The long awaited short edition of Wrestling with Mediocrity will have to wait at least another week, because once again there is just too much to discuss. WWE held their Elimination Chamber PPV on Sunday night as well as the usual RAW and SmackDown shows. Each show had it’s ups and downs, so this week I thought I would start by listing the pros and cons points from each show.
ELIMINATION CHAMBER
Pros
- The women’s chamber match while very rough for the first twenty minutes or so ended up way better than expected.
- The main event was excellent.
- The Cruiserweight title match was the best pre-show contest in a while.
Cons
- The women’s chamber didn’t need to be over thirty minutes.
- Finn Balor’s IC title win couldn’t have meant any less after he pinned Rush instead of Lashley and then ran away.
- Corbin v Strowman couldn’t ever be entertaining.
- It may not have occurred on the PPV but it was first shown there. Becky Lynch attacking Charlotte from behind only to get battered with a chair and end up on crutches.
- Shane McMahon and The Miz fought. It was every bit as bad as always. Thankfully they lost the titles.
The following night we had Monday Night RAW. Some disagree, but I thought it was one of the worst RAW’s in a long, long time. Below are the pros and cons.
Pros
- There was some good wrestling on the show.
- RICOCHET
Cons
- Helmsley being a face this week despite starting the previous show as a heel. He has turned multiple times since Christmas, all with zero storyline explanation.
- The robotic introduction Michael Cole gave the NXT guys. Including his assertion that Ricochet managed to rise to prominence during the Half Time Heat special a month ago.
- Corbin v Strowman AGAIN because WWE hates us. Also, zero follow up to Strowman being attacked by three men the night before. I guess we are just supposed to forget.
- The obsession with segments overlapping. They are petrified to have any down time where people change the channel. Here’s a novel idea. Book a good show and people will watch.
- Leo Rush and Bobby Lashley back together despite the split the night before. Zero explanation given.
- Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder are death. They need to be taken off TV.
- Gargano and Ciampa’s two year storyline gets thrown to one side and they just team up out of nowhere.
- Ruby Riot getting a title rematch 24 hours after being squashed in less than two minutes.
As I said in the pros I did enjoy some of the wrestling on this show. The DIY v Revival tag match was excellent and while the Ricochet match went too long it was entertaining. We are supposed to be on the road to WrestleMania and instead of building towards it we got a show where things were literally thrown at the wall to see what sticks. I get that Vince is panicking about the ratings, he should be! But you can’t just put out completely nonsensical shows. The bipolar nature of the show was felt in the crowd reactions as well. They were dead the whole night and it’s hard to blame them.
IF these NXT call-ups are permanent and they get a direction in place for next week this abomination of a show can always be forgotten, but in the moment it leaves a real soul taste in the mouth of fans and WWE need to be doing everything to keep the largely diminished fan base engaged. I imagine HHH, Gargano and Ciampa are not pleased about being thrown back together as a team at a moments notice. There is no way things would have unfolded like this without so much as a backstage promo if it were on NXT.
The ratings came in and RAW was up just over 12% from the previous week. That should be enough to convince McMahon that the new faces can if given time make a difference in the ratings. According to Dave Meltzer, Vince went to HHH and asked for the 4 best wrestlers from NXT and said he wanted to push them hard. He is apparently aware that the current roster have been marginalised and defined down. Hopefully that is the case, because it is something that he should have realised years ago. You can’t 50/50 someone for years, or job them out for an extended period and then expect them to get over at a high level. Jinder Mahal being a fine example.
Unfortunately due to a bad illness the last few days this was as far as I got with this weeks article. I had hoped to come back and finish it but that has not been possible. I’m sure we will have plenty of time next week to catch up on the goings on over on SmackDown though. Until then, take care everyone!
