I fully believe that Orton bleeding was planned, but I don't know for sure about the TKO finish happening the way it did.
Someone like Brock is going to know exactly how to break your skin with strikes if he wants to. Like Hitman said, I expect they figured there would be less to explain if he broke him open hardway, but I don't know if they expected the bleeding to be SO MUCH OH MY GOD.
I would believe that the TKO finish could have gone off as planned, but I would also believe that they had to rush the finish so that Orton didn't bleed to death. Especially since the match right before that one was a non-starter too. There's no way they would end their second biggest show of the year with two anticlimactic finshes in a row intentionally.
Wow, I really couldn't tell if that's a work or a shoot, and that's a good thing. Actually makes me like The Miz's character a whole lot more, even if Daniel Bryan is right: The Miz is a coward. However, Bryan walking off makes him seem a bit weak.
Last night's Smackdown was really, really good btw. I am really surprised with the show but despite having gotten the worse talent pool IMHO, they are doing a lot of good stuff. I just wish they gave the title belts they introduced something other than the moniker's "Smackdown Tag Team Title" and "Smackdown Women's Title". With the tag titles they could have even horned in on RAW by calling it "WWE Universal Tag Team Championship".
An interesting article from fivethirtyeight.com of all places about the WWE pushing talent that has come from Japan. While I don't necessarily agree with their methodology because it focuses almost exclusively on a single weekend of events, it is rather undeniable that the WWE has changed a bit by allowing former indie performers regardless of where they come from, and people who performed in japan in particular a lot more share of successes.
An interesting article from fivethirtyeight.com of all places about the WWE pushing talent that has come from Japan. While I don't necessarily agree with their methodology because it focuses almost exclusively on a single weekend of events, it is rather undeniable that the WWE has changed a bit by allowing former indie performers regardless of where they come from, and people who performed in japan in particular a lot more share of successes.
WWE has made giant strides in how they treat their Japanese talent with the current crop. Hideo Itami, Asuka, and Shinsuke Nakamura are treated as fellow wrestlers who happen to be Japanese instead of their Japanese heritage being their defining characteristic. Before this group, the best treated and pushed Japanese talent they had was Tajiri, who was at best presented as a midcard act who devolved into racist stereotypes at the end of his run.
I had missed that Lucha Underground is back. And here's a reminder if there is someone else here with same problem.
Thanks. Unfortunately, because Lucha Underground is the only thing ever want to torrent, and torrent sites are closed down faster than I can keep up, I'm not sure if I can be bothered to continually scrabble around for sites and links to download and watch it this season.
Backlash was pretty good and now I'm finally caught up. Kind of fun to see some actually really deserving people having the main event belts on either show. I was surprised that they already gave it to Styles. I thought they would milk it for longer.
However, what I actually want to talk about is the main event of Smackdown last night. I was thoroughly entertained by it. It was built from the start of the show with AJ Styles coming out and rubbing it in everybody's face that he won the WWE Championship at Backlash, playing up his douchebag character (though in non-Kayfabe I can't think of anybody who should have it other than him given his in-ring and mic performance since his debut). John Cena interrupts telling him he wants back what belongs to him and Styles mocks him by throwing Cena's sweatband back into Cena's face (Styles had kept that and kept wearing it as a trophy from his victory over Cena at SummerSlam). Cena of course is actually talking about the title. Ambrose shows up, tells Cena to step off because Ambrose is first in line to get his title back. Shane comes out and announces a triple threat match for No Mercy for the title, but on Smackdown the main event will be Ambrose and Cena vs. AJ Styles and a tag-team partner of Styles choosing.
Throughout the show we can see Styles trying to recruit, but him having been smug to everybody in the locker room leaves him without any allies. Finally Daniel Bryan tells him he has to go out and his partner will be a weak-looking jobber (who was also the first guy they fed to Braun Strowman in a squash match after the draft to establish Strowman's dominance). Styles is not happy.
When the jobber tries to walk to the ring, he is attacked from behind by The Miz who has been getting in Daniel Bryan's face ever since the incident discussed previously in this thread, including openly mocking Bryan in his match at Backlash. The Miz declares that he is main event caliber and becomes Styles' partner for the match and previously stated that he wouldn't defend the intercontinental title until his wishes of a contract-renegotiation is met.
