Another wild week in the world of wrestling with an crazy weekend on the horizon. NJPW, NXT UK and AEW are all putting on big shows Saturday night which equates to a hardcore wrestling fans wet dream. I’m here to break down RAW & SmackDown though, so let’s get the ball rolling.
The Sasha promo was superb because it was real. Unfortunately it didn’t seem to connect with fans on the level you would hope/expect. This could easily be a carry over from the comments about Jim Neidhart which is a complete momentum killer. I also would have steered away from the tag title comments. They couldn’t possibly have made the belts feel less important. To make matters even worse Bayley, Alexa or Nikki didn’t respond to the comments, leaving fans to conclude that the women’s tag belts are a joke.
The Miz really is awful. There was a bit of a movement about a year ago among fans to try and portray him as a seasoned veteran but I’m having none of it. He looks like a guy trying to badly play a pro wrestler in a movie. At least when he is a heel you’re supposed to hate him, but as a face he literally has no redeeming qualities.
Looks like it’s Robert Roode’s turn for a 2-3 week push. I can’t say I am holding out much hope that the team with Ziggler pans out but they gave themselves the best possible chance with an excellent first outing. It would be nice to see them build some real chemistry and stay together. The downside of the gauntlet match was that it went too long and the eliminations of The Club and the Viking Raiders was real weak.
It’s going to be really hard for Natalya to come back from her booking over the last few weeks. She has looked so weak , tapping out to Becky in her home country and now Sasha in a grudge match. WWE has used her to get the two stars they want to push over but it leaves her damaged as an act.
Todd Martin, who contributes over at PW Torch made an excellent point about how out of touch Vince is having R-Truth and the 24/7 jobbers on the Fox show. If you are looking for Fox to help draw in new fans, put your best foot forward! American Football fans watching one of their analysts roll up a wrestler to win a belt will make them never watch wrestling in a million years.
There isn’t a lot positive to say about SmackDown this week. About the best I can tell you is that they have a new logo for going on Fox that looks nice. I think with Heyman’s influence on the RAW product going it’s making the dumb stuff on SD even more noticeable.
Two real disappointments in the show were Kofi and Big E being unable to stay serious despite the angle being portrayed so. Big E especially I think has a massive upside and I’m not saying he has to completely remove the comedy from his act, but he does need to know when to be serious. It’s a total disconnect from the story they are trying to tell.
Ali v Buddy Murphy was a really good match despite only going 8 minutes. The result does put a damper on fans who had hoped WWE had big plans for Murphy after the last two weeks though. This plays into my theory about talent getting 2-3 week pushes before they move on to someone else in an attempt to keep everyone happy.
Lacey Evans v Bayley was terrible. When Vince was timing out the show it’s almost incredible that he decided to give this match as much time as Ali/Murphy & Benjamin/Gable combined. Lacey has been gone for about a month but she definitely hasn’t improved much in-ring. At this point I would consider having her in a valet role while she learns her craft in 10 minute house show matches.
The Nakamura/Zayn pairing continues to impress. Unfortunately the WWE formula that relies heavily on promo time doesn’t really suit Nakamura at all so having Sami in his corner is great. I can see why it has upset some fans though, Sami Zayn is one of the best babyfaces (and a pretty damn good heel as well) in the business just now and a manager role is certainly not making maximum use of his abilities. I would argue that he doesn’t have a look at that Vince is ever going to push at a high level though, so may as well have him in a productive position.
The Roman Reigns/Daniel Bryan/Eric Rowan/Fake Eric Rowan angle is so bad. I have said for weeks it’s dumb, but it fell off a cliff this week. Another cliff hanger with zero answers. None of it made any sense. Grainy footage that could have been Rowan, the fake Rowan, me with an orange beard drawn on with a marker pen or any other number of humans is shown and Bryan instantly flips. The crowd reacted to this bullshit exactly like you would imagine. A flat ending to the show and this is quickly becoming one of the worst angles of 2019.
Well that will do it for this week. Next week should I have the time I will throw a quick round up of NXT & AEW from Saturday night into the mix. It’s unlikely I will get time to watch NJPW as well, but if that materialises I’ll report back on it as well. Until next week folks, enjoy all the great wrestling!
