From this week on Wrestling with Mediocrity will be delivered in a different way. Instead of releasing at the end of the week I will have RAW thoughts out by Wednesday, NXT & AEW out by Friday and finally SmackDown on the Saturday. To keep it all in one place I will just update this article as the Wednesday and Saturday content is added.
To give you a look behind the curtain this is how I always wrote the article anyway, but it was becoming a pain having to edit stuff out of say the RAW thoughts because something happened later in the week that changed them. Now, you’ll get faster updates and it will be spread throughout the week.
Enjoy!
Ok technically I have two good things this week. It’s cheating, but it’s also my website, so 🖕 The Production: The new set was cool. It wasn’t what I would have chosen but it was a massive upgrade on the last one. The commentary team was also a breath of fresh air. Dio Madden (dumb name) seemed a bit nervous but I expect him to grow into the role.
So, the main plus from RAW: Brock Lesnar. The guy continues to just be a force of nature and when he shows up it is always must watch TV. i know some fans are upset that he has a part time deal, but I don’t see how him being smart enough to negotiate a great deal should be held against him.
He brings an intensity to his work what no-one else in wrestling at the moment can replicate. The beat down on both Rey and Dominick was really well done and had a lot of extra attention to detail moments like the ambulance siren and Rey removing his mask as they drove away.
The angle served two purposes as well. First and foremost it built anticipation for Brock v Kofi on the Fox debut on SmackDown, but given Paul Heyman’s comments about no-one in MMA or wrestling being able to handle his client I fully expect Cain Velasquez to appear at some stage and begin a feud with The Beast. In case you aren’t aware Cain is Mexican and so it would be easy to start the feud around the former UFC Heavyweight Champion choosing to defend Rey’s honour.
Miz TV. I could have told you this segment was going to appear here before the show even took place. Miz as usual is the worst babyface in existence and the whole thing was built around Hogan and Flair announcing a tag match for Crown Jewel that I wouldn’t watch at gun point (a real possibility given the country it’s being held in).
The absolute low point was when Ric Flair talked about finally getting a pay slip the same size as Hogan’s. Ric has never been the most self aware guy, especially in his latter years, but to boast about a pay cheque you are getting from a Prince known for ordering executions of civilians with no just cause is idiotic.
As usual most wrestling fans will bury their head in the sand, cover their ears and not want to hear it, but WWE remaining in this partnership after the Khashoggi assassination is just so low rent. It is the most tone deaf move WWE has made since some genius thought it would be a good idea to send The Undertaker to a make a wish event in a hearse… yes that actually happened.
An ok episode of RAW overall. It had some good angles and good wrestling, but it felt less than what it could have been. AJ v Cedric being the perfect example. Excellent for the nine minutes it lasted… four of which were during commercials. Let these guys have twenty minutes and tear the house down! Unfortunately Cedric’s push is disappearing fast it seems.
The final segment was clunky but it served it’s purpose. It got the Fiend’s dominance over and also re-introduced both Bobby Lashley and Lana back in a prominent way. It remains to be seen if this angle will be good or bad, but it’s certainly an intriguing start.
A negative was the fact that we have a PPV this coming Sunday and only THREE matches announced. I know the focus is on the TV this week but to say this is poor planning would be an understatement. Have Gable attack Corbin to set up a match! Do something! I know we still have Friday but with the amount they have scheduled for the two hour window it’s had to see how they fit it all in.
I hate when WWE advertise something and then just don’t deliver but honestly they would be better having some sort of angle that delays the Owens v Shane match until Sunday and ram it in a cell instead of the cage. The build to this PPV has vibes of ECW December to Dismember, interestingly booked by Paul Heyman…
To be honest, pretty much all of it was good. I have decided to go with the production though. Specifically the video package building up the Cody v Sammy Guevara match. This was a match I had very little interest in, but the package got me hyped. There was a real sports feel to it that reminded me of the videos UFC do before a fight.
Also part of the production is the commentary and Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone and Excalibur did a great job week one. Schiavone especially stood out, bringing both a nostalgic and fresh feel at the same time which took some doing. AEW has a lot of stars who aren’t household names at the moment and so a strong announce team is crucial in helping get them over.
Inconsistent refereeing. AEW had implied there wouldn’t be leaps in logic when it comes to referee calls, but in the main event Jon Moxley came through the crowd and attacked Kenny Omega right in front of the referee. Instead of it being a DQ they brawled off to the VIP area and the match continued as if nothing had happened.
I loved it. I didn’t really know what to expect from the first show, but what I had hoped for was something different to WWE and I feel that’s what we got. It really felt like a special night and now we need to wait and see how they can capitalise on that. They also got through a two hour show without it ever dragging and managed to hold plenty of stars off for future weeks.
Wrestling fans responded with a really strong 1.4 million viewers. There are positives and negatives from this. On the plus side they had an excellent amount of young fans watching, something WWE has tried and failed to draw in for years now. The downside is that they didn’t do great with the older audience and the overall viewership declined slightly throughout the show.
The positives far outweighed the negative though and the amount of young fans watching will have TNT massively excited for the future of the product. What we don’t know is how many people watched out of curiosity and maybe won’t tune in again. NXT dropped around 15% from week one to two, so anything in that range would be in line with what we have seen recently.
