TV Review: WWE Monday Night RAW #1174

The day after Survivor Series, we had a brand new World Heavyweight Champion in Sheamus, WWE would want to put on a great show and make their new Champ look incredible...wouldn't they? 

Fast-Forward...A quick "last time" pre-credits started the show, quickly catching up viewers with the events of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship Tournament at the previous nights Survivor Series, including Sheamus cashing in the Money in the Bank briefcase on Roman Reigns to become WWE World Heavyweight Champion...

Of course, Sheamus didn't open the show, no that would be ridiculous, wouldn't it? Triple H and Stephanie McMahon opened the show, because they're the Authority and they can do that sort of thing. Both went on and on about nothing in particular for over five minutes. Seriously both of them spoke so much, but didn't say anything. It took a while for us to get a glimpse of the new WWE World Heavyweight Champion, Sheamus, as Triple H introduced him. Sheamus handled himself well on the microphone and had some good content to play with ("Who looks stupid now?"), but for the life of him couldn't stand the fuck still! The Celtic Warrior was pacing around the ring and it made difficult to take him seriously when he actually looked nervous to be out there. 

Now you'd think Roman Reigns would be right pissed off with Sheamus, wouldn't you? You'd reckon the Juggernaut would want to Superman Punch the Celtic Warrior's mohawk in oblivion, but nah, big Roman was more interested in Triple H. That same Triple H who had to tell Reigns to move closer too him during a stare down, completely ruining the illusion. At least, Reigns was over with the Nashville crowd I suppose. The closing twist of a returning Rusev attacking Reigns just about managed to rescue the show some momentum with Stephanie announcing that Reigns and Rusev would main event the show.


Fast-Forward...A short highlight package of The Brothers of Destructions victory over the Wyatt Family at Survivor Series was shown...As The Wyatt's 425th rebuild began, WWE aired a "Earlier Tonight" promo from Wyatt, as the family made their way to the ring for a match with The Dudley Boyz...Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper went over The Dudley Boyz in a short, simple tag bout with Harper picking up the pin with a Discus Clothesline...The entire Wyatt Family destroyed Bubba Ray and D-Von post match, but no indication was made of where the Wyatts were heading next...A vignette for the Undertaker aired with inserts from the WWE Network show, Legends with JBL, with Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin and Triple H commenting on the Deadman...Sasha Banks was on RAW, and she'd be wrestling Becky Lynch? This had to be great...Okay, so it wasn't great, but it was alright, and at least WWE seems to be listening to the audience who want to see more Sasha, as she picked up the win following some help from Team B.A.D...Ugh, the direction for Paige's backstage promo (revealing that, like we pointed out in our review, Charlotte's feet were under the ropes during her victory at Survivor Series) was so bad, like the opening segment the focus was complete squiffy, as Paige talked way too much about Ric Flair than she did Charlotte...

The New Day part of this segment was great. I thought their "jamboree" to celebrate a year of the New Day (despite them already celebrating this a few episodes back) was a sound twist on the championship celebration, and the three created some entertaining television with in the ring. Kofi Kingston's ridiculous unicorn hair may just have stolen the show. THe thing that let this down for me was the fact we were promised a Tag Team Championship match and then didn't get one. I know the New Day are heels and the idea of them backing out of an Open Challenge is perfectly reasonable, but it didn't really make much sense once you had both The Usos and the Lucha Dragons beat the shit into them anyway. This could have been made to work, if the New Day had called off the challenge before either team made their way out to the arena and certainly before The Usos proposed a triple threat, with the idea being that no team deserved to face them. 


Fast-Forward...Mark Henry walking out caught me by surprise, because he hasn't had a match (on TV or elsewhere) since losing to Kevin Owens five weeks ago...Henry went on to job to Neville in quick fashion, despite dominating the sub three minute encounter (Oh and The Miz was watching on backstage for seemingly no reason whatsover)...The World's Strongest Man shook Neville's hand at ringside and I still hadn't a clue what any of this meant or was leading towards...Stardust and Titus O'Neil skit was different, but definitely had it's moments...I hadn't watched the pre-show for Survivor Series, so again was a bit shocked to see Goldust involved in a six man tag team match, his first RAW bout since jobbing to Rusev in late March...

The crowd weren't particularly into The Prime Players & Goldust's six man tag bout with The Cosmic Wasteland, which has to be down to the fact that there was little to no reason for it to be taking place. In fairness to those involved they did manage to bring portions of the crowd into the action, with Goldust and Titus O'Neil doing a good job of getting things going, whilst The Cosmic Wasteland worked over Darren Young. There was some decent action as well, with Young's over head belly to belly hope spot and the well-timed finishing sequences standing out amongst the bunch. What O'Neil picking up the pinfall on Konnor means for any of these six fellas going forward, I honestly don't know.

