RAW - Consistently delivering us a mediocre TV show since 2009.

This weeks RAW was still pretty monotonous with the last few RAWs although they did have a few highlights. It seems that WWE are just getting through each week until the draft (this week) so hopefully things will improve when they start to care again. The problem WWE have, is that they’ll have about an hours worth of content on RAW that is entertaining, and the other 2 hours are filler or are just plain boring and inconsequential. 

The first highlight was in the first segment, Darren Young of make ‘Darren Young Great Again’ fame, won a battle royal to become the number one contender for the Intercontinental title at Battleground. To be honest, Darren Young’s current gimmick is borderline the worst thing on WWE weekly television, but seeing him win was fun because he’s the underdog. Apparently he hasn’t won a singles match on RAW since 2010 or something when he lost to Cena so it’s good to see that they’re giving him a bit of a push. However, I do think it’s just an attempt, along with Ryder, to make the lesser members of the roster seem relevant for the draft. But, in all fairness, the crowd reacted well to him winning and I really like him in the ring too, I prefer him to Titus so I’m all for someone new getting a push.

Seth Rollins did have a funny segment where he faked an interview with Reigns to make him look silly to the audience. Rollins’ clear heel intentions in these promos make me think that they’re still trying to get people to feel sorry for Reigns so he can return as a face. It’s pretty obvious that won’t be the reaction though. Anyway, this was one of the funnier segments WWE have put out in recent weeks and it ended with a quality promo from Ambrose who’s growing into his champion role, cutting promos where he’s fired up and ready to fight rather than the goofy stuff he’s been doing since leaving The Shield. 

The main thing I wanted to talk about this week, in reference to RAW, is the Wyatt and New Day segment. The idea of the segment was great, the idea of making the Wyatt’s seem even more mysterious and dangerous by having this at their compound is a great idea. Whether or not it was inspired by the final deletion of Broken Matt Hardy fame, it was a good idea. It’s just a total shame that the execution of such ideas were so bad. A bit of background on myself, I’m a University student that is studying film. But, you definitely don’t need to be studying to have a degree in Film to work out that this whole segment was so overly produced and filmed awfully that it ruined any shred of great idea that presented itself. The cigar burns that covered the segment along with the “old” looking filter made the full segment barely visible not to mention, this was supposed to look like it was shot on an old 8mm camera but they’d shot it from 20 different angles and had the twitter hashtag in the corner. Giving credit to WWE, it’s very rare that WWE’s production of vignettes ever let them down but in a segment that could have been among the best of the year, it really did fall short of the standard that they’ve set. 

Perhaps, the best segment of the night was the unexpected John Cena appearance with Enzo and Cass against The Club. They’d referenced a few times that Cena wasn’t going to be at the arena because he was practicing for the ESPYs (whatever the hell that is) and just off of watching wrestling for so long I should have known that he was there by the fact they mentioned it so frequently that he wasn’t. Regardless, I just took it as face value, so when Enzo and Cass stood up to The Club for what looked like an inevitable beat down and Cena’s music hit, it actually made me pop. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one because the crowd seemed to pop as loud for Cena as I’ve heard in quite some time. The way they’ve thrown this AJ/Cena feud into a 6 man tag match is quite interesting rather than going with the 3 matches which Cena wins 2. I think the outcome will be the same but as I said about Darren Young, I’m happy just for something different.

The forwarding of the Owens and Zayn feud this week was also entertaining, as per usual. The character that they’ve both created play off each other so well and they probably have the most chemistry out of anyone feuding in the full of WWE. I thought it was quite a funny segment with Owens declaring that he refuses to go out with Zayn on commentary because of a health risk. This segment was good, the brawl was fun, and the subsequent Cesaro and Owens match was also really entertaining. The finish did make me question whether Owens is switching out the Pop-Up Powerbomb for the torture rack neckbreaker but a solid segment nonetheless.

The last segment was between Vince, Stephanie and Shane and they were discussing this weeks WWE draft. Vince signed Shane to being Smackdown commissioner while Stephanie is RAW commissioner. Although it sounds like it’ll end up being overbooking, it did intrigue me that Vince demanded that Stephanie and Shane both hire a general manager for their respective shows which makes me wonder what duties will be assigned to these positions. It could lead to Stephanie not being on TV every week though which will definitely be a positive. When the General Managers are announced on Monday, I might write an article on my thoughts of the full draft on Tuesday before the first, Smackdown Live.

