This week’s SmackDown marked the long-awaited return of a living breathing crowd to WWE TV but more importantly it was the end of the Thunderdome, WWE’s expensive investment in style over substance.
Wrestling was always going to be especially ill-suited to the choice of spreading a virus or adapting without crowds, given that bad choices is kind of wrestling’s whole thing. There really was no good way to do it besides to just not do it, but what was actually settled on by WWE was something stranger than middle ground.
The chosen few have hit the road, Jack, and I really really hope they do not have to come back.
WWE TV Recap (7/11/21 – 7/17/21)
Highlights:
- Edge, Rey Mysterio & Dominik Mysterio vs. Roman Reigns & The Usos w/ Paul Heyman (SmackDown 7/16/21)
- NXT UK Women’s Title: Meiko Satomura [c] vs. Amale (NXT UK 7/15/21)
- Vince McMahon welcome back (SmackDown 7/16/21)
- The VIP Lounge w/ Bobby Lashley & go-home promo (RAW 7/12/21)
- Finn Balor returns and interrupts Sami Zayn (7/16/21)
- Cameron Grimes starts as Eli Drake’s butler (NXT 7/13/21)
- Aliyah attacks Robert Stone (NXT 7/13/21)
Stuff Happening: Money in the Bank, Woods pins Lashley, Mandy Rose to NXT, NXT Breakout Tournament, Aliyah drops Robert Stone, Crowds Return, Finn Balor Returns
Good Work: Bobby Lashley, Cameron Grimes, Ikeman Jiro, Duke Hudson, Pretty Deadly, Meiko Satomura, Edge, Dominik Mysterio, Sami Zayn, Bianca Belair, Baron Corbin, Kevin Owens
RAW (7/12/21)
The last RAW in the Thunderdome was just like the others, a had-hearted reminder of all the things that have been going on and on and on and…
- Did not expect Xavier Woods to beat Bobby Lashley in the opener though. That was different.
-
It resulted in a great Lashley promo to end the show too. Bob spends so much time as this laid back cocky champion that it gets extra special when the All Mighty turns on scary mode. Even among endless squishy webcam faces, shit got serious.
-
Reminders of the Money in the Bank ladder matches on Sunday came in the form of Fatal 4-Way and Falls Count Anywhere matches on Monday.
-
Jinder Mahal rides a motorcycle now and is feuding with Drew McIntyre‘s sword. I either can’t or don’t want to follow.
-
AJ Styles & Omos had a pair of singles matches with The Viking Raiders and even though they were maybe two minutes apiece it still felt like killed time.
-
Sheamus is back and that means so is Humberto Carrillo to continue getting beat up by him. Poor fella.
NXT (7/13/21)
There wasn’t a lot of “hey go watch this” this week and the main roster is calling folks up left and right, but NXT is starting to move again: Hit Row, Diamond Mine, a Breakout Tournament… even Aliyah and Mandy Rose are making moves.
- “Don’t let my good looks fool you – I still kick your ass!” Ikeman Jiro has been around for a few months, but tonight he arrived.
-
Eli Drake’s new butler Cameron Grimes continues to go all in on his material, and I liked the twist of him actually enjoying it before they blew that off before the end of the show. “I think you’re just mad ‘cause I look soooo good!”
-
Diamond Mine is going after KUSHIDA, Timothy Thatcher & Tommaso Ciampa are going after Pete Dunne & Oney Lorcan… NXT is setting up good pro wrestling all over the card. Kyle O’Reilly should probably get involved too.
-
Gigi Dolin‘s promo voice made its debut in NXT before she lost to Sarray, who still rules. Mandy Rose jumped to NXT from RAW too for what I am sure was a well-thought out reason.
-
“Me? I’m just gonna punch him in the face.” Duke Hudson and his BROAD BACK beat Ikeman Jiro in the first round of the Breakout Tournament and is blatantly a major deal if he can keep it going.
-
Hit Row and Legado del Fantasma are moving into a feud and the thought of Santos Escobar and Isaiah “Swerve” Scott going from the Cruiserweight Title to North American Title so quickly gets me practically emotional.
-
Indi Hartwell trying lift Dexter Lumis to safety, that’s good shit.
-
I think Johnny Gargano and Austin Theory doing the JOE JOE JOE chant in Samoa Joe‘s office was better than Gargano’s NXT Title match with Karrion Kross. They delivered on expectation, if not anything else. Then Kross choked out Joe.
MAIN EVENT (7/14/21)
As Byron Saxton astutely reminded us, this was the final show of the Thunderdome. Incredible.
- Jaxson Ryker fought out of a chinlock from Angel Garza, because the formula never changes on Main Event.
-
Mustafa Ali observed the Mansoor vs. Shelton Benjamin main event.
NXT UK (7/15/21)
The only thing really exciting coming up was WALTER/Dragunov II and now that’s cancelled.
- Triple H seemed excited too; he opened the show to hype the match and throw to their in-ring press conference. Later in the show, it was announced WALTER injured his hand and the match was off. Where do we go from here???
-
In addition to Oliver Carter & Ashton Smith vs. Teoman & Rohan Raja, there were two championship matches.
-
Everything was pretty quiet, though Meiko Satomura defended the NXT UK Women’s Title against Amale in a pretty sweet match all about Amale selling and trying to last with the master.
-
Tyler Bate vs. Mark Coffey for the Heritage Cup was your main event. Tyler Driver on Mark = kind of impressive.
SMACKDOWN (7/16/21)
This was it, the return of the WWE audience and it went as you’d expect: incredible start, so-so finish.
- After Vince McMahon‘s perfectly cynical intro, the first 45-minutes had all the good vibes: Roman Reigns soaking in his monstrous heel reaction, Rey Mysterio entering on Dominik‘s shoulders for Dom’s first match with a crowd, and Edge‘s gigantic pop.
-
Then they ran a 6-man tag match, the crowd-pleasing kind of match that WWE is actually very good at. Roman Reigns & The Usos vs. Edge & The Mysterio‘s hit all the right notes with the addition of a live crowd eating everything up like it was Korakuen Hall (pre-2020). Just a tremendously positive and re-affirming wrestling match.
-
Sami Zayn brilliantly scolded everybody before Finn Balor returned and popped everybody.
-
Shotzi & Nox have next to zero chemistry but here they were again, beating Natalya & Tamina.. who also have next to zero chemistry, I don’t know.
-
Bianca Belair had her star turn defending the SmackDown Women’s Title against Carmella. The match was OK, but her cold-shouldering Ziggler & Roode in the back prior was better and I’m not sure the backstage stuff should be better right now.
-
Cesaro is feuding with clean-shaven Otis and Chad Gable. That’s fine. It’s fine.
-
The Kevin Owens vs. Seth Rollins vs. King Nakamura vs. Big E 4-way main event was another crowd-pleaser, though they replaced the armdrags and heat segments with Kevin Owens doing a swanton off a really tall ladder through the commentary table.
205 LIVE (7/16/21)
Is KUSHIDA going to show up here one day or is he a COWARD?
- Guru Raaj showed off a likable mix of personality and athleticism against Asher Hale.
-
Ari Sterling ended Grayson Waller‘s undefeated streak, which seems like a positive development.
