 |
| Via WWE.com |
Welcome to the first edition of the Week in WWE review series, which is where I'll be giving thoughts on weeks of WWE programming. I hope that most weeks I'll have it up on Fridays, but because of some other stuff I'm working on and having to entertain a guest, it's a little late this week. Everything will be done show-by-show, bullet-by-bullet. I may play around with the formatting a little bit. PPVs will get their own articles for sure. So right now this covers Raw, Smackdown, 205 Live and NXT. Let's get this started.
Monday Night Raw (Jan. 2, 2017)
-
The first segment of WWE programming in 2017 is
the WWE Raw special. Authority figures set up matchups we’ve already seen a
million times leading up to a talk show
segment main event. Foley was particularly bad in this, and it’s just sad
how his character is on this show. Stephanie McMahon having to put herself over
everybody else would normally be the worst part of this, but I don’t think
Foley could’ve finished the segment without her to save his ass a bit. Jericho
and Owens were entertaining here, like they always are (on the mic). D
-
The first match is Seth Rollins vs. Kevin Owens, and the loser will be banned from
ringside during the United States Championship match. It’s the same Seth
Rollins and Kevin Owens match we’ve been seeing for months, but it’s got the
least amount of stakes so it’s completely forgettable. These two are great
wrestlers who are dead in the water with bad booking. Owens disqualifying
himself was dumb and unlike what we’re supposed to expect from him. C-
-
Karl
Anderson vs. Cesaro was a nice little surprise of a match. It looks like
we’re getting The Club vs. Cesaro and Sheamus for the next tag program, which
could be sneaky good. They put on a nice little match and Sheamus is good on
commentary. There’s a distraction finish with Sheamus and Luke Gallows
involved, but everything else is so fun that that doesn’t matter too much. More
things like this. B.
-
The last man standing match between Sami Zayn and Braun Strowman was awesome. This is what we should’ve gotten at the
PPV, but instead we got 10 minutes of neither guy really trying that hard. This
had the intensity it needed and was a ton of fun. Zayn is at his best when he’s
getting murdered and Strowman is really turning into something cool. I hope
they don’t ruin him. I loved how if Sami started to get up, Braun would pick
him up and knock him down to make sure he’d stay down. It was a nice little
touch. So fun. A-.
-
The New Day came out and Titus tried to get them
to join Titus brand. New Day calls him lame and it transitions to a match
between Titus O’Neil and Xavier Woods. It was short and to the
point, with Woods going over. I think Xavier’s really underrated as a wrestler
so it was nice to see a showcase for him. I could do without the WWE’s finding
ways to embarrass Titus though. C+
-
Drew
Gulak actually gets a win this week (his first on the main roster maybe?)
against Cedric Alexander but it has
absolutely no heat. It’s crazy how you can have two of the best workers in the
world go at it and have nobody care, but that’s where the Cruiserweight
Division is right now. Gulak wins via distraction rollup because they’re
torturing us with this Alicia Fox nonsense. C.
-
Chris
Jericho and Roman Reigns have
their battle and like Rollins/Owens earlier, it’s everything you’ve seen from
these guys before. Unlike Rollins/Owens, this one might have actually been one
of their better outings because it has stakes. What I don’t get is the booking
here. Jericho has distractions, the Guerrero-style faking being hit by a
weapon, and a Codebreaker but doesn’t win. Roman retains. I’m a Roman defender
but this is ridiculous, and I don’t know why he’s still got this belt. Raw’s
midcard is already been weak and taking one of the midcard belts out of the
equation for them is laughable. C-.
-
There’s more cruiserweight action you don’t care
about as T.J. Perkins takes on Brian Kendrick for the 40567th
time since the CWC. It’s an alright match but like Gulak/Alexander, the crowd
couldn’t care less. Hopefully these guys are done with each other for a while. C.
-
Enzo’s injured this week, so we have Big Cass taking on Jinder Mahal and Rusev
in a handicap match. I admit I zoned out a bit during this match, but I didn’t
seem to miss much as the Bad Foreigners™ use the damn numbers game to take care
of Cass. C.
-
Bayley
and Nia Jax was a solid match and I
was hoping we’d get more of it, but Sasha showed up and distracted Nia. Not a
great look because it makes Nia look like a chump. She’s still got the strength
of ten Bayleys. A single Bayley-to-Belly shouldn’t take care of her because she
heard Sasha’s music (no matter how dope her music is). C.
-
The show’s main event is the first-ever edition
of Kevin Owens’ talkshow, the Kevin Owens Show. When it starts with him and
Jericho, it’s awesome. These guys have such great chemistry together and I wish
their wrestling was on the same level as their promos right now. The guest of
the show is Goldberg, who interrupts
KO and Jericho’s shenanigans. Heyman interrupts him to say Brock isn’t there.