Another positive for the show was Brandi. Wow.
The in-ring action. NXT this week had by far the best wrestling of any show. The highlight of which was the World Title match between Adam Cole and Matt Riddle. When two of your less important matches of the night feature Johnny Gargano and Pete Dunn you know you have some incredible matches on your hands.
With Finn Balor being added to the roster and Ciampa being cleared they have an exceptionally talented roster over there at Full Sail and so are almost certainly going to have great matches on a weekly basis.
The only issue with what was an excellent show is that instead of going out and focusing on their own show HHH and the NXT crew instead set out to counter program AEW. One of the most obvious ways they did this was by doing no ads early in the show in an attempt to hold viewers and stop them switching the channel. This unfortunately caught up with them later in the broadcast where the likes of the Shayna Baszler vs. Candice LeRae had a full 8 minutes of commercials.
They also decided that having an overrun would help with fans switching the channel once AEW finish. This led to the main event with the Street Profits being far too long and giving you the final impression that the show dragged when it had been superb to that point. One thing the ratings told us this week is that there is very little cross over between the AEW and WWE audience at the moment. Only a few hardcore idiots like myself.
Wednesday night was a great night for wrestling and looks early on to be the home of the best two shows each week. NXT will be feeling deflated after putting on a Takeover level show and not only having over 500,000 less viewers than the competition but a lower amount of viewers than last week. I just hope they don’t panic. They have the makings of a special show and the best course is to ignore everything around them and focus on putting out the best show they can.
That doesn’t mean Takeover level shows, it means shows that build storylines and features solid wrestling leading to PPV’s that peak feuds. I believe if NXT is left to it’s own devices it will be the best show most weeks, it remains to be seen if they will be left alone to create their vision though.
FINALLY! WWE has put a mega star from the past in a position to help a current star get over. I know it isn’t the first time this has happened but in recent times we have just had Austin out talking to the fans. Now that’s great, don’t get me wrong, but these old stars are still 100x more over than anyone on the current roster and could benefit greatly from being put in a position to look their equal.
That’s exactly what happened at the beginning of the show with The Rock and Becky Lynch. I have heard a few saying Corbin got a bit of a rub which I am not buying, but Becky sure did. WWE have had a few missteps with The Man this year and while she is still very over, she isn’t at the level she could have been had her booking been better since the start of the year.
I know I am supposed to choose one thing in this section, but despite it being the weakest show of the week I’m putting two in here. Kofi losing the belt. Thank fuck for that. An underwhelming title reign to say the absolute least. Sure, losing in 7 seconds was a bit of a slap in the face to fans, but going into WWE’s biggest ever TV deal they need a main event level talent with the belt, not a guy throwing pancakes on the way to ringside to defend it.
The introduction of Cain Velasquez was really cool, although perhaps hurt slightly by the fact that a large portion of the audience didn’t seem to know who he was. Cain has done a great job in AAA during his brief stint in pro wrestling so far, so it stands to reason he will impress in WWE as well. I just hope the match is built for a huge show and not this bullshit in Saudi Arabia.
There wasn’t anything overtly bad on the show, it just wasn’t as good as the shows it followed. For this week’s bad though I am choosing false advertising. WWE had promised appearances from both Steve Austin and The Undertaker. Those are two massive names to say will be appearing and then just never address during the show.
As angry as fans on Twitter who watched on TV were, imagine you were live in the building! WWE also cancelled 205 Live last minute, so when SmackDown ended the house lights came on, the announcer said the show had ended and fans began to revolt. Reports claim the full arena started chanting “AEW!” which Vince must have loved given all the Fox executives sitting in the front row.
Overall SmackDown wasn’t a bad show in my opinion. It was a victim of better shows coming before it. It also had the expectation of being an all-star showing heavily featuring The Rock, Steve Austin, Undertaker, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Goldberg, Kurt Angle and more. Instead we got very little of that and a largely current roster heavy show.
The angle with Tyson Fury did absolutely nothing for me. I don’t see the guy as a huge star and I think it took the gloss off the Cain debut later in the show. Bringing two combat sports athletes in and starting a feud within an hour is overkill. It is also classic Vince McMahon though. When ratings are low you either book hotshot angles, bring back old stars or bring in celebrities.
One thing I haven’t mentioned so far and it was honestly the worst part of the whole week was a tweet from WWE following the Kevin Owens win over Shane McMahon. As if Owens babyface turn wasn’t dead in the water already, WWE’s Twitter account decided to send this out to the world;
Kevin Owens is so happy about keeping his job?! Imagine this was any hot babyface ever! WWE shifted their approach after the Rock left for Hollywood. They decided from that point they would always put the brand ahead of the stars so that they could absorb talent loses easier. The problem is it limits how much talent can get over and is one of the main reasons we have never had a genuine mega star since Austin/Rock left.
Well that wraps up this rather lengthy edition of Wrestling with Mediocrity. The idea of this format is to cut down the length of time it takes me to do it but that has not worked week one. As things continue on I may drop the amount of shows I cover and could easily see me just covering the Wednesday Night Wars before long. For now though I hope you enjoy the content.
I am totally blown away by the amount of you who have read these articles over the last few weeks. It’s an exciting time for the wrestling business and I appreciate the several thousand of you who seem to care about my insights. Until next week, have a good one!
