WWE escapes from the Thunderdome and hits the road soon, which I’d say creates a fresh dynamic for them to play with but we saw how (not) well that worked out last year.
There are hints of effort at both introducing new talent and keeping the existing roster interesting, but just hints — statements were still made this week in the form of releasing another dozen wrestlers. None of them would’ve been my first pick in WWE 2k19, but we’ve also seen WWE so publicly drop the ball on talent again and again that it’s a bummer when the end game for them is just this.
So long for now to Tyler Breeze, Fandango, Ever-Rise, Tony Nese, Ariya Daivari, The Bollywood Boyz, August Grey, Curt Stallion, Arturo Ruas, and Marina Shafir — at least from the WWE TV reviews section of Happy Wrestling Land.
I’m playing with a new dynamic myself here as Bullet Points make their debut in the Working Man’s WWE TV Review.
Working Man’s Recap
Highlights:
- Adam Cole vs. Carmelo Hayes (NXT 6/22/21)
- Kyle O’Reilly vs. KUSHIDA (NXT 6/22/21)
- Triple Threat Match: Ilja Dragunov vs. Joe Coffey vs. Rampage Brown (NXT UK 6/24/21)
- Bianca Belair & Cesaro vs. Bayley & Seth Rollins (SmackDown 6/25/21)
- The Diamond Mine debuts (NXT 6/22/21)
Good Work: Xavier Woods, Bobby Lashley, Drew McIntyre, Nikki Cross, Carmelo Hayes, KUSHIDA, Ilja Dragunov, Bianca Belair, Seth Rollins
World: Kofi Kingston Challenges Bobby Lashley, Messy Women’s Divisions, The Diamond Mine Debuts, Rohan Raja Turns Heel, WALTER chokes out Ilja Dragunov, Edge Returns
RAW (6/21/21)
RAW was kind of hilarious this week. At the very least it was a change of pace, with Xavier Woods challenging Bobby Lashley to an unexpected Hell in a Cell main event after Kofi Kingston challenged Bob to a pretty expected WWE Title match at Money in the Bank.
- Lashley’s quick acceptance of Kofi’s challenge was so goddam cool.
-
It was a week of Money in the Bank qualifiers.
-
AJ Styles/Ricochet (part 15) and Randy Orton/John Morrison (first ever) were pretty mid-grade, but Drew McIntyre/Riddle ruled.
-
Drew McIntyre the WWE Main Event guy was proven horrendous in the last year, but Drew the G1 Climax guy opposite a Sheamus or Riddle always looks among the best in the world. He and Riddle messed each other up with strikes while creating more drama than the Thunderdome is used to seeing. Very good stuff.
-
Eva Marie introduced Piper Niven as Doudrop, then Nikki Cross got re-introduced as a superhero.
-
Main event performance by Xavier Woods, who looked credible against big Bobby Lashley until it was time to take a bunch of totally insane bumps for the Champ – which he did. Better than any Cell match WWE put on this year besides maybe Belair/Bayley.
-
Riddle and Randy Orton trading lines, Mandy Rose reading lines, professional writers doing lines as they come up with another rematch setup for Rhea Ripley/Charlotte Flair… just hilarious.
NXT (6/22/21)
NXT’s Great American Bash on TV in a couple weeks is infinitely more interesting than TakeOver: In Your House a couple weeks ago, which is a common situation that dilutes both. Regardless, the Diamond Mine has arrived and provided another lifeline for this rebounding brand.
- Carmelo Hayes has had as good a start as possible in WWE – fun teaser trailer vs. KUSHIDA a few weeks ago, and here he was name-dropping “Ruthless Aggression” and challenging Adam Cole and looking like a guy who could be A Guy someday. Give the Adam Cole match a reason to be there and it can be pretty good. One of the coolest bumps for the Panama Sunrise ever here.
-
Johnny Gargano/Austin Theory vs. Pete Dunne/Oney Lorcan in the middle of the show was a pretty great tag match held back by the usual Capitol Wrestling Center vibes, though I’m happy to see Gargano and Dunne in highlighted roles again. “You gonna knuck ’em?” he says to Regal. Hilarious.
-
Hit Row got a good enhancement match against Ever-Rise, as did Io Shirai & Zoey Stark against the Robert Stone Brand.
-
The movement across the rest of the show was iffy: the tag team division, LA Knight, Cameron Grimes, a battery charging vignette, and Samoa Joe are all doing stuff.
-
Franky Monet could very well get over, I don’t know.
-
Kyle O’Reilly vs. KUSHIDA was the main event and ruled. One of them grabbed an arm and they didn’t stop until O’Reilly hit a dreaded schoolboy cradle.
-
The Diamond Mine!! Malcolm Bivens (finally!), Tyler Rust (fine!), Hideki Suzuki (WHAT) and a mercenary-looking Roderick Strong appeared and beat the shit out of KUSHIDA, ending the show with me more interested in what comes next on NXT since that time Balor turned heel and they didn’t really follow up.
MAIN EVENT (6/23/21)
Main Event got a pair of awkward tryouts form NXT’s male champions this week – cool!
- Bronson Reed smiled on his way to ring like someone special was watching, then tossed Drew Gulak around in an effective enough showcase.
-
Karrion Kross (without Scarlett!) mostly did the same to Shelton Benjamin with a little more mugging to the camera and a messed-up suplex.
NXT UK (6/24/21)
Another “world-building” week for the lads, though Ilja Dragunov rules and WALTER did a thing.
- Watched Joe Coffey/Sha Samuels twice and still can’t remember.
-
Stevie Turner: very cool intro, very cool finisher.
-
The mysterious Blair Davenport signed a contract in the dark.
-
Teoman beat Oliver Carter in a pretty even match, then got ran off by Rohan Raja.. who turned on Carter! All three of these guys seem ready to move on from squashes and enhancement, so good stuff.
-
It’s Tyler Bate/Jack Starz and A-Kid/Jordan Devlin next week – could be good wrestling
-
Ilja Dragunov took the Make a Triple Threat Good Challenge with Joe Coffey and Rampage Brown and kind of surpassed expectations. The match itself was good if not pretty typical 3-way dance wrestling, but Dragunov’s selling and bumps and general intensity made this thing really rock when it needed to.
-
WALTER choked out Dragunov to end the show and made me gasp.
SMACKDOWN (6/25/21)
Another Solid SmackDown, though one just getting by on the fact that it had Edge returning as a surprise at the end.
- The Bianca Belair/Cesaro vs. Seth Rollins/Bayley was another fun change of pace on TV this week, everyone putting some extra into the wrestling exchanges they’ve done a few times recently. I feel like the last time WWE did a serious mixed tag was Roman/Sasha vs. Rusev/Charlotte and that ruled too – should probably be more of these.
-
Five years after his WWE debut, it hits WWE that Shinsuke Nakamura should have a crown.
-
Really not sure I have time for a Baron Corbin redemption arc.
-
Big E vs. Apollo Crews for the IC Title might’ve been the longest and best match they’ve had together, even if the Nigerian Drum Fight was a blast – great chemistry, these two.
-
Liv Morgan over Carmella was what we in the business call a pleasant surprise.
-
With Jey Uso missing and Roman closing the show, Jimmy Uso vs. Dolph Ziggler felt like a poor replacement for the Roman/Uso drama I expect on my Friday nights.
-
The tease of Seth Rollins wanting a shot at the title only to bring back Edge to spear Roman Reigns was an actual good bit, but hey: it’s Edge again. I appreciate the idea but the execution remains iffy, and Michael Cole’s forced “it’s him! he’s here!” stuff didn’t help.
205 LIVE (6/25/21)
The releases on Friday mostly hit 205 Live regulars, including two who wrestled on this very show. August Grey, Curt Stallion and Ever-Rise being cut is just a depressing waste of everyone’s time, while I just assumed Ariya Daivari and Tony Nese would be lifers. They’ll probably be back, but Nese in particular was hitting some weird stride the last few months introducing new guys into the mix and then poof – he’s gone. Cold. Sad. Silly.
- Ariya Daivari put over Ikeman Jiro, who took a beating then Had Fun on his way to a win. Daivari is a guy who’s so solid it becomes boring, but times like these remind you he’s still so solid.
-
Grayson Waller over August Grey in the main event was a more foreboding type of match.
