May 22 2016
Normally my excitement levels for WWE PPV’s are fairly low, unless it’s one of the Big Three (Survivor Series isn’t much of a deal anymore). However the Reigns-Styles title feud has got me all kinds of excited. I’m genuinely looking forward to how their title match unfolds this evening. Not just because of the booking, which has been excellent, but also because of the match they had at the last PPV, which was terrific. Expectations are high. We’re in Newark, New Jersey. Hosts are Michael Cole,JBL and Byron Saxton. Tornado Tag Match The Usos vs. Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows Tornado rules, if you’re not familiar, means there are no tags. Everyone is legal at all times. This gives the match a different dynamic to the series they’ve been having. In my head I have the Usos getting eliminated here to leave Roman on his own later tonight. Byron has been making good use of his New Japan World subscription and reels off information about Anderson & Gallows, while JBL makes historic connections between them and other gaijin legends like Terry Funk andStan Hansen. It’s usually a good sign when JBL is putting you over on commentary. The Usos get heavily booed, for their association with Roman. These two teams have quickly gotten their chemistry down and it’s another solid match up. Jimmy ends up accidentally frogsplashing the ring bell and the Magic Killer finishes him off. Solid start to the show. Final Rating: **3/4 WWE United States Championship Kalisto (c) vs. Rusev Kalisto is coming in with a bad back and ribs (why does that sentence make me hungry?) after a vicious looking Accolade last week. However he doesn’t sell it at all, which is a shade disappointing. Rusev treats him like a bug, far more so than either Del Rio or Ryback did. Just swatting the poor boy out of the air, as if he’s an irritation not an opponent. The heel-ish crowd continue to be split, this time loudly chanting for Rusev. This is the age that we live in. Traditional heels are popular. Rusev uses the bearhug here, which is one of those spots that are considered lazy. It makes sense but it’s not much fun to watch. The crowd go to their usual protest chant during that: “CM Punk”. Rusev works the ribs a lot and Kalisto scores near falls from flashy spots. It’s very much in line with all the other Kalisto title defences only with worse selling than usual. Kalisto lands hard on the apron and they run a weird referee stoppage bit that wrecks the impact of the finish. Rusev murders Kalisto with the Accolade and the ref decides that’s fine and calls for the bell. Why even stop Rusev’s assault to just allow it? Odd. Final Rating: **1/4 Video Control shills the potentially electric Shane McMahonshoot interview with Mick Foley after RAW tomorrow. As long as Shane shoots from the hip it’ll be quality entertainment. WWE World Tag Team Championship The New Day (c) vs. The Vaudevillains The New Day have added to their props. Xavier has Francesca II, Kofi has the large Booty-O from WrestleMania and now Big E has a pair of “Hoe’s”. As in garden hoes, representing the Vaudevillains. “We’re about to put a couple of hoes in the ground”. Xavier actually wrestles here, tagging with Big E, leaving no one to play the trombone at ringside. JBL breaks out the old-timey references including Lou Thesz and Jim Londos, chaps from the Vaudevillains bygone era. The challengers isolate Woods and hit the Whirling Dervish for a two count, which absolutely felt like a finish. You’d question the wisdom of killing the Vaudevillains finishing move in their first big match. Kofi interferes and Xavier finishes with the Shining Wizard. I was hoodwinked here. I was certain the Vaudevillains were winning the titles. There’s no doubt the New Day are one of the most over acts in the promotion so that popularity has been translated into a lengthy tag title run. Final Rating: ** WWE Intercontinental Championship The Miz (c) vs. Kevin Owens vs. Cesaro vs. Sami Zayn Cesaro has issues with his gimmick as he’s got a white jacket and black stripper trousers. Wardrobe issues. Sami clocks Owens with the Helluva Kick at the bell, which is brilliant because Kevin is completely unprepared for it. Unfortunately this leads to the gimmickry of two guys lying around selling while the other two work, a massive issue with WWE multi-man matches. Not that I’m complaining about getting Sami vs. Cesaro, which was a blow-away match in NXT. The little internal feuds within the match are multi-layered but the obvious one is Owens-Zayn. That’s where the meat is. Some familiar multi-man spots pop up including the Tower of Doom but the match has added craziness on top of that. Mostly