WWE 24: WrestleMania Monday Blu-Ray Review

THE GREAT HOME VIDEO CATCH-UP CONTINUES! 

WWE 24: WrestleMania Monday has been out in the UK since the start of April from all the usual outlets and has the WWE 24 episode, WrestleMania Monday as it's main feature. Having aired on the WWE Network on 27th March, this is the first time that an episode of WWE 24 (which has previously looked at behind the scene details of each WrestleMania since 30, Roman Reigns, Daniel Bryan's retirement amongst other topics) has been released, so it will be interesting to see how the set does and how this effects future releases. Alongside hour-long special, the Blu-Ray edition has twenty one matches and moments from the RAW after WrestleMania including the likes of John Cena, CM Punk, Chris Jericho, Shawn Michaels, Edge and more.

But is it any good? Let's take a look. 

24: WrestleMania Monday Documentary

If you've got the WWE Network, the chances are pretty high that you've watched a WWE 24 since the series debuted in January 2015, so you should know the formula by now, with this episode being no different. The show covers the day leading up to Monday Night RAW at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, immediately following WrestleMania 32, focusing on the journey's of Enzo & Cass, Apollo Crews, AJ Styles, Cesaro, Zack Ryder and Maryse as well covering Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows backstage contract signing. All four of the main stories offer interesting tales, each compelling and engaging on their own levels, delving into what brought those names to that point in their career and their motivations. Each story carries it's screen time well, with perhaps their even being an argument for the Cesaro and Ryder stories deserving more focus, but overall the mix of faces and narratives creates a vibrant and busy documentary. The time spent on the origin of the super hyper RAW after Mania crowds and a handful of moments ties the whole package together well, with the likes of Daniel Bryan, Fandango, Paige, Goldberg and Dolph Ziggler providing a nice insight into their memorable time's on various post-Mania RAW's. 

The hour-long episode on it's own is well worth checking out if your interested into what goes into making a show like the one at American Airlines Center.

The Matches 

We begin in 1995 with a massively physical WWF World Women's Championship match as Alundra Blayze and Bull Nakano (in her last match with WWF), throw big moves at each other, before Bertha Faye [Rhonda Singh] makes her debut. From the same episode, a segment with Sycho Sid turning on Shawn Michaels during a Vince McMahon interview is bizarrely cut off in the middle of the break, meaning that majority of the footage is then shown windowed the following week's RAW, with Diesel making the save. Mankind [Mick Foley]'s WWF debut in 1996 in quick squash with Bob Holly [Hardcore Holly] is an odd watch as the new character hadn't quite settled. Jumping to '98 and we have a red-hot "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, coming straight off taking the WWF World Heavyweight title from Shawn Michaels, interview with Vince McMahon, which inevitably ends with a Stone Cold stunner and the Syracuse crowd losing all of their shits. From the same episode is X-Pac's WWF return, as he's introduced as a new member of D-Generation X by Triple H, leading to a big ol' shoot on Eric Bischoff, Hulk Hogan and WCW. 

Into the new millennium and we have a European title bout between Chris Jericho and Eddie Guerrero, which is notable for Chyna's turning on Y2J, but isn't on the same level matches in WCW three years earlier. '02 provides a wonderful segment with Hollywood Hulk Hogan and The Rock basking in the glory of their night the match earlier, both controlling a rowdy crowd and giving them exactly what they wanted. Kevin Nash and Scott Hall's reply isn't quite as fun and Hall especially seems a little lost, but once Rocky and the Hulkster starting turning their shooters on their new rivals it's golden. Brock Lesnar's debut, alongside with Paul Heyman, interrupting a Hardcore title match between Maven and Al Snow, that had already been interrupted by Spike Dudley, is a cool moment that makes Brock look like a beast straight off the bat. From the next year we have Steve Austin getting fired by Eric Bischoff, to storyline signal Austin's in-ring retirement, which in comparison to later retirements of Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels is, at best, uncomfortable to watch. Kane and Rob Van Dam winning the WWE World Tag Team titles from Lance Storm & Chief Morley [Val Venis] in a Three Way Elimination match with The Dudley Boyz is a decent jaunt, with a cool story and the Seattle crowd being super into Kane & RVD as a team. Completing a trifeca of '03 efforts, Goldberg debuts by spearing the shit out The Rock, as both men are booked perfectly and excel in their roles. 