A pretty good tag-team match ensues. It ends with John Cena doing his five moves of doom on the Miz and pinning him after an AA while AJ Styles couldn't interfere because he was thrown out the ring by Ambrose. After Styles and The Miz leave Ambrose attacks Cena.
My point is this: All of this is excellent wrestling storytelling. It reestablishes John Cena as a legitimate threat for the title which he hasn't held since 2014. It shows Ambrose's unpredictable nature and desire to eliminate the competition. And it shows that The Miz is not as he proclaims "The Main Event"-type of superstar at the moment also giving some leverage to Bryan which has been severely lacking in that storyline. The only one who kind of gets screwed in all of this is AJ Styles but not in a bad way as everything that lead up it showed that he alienated the locker room, and no good heel survives long without a couple of henchmen, without necessarily undermining his reign with the loss because it wasn't him who was pinned. Even the jobber thing was good because it was a nice bit of fanservice since the jobber was previously featured and he is a wrestling promoter local to Baltimore.
Watched all ten episodes of the Cruiserweight Classic over the weekend. I heard it was good, but I didn't expect this much quality. I am not that versed in the indie scene but apparently there were a lot of darlings from various promotions around the globe and the entire tournament had a special vibe to it which I would attribute to that fact. That it was broadcast without commercial breaks in a small arena also made it feel different from the norm, as did color commentary by Daniel Bryan who did his job very well. While the commentators highlighted the backgrounds of the participants there were no actual storylines either so no shenanigans. Just pure wrestling which makes me wonder if the Cruiserweight division on RAW will also be like this.
The entire thing was pretty much top notch. It was very diverse with the competitors. It of course was billed with many different countries being represented, though a lot somewhat nominally through americans of immigrant parents. Personally I got a kick out of a guy representing Italy named Fabian Aichner which is of couse a rather germanic name and definitely not italian. As expected he is from south tyrol, a former part of austria that was ceded to Italy after World War I and a lot of people there still speak german to this day.
There were also wrestlers of various levels of experience which had me a bit confused since the first match of the tournament had probably the least experienced guy in it, which I don't think was the best way to open the whole thing but at least it didn't keep up with that and the veteran made the match still work.
The participants were also very varied in wrestling styles and some moves which were displayed were very impressive. Hell, the tournament even saw a fucking Burning Hammer being dropped. When you hear "Cruiserweight Wrestling" you often just think of high flying maneuvers and while there was some of that, what really impressed me were the number of submission specialist and even some very good strikers.
I'm not going to discuss the results here. I just want to say that it was really, really good and if you are interested in wrestling you should definitely check it out.
I know I've been posting a lot about wrestling recently, but you know what? I don't care. I just want to write down my thoughts.
After the draft I thought Smackdown got the shaft and RAW definitely had the better show. And I was wrong. And most of this is on writing and booking. And yesterday's RAW illustrates most of this.
* I love Mick Foley. He is my favorite wrestler of all time. But man, does he look like he has no idea what he is doing or who he is associating with when involved with Steph, and his slip up when announcing the Cruiserweights was also really embarrassing to watch. * They had a 10-man tag team match "just because" where some of the competitors involved said they were only there because they had nothing better to do. Most of this was just to have people fight that are in the PPV on Sunday and that is not a good excuse. * I have no idea why people like Rusev considering that he is consistently been portrayed as weak against anybody who has at least a passing chance and now they are trying to rekindle a feud which they smothered by keeping Rusev off the air for multiple weeks. * I like both Cesaro and Shaemus as wrestlers, but boy have I had enough of this best of seven series. Thankfully it will end on Sunday. These two desperately need different dance partners. * I love The New Day but jesus christ they need a challenge and the writers did a piss poor job of building Gallows & Anderson for that considering they can't decide whether G&A are supposed to be no-nonsense bully types or are supposed to try to out-New-Day The New Day by childishly making fun of the opponents. I think it would be good for The New Day to lose the championship, but there isn't a legitimate new champion available considering how the writers fucked up G&A at this point. * Sami Zayn may be my favorite wrestler in the WWE today and Chris Jericho is doing the best work of his career, but man their feud is non-existent for them to have a match at Clash of Champions. There is absolutely no motivation here. I think they will have a great match but I can't figure out why they will have it or what it means for everybody else or for their careers. * They introduced the Cruiserweights, and while they had a pretty good match to establish a #1 contender for the PPV, the Champion was not in the house which rather undermines the whole thing. How do you introduce a new weight class and championship without the champion being present? * They had a cage match but it wasn't all that good because of course that had Reigns in it. That they put him over the reigning Champion Kevin Owens because who the fuck needs legitimacy in a champion about to defend his title.
