Thank goodness for the wrestlers, eh? With 2 weeks until SummerSlam, here was another stretch of TV struggling to be more interesting than what WWE was doing backstage and what the competition was doing in general.
WWE TV Recap (8/8/21 – 8/14/21)
Highlights:
- Sarray vs. Dakota Kai (NXT 8/10/21)
- Ilja Dragunov vs. Pete Dunne (NXT 8/10/21)
- John Cena/Roman Reigns Face-to-Face (SmackDown 8/12/21)
- Bianca Belair/Sasha Banks SmackDown Women’s Title Contract Signing (SmackDown 8/12/21)
Stuff Happening: SummerSlam, Randy Orton Resumes, Priest Challenges Sheamus, NXT is NXT UK, Heritage Cup Tournament, Nakamura Wins IC Title, Baron Corbin Steals MITB
Good Work: Dakota Kai, Sarray, Ilja Dragunov, John Cena, Kevin Owens, Bianca Belair, Sasha Banks
RAW (8/9/21)
Basic, boring, and RK-Bro.
- Randy Orton‘s back and yeah, he’s getting in place for a Tag Team Title match at SummerSlam. The RK-Bro reunion tease at least gave the show a structure, even if the end was back to the norm. Storytelling!
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Drew McIntyre beat that poor fool Baron Corbin who was on hire from Jinder Mahal.
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A few weeks after Karrion Kross lost to Jeff Hardy, he beat Jeff Hardy. They accomplished… content.
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There was an Alexa Bliss vs. Doudrop match where they zoomed in on Lilly like it was a studio wrestling match and I just don’t know what-
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In midcard news, “Fight Night” Sheamus vs. Ricochet briefly got the crowd bumping and John Morrison vs. Damian Priest got claps for kicks.
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Also, The Miz is HEALED! They revealed it as a bit in the middle of something else.
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“Orlando! Hell yeah..” – coolest Damian Priest has ever been.
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The Mustafa Ali and Mansoor team is a much more adorable version of RK-Bro, but you’ve got to question the possibilities of any team being introduced by repeatedly losing.
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“He’s in X-BOX mode!” – R-Truth still gets it done.
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“You’re not next, you’re done” was a GREAT line by Bobby Lashley, just not sure it took a 3-act MVP promo to get there.
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Nikki ASH, Rhea Ripley and Charlotte Flair are wrestling at SummerSlam.
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The main event was Randy Orton vs. AJ Styles and it was every bit of **3/4. Orton RKO’d Riddle to end the show.
NXT (8/10/21)
NXT has been wasting time since the USA Network so it’s not like this stood out as especially bad, but in the middle of releases and confusion there was definitely a larger haze of sadness hanging over it.
- Dakota Kai and Sarray still fought through the sadness to have an awesome opener. So many great kicks.
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I like The Way but the Borash skits are bad.
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LA Knight squashed Andre Chase, Gigi Dolin squashed Amari Miller, and Boa squashed Drake Maverick.
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Take Kyle O’Reilly off the mic, for f-
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Odyssey Jones is a perfectly fine big man in the ring but the energy on his promo after the match was one of a star.
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The “hastily thrown together main event” (Wade Barrett said it!) absolutely was, though it did make sense if WWE paid any attention to detail over the last 3 years. Ilja Dragunov vs. Pete Dunne was an abbreviated version of a really good match before it got stopped short on WALTER. Plenty of cool stuff going on here but under the haze of sadness… I don’t know.
MAIN EVENT (8/11/21)
Like the NXT death march edition of Main Event.
- NXT Women’s Title challenger Dakota Kai worked chinlocks and lost to Aliyah, just like that.
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Big Odyssey Jones beat Austin Theory too – this made sense.
NXT UK (8/12/21)
NXT UK is more film school than wrestling show, so many interviews and bits to setup matches that get forgotten.
- In addition to two title matches next week, there were setups for Isla Dawn/Dani Luna, Jinny/Aoife Valkyrie, Rampage Brown/Joe Coffey, and something with Saxon Huxley and Symbiosis.
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Wolfgang taking a reverse rana from Flash Morgan Webster sure was something.
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Aleah James beat Nina Samuels.
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Noam Dar advanced in the first round of the Heritage Cup #1 Contender’s Tournament, beating Mark Andrews in a solid match of two fellas still in their 20s that somehow feel like missed prospects. Pick it up, WWE.
SMACKDOWN (8/13/21)
Real mid-level SmackDown.
- The show was carried by some of the only stars left, a (kind of) compelling open from John Cena and Roman Reigns then a (very) compelling close from Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair.
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Cena and Reigns tried to be edgy and traded You Can’t Say That On TV! one-liners, while Belair flipped over a damn table before Sasha choked her out with her own ponytail. The latter kept it simple, the former over-complicated something that could’ve just used video packages.
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The middle of the show was mostly repetitive, including the Seth Rollins promo on Edge.
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One thing that did happen was King Nakamura beat Apollo Crews for the Intercontinental Title. It was a solid match that didn’t feel important, even with a Nigerian commander and guitar man at ringside.
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Street Profits beat Chad Gable & Otis, then Oits got real mad.
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Kevin Owens beat Baron Corbin with a sunset flip, then a despondent Corbin stole Big E‘s Money in the Bank briefcase.
205 LIVE (8/13/21)
The point is not clear currently.
- Ikeman Jiro is the best guy on this show but he’s also like the only guy on it besides Grayson Waller. This week, he lost to Grayson Waller.
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Josh Briggs vs. Joe Gacy ended the week of wrestling and it just sucked.
