Working Man’s WWE TV Review: 11/22/20 – 11/28/20

I don’t know – I stayed home.

The Week in Review

Best Matches: Keith Lee vs. Bobby Lashley (RAW 11/23/20), Heritage Cup – Final: Trent Seven vs. A-Kid (NXT UK 11/26/20)

Best Promos: MizTV w/ Retribution (Main Event 11/25/20)

Best Angles: Toni Storm turns on Ember Moon (NXT 11/25/20), Jey Uso gets Daniel Bryan counted out (SmackDown 11/27/20)

Who made this worth it?: Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods, Keith Lee, Kevin Owens, Jey Uso

Notable Trends: RAW is Bad, WarGames Season, Jey Uso is an Actor

RAW (11/23/20)

This was another really, really unjustifiably bad wrestling show with a few good wrestling matches.

The Kingston/Woods vs. Cedric/Shelton rematch for the RAW Tag Titles wasn’t as good as last week’s but this is what you’d call a “good series” at this point. Cedric is figuring something out and Kofi and Woods are tag team legends.

Sheamus vs. Riddle was just good for it, a reliably physical match plus barefoot kicks and an ankle lock that twisted that foot. Even better was Keith Lee vs. Bobby Lashley, a lovechild of mid-80s WWF mixed with mid-90s beefiness. There should be more of this, and it shouldn’t be using the “winners qualify for some triple for a shot at the WWE Title” trope.

They should’ve used the promo and match from Main Event (below) because the show would’ve been a little better. Asuka has ran out of things to do. Is “Scrap Iron” Adam Pearce the protagonist of all this?

Rating: 3/10

NXT (11/25/20)

This felt way more focused on quickly getting things in place for TakeOver: WarGames than making me smile or anything.

Kevin Owens did a fine job guest starring on commentary then a fine job hosting a KO Show that got all meta with Leon Ruff to setup a WarGames match.

Toni Storm turned heel on Ember Moon too and that’s fun and all but it really just felt like something they did to setup a WarGames match.

KUSHIDA vs. Timothy Thatcher was a fun bit of grappling with KUSHIDA just working Thatcher down into tapping out, not the most hopeful moment for a Thatcher fan but with his rival Tommaso Ciampa at ringside it did seem to setup a WarGames match.

Kyle O’Reilly and Pete Dunne‘s crazy bumps made me kind of like the Ladder Match main event but there have been a LOT of those lately. This one gave The Brand the advantage in a WarGames match.

Also, William Regal announced Cameron Grimes vs. Dexter Lumis in a Strap Match as another WarGames match.

Rating: 3/10

MAIN EVENT (11/25/20)

They packed this show with something relevant for the first time in years and as one of 15 people who has seen every Main Event, I was both confused by and appreciated it.

The Miz, last seen winning that big Battle Royal at Survivor Series, hosted MizTV with Retribution and everybody finally just straight-up explained what Retribution’s deal is. It was a genuinely solid promo that could’ve been used on a Monday night three months ago. R-Truth and Gobbledy Gooker got involved afterwards but we can move on.

Up next was Jeff Hardy vs. Ricochet, which wasn’t much more than solid but had a lot going on: first time match, Ricochet actually won, and Elias played a song the entire time. It was kind of a Main Event Match Worth Watching.

Rating: 6/10

NXT UK (11/26/20)

Jordan Devlin has re-entered the chat and defended his (original) NXT Cruiserweight Title against Amir Jordan in an unspectacular match. Isla Dawn vs. Jinny was even less spectacular, but the big match here was the conclusion to the rounds-based/ROH Pure Title Heritage Cup tournament that hasn’t had one match I’d recommend seeing besides maybe this one.

Maybe. WWE doing rounds matches with rock music blaring in between them and barely any good old-fashioned World of Sport stuff is just… I don’t know, what’s the point? At some point you’re just doing Velocity matches with more commercial breaks.

Trent Seven and A-Kid concluded it with something more though and had a good match, one that felt competitive and didn’t lose momentum even if they had to force a couple pins in there to up the drama. NXT UK hasn’t been very good at (among other things) showcasing A-Kid, but old Trent did a fine job and made sure to hit a couple insane lariats in there too. The Heritage Cup overall was a dud, but establishing A-Kid is an admirable feat.

Rating: 4/10

SMACKDOWN (11/27/20)

ThunderDome is painful and I’m pretty sure they made this up as they went along, but SmackDown is kind of reliably pleasant now.

The weak spots are more boring than terrible: Ziggler & Roode are going to challenge for the tag titles and Carmella has got a chip on her shoulder. King Corbin as a foil for the The Mysterio Family seems like a step down from something that wasn’t even interesting in the first place.

Billie Kay still cracks me up, a Bayley/Bianca Belair feud is promising, and Jey Uso is doing legendary work week after week after week.

Roman Reigns continues to be a monster, but Jey Uso’s inner turmoil is the heart of this show and just made Kevin Owens a big deal again. They wrestled for a bit in the main event before Jey tried to spook Owens with chairshots and Owens fought back. Owens stared into the camera at Roman as he dished out a mauling, likely now aware that NXT is no longer greener pastures and he must fight again.

Jey was the thread for all the real good stuff this week, including a really cool Daniel Bryan/Sami Zayn match for the IC Title. Even Bryan and Zayn doing their thing one too many times can seem as silly as a Ladder Match in the Thunderdome, but this was getting moving until Zayn tried to escape backstage and Bryan went after him. Zayn returned, Bryan got beat up by Jey Uso, and Owens got involved to setup that main event.

Rating: 6/10

205 LIVE (11/27/20)

The 205 Veterans vs. New Generation continued this week, kind of. Ariya Daivari vs. August Grey and Raul Mendoza vs. Curt Stallion aren’t the type of matches that pop off the screen, and they did not. If I didn’t know any better I’d think they were setting up the weirdest WarGames ever.

Rating: 2/10