surrounding Cesaro’s freaky power. A series of spots leads to a great false finish where Miz hits Skull Crushing Finale on Cesaro for a near fall. That’s the second unexpected finisher kick-out of the night. Are we in WrestleMania weekend again? Maryse saves the title when Miz is tapping to the Sharpshooter, thus earning her manager’s coin. The near falls in this are extremely well done as we get both last gasp kickouts and desperation saves. The crowd love the hell out of it and the “yes” chants say it all. Sami and Owens rivalry takes them away from the ring and Miz steals a pin on Cesaro after the Helluva Kick. Cracking midcard spotfest with outstanding timing and planning. It will be tough to follow. Final Rating: ****1/4 Video Control gives us clips from the pre-show where Baron Corbin pinned Dolph Ziggler with End of Days. I’m thrilled this was on the pre-show where I didn’t have to sit through it. Asylum Match Dean Ambrose vs. Chris Jericho The ‘Asylum’ is a cage match with weapons hanging on the inside of it. There are an assortment ranging from a potted plant to a barbwire 2x4. Both guys wear jeans to make it feel like one of those NWA Bunkhouse Brawl matches. The match has difficulty living up to its billing and the cage allows a lot of resting. Of all the weapons available they first go after a mop. A mop. The Cleaner Kenny Omega will be pleased. Also Perry Saturn. Dean goes all Bruce Lee with the nunchucks. Jericho retorts with a kendo stick. The match seems to have no rhyme or reason for these things happening and the work is poor. A Yappapi Strap Match breaks out in the middle of the contest. That does not improve matters. The impact seems brutal but at the same time unspectacular. An issue the entire match suffers from. Like these two men are getting hurt for no good reason. Worse still is the insistence of both men climbing to look for new weapons when there are weapons scattered all over the ring. As if once the weapon has hit the floor it’s dirty and can’t be re-used. When they get all the weapons nonsense out of their system they switch to a straight-up wrestling match and it’s far better. At the end of the day they’re fighting over a jacket. It’s Bret Hart vs. Jean Pierre Lafitte all over again. Ambrose has one insane spot lined up; an elbow drop off the cage, which doesn’t even finish. That’s because a relatively innocent looking plastic bucket actually contains thumbtacks. Jericho’s freak-out is sensational selling. It’s very odd to have a match with barbwire and thumbtacks and no blood. That is until Jericho takes a spinebuster into the tacks and Dirty Deeds finishes. This is likely to be the only Asylum match because it didn’t work in the slightest and pretty much sucked until the last five minutes or so. They should have rushed through the early weapons sequences and got into the meat of the match. The whole thing was way too long, at 26 mind-numbing minutes. I feel for Jericho though as he took a sickening bump into those tacks. Final Rating: *1/2 Video Control takes us to the entire Foley family at ringside. Unfortunately Frank the Clown, the WWE’s worst superfan ever, is there too. If someone slapped the taste out of his mouth, they’d be massively over as a babyface with me. Submission Match WWE Woman’s Championship Charlotte (c) vs. Natalya Ric Flair is banned from ringside and if he shows up Charlotte has to forfeit the title. Considering how many Charlotte wins have come via Flair interference it creates an interesting dynamic for the match. One small issue; everyone is just waiting for the spot where the ref is bumped so Flair can come down and interfere. There’s a nagging doubt that Natalya probably doesn’t deserve this spot and that there’s no way she’ll win the belt. The feud has been a placeholder for Charlotte until someone else is ready to challenge her legitimately. The match is relatively heatless and the fans don’t bite on submissions that aren’t the Sharpshooter and Figure Eight. Nattie gets the Sharpshooter and Ric Flair’s music kicks in. Natalya immediately breaks the hold, thinking she’s won like an idiot, but it’s Dana Brooke in drag. Charlotte uses the distraction to win with the Figure Eight. This was hugely disappointing. Adding Dana to Team Flair is an interesting wrinkle in the storyline but the match suffered from being storyline over action. Final Rating: *3/4 Extreme Rules Match WWE World Heavyweight Championship Roman Reigns (c) vs. AJ Styles Styles is cheered loudly, Roman gets enormous heat. The WWE Universe is at a polar opposite to Vince McMahon’s thinking on what a company leading babyface should be. He’s going to have to come to terms with that. Sooner