The Worst RAW of the Year? UFC 200. NXT 6/7/16.

I haven’t watched Ultima Lucha yet so I’ll probably write another blog about the first part before Wednesday.

RAW

Well, this week’s RAW was certainly different to last weeks because this might have been the worst RAW of the year so far. Maybe, it’s because I’m an English fan but I thought this whole show had way too much of the independence day stuff going on. Now, I totally understand that this is a big American holiday and it should definitely be included in WWE’s TV especially when RAW airs on July 4th. However, to centre a 16 man tag match around independence day when heels and faces are mixed seems totally ludicrous to me.

If I had one word to say about this show it would be boring, the food fight at the start of the show was really cringe-worthy and subsequent tag team match as the main event was really dull. Not to mention putting 16 guys in the same match that are having feuds means that none of their stories were forwarded this week because of this stupid idea. What seemed even funnier to me is that most of the people who get major pops in that match were on the Non-Americans team which seemed to confuse the crowd. Last but not least, this show ended with Zack Ryder and Big Show standing in the ring celebrating so if this doesn’t tell you how stupid this whole idea was then I don’t know what will. Usually I’d make the complaint that Ryder and Big Show’s win won’t go anywhere but I’m glad because Big Show needs to stop being on TV as much as possible at this point. 

So, we’re not trying to be too negative about WWE on this blog though and they did have a couple of good segments that got me further interested for the upcoming Battleground event. First, was The Club’s segment with John Cena. I think AJ’s promo quality gets better every week as he gets more comfortable and this is the same with Gallows and Anderson how they bounce off of each other. As expected, Cena always cuts good promos and this was no different. I really like the idea that The Club just wants to beat up John Cena because they’re bad guys and have a point to prove. And with that, came the addition of Enzo and Cass to the feud as they ran in to help Cena getting beat down. This is particularly interesting because it means that they’re putting off the second Cena/AJ match which means that it’ll probably be for the Smackdown title and because AJ won the first one, Cena will win the second and be the face of Smackdown, that’s expected though.

Lastly, another thing to note was the direction of the Wyatt and New Day feud. It seems as if Xavier is scared of the Wyatts which is a direction they haven’t took with any other team yet and anything different in WWE at the minute is a good thing. Perhaps in good old Wyatt fashion, they did leave us with something pretty vague, it seemed as if Bray invited New Day to fight them at their home, literally. Have WWE been paying attention to TNA’s Final Deletion? You can decide that, I’m still yet to see it. 

Brock Lesnar - UFC 200 & Summerslam.

I’m not going to be giving any solid MMA analysis because although I’d consider myself a fan, I’m a casual one with that so I thought I’d talk more about what I think Brock’s result means for wrestling and for MMA.

So Brock beat Mark Hunt as I’m sure everyone is aware. Hunt is no slouch, this guy knocks dudes out for fun so it’s not surprise that Brock was respectful of his stand up game. For 2 of the 3 rounds Brock took Hunt down early and and ground ’n’ pounded him when he could. It was quite impressive, Hunt is a top 10 heavyweight in the world and Brock proved he could do more than hang as he pretty much dominated Hunt all the way through. That would be impressive in itself but after 5 years as well? Very impressive.

So, what does this mean for Brock and his wrestling career? The news was announced last week that we’re getting Orton and Brock at Summerslam which I have to admit, I’m excited for. When they use Orton properly he’s brilliant. It’s just when they put him in bit-part feuds and underuse him he gets stale pretty quickly. It’s pretty clear that Brock will be getting the W but that doesn’t mean that it’s any less interesting. Orton is one of the only top guys Brock hasn’t faced since returning to WWE.

However, I don’t think UFC 200 is going to be Brock’s last fight in UFC. Just off what I know about him, he’s a winner, and with that he’ll want to fight again and try and get that belt which means he could be splitting WWE and UFC for the considerable future. What could be the most interesting part of this is if a fighter from UFC crosses over to WWE. Could this have started a future relationship of cross-promotion? Unlikely, but not impossible.