Jack Swagger coming out to confront Zeb Colter over his alliance with Alberto Del Rio provided my favourite moment for the Mex-America storyline so far. Whilst there is clearly very little chemistry between Colter and Del Rio, that seems to have become a focal point of their entire act, with Colter nodding along, pretending to understand when Del Rio was talking Spanish being gold. I'm not too interested in seeing Swagger and the Mexican Aristocrat lock horns again, but I do think that The Real American put on a competent performance with some well-written content. There's space to tell a curious story here, even if the faces don't quite fit with what WWE are trying to do with them.


Fast-Forward...Paige and Charlotte's entrances including some mind-numbing commentary with the trio bickering over whether the Diva's Champion having her feet under the ropes at Survivor Series constituted cheating or not...

I'm not sure why WWE took the match from the night before that got absolutely no crowd reaction and decided that the audience would like to see more of it. Now, Paige and Charlotte are skilled inside that ring, and I praised the in-ring content of their Survivor Series match, and whilst there was flashes of that here, things never quite came together for me. The crowd being a little more interested helped, but the duo seemed to want to do too much and use all the ideas they had, without any of them going anywhere. Paige worked Charlotte's leg, but it took her seven minutes to start doing so, and even then things were hit and miss. The physicality was still there, but it's hard to believe that two people really hate each other, when you can hear them LOUDLY talking to each other! Paige needs to sort this out! At one point I heard her tell Charlotte she was going to push her away and then they'd both hit kicks...why am I mentioning this in particular? Because PAIGE DIDN'T PUSH CHARLOTTE AWAY! The Diva's Champion had to cover by awkwardly stumbling backwards. Final moan, almost fifteen minutes is way way too long for a bout that's going to a double countout in my opinion. 


Fast-Forward...Michael Cole lost his shit when The Anti-Diva locked on the P.T.O on the announce table, despite it making no difference to the move what so ever...If you'd forgotten what happened at the beginning of the show (or had in fact changed the channel after hearing Triple H talk for five minutes) a handy recap aired...Ryback destroyed Heath Slater because Slater said country music sucked, what a time to be alive!...

More throw-away tag team action next, as Dolph Ziggler & Dean Ambrose teamed to conquer Intercontinental Champion Kevin Owens and Tyler Breeze (with Summer Rae). These four talents are capable of putting on a show-stealing encounter, if given the chance, but they aren't miracle workers! Give them just over four minutes of television time and you'll get a decent tag bout and that's exactly what this match was. Ambrose's hot tag was the highlight for me, with his silly suicide dive standing out in particular. Breeze took the pin after Ambrose hit Dirty Deeds in an awkward looking closing sequence, it would seem he's being moved into an Intercontinental Championship programme with Owens.


Fast-Forward...JBL, El Torito and Mark Henry starred in a cringey advert for some kind of Tex-Mex burger, but no one actually mentioned which outlet was selling it...As we headed into tonight's Rusev vs. Roman Reigns main event, Michael Cole was quick to push Sheamus' appearance on ESPN's Sports Center later in the week...

Roman Reigns was made to look like the centre of absolutely everything, opposite Rusev in the main event. Sheamus had to keep giving Rusev the upperhand, twice interfering in the action and then being part of the distraction that allowed Rusev to take control as the WWE World Heavyweight Champion was ejected from ringside. The Bulgarian Brute then got a number of sweet near falls, all to show off Reigns' "resilience... resolve...,(and) passion" as Byron Saxton made very clear on commentary. In fact, Reigns was pretty much all the commentary team would talk about throughout, if Reigns was kicking out, they'd talk about Reigns qualities mentioned above, but if Rusev was the one kicking out (once for a well-worked Superman Punch), they'd focus on the way that Reigns had performed the move. Obviously, this is how you present a babyface, especially one that you're planning to push to the moon, but it also made for a frustrating and predictable encounter.

I've probably been a little harsh on this one, as the in-ring stuff was strong and physical, but I was never really given a reason to stick around to see what happened. Even though I did stick around (because I wanted to write this review), I was again disappointed with the finish. Over fifteen minutes on TV (almost 19 minutes for those in the arena) to end with outside interference is lazy booking. King Barrett caused the DQ, as the European buddies seemed to be coming together. Not entirely sure why WWE were unwilling to let Rusev take the pinfall from Reigns here, but for reasons known only to them this finish was the best they could come up with.


Fast-Forward...Just because WWE fancied putting their new WWE World Heayvwieght Champion over strong, they had Roman Reigns manage to fend off Sheamus, Rusev and King Barrett to close the show in the middle of the ring, FFS...

