It’s no secret the Working Man’s WWE TV Review shows up later and later, week after week. The working man has a writer’s block, competing property scrapping for attention, and most maddening of all: actual work.
There was plenty of good stuff from the boys and girls this week, and my goodness: WWE managed to scoop Trae Young for their show at MSG. But WWE also keeps feeling like a party where the only people having fun are the hosts, and that… really sucks. Told you it was writer’s block.
WWE TV Recap (9/5/21 – 9/11/21)
Highlights:
– Winner Faces Damian Priest for the U.S. Title: Drew McIntyre vs. Sheamus (RAW 9/6/21)
– Ember Moon vs. Kay Lee Ray (NXT 9/7/21)
– Brutus & Julius Creed w/ Diamond Mine vs. Chuckie Viola & Paxton Averill (NXT 9/7/21)
– Indi Hartwell’s Bachelorette & Dexter Lumis’ Bachelor Party (NXT 9/7/21)
– Brock confronts Roman, Trae Young, Big E, Becky/Bianca, The Demon (SmackDown 9/10/21)
– Edge vs. Seth Rollins (SmackDown 9/10/21)
– SmackDown Tag Team Title: The Usos [c] vs. Street Profits (SmackDown 9/10/21)
Stuff Happening: Extreme Rules, NXT 2.0 Next Week, Pete Dunne & Ridge Holland Turn on Lorcan & Burch, Mei Ying Debuts, WWE at MSG, Heel Becky Lynch, Brock/Roman/Heyman Love Triangle, Trae Young Chokes Rey Mysterio, The Demon Returns for Roman
Good Work: Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods, Drew McIntyre, Sheamus, Kay Lee Ray, Sam Gradwell, Paul Heyman, Big E, Trae Young, Bianca Belair, Seth Rollins, Street Profits
RAW (9/6/21)
On Monday Night RAW, the WWE Champion is a bald bad guy and the only other guy winning is another bald bad guy. Sometimes it’s just about what’s reliable, but remember when this used to be a babyface territory?
- The New Day is reliable, so they opened the show wrestling four mini-matches in a Tag Team Turmoil for a shot at the Tag Team Titles. They wore Wolfpack gear and Superman Woods blocked Ivar’s knee and T-BAR’s finish with his bare hands!
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Tag Team Turmoil closed the show too after the match got restarted, which was a whole thing. Sometimes the most impressive work is not by the boys in the ring, but the boys in the back stretching for time.
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Drew McIntyre vs. Sheamus: also reliable. It feels a little less meaningful every time, but they chopped and suplexed each other into exhaustion and it made for good TV. I appreciated the small amount of effort put into explaining why McIntyre is going after the U.S. Title too.
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Mismatched tag teams — apparently reliable too. It’s Rhea Ripley and Nikki ASH‘s turn now.
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Once Charlotte Flair/Nia Jax for the RAW Women’s Title got past being WWE’s weird version of a worked shoot it became alright, though it was also worked mostly around Shayna Baszler spots on the floor. Just a weird approach all around.
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Bobby Lashley & MVP won Tag Team Turmoil and will face RK-Bro.
NXT (9/7/21)
This was the last week of yellow-and-black NXT, and so we say so long to the Capitol Wrestling Center. You gave us some good Io Shirai matches and allowed Johnny Gargano to find his voice. I can’t remember what else.
- NXT gets a new splash of paint next week and that’s fine, but what I really hope they do is get a grip on what the show actually is.
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This week had an NXT Women’s Tag Team Title match, Bachelor and Bachelorette parties, and the in-ring debuts of both a Steiner Brothers tribute act and an ancient Chinese lady. I like variety but let me feel a tone.
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The tag – Io Shirai & Zoey Stark vs. Kacy Katanzaro & Kayden Carter – was not much.
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The parties – for Dexter Lumis and Indi Hartwell – were pretty funny. Candice LeRae is hilarious.
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The Steiner tribute act — Julius & Brutus Creed, presumably the Creed Brothers — did some suplexes and seem pretty cool.
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The ancient Chinese lady – Mei Ying – did a Fiend tribute act and it was just so much effort for something I’m not sure lasts through next week.