There are some bright spots still. I like the women's championship picture with both Sasha and Bayley as legitimate threats, a good heel champion in Charlotte and the hints of sedition from Dana Brooke which I hope will finally come to a head on Sunday. I like what they are doing with turning Rollins face and feuding with an excellent Kevin Owens but it could be a whole lot better if they wouldn't constantly involve Reigns and or Rusev. And I like the Cruiserweights. But even those things are teetering on staleness and the rest is already over that line. RAW is in a pretty weak spot right now and I just hope things will improve after some of the storylines resolve at Clash of Champions.
I want to offer some support to @chaosof99. I read through all of your posts and they're well thought out, I just don't often have something to say in reply. I don't really watch the week to week shows at all but I keep up with them via podcast recaps on f4wonline.com(a pay site) and Live Audio Wrestling's Review a Raw and Review a Smackdown(free!). Smackdown seems to be making the most of a very limited roster with a very part time top babyface in Cena, while Raw continues to drag in the 3 hour format. It's not a lack of talent on Raw, it's just a lack of quality writing, and I place the blame firmly on Vince McMahon. He's the reason you get that really cringey bathroom humor, and why they don't go with people who have natural momentum over the "chosen ones" like Reigns. Never forget that he has final say on the show scripts.
^ Agreed. I do watch the weekly shows, but mostly out of habit, and I keep them on in the background as I do other things. And the PPVs are usually just an excuse to get together with friends and eat pizza and wings.
I even feel like NXT has dipped in quality, from a storyline perspective, from the days when Neville, Zayn, etc were on top. These days, Lucha Underground is the Truth.
The CWC was amazing top-to-bottom, and I'm very worried that having them on Raw means that they are going to drop the ball on these guys sooner or later. Also, TJ Perkins is an MRA, so he can kinda die in a fire while we wait for the uncrowned champ, Cedric Alexander, to claim his rightful championship.
Clash of Champions was okay, but not exciting. It didn't really feel that much like a PPV to be honest. Just a large episode of RAW. That only one title changed hands didn't help either, and neither did the fact that the belt was picked up by Roman Reigns.
A new wrinkle was added in yesterday's RAW when Reigns and Rusev opened the show with a rematch that lasted more than 20 minutes, had the action spill into the crowd and saw multiple chairshots including Reigns beating Rusev with one which may be an indicator of him turning heel (which would be good). Anyway, you don't see such a match every day on a WWE TV show.
The most disappointing finish of Clash of Champions was in my opinion the end of the Cesaro-Shaemus 7 match series with the bout being ruled no contest because neither of them could continue after a somewhat routine bump over the barricade. On RAW they were told because Foley couldn't decide which of them was more dominant, the promised title shot would be for them both for the Tag Team titles. Looking away from the actually rather lame excuse, I could that actually see it working. Not sure whether they'd be a face or heel team. The RAW tag-team division needs a good heel team but it could also happen for The New Day to turn heel again. Even fed them two jobbers tonight in a match showing some fun Odd-Couple/one-upsmanship interaction between the two.
Also, I find it weird that they are changing the ropes for the Cruiserweight matches, from red to purple. They even did that back and forth multiple times on RAW, It makes the brand stand out I guess.
Just watched No Mercy. They opened the show with the triple-threat match for the WWE World Championship. WTF. Bold move but you can't fucking do that. It devalues the title so much. The match was really good though even with the really weird finish with Styles tapping to being simultaneously locked into a calf-crusher by Ambrose and Cena's STF. Bell rings and they break the submission holds but the match continues somehow and after Ambrose and Cena pulp each other a bit Styles gives Cena a couple of chairshots and retains the title dirty.
Ziggler vs. The Miz was great. Best match of the night in my opinion and a good piece for the best storyline in the company at the moment. Great Underdog face vs. jerkoff heel storyline with the underdog overcoming adversity and finally earning the title instead of being forced to retire. And those "sad Miz" shots at the end were just delicious.