I’ve seen quite a few people saying that Brock winning at UFC means that WWE will never put him over but I actually think it’ll be the opposite. If WWE puts someone over him it’ll make the other guy look like a monster, I definitely don’t think this should be Orton though.

NXT 6/7/16

This week NXT was pretty sweet. Alexa Bliss continues to be the most underrated woman in WWE with a great match against Bayley. I wouldn’t be surprised if she ends up challenging for the NXT Women’s Championship soon, after Bayley and Nia Jax gets promoted to the main roster during the draft.

This weeks main surprise was the return of Rhyno who looks to be having a programme with Buddy Murphy as he Gored Wesley Blake and both of the Hype Bros leaving Murphy backing away. Rhyno has always been pretty entertaining and he gives credibility to the guys he puts over. i do think though that it’s a bit of a waste putting him against Buddy Murphy but I feel like WWE might like him. 

As expected, the 2 out of 3 falls tag match was brilliant. I think it’s becoming very clear that Chad Gable is one of the best wrestlers in NXT at the minute which is pretty huge considering he hasn’t been wrestling professionally for a long time but you can tell he just gets it. I also loved that he’s started to do Kurt Angle spot on the ring apron of teasing the german suplex. Both American Alpha and The Revival seem to gel so well together as well and they didn’t do the typical early first fall which WWE seems to like doing. I feel like an early first fall really just ruins the match for the most part because it makes no sense in story when the teams have had matches that have went 20 minutes before. Jason Jordan’s hot tags are always so exciting as well, I think both him and Gable will be big single stars in the future. I feel like I could genuinely watch these two wrestle tag matches every week forever because each match is different and they have such range in what they can do.

However, this isn’t to discount the ability of Dash and Dawson. The Revival are good tag champions I think, they work well together their shtick is something that’s missing from the whole of WWE, just a team that beats people up. I can see them being called up within the next 3 or 4 months too. I really enjoy their promo work as well, they aren’t the most charismatic duo in WWE but they know their characters and they’re believable and that’s half of the battle. Both of these teams had the whole audience in the palm of their hand in this match. I was actually surprised that The Revival went over clean, I figured they’d go a fall each but then have the Authors of Pain interrupt the match. But, yet again, another quality hour of NXT and it’s only going to get better with Nakamura and Balor next week.

RAW 27/06/16. NXT 29/06/16. Lucha Underground EP. 23.

RAW 27/06/16

Anyway, RAW this week wasn’t as bad as it had been the previous week (if memory serves right, all these shows are becoming forgettable unfortunately). We had some good matches with Rollins against Cena and AJ against Ambrose. I like what they’re doing with Ambrose as champion actually, I feel that’s important to note because it’s been far too long since they’ve had a proper babyface champion that gets babyface reactions and it’s working mostly.

Rollins opened RAW and they recognised Reigns’ suspension straight away which was surprising at first but when you think about it, how could they have ignored it in todays internet climate? Anyway I thought the promo was quite good as a whole and I liked the idea that it could become a 5-way with AJ and Cena. However, I do think it seems a bit daft to not have any stipulation that Reigns could be removed from the match. Albeit predictable, the matches that this led too were rather good and helped the show a lot. This brings me to a major criticism of RAW though, they have 3 hours and they waste most of the second hour a lot of the time with nothing really that progresses anything. 

Also, The New Day feuding with the Wyatt’s has really grabbed my interest which isn’t surprising because 4 of the 6 guys involved are quite underrated as solo performers but also they’re just very entertaining. We’re not really sure about what’s happening with Xavier either, I assumed that Bray was hypnotising him or something but I’m not sure whether he’s just meant to be really intimidated by them. Either way, it’s something different and adds a layer that we haven’t seen to a Wyatt feud…ever. I think when they get into having matches they’re really going to miss Luke Harper though who I’m hoping they’ll bring back as a monster heel because he’d be really great just running through dudes and shouting “YEAH, YEAH, YEAH, YEAH”. 

One massive positive for RAW this week however was the Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens promo. I don’t really understand why Jericho was involved in this segment and he was by far the worst thing about it which isn’t a knock on him as much as it is praise for the others involved. The double superkick did lead me to thinking they could be foreshadowing a future tag team between them but that’s pretty much guaranteed to happen anyway regardless of any double super kick. I like the way this is all being built because personal stories in WWE are becoming more of a rarity it seems unfortunately. Also, the longer Owens holds off on cutting an actual promo about how and why he turned on Zayn the first place then the more impact it will have. This feud doesn’t need to the IC title but I definitely think it would benefit more than it’s benefiting Miz currently.