or later. The mentality of WWE’s approach is that a big reaction is a big reaction, regardless of what it is. Roman currently gets the biggest reactions in the company so that’s a positive. The first match these two had was great but the emphasis is heavily on the booking now and where WWE go after a solid two-month feud. “It’s a big fight feel” chirps Cole and he’s right, although this would have benefitted from not having two sluggish matches beforehand. The crowd is up for it, regardless. AJ getting theDaniel Bryan treatment while Roman is treated like John Cena. They use the stipulations to have a different match to last month, brawling all over the building. AJ has a back injury and got pulled off house shows over the past week. That doesn’t stop him taking enormous moves on his spine including a huge backdrop onto the announce table, Splash Mountain and a powerbomb through another announce table. The carnage around ringside is insane. It feels like an absolute war. Roman’s offensive moves look like those of a madman. When he jumps over the ring steps to hit a spear the feeling is that of desperation. Like he’ll do anything to keep that belt. The booking kicks in with both guys fatigued. The Club comes out to floor Roman and the Usos run in to save. Those two groups offset each other. AJ hits the Styles Clash! But Roman kicks out! Styles Clash on a chair! Roman kicks out again! This time thanks to an Uso holding AJ up on the pinfall. AJ killing Roman and the Usos with chair shots is just magnificent and gets loud crowd support. Roman counters the Phenomenal Forearm into a spear in mid-air though and retains. Styles may have lost twice to Roman but he’s looked completely at ease as a main event star. He looks more ready for the spot than Roman himself. Final Rating: ****1/4 Post Match: Seth Rollins makes a dramatic return and hits the Pedigree on Roman! Rollins was forced to relinquish that belt because of injury. Reigns never beat him. Now Reigns has a fresh challenge. Summary: Obviously this was a rollercoaster of a show. The highs were very high and the lows were very low. The two stand-out matches were both as exceptional as everyone hoped they would be. The disappointments were headed up by the awful Ambrose-Jericho cage match, which went way too long and accomplished very little in front of a dead crowd. The one final bump was sickening but I can’t help but feel Jericho took a sick bump to finish a bad match. Rather than enhancing a good match with a great finish. WWE has taken to booking big talents together on PPV though and the four-way IC title match and the main event will both be in my thoughts when it comes to WWE’s Match of the Year. Verdict: 72
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This is the first RAW after the Extreme Rules PPV, which marked the return of the Architect Seth Rollins. The former WWE Champion who never lost that belt. He made an appearance at the conclusion of the show just after Roman Reigns had successfully retained against AJ Styles. It was a good couple of months to be AJ as he established himself as a genuine main event talent, dispelling any concerns that neutrals had about his abilities. His performances should have gotten him pencilled in for another title shot down the line at the very least. We’re in Baltimore, Maryland. Hosts are Michael Cole, JBL and Byron Saxton.
Promo Time: Seth Rollins He’s back and he’s over huge. The biggest speculation surrounding Seth would be whether he’d come back as a face or a heel. The reactions are certainly that of a babyface. He’s been gone for six months with a knee injury. Seth addresses the crowd reactions and suggested that they didn’t cheer when he broke up the Shield and they didn’t cheer when he won the title. Rollins tells us he burnt all the ‘get well soon’ letters, thus confirming he’s coming back as a heel despite the massive babyface reactions. I’m really not sure how to feel about this because Seth was so popular that he should have been a face but perhaps he feels more comfortable coming back as a heel. But it feels like those six months meant nothing. I personally prefer Rollins as a face because his heel promos are droning and overlong. Mainly because of how they’re written. I also prefer Reigns as a heel and that’s basically how he played the Styles angle, which is why it was so good. Roman Reigns won’t allow Seth his moment, because he’s turned into a bit of a jerk as champion. Meanwhile Rollins solidifies his heeldom by refusing to fight or even talk to Roman.Shane McMahon strolls down to make Roman vs. Rollins for Money in the Bank. This whole thing came across as quite flat and inferior to the