There's no space for the brilliant 2004 segment with Christian and Trish Stratus, so we're onto '05 where we have ignore that Chris Benoit and Edge had a barn-burner and watch a solid and energetic Intercontinental Championship three-way with Shelton Benjamin defending against Chris Jericho and Christian. It's then a brilliant promo from Shawn Michaels as he interrupts John Cena in 2007, and whilst they tease a potential title rematch, Jonathan Coachman, the bastard that he is, makes them defend their WWE World Tag Team titles in a battle royal instead. Both battle royals from that show are included, with the first seeing Cena & Michaels take on Chris Masters & Kenny Dykstra, Cryme Tyme, Deuce N' Domino, The New Breed's Elijah Burke & Matt Striker, Eugene & Jim Duggan, The King's Court's King Booker & Finlay, ECW Original's Rob Van Dam & Sabu and The Highlanders in a generic brawly battle royal, with a cool finish. The second match includes Brian Kendrick & Paul London, Chavo Guerrero & Gregory Helms, Dave Taylor & William Regal, The Hardy Boyz, Johnny Nitro & The Miz, The New Breed's Kevin Thorn & Marcus Cor Von, Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch, ECW Originals' The Sandman & Tommy Dreamer and Val Venis & Viscera for another 2007 nostalgia mid and lower card buzz, featuring confusing booking for Michaels and Cena and an awkward finish.  

Ric Flair's retirement speech from 2008 is wonderful, even with the slightly tainting factor of the fact he'd go on to face the likes of Frankie Kazarian, James Storm and Matt Morgan for TNA a few short years later. It's difficult to not be touch by how touched Flair is as Triple H brings a procession the likes of John Cena, Chris Jericho, Batista, the future Charlotte Flair and Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat out to send Ric's tear ducts into overdrive, although having past adversaries like Sting, Roddy Piper, Dusty Rhodes, Randy Savage or Hulk Hogan would've made it even better. A decent '09 Lumberjack match between Carlito & Primo and The Miz & John Morrison over the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship is probably the best bout to set on that point, although the most fun probably comes from working out who some of the Lumberjacks are. John Cena and The Rock are superb opposite each other, as they set-up their WrestleMania XXVIII bout a year early, in front of hotter than hot Atlanta crowd in '11. Whilst both kill it on the mic, throwing barbs back and forth, the conclusion with them fending off an attack from The Corre (Wade Barrett, Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater & Ezekiel Jackson) is unnecessary here. Flash forward a year and John Cena has just lost to The Rock, enter Brock Lesnar, add the feeling that RAW after Mania is becoming a "thing" and you've got a magic slice of TV. 

'13 offers us two moments, firstly Dolph Ziggler's Money in the Bank cash-in on Alberto Del Rio which has lost some of it's magic four years on, but the pop that Here to Show the World gets is still something special. Then it's onto Fandango v Kofi Kingston, which is all about the crowd kicking off the "Fandagoing" Revolution, rather than the match and Chris Jericho's assault on our hero. Ultimate Warrior's return to RAW in '14 and final public appearance provides a spine-tingling promo, less than 24 hours before Warrior passed it's almost prophetic in nature at points.  The same episode has Paige's main roster debut, as she interrupts an entertaining speech from AJ Lee, however their match isn't as strong as it should have been (with the same probably being true for Paige's entire main roster run, now I come to think of it)

Things really pick up in '15 as Daniel Bryan and Dolph Ziggler have a cracking wrestling match, full of strikes, wrestling and near falls in what is currently Bryan's penultimate TV singles match. It battles for match of the night with a stellar United States title match as John Cena defends against Dean Ambrose at the beginning of the Open Challenge gimmick. It's much more of a WWE-style contest with big money moves and false finishes, but just as fun as the previous bout. From the event featured in the documentary, a pair of well-handled promos lead us into Zack Ryder putting his Intercontinental title up against The Miz in an extremely satisfying match. It didn't make any Match of the Year polls, but it builds well to the conclusions as Zack's Dad gets involved and Maryse returns and set the wheels in motions for the wonderful run that Miz is still on to this day. The regular content concludes with the marvellous Fatal Four-Way #1 Contender's match with "The Phenomenal" AJ Styles, Chris Jericho, Kevin Owens and Cesaro, as the four pool their talents to create some breath-taking action in the squared circle. Paced perfectly with everyone on top of their games, both in terms of character work and grappling, this is the best match across the two discs.