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 3.73 (Average-Poor TV)

This was the weakest episode of Monday Night RAW for quite some time. The show as a whole lacked a sense of urgency and you never would have known that there was a PPV just three weeks away. Whilst the main event was the strongest portion of the show for me, even that was only slightly above average and ended with the supposedly newly formed group (including the World Heavyweight Champion) looking a like complete losers. Even Kofi Kingston's unicorn hair couldn't save this show from receiving a Poor rating on the ATPW Scale.


WWE is gonna have some work cut out for them over the next two week's as head to the final PPV of the year, TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs on 13th December.

Retro Review: WWE Extreme Rules 2014

It's a brand new series about old pay-per-views! Get your retro hats and your old-school slippers on and settle in for Retro Review!


Okay, so our time machine's randomiser is a bit shit and we've only gone back just over a year, but hey ho. Let's take a look at Extreme Rules 2014! She Looks So Perfect from Five Seconds of Summer was topping the UK charts, Eastenders was drawing in the biggest TV audiences and Rio 2 was giving it the big ones at the box office. But was WWE hitting a home run with Extreme Rules?


Daniel Bryan defending the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against Kane in a Extreme Rules match is our main event, whilst Evolution, The Shield, Cesaro, Rob Van Dam, Paige and more featured on the undercard. Let's take a look.

Is there a better way to start a PPV than a Paul Heyman promo? Probably not, but this wasn't one of his best. Heyman attempted to use Brock Lesnar's defeat of The Undertaker at the previous month's WrestleMania XXX to garner heat for his newest charge Cesaro and it just doesn't cut the mustard for me. Cesaro was extremely popular following winning the inaugural Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal and the crowd wanted to get behind him. 

Cesaro's opponents in the opening bout were his former Real Americans partner Jack Swagger (with Zeb Colter) and Rob Van Dam (for reasons) and the three combine to produce a decent triple threat elimination bout. Things aren't perhaps as smooth as one would hope with Van Dam struggling to adapt to the three way environment at times. There's also a weird dynamic, due to Cesaro and Swagger both being heels but having just split up as a tag team. Whilst the commentary team of Michael Cole, John Bradshaw Layfield and Jerry "The King" Lawler have absolutely no clue that the bout is elimination, the match really comes to life once Swagger has been eliminated, as Cesaro and Van Dam put together a fun closing sequence involving a trash can.


Winner - Cesaro via pinfall in 12 minutes, 33 seconds.


Next PPV - Cesaro would go on to challenge for Sheamus' United States Championship, whilst Rob Van Dam would face Bad News Barrett with the Intercontinental strap on the line at Payback. Jack Swagger would appear in the Money in the Bank Ladder match a month later.

The push of Alexander Rusev (with Lana) begins here as he squashes as R-Truth and Xavier Woods in a quick encounter, that could easily have happened on Monday Night RAW. 


Next PPV - The forename-less Rusev would take on Big E at Payback, whilst R-Truth and Xavier Woods both wouldn't get another PPV run out until Battleground in an Intercontinental Championship battle royal.

Then Intercontinental Champion Big E is so not over as a babyface that it hurts his defence against Bad News Barrett a lot, as it plays out to almost silence. The early part of the contest does absolutely nothing to try and get the crowd onside as the pair go through the motions for a dull couple of minutes. The action does pick up in the closing stages, but the decent back and forth before Barrett manages to hit the Bullhammer is too little, too late for me. Taking the title off of Big E at this point was almost certainly the right thing to do, it was clear the big man wasn't ready for a push to this level at the time.


Winner - Bad News Barrett via pinfall in 7 minutes, 51 seconds *NEW CHAMPION*


Next PPV - Both men would feature on the following month's Payback with Barrett defending his newly won championship against Rob Van Dam, whilst Big E would be the next victim of Rusev. 

That old intangible big fight feel is present as Evolution (Triple H, Batista and Randy Orton) are made to wait by The Shield before their six man tag team clash. The action beginning before the bell is a superb way kick things off, hinting at the mayhem still to come, whilst also allowing Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins to look good by coming out on top of the pre-match exchange between the six men.

This is the best match on the show, by quite some way, as the six performers all work their arses off to create a lively bout that grows as things go on. The early portion of the clash that saw Evolution dictate the pace, through their heely ways, had the crowd going nuts, especially any time Batista was in the ring. Having a crowd that's fully behind the babyfaces and completely against the heels really does do wonders for a match, doesn't it? This early section cleverly negated the nostalgia feels for Evolution (even if this was their trademark tactics of 2002/03), by keeping a measured pace and building even more support for the upcoming members of The Shield.