Women's title match on the other hand was a disappointment because it didn't happen. Supposedly because of Becky Lynch having a medical condition. In its place we got Alexa Bliss vs. Naomi. The match was fine from an athletic standpoint but the crowd hated it because it wasn't what they wanted or expected, and the ending made no sense because Naomi won clean and it undermines Alexa Bliss's status as #1 contender for the title. It also sucked as a lead in to a main event. It's a swerve, but why? Should have been far lower on the card without Becky.
Instead of the WWE World Championship match show was closed by Bray Wyatt vs. Randy Orton which didn't come to be at Backlash. Wyatt got the win which he desperately needed. Luke Harper returned but that I guess is more interesting to people who are familiar with the guy which I'm not really other than him being a party of the Wyatt family and having been injured for a while.
Hell in a Cell last weekend. Hell in a Cell as all stipulation based PPVs suffers a bit by being less exciting through the virtue of this stipulation being obviously involved more than a year beforehand, but this year they made it work. The billing as a "triple main event" is also odd, but basically just marketing particularly after realizing they spread the HIAC matches out evenly: One at the start, one in the middle and one to close the show.
The low point of the show was in my opinion the end of the first match, Reigns vs. Rusev. It should have ended with Reigns in the Accolade, inside the cell on the steel chairs with a chain in his mouth. Reigns powering out of it is a bit overdone, but it is a good "show of strength" spot for Reigns I guess. The only other bad thing is the botched attempt of The Brian Kendrick tying TJ Perkins to the ropes with Perkins' bandages, which obviously didn't work but Perkins tried to make it look like it worked rather clumsily.
High points in my opinion were I believe the other two Hell in a Cell matches which were filled with some exciting spots. I honestly couldn't tell whether KO spraying the official with the fire extinguisher was a mistake or not at first. When Jericho ran into the Cell and locked it behind him it was obviously clear and a good heel moment to bring things to an end. Outside interference in a Hell in a Cell match is not very often the deciding factor.
I also liked the Tag Team match for the title which brought some new wind to the division. Both teams are neither true heels nor true faces, the New Day all being in-betweeners and Sheamus being a heel while Cesaro being a face. The match worked though because it had both miscommunication between S&C which was cleaned up though and the match ended in a DQ while Woods was tapping out. New Day retains the title through shenanigans but C&S now have a legitimate claim as well. Poor Franchezca II though. The other Tag-Team match also reestablished Gallows and Anderson as legit, though it's unfortunate that it comes at the expense of Enzo & Cass who also need a push soon.
And of course the Women's championship match which held what it promised. When Charlotte attacked Sasha before the cell was even fully lowered I feared for the worst. Sasha coming off the stretcher to fight the match was a very good face moment, though the execution could have been better. The match was hard fought and furthered the legitimacy of both the Women's division and the feud between Charlotte and Sasha in particular. It was definitely the right decision to close the show with it too. Unfortunately the ending could have been better with Charlotte either hitting her moonsault through a table-prone Sasha, or Sasha finishing off the powerbomb through the table. With the table being left in one piece after Charlotte flung Sasha over it two times before hitting the Natural Selection seemed like something was left unfinished. It's odd that Sasha is always booked to win the PPV though and Sasha could have used the win.
After criticizing RAW recently for stagnant storytelling, I was surprised to find that this was a really, really good show. Maybe the best non-NXT pay per view I've seen this year, definitely the best main roster PPV since the brand split. Admittedly a lot of this has to do with my preference in booking decisions but I think it was done well. I also don't really have an issue with the Universal Championship being fought for in the middle of the show, but this gave the opportunity for the Women's championship (which IMHO is the best championship on RAW right now) to be fought over as the show closer, something that is definitely deserved.
Aztec Warfare was super dope, and as usual there are a ton of questions on where we go from here. We got Black Lotus unveiling her cabal of ninja chicks, Matanza is beltless now so no idea where he's gonna go besides maybe facing whoever wins the best of 5 between Cage and Texano. Only thing I think I can predict is that Johnny Mundo is going to cash in the Gift of the Gods next week and win the title to continue the trend of the good guys having short champion reigns.
Aztec Warfare was super dope, and as usual there are a ton of questions on where we go from here. We got Black Lotus unveiling her cabal of ninja chicks, Matanza is beltless now so no idea where he's gonna go besides maybe facing whoever wins the best of 5 between Cage and Texano. Only thing I think I can predict is that Johnny Mundo is going to cash in the Gift of the Gods next week and win the title to continue the trend of the good guys having short champion reigns.