Blu-Ray Exclusives 

Our exclusives begin in '98 with Faarooq being removed from the Nation of Domination after The Rock walks out on a curiously booked tag match against "The World's Most Dangerous Man" Ken Shamrock and "The Lethal Weapon" Steve Blackman. The Spirit Squad (Kenny [Dykstra] & Mikey [Mondo]) challenge for The Big Show & Kane's World Tag Team titles in '06 in a short, uninteresting bout. A match billed as a "WrestleMania All-Star" match more than lives up to it's billing in '09 as John Cena, CM Punk, Jeff Hardy, Rey Mysterio & Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat tag up against Chris Jericho, Edge, Kane, The Big Show and Matt Hardy, bringing together a number of storylines from the previous evening. The obvious standout is the unbelievable performance of the 55 year old Steamboat, as he keeps pace with the likes of Jericho and Edge and gives the match a character and watch-ability that might have been lacking almost ten years on without.

Perhaps surprisingly kept as an Exclusive is Shawn Michaels '10 retirement speech, which is, at least, on par with Ric Flair's two years earlier. Kept much more personal with only an appearance from Triple H on the entrance ramp, Michaels addressing the crowd has probably retained more value than the Nature Boy's monologue and still holds the ability to have an impact as HBK puts over the audience for believing in him, even when he didn't. An Intercontinental Championship match with Wade Barrett and The Miz is really only notable for the crowd's desire to boo a than bizarrely babyface Miz, as even with the title switch it's a nothing match. Alexander Rusev's debut over Zack Ryder in '14 is followed up by Enzo & Cass debuting two years later, with Enzo Amore running throwing bombs at The Dudley Boyz on the microphone in front of a crowd that absolutely adores the act.

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 6.73/10 

A strong release here, that intrigues with it's concept and then delivers by adding to the strong documentary with a good mixture of matches and moments. All the major post-WrestleMania happening are here, as well as a few that might have slipped the memory or initially went underrated in the hustle and bustle of Mania weekend. For such a limiting pool to fish from, the returns are much more hit than miss, whilst those misses mostly have some nostalgia or reason for being included. My only qualm is that I feel more could have been done to enhance the Home Video release of the documentary, with perhaps extra interviews or deleted scenes, that would have validated any potential purchase, when the doc is already on the WWE Network. The same could've been said for individual interviews or special commentary for the matches included, but WWE doesn't seem interested in adding value to their Home Video content at the moment. 

All articles, reviews and interviews are presented for free. But if you'd like to contribute to help our writers keep writing, you can do so at the following link. Give us money for individually wrapped malteasers - paypal.me/atpw 

Twitter - @ATPWrestling Facebook - /acrossthepondwrestling Instagram - @ATPWrestling

WWE Monday Night RAW #1247 Review (Aired - 17th April 2017)

A week after the Superstar Shake-up and the sediment was beginning to settle on Monday Night RAW in the penultimate episode before Payback. This week's main event was a rematch of February colossal clash between Braun Strowman and The Big Show, whilst Chris Jericho, Jeff Hardy, The Miz, Cesaro and Samoa Joe were all featured across the three hours...but was it any good? 

Braun Strowman opened the show, popping the crowd with a list of things that he was proud of, which mainly included trying to kill Roman Reigns last week. The brief segment concluded with General Manager Kurt Angle booking Strowman v Reigns for Payback and The Monster Amongst Men being told to leave, despite a plea for more competition. 

Joe def. Jericho

A rematch from a March bout that ended in a Count Out, this week's opening contest bought two of the RAW brand's biggest names together for a solid opener that put Joe over strong, as he won clean with the Coquina Clutch, even after surviving a pinfall attempt. The two are strong enough that they could essentially walk through this contest and alongside a Colombus crowd that adored Jericho, that was enough to make this bout work. Two sequences that saw Jericho come close to victory stood out in particularly, firstly Y2J dodging a senton to hit a Lionsault for only the third time in history, before later being able to dodge an Enziguiri to earn a massive pop as he locked in the Walls of Jericho. Whilst the first part of the bout was pedestrian, the closing few minutes picked up, produced some sturdy near falls for the popular Jericho, before making Joe look like a world beater as he continues to run through the competition on RAW. The clean cut nature of the loss puts Jericho in an odd place heading into his United States Championship match with Kevin Owens at Payback, but that's more a symptom of the rushed nature of last week's shake up than anything else.

- Following the match, Joe cut a promo addressing Seth Rollins, who was on commentary, before The Kingslayer climbed onto the announce table to tell Joe that "Payback...is a bitch".

- Braun Strowman took out The Golden Truth as they were walking backstage, leading to Finlay, Joey Mercury and Adam Pearce running about in terror. 