Roman shows up as well, followed by Braun because we gotta overbook the hell
out of everything. Goldberg and Roman double spear Braun and it’s a cool little
moment, but it didn’t feel earned. C+.
Overall: C.
Nothing about Raw was offensively bad. The Anderson/Cesaro match was really
fun, and the Last Man Standing was straight fire. Everything before and after
those two segments was bland and forgettable. You’ve seen most of these matches
before, and you’ll see them again. Like most of the finishes, most of Raw
should serve as nothing more than a distraction. I did appreciate the show’s
focus on wrestling with so many matches on the card, even if they didn’t
exactly deliver.
 |
| Via WWE.com |
Smackdown Live (Jan. 3, 2017)
-
Raw this week was a lot of matches we’ve seen
before but significantly worse, so I was worried about Baron Corbin vs. Dolph Ziggler considering how much we’ve seen it
this year. I was surprised that it ended up being a pretty high quality match,
definitely the best singles match these two have done. Corbin went over, which
is the way to go. After impressing in the Chairs match at TLC, the three-way
last week and this match, I feel like he’s ready to break out. Corbin rules.
Kalisto chased Corbin away from doing further damage, but Ziggler didn’t appreciate
it and turned heel. I’m hoping this helps him get a little fresher after losing
so many matches. The backstage segment after the match doesn’t make it look
like it though. A-.
-
We continue the La Luchadora saga, as Becky Lynch takes her on after interfering
in last week’s championship match. Becky wins and unmasks Alexa Bliss. The real La
Luchadora shows up after, and she and Alexa kick Becky’s ass. Silly fun. B.
-
It’s #ShootWeek for John Cena and AJ Styles
at the contract signing. Bryan’s there at first but leaves after explaining to
AJ why John’s in the match. AJ proceeds to run Cena down as a has-been. I can’t
believe there was a time we were worried about Styles’ ability to cut promos
because he’s been great and this was no exception. Cena does some Classic Cena
“You’re Not a Man You Don’t Have BALLS” and says he lost all his respect for
AJ, who doesn’t care about the WWE like he does. Then Corbin comes out to say
that whoever wins doesn’t matter, because he’s winning the Royal Rumble and
then he’s winning the belt. This distracts John and allows AJ to knock him down
and Corbin to taunt him. Excellent stuff. This is how you set up championship
matches and future storylines, and I loved how this wasn’t the main event. A.
-
Carmella
has a match with the debuting Aliyah
from NXT. Both women looked really solid and Carmella won with a little help
from her new valet James Ellsworth.
I really hope this doesn’t mean a callup for Aliyah soon though, because even
if she looked decent, she’s not ready for the main roster and the NXT women’s
division needs her. This Carmella/Ellsworth story is entertaining the hell out
of me. B+.
-
American
Alpha make easy work of Breezango. I
wish this went on longer because I love Breezango and think they could be the
best team on Smackdown if they were given time. Alas, it’s a squash match.
After the match, The Wyatts call A2
out, but they also further tease tensions between Randy and Harper at the end
of it. It did its job to set things up for next week. B.
-
Shoot week continues as Natalya and Nikki Bella
go after each other. Nikki counters Nattie’s accusations that she coasts off
her beauty and being John Cena’s girlfriend by saying she’s coasted off her
family’s success. They bring up one of Uncle Bret’s tweets praising Nikki, and
Nattie implies that Nikki screwed Bret(?) to get that praise. That’s
preposterous because everybody knows that the only person that screwed Bret is
Bret. I’m not the biggest fan of this feud, though I do appreciate how we
actually have separate women’s feuds on this show. B-.
-
In the main event, Miz and Dean Ambrose
delivered. Neither guy is exactly the ace of the company in the ring, but both
are in the midst of hot streaks from a wrestling standpoint. The way this goes
is awesome. Maryse slaps Dean which should be a DQ, but the ref allows it and
tosses her from ringside instead. Dean survives being hit with the belt and a
Skull Crushing Finale, gets the Dirty Deeds and wins. I wish they kept the belt
on the Miz because he’s such a good champion, but I hope this means they might
promote him to the main event when Styles/Cena is done. His work this past year
has been so good. He deserves it. Really good match here, and Miz’s breakdown
on Talking Smack later as Conspiracy Victim Miz was even better. A.
Overall: A. For
the second week in a row, Smackdown delivers a fantastic show that really
doesn’t have anything that’s unessential. This is the best weekly wrestling
show on right now with a bullet, and that’s coming from a big fan of both NXT
and Lucha Underground. And it seems like we’re only getting started.
 |
| Via WWE.com |
205 Live (Jan. 3, 2017)
-
205 Live starts up with a nice showcase of Tajiri as he easily takes care of Sean Maluta with a Buzzsaw Kick.
Maluta’s pretty decent so I hope he gets to shine a little bit in the future.