The second portion of the contest is almost impossible not to get into, with plenty of high-energy from The Shield, whilst the Evolution members work hard to allow Rollins, Ambrose and especially Reigns to look like stars. Reigns is put over strong throughout and ends up taking a Pedigree and an RKO, both of which work as strong false finishes, as does a Triple Powerbomb from The Shield to Batista. The bout desending into an all out brawl war, plays into the hands of the semi-regulars Triple H and Batista, whilst also producing an awe-inspriing moment as Seth Rollins jumps from a platform onto Triple H, Orton and Ambrose whilst the trio are brawling in the crowd. Batista and Reigns are legal men for a long time, as the action goes on around the arena, which leads to a strong closing sequence between the two, before Reigns wins the bout with a Spear for his team.


Winner - The Sheild via pinfall in 19 minutes, 50 seconds.


Next PPV - The trios would meet once again the next month at Payback to settle the score once and for all.

Whilst John Cena's entrance has remained the same for along time, it  was great to watch the full original Wyatt Family head to the ring once again. Having Erick Rowan and Luke Harper escourt him to the ring gave Wyatt an entirely different aura to what (up until recently) we've been seeing out of him as a singles competitor. It's hard to believe watching them head to the ring that WWE ever decided that splitting the trio up was a good idea.

Out of the Bray Wyatt and John Cena trilogy this Steel Cage bout was by far the worse of the three. The whole point of a Steel Cage match is negated as Rowan and Harper spend the entire bout either attacking Cena through the cage or stopping Cena's attempts at escaping over the top. The fact that The Cenation Leader continues to try to get over the top of the cage for almost twenty minutes, despite Rowan and Harper making it clear that he wouldn't be getting down safely, makes this a frustrating watch for the most part. It's not helped that the bout relies on too many moments where it's difficult to suspend your disbelief, like when Wyatt decided to Crab Walk towards the open cage door, instead of just walking out and winning the match.


The story could potentially work, but Cena in the underdog role with a crowd that's clearly behind Wyatt just doesn't sit right with the visual and audio never matching up. Imagine a film score where all the tender moments had tension music and the tense moments had comedy japes playing underneath. There were ways for the match to take into account the fact that Wyatt was clearly the one the fans were behind, and whilst the commentary team attempt to play this into the storyline, the performers in the ring don't and therefore everything that is done suffers. There's a handful of nice moves, like a Sitout Powerbomb from Cena after bringing Wyatt off the ropes, as well as well done Leg Drop Bulldog to Harper (who Cena pulls into the cage for reasons) and the actual wrestling content of the match is fine. I feel that you'll either have loved or hated the finish, that saw a creepy (but rather blinky) child turn up to deny Cena exit from the cage, but for me it doesn't suit a match that's gone over 20 minutes and does very little for Bray Wyatt (or the rest of the family's) credibility. 


Winner - Bray Wyatt via escape in 21 minutes, 13 seconds.


Next PPV - Cena and Wyatt would end their feud at Payback a month later in a Last Man Standing match.

Michael Cole calling Tamina the son of Jimmy Snuka is a sign of things to come for Paige's first WWE PPV bout. With the Diva's Championship on the line, this is a sloppy encounter that fails to win over a crowd that just couldn't care less about what is going on in the ring. There's a handful of nice spots like Paige's victory roll (Tamina kicks out at one to ruin the moment) and Tamina reversing a head scissors attempt on the outside and sending Paige into the barricade, but that's about as good as it gets here. This wasn't the match that the Norwich lass needed in her first PPV encounter. At least she kept the strap with the P.T.O. I suppose.


Winner - Paige via submission in 6 minutes, 16 seconds *STILL CHAMPION*


Next PPV - Whilst Paige would go on to defend her title against Alicia Fox at Payback, Tamina wouldn't get another PPV match for over a year, when she teamed with Naomi to take on the Bella Twins at Payback 2015.

The main event manages to provide this show with a second match that is worth checking out, as Daniel Bryan has his one and only PPV title defence against Kane in an Extreme Rules match. The pair take advantage of the gimmick well, with a host of weapon shots and turn what could be non-starter into an entertaining B show main event. The backstage brawling element of the collision has a real purpose and drive to it, with Bryan really upping the intensity in a style that he was rarely allowed to explore in his WWE run, as the duo get into all kinds of shenanigans with TV monitors and a car. 


The East Rutherford crowd is clearly in love with Daniel Bryan, but perhaps the fact that they don't really hate Kane hurts this one a little, as their indifference towards the Big Red Monster means they can be a little quiet a times. This is seen after the biggest spot of the bout, Bryan hitting a diving headbutt off a forklift truck (yes, a forklift truck) doesn't result in the finish and they continue to wrestle for another three or four minutes, with the crowd clearly burnt out from the big spot and never quite believing that Kane could have the match won. It's strange not to call the real finish, which see's Kane fall through a flaming table, the biggest spot of the match, but the camera angle makes it perfectly clear that the challenger is nowhere near any of the fire (and he's quickly sprayed with fire extinguishers anyway). Still this is a satisfactory watch throughout and is perhaps underrated amongst most fans.


