonis arrived. Really. Brian Kendrick always seems to want to work these physical competitive matches with his Captain’s Hook as a big spot, and in the 205 Live environment they can come off real dry. Ashante added a spice here, big impact behind everything he did and a win that felt earned.