He’s fine as enhancement talent now though. After the match, Brian Kendrick
comes up and welcomes a fellow pioneer of the division. Tajiri shakes his hand,
but he doesn’t trust Kendrick so HE MISTS HIM. This was an awesome night of
wrestling but I’m not sure if I loved anything more than that. Tajiri’s still
got it, man. B+.
-
Next up is Tony
Nese and Jack Gallagher, which
is a really fun match. Nese hasn’t had a ton of opportunities to shine since
the CWC, so it’s nice to see him and Gallagher go at it a bit. Eventually
Daivari interferes and attacks Gallagher. I was figuring the duel wouldn’t be
the end of the feud because it wasn’t really a real match (as awesome as it
was), but I dunno where they go from there, man. What we got of this match was
cool. B.
-
Mustafa
Ali and Noam Dar get a bit more
extended of a match, which I appreciate. It’s kinda ehhh for a while and Dar
feels a bit off, but Ali manages to make the best out of it, popping the crowd
and winning big. After the match, Dar says he’s still going to have a big 2017
and Alicia Faaaaaawks is still allowed in his corner any time. Dar plays the super
creep really well, even if I’m not the biggest fan of him as a wrestler or the
feud as a whole. Prince Ali is the truth, though. B.
-
Neville continues
his reign of terror against TJ Perkins. I
love just about everything about Heel Neville, and I hope he never leaves us. I
love that 205 Live gives him a main event slot to really shine, too. This isn’t
as fun as the Neville/Swann match last week, but it’s still really solid.
Neville finishing matches with the superplex is awesome too. Keeps up with the
“Neville is stronger than all the other cruiserweights” things and it’s not
flashy like everything else he does. I appreciate it that he does Flippy Shit
in the matches overall but when the crowd is getting into it, he stops. The
heel turn stays awesome. B+.
Overall: B+. 205
Live is slowly turning itself around as a very good show. This was the best
episode yet, as everything served its purpose. Tajiri’s reintroduction to the
main roster was exactly what you’d want. Gallagher/Daivari keeps on keeping on.
Mustafa Ali is establishing himself as one of the biggest stars on the roster.
Then you’ve got Neville outshining everyone else in the best way possible. If
the show keeps up like this, it might succeed yet.
 |
| Via WWE.com |
NXT (Jan. 4, 2017)
-
The show starts off with The Revival getting a win over Riddick
Moss and Tino Sabbatelli. Since this is house show footage, the match goes
on a bit longer than we’d expect from normal NXT TV. That’s good though,
because we get a little bit more of a look at Moss and Tino than we’re used to.
Not a ton pops out about these guys just yet but they both looked solid in the
ring. Top guys pull through to set up the final showdown with DIY next week. B-
-
More tag team action up next, this time with
oddball couples. Elias Samson and Bobby Roode go up against Tye Dillinger and the hometown boy Buddy Murphy. It’s nice to see Murphy
since he’s been mostly MIA since the Dubstep Cowboys broke up, makes you tear
up seeing him get a big hometown pop :’) Crowd had huge heat for Samson which
offset some of the big cheers Roode got. Another fun tag match. B.
-
We get a look at the future of the women’s
division as Ember Moon takes care of
Billie Kay and Liv Morgan in a triple threat match. This was good fun and all
three of these women are looking better and better each time we see them. I did
miss Peyton Royce by Billie Kay’s side here, though. Billie did a good job of
dealing with hometown cheers and rejecting the Aussies chanting for her to be
their girl. Ember Moon wins as is the natural order, because Ember Moon should
win everything. B.
- Coming up next is DIY vs. TM61 for the Tag Team Championship, and it’s as good as
you’d expect it to be. I wish TM61 had more character and story than we’ve got
with them now, but they’re a ton of fun in the ring and work well with Gargano
and Ciampa. My big complaint with the match is that I wish one of the teams was
working a bit more heelish, but overall the match was dope and got really good
at the end. A-.
-
We saw an abridged version of the next match two weeks ago with Samoa Joe taking on Shinsuke Nakamura for the NXT
Championship. This is a lot better than the abridged version that seemed almost
like two different matches, but it’s still definitely time to move onto this
feud. The match was fine, but when you’ve got two legendary wrestlers in a cage
match, it should be more than fine. I did like the finish with Nakamura closing
the door and finishing Joe off decisively instead of escaping. Wish they built
up to it better. C+.
Overall: B. There's nothing must-see about the NXT show from Australia, but it's a lot of fun regardless. If you're looking for storyline development, you're not going to get it here since it's basically a televised house show and the one story-driving segment we got was shown in abridged form a couple weeks back. The matches are fun, though. If you've got two hours to kill, check this show out.
No comments:
Post a Comment