Winner - Bryan via pinfall in 22 minutes, 26 seconds *STILL CHAMPION*


Next PPV - Due to Daniel Bryan's neck injury he would not compete at another PPV until his appearance in the Royal Rumble match in January 2015. Kane however would recieve another shot at the big one at Money in the Bank alongside seven other wrestlers competing in a ladder match for the vacant gold.

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 5.94/10


Despite looking like a three match show heading in, this PPV boils down to one great match and one good match, with the rest floating around between decent and pretty shit. The Shield and Evolution have the match of the show, whilst Bray Wyatt and John Cena offer up the most disappointing bout on the card, with a poor steel cage match, and the Diva's Championship match also drags down the ATPW Scale by a considerable amount also.


The PPV is watchable on the whole, a 5.94 isn't exactly a terrible rating on this scale, but if you're looking for above average action then there's only two bouts on the card that provide that consistently. However, with an Intercontinental title change, the beginning of Rusev's push, Paige's first PPV bout and a rare glimpse of Paul Heyman managing Cesaro, there is at least some reason to check out portions of the undercard just over a year on from this event.

Next time - NWA Bunkhouse Stampede (1988)

The main event see's Arn Anderson, Dusty Rhodes, Ivan Koloff, Lex Luger, Road Warrior Animal, The Barbarian, The Warlord and Tully Blanchard battle it out in a Steel Cage Bunkhouse Stampede match. Ric Flair, Road Warrior Hawk, Bobby Eaton, Barry Windham, Nikita Koloff and more appear on the undercard.

WWE NXT 21st August 2013 Review

Well, where do I start with this weeks NXT? I could talk about the appearances of Dolph Ziggler and Diva's Champion AJ Lee, I could talk about the re-debut of CJ Parker, but no there's only one thing that I can start this blog with...Sami Zayn vs. Antonio Cesaro, Two out of Three Falls.

Two out of Three Falls Match: 

Sami Zayn

 vs. 

Antonio Cesaro

So after months of build up between Sami Zayn and Antonio Cesaro, here we were the rubber match. Now this rivalry has been so incredibly well booked since late May this year, with the two featuring in various match ups also involving NXT Champion Bo Dallas and Leo Kruger, where their rivalry was always made clear during the bouts. Not many WWE rivalries last three months before having their big blow off, but this one certainly did. With the wrestling being so good in their original two contests, expectations were high here and Zayn and Cesaro really had to perform. My intrigue to this one was increased even more when it was made a Two out of Three Falls bout, because of some of the fantastic bouts of this style that we've seen in the past, which usually favour the more technical, scientific wrestler like Zayn and Cesaro. The stipulation present and interesting structure on which to build the story of the match, with the placing of the falls being vital in building the flow correctly.

I didn't for a second doubt that this would be a superb match, and seconds in and we were already into the action with Zayn hitting a front flip plancha onto Cesaro as he headed to the ring, after this Zayn quickly got a pinfall via a school boy roll to go one up on Cesaro. It was an interesting way to start the match and really set a different dynamic going forward. We are used to seeing a quick fall in two out of three falls bouts, but usually it's the second fall to quickly even the score. The bout continued with Cesaro quickly gaining control, and despite Zayn attempting to fight back, he would often get caught in one Cesaro's impressive power moves, including a powerbomb after Cesaro had blocked a kick from Zayn. The theme of the second fall would see Cesaro repeatedly attempt to lock in a Chinlock, with Zayn escaping on occasion for a roll up varation for a near fall. With Cesaro eventually hooking the Chinlock in deep, swinging Zayn around, with Zayn unable to break the hold and on the verge of passing out, he just about managed to tap out, giving Cesaro the second fall and evening the match at one fall a piece. Another interesting move in the bout, which would not usually see a submission until the third fall, if at all. Having Zayn tap out to what is usually seen as a rest hold, only worked here because Cesaro locked it in so convincingly and Zayn sold it so well, don't expect to start seeing this in Great Khali matches anytime soon.