Which unfortunately brings us onto The Miz. Now, I want to make it clear that since Miz has had the IC title he’s flipped me thinking he’s as boring as Sheamus to being one of the more entertaining parts of RAW, and he was, until this week and the return of in-ring Kane. I love Kane, or should I say, I loved 1998-2006 Kane. What made this worse was that Kane was the surprise opponent. I know the previous video package built up to it but nobody WANTED to believe that Kane was the surprise opponent so when his music hits it was like when you stub your toe getting in to bed.

I’m quite enjoying The Club as a whole too, at first I thought they looked a bit weak because they looked like AJ’s bodyguards but I feel like WWE are trying their best to make it look like although AJ is the star, they’re all on even footing within the group which is important. It’s obvious that AJ is the leader but that doesn’t deem Anderson and Gallows as irrelevant. I’m also starting to think that Cena and AJ will have another match at Summerslam for whatever belt is on Smackdown and I think AJ might end up winning. I’ve seen rumours saying that Vince didn’t expect AJ to be so over and as much of a star as he has become and I think he deserves a run with the top belt, especially if they’re splitting the brands.

I’m gonna call this segment of the blog, and this might be a weekly thing, it’s gonna be called the, “Why RAW could safely go back to 2 hours”. Sheamus by himself is enough reason to cut away his segment and make RAW 2 hours but this week, as we all thought it couldn’t get more boring, he was in a tag team match with Alberto Del Rio, the Mexican Sheamus. What made this even worse was that the match lead to Del Rio turning on Sheamus which makes every wrestling fan in the world feel like we’ve been transported back in time to the miserable existence that was WWE 2013. 

On another note, rumour has it that the creative team have been trying out having 2 women’s feuds on RAW to see if they can split the roster between Smackdown and RAW. I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking that I’m going to say that having 2 is a waste of time. Well, reader, I’m not going to say that, what I am going to say is that any feud involving Natalya on commentary is a waste of time because it’s god awful. The ironic thing is that they’re barely trying with both women’s feuds at the minute so hopefully the roster does split and they bring up quite a few of the NXT women’s division and they’ll give us some quality women stories. It’s a shame that they can only do the best with what they’re given though and what they’re given is usually absolutely nothing.

NXT 29/06/16

The last few months for me NXT has just been something I dip in and out of on the way to getting to the Takeover Specials and this week was no different really. As I’m sure everyone with a good mind agrees, I’m very excited for the Shinsuke Nakamura and Finn Balor match in a couple of weeks and I like that neither of them have turned heel for the feud, and they’re promoting it as 2 friends fighting to see who is the best. Perhaps, even more exciting than the match itself is the likelihood that this will lead to a Nakamura win and even further, a Nakamura and Samoa Joe feud which, fingers crossed, gives Nakamura a run with the NXT championship. 

The only other thing to note really was that The Authors of Pain have attacked American Alpha again. I think these guys have a great look and they’re supposed be good workers but I’ve seen photos of them before they debuted with masks on and I think they should have kept them because they look even more intimidating with them on. Gargano and Ciampa are also getting a bit of push in recent weeks which is great, they work really well together and their finish is just as great as their entrance song which is also really solid. 

Alexa Bliss beat Carmella this week which looks to be leading to her eventually getting to fight Asuka for the belt somewhere down the line which is good. I think she’s really underrated and it’s surprised me how good of a heel she is, she’s got her character down and I could see her being called up in the draft in a few weeks and it would be well deserving. Carmella could also be drafted too but I still think she needs a bit of work, I find myself wanting to like her a lot more than I actually do. She’s cool though to be fair.

I like Andrade ‘Cien’ Almas as well, I think he has a good look to him but maybe he should shed the fedora entrance attire and get new tights that aren’t reminiscent of Edge’s solo early 2000s run which we all know didn’t really go anywhere. I think another problem is that his move set his a bit all over, I’m not a big fan of the casadora bulldog setting up them double knees. I think the double knees should be used to set-up his finish, maybe a dive of some kind and he should just scrap the bulldog, he’s too tall for it to look great in my opinion. 