I accidentally read the Wikipedia page of one of the wrestlers so I already know who is going to be the season-end champion after Ultima Lucha... but what happens along the way before then should kick into high gear I'm sure.
Just finished Survivor Series 2016. The show was actually overall very good. There are a couple of things I disagree with on a booking standpoint, but overall it was really, really good. I would have liked more out of Sami Zayn vs. The Miz (or really what it should have been: Zayn vs. Ziggler), but the finish was different and interesting. The traditional survivor series were all very good with the men's match definitely being the best of the three and the SHIELD pseudo-reunion was very interesting because I have been at least able to get to understand why they have a history and why it matters since I started watching wrestling again earlier this year. Basically all of it was good and had some shocking moments which kept me on my toes.
Low point of the show was the finish to the Cruiserweight championship match. Kalisto basically was turbo-pushed for it but he put together a really good match against The Brian Kendrick and it would have been good for Kalisto to win, move the Cruiserweight division and give it the shakeup it desperately needs. Instead they had Baron Corbin interfere and gave Kendrick the win basically by a technicality because Corbin smacked Kendrick once before going after Kalisto, warming over a half-forgotten storyline because Kalisto was off TV for so long. This helps nobody. It screws Kalisto, it makes Kendrick look weak as a champion because Kalisto had the thing in the bag at that point, and instead of cool and threatening Corbin just looks petty and small.
And then we have the last match, the much advertised "dream match" of Bill Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar. And I couldn't have cared less. I understand that it's a big deal for hardcore wrestling fans, and the result in particular with Goldberg squashing Lesnar in less than two minutes. For example here is Adam Blampied of What Culture basically losing it. But I myself do not care. I remember Goldberg from when I watched wrestling back in the day, but other than nostalgia he has no value to me. And Lesnar's career was basically entirely in the span where I hadn't watched wrestling. This match meant absolutely nothing to me and that it ended in another match with low to no actual content similar to Orton vs. Lesnar from Summerslam just means I care even less about Lesnar. I understand that he is important due to ending The Undertaker's Wrestlemania streak and him being a monster heal with legit combat sport cred but I experienced none of that myself and it means fuck all to me.
I kinda want to watch it but am not about to mess around with 4 hours of wrestling unless it's the Battle of Los Angeles. Takeover Toronto was a pretty fire show Saturday as well.
I kinda want to watch it but am not about to mess around with 4 hours of wrestling unless it's the Battle of Los Angeles. Takeover Toronto was a pretty fire show Saturday as well.
Just watched the Takeover too. I originally wanted to watch it after catching up on NXT but I stupidly spoiled myself to the results by going to WWE.com and thought "oh well, let's just watch wrestling all evening". It was a really good show and I was particularly impressed by the 2-out-of-3 falls match for the tag team championship between DIY and The Revival. One of the best matches I have seen this year. Just miles ahead of anything I've seen in the main roster tag-team division so far.
So episode 13 might have been the best "Non Aztec Warfare/Ultima Lucha" episode of Lucha Underground yet. Those Joshi they got to play the Black Lotus are out of fucking control and I can't wait to see where they are going to go with Pentagon now/ what plays resident Satanic Vampire makes with Puma.
Yeah, that was a lot of fun. It reminded me of the All Night Long episode in season 1.
I also really enjoyed the last episode with the White Rabbit Tribe. I had no idea what was going to happen with them, but I was laughing all the way through.
Comments
Someone like Brock is going to know exactly how to break your skin with strikes if he wants to. Like Hitman said, I expect they figured there would be less to explain if he broke him open hardway, but I don't know if they expected the bleeding to be SO MUCH OH MY GOD.
I would believe that the TKO finish could have gone off as planned, but I would also believe that they had to rush the finish so that Orton didn't bleed to death. Especially since the match right before that one was a non-starter too. There's no way they would end their second biggest show of the year with two anticlimactic finshes in a row intentionally.
Last night's Smackdown was really, really good btw. I am really surprised with the show but despite having gotten the worse talent pool IMHO, they are doing a lot of good stuff. I just wish they gave the title belts they introduced something other than the moniker's "Smackdown Tag Team Title" and "Smackdown Women's Title". With the tag titles they could have even horned in on RAW by calling it "WWE Universal Tag Team Championship".
