Let me start by saying this was not a good week for WWE. There was the odd bright spot, but it was hidden amongst a lot of garbage. Years ago I would have been properly annoyed at some of Vince’s booking on RAW, but thankfully I am disconnected enough now to observe and report. In truth bad booking is almost as entertaining as good booking. It’s just when nothing happens that it becomes tedious.
Anyway, let’s delve into what exactly happened. Becky took a real step back character wise this week after making great strides during the last set of shows. The whole apology angle was just weak. I like the idea of a show long thread to try and retain viewers, but the whole thing being about the badass face having to apologise to smug authority figures was just so lame. To make matters worse she actually stands there and apologises. Looks like an idiot, and then Vince appears and takes the title match off her anyway.
Hilariously if Twitter is anything to go by it seems many fans took Becky being removed from the match in favour of Charlotte as a shoot. If you have honestly watched the last few weeks of TV and not came to the conclusion that Becky is the focus of the women’s division I don’t know what to tell you. The plan is still for the match to main event the show and it will be Ronda v Becky v Charlotte. My thinking is that Vince is smart enough to realise fans would be genuinely annoyed at Charlotte being added so to trick the fans he first removes Becky and inserts Charlotte. Then when Becky manages to get reinstated fans aren’t resentful of the three way because they are happy Becky is back in the match.
It was very interesting to note Ronda Rousey’s change in tone from this week to last. While a week ago she was very antagonistic towards Becky, this week she was almost taking her side and making Charlotte out to be the enemy. I have a nagging suspicion that either Ronda or WWE aren’t comfortable with her being portrayed as the heel so Charlotte will attempt to assume the role of the main villain while Ronda leans more towards the face side. It’s a forgone conclusion that Becky wins the title at WrestleMania, but I think Vince may be looking to have Becky and Ronda embrace at the end of the match. If that does happen I cannot see people being pleased. It’s not even like this is a difficult match to book. Have Becky kick ass, overcome the odds and win. Have the show go off the air with her standing tall like a bad ass. Not sharing the spotlight.
The one good side of the weeks events surrounding this angle was the fact that we finally have Charlotte back as a proper heel. To me she just doesn’t work as a face. She has a larger frame than the rest of the women and a natural cockiness that doesn’t lend itself well to getting sympathy in matches. Sadly (Partly due to the half empty stadium) the fans didn’t really care for her SmackDown promo.
In terms of ratings both RAW and SmackDown were down roughly 20% from this same week last year. SmackDown was reported as being up from last week and while that was true, last week was one of the lowest rated shows ever. To put it in context, last week’s SD show did the lowest rating since they went live on Thursday nights, while this week did the third lowest. However you look at it, it’s bad. Strangely the biggest demographic drop is with young girls, which you would expect to hold or even increase give the emphasis the female athletes have been given on the show.
I really didn’t know what to make of the Kevin Owens segment on RAW. They portrayed him as a a complete buffoon. It’s the type of thing that could possibly work for a heel, but it appeared that he’s coming back as a face. It seems like he is going to be back in the ring before WrestleMania so we should know more soon. NOTE: As I finish this article we just had a new Owens promo on the Elimination Chamber preview show. In it he’s stuffing pizza into his mouth. No words.
It seems at this point Brock Lesnar is unlikely to leave WWE and head to UFC. It’s entirely possible that this was always Brock’s plan and he played both sides to get the best deal going. I do wonder if WWE was willing to throw Lesnar some extra cash because of AEW though. Not for Brock, but because if The Beast left, there’s a good chance Paul Heyman would as well. Vince and the rest of the McMahon’s are very quick to downplay Paul’s genius, but they certainly don’t want to lose him to any start-up.
I’m struggling for much to say about SmackDown this week. Kofi had a great showing (one that was presumably reserved for Mustafa Ali) but despite the quality of the match, with all the product WWE pumps out at the moment it is very difficult to get excited about a match that exceeds an hour. Kofi looked great and he will be an excellent addition to the Chamber match but I wish for once when they needed a New Day member they used Big E. The guy has a lot more to offer.
You’ll notice this week’s article is missing an Elimination Chamber preview. The reason for that is because I couldn’t care less about the show. It looks on paper entirely forgettable. The one match I am interested in is the women’s chamber match. Not because I am interested in seeing tag champions crowned (personally I’d bin the belts along with a few others) but because given the participants it has the potential to be a complete train wreck. The only hope is that they have all been locked in a room since Wednesday morning going through the whole match move by move.
That’ll do it for this week. Despite the lack of interest going in, maybe we’ll get some talking points coming out of the PPV. If not I’m sure RAW and SmackDown with both provide plenty of nonsense for us to talk about. As always if you want to discuss anything wrestling related the two best ways to do so are via Twitter or Email.