Lucha Underground EP. 23

Finally, Lucha Underground. This season has been great hasn’t it and with Ultima Lucha Dos starting next week it’s only going to get better. My biggest takeaway from this week is the Deathmatch between King Cuerno and Mil Muertes which I’m hoping will be brutal. Deathmatch wrestling isn’t something I’m particularly well-versed too but I do enjoy what I have seen previously. I kind of wish this match wasn’t created from Cuerno pinning Muertes on his first match back but I have a feeling Muertes might destroy him at Ultima Lucha so we’ll see.

I was a bit disappointed that the Pentagon and Matanza story wasn’t advanced as much as I thought it would be, if at all but I’m guessing they’ll do a bit more set-up over the next couple of weeks and save the match for the season finale. 

Prince Puma and Rey Mysterio is an excellent way to push Puma as well without him having to go for a championship and I think keeping Puma strong should be a priority for them because he’s got a lot of upside to him and it’s always good for the nostalgia to see Rey wrestling, I just hope he isn’t still wrestling in spite of his long term health. 

Part of what makes Lucha Underground one of the best wrestling shows on TV currently is that each episode creates intrigue which I think WWE as a whole fails to do most weeks on RAW and even on NXT. This week, Dario Cueto announced that he has given Cage, The Mack, Son of Havoc and Texano a unique opportunity. Now, I can’t say I particularly care loads for The Mack or Texano but Cage and Son of Havoc I quite enjoy watching and this stipulation gives them all a level of interest and intrigue that they definitely didn’t have before. Particularly, Son of Havoc, The Mack and Texano have been somewhat floundering the last few months for various reasons but this brings them all together. It gives audiences a reason to care and pay attention which is the only thing you can ask for, to be entertained.

The main event of the show was dedicated to Johnny Mundo against Fenix. I’m not really a big Mundo fan to be honest, and I think I would like him more if he wasn’t around Taya. Although even being more honest that could be me being a total mark because they know exactly what to do to make you dislike them and just looking at someone as good looking as Mundo is sickening to be fair. 

What consistently surprises me every week is that every part of Lucha Underground matters, all of their cogs spin in time with each other as feuds effect other feuds. Even something as simple as Ivelisse and Katrina crossing paths in Cueto’s office is something that makes this ‘universe’ (I’ll insert this buzzword in here) really tick, it feels real, raw and complete. 

Brand Extension Rumours & Roman Reigns' Suspension.

Back with a BANG *insert sound effect here*. This is my first blog post back on the world of professional wrestling. This won’t be me recapping shows. it’ll be more about me giving the opinions on things I care about. I’m not going to sit and rate matches on RAW or tell you what happened in each promo, if you want that there’s plenty of other places to go. For me, mostly, I’ll be just throwing out some opinions, some analysis and maybe just writing whatever comes to my mind.

I’ve decided that I’m going to give my opinions on the week’s shows in one blog and any news I want to talk about will be separate in another blog post. So…stay tuned for my opinions on this week’s RAW, NXT and Lucha Underground tomorrow.

Roman Reigns’ Suspension

So, as everyone knows now, Roman Reigns has been suspended for 30 days making him absent for the entire build-up to the Battleground triple threat. I’m not going to speculate what he took but the man owned up to it and owned it which I think deserves credit. It was obviously all planned to come out when it did and I do believe the rumours that WWE knew prior to MITB and that’s why they put the briefcase on Dean. Regardless it seems that WWE have stumbled into something more entertaining so I can only criticise their lack of forethought to have planned to do this IF the rumours are true that they knew. 

What kind of makes this worse, for me, was that Rollins’ promo at the beginning of RAW was very accurate to the way I feel. I’m anything but a Roman hater to clarify, I think he’s great in the ring and I don’t even think his promo work is that bad, he’s improved so much but his booking is shambolic to be fair. Anyway, why does Roman get to have a title shot after breaking the rules? I know it’s not real but even still, I think if Roman wins at Battleground it sets a bit of a bad precedent. Don’t get me wrong, everyone makes mistakes, the guy (pun intended) is going to serve his time, do his suspension and come back on TV and kick ass but I think that this should and will hinder his push. I’m not saying he should be dropped to NXT or anything ridiculous like that but WWE should let him cool off for a bit. I think in the long term this could relegate Reigns from being a top player on the level of Cena to an Orton level but that’s hardly much of a step down. I think the consequences will be similar to HHH’s after the curtain call, maybe not as drastic though. Perhaps, hindering his push might actually be a good thing for him, he might garner more support if he’s dropped down the card. Is this a blessing in disguise? Only time will tell.

