Hey, It’s WWE TV: 9/12/21 – 9/18/21

This was the week Norm Macdonald died, so it was not my favorite week. Also Rest In Peace to Norm Macdonald.

WWE TV Recap (9/12/21 – 9/18/21)

Highlights:

– Big E cashes in Money in the Bank on Bobby Lashley (RAW 9/13/21)
– The Debut of NXT 2.0 (NXT 9/14/21)
– Bron Breakker, Von Wagner, Tony D’Angelo (NXT 9/14/21)
– The Creed Brothers vs. Dan Jarmon & Trevor Skelly (NXT 9/14/21)
– Indi Hartwell/Dexter Lumis Wedding (NXT 9/14/21)
– Jaxson Ryker does a Frankensteiner (Main Event 9/15/21)
– Paul Heyman explains Brock Lesnar to Roman Reigns (SmackDown 9/17/21)
– Becky Lynch interrupts Bianca Belair’s Homecoming (SmackDown 9/17/21)

Stuff Happening: Big E Wins WWE Title, WWE Draft in 2 Weeks, Extreme Rules Before That, NXT 2.0, Samoa Joe Vacates NXT Title, Tommaso Ciampa Wins NXT Title, Indi Hartwell and Dexter Lumis Get Married, Becky Lynch/Bianca Belair

Good Work: Big E, Damian Priest, Malcolm Bivens, Indi Hartwell, Johnny Gargano, Candice LeRae, Ikeman Jiro, Andre Chase, Angel Garza, Paul Heyman, Becky Lynch

RAW (9/13/21)

You wanna go big? Then say that a few hours before the show by declaring your intention to cash in your Money in the Bank briefcase for the WWE Championship.

• This was one of those shows where WWE “did something” to “make people happy,” and as the show concluded with The New Day celebrating and Big E (finally) holding the WWE Title, I thought they succeeded at that.

• Otherwise the show remains pretty bleak. RAW has four lady feuds going on simultaneously but none feel as established as, like, Thunder Rosa.

• The Charlotte Flair vs. Alexa Bliss feud is for girls who like dolls, I get that. This week Alexa gave Charlotte a doll; Charlotte threw it in the trash. That’s something.

• But Nia Jax/Shayna Baszler? Doudrop/Eva Marie? Who are they for? Each has the individual pieces of a wrestling rivalry but the beginning-middle-end are all FUBAR.

• Big fan of Reggie, even with the ghosts of RAW‘s past chasing him in circles for the 24/7 Title every week. Really not into MACE & T-BAR or the Karrion Kross relaunch every other week though.

• Damian Priest, maybe the only guy introduced by Triple H that McMahon liked, got a nice win over Jeff Hardy. I thought his slingshot Rough Ryder was a cool move in a land of many, many cool moves.

• Bobby Lashley vs. Randy Orton was a seriously mid-range WWE Title match but if I was a betting man I’d say that geezer Randy slowed it down to put over the cash-in as more exciting.

• Big E began the show as Mr. Money in the Bank and ended it as WWE Champion. For all faults in the approach, it was A Great Moment – genuine elation both live and online when he won. Th

• The emotional investment fostered by a sustainable creative environment and its’ week-to-week evolution is dead; “HEY! Spend time watching these ups and down year-to-year and maybe A Cool Thing will happen!” is alive.

NXT 2.0 (9/14/21)

WWE does reboots better than follow-ups, but for one night NXT 2.0 provided a whole new messy mood: new colors, new faces, new approaches… same company.

• Maybe NXT now focuses on people who can excel in WWE’s weirdo environment and succeeds in creating a new cycle of wrestling stars. That’s an optimistic take.

• Ultimately this probably goes two ways: an occasionally awkward but mostly fun change of pace for a stale show that keeps the train running, or more introductions of new talent that will ultimately just go through the same confounding cycle that is the main roster and lead to another reboot somewhere down the line.

• Samoa Joe vacated the NXT Title over the weekend due to (!?) so the planned #1 Contender’s Match – Ciampa vs. Dunne vs. O’Reilly vs. Knight – was for the title itself.

• Throughout the show, two of those four guys were made to look like dorks as Bron Breakker (Rick Steiner’s kid), Von Wagner (Wayne Bloom’s kid?), Tony D’Angelo (somebody’s kid) and I guess Trick Williams were introduced in a variety of ways as the Four Corners of Elderly Vince’s Heaven.

• Bron Breakker – the perfect wrestler – challenged and beat LA Knight to start the show. That’s completely fine, but LA Knight — who I think lost to Cameron Grimes to get a shot at the NXT Title — just went on and wrestled in the main event anyways. This is silly but it doesn’t have to be that silly.

