I have spent little amounts of energy every week for the past year trying to think of an interesting introduction to the Working Man’s WWE TV Review that didn’t just read this:
The Thunderdome sucks.
Personally, I don’t think I did a very good job.
As WWE returns to the road next week for more questionable pro wrestling activity, they’ll have the benefit of a live audience and I can’t wait.
Why? Because the Thunderdome sucked.
WWE TV Recap (7/4/21 – 7/10/21)
Highlights:
- AJ Styles vs. Riddle (RAW 7/5/21)
- NXT Tag Team Title: MSK [c] vs. Tommaso Ciampa & Timothy Thatcher (NXT 7/6/21)
- Kyle O’Reilly vs. Adam Cole (NXT 7/6/21)
- Hit Row’s NXT North American Title Cypher Celebration (NXT 7/6/21)
- Roman Reigns and The Usos embrace (SmackDown 7/9/21)
Stuff Happening: Money in the Bank, Great American Bash, Hit Row Cypher, Blair Davenport Debuts, Tegan Nox Returns & Debuts, Shotzi and Toni Storm Called Up, Bayley is Injured
Good Work: Riddle, Bobby Lashley, MSK, Hit Row, Roman Reigns, Bayley, Shotzi Blackheart, Tegan Nox
RAW (7/5/21)
RAW’s getting a little friskier headed into the summer, though maybe I’m just projecting.
- Riddle climbing the Money in the Bank ladder because that’s what people do made me laugh. Riddle makes me laugh every week.
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The Miz in a wheelchair is a very good manager.
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Somebody has to make Ricochet stop, both the jokes and dangerous spots for TV matches with John Morrison.
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With Rhea Ripley and Charlotte Flair killing time like it’s midseason on a Netflix Marvel series, other women are at least getting a shot at shine: Nikki A.S.H. and Doudrop have the worst names but have that key attribute where they’re likable.
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Mustafa Ali and Mansoor are kind of re-running the Kendrick/Tozawa 205 Live “lessons” feud.
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Drew McIntyre cuts promos with the tall tale content of Hulk Hogan but the downtrodden tone of, like, Nick Nolte.
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Lucha House Party vs. T-BAR & MACE – a Main Event series for the ages – had its’ third 5-minute match on RAW.
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AJ Styles vs. Riddle was a good three-star TV match about foot pain.
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Jaxson Ryker & R-Truth vs. Cedric Alexander & Elias with cameos by the 24/7 Title division was not good TV but at least an attempt to get the boys on the show.
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Bobby Lashley & MVP vs. Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods was the main event and kind of like the feud. All Mighty Lashley is on a run and Kofi always steps up but it is all very plug-and-play WWE wrestling.
NXT (7/6/21)
This week’s NXT was the Great American Bash, a tribute to when NXT used to awkwardly try and compete with AEW by using intellectual property that Cody Rhodes’ dad popularized.
- Good, consistent show.
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MSK vs. Timothy Thatcher & Tommaso Ciampa was an awesome match that occasionally called upon the vibes of early TakeOver openers. Inside a traditionally awesome tag structure, Wes (Lee) was especially crisp, Nash (Carter) threw hands, and the whole thing felt like Rey vs. Angle in doubles or something. The 200 or so people inside the CWC were HOT for this one.
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Eli Drake vs. Cameron Grimes for the Million Dollar Title was the weakest part of the show, mostly because there’s useful roles for either guy and having them feud seems to cancel that out. Technically competent wrestling, yep.
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The Breakout Tournament is this: Ikeman Jiro, Carmelo Hayes, Trey Baxter, Andre Chase, Joe Gacy, Odyssey Jones, Josh Briggs, and Duke Hudson. All are pretty freshly signed with the exception of Hudson, who looks like Wade Barrett re-incarnated but was kept in Performance Center storage for two-and-a-half years.
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Io Shirai‘s intangible is “fearless.” So true.
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Io and Zoey Stark beat Candice LeRae & Indi Hartwell for the NXT Women’s Tag Team Titles after 5 minutes of action and an assist from the returning Tegan Nox, who is the battery girl with the shiniest wizard. All cool but a little busy.