So we headed into the final and ultimately strongest fall, with even more power moves from Antonio Cesaro and even more heart shown by Sami Zayn. Cesaro used the spot we've seen him use before when he superplex's an opponent from the apron into the ring, before an attempt to suplex Zayn out of small package attempt was thwarted by Zayn who slipped out of the suplex in a school boy roll up for another near fall. The great thing about this match was that it remembered what had happened before and built upon it, it was essentially variations on a theme in wrestling. Throw in some great set pieces like Zayn flying threw the turnbuckles to hit a tornado DDT onto the floor and you had the perfect recipe for an outstanding wrestling match. The ending once again remembered what had happened else where in the match, with Zayn looking for another tornado DDT, this time using the ropes to springboard into the move, only for Cesaro to show an outstanding feat of strength halting Zayn mid DDT, throwing him onto his shoulder, then up into the air for an awesome European Uppercut, before lifting Zayn up into the Neutralizer to pick up the pinfall victory and his second fall to win the match. After the match had built so well, the ending had to deliver and it did in so many ways, the impressive nature allowed Zayn to come out of the battle still looking strong, whilst keeping Cesaro looking like an absolute beast.

Now, the way Cesaro has been booked on NXT, makes his current situation on the main roster even more upsetting. This week alone we've seen Cesaro lose on Raw in tag team action against The Prime Time Players, before managing Jack Swagger to a loss against The Great Khali on Main Event, and he certainly deserves a lot more. We've seen failed gimmick after failed gimmick head Cesaro's way, from American flag waving Anti-American to Swiss Yodeller to boyfriend of Aksana and Teddy Long love rival, and at the start of The Real American gimmick with Zeb Colter I felt that the tide could be turning for Cesaro, however he now seems to be being punished for Jack Swagger's extra curricular activity and stuck going nowhere once again. He's taken to all his gimmick as well as he could, but they were just never going to get over, if you see a man yodelling you don't do say “I hope this man get's his arse handed to him” you say “I'll probably watch something else for a bit”. This match with Zayn, along with his match against Daniel Bryan a few weeks back on Raw, could be put up against anything WWE has done in the last year and still look great, hopefully WWE realise the talent they have sooner or later. As for Zayn, he was only helped by this series with Cesaro in the eyes of WWE fans, and title bout with Bo Dallas would seem the logical move for the former Generic Luchador.

Best of the Rest (In The World)

Now I can't imagine that when Dolph Ziggler was advertised as appearing on NXT this week, that the first person everyone thought of as an opponent for the former two time World Heavyweight Champion, was Alexander Rusev. We haven't really seen a lot of Rusev since Florida Championship Wrestling morphed into NXT, and he didn't make his television debut until a battle royal at the end of May. Rusev character feels like a bit of a throwback to me, in his unique attire, he does stand out, aided by his size which intrigued me from the outset, how would Ziggler mold with Rusev's style and what kind of story would they have to tell.

I was actually very impressed with Rusev, he works the big foreign heel role very well, with some creative offense, including holding onto the ropes to allow him to deliver some vicious knee strikes to Ziggler's midrift. Continually speak what I imagine is Bulgarian constantly throughout the match, gave him an exotic feel really drawing me into the character, with Ziggler being a great opponent because his selling is so good. Ziggler's speed and precision offense, including a beautiful dropkick, afforded him a way back into the match, eventually allowing him to pick up the victory after Rusev had missed a splash from the top rope, and Ziggler had hit a Zig Zag. It will be interesting to see how Rusev does against someone with less experience and talent as Dolph Ziggler, and if he still looks as impressive as he did here.

The Diva's Championship was also on the line this week in a short but fun bout between Champion AJ Lee and challenger Bayley. Bayley's unique character was a good fit opposite Lee and it was clear that the two had a lot of fun putting on this bout, and that transferred to the viewer. Whilst Bayley has her character nailed on, she still needs work on her in ring work, with a pinfall attempt whilst Lee was under the ropes standing out for me. Following a diving Corkscrew Elbow from Bayley, Lee feigned injury suckering the naïve Bayley in, before hitting a Spin Kick to the gut, and finishing the challenger of with a Shining Wizard for the pinfall victory. The bout was what I expected it to be, telling a good story with the characters meshing together well, although there wasn't a whole lot of wrestling on display, it was still entertaining to see.

CJ Parker continued to appear backstage, photo bombing Tyler Breeze as he got a fan to take a photo of him, it wasn't particularly funny but set up the idea well enough. Parker went onto have his re-debut in NXT later on, against Baron Corbin. Parker has been given a new hippy style gimmick, which is reminscent of Spanky's run as The Brian Kendrick in WWE between 2008 and 2009 in characterisation. The bout ended quickly with Parker picking up the victory with a unique variation of a DDT. The bout was quick and was only really there to serve as a way of showcasing Parker's new gimmick, which looks promising. After the bout, Breeze interupted an interview between Parker and Renee Young, to confront him about the photobomb. It was a bit goofy, but worked for these characters, with Parker eventually going to punch Breeze only for Breeze to quickly escape. I expect more from these two in the coming weeks on NXT.