- The lewd Mike Rome tried to interview Braun Strowman, who said he wasn't finished. 

- Gallows & Anderson issued an open challenge, because The Golden Truth were supposed to be their opponents, with Enzo & Cass answering the call. 

Gallows & Anderson def. Enzo & Cass 

Considering this was a thrown together match between two teams that have probably already faced off too many times over the last year, I found myself enjoying this standard issue tag bout. It wasn't anything special and didn't feature anything that would particularly stick in my memory if I hadn't been writing notes, but it filled it's screen time well and stuck to the performers strengths. Gallows & Anderson looked great, controlling Enzo and looking crafty in the finish, whilst both teams were over with the crowd, with Cass getting an especially big reaction when he tagged in for the hot tag. The finish was a cool departure from the norm, as Cass taking himself out by delivering a Cactus Big Boot that sent he and Gallows to the floor and with Enzo all alone, Anderson delivered a move that dropped the New Jersey native across the top turnbuckle for the victory. With The Revival out due to a Dash Wilder injury, it seems like the Tag division is getting a little jumbled up as WWE tries to work out it's next move. 

Ambrose appeared on "Miz TV" 

The Miz brought some of the fire and realism, that transformed him into a top star on SmackDown, to RAW as he wonderfully ripped into Intercontinental Champion Dean Ambrose during an episode of Miz TV. I get a feeling that some of the words coming out of Miz's mouth were a window onto how creative views Ambrose, as words like "wrassler" and "lazy and complacent" very well could have been coming from Vinny Mac himself (especially after some Dean's recent PPV efforts). The hometown audience for both men added some extra energy to proceeding, loudly supporting The Lunatic Fringe as he mocked Miz's maroon suit and reminded us how little he cares about images and other things. The closing moments saw both men attempt their finishers, before Miz escaped up the ramp with his wife, Maryse, in tow. The two have had a fair few matches on TV over the last three years, none of them have set the world a light, but I'm hopefully that with a little more fire behind them we may see the two put on something a little better when they next lock horns.

- Kalisto made his RAW return, by getting put in a dumpster by Braun Strowman, with The Big Show sort of making the save by shouting "Pick on someone your own size" like a big brother confronting a school bully. 

- Neville and Austin Aries came to ringside to watch the following match, for reasons that weren't quite clear. 

Perkins def. Gallagher 

After TJ Perkins and Jack Gallagher had ripped it up on 205 Live last week, I was hopeful that this rematch would receive a more appreciative audience, with the Colombus audience being hot for most of the show. However, whilst Ohio State University was much more interested in what Perkins and Gallagher had to offer, the match wasn't a patch on what the pair had done last week. In part this was because the focus was more on Neville and Austin Aries sitting at ringside, instead of what was going on in the ring. Gallagher's Mary Poppins dive to the outside is always fun and Perkins continually rolling to the outside was a nice classic heel tactic, but with the Cruiserweight Champion and #1 Contender at ringside, it all had the feeling of treading water. Of course, that was the case, as after Perkins threw Gallagher into Aries things broke down, allowing Perkins to nick a Detonation Kick victory. Nothing particularly wrong with anything here, but after seeing the 205 Live match it was a little disappointing. 

- Titus O'Neil propositioned newcomer Apollo Crews, by rhyming things with his name, it was weird and I don't want to see either a match between the two or a team, but at least we got to see Crews chatting with Akira Tozawa beforehand. 

- Cesaro & Sheamus interrupted the makeshift Mike Rome's interview with The Hardy Boyz, although they are still all good pals. 

Bliss def. Banks, James, Jax to become #1 contender to RAW Women's Championship

A well-booked four way here, that opens up an interesting clash between Alexa Bliss and RAW Women's Champion Bayley soon, whilst putting off bigger money matches with Sasha Banks and Nia Jax. Nia was the star of the show here, as despite an alliance with Bliss that was teased last week being completely no sold, Jax walked through her competition, hitting big slams, surviving a guillotine choke from Banks and hitting the move that would win the match. Jax time will come, but I like that she's been held away from having one on one title match just yet. It'll make her a bigger star when the time comes, especially if handled correctly. Outside of the Jax dominance, thinks were a little hit and miss, as whilst Bliss and Banks had a very good sequence of reversals based around the Banks Statement, a sequence with Bliss and James was sloppy. It was perhaps surprising to see the respected veteran James stand out as the weakest link in the match, but against women five to twelve years her junior she just didn't seem with it. 

- The upset Charly Caruso spoke to the Big Show, who was still angry about Strowman's antics. 

