WWE did the Crown Jewel this week, and 30 hours later the new SmackDown roster was choc full of backstage DRAMA. On-screen? The usual…
WWE TV Recap (10/17/21 – 10/23/21)
Highlights:
– RAW Women’s Title: Charlotte Flair [c] vs. Bianca Belair (RAW 10/18/21)
– John Morrison & Ricochet vs. Angel Garza & Humberto Carrillo (Main Event 10/20/21)
– Brock Lesnar pull-apart brawl and suspension (SmackDown 9/22/21)
– Drew McIntyre vs. Sami Zayn (SmackDown 9/22/21)
– The Coronation of King Xavier (SmackDown 9/22/21)
Stuff Happening: Crown Jewel, NXT 2.0’s Halloween Havoc, New SmackDown Roster, Brock Gets Suspended, Charlotte Flair/Becky Lynch Exchange & Drama
Good Work: Charlotte Flair, Bianca Belair, The Creed Brothers, Io Shirai, John Morrison, Angel Garza, Xavier Woods, Sami Zayn, Brock Lesnar
RAW (10/18/21)
The RAW roster gets a revision next week. Sort of. Some of the new people already here. Some are not. It’s complicated.
- Xavier Woods beat Jinder Mahal to qualify for the King of the Ring Finals against Finn Balor, who beat the outgoing MACE then stared menacingly at Xavier.
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Goldberg/Lashley got made a No Holds Barred match, though before the end of the week it was Falls Count Anywhere.
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There was an RK-Bro/Street Profits match that ended with an Omos. The entire RAW tag team division may be improv at this point.
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Big E & Drew McIntyre beat Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode, just like a couple weeks ago. They had words too, just like…
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Elsewhere: Austin Theory challenged R-Truth then got beat up by Jeff Hardy. Mansoor beat Cedric Alexander then got yelled at by Mustafa Ali. A graphic said “Bearcat” Keith Lee would “claw his way to RAW” next week.
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Charlotte Flair vs. Bianca Belair for the RAW Women’s Title was a quality 20 minutes of TV main event wrestling. The crowd was in the “palm of their hands,” so to speak, before Charlotte used a chair and the bell was called.
NXT (10/19/21)
A month and a week in, NXT 2.0 is already so wonderfully (terribly) all-over-the-place in all the most WWE ways. Championship rivals are bickering partners, the women and tag divisions are streamlined to one story apiece, and otherwise it’s poker players and Chicago mob murderers all over.
- Wade Barrett and Vic Joseph also dress like teenagers now.
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Carmelo Hayes don’t miss. Clear bright spot in all this madness.
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Speaking of bright spots, Diamond Mine is fun. Imperium giving The Creed Brothers a challenge and Fabian Aichner lifting one up = very cool.
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Not so cool was the Imperium/Creed Brothers match used to have two good guy teams do something annoying: KUSHIDA & Ikeman Jiro did a run-in, then MSK attacked a defenseless Imperium.
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“What we’re doing today… you’re not gonna need a bike.” Von Wagner and Kyle O’Reilly went camping to allegedly build character.
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At the end of the day, with Halloween Havoc a week away it was just a show that ended with these three segments: Io Shirai Triple Threat for the right to spin a wheel, singles match for the rights to host the show, and Tommaso Ciampa & Bron Breakker tag where they bickered. Not great.
MAIN EVENT (10/20/21)
The bar is low but we might be looking at a Top 10 Main Event Ever this week, just by way of having one fun match.
- It began with Drew Gulak vs. Akira Tozawa in a pretty generic 205 Live Tribute match.
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John Morrison & Ricochet vs. Angel Garza & Humberto Carrillo though – just take a second and look at that lineup. What could have easily been a basic Main Event tag was a match where everybody was just trying stuff, double teams and spots and a general sense of joy. It felt like a tryout for Dark: Elevation or something. Just the second Main Event Match Worth Watching in 2021.
NXT UK (10/21/21)
They really did not have a plan to light the territory up a little when crowds returned, did they? The balls.
- Xia Brookside slapped Alea James after losing to her, Moustache Mountain visited Supernova Sessions, and I would put money on the NXT UK Tag Team Titles being on the line in another 4-Way Match soon.
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Charlie Dempsey had his first confrontation at the NXT UK Performance Center too – the lad is growing up so fast!!
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Joe Coffey vs. Jordan Devlin was somehow not the most problematic thing WWE aired on Thursday afternoon but it wasn’t any good either. Presumably they are setting up a new challenger for Ilja Dragunov, but neither match is appealing. A problem.
SMACKDOWN (10/22/21)
The NEW SmackDown roster kicked things off with a hot half-hour of Brock Lesnar, The Coronation of King Xavier, and some other stuff.
- They started the show with a whole big dumb WWF 80s angle with Adam Pearce playing Jack Tunney and suspending Brock Lesnar after he attacked Roman Reigns, SmackDown officials, and Pearce himself. Ponytail Brock was a presence here but I thought Roman did pretty great too, at the “Brock” point of his career where he rarely sells pain or fear but when he does it both feels important and is done well.
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Brock backed off for Cesaro in that brawl – I saw it. We all saw it.
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Drew McIntyre is here now and beat Sami Zayn, who leans into the cracked out leftist sleazeball shtick so beautifully every time he shows up. Sami tried the 3-2-1 countdown and ran into a Claymore. It was perfect.
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Some nights you go second in Saudi Arabia for ten minutes, some you go second on SmackDown for two. This is the life for Mansoor and Mustafa Ali.
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Ridge Holland, Aliyah, Garza/Carrillo, and Sheamus got introduced to SmackDown with quick promos one after another. It felt counter-productive. Hit Row as presented by Main Roster WWE was also a pretty rough start.
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The show-closing “Championship Exchange” with Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair swapping titles before changing brands wasn’t very interesting until the show ended. SmackDown tried to start a Charlotte/Sasha Banks feud, but The News reported that Charlotte went off-script and got yelled at by Becky and that’s all that seemed interesting.
205 LIVE (10/22/21)
NXT 2.0’s misnamed C-show rolls on.
- Valentina Feroz & Amari Miller vs. Katrina Cortez & the debuting Yulisa Leon and Xyon Quinn vs. Jeet Rama were not very promising.
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Duke Hudson says “better luck next time” before his finish now.