However, what I actually want to talk about is the main event of Smackdown last night. I was thoroughly entertained by it. It was built from the start of the show with AJ Styles coming out and rubbing it in everybody's face that he won the WWE Championship at Backlash, playing up his douchebag character (though in non-Kayfabe I can't think of anybody who should have it other than him given his in-ring and mic performance since his debut). John Cena interrupts telling him he wants back what belongs to him and Styles mocks him by throwing Cena's sweatband back into Cena's face (Styles had kept that and kept wearing it as a trophy from his victory over Cena at SummerSlam). Cena of course is actually talking about the title. Ambrose shows up, tells Cena to step off because Ambrose is first in line to get his title back. Shane comes out and announces a triple threat match for No Mercy for the title, but on Smackdown the main event will be Ambrose and Cena vs. AJ Styles and a tag-team partner of Styles choosing.
Throughout the show we can see Styles trying to recruit, but him having been smug to everybody in the locker room leaves him without any allies. Finally Daniel Bryan tells him he has to go out and his partner will be a weak-looking jobber (who was also the first guy they fed to Braun Strowman in a squash match after the draft to establish Strowman's dominance). Styles is not happy.
When the jobber tries to walk to the ring, he is attacked from behind by The Miz who has been getting in Daniel Bryan's face ever since the incident discussed previously in this thread, including openly mocking Bryan in his match at Backlash. The Miz declares that he is main event caliber and becomes Styles' partner for the match and previously stated that he wouldn't defend the intercontinental title until his wishes of a contract-renegotiation is met.
A pretty good tag-team match ensues. It ends with John Cena doing his five moves of doom on the Miz and pinning him after an AA while AJ Styles couldn't interfere because he was thrown out the ring by Ambrose. After Styles and The Miz leave Ambrose attacks Cena.
My point is this: All of this is excellent wrestling storytelling. It reestablishes John Cena as a legitimate threat for the title which he hasn't held since 2014. It shows Ambrose's unpredictable nature and desire to eliminate the competition. And it shows that The Miz is not as he proclaims "The Main Event"-type of superstar at the moment also giving some leverage to Bryan which has been severely lacking in that storyline. The only one who kind of gets screwed in all of this is AJ Styles but not in a bad way as everything that lead up it showed that he alienated the locker room, and no good heel survives long without a couple of henchmen, without necessarily undermining his reign with the loss because it wasn't him who was pinned. Even the jobber thing was good because it was a nice bit of fanservice since the jobber was previously featured and he is a wrestling promoter local to Baltimore.
The entire thing was pretty much top notch. It was very diverse with the competitors. It of course was billed with many different countries being represented, though a lot somewhat nominally through americans of immigrant parents. Personally I got a kick out of a guy representing Italy named Fabian Aichner which is of couse a rather germanic name and definitely not italian. As expected he is from south tyrol, a former part of austria that was ceded to Italy after World War I and a lot of people there still speak german to this day.
There were also wrestlers of various levels of experience which had me a bit confused since the first match of the tournament had probably the least experienced guy in it, which I don't think was the best way to open the whole thing but at least it didn't keep up with that and the veteran made the match still work.
The participants were also very varied in wrestling styles and some moves which were displayed were very impressive. Hell, the tournament even saw a fucking Burning Hammer being dropped. When you hear "Cruiserweight Wrestling" you often just think of high flying maneuvers and while there was some of that, what really impressed me were the number of submission specialist and even some very good strikers.
I'm not going to discuss the results here. I just want to say that it was really, really good and if you are interested in wrestling you should definitely check it out.
After the draft I thought Smackdown got the shaft and RAW definitely had the better show. And I was wrong. And most of this is on writing and booking. And yesterday's RAW illustrates most of this.
* I love Mick Foley. He is my favorite wrestler of all time. But man, does he look like he has no idea what he is doing or who he is associating with when involved with Steph, and his slip up when announcing the Cruiserweights was also really embarrassing to watch.
* They had a 10-man tag team match "just because" where some of the competitors involved said they were only there because they had nothing better to do. Most of this was just to have people fight that are in the PPV on Sunday and that is not a good excuse.
* I have no idea why people like Rusev considering that he is consistently been portrayed as weak against anybody who has at least a passing chance and now they are trying to rekindle a feud which they smothered by keeping Rusev off the air for multiple weeks.