The Ascension continue to plough through numerous enhancement talent on NXT and this week Conor O'Brian and Rick Victor were in action against Ron Hicks and Michael Zaki. This bout was pretty similar to the contest The Ascension had on 24^th July, as they destroyed Hicks and Zaki with a number of tag team moves used in that bout, including finishing off Hicks with their version of a High Low to allow Victor to get the pinfall victory. It would seem that The Ascension will be getting an NXT Tag Team title shot against Corey Graves & Adrian Neville soon, mainly because they are the only real heel tag team that we've seen on NXT, since The Wyatt Family have left.

Finally...

What did I learn from this weeks NXT?

1. Cesaro and Zayn are two of the best wrestlers in WWE.

2. Alexander Rusev has potential in the Bulgarian Big Man role, if he can perform against opponent not as good as Dolph Ziggler.

3. Alex Riley would be a good commentator, if he didn't constantly keep referring to his storyline with The Miz (It was two years ago Alex) 

WWE Smackdown 2nd August 2013 Review

WWE have done the seemingly impossible and made Smackdown actually feel important again! With three top matches that had been well promoted and featured some of WWE’s top stars, Smackdown was great watch this week. This is definitely the route WWE should be going with the show and I’d like more of the same in the coming weeks and months.

World Heavyweight Championship Number One Contenders Match: 

Rob Van Dam 

vs. 

Christian 

vs.

 WWE Championship Money in the Bank Winner Randy Orton

The show kicked off this week with World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio heading to the ring to announce his decision on who he would pick to face him for the World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam. It was pretty obvious that Del Rio would be choosing someone not quite up to the standard of a real number one contender, as he eventually went on to choose Ricardo Rodriguez, in a decent heel promo. He was interrupted by Smackdown General Manager Vickie Guerrero, who wasn’t too happy with Del Rio making a mockery of her SummerSlam match. She announced that instead of Del Rio facing Rodriguez or his second choice of the Brooklyn Brawler, Del Rio would face the winner of a triple threat later on in the evening. The triple threat would include Rob Van Dam, Christian and WWE Championship Money in the Bank winner Randy Orton. It was pretty much the guys I had been talking about in regards to Del Rio’s challenger. The only thing that let this segment down was Guerrero attempting to play a face, against Del Rio’s heel, which didn’t quite work, because Guerrero is able to get a lot more heat than Del Rio.

In build up to the match there were a few backstage segments, firstly with Alberto Del Rio visiting Vickie Guerrero in her office, to complain about her decision. Guerrero accused Del Rio of being scared of competition, before Brad Maddox came in, agreeing with Guerrero and reminding Del Rio who was in charge on Monday Night’s. I’m not quite sure what the segment was trying to achieve, other than to make the World Heavyweight Champion look a bit rubbish. Later on in the night, Renee Young interview with Rob Van Dam, was interrupted by Christian and Randy Orton, as they each put forward their case to why they would win the triple threat later on in the evening. Whilst Van Dam’s promo was puzzling, Christian and Orton both delivered strong attempts, with Orton really impressing me, bringing an edge to his character that hasn’t been seen for sometime.

The match itself was a pretty exciting triple threat and worked well as television main event. It didn’t really use the triple threat concept to it’s advantage for most of the match, as we saw different combinations of the three men involved, which was helped by each man having history with the other two. As with a lot of WWE triple threats, there were a number of good spots throughout, which were strung together well and the match had a really nice flow to it, a highlight for me saw Van Dam somersault over the top rope onto Christian and Orton on the outside. For me the best work of the match came between Orton and Van Dam, who had an excellent sequence of reversals which ended with Orton reversing Rolling Thunder in a spinning powerslam, which was visually impressive.

The end sequence saw Orton building up for an RKO on Christian, but with Van Dam attempting to take advantage, Mr Friday Night ended up getting an RKO of his own. However, with Orton going for another RKO on Christian, Captain Charisma reversed into a backslide to pick up a victory and the chance to face Alberto Del Rio for the World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam. I really enjoyed the finish here as it looked like anyone could win up until the final moments, keeping me guessing who would get the title shot. With Orton and Van Dam shaking Christian’s hand after the match, Alberto Del Rio who was at ringside, took advantage of Josh Matthew’s interviewing his new number one contender, knocking Christian over with a punch to the back of the head and finishing him off with a Superkick. With SummerSlam having a number of well-built up rivalries and feud going into the show, Christian and Del Rio have a lot of ground to make up.

CM Punk 

vs. 

Fandango 

with Summer Rae

After Fandango interrupted CM Punk last week, leading to the Ball Room Dancer receiving a GTS, it was nice to see WWE use some continuity, and bring us a match between the two this week on Smackdown. It was also nice to take a bit of a break from CM Punk’s rivalry with Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar. Whilst the story has been fantastically well crated and a pleasure to watch throughout, it is important that WWE don’t over expose the characters and ideas of the feud, which has been going on for almost two months, and has a further two weeks until Punk and Lesnar finally clash at SummerSlam.