- Curt Hawkins cut a promo describing how he made The Big Show into a star last week, before challenging someone to face him.

- Finn Balor defeated Curt Hawkins in just over thirty seconds. 

- The big Mike Rome spoke with Chris Jericho, with Y2J saying there was no shame in losing to Samoa Joe, before chatting about his US title match with Owens. Elias Samson drifted into the background and eventually ended up on the list in a pretty entertaining interview segment. 

- Bray Wyatt made an appearance in his smoky lair, cutting a promo about the upcoming House of Horrors Match with SmackDown's Randy Orton. Filled with weird imagery, including a bloke with antlers (Moose?), it still did very little to clue us in on what the match will actually be. 

- Emma purposefully put a stop to Dana Brooke's friendship with Alicia Fox, recalling Brooke's poor jokes about Fox getting covered in powder on last week's 205 Live. 

J. Hardy def. Cesaro

Jeff Hardy's first RAW singles match since beating Dolph Ziggler in an Extreme Rules match in March 2009, bought us a fun, first-time ever clash with Cesaro. The Swiss Superman controlling the contest from the ad-break, nailing running uppercuts on the outside and dodging Hardy's hope spot Swanton Bomb, was certainly the best thing for the match, as even with the popularity of Cesaro, he was always going to come off second best to a Columbus audience getting to see Hardy live for the first time in four years. In the last few minutes the action began to pick up, with Cesaro blocking a Twist of Fate with an uppercut and then hitting a springboard corkscrew uppercut moments after Jeff blocked a Swing attempt. There was the feeling that in a different context (and maybe a few years ago) the pair could have torn the house down together. The clean as a whistle finish, with a Twist of Fate and Swanton Bomb, felt a little peculiar, doing very little for Cesaro & Sheamus title challenge. Some interference from Sheamus or perhaps anything that would've suggest friction or even the shock value of having Cesaro defeat Hardy clean himself, could've really built some interest into the upcoming RAW Tag Team title match at Payback and therefore this bout feels like real missed opportunity.

- The physical Mike Rome bumped into Heath Slater & Rhyno backstage, before Braun Strowman walked past and Rhyno dropped his crackers.

Strowman v Show ends in No Contest.

They broke the freakin' ring! For only the third time in WWE history and for the first time since Mark Henry v Big Show at Vengeance in 2011, the ring collapsed after a superplex spot. Whilst the whole spot had been signposted from the beginning of the show, by WWE using their old ring with no screen around the apron and classic ringposts, the spot got a huge reaction from the crowd. As well as the big deal they made of "re-enforcing" the ring during the build to their last match. Chances are, seeing how the previous two breaks happened in Orlando in 2003 and San Antonio in 2011, that this was the first time almost all of the crowd had seen such a spot live and in the flesh. The rest of the match was similar to their February bout, starting slow with weird spots like arm drags, before shunting into a series of near falls. The crowd was hot throughout even through dated spots like the battle to do a powerslam, but were positively molten when Strowman jumped off the middle rope and into a Knockout Punch. The build towards the superplex was handled well, with both superstars ending up on the top rope at various points, only for one to thwart the danger. It's Strowman v Reigns at Payback, so I wouldn't be surprised if we get a Strowman v Show again next week with a gimmick of some kind. 

Finally... 

ATPW Scale Rating - 5.17/10 

Another solid edition of Monday Night RAW, which considering the storylines are still trying to find places to settle following the shake up is pretty commendable stuff. The shift to have longer matches and only one lengthy talking segment (that was arguably the shows highlight) is certainly a positive, with almost every match on the card, at least, matching my expectations. The show isn't currently missing out on having it's top champion missing, because there's strong storylines and popular characters pulling their weight and with Bray Wyatt v Randy Orton scheduled for Payback the big show shouldn't suffer either. The show's still not batting for six, as certain booking decision were a little questionable, but RAW's still not out. 

Review - James Marston 

Twitter - @ATPWrestling 

Facebook - /acrossthepondwrestling 

Instagram - @ATPWrestling

Review: WWE Monday Night RAW #1239 (20/02/2017)

On 20th February, WWE hosted the 1239th episode of Monday Night RAW, returning to the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California for the third time in ten months. The show's main event  was a rematch between The Big Show and Braun Strowman, after their first match ended in DQ on 15th February...2016! Cesaro, WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens, Roman Reigns, Kofi Kingston and Sheamus were also featured on the episode. As the penultimate episode before Fastlane, how would the WWE landscape look as the Road to WrestleMania roared on?