* I like both Cesaro and Shaemus as wrestlers, but boy have I had enough of this best of seven series. Thankfully it will end on Sunday. These two desperately need different dance partners.
* I love The New Day but jesus christ they need a challenge and the writers did a piss poor job of building Gallows & Anderson for that considering they can't decide whether G&A are supposed to be no-nonsense bully types or are supposed to try to out-New-Day The New Day by childishly making fun of the opponents. I think it would be good for The New Day to lose the championship, but there isn't a legitimate new champion available considering how the writers fucked up G&A at this point.
* Sami Zayn may be my favorite wrestler in the WWE today and Chris Jericho is doing the best work of his career, but man their feud is non-existent for them to have a match at Clash of Champions. There is absolutely no motivation here. I think they will have a great match but I can't figure out why they will have it or what it means for everybody else or for their careers.
* They introduced the Cruiserweights, and while they had a pretty good match to establish a #1 contender for the PPV, the Champion was not in the house which rather undermines the whole thing. How do you introduce a new weight class and championship without the champion being present?
* They had a cage match but it wasn't all that good because of course that had Reigns in it. That they put him over the reigning Champion Kevin Owens because who the fuck needs legitimacy in a champion about to defend his title.
There are some bright spots still. I like the women's championship picture with both Sasha and Bayley as legitimate threats, a good heel champion in Charlotte and the hints of sedition from Dana Brooke which I hope will finally come to a head on Sunday. I like what they are doing with turning Rollins face and feuding with an excellent Kevin Owens but it could be a whole lot better if they wouldn't constantly involve Reigns and or Rusev. And I like the Cruiserweights. But even those things are teetering on staleness and the rest is already over that line. RAW is in a pretty weak spot right now and I just hope things will improve after some of the storylines resolve at Clash of Champions.
I even feel like NXT has dipped in quality, from a storyline perspective, from the days when Neville, Zayn, etc were on top. These days, Lucha Underground is the Truth.
The CWC was amazing top-to-bottom, and I'm very worried that having them on Raw means that they are going to drop the ball on these guys sooner or later. Also, TJ Perkins is an MRA, so he can kinda die in a fire while we wait for the uncrowned champ, Cedric Alexander, to claim his rightful championship.
A new wrinkle was added in yesterday's RAW when Reigns and Rusev opened the show with a rematch that lasted more than 20 minutes, had the action spill into the crowd and saw multiple chairshots including Reigns beating Rusev with one which may be an indicator of him turning heel (which would be good). Anyway, you don't see such a match every day on a WWE TV show.
The most disappointing finish of Clash of Champions was in my opinion the end of the Cesaro-Shaemus 7 match series with the bout being ruled no contest because neither of them could continue after a somewhat routine bump over the barricade. On RAW they were told because Foley couldn't decide which of them was more dominant, the promised title shot would be for them both for the Tag Team titles. Looking away from the actually rather lame excuse, I could that actually see it working. Not sure whether they'd be a face or heel team. The RAW tag-team division needs a good heel team but it could also happen for The New Day to turn heel again. Even fed them two jobbers tonight in a match showing some fun Odd-Couple/one-upsmanship interaction between the two.
Also, I find it weird that they are changing the ropes for the Cruiserweight matches, from red to purple. They even did that back and forth multiple times on RAW, It makes the brand stand out I guess.
Finally, I just love KO.
Ziggler vs. The Miz was great. Best match of the night in my opinion and a good piece for the best storyline in the company at the moment. Great Underdog face vs. jerkoff heel storyline with the underdog overcoming adversity and finally earning the title instead of being forced to retire. And those "sad Miz" shots at the end were just delicious.
Women's title match on the other hand was a disappointment because it didn't happen. Supposedly because of Becky Lynch having a medical condition. In its place we got Alexa Bliss vs. Naomi. The match was fine from an athletic standpoint but the crowd hated it because it wasn't what they wanted or expected, and the ending made no sense because Naomi won clean and it undermines Alexa Bliss's status as #1 contender for the title. It also sucked as a lead in to a main event. It's a swerve, but why? Should have been far lower on the card without Becky.
