We’re in Manchester, England for a rare taped episode of Raw and we’re in for big news seeing as Seth Rollins buggered his knee up (ACL, MCL and meniscus) earlier on the tour in Dublin and is out for 6-9 months. Hosts are Michael Cole, JBL and Byron Saxton.
Promo Time: Triple H The situation gives the WWE a fine opportunity to try something different. Not that they will. I got really excited at the prospect of a tournament but it all depends on how ambitious they get regarding the brackets. Triple H officially strips the injured Seth Rollins of the title before pointing out Roman Reigns was already the number one contender and they kinda tease handing the belt to him. Not that Hunter would ever condone just handing the belt over to someone. That wouldn’t be in the spirit of competition. 2002 says hi. Although Hunter points out Roman could get a bye to the final…if he becomes the Authority’s guy, pointing out he scouted Roman for Seth’s spot but Rollins was more pliable. “If you want to be the man, you have to be MY man” – Triple H. I would have turned Roman heel here, personally, although I can see the exact same sell-out occurring at Survivor Series. Like they did with the Rock at Survivor Series: The Deadly Game in 1998. Especially if the final match is Reigns vs. Ambrose (they must have been planning something with those two otherwise Dean wouldn’t have made cryptic comments about a mystery plan at the last PPV). Hunter talks about criticism being the reality of main eventing and “you will never be liked by everyone”. It’s good advice. The crowd even chant “YES” at Roman. They want him to turn heel. He declines. “Thank you for reminding me why I didn’t choose you in the first place”. Decent opening to the show, albeit long-winded, as Hunter offering Roman to turn to the darkside gives the tournament a little bit of tension. Both as Roman going against the odds and the potential of Reigns eventually accepting the Authority’s offer. Or someone else taking that spot. WWE Championship Tournament Roman Reigns vs. The Big Show The point of an opening match is usually to get the crowd warmed up and it doesn’t matter how much star power you have (a former multiple time world champion vs. the top guy in the promotion at the moment, Beelee-Dat) if the action is drab, the crowd will snooze. And that’s bad for business. The crowd, bored, decide to amuse themselves by chanting “please retire” at Show. They have a hot finish at least with the Superman Punch being countered into a chokeslam. For some reason Show’s previous finisher, for many years, is now completely worthless even though he doesn’t bother dropping to his knees like he used to. It’s a much harsher landing. Roman hits the Superman Punch and the Spear to progress. Bad match that killed the crowd. Final Rating: ½* Ok, with that done here’s the bracket for the title tournament. On Roman’s side: Reigns beat Big Show Cesaro vs. Sheamus Alberto Del Rio vs. Stardust Kalisto vs. Ryback Reigns over Del Rio in the semi. Authority teasing Del Rio is their guy. He’s not. The other side of the bracket is slightly more open: Titus O’Neil vs. Kevin Owens Neville vs. King Barrett Dolph Ziggler vs. The Miz Dean Ambrose vs. Tyler Breeze It screams Roman vs. Ambrose in the finals, especially if they do go through with a heel turn. If not then Roman vs. Owens for Roman’s magical fairy princess victory. Other possibilities? On Roman’s side virtually none. Unless they actually pull the trigger on Cesaro, finally, which is highly unlikely. Especially as he’s bracketed in with Reigns. On the other side Breeze is feuding with Ziggler so they might have that as a quarter final but surely Ambrose is a key player so that’s unlikely. There’s also the possibility of Ziggler doing something, although it’d be a year overdue to capitalise on the popularity of him twelve months ago. A few weird anomalies in there like Kalisto, Stardust, Miz and Titus. They seem almost randomly selected. No Lesnar, so he’s busy but that shows the lack of star power. No Bray Wyatt. Doesn’t he want the damn title? No Sting. No Undertaker. No Kane. No Cena. So a lack of star power but a lot of decent workers involved. There is no explanation as to where these brackets came from or who was responsible for picking these particular 16 men. No mention of anyone who’s not in the tournament and why that is. It’s not a disaster or anything but it doesn’t make much sense. Ringside: Wayne Rooney. Also Darren Fletcher but nobody cares about him. WWE Championship Tournament Kevin Owens vs. Titus O’Neil Owens cuts a pre-match promo suggesting the WWE needs “change”. “The WWE fans have been cheering the same old garbage for years now”. Owens gets the crowd onside before rounding on the Brits calling them the “dumbest fans in the world”. Titus is a lovely chap but he’s not on Owens’ level and the match feels drawn out due to this disparity. Owens does a fine job bumping around and making Titus look like a threat but it’s hard to buy into. Having given Titus the whole match Owens just hits the Pop Up Powerbomb to advance. Final Rating: *1/4 Video Control takes us backstage for an interview with Paige, who’s popular in her home country. Paige calls Becky Lynch a “rat” and Charlotte “baby Flair”. Becky Lynch vs. Paige This is Paige getting warmed up for her Survivor Series title shot. She’s the heel but is naturally loved by