There’s something else I’ve seen online recently and heard floating around. It’s this rumour that this is going to be part of the story line and I don’t really believe that at all but I would like to talk about the prospect of this. So, if this was them wanting or hoping that this would make Reigns look more relatable and create a positive fan reaction then I think it’s the worst idea WWE have come up with. I don’t think there very little possibility of the guy getting a good reaction upon his return. People don’t like him already and making out as if he’s overcoming drugs or whatever won’t garner sympathy. It’ll make people think he’s an idiot for ruining his chance. I’m not someone who says Roman doesn’t ‘deserve’ it, because nobody deserves anything in wrestling but if you can’t see that he’s been given every chance to succeed then you are blind. If WWE are serious about not turning him heel then this guy needs to come back and just lose and lose and lose and lose and lose, every week. If he does come out at Battleground and pin Ambrose clean though this could be the end of any potential Reigns’ babyface run in the future so WWE need to be careful.

But even then, why bother, why not just turn him heel? It would be so easy to make him heel and have Dean get beaten down by him weekly and I’m sure the crowds would love it.  Anyway all I’m saying is that this will probably stop the world being gift wrapped for Roman or at least WWE will likely remove the bow on top of the gift. 

Brand Extension w/ Additions to the Roster

So, since they’ve announced the this brand extension, RAW has really took a nose dive in terms of quality. It was really good for the first two months after Wrestlemania 32 despite the actual event being one of the worst and longest wrestling events I hope to ever sit through. Anyway, this is probably because WWE are too busy worrying about which wrestler is going to be positioned on each show and questioning how they’ll ever manage to make 5 hours of wrestling entertaining when they can barely (barely is being generous) manage to entertain me for 3. I’m hoping to do a blog of the positives and negatives of the Brand Extension in the forthcoming weeks so that’s all I’ll say about that.

Anyway, I’ve been seeing rumours that WWE are reaching out to older superstars such as Kurt Angle, Carlito, MVP and Stevie Richards. I’d just like to point out now that Kurt Angle would be an absolute gold signing and is probably the best free agent in professional wrestling currently and I’d be really excited to see him come back for a few feuds as long as his health calls for it. Also, he might be one of the only people, arguably including Jeff Hardy, who’s career in TNA hasn’t effected their worth too much.

Similarly, Carlito and MVP would probably be good additions to the roster, particularly in the mid card which is where they really need some more depth and both could add something to both Smackdown and RAW rosters, after all, anyone is more entertaining than Del Rio and Sheamus right? Stevie Richards is about where my positivity ends on the subject. This isn’t a slant on him though, if anything it’s about his original misuse in WWE 10 years ago which brings to question why anyone would expect them to use him right this time? Very odd if you ask me. 

There’s also Goldberg who, if he does come back, I hope he isn’t given a 30 minute match at Wrestlemania next year. Just let the guy run through a few jobbers and then have one of the newer guys go over him in 10-15 minutes and that’ll bring out the Goldberg nostalgia in everyone. A potential Goldberg return with the video game does raise the question of who he should face. I don’t think they should try him and Brock again, I don’t think it would benefit anybody. Maybe I’ll get into potential feuds if it gets confirmed because it’s all speculation at the minute.

Carl - Out

I'M BACK AND BETTER THAN EVER!

The moment you've all been waiting for has arrived. I have returned. However, instead of doing articles about specific things in wrestling each week I'm going to do a weekly article (probably every Sunday) on the wrestling from that week. Included will be my opinions on wrestling news and shows, mostly WWE, Lucha Underground and NXT (if you count that as not WWE). On the occasion I'll talk about an independent wrestling event but that'll be a rarity. So get hyped, get ready and stay tuned for some 'hot takes' on some wrasslin'. Start that countdown because this starts NEXT WEEK!

- Carl out.