Instead of the WWE World Championship match show was closed by Bray Wyatt vs. Randy Orton which didn't come to be at Backlash. Wyatt got the win which he desperately needed. Luke Harper returned but that I guess is more interesting to people who are familiar with the guy which I'm not really other than him being a party of the Wyatt family and having been injured for a while.
The low point of the show was in my opinion the end of the first match, Reigns vs. Rusev. It should have ended with Reigns in the Accolade, inside the cell on the steel chairs with a chain in his mouth. Reigns powering out of it is a bit overdone, but it is a good "show of strength" spot for Reigns I guess. The only other bad thing is the botched attempt of The Brian Kendrick tying TJ Perkins to the ropes with Perkins' bandages, which obviously didn't work but Perkins tried to make it look like it worked rather clumsily.
High points in my opinion were I believe the other two Hell in a Cell matches which were filled with some exciting spots. I honestly couldn't tell whether KO spraying the official with the fire extinguisher was a mistake or not at first. When Jericho ran into the Cell and locked it behind him it was obviously clear and a good heel moment to bring things to an end. Outside interference in a Hell in a Cell match is not very often the deciding factor.
I also liked the Tag Team match for the title which brought some new wind to the division. Both teams are neither true heels nor true faces, the New Day all being in-betweeners and Sheamus being a heel while Cesaro being a face. The match worked though because it had both miscommunication between S&C which was cleaned up though and the match ended in a DQ while Woods was tapping out. New Day retains the title through shenanigans but C&S now have a legitimate claim as well. Poor Franchezca II though. The other Tag-Team match also reestablished Gallows and Anderson as legit, though it's unfortunate that it comes at the expense of Enzo & Cass who also need a push soon.
And of course the Women's championship match which held what it promised. When Charlotte attacked Sasha before the cell was even fully lowered I feared for the worst. Sasha coming off the stretcher to fight the match was a very good face moment, though the execution could have been better. The match was hard fought and furthered the legitimacy of both the Women's division and the feud between Charlotte and Sasha in particular. It was definitely the right decision to close the show with it too. Unfortunately the ending could have been better with Charlotte either hitting her moonsault through a table-prone Sasha, or Sasha finishing off the powerbomb through the table. With the table being left in one piece after Charlotte flung Sasha over it two times before hitting the Natural Selection seemed like something was left unfinished. It's odd that Sasha is always booked to win the PPV though and Sasha could have used the win.
After criticizing RAW recently for stagnant storytelling, I was surprised to find that this was a really, really good show. Maybe the best non-NXT pay per view I've seen this year, definitely the best main roster PPV since the brand split. Admittedly a lot of this has to do with my preference in booking decisions but I think it was done well. I also don't really have an issue with the Universal Championship being fought for in the middle of the show, but this gave the opportunity for the Women's championship (which IMHO is the best championship on RAW right now) to be fought over as the show closer, something that is definitely deserved.
Low point of the show was the finish to the Cruiserweight championship match. Kalisto basically was turbo-pushed for it but he put together a really good match against The Brian Kendrick and it would have been good for Kalisto to win, move the Cruiserweight division and give it the shakeup it desperately needs. Instead they had Baron Corbin interfere and gave Kendrick the win basically by a technicality because Corbin smacked Kendrick once before going after Kalisto, warming over a half-forgotten storyline because Kalisto was off TV for so long. This helps nobody. It screws Kalisto, it makes Kendrick look weak as a champion because Kalisto had the thing in the bag at that point, and instead of cool and threatening Corbin just looks petty and small.
And then we have the last match, the much advertised "dream match" of Bill Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar. And I couldn't have cared less. I understand that it's a big deal for hardcore wrestling fans, and the result in particular with Goldberg squashing Lesnar in less than two minutes. For example here is Adam Blampied of What Culture basically losing it. But I myself do not care. I remember Goldberg from when I watched wrestling back in the day, but other than nostalgia he has no value to me. And Lesnar's career was basically entirely in the span where I hadn't watched wrestling. This match meant absolutely nothing to me and that it ended in another match with low to no actual content similar to Orton vs. Lesnar from Summerslam just means I care even less about Lesnar. I understand that he is important due to ending The Undertaker's Wrestlemania streak and him being a monster heal with legit combat sport cred but I experienced none of that myself and it means fuck all to me.
I also really enjoyed the last episode with the White Rabbit Tribe. I had no idea what was going to happen with them, but I was laughing all the way through.