work Roman and Styles had been doing. All in all a big disappointment for Seth’s long-awaited comeback. Video Control gives us a shill of tonight’s action; Money in the Bank Qualifiers. There’s some exciting stuff on tap but the bizarre one for me is Kevin Owens vs. AJ Styles. Surely they’re the top two contenders for winning Money in the Bank. Maybe I see the roster differently to WWE but of all the midcarders those are the two that I can see winning the title in the next twelve months. Money in the Bank Qualifying Match Sami Zayn vs. Sheamus Part of me thinks that Zayn and Owens get screwed out of the Money in the Bank match and wrestle each other at the PPV. Fight forever may actually apply to those guys. Sheamus feels like his moment at the top has gone, although he’d be a perfectly acceptable guy to make up the numbers in the Money in the Bank match. His work in this one is soft to the point where it’s distracting. Maybe he just doesn’t gel well with smaller wrestlers, which in itself is bad news for him as the roster is getting smaller, size-wise, year on year. Sami plays his underdog role solidly in this, using Sheamus’ size to amplify his comebacks. Sheamus eats the Helluva Kick out of the blue and Sami qualifies for the Money in the Bank match. Sheamus looks pretty angry at having lost in the qualifying match for a contest he won last year. The only reason he won last year was because there were no other options and his work since has been weak. Final Rating: **3/4 Video Control takes us to Apollo Crews who Sheamus attacks because he thinks the New Era guys are trying to replace him. Technically they are, so he’s right to be afraid. Especially after the awfulness of the League of Nations. The New Day vs. The Social Outcasts Before the match gets underway the New Day have a birthday celebration for RAW, which is 1200 episodes old. The New Day do prime work teasing the cake splattering ringside fans before the ‘Casts jump New Day from behind. The Outcasts are just three guys now because Adam Rose has been released. The ‘Casts “Bo Train” remains their best spot and it’s better here because Heath Slater is too injured to do it and just collapses before Kofi wipes out the Train with a tope. New Day naturally win. Heath eats cake after the match, the entire cake. Final Rating: *1/4 Money in the Bank Qualifying Match The Miz vs. Cesaro Miz would be another rehash as he’s won Money in the Bank and cashed it in (defeating Randy Orton). Cesaro has sorted his stripper outfit, with an all black suit. I don’t know what happened last night but that black and white deal just looked weird. According to JBL, naming Cesaro and Roger Federer, the Swiss are genetically superior. That’s two examples. The third would probably be Martina Hingis but I literally can’t think of a fourth. This match is solid as they’ve been working together a lot recently and have chemistry. It’d be easy to dismiss Miz’s contribution here but he’s been on cracking form the past couple of months and has justified his spot. He’s not the talent that Cesaro is, not even attempting moves of half the difficulty but he’s good at being a heel, which is a rarity in WWE. Or in all of wrestling right now. Cesaro sells his injured arm in this bout, failing to execute the swing because of it and Miz targets that injured limb perfectly. Cesaro has just about enough to hit the Neutralizer for the pin. Final Rating: ***1/4 Video Control takes us backstage where Seth Rollins greets Stephanie McMahon. She points out things have changed and there is no Authority. Mom is treating Seth like a grown up. That is actually a more interesting development than Rollins vs. Reigns. Which is typical of WWE to make it about the McMahon’s. I’m just glad that awful Authority angle is officially dead. Money in the Bank Qualifying Match Chris Jericho vs. Apollo Crews Jericho is covered in plasters due to the horrific injuries he sustained in the Asylum match. Unless he’s winning here there’s no logic in having him compete this evening when he’s so hurt. At least it gives them a focus for the match and makes it feel different. Jericho taking a back bump is turned into a legitimately painful spot. Apollo gets to look good during this, seeing Jericho’s signature stuff coming. Crews is in far better condition, considering he didn’t have a gruelling cage match last night and isn’t a pincushion. They have a spot that looks suspiciously like a botch where Apollo kips up and gets hit in mid move by the Lionsault. Not sure what the intent was there. Jericho ends up taking it with a Codebreaker. This was solid although Crews comes off a lot weaker for not being able to beat an already