• Kyle O’Reilly was outright replaced by Von Wagner (really), who was a witness to O’Reilly getting attacked backstage so was put in the match by William Regal (really).

• Josh Briggs and Brooks Jensen — a tag team lookin’ for a tag team fight! — lost to Imperium, who continue to exist while waiting for WALTER to move.

• B-Fab‘s first singles match wasn’t very promising, another beat on this journey for Hit Row and Legado del Fantasma that feels at a stalemate.

• I loved Carmelo Hayes introducing new guy Trick Williams, a slam dunk angle made at poor Duke Hudson‘s expense. Big fan of when WWE does shows where there’s so much going on that they have to get a little extra creative for an angle.

• Mandy Rose has brown hair now but her group with Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne doesn’t have a vibe yet.

• Ridge Holland (who beat up Kyle O’Reilly with Pete Dunne) squashed Drake Maverick, cornered by Grayson Waller.

• I don’t know if there will be another TakeOver but Brutus & Julis Creed are taking over along with Malcolm Bivens and the whole Diamond Mine: random Hideki Suzuki, random new Ivy Nile. Tremendous showcase performance from Julis especially this week.

• Tommaso Ciampa is the new NXT Champion.

• The Marriage of InDex – Indi Hartwell & Dexter Lumis was, against all odds, a laugh-out-loud funny and legitimate classic WWE segment. For a show that was apparently all about new influence from Vince McMahon, these last 20 minutes had the McMahon touch more than anything… but like early 80s McMahon.

• WWE runs a wedding on the show every few years, but this felt like the first one with Butcher Vachon from Tuesday Night Titans — loose, tongue-in-cheek, but always establishing the roster’s “thing” – Ikeman Jiro‘s jacket, Johnny Gargano‘s concern, Dexter Lumis‘ AXE. Even Andre Chase got a moment. If only all WWE did was weddings. A+ stuff.

MAIN EVENT (9/15/21)

If you’ve been wondering where Jaxson Ryker and Drew Gulak are, well — they’re right here on Main Event!

• Drew Gulak did side headlocks and Jaxson Ryker unconvincingly sold them before busting out a Frankensteiner!

• The inevitable happened and WWE paired up Angel Garza & Humberto Carrillo, their first match opposite Lucha House Party. Kevin Patrick geeked out for a dropkick cut-off from Garza but man this thing would just absolutely rip up on AEW Dark.

NXT UK (9/16/21)

Three matches, all fine and competent but not really worth it in the still-empty BT Arena.

• Noam Dar advanced to the Heritage Cup #1 Contender’s Tournament Finals over Kenny Williams. “The rules are being — as you would say Nigel — stretched!” was something Andy Shepherd said on commentary.

• The Futuristic Stevie Turner has a tremendous side headlock and Emilia McKenzie has a tremendous spear. They wrestled on TV.

• Nathan Frazer, A-Kid and Rampage Brown all showed up during an Ilja Dragunov promo, which is like calling dibs at a WWE Title shot. Triple Threat next week.

• Charlie Dempsey, the son of William Regal last seen working as Bailey Matthews, might be an amazing promo. Moustache Mountain did a promo about the tag division too, but kind of corpsed through it.

• Pretty Deadly retained the NXT UK Tag Team Titles over Gallus in the fine and competent main event.

SMACKDOWN (9/17/21)

Really filler show but there’s enough going on here.

• Big E & Finn Balor vs. The Usos was a fun opening tag match.

• Rick Boogs beat Robert Roode then got attacked by Commander Azeez.

• Paul Heyman‘s monologue to Roman Reigns explaining Brock Lesnar was great stuff, a tired shtick revitalized.

• Seth Rollins talked FOREVER. About a match that happened twice. The last one ended with Edge leaving on a stretcher. I don’t know, man.

• Happy Corbin attacked Kevin Owens. Liv Morgan challenged Carmella. Rey Mysterio got mad at his son on TV.

• Becky Lynch balances a fine line between too-scripted WWE promo and being one of the only compelling people on their TV. As she interrupted Bianca Belair being given the key to the city (by Kane!), it was mostly the latter. The work continues.

205 LIVE (9/17/21)

Can they call it NXT 2.5 or something? Like NXT UK, all competent enough matches but a show only for those already in too deep.

• Valentina Feroz was back this week against Amari Miller.

• Boa got his first win over Malik Blade, who was making his TV debut.

• Trey Baxter beat (Did Someone Say) Andre Chase in the main event.