The show began with Kevin Owens sitting in a single spotlight in the middle the ring, holding his Universal Champion. The Prizefighter deliberately kept the focus away from his attack on Chris Jericho on #1238, instead honing in on his title defense against Goldberg on 5th March. The character shift away from his double act with Y2J felt much more fitting a main event act, as he used meticulous delivery and pacing, coming across as aggressive and Machiavellian as he set out the story for the Fastlane match with Goldberg. It was nice to start the show without a cavalcade of entrances and interruptions, keeping things simple with Owens' powerful utterances allowed to have the maximum impact with the minimalist set-up juxtaposing well with the elaborate "Festival of Friendship" segment from last week.

Match 1

Big Cass, Enzo Amore

def.

Cesaro, Sheamus

to become #1 Contender's to WWE RAW Tag Team Championship

I'm not quite sure what the aim of this tag team match, as the two supposedly babyface tandems struggled to hold my attention, in what was a bit of jumbled opening match. Enzo Amore's character is steadily becoming less and less likeable, with his diatribe becoming monotonous and repetitive as he struggles with the sheer amount of content he has to produce. Having Enzo block Cesaro doing the swing was an odd choice, because of the moves popularity, unless the seeds are being planted for a full heel turn, but with Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson as the current RAW Tag Team Championship that seems unlikely. Following the match, Amore start chattering like a dickhead on the mic, leading to Sheamus getting a pop for kicking his head off with a Brogue Kick. 

• Highlights from Bayley's RAW Women's Championship win over Charlotte Flair from #1238.

• Backstage, Mick Foley booked Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson in a Handicap match with Roman Reigns later on.

• In the Cruiserweight Division, The Brian Kendrick assaulted Akira Tozawa before their match could begin, followed by Kendrick doing a backstage interview with Charly Caruso.

Match 2

The Club 

Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows

def. 

Roman Reigns

via DQ

With the RAW tag team division looking threadbare at the moment, I'm not sure I get the logic of having The Club feuding with Roman Reigns, other than to help Reigns pass sometime until WrestleMania. In terms of booking, there was no way for WWE to book this, had they had Anderson & Gallows go over, clean or otherwise, Reigns' momentum heading into Fastlane is halted, had Reigns gone over then the crowd would have absolutely shat on it and your Tag Team Champions look like idiots. The DQ finish, with The Big Dog using the steel chair that the heels had introduced, was probably the best they could do, but the majority of the match was dull. Obviously, Reigns killed Anderson and Gallows post match, including a pretty cool visual of Anderson diving off the top rope into a spear. Personally, I would've prefered to have seen Reigns in a simple squash victory against someone like Bo Dallas or Titus O'Neil, or, if they intent on doing a handicap match, The Shining Stars. 

• A replay of Kevin Owens' show opening promo.

Match 3

The New Day

Big E, Kofi Kingston

with Xavier Woods 

def.

Jinder Mahal, Rusev

with Lana

(5:00)

Honestly, I had very little time for this match or the pre-match stuff, but the crowd absolutely loved it. Seriously, Los Angeles lapped up everything and anything that E, Kingston and Woods did. To be fair to the works, the tag match they had wasn't half bad, highlighted for me by Kingston' silly fosbury flop dive over the top rope towards the end. However, the skit before the match was not my cup of tea, as it was revealed that Lana had hacked New Day's tablet to steal their blue-prints for some ice cream...because she's Russian. D'ya get it? Russian? LOL! I groaned, the crowd laughed. The match then concluded with Woods stealing Lana's tablet and smashing it on the steel steps. I groaned, the crowd went nuts. Even if you accept the idea that Lana wants to steal the New Day's ice cream plans, the logic of Woods destroying her tablet would stop her from taking the plans back at a later time is extremely flawed. But hey, RAW is a mainstream three hour show, it's unlikely that the every segment is going to work for anyone person.

• A tribute video to WWE Hall of Famer George Steele, who passed away on 17th February.

The main segment for the Cruiserweight division was a contract signing for Jack Gallagher's shot at Neville's WWE Cruiserweight Championship at Fastlane, with Austin Aries acting as the host. The two having tea and biscuits was perhaps a little hackneyed, but certainly fits Gallagher's English Gentleman gimmick and he played it the role well throughout this segment. The two characters have good chemistry, and their interplay here was simple, but entertaining, as Neville believes he's what a Englishman really is, going as far as saying that Gallagher doesn't actually exist. The feud between the two is steadily finding it's feet and has arguably grabbed the attention of the audience more than anything that the 205 Live brand has done and by the time Gallagher planted Neville with a headbutt it seemed like the majority of the Staples Center was sold on both guys. Good work lads. 

