Here we are, the calm before the storm. Next week is one of the biggest in the history of the business. This is the schedule;
MONDAY: The season premiere of RAW
TUESDAY: Impact starting on Axs (albeit showing a PPV replay)
WEDNESDAY: The first full NXT on USA Network and the first ever AEW Dynamite
THURSDAY: NXT UK has a new time slot
FRIDAY: First ever SmackDown on Fox
SATURDAY: NJPW on Axs
SUNDAY: WWE Hell in a Cell PPV
I added it up and if you are mad and decide to watch the lot you are looking at around 20 hours of wrestling content in a week. Now while next week is heavier than most, the schedule is going to be packed every week going forward which of course impacts the time it takes to both watch and write about these shows. As such I am making some necessary changes to how I lay out this article.
Going forward I will be covering RAW, SmackDown, NXT and Dynamite. Impact by all accounts has been booked really well lately, NXT UK is always entertaining and NJPW has the best wrestling in the world, but I need to prioritise and these are the four shows I care about most at this moment. Even narrowing it down to four, that’s still a lot of writing, so my plan is to pick one good and one bad thing about each show to focus on. I will then give a brief synopsis of what I think of each show overall with a letter grade.
The way this works may change and evolve over time, but that is the plan right now. This new format starts this very week, so let’s get the show on the road!
The Fiend continues to be booked stronger than any heel for a while now. They have done an excellent job building him up and it has made the main event for Hell in a Cell actually feel like an important must see match. When is the last time you could say that?
The whole scenario coincidentally reminds me of Hell in a Cell 2012 when CM Punk faced Ryback. It wasn’t time for CM Punk to drop the title but Ryback losing would hurt his character. In this 2019 match I think they pretty much have to go with Wyatt winning the belt. It is early for Seth to lose, but he isn’t over at the world title level, thanks in part to his idiotic antics on Twitter a few months back.
It happened on both RAW & SmackDown, but I’m putting it here as SD is full of stuff I can put in this section. Asuka being one of the women running after Carmella and the 24/7 was just tough to watch. It’s criminal how badly Vince uses foreign talent. If you can’t stand in the ring and cut a twenty minute promo you may as well be on the ring crew, regardless of how good you are.
This 24/7 crap has been building to Carmella pinning Truth since week one. To say it was anti-climatic is an understatement. Having the title on a female performer is not the right move either. WWE have plenty of spare male wrestlers they have no plans for that can chase the belt, but the female roster is a lot more limited. In chasing that belt it brands you a geek and someone that shouldn’t be taken seriously. WWE do not have the luxury of typecasting any of the women like that right now.
A pretty run of the mill episode. With most good aspects there was a bad pretty closely following it though. The Fiend continues to be the star of the show but the way Rollins is acting scared and cowering is ridiculous. Becky’s promo work was good, but then Sasha is all but beaten by Nikki Cross before Bayley makes the save. How does that build Sasha as a viable challenger?
It was good to see the Viking Raiders in a decent match and beginning a potential feud and hopefully for the first time in about a decade we can have a tag title feud that doesn’t revolve around New Day or the Uso’s.
If WWE could stop scripting Ricochet he still has top star potential and the Rey Mysterio win to get up a match with Rollins next week was both good and a surprise. Even if it is just a set up for the Fiend to attack another legend.
SmackDown wasn’t all bad, but honestly the main positive takeaway I had from the show was that at least next week when they start on Fox they will have to try harder. For weeks now the show has been largely dreadful in my eyes but as of next week they have about four billion reasons to make sure it is the A-Show.
I don’t expect Vince to do this, but if it was my company I would look at the quality of shows the last few months and switch Paul Heyman over to Friday nights. The reason I don’t see this happening is because I think McMahon still backs himself to put out the better show and has Bischoff loitering around as a figurehead to liaise with Fox execs.
This was a hard choice as the Kevin Owens angle continues to be atrocious, but this week I have to go with the Eric Rowan/Roman Reigns/Daniel Bryan storyline. I mentioned this on Twitter the other day but it really hit home after they put Rowan over Bryan clean. This Daniel Bryan return will go down as one of the biggest fuck-ups in wrestling history.
Imagine in 2017 if someone told you Daniel Bryan was going to miraculously return to pro wrestling and WWE would somehow make him just another guy. That he would then turn HEEL and despite him managing to make that work at a midcard level against all odds he would be turned back face, not because of a great storyline leading to it, but by default because ERIC ROWAN turned on him.
There isn’t a single wrestling fan on the planet that would have believed that level of incompetence was possible, even from Vince McMahon. But here we are, baw deep in one of the worst angles this year, with one of the most talented wrestlers this generation after afterthought. Incredible.
The show once again had very few redeeming features. Chad Gable getting a squash win was nice, but I don’t think many believe this is a push that will last. His best chance is if he is drafted to RAW. Kofi cut an alright promo but the sooner that belt is off him and they can bring some prestige back to the SD World Title the better.
Charlotte’s slow, plodding face turn continued despite her being blatantly more suited to being a heel and as I mentioned above the Kevin Owens/Shane McMahon angle continues to be completely lame. I’m sure the cage match will be entertaining, giving the feud at least a decent conclusion, but I am telling you right now if there was any lingering possibility of Owens being a top babyface in WWE going forward it has been killed stone dead by this angle.
Despite not being as good as week one this was still the show of the week. I have decided to go with Keith Lee vs. Dominik Dijakovic. These guys have excellent chemistry together and despite them not being allowed to go out and have a match at the level of their PWG encounter it was still enough to wow the live crowd and the viewing audience.
Given their size it is hard to see how Vince won’t want both fast tracked to the main roster and they are definitely ready to make that leap in the near future.
There wasn’t much bad on this show, but one thing that didn’t quite hit the mark was Dakota Kai vs. Taynara Conti. Kai was returning to the ring for the first time in 2019 after an ACL tear (something that I currently have and can confirm hurts like hell) and while I do think she has a lot of potential this match didn’t click at all. Kai will for sure be judged on future performances rather than this one but it will be far from the return she envisioned.
Week two wasn’t as good a show as the debut, but that was in part because they were gearing everything for a Takeover level show next week when they have AEW as competition. Riddle and Dain was very tame for a street fight but the right guy won and while I feel it is shortsighted giving away the biggest match you have on the brand at a week’s notice I get why they are doing it.
Lee and Dijakovic had a great opener and they continued to showcase talent like Rhea Ripley and Cameron Grimes. The outlook for the show at the moment is good and while a 15% drop in viewership from week one is far from a positive it isn’t time to push any alarm bells yet. These things take time and Helmsley needs to do everything in his power to stop a creative run in from Vince.
To close out this weeks article I would like to talk predictions for the viewership numbers on Wednesday night.
NXT: 980,000
AEW: 760,000
More important than the overall viewership is how each show draws in the 18-49 demo. Both companies are desperate for that younger audience that has the ability to make their particular company the cool thing to watch. It will be a very interesting week for sure. My plan is for next week’s article to drop on Saturday with reviews for RAW, NXT, Dynamite and SmackDown. I will also have a short preview of Hell in a Cell.
Lastly, fuck Crown Jewel. Vince is pathetic for keeping this business agreement going.