injured Y2J. Jericho however has a shot at winning a match he came up with the concept for and yet has never won. Which would be an interesting story if there weren’t better winners available. Final Rating: ** Video Control takes us to Bob Backlund teaching Darren Young life lessons. “Notes are for kids in school. Adults keep it in their brain”. Darren gets 200 jumping jacks for using offensive discourse (he said “damn”). Mr Backlund amuses me. He’s still entertaining fans will into his 60s, which is impressive considering his anachronistic position as far back as the mid 80s when Vince took the WWWF title off him. Ever since the 90s he’s been looked at as a throwback. That’s more true than ever in 2016. Elsewhere Baron Corbin has a few chuckles about beating Dolph Ziggler on the Extreme Rules pre-show. Corbin wearing a hat is a good character move because it covers up his receding hairline. Ziggler turns up to call Corbin a “hipster Frankenstein on tranquilizers”. What does that even mean? Add “technical wrestling” to a list of things the good Baron doesn’t care about. He just likes to dish out beatings. They’ll be going again next week. Does Baron Corbin have a ‘Dolph Ziggler only matches’ stipulation in his contract? Bubba Ray Dudley vs. Big Cass Enzo Amore is back! He gets a huge pop. Big Cass has done a great job of keeping himself relevant and performing strongly in Enzo’s absence but I’m glad they’re keeping them together as a team. Enzo refers to his concussion as a “hard sneeze”. Enzo is such an enigmatic talker with such a wild lexicon that he’s on his own level. There is nobody like him. The match is a preview of tag team antics although it’s worrying that Cass vs. Bubba is so disinteresting in singles. Cass takes it with the Empire Elbow, which is just an elbow drop. The pre-match promo was way better than the match. I was thrilled to see Enzo back in action. He’s one of the most entertaining men in the business when he’s talking. Final Rating: * Promo Time: Team Flair Women’s champion Charlotte is joined by her Dad the Nature Boy Ric Flair and her new best friend Dana Brooke. Flair and Dana both thank Charlotte. Charlotte also thanks Charlotte. Charlotte has developed a keen sense of heel presence and she draws terrific heat here, on a par with the heat Roman is getting, only she’s supposed to be drawing heat. Here she really goes for the jugular by turning on her Dad, for never being there for her when she was growing up. “Everyone from your generation is the same. You never want to leave the spotlight”. This is a defining promo for Charlotte as she just destroys Ric on the microphone and dismisses him as being beneath her. She’s striking out on her own, although it noticeably the night after gaining new support in Dana. “I don’t need you anymore”. “Get out of this thing, we’re done”. “You can just watch me on TV like the last 30 years I’ve done to you”. Charlotte needed to strike out on her own and make the women’s division about women drawing heat on their own and she did that magnificently here at the expense of her own family. A career defining moment for Charlotte, which establishes her as The Woman in WWE. Amazing stuff. One of the best promos of the year. The overall angle felt a little bit rushed but Charlotte has shown signs of frustration with her Dad in recent weeks after his “kill yourself” implosion of a promo against Natalya. Money in the Bank Qualifying Match Dean Ambrose vs. Dolph Ziggler The chanting here is revealing. Ziggler getting the women and children chanting his name, the same as Cena or Reigns, only nowhere near as loud. It about sums up his role in the promotion and how WWE have let him deteriorate into this midcard nobody. These two have decent chemistry and wrestle an ok match but there’s a feeling this New Era was required because guys like this were not delivering. Ambrose is good on the microphone and Ziggler is great at selling but neither is the complete package that you need to be if you’re a main event star. They shoot for epic here with stuff like Dean bouncing off the ropes to sell a superkick and rebound with the lariat. I’ve seen stiff criticism of Indie guys for wrestling like that. Does that make this any more valid a criticism for guys on WWE’s main roster who’ve been there for years? Ziggler throws himself around a lot and Ambrose beats him with Dirty Deeds. JBL points out the obvious booking ploy; that Ambrose wins Money in the Bank and then has to choose between his two former Shield brothers to cash in on. Final Rating: *** Video Control shows us a shell-shocked Ric Flair leaving the arena. Arn Anderson is on hand to give him a hug. A tearful Flair refuses