• Match 4 - Nia Jax squashed Sarah Pierce (1:26)

• A tribute to Barack Obama, the first African American President of the United States, was shown as part of WWE's coverage of Black History Month.

One of the lengthiest segments on the show began with RAW Commissioner Stephanie McMahon attempting to get RAW Women's Champion Bayley to relinquish her title, because of "tainted victory" last week, because of Sasha Banks's interference. Despite beginning with promo where Bayley seemed to be struggling to remember her scripted lines, this segment only worked because of Bayley's do-gooder character and her body languange and facial expression making it seem like she was about to hand the belt back to McMahon. I honestly wouldn't have been surprised to have seen Bayley drop the title like this and perhaps it would have made sense of spunking away her first title win on TV. That didn't happen and after Charlotte Flair had announced she'd be invoking her rematch clause on 5th March, with Banks then coming out a challenging Flair to their 16th televised (56th including house shows) singles match. 

Match 5 

Sasha Banks

def. 

Charlotte Flair

(12:00)

This was at the lower end of Banks v Flair matches, coming nowhere close to their matches on NXT Live, NXT Takeover: R-Evolution or Monday Night RAW #1209, but this was still a decent outing for a thrown together television. Thrown together is probably the best phrase to describe the feeling I got when watching the match, as there seemed to be a lot of orphan ideas in the match, like Flair focusing her attack on Banks' previously injured knee, where nothing stuck around long enough to fully build a narrative. The action was solid throughout though, with Flair and Banks almost sleeping through a number of nice sequence and Flair continuing to own her bruising cocky heel role. The highlight of the entire match for me was when the show came back from the break, with the match in progress and the two were just tearing strips off each other. Having Flair lose two weeks before getting a title shot was dumb, but arguably Flair's PPV streak gimmick is strong enough that losing on television won't hurt her and sets the wheels in motion for a multi-person match at WrestleMania, after Flair wins the belt back at Fastlane.

• Three time WCW World Tag Team Champion Diamond Dallas Page is announced for the 2017 Hall of Fame class, with a video looking back across his career in WCW and WWE.

• After a backstage interview with Charly Caruso, Sami Zayn got brutally attacked by Samoa Joe on the entrance ramp, leading to...Match 6 - Kevin Owens def. Sami Zayn (2:00)

• In their office, Mick Foley shouted at Stephanie McMahon for a few minutes for reasons, if he's not fired next week then it will make absolutely no sense.

• A sit down interview hosted by Michael Cole, ended in Paul Heyman cutting a promo on Goldberg, with Brock Lesnar sat right in front of the camera, creating a brilliant visual.

Match 7

Braun Strowman 

def. 

The Big Show

(12:15)

It was past 4am when this match started, I was tired and nowhere near interested in what Strowman and Show had to offer, especially after Strowman's match with Mark Henry on #1239. Therefore, the fact that I was almost glued to the screen by the end of the match is a massive endorsement for the hard work that both men put into making this contest. This was Strowman's best singles match to date, as well as the best non-gimmick match that Show has done in the past five years (dating back to his match with Sheamus at Hell in a Cell 2012) The two doing some chain wrestling at the start was a little weird, but credit to the big lads for trying something different and building the match from the bottom up, certainly aided by how much Los Angeles was up for two near 400lbs scrapping about in a supposedly "re-enforced" ring. The contest moved towards a series of near falls, with Strowman kicking out of a chokeslam and a knockout punch and most surprisingly Show kicked out of slightly awkward running powerslam. The win will give Strowman momentum among the casual fan, whilst the strength of the contest should begin to endear him to the more hardcore audience also. Good work. Reigns running in at the end was unnecessary as Strowman hadn't really done anything to warrant it and The Big Dog got punk'd anyway. 

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 4.64/10

Show in a Sentence: Strong opening, strong main event, everything else was at best average and/or a little too brief.

