There are many ways to say what has already been said about how bad WWE TV usually is, and this week conjured many of those same thoughts.
If you skipped to the end of most shows though, there was a GREAT match.
Anything Worth Watching?
Promos: Hulk Hogan (RAW 1/4/21), Supernova Sessions w/ Ben Carter (NXT UK 1/7/21), Roman Reigns scares Adam Pearce (SmackDown 1/8/21)
Angles: Goldberg challenges Drew McIntyre (RAW 1/6/21)
Wrestlers: Keith Lee, Finn Balor, Ben Carter, Shinsuke Nakamura, Roman Reigns
Key Trends: Goooooldberg, Good Wrestlers, Ben Carter Debuts, The Tribal Chief
RAW (1/4/21)
They brought in plenty of wrestlers that used to wrestle, but there is no identity to this anymore and I thought branding was WWE’s strong suit. You don’t have to go full backstory, but come on: Sgt. Slaughter, Mickie James, and Tatanka together? Everyone of varying generations and levels of success just sitting on folding chairs watching the match at the end? During COVID?
There is low effort and then there is just a complete absence of thought and joy.
That insane Hulk Hogan promo at the start of the show was the only thing that captured the kind of vibe WWE used to have where they were in on the joke. Glad Bruce can do it with Hulk; now do it with everyone else.
Randy Orton and Angel Garza were featured the most, which is weird considering there aren’t a lot of interesting places they could go right now to get their comeuppance.
Can’t even begin to think about that Charlotte Flair and Ric Flair thing.
Drew McIntyre vs. Keith Lee for the WWE Title was a real main event, an island of an important championship match to close this crappy show with both guys delivering the big WWE welcome to New Year’s match and just beating the shit out of each other. The Lee main roster run has been spotty to say the least, but the journey remains a rare bright one in Thunderdome WWE.
Goldberg challenging Drew after was a welcome shock, mostly because Roman Reigns is on such a roll I don’t see the value in him veering off for a spectacle match with Goldberg. Drew though? He could use the help. The disrespect angle of Goldberg’s promo made no sense and one could ask why he didn’t help anybody being harassed all night by Randy Orton, but I think we’re just going to move on.
NXT (1/6/21)
Damian Priest/Karrion Kross was a boring match of two unappealing tall guys who theoretically should feel important in short guy NXT. Santos Escobar/Gran Metalik for the NXT Cruiserweight Title was pretty good, just too low key to stand out even with a Romero Special and rana catch on the apron.
Rhea Ripley vs. Raquel Gonzalez falls count anywhere was a sweet spot for both but kind of just them interacting with the elements, video game-style. I’m into KUSHIDA doing uhhh anything so him and Shotzi vs. Johnny & Candice was a fun surprise. Loved Shotzi’s tope being so insane that Candice couldn’t properly catch it despite her best efforts.
Finn Balor vs. Kyle O’Reilly was more great grappling from these two and another example of main event O’Reilly being a beast of a wrestler: counters, selling, strength, credibility.. all the good stuff. It wasn’t as high-end as the TakeOver match where they tried to kill each other and a few spots didn’t click, but it’s always fun these days when Balor reminds you he’s one of the greats.
A few decent reboots this week too: Xia Li looks like a MONSTER and Bronson Reed cut a good promo. A Women’s Dusty Rhodes Classic makes too much sense too considering how stacked the roster is – hopefully it reboots somebody.
MAIN EVENT (1/6/21)
NXT UK (1/7/21)
He showed up on Noam Dar’s Supernova Sessions talk show and felt like one of the only guys they’ve allowed recently to be not completely scripted – that or he has the magic touch of making WWE TV scripts sound loose and logical. He seems good, but that’s superhuman stuff.
He also wrestled Jordan Devlin for the NXT Cruiserweight Title (the other one), which was a great match that had a lot of fun little touches. Devlin works tight and Carter is good in between the flying. The finish came together kind of brilliantly: Carter turned Devlin’s backdrop finisher into a Code Red (!), but got caught in a Texas Cloverleaf which he valiantly escaped. Devlin followed up quick on a hurting Carter with Kawada kicks and the backdrop for 3. Man. Woo.
Elsewhere… Joseph Conners is Jinny‘s valet now and helped her beat Piper Niven for a shot at the Women’s Title, while Tyler Bate is trying to find himself and it has the (actually funny) Sam Gradwell all fired up.
SMACKDOWN (1/8/21)
First though: two other title matches. Big E/Apollo Crews for the IC Title was an all-action match with an actually good false double pin in the middle. These two went hard and worked fast but everything flowed seamlessly to the next – awesome match.
Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode won the Tag Titles from Street Profits for some goddamn reason and it was OK but nothing new, the kind of filler WWE TV match I wish they didn’t do so well. I love Dawkins but Montez Ford was incredible here, superstar reactions to everything.
By every measure, Bayley and Bianca Belair is a REAL a good feud.
Gauntlet Match rocked. I would’ve loved more of Rey Mysterio/Sami Zayn (who’s a Documentarian now!) but it made for a fun kickoff to the match, and then this was The Shinsuke Nakamura Show on FOX! I did not expect that either.
Among a fun bunch of wrestling, he countered Rey’s sunset flip to the floor with a roll-through and Sliding D, then countered a splash with a cross armbreaker (really smoothly!) to advance. Him vs. King Corbin slowed things down but even that was impressive, with Nak suddenly working sympathetic babyface. And then he and Daniel Bryan did another fun bunch of wrestling, still not the epic one might’ve hoped for years ago but still a blast of a main event on FOX.
Nakamura’s win was genuinely surprising and an interesting direction, until Roman Reigns and company brought out “WWE Official” Adam Pearce and helped him win, setting up * checks notes* Roman Reigns vs. Adam Pearce for the WWE Universal Title at the Royal Rumble. I freaking love Adam Pearce, but the Nak match sounded a LOT cooler.
205 LIVE (1/8/21)
Most of the guys here are pretty good or at least have potential, but they’re packaged in a more generic presentation than even the main roster.
Ashante “Thee” Adonis vs. Ariya Daivari and Curt Stallion/August Grey vs. The Bollywood Boyz were a pair of fine matches, but at some point WWE became less about establishing gimmicks and more about following a dream of establishing a gimmick, and 205 Live is way too much of the latter.