to comment, which is how it should be. When you’ve taken that abuse you need to let it sink in. Let Charlotte revel in her moment. Money in the Bank Qualifying Match AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens This is the most intriguing qualifier of all. Styles is definitely capable of being the WWE Champion but so is Owens. Whoever wins this will be the man I’m rooting for at Money in the Bank. AJ gets a lot of heat for putting over Roman pre-match and blaming the Usos and the Club for interfering in his title matches. This results in an irate Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows to come down. “If this was Japan you’d have bought us a round of drinks in Roppongi for having your back last night” says Karl. AJ points out he’s not wanted their support here and that further enrages the big lads. Styles tells them “they’re done”. “We’re not brothers anymore” says Anderson. They leave and the match is on. Rather a flat finish to the Club storyline. Hopefully there is more to come. Styles crowd reactions are altered by dismissing the Club and his pop is far more in line with the female/kids high pitched chanting that Ziggler got earlier. Men prefer heels. These two have been working the house shows and having decent matches and now they get to put together a match based on what worked. There are some tidy looking counters and they’ve built chemistry. They’re both great anyway but having the warm up matches has helped. They both take meaty bumps and get to show off their move sets. It’s a great showcase for two of the best wrestlers the company has. When they’re exchanging spots like the Merosault and the springboard 450 Splash, you know the difficulty level is above the vast majority of the roster. I love that most of the match is about countering big spots rather than hitting them but when they hit the big spots they nail them beautifully. Owens ends up taking it with the Pop Up Powerbomb. Fantastic match. Hopefully WWE has a plan for AJ Styles, seeing as he’s done outstanding work in getting Roman over in the past two months. Final Rating: **** THE RAW RECAP: Most Entertaining: Charlotte. Without even wrestling she had a break-out night. She’s genuinely one of the top heels in the business and now she’s doing it without her legendary father’s help. Least Entertaining: Seth Rollins. This might come as a surprise, considering it was his first RAW back in six months and we were all clamouring for his return. Honestly, it reminded me how dull he’d been as a heel. This was more of the same and everyone else on the card tried so much harder. Quote of the Night: “You know who you are, you’re Charlotte’s Dad” – Charlotte reduces Ric Flair to tears. Match of the Night: Kevin Owens vs. AJ Styles Summary: I generally enjoy RAW if it’s based on in-ring and has a purpose. Tonight it was about the Money in the Bank qualifying matches and that worked fine. The big home run from a promo point of view was not Seth Rollins return but rather an outstanding piece of work from Charlotte, which should cement her spot as the best women’s heel in the business for some considerable time. That combined with some solid in-ring and a great main event and this is an easy thumbs up. Verdict: 79 We’re in Greensboro, North Carolina for WWE’s flagship show. So far the Shane & Stephanie “New Era” has been fairly successful but that’s been based on solid in-ring. If that’s to continue they need to find new matches and new possibilities. Hosts are Michael Cole, JBL and Byron Saxton. The latter really adds nothing to these broadcasts and seems not only out of place but hanging around with Cole and JBL, who are clearly friends, he’s a third wheel.
Promo Time: AJ Styles It’s refreshing, in a way, to open the show with a Styles promo rather than an authority figure rambling, seeing as AJ vs. Roman is the best storyline they’ve got going at the moment. They should be given a chance to sell that storyline themselves. The crowd helpfully chant “Bullet Club”. The suggestion seems to be that AJ is the heel as he’s braggadocios here and yet Roman Reigns arrival is greeted by loud boos. JBL hits the nail on the head when addressing Reigns; WWE are happy if people react to him, regardless of what that reaction is. If the crowd is loud, you’re a winner. Roman’s reaction to Styles achievements is the typical WWE fanboy reaction; wrestling everywhere else means nothing, WWE is everything and the WWE Championship is “the” championship. Crowd chants “we want Rollins”, which is harsh considering how great Roman vs. AJ was at the last PPV. What’s with the audience wanting something other than what’s in front of them? It’s getting as