the locals, due to her British identity. Paige won the number one contenders match by pinning Becky last week in a fatal fourway match. I was personally rooting for Sasha but then, I almost always do. I still persist that Becky got called up too early and has been a third wheel in the WWE since she got there. Not that she’s unskilled or unprepared for the opportunity but rather the booking had no room for her. As a result they’ve tried to make her into this space merchant nutbar to try and make her stand out, instead of just letting Becky be Becky. She’s a really likeable person, her character is an idiot. It must be a pain for her as she’d just figured out that whole redhead Steampunk look. They try for a little mini-epic here with Becky surviving the Rampaige thanks to her ring position. Paige tries to pull the tights for the win but Becky reverses it and gets the pin herself in a somewhat unexpected conclusion. Way to keep Paige strong ahead of her title shot! What really grinds my gears is they feel the urge to job the Brit in Britain. The one place where nobody wants her to lose. At least Lynch wasn’t an afterthought but the booking is mightily strange. I guess they figure Paige has enough heat already. Final Rating: ** WWE Championship Tournament The Miz vs. Dolph Ziggler It’s weird that Miz was once a world champion and now he’s filling out a bracket as a jobber. Maybe he wasn’t the man to be world champion in the first place. Crowd wants Mizdow. That’s another angle that died. I don’t understand how someone as entertaining and consistent as Damien Sandow has gone from being the best thing on Raw, earlier in the year, to never appearing on the show. Why do the WWE insist on keeping guys under contract and never using them and yet putting on stale matches on TV over and over again (Sheamus vs. Orton, I’m looking at you). Rather predictably the match is all Miz heat as that’s all Ziggler does, ever. That’s fine if you’re wrestling bigger and better opponents but it’s the Miz. The finish sees Miz walk into a superkick and that’s it. I appreciate Ziggler using the superkick for pins as he does it well and it’s more devastating than the Zigzag. Interesting to see Ziggler hold the WWE title up after the match. I can’t see that happening. Final Rating: * Promo Time: The Mex-Americans They flew Zeb over to cut a promo against England. Alberto Del Rio calls the Brits “haters” and that’s it. Del Rio is wrestling his tournament match on Smackdown. Hey, thanks for coming Zeb! Natalya vs. Naomi Two women’s matches on one show! Singles matches, too. What are the odds? Nattie called out the ‘leader’ of Team B.A.D. They continue to claim Team B.A.D. has no leader. Sasha Banks is RIGHT THERE! If anyone is under the illusion that Team B.A.D. is anything other than a vehicle to keep Sasha busy, you’re just wrong. “We want Sasha” chants the crowd and Nattie encourages it to try and sew seeds of dissention. Sasha runs Nattie face first into the ring post to an enormous pop. The WWE might not be quite as stupid as they sometimes seem as they’re making the crowd want Sasha more by not giving her any matches. Natalya gets the win with a fluke roll up and Sasha lays Natalya out, having built up to Natalya vs. Sasha over the past couple of weeks. Naturally Nattie straps Sasha in the Sharpshooter and Banks taps out. Forget what I said earlier, the WWE are stupid. Final Rating: ¼* WWE Championship Tournament Sheamus vs. Cesaro Sheamus brings fellow European Wade Barrett with him. It’s a gaggle of Europeans! You’d think Sheamus would be over, seeing as he’s from nearby Ireland, but you’d be wrong. Sheamus isn’t over anywhere. Barrett has an ongoing Twitter issue with Wayne Rooney, as Barrett’s a Preston fan and Rooney dived against Preston earlier in the year. Barrett has words for Rooney before the match, calling him a failure, which, seen from a certain POV, is entirely accurate. JBL points out Rooney is England’s all-time leading scorer but that has more to do with longevity than talent. Sheamus does his best to ruin the match by being lazy under the cover of being a heel. How can you have a boring match with fucking Cesaro? Sheamus could wrestle Jesus Christ and it’d be dull as ditchwater, all bloody chinlocks and bearhugs. Cesaro outwrestles Sheamus, has ideas way beyond anything that’s ever trickled through Sheamus’ Irish brain and charisma to spare. They do manage one tremendous spot with Sheamus suplexing Cesaro to the floor and they barely beat the count. It’s terrific timing from the Swiss Superman to come in after Sheamus has rolled in at the nine count. In my mind, the WWE want Sheamus to get a big run to justify his idiotically booked Money in the Bank win, but Cesaro dominates the crowd support and carries the match. Cesaro batters Sheamus with a pleasing number of forearm uppercuts (or “lifters” if you’d rather). Wayne Rooney slaps Barrett allowing a distraction roll up win for Cesaro. I love how Cesaro switched to his good left arm midway through the match due to an arm injury to his right, and even slaps hands with Rooney and Fletcher with his good arm, even though it looks awkward. You have to commit to selling. This match should have been way better and would have been if Sheamus hadn’t dragged it down. Top work from Cesaro though, he was outstanding here. Final Rating: *** WWE Championship Tournament Dean