It’s the summer of Cena, the era of A.S.H., and a week that concluded with the unexpected (though vaguely expected if you were paying attention) release of one the rare WWE developmental success stories: Bray Wyatt.
The people are back but the machine stays weird.
WWE TV Recap (7/25/21 – 7/31/21)
Highlights:
- RAW Tag Team Title: AJ Styles & Omos [c] vs. The Viking Raiders (RAW 7/26/21)
- Dakota Kai turns on Raquel Gonzalez (NXT 7/27/21)
- Rey Mysterio vs. Jimmy Uso (SmackDown 7/30/21)
- Sasha Banks returns and attacks Bianca Belair (SmackDown 7/30/21)
- John Cena signs the contract for SummerSlam (SmackDown 7/30/21)
Stuff Happening: SummerSlam, Cena/Reigns, Lashley/Goldberg, The A.S.H. Era, Karrion Kross for Some Reason, Ridge Holland Returns, Sasha Banks Returns, Bray Wyatt Released
Good Work: Sheamus, Reginald, Dakota Kai, Bronson Reed, John Cena, Baron Corbin, Rey Mysterio, Sasha Banks
RAW (7/26/21)
WWE’s resolute ability to stay the course used to be impressive, but the move from Thunderdome RAW to crowd RAW and not changing really anything is special.
- Nikki ASH is likable but probably can’t save this particular show.
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Lots of Championship Contender’s matches tonight, WWE’s new passion that was definitely cribbed from AEW’s Eliminator matches. I think there were more of these tonight than backstage skits, which… is that good?
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Sheamus clobbered Damian Priest enough to get Priest to work a Sheamus match, which was good.
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AJ Styles/Omos vs. The Viking Raiders was rock solid as AJ and the Raiders continue to get creative and Omos continues to look impressive battering the Raiders.
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Jinder Mahal got an attorney, then Drew McIntyre and Veer had a little hoss fight. The handling of Drew post-pandemic has not been terrible.
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“Here comes the powerhouse, Doudrop!”
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The bizarre Keith Lee Situation continued when Karrion Kross, a week removed from debuting on RAW and losing to Jeff Hardy, suplexed Lee on the floor and beat him.
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Why still with the T-BAR and MACE?
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“I’ll take ‘em both on” – Bobby Lashley is so cool, even if he made his old friends look like chumps.
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R-Truth commentating over his own match with Reginald seemed like good TV, or at least it did compared to the rest of the show.
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Charlotte Flair played a quality heel against Nikki ASH in the main event, but it just wasn’t much of a main event.
NXT (7/27/21)
Plenty of talent, in search of a show that makes sense.
- For something that seemed likely as soon as Raquel Gonzalez won the Women’s Title, the Dakota Kai turn just happening in the middle of NXT as a result of nothing in particular was a bummer. Well-delivered but poorly timed.
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Ciampa/Thatcher vs. Dunne/Lorcan just casually opened the night and it was good wrestling if not the complete opposite of what TV wrestling should be: dark, methodical, and hairy.
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Ridge Holland is back and before he got injured I was ready to pledge allegiance, so hopefully he’s still got it. From afar he looks like a jacked Pat McAfee.
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Carmelo Hayes advanced in the NXT Breakout Tournament over Josh Briggs, the right call on multiple levels.
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Samoa Joe and Karrion Kross signed a contract. LA Knight and Cameron Grimes went golfing. Mandy Rose went recruiting.
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The Hit Row and Legado del Fantasma feud has cooled down both groups, which is the opposite of what should probably happen.
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The main event was Adam Cole over Bronson Reed, which appeared to write Reed off for a main roster run before he was actually released a week and a half later. No wonder this felt a little like a hostage situation. Still pretty good wrestling that stuck to their strengths.
MAIN EVENT (7/28/21)
- Jaxson Ryker’s next tour of duty is the world of Main Event, where he worked out of a Drew Gulak chinlock before tossing him around.
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Angel Garza vs. Humberto Carrillo was actually kind of refreshing, just because a live audience means Garza is back to stalling and fake handshaking and handing out roses.
NXT UK (7/29/21)
NXT UK is basically building to one match: WALTER/Dragunov II at TakeOver 36. Besides that, Meiko Satomura called out the whole women’s division and everything else is just announced week-to-week.
- Jordan Devlin hit a nasty headbutt and backdrop in the opener on Tristan Archer, who I forgot was in the Cruiserweight Classic. Devlin has an Iron Man Match with A-Kid next week.
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The badass Aoife Valkyrie was halted by Joseph Conners interference and a shit koppou kick from Jinny – bad move.
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Stevie Turner and Aleah James are a pair of young lions with potential and had a decent match together.
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Dave Mastiff and Jack Starz are doing the weirdest passive aggressive setup for a tag team or feud.
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Moustache Mountain tagged for the first time in a while against Eddie Dennis’ Symbiosis in the main event, and Tyler Bate has nunchucks now. It was an OK match brought up by Moustache Mountain being an extra reliable tag match.
SMACKDOWN (7/30/21)
John Cena is back and so is Sasha Banks, so that’s a good start.
- John Cena is just different, able to call Roman Reigns a product of the machine and just power past the irony to make you believe. The mid-show angle where he signed the SummerSlam contract to face Roman over Finn Balor could’ve easily gone off the rails, but again Cena’s big green ass just powered through and made it feel like it was Saturday Night’s Main Event.
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Rey Mysterio vs. Jimmy Uso was a blast, two guys who embrace the product that they are. I mean that as a compliment actually.
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Reggie being the only cross-brand superstar in WWE is both tremendous and a byproduct of corporate malfeasance.
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If he’s going to be a bad guy, why not give Otis the last name back?
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King Nakamura‘s theme music back in front of a live crowd was huge, Nak immediately just better via the power of the people.
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Where did Toni Storm and Shotzi and Nox go?
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Sasha Banks returned in the first hour and embraced Bianca Belair, then tagged with her in the main event and turned on her after. The Boss is back.
205 LIVE (7/30/21)
- Ikeman Jiro made Grayson Waller kind of interesting this week, mostly by way of bumping like crazy.
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Drake Maverick made his return to 205 Live, as if that’s something that is a big deal and something they treated as such. He beat Asher Hale in what ended up Hale’s last match before being released.
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They’ve got to drop this show just so I don’t have to end the Working Man’s WWE TV Review on such a sad note every week.
