It was a week that started off feeling like a year and ended just feeling like a week.
SmackDown was the only thing that worked.
The Week in Review
Best Promos: Pat McAfee on The Undisputed Era (NXT 11/4/20)
Best Angles: Roman Reigns admonishes Jey Uso (SmackDown 11/6/20)
Who made this worth it?: Sheamus, Mustafa Ali, Pat McAfee, Shotzi Blackheart, Sasha Banks, Bayley, Rey Mysterio, Roman Reigns
Notable Trends: RAW is Bad, The Tribal Chief
RAW (11/2/20)
There were a few moments of light. Mustafa Ali is so good that it’s bumming me out weekly how much WWE’s already shat on Retribution. Keith Lee vs. Sheamus vs. Braun Strowman exceeded any expectation, an absolute workhorse special with all three of these huge men moving quick and bumping huge to the point that I forgot how silly a triple threat usually is. The Tower of Doom spot is the worst, but MAN – this one was cool.
The fake cheers for The New Day‘s jokes caused me physical pain, but their tag with Cedric Alexander & Shelton Benjamin was a much better RAW match than usual. In other Hurt Business news, R-Truth bumped like a professional lunatic for Bob Lashley.
There was a Guitar on a Pole match. A Women’s Tag Team Titles match. Two Nia Jax matches. Drew Gulak won the 24/7 Title. Team RAW argued about Survivor Series. It was mostly just dull.
WE SEE YOU, TUCKER KNIGHT – WE RESPECT YOU
NXT (11/4/20)
There was some solid wrestling as usual, most notably the Toni Storm vs. Shotzi Blackheart which had more intensity and drama than anything on RAW. Between this and the Io Shirai match, the Blackheart Ball Pit is undeniable.
The Ember Moon tope suicida remains astounding and Dakota Kai can work, but a common theme in NXT is a match where they pull out all the stops and hit all the notes but ultimately don’t connect – that was this, as was KUSHIDA vs. Cameron Grimes which at least had KUSHIDA kicking somebody’s ass.
Timothy Thatcher is a good promo and should just stay doing what he’s doing until there’s something more interesting to do. Pat McAfee is an even better promo, coming off like a guy new to a company who hasn’t been sucked into all the workplace quirks just yet. This dude is saying things that make the feud he is in make SENSE. Who does this guy think he is???
MAIN EVENT (11/4/20)
NXT UK (11/5/20)
Piper Niven has upped her intensity now, aw yeah, she’s real intense. She used a chair on Jinny and the jobber Jinny wrestled, yeah. Jinny was wrestling more intense too, so we’ve got a couple of intense people on this roster who are gunning for Kay Lee Ray‘s NXT UK Women’s Championship.
Eddie Dennis seems to have pretty quietly dropped Pretty Deadly for The Hunt, which really does make sense even if you wish they would’ve had the week or two of forethought required to not do that kind of thing. Pretty Deadly teamed with Sam Gradwell against Gallus (even Joe) and I didn’t like watching Gallus wrestle much before COVID and #SpeakingOut and I certainly do not now.
A-Kid advanced to the Heritage Cup Finals with a win over Noam Dar in a match that was impressive athletically but overall just a tease of what could be something better if WWE weren’t such weirdos. The Heritage Cup so far has been a bummer.
SMACKDOWN (11/6/20)
SASHA/BAYLEY!! They wrestled for the SmackDown Women’s Title and you have to appreciate the variety of environments this pairing has had, from a rabid crowd at NXT Brooklyn to a Hell in a Cell to Thunderdome SmackDown. This felt like their best straight match against each other on the main roster, skipping a need for matwork or credibility establishment and just going hard with incredible moves while trusting each other to hit everything perfect and make it look good – and they did.
I’m just going to list all the cool stuff: Sasha’s baseball slide trip on the apron, Sasha’s huge bump onto the turnbuckle post, Sasha’s perfect High Fly Flow, the FORM on Bayley’s elbow drop, Bayley’s own huge bump on the turnbuckle post, and probably five or six other things I missed. Then Bayley just straight-up TAPPED. They found love in a hopeless place.
ROMAN/JEY!! They’re on their way to Survivor Series and somehow not even that is bad yet. Tribal Chief Roman Reigns might be the most consistent character in WWE… ever. The writing and delivery gets me in my insides every time: “I’m sorry, Uce, but he [Daniel Bryan] ain’t blood.” “Sounds like he [Kevin Owens] was disrespecting you.” Jey vs. KO closed the show strong too, another case of Jey showing he can go in singles opposite all the kings of the independents.
ROLLINS/MYSTERIO!! I’m kidding. But their feud was good this week not because of Seth and not because of drama, but because Rey Mysterio had a sweet match. How often does he get to do that lately!? Sweatpants and t-shirt Rey Rey can still get it done, especially with King Corbin who was game and brought not only a Canadian Backbreaker but a BEARHUG.
205 LIVE (11/6/20)
Mansoor vs. Ashante “Thee” Adonis and Curt Stallion/August Grey vs. Tony Nese/Ariya Daivari were fine matches though, yes. Why didn’t they keep Kassius Ohno and let him work a fat guy gimmick here?
