CM PUNK
CM PUNK
CM PUNK
I was at the United Center last Friday night but now I’m back.
WWE TV Recap (8/15/21 – 8/21/21)
Highlights:
- Ilja Dragunov vs. Roderick Strong (NXT 8/17/21)
- NXT Tag Team Title: MSK [c] vs. Marcel Barthel & Fabian Aichner (NXT 8/17/21)
- NXT UK Women’s Title: Meiko Satomura [c] w/ Emilia McKenzie vs. Stevie Turner (NXT UK 8/19/21)
- NXT UK Tag Team Title: Pretty Deadly [c] vs. Moustache Mountain (NXT UK 8/19/21)
- John Cena/Roman Reigns Face-to-Face (SmackDown 8/20/21)
Stuff Happening: SummerSlam Week, RK-Bro Reunites, Elias Repackaged, Ilja Dragunov/WALTER II, The Brood Music Returns, Sasha Banks MIA, CM PUNK debuts in AEW!
Good Work: Riddle, AJ Styles, Goldberg, Ilja Dragunov, Indi Hartwell, Carmelo Hayes, MSK, Stevie Turner, Rey Mysterio, Ikeman Jiro
RAW (8/16/21)
Every Monday I pop for RK-Bro and nothing else, but it’s not like I want to actually root for Riddle. This is a problem show.
- “The three most dangerous letters in sports entertainment… RK-Bro.” I laughed!
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The RAW women’s division is this: Rhea Ripley does a sweet Northern Lights suplex, Charlotte Flair doesn’t care, and crowds aren’t into Nikki ASH.
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Add MoistTV along with Alexa’s Playground to the list of things WWE does that embarrasses me more than usual wrestling.
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Drew McIntyre’s sword is named Angela.
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Mustafa Ali & Mansoor vs. MACE & T-BAR is a feud.
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“And I beat that moron Riddle, so I guess that makes me the Moron Killer!” – AJ Styles was good this week.
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Reggie defended the 24/7 Title at a park… Nia Jax twerked. This is RAW.
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I thought they should’ve ended the show with the RK-Bro reunion rather than Goldberg saying “bullshit” but what do I know? I am just a fan that didn’t buy tickets to RAW when it was in town a few weeks ago.
NXT (8/17/21)
With TakeOver 36 less than a week away and the future of NXT uncertain, NXT continued to be NXT.
- Roderick Strong vs. Ilja Dragunov is the kind of match I like, just not necessarily here. Dragunov lit a fire under Roddy that we haven’t seen in a while as far as energy goes, and the counter of Dragunov’s 619 was especially cool. Had some blood too.
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Adam Cole/Kyle O’Reilly got a Prime Target feature and I’m just not sure they ever successfully told this story. Like ever. It sucks.
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Hit Row is cool; Hit Row doing a pre-taped digital beatdown on the Legado guys was not.
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Cameron Grimes vs.Josh Briggs is a match.
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Malcolm Bivens keeps trying, Robert Stone Brand persists, and Indi Hartwell and Dexter Lumis are getting married!
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MSK vs. Imperium was a good main event but not good enough to move an imaginary needle. Topes caught with bodyslams was a good spot, and WALTER throwing MSK around post-match was kind of cool.
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The show ended with Samoa Joe and Karrion Kross trying to sell a show.
MAIN EVENT (8/18/21)
This show has an even weirder vibe in the release era.
- Cedric Alexander bumped around enough to have a decent match with Jaxson Ryker, then went down.
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Ricochet got actual chants as he wrestled Angel Garza in a match I wish stood out more.
NXT UK (8/19/21)
It was WALTER/Ilja Dragunov at TakeOver week, so NXT UK aired a video package then just went about their business.
- Meiko Satomura had another good B-show title defense against a young wrestler, this week with Stevie Turner. Emilia McKenzie is seconding Meiko right now which could conceivably lead to something.
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Eddie Dennis beat Saxon Huxley with the help of Symbiosis. That’s a sentence.
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Dani Luna scored a kind of sort of upset against Isla Dawn.
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Pretty Deadly retained the NXT UK Tag Team Titles over Moustache Mountain in the main event, a perfectly fine but underwhelming tag match.
SMACKDOWN (8/20/21)
SmackDown is usually so loaded it’s hard to think about whether it’s good or bad, but when they get close to a big four (or five) PPV it gets real bad.
- John Cena, Edge, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Bianca Belair… all the big names are trying too hard. Their matches got their purpose when they were announced, and they’ve spent the last few weeks trying to instill a purpose in them anyways. It’s weird.
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The other big name – Sasha Banks – has got to get that vaccination.
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Rey Mysterio’s Asai moonsault is still amazing.
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Baron Corbin with his extra scraggly hair clinging to the Money in the Bank briefcase is the best thing on SmackDown.
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Rick Boogs pinned Apollo Crews!
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John Cena is more over and exciting than anyone in WWE and maybe wrestling (ahem), but even his big match on Saturday is crawling to a conclusion. Roman Reigns threatening to leave WWE if he loses didn’t add one bit of sauce to a match that felt can’t-miss just a month ago.
205 LIVE (8/20/21)
Like Main Event, the wandering eye of Nick Khan has got a sad fog an already struggling show.
- Ikeman Jiro is still putting in the work, this week against Andre Chase who is also putting in the work just a little less maybe.
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Joe Gacy vs. Grayson Waller was not a match I managed to pay much attention to.
