The fine output of WWE on television was entangled this week, just a little, by an impromptu search for a $100M egg involving Mr. McMahon that resulted in young Austin Theory challenging for the WWE Title and probably a future PowerPoint presentation promoting how much effect that had on the success of Netflix’s Red Notice.
WWE TV Recap (11/21 – 11/27/21)
Highlights:
– Sami Zayn solves Mr. McMahon’s Egg Hunt (RAW 11/22/21)
– Becky Lynch taunts Liv Morgan (RAW 11/22/21)
– Handicap Match: Rey & Dominik Mysterio vs. Bobby Lashley w/ MVP (RAW 11/22/21)
– Triple Threat Match – NXT North American Title: Carmelo Hayes [c] vs. Johnny Gargano vs. Pete Dunne (NXT 11/23/21)
– Mark Andrews vs. Jordan Devlin (NXT UK 11/25/21)
– Drew McIntyre & Jeff Hardy vs. Happy Corbin & Madcap Moss (SmackDown 11/26/21)
Stuff Happening: Red Notice Egg Hunt, Austin Theory Challenges for the WWE Title, Seth Rollins Jumped By A Fan, New WWE Women’s Tag Team and 24/7 Champions, WarGames, Johnny Saint Returns to NXT UK, #1 Contender Sami Zayn, Brock Lesnar’s Suspension Lifted
Good Work: Sami Zayn, Becky Lynch, Carmelo Hayes, Bron Breakker, Mark Andrews, Jeff Hardy
RAW (11/22/21)
The night after Survivor Series, a search for Mr. McMahon‘s extravagant egg (and a shot at Big E‘s WWE Title) led the way.
- Riddle opened the show dressed up as Randy Orton and wrestled a decent match with Dolph Ziggler. RK-Bro remains moderately fun and mostly suspicious.
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In a couple moves that felt more unforeseen than surprising, Queen Zelina & Carmella beat Rhea Ripley & Nikki ASH for the Women’s Tag Team Titles, while Cedric Alexander beat Reggie for the 24/7 Title before Dana Brooke pinned Cedric.
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Becky Lynch and Bianca Belair both did promos on what’s next, which for Becky led to her pretty brutally dressing down Liv Morgan later in the show. Bianca Beliar‘s onto Doudrop.
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Sami Zayn: good banter with Vince McMahon. Also figured out Theory stole the egg. Also got his WWE Title shot taken from him. Also challenged Damian Priest for the U.S. Title after Apollo Crews opted out until next week. Really big night for a SmackDown guy.
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Rey & Dominik Mysterio teamed up to lose to Bobby Lashley in a Handicap Match that was a fun wrestling match but terrible situation.
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The Street Profits also used a fire extinguisher and got DQ’d against AJ Styles & Omos.
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Big E vs. Austin Theory for the WWE Title wasn’t exactly a great signal of the future of wrestling, but it was a decent main event that killed some time as Big E’s feud with Seth Rollins and Kevin Owens that is sort of confusing everybody rages on.
NXT (11/23/21)
Last week ended with the setup for the women’s WarGames match, and this week ended with the setup for the men’s WarGames match. It’s called episodic storytelling.
- The strange landscape of NXT 2.0 continued as eight folks got in place for an NXT O.G. vs. NXT 2.0 WarGames: Carmelo Hayes, Tony D’Angelo, Grayson Waller and Bron Breakker vs. Pete Dunne, Tommaso Ciampa, Johnny Gargano, and for some reason LA Knight.
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Carmelo Hayes headlined against Dunne and Gargano. Waller lost to Ciampa. Tony D cut a cheesy promo. Breakker yelled WAAAAR GAAAAAMES! Everybody stuck to their strengths.
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With Zoey Stark still definitely in crunches, Kay Lee Ray joined the babyface squad for the other WarGames and ran off Toxic Attraction with a bat.
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Roderick Strong against Joe Gacy and Imperium against Kyle O’Reilly & Von Wagner seem to be directions too as the WarGames card assembles. Also Cameron Grimes against Duke Hudson, Hair vs. Hair.
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Indi Hartwell & Persia Pirotta vs. Kayden Carter & Kacy Catanzaro, Santos Escobar vs. Malik Blade, and Ivy Nile vs. Yulisa Leon were also matches.
MAIN EVENT (11/24/21)
With zero snark and complete seriousness, the regularity of WWE releases this year casts an even sadder clown over this lonely show.
- Mansoor vs. Drew Gulak and The Viking Raiders vs. Los Lotharios were your Main Events.
NXT UK (7/25/21)
Outside of an incoming Ilja Dragunov/Rampage Brown match and Johnny Saint making his return to weirdly setup this week’s main event, there is not
much going on in the Europe Territory.
- Mark Andrews is having a little moment and sold his way into a quality opener with Jordan Devlin.
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Jinny dropped Joseph Conners and won a match. Isla Dawn beat Aleah James then gave her her scrunchie back.
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In the main event, Noam Dar (with Sha Samuels) defended the NXT UK Heritage Cup against Sam Gradwell in a match that was so so exquisitely OK.
SMACKDOWN (7/26/21)
The wild Shayna Baszler sell of Sasha Banks‘ Backstabber was a moment of bliss in a show built around a twenty men fighting for a shot at the Universal Title that got superseded by Brock Lesnar being reinstated at the end of the show. It got a pop, but At What Cost??
- The Drew McIntyre/Jeff Hardy vs. Happy Corbin/Madcap Moss opener was pretty fun. Hardy is a lesson WWE should learn from every week he’s around: when people care about a person, it’s very easy to utilize him on your TV show. Anyways.
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Cesaro beat newcomer Ridge Holland (!?), Charlotte Flair pied Toni Storm in the face (!?), and there was something called a Thanksgiving Leftovers Throwdown.
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Jeff Hardy and Drew McIntyre were highlighted in the Battle Royal main event that ol’ Sami Zayn came around and won, resulting in laughter from Reigns and the aforementioned Brock Lesnar announcement. Until next week on FOX!
205 LIVE (7/26/21)
205 Live is rarely “worth watching” but the developmental variety show it has become is a step up.
- Valentina Feroz reacted to Elektra Lopez kicking out of a dropkick like it was the end of the world.
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Amari Miller vs. Erica Yan was a solid WWE young lions match.
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Andre Chase has a fan club in the NXT 2.0 crowd, but he lost to Solo Sikoa.
