Extreme Rules! Saudi Arabia! WWE Draft Night 1!!!
WWE TV Recap (9/26/21 – 10/2/21)
Highlights:
- Steel Cage Match – WWE Title: Big E [c] w/ Bobby Lashley (RAW 9/27/21)
- Riddle vs. AJ Styles w/ Omos (RAW 9/27/21)
- InDex Honeymoon with Johnny Gargano and Candice LeRae (NXT 9/28/21)
- Moustache Mountain vs. Ashton Smith & Oliver Carter (NXT UK 9/30/21)
- Charlie Dempsey (debut) vs. Josh Morrell (NXT UK 9/30/21)
- Roman Reigns/Brock Lesnar brawl (SmackDown 10/1/21)
- Brock Lesnar announces he’s a Free Agent (SmackDown 10/1/21)
- Bianca Belair vs. Sasha Banks (SmackDown 10/1/21)
- Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel vs. Ikeman Jiro & Trey Baxter (205 Live 10/1/21)
Stuff Happening: Sasha Banks Returns, Big E beats Bobby Lashley (again), Crown Jewel, The Hurt Business Reunites (kind of), Shayna Baszler Re-Build, NXT 2.0, Charlie Dempsey Debuts, WWE Draft, Hit Row Called Up, Austin Theory Called Up (again)
Drafted by RAW: Big E, Bianca Belair, Randy Orton & Riddle, Edge, Rhea Ripley & Nikki ASH, Keith “Bearcat” Lee, Rey & Dominik Mysterio, Austin Theory, Reggie, Akira Tozawa, Chad Gable & Otis, Apollo Crews & Commander Azeez, Doudrop, Drake Maverick, John Morrison, T-BAR, Nia Jax, R-Truth, Zelina Vega
Drafted by SmackDown: Roman Reigns, Charlotte Flair, Drew McIntyre, Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods, Happy Corbin & Madcap Moss, Hit Row, Naomi and Jeff Hardy, Aliyah, Drew Gulak, MACE, Mustafa Ali & Mansoor, Toni Storm
Good Work: Big E, Damian Priest, Bobby Lashley, Io Shirai, Charlie Dempsey, Brock Lesnar
RAW (9/27/21)
RAW’s presence at Extreme Rules was limited to championships retained by Charlotte Flair and Damian Priest along with a New Day 6-man tag, which resulted in a WWE Title challenge for TONIGHT!
- Big E vs. Bobby Lashley was the opener until The Hurt Business sort of reunited, so Big E vs. Bobby Lashley was the main event too — inside a Steel Cage. Both matches had plenty of awesome collisions by two big fellas, though the eventual Steel Cage match felt like those Hell in a Cell’s from a few months ago — mildly fun, unfortunately meaningless, moving on…
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The new Angel Garza & Humberto Carrillo tag team is getting a showcase, so Garza beat Viking Raider Erik in a singles match.
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Ricochet challenged Reggie for the 24/7 Title and they didn’t even do anything that cool. Keith “Bearcat” Lee beat Akira Tozawa. Karrion Kross beat Jaxson Ryker.
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Damian Priest beat Sheamus to keep the U.S. Title again, this week with a No DQ stipulation. They’ve had really good matches during this run but this was just a series of spots on TV.
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Jeff Hardy, Mustafa Ali & Mansoor downed Jinder Mahal, Veer & Shanky.
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Shayna Baszler is getting built up like she’s Shayna Baszler a year-and-a-half after her main roster debut, which is nice.
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Randy Orton is out for undisclosed circumstances, so Riddle wrestled AJ Styles in a match that briefly approached greatness. They’ve worked well together before, but there was never a Burning Hammer.
NXT (9/28/21)
This week, NXT 2.0 did follow-ups on last week’s introductions and it made for some rough TV.
- NXT 2.0 doesn’t mean Tag Division 2.0, so it is 4-Way time baby: champions MSK, The Grizzled Young Veterans, Carmelo Hayes & Trick Williams and Briggs & Jensen – let’s go!
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Roderick Strong and Kyle O’Reilly – still here! Strong beat Grayson Waller, O’Reilly beat Ridge Holland.
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The show was promoted as Ladies Night, which ended up meaning a No DQ opener and two rushed title matches. It was not a good showing.
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B-Fab vs. Elektra Lopez in a No DQ match was better than B-Fab vs. Elektra Lopez in a regular match.
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The Io Shirai & Zoey Stark sushi lunch really laid all of that act’s cards on the table, but here they were retaining the NXT Women’s Tag Team Titles over Toxic Attraction (with Mandy Rose) in a super average match.
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That was followed by Raquel Gonzalez retaining the NXT Women’s Title over Franky Monet in the main event, another super average match.
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Elsewhere: Joe Gacy is not cancelled, Xyon Quinn beat Oney Lorcan, Boa beat Andre Chase, LA Knight attacked Odyssey Jones, Bron Breakker talked shit, Lash Legend talked shit, Tony D’Angelo talked shit.
MAIN EVENT (9/29/21)
T-BAR managed MACE to the ring this week, perhaps their last time together as a unit. Things happen on Main Event.
- MACE beat Local Competitor Austin Crane.
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John Morrison had an OK match with Drew Gulak too.
NXT UK (9/30/21)
At the very least, NXT UK brought the wrestling this week.
- The Moustache Mountain formula still works, even in an empty arena and even in a babyface vs. babyface match with Ashton Smith & Oliver Carter. Symbiosis and the Dave Mastiff & Jack Starz team ran out at the end to setup a — surprise! — 4-Way Match.
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Charlie Dempsey (Son of Regal) was impressive in his debut with Josh Morrell, providing all the tight wristlocks and attention to detail anyone could want from a young wrestler. Morrell himself is always impressive when these intro squashes come around too.
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Dani Luna beat Xia Brookside this week and it’s Wolfgang vs. Noam Dar to determine the Heritage Cup #1 Contender next week!
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Joe Coffey beat Jordan Devlin with Gallus’ help in a very average main event.
SMACKDOWN (10/1/21)
WWE Draft 2021 Night 1 was at least a night where Things Happened. There were pools of guys being drafted in arbitrary numbers for arbitrary reasons and it’s FINE.
- Big E and Bianca Belair as RAW Aces is a better pair than Drew McIntyre and Charlotte Flair, and Hit Row as a call-up is cool.
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I can’t tell if Charlotte Flair telling Kayla Braxton that “Journalism 101” involves saying congratulations was good satire or sad reality.
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As much as I resent the idea of Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns in 2021 in Saudi Arabia, Brock Lesnar looked like a monster tonight. He was also, weirdly, hilarious. “Are we live right now?”
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Happy Corbin (with Madcop Moss!) beat Kevin Owens, then Seth Rollins broke into Edge’s house.
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Liv Morgan out-wrestled Carmella, so Carmella put on a protective mask, did a move, and her music played. That’s wrestling.
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The New Day & Street Profits vs. Dolph Ziggler, Robert Roode, Otis & Chad Gable was a fun version of a repetitive match, like WWE’s take on this year’s G1.
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As the rematch of a MOTYC at WrestleMania, Bianca Belair vs. Sasha Banks II being a 3-star TV main event that ended with Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair standing tall was not ideal. Good wrestling for a bit, but then, you know.
205 LIVE (10/1/21)
- This week on developmental, Dante Chen beat Malik Blade and Amari Miller beat Valentina Feroz. The potential is real — it is all around us.
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Imperium beat up Trey Baxter before jacket spots from Ikeman Jiro in this week’s main event, a good match and model for how 205 Live might want to use its’ time as it rides out its’ contract or reboots or whatever.