Ambrose vs. Tyler Breeze Here’s Tyler Breeze, four wins away from becoming the most super good looking world champion of all time. Tyler has adjusted to the main roster with consummate ease, getting his character across in a few interviews and looking like he’s been working here for years. Which he has…in NXT. How long before Tyler dumps Summer Rae (like everyone does)? Actually scratch that, he’s probably not aware she’s the same girl coming out with him every show. His character is so wonderfully oblivious to anything that’s not his own reflection. Where Tyler differs to Sheamus is that he brings the character and personality but doesn’t let his jerkish heel distractions drag the match down. Mainly because he wants to work hard and prove himself. His bumping is absolutely frantic. If he was aiming to make an impact, he’s there. He clicks well with Ambrose, a brawler and you get the feeling Breeze could do wonders to the midcard with his selling heavy antics. The difference between him and Ziggler is he’s competitive and litters his selling with offensive moves. His bump off the rebound lariat is wonderful. Dean hurts his shoulder on a missile dropkick and Tyler gets all over it, giving us two matches in a row with coherent injury storytelling. Ambrose pulls an inside cradle out of his ass to advance. Tyler looked great here. Push him hard and push him quick. He’s earned it in NXT. Final Rating: *** Video Control shills the remaining title first round matches, which are going down on Smackdown this week. The New Day vs. Neville & The Usos The New Day are over HUGE in England. Kofi addresses the title tournament and how New Day aren’t in it at all. “This is OUTRAGEOUS” says Big E. I quite agree. Big E doing a Dolph Ziggler impression is perfect. They try and get heat by pointing out all the faces they’ve laid out, drawing increasingly large pops from the crowd until they hit Cena for a bigger one. “They don’t like him either” – Big E. I love these guys as they start fake-laughing at their own jokes. UNICORN MAGIC for the fallen captain Seth Rollins. The crowd all join in so Kofi tries one last gasp attempt at heeldom; “Harry Potter sucks”. Why don’t the New Day just have their own reality show on the Network. Speaking of shows on the Network; the Table for 3 episode with Neville on it, chatting with Samoa Joe and Bo Dallas, was fantastic. I chuckled throughout. Despite being in the match Xavier still finds time to get his trombone on the go. “They’re like a happy Freebirds. The Gleebirds” – Saxton finally saying something worth me quoting. Neville seems to be enjoying his return to England and I wish he got his personality over more often. Too frequently the WWE just see him as a flippity guy who can’t talk. Neville does great work in this match, not caring who he wipes out with his dives, twice taking out the Usos accidentally. This being the WWE and the UK being Neville’s “hometown” he jobs to the numbers game. Because everyone loves the New Day it’s not a major issue. The pre-match yacking was better than the contest itself but it was a fun enough short TV match. Neville’s loss rather sums up what the WWE think of him, considering he’s in the WWE title tournament but still can’t pin Xavier Woods. Final Rating: ** The Wyatt Family’s Tribute to the Brothers of Destruction Yay, main event chat. The crowd get a nice “he’s got the whole world in his hands” chant going. Bray laughs at the possibility of the Brothers of Destruction doing anything in terms of retribution. Then they turn up! I thought for sure this was a psyche out as the entire Wyatt Family weren’t in the ring but hey, they actually flew Taker out for the show. “You can’t kill what won’t die” says JBL. Well, duh…uh, huh? The Wyatt Family try to do the four on two beatdown on the old time dead but the BOD clear them all out, because that’s what they do. The trouble with this is that Bray taunted Taker and Kane so they came back and destroyed him and his entire faction. In terms of storytelling, that’s what we call a ‘resolution’. So this feud is over. Bray got buried again. Survivor Series is a four on two? Which Taker has already won. THE RAW RECAP: Most Entertaining: The New Day Least Entertaining: Sheamus Quote of the Night: “You can buy my entrance theme on iTunes and put a little extra change in my pockets. And yes, I actually have pockets in my ring gear, that’s how great I am” – Kevin Owens. Match of the Night: Cesaro vs. Sheamus. Cesaro worked his Swiss magic tonight. Summary: Interesting to see some of the newer talent looking all energised with a few spots opening up high on the card. Kevin Owens, New Day, Neville, Tyler and Cesaro all looked eager to grab those spots and I wouldn’t have a problem with that. Shame they can’t generate interest in the title tournament because there are literally only two guys out of the entire roster that can win it. Some surprises wouldn’t go amiss. Tyler over Ambrose would have been pretty cool, even if it would screw with the Shield opposing each other angle they’re working on. Thumbs slightly up as I felt the effort involved here, from the talent at least, made the show easy to watch. Verdict: 50
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AuthorJames Dixon and Arnold Furious. The poor sods have volunteered for this... Archives
January 2016
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