Show Highlight: Kevin Owens show opening promo

Show Lowlight: The New Day v Jinder Mahal & Rusev

Review: James Marston

Twitter - @ATPWrestling 

Facebook - /acrossthepondwrestling 

Instagram - @ATPWrestling

Opinion: NXT Class of 2016 - Part 2 - Carmella, Corey Graves, Dana Brooke and Enzo & Cass

Part 1 - Alexa Bliss, American Alpha, Apollo Crews, Baron Corbin and Bayley

Carmella – Debuted 26th July

Probably the most surprising of all the draft call ups this year was Carmella, especially since she was bought up as a solo act and didn’t reunite with Enzo and Cass. People were worried she was too green, too inexperienced, and too new to make an impact. But in reality, she’s been so much more than many could have ever anticipated and has shone a lot brighter on the main roster than she did in NXT.

Debuting as an attractive but ultimately bland babyface didn’t really suit her but after attacking Nikka Bella and battling with her she has become a much more interesting member of the Smackdown women’s division. She’s made herself so easy to hate and has made enemies of everyone around her, plus, her new storyline with James Ellsworth could be absolutely golden, I can’t wait to see how they run with those two.

So I’ve been pleasantly surprised by Carmella on the main roster, she’s not been a diamond but she’s been far more than I previously anticipated; if she keeps improving at her current rate she will likely have a place in WWE for some time. Oh, and her triangle head scissors finisher, that’s boss, I love it.

Rating: B-

Corey Graves – Debuted 25th July

Throwing in a curveball here! I couldn’t go through the NXT call-ups for the year without giving a nod to the always-excellent Corey Graves. Poor guy had to retire due to a series of concussion issues but overcame that to become one of the finest commentators in the sport today. 

Since moving to Raw he has been brilliant. Rather than spouting nonsense as many colour commentators are guilty of, he adds so much to the product, and perhaps most of all, his insults to Byron Saxton are continually brutal, following in the vein of JBL before him. Furthermore, anyone who can make Michael Cole less insufferable is a friend of mine.
Hopefully WWE go all in with their commentary team and make a super commentator stable of Corey and Mauro, they could be just like JR and Lawler way back when. Don’t deprive me of this heavenly mixture Vince!

Rating: A

Dana Brooke – Debuted 9th May

Ah Dana Brooke, you promised so much; in 2015 you were my most improved wrestler as you reduced you overacting, got smoother in the ring and showed a real understanding of exactly what makes your character great. So what happened? Why did the wheel fall off when your partnership with Emma came to a disappointing and abrupt end?

Pairing Dana with Charlotte felt like something that could have benefitted both parties but neither has gained much from the partnership as Dana has looked like a mug taking pinfalls for Charlotte and Charlotte has proven time and time again that she can do it on her own, so why does she need Dana by her side? It just doesn’t make sense to me and I wish they would reunite Brooke with Emma whenever the time comes for the Australian star’s much-teased return. 

Also, I have to mention the series of horrendous errors she makes in succession. There was the foot on the ropes incident against Bayley, her being sloppy when delivering moves and sometimes just screwing up spots completely, to the point where she looks a shadow of the wrestler she was looking to become in NXT. I would imagine she might have a second stint in NXT next year in order to get her back on the road to success.

Rating: D

Enzo Amore and Big Cass – Debuted 4th April 

The night after WrestleMania, Enzo and Cass made a huge statement on Raw and were quickly hailed as one of the must-see acts on the roster, as fans around the world screamed their schtick along with them in a crescendo of sound and joy. They’ve kept it up too, in Enzo’s time injury Cass stepped up to the plate and even though they’ve had some odd feuds to navigate they have made the best of everything and certainly produced some memorable moments.

Feuds with the Dudley Boyz, New Day, The Club, Rusev and even JeriKO have moulded a very strong first year for the pair, with their highlights certainly being Enzo’s creative promos rather than the actual matches themselves. Unfortunately, whilst they’re still a great pair, their popularity has wavered as they have begun to suffer from the old saying ‘too much of a good thing,’ it happened to New Day somewhat and will probably become more prominent for them, I’m still a huge fan though.

Prediction time: Enzo and Cass will amicably split in 2017, with Cass balancing on the fringes of the main event whilst Enzo enters largely comedy against lower midcarders, or perhaps even transitions to a managerial role given his 10/10 mic skills but 4/10 ring work. All in all, I can’t see them managing a much better year than this one as they transitioned smoothly to the red brand.

Rating: B+

The concluding part of our look at the NXT Class of 2016 will be released tomorrow at 6.30 GMT, and will highlight the exploits of Finn Balor, Mojo Rawley, Nia Jax, Sami Zayn and The Vaudevillains.

Words - Thomas Brady

Images - Thomas Brady

Editor - James Marston

Find Us 

Twitter - @ATPWrestling 

Facebook - /acrossthepondwrestling

Instagram - @ATPWrestling