irritating as it is bizarre. This segment ends with the Club and the Bloodline facing off and Roman punching Styles out of the ring. This dragged a wee bit but Roman Reigns is looking far more comfortable as a main eventer now, seeing as he’s accepted the hate and is basically working heel. Sami Zayn vs. Cesaro This is sub-two minutes and dominated by Kevin Owens and The Miz being on commentary. The former throwing insults at Maryse in French. Seeing as we’re heading toward a four-way for the IC strap at Extreme Rules, this ends up as a shmoz and a tag match. Final Rating: N/R Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn vs. The Miz & Cesaro El Steenerico getting the chance to team once again despite feuding is interesting. This is Steph’s idea. Shane and Stephanie getting along is all creepy and weird though. I’m not sure I like it. The idea of Stephanie being anything approaching a face after her character of the past fifteen years is tough to swallow. Owens and Zayn do make great reluctant tag partners. I love how they argue and attempt to outdo each other. Owens even outdoes that by mocking Miz at great length. “Oh my gosh, you’re so talented” he yells as Miz poses. This leads to Owens getting flat-out cheered. He’s been getting popped for a while but his abuse of heels being equal to his abuse of babyfaces makes him a unique character and people love unique characters who stay true to their beliefs. This match is a tremendous combination of personalities and skill. That is until Miz pisses Cesaro off and the Swiss Superman flattens Miz with the Skull Crushing Finale. Helluva Kick wins it for the mismatched duo of Owens & Zayn. This was good booking all round and entertaining wrestling. Final Rating: ***1/4 Video Control takes us to Chris Jericho, who rants about the destruction of his iconic jacket. His claims that it belongs in the Smithsonian are good and he hasn’t called anyone a stupid idiot this week either, so that’s improvement. The Shining Stars (Primo & Epico) vs. Brian Kennedy & Scott Jackson Los Matadores have been repackaged as two generic Puerto Ricans. It’s a horrible attempt at rehabbing a team that’s been dead in the water for ages. They debut with a job match against two ham and eggers. They’re actually John Skyler and Corey Hollis, the NXT jobber team with different yet massively generic names. It doesn’t help that they’re wearing their NXT gear so the different names don’t even make sense. Don’t get used to the Shining Stars, they’ll be hanging out on Superstars before too long. Final Rating: ½* Promo Time: Dean Ambrose He addresses his mental health issues, which include a newly discovered issue of disliking captivity and comparing a straightjacket to prison. Jericho shows up, the crowd hate him for it and Y2J has a great line in shushing them up. “Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet”. Unfortunately he then calls Dean a “stupid idiot”. I spoke too soon. Ambrose challenges Jericho to a match at Extreme Rules and down comes a cage with weapons and crap on it. It’s going to be an Asylum Match. TNA has done gimmicks like this but WWE is pitching this as something Dean dreamed up. Hence the potted plant and straightjacket and tools given to him for his Lesnar ‘Mania match up. Becky Lynch vs. Dana Brooke Dana came up to the main roster a bit quickly, even though her personality is solid. As a wrestler she’s a bit ropey and hasn’t long come back from injury. She’s only wrestled three house show matches to get ready for this comeback. Dana is stuck on her own now as Emma has suffered a serious back injury. They were great together and they suffered being apart and are now stuck in the same situation again. Dana does manage a superb hands-free flip during her entrance, giving me hope for her main roster spot. Crowd chant for “Asuka”, which continues their desire to see something that’s not in front of them. I don’t get crowds sometimes. At least give this a shot. It’s not like we’re twenty matches deep into the Becky-Dana rivalry. Dana takes a few rough looking bumps, specifically she can’t bump at dropkick at all. Poor Becky is sacrificed again, getting pinned when going for a sunset flip, to get Dana over. I like Dana, she’s improving at a solid rate and should be a useful addition to the main roster given time. At the moment she’s a step below the likes of Becky Lynch though. Final Rating: *3/4 Video Control takes us to Bob Backlund who tells Darren Young to be on time. It seems Bob doesn’t care for modern technology, insisting Darren wears a watch so he’s on time for stuff. “Nobody wears watches anymore” replies Darren. Backlund as someone who’s completely out of