Over a month after the WWE Draft, RAW and SmackDown’s rosters still haven’t found a groove or even moved much at all. If you ever did wonder though what it would feel like if the NBA All-Star Game was uncomfortably placed a few weeks into the season: Survivor Series is this Sunday on Peacock.
RAW this week ended with Survivor Series’ Sudden Authority Figure Adam Pearce removing Rey Mysterio from the show and replacing him with with RAW’s freshest douchebag, Austin Theory. Who is The Hero anymore? Is it Big E? Roman Reigns? Is it simply The Stock?
WWE TV Recap (11/14 – 11/20/21)
Highlights:
- Finn Balor vs. Kevin Owens (RAW 11/15/21)
- Poker Showdown: Cameron Grimes vs. Duke Hudson (NXT 11/16/21)
- Winner Joins Team SmackDown at Survivor Series: Cesaro vs. Sheamus vs. Ricochet vs. Jinder Mahal (SmackDown 11/19/21)
- Sasha Banks vs. Shotzi (SmackDown 11/19/21)
Stuff Happening: The Long Slog to Survivor Series, Big E/Roman Reigns, Poker and WarGames on NXT, More Goddamn Releases — Like, Really, Seriously, Why Does It Have To Be So Public and Sudden and Strange and Shitty?
Good Work: Hit Row, Big E, Kevin Owens, Bobby Lashley, Jacket Time, Sam Gradwell, Xavier Woods, Ricochet, Malik Blade
RAW (11/15/21)
The Kevin Owens/Finn Balor match this week was pretty good. Same with the Rey Mysterio/Bobby Lashley main event, until it came to a Scrap Iron screeching halt.
- RAW began with Kevin Owens interrupting Big E, who was attacked by The Usos until Riddle made the save to setup an Usos vs. Riddle & Big E tag match with Seth Rollins on commentary that became a 6-man tag match with Rollins and Randy Orton. Did I get all that right??
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RAW’s disheveled tag divisions were on hand too: a pair of forgettable Nikki ASH/Zelina Vega and Rhea Ripley/Carmella singles matches carried one; RK-Bro and a pair of forgettable tag matches the other.
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En route to a match with Charlotte Flair at Survivor Series best described right now as ominous, Becky Lynch is also gearing up for a challenge from Liv Morgan. Bianca Belair? Moving onto Doudrop.
NXT (11/16/21)
Hey, look! It’s a TV show with an identity crisis.-
- This week’s edition of NXT included broad mobster vs. serial killer, a 2-on 1 Handicap Match, and a sketch with MSK at airport security. Xyon Quinn was attacked for being in lust and The Grizzled Young Veterans lied to their nan over FaceTime.
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Kyle O’Reilly and Von Wagner lost to Briggs & Jensen too, maybe? Even if they didn’t, it feels like they did.
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Did I mention the Poker Game? The second hour began with Duke Hudson and Cameron Grimes in the ring playing poker. It was actually pretty fun. Or at least it stood out as fun among all the other strange or gloomy things going on.
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Jacket Time! Jacket Time.
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The Raquel Gonzalez vs. Dakota Kai main event was the kind of match you end up having when your labor should have been better utilized a year ago. The wrestling was acceptable, the investment was low, and it was ultimately just a way to get to a brawl with eight people (one on crutches) anyways.
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In perhaps the night’s most surprising decision, the show both opened and closed with setups for two NXT throwbacks: a Triple Threat Title Match and — yep, you guessed it — WarGames. Waaaar Gaaames!
MAIN EVENT (11/17/21)
Sometimes I think about how Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin kind of reunited with Bob Lashley in the Hurt Business only to get beat up by Goldberg a week later, and now they’re not really in Hurt Business again even though Cedric yelled “Hurt Business!” as they teamed together on Main Event on Hulu and in select International Markets.
- They beat Apollo Crews & Commander Azeez in a match with a botched finish.
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Veer Mahaan beat John Morrison too in what ended up Morrison’s last match playing for McMahon.
NXT UK (11/18/21)
Flash Morgan Webster wrestled Rampage Brown and now he has to get surgery, but that doesn’t scare the NXT UK Champion Ilja Dragunov.
- A-Kid is fun in the ring and Sam Gradwell fun on the mic, and that is all I can tell you about their 10-minute match.
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Aleah James beat Nina Samuels then got attacked backstage by Isla Dawn, who stole Aleah’s scrunchie that looked a little like her underwear. Anybody else? Is it just me? Am I the problem?
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I watched Kenny Williams vs. Saxon Huxley 15 seconds after I read that all of Hit Row were released.
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Gallus Boys Mark Coffey & Wolfgang got beat by Teoman & Rohan Raja thanks to an assist from Charlie Dempsey (Regal’s boy) to close the show. Serious. This was the main event of the show and after it was over, the show ended.
SMACKDOWN (11/19/21)
Roman Reigns has King Woods’ crown now, so I guess you could say that Roman—
- Ricochet hitting a 450 splash on Jinder Mahal then rolling through right into a Brouge kick to the face was good content. Ridge Holland helped Sheamus win a spot on Team SmackDown at Survivor Series in a fun Fatal 4-Way Match that had a lot of silly spots like that.
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I fucking hate Madcap Moss.
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Jeff Hardy vs. Moss, Naomi/Aliyah vs. Natalya/Shayna Baszler, and Shinsuke (formerly King) Nakamura vs. Angel (formerly) Garza were three 60-second matches that still felt like they were killing time.
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Sasha Banks vs. Shotzi was pretty good, even if Shotzi‘s whole thing is struggling to translate on SmackDown. Even a TV-ready appearance will fall victim to a puzzling introduction and, like, SmackDown.
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Xia Li (coming soon) seems cool.
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Roman Reigns and (formerly) King Woods (with new non-New Day music) closed the show for the second week in a row, last week in a wrestling match and here to setup WWE Champion Big E backing up his buddy to the crowd’s great delight. WWE’s approach felt shockingly restrained in how they avoided Reigns and E being in the same building or even mentioning each other prior to Survivor Series, so here they were a few days before the show physically assaulting each other for a little while. Oh, you.
205 LIVE (11/19/21)
The wrestler is new but the wrestling is unchanged. Then. Now. Forever.
- 205 Live resident Malik Blade opened the show against the debuting Edris Enofe, who’s entrance cape read “Epitome of Excellence.” The example or the digest? It was as solid a debut as any on these shows no one asked for, though ring work is at best a foot in the door.
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The also debuting Tiffany Stratton beat Amari Miller. Quickly. Xia Brookside is introducing a spoiled daddy’s girl gimmick in backstage segments on NXT UK, while Tiffany and NXT 2.0 are going with an approach that’s a little more overt.
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Kacy Catanzaro & Kayden Carter just love going to music festivals and being cool as heck and winning matches on 205 Live. Their opponents Valentina Feroz & Yulisa Leon have appeared solid enough in their couple appearances if not a little hesitant, but it seems pretty tough to improve in this pink-and-purple place.