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Kay Lee Ray vs. Ember Moon opened the show and kind of ruled.
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MSK vs. Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch for the NXT Tag Team Titles closed it and was so just OK that Pete Dunne and Ridge Holland turned on the latter two after it. Character-building, one deformed brick at a time…
MAIN EVENT (9/8/21)
- I won’t argue with anyone that Doudrop turning on Eva Marie was going to be a big deal, but it’s crazy that it just… didn’t really happen. Now she’s wrestling Dana Brooke on Main Event and still named Doudrop. Not a great match.
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Ricochet did a wild reverse hurricanrana in a very solid and sanitized match with Cedric Alexander.
NXT UK (9/9/21)
The back half of this show was the Ilja Dragunov/WALTER NXT UK Title match from TakeOver 36, which I won’t argue against. Except…
- What was with the awkward and under-gunpoint video comments thrown in from everybody at WWE vaguely European? Just felt like a poorly managed ask that led to inspiring commentary like, “that’s a great side headlock.” Thanks, Cesaro!
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Sam Gradwell is good and funny but against Wolfgang in a Heritage Cup Rules match – not so much.
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Elsewhere, Blair Davenport got suspended because she’s a bad girl who beat up the Assistant GM and Symbiosis wrestled a 6-man tag. Is Johnny Saint still even on this show???
SMACKDOWN (9/10/21)
WWE at MSG is just different, folks. The crowd was hot all night and had WWE feeling like a big deal again, though to be fair they were given a packed show. It might have even been a little too packed in the end, but hey — packed. Best WWE TV since the return to crowds and maybe before the pandemic.
- The cold open went like this: Roman Reigns, flanked by Paul Heyman and The Usos, demanded MSG acknowledge (they did). Brock Lesnar showed up and asked Heyman why he didn’t tell Roman about SummerSlam (not sure this makes any sense), leading to a “you fucked up” chant and legit 20-second audio cut.
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Roman backed off, Heyman brought the noise with a classic Brock intro, and Brock lifted Heyman up for an F5 to get Roman to accept his challenge. Then the Usos took some suplexes.
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Born heel Trae Young was a shockingly relevant name for WWE to pull for MSG, and the man delivered ringside for a quick 10-man tag with Sami Zayn and the fellas.
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One of those fellas was Big E, who has been on WWE TV for a decade but only occasionally been given real star moments where it was all up to him to deliver. Here he got an in-ring promo in the middle of the ring at MSG declaring his intentions to win a WWE Championship, and given the chance to deliver — the fella delivered. Really, really delivered. Tremendous wrestling promo.
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A contract signing could’ve gotten lost in the shuffle but Bianca Belair has command of a mic and Becky Lynch has command of her new goofball heel wardrobe. Becky also threw the contract packet at Bianca and Bianca caught it. She caught it.
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Is Seth Rollins‘ new music awesome? The rematch with Edge kind of was. The SummerSlam match felt like something they had to get the crowd into, and their success was impressive. Here the crowd was already bought in so they just put on a whole show plus some easter eggs: Rollins did a Glam Slam, Edge a Pedigree and plancha.
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Rollins eventually superkicked Edge into an ambulance, which was one of those things that felt like a little much.
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The Usos vs. Street Profits for the SmackDown Title was getting pretty awesome too until Roman jumped in and choked Montez Ford out. The speed on Ford’s double handspring was extra special – this guy has been to some places but I’m telling ya, he can go to even higher places.
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Then “The Demon” Finn Balor‘s music hit and he confronted Roman Reigns, which felt as cool as when Balor showed up in Demon gear on the main roster for the first time BEFORE his match with Seth Rollins at SummerSlam (so not cool). MSG deserved it though. What a show.
205 LIVE (9/10/21)
205 Live has been just a vague developmental show for the last few weeks. Maybe NXT 2.0 will change that.
- Valentina Feroz vs. Katrina Cortez wasn’t a bad template for what it could be, nor was Odyssey Jones & Trey Baxter vs. Joe Gacy & Josh Briggs.
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These weren’t GOOD matches, but give the wrestling fan fresh faces trying stuff out and WE’LL tell you who’s good! Or at least try to.