I said a few weeks ago, that CM Punk needed to stop the talking and pick up a strong convincing victory, to help him look like the arse kicker he needs to be to look convincing against Lesnar. This match certainly brought that as CM Punk looked very impressive throughout. With Fandango, who was accompanied by Summer Rae, just getting in enough offence to make the match seem competitive, it was clear that this was the CM Punk show.  Fandango played his role well, using enough classic heel tactics to get the fans even further behind Punk, and keeping him grounded with a headlock, allowing Punk to build to a come back.

Punk eventually picked up the win, with Punk hitting a Superplex and immediately locking in an Anaconda Vise to get the submission victory. It was a well-paced ending, and an original one, as Punk showed he meant business heading into SummerSlam. It wasn’t a particularly long match, but it didn’t need to be, it did its job of making Punk look impressive, whilst also allowing Fandango another opportunity to work with another of WWE’s top names and not look completely out of place. Punk could do with one more match like this to really help to push the idea home that he is in a different mindset to what we’re used to and make him look like a legitimately threat to Brock Lesnar.

So, Punk and Lesnar is only two weeks away now, and it will be interesting to see if WWE can keep the momentum of the story continuing into SummerSlam, personally I think they will, as Punk and Heyman seem to be heavily involved in the crafting of the storyline and I’m pretty sure two of modern wrestling’s greatest minds will have come up with how the next couple of weeks will run months ago. Fandango on the other hand looks like he is going to miss out on the SummerSlam card this year, however it would seem that WWE has a long term plan for him as they keep putting up against top talents, even protecting him on Raw against Rob Van Dam. Personally, I think the gimmick can only go so far, but time will tell. 

Best of the Rest (In The World)

Elsewhere this week Diva’s Champion AJ Lee defended her championship against long time rival Kaitlyn. Before the match, Renee Young interviewed Kaitlyn and friend Layla about their friendship, with Layla spouting some awkward speech about Kaitlyn being the most dedicated Diva she had ever seen. It kind of sign posted what was going to happen later on in the evening, mainly because we hadn’t seen Layla for a few weeks, and therefore her randomly turning up this week made instantly think that something was going to go down.

The action in the match was good, with Kaitlyn’s aggression having an opportunity to shine through as she really took it AJ Lee. It wasn’t long before the action spilled to the outside with Kaitlyn throwing AJ into the barricade. It was here that Layla made her presence felt, when stepping in front of AJ Lee with Kaitlyn about to hit a spear. With Kaitlyn distracted AJ took advantage, throwing Kaitlyn into the ring and locking in the Black Widow to retain her title via submission. The Layla turn was fairly obvious, but I’m glad she’s back as a heel, as she skipped away with AJ, as her face run has been pretty forgettable. This match could have done with another five minutes to really build to the ending moment, but the girls did well with the time they were given.

Cody Rhodes’ face run also continued this week on Smackdown, as he faced Jack Swagger. After knocking the microphone away from Zeb Colter, Cody really went after Swagger looking fairly impressive in the process. Cody picked up a quick victory after a reversing a Gut Wrench Power bomb attempt into a sunset flip variation for the pinfall. It was decent television match, but obviously these two could have done a lot better given some more time to develop. Time is something that Cody needs at the moment to develop his face character, but with SummerSlam just around the corner he might not have time to do so. Talking of SummerSlam, Cody’s SummerSlam opponent Damien Sandow attacked him during a post-match interview with Renee Young, it was a vicious side of Sandow that we rarely see, and I have to say I am very much looking forward to their SummerSlam bout.

Big E Langston was also in action this week, as he ploughed throw Sin Cara. Big E looked impressive as he methodically tore apart Sin Cara with a number of impressive power moves. Big E picked up a quick victory, after catching Sin Cara from a springboard crossbody attempt and hitting the Big Ending for the pinfall. After watching Langston in NXT for so long, I know we’ve only just scraped the surface of what Big E can do for WWE. Personally, I think that Big E is a much better face than he is a heel, as he seems like a naturally good natured and humorous person, whilst his heel portrayl has been limited to almost a generic big guy at times. I’d also like to see him given more time in the ring sometime soon, hopefully his match at SummerSlam will provide that opportunity, whether it’s one on one with Dolph Ziggler, or teaming with AJ Lee to take on Ziggler and Kaitlyn. 

Finally...

What did I learn from this week's Smackdown?

1. Christian and Del Rio have a lot of ground to make up to make their rivalry SummerSlam ready.

2. Even when something is as good as Punk/Heyman/Lesnar, it's still good to have a break sometimes.

3. Alex Riley is work in progress on commentary, but looks promising.