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The Hit Row Cypher / North American Title celebration was better than wrestling. The definition continues.
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Adam Cole vs. Kyle O’Reilly is a match I became bored of somewhere around WWE but it was probably their best one here, stripped down and all-action with cool Kyle selling that leg. O’Reilly’s backdrop hold was gorgeous.
MAIN EVENT (7/7/21)
WWE Main Event, an everlasting search for newfound aggression.
- Veer beat freaking Jeff Hardy, 1-2-3. Byron Saxton’s delivery of how eventful this was was so perfectly pedestrian I can’t even be mad.
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Shelton Benjamin vs. Angel Garza had some cool stuff in it: wild flat back bump by Garza on a German suplex, Shelton faking a handshake and hitting a spinebuster. It’s the little things.
NXT UK (7/8/21)
A more nothing than usual episode of NXT UK and then suddenly WALTER/Dragunov II was announced for 2 weeks from now and Moustache Mountain reunited (again) in the main event. Ah Bea Priestley is here now too.
- Kenny Williams is using more Jon Moxley moves than you’d expect these days. He cheated to beat Nathan Frazer, who is having Better Than Normal WWE TV matches every few weeks now.
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Mark Andrews vs. Lewis Howley was another solid match with impressive flying from the infrequent but ageless Andrews. Howley (of Pretty Deadly, the NXT Tag Team Champions) has those Terra Ryzing feels.
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Dave Mastiff is being condescending to Jack Starz and Tyler Bate is entertaining a challenge from Mark Coffey, if you want to know how next week is shaping up.
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Blair Davenport is impressive but top gaijin in Japan impressive like Nigel said? I dunno, man. Solid debut. Her and Meiko is gonna be fun.
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Trent Seven and Eddie Dennis had a top rope Emerald Flowsion, a Burning Hammer, and interference from the Primate and Tyson T-Bone. Tyler Bate joined Seven to run off the baddies post-match.
SMACKDOWN (7/9/21)
Bayley is out until next year with an injury which means wrestling is a lot less fun for the rest of the year, crowd or not.
- Carmella as the replacement to challenge Bianca Belair at the first SmackDown with fans is a choice too – WWE knows their audience. I mean that.
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Roman Reigns cut a scary good promo where he went off on Edge as a meaner prime Randy Orton to a sociopathic Bret Hart bringing The Usos together, all in 10 minutes.
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King Nakamura and Rick Boogz are the coolest dudes with zero chemistry.
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I can’t believe there was another King Nakamura/Baron Corbin match and I think this was the longest one too. There was a brainbuster on a table for some reason.
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A couple days after she returned to NXT, Tegan Nox made her debut on SmackDown where she teamed with Shotzi Blackheart and beat the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions. That’s just how it goes sometimes. I don’t think the Shotzi and Ember Moon team had legs, but this was random — neat, but random. Speaking of… Toni Storm is headed to Smack-Dahn too.
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Liv Morgan is in the Money in the Bank though I’ll be honest I thought she already was.
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Cesaro vs. Seth Rollins was another OK match that isn’t going to touch the one they had with a crowd at WrestleMania, though Cesaro did start bleeding profusely in the middle of it. Rollins qualifies for Money in the Bank and Cesaro continues to be brought back down to the level he was before.
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I may be silly but the return of Rey & Dominik Mysterio at the end of the show popped me, especially since it setup them teaming with Edge against Roman and The Usos next week in what is a pretty pitch perfect Escape from the Thunderdome SmackDown 6-man.
205 LIVE (7/9/21)
This week they just had two NXT Breakout Tournament heavyweights beat the remaining 205 fellas.
- Josh Briggs vs. Asher Hale went unnecessarily long so The Agents could get a good look at Briggs on both offense and defense but when he was playing a big mean guy it was pretty great.
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Grayson Waller says, I don’t need no breakout! He was bested by Odyssey Jones, a guy I like the idea of.