touch with the modern world could be entertaining. Still not sure Young is worth saving at this point though. Elsewhere Shane has fun doing the “and you can’t teach that” gimmick to set up Big Cass vs. one of the Dudley Boyz later. The Golden Truth vs. Tyler Breeze & Fandango This is the debut of the Golden Truth, two guys who’ve been teasing a tag team for months. Instead they paired up with their opponents but those two teams imploded on SmackDownand the Truth-Dust team paired up to save themselves. The idea behind this is the Golden Truth having a laugh and dismissing their heel opponents in short order. Which would be a huge disservice to Tyler, so surprisingly Breeze gets the pin after Truth accidentally sidekicks Goldust. The only good thing about this entire angle is that Tyler Breeze is getting TV time out of it. Final Rating: 1/2* Promo Time: The New Day In order to prepare for fighting a team from the past, the Vaudevillains, they’ve invented a time machine called the New Daylorean. “That keyboard, is that from your parents house? Why is it sticky?” says Big E. The New Day travel back to the year 2009 with Kofi coming out with his Jamaican accent. “Leave me here, 2009 was my best year”. They end up in the “bygone era”, in black and white, but get jumped by the Vaudevillains. This helped to put over the challengers and the time travel gimmick was so much fun that the crowd boo when the Vaudevillains smash the New Daylorean up. Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows vs. The Usos Both Styles and Reigns accompany their backup to the ring. AJ is behaving more heelishly during this interaction, ordering the rest of “The Club” around and being more of a presence. Having both come into the feud as squeaky clean babyfaces Roman and AJ are now trying to out-heel each other. The match is high energy, especially from the Usos and it benefits from the star power at ringside. As if the wrestlers want to show off in front of Reigns and Styles. Sometimes an energetic contest can make up for lack of chemistry and it ends up being a strong match up. Poor Karl gets beaten with the Superfly Splash. He’s jobbing too much already but WWE mentality is that wins and losses mean nothing. Even if that’s only partially true. Final Rating: ***1/4 Post Match: Business gets real as AJ Styles, and a chair, collide with Roman Reigns. While Roman is busy with the rest of the Club, AJ nails Roman with a chair shot and then hits a dramatic Styles Clash on his larger opponent. Given that moves history, this must have been a nervous moment for the WWE Champion but he took it like a pro. The mixed reactions for both guys were great during this, because different fans are biting on different wrestlers for different reasons. It’s been a great storyline so far. Big Cass vs. D-Von Dudley Cass mocks the Dudley Boyz pre-match, including Buh Buh’s stuttering gimmick in ECW and how he looks like Fred Flintstone. I get the feeling Enzo is writing his material from the concussion ward. This is an absolute squash as D-Von gets obliterated. Big Cass is taking this main roster push opportunity with both hands. He’s looked incredible. Final Rating: N/R Video Control gives us clips of John Cena doing the gym work ahead of a May return to RAW in two weeks. Recovery time from his injury should be nine months, he’s back in five. Sometimes I wish Cena would just take the full injury time off. How can we miss you if you won’t go away? Kalisto vs. Alberto Del Rio They’ve not quite gotten the idea of promoting a big title match as they had #1 contender Rusev lose to midcard tag guy Sin Cara last week. Del Rio is the man Kalisto was feuding with before Ryback, which was not a particularly good series of matches despite their combined lucha background. This match is a 50-50 booking deal where Rusev jumps Sin Cara backstage and kills him while Del Rio forces Kalisto to watch. Rusev dragging Sin Cara’s corpse away makes me laugh. “Come here bitch, you’re my new best friend”. The match is about as mediocre as the other Del Rio-Kalisto matches but I can see the Rusev match being better. They’re building up to it in the worst conceivable way but when they’re out there at the PPV they should deliver the goods. Kalisto eats the Lungblower for the loss, thanks to distractions, and takes a great bump on it. Final Rating: ** Contract Signing: Charlotte vs. Natalya This is the main event of RAW, which is an odd thing to close the show on. This is (Ric) Flair Country though so it makes some sense and the women’s wrestling revolution is finally gaining some traction. Unfortunately they allow Natalya a lengthy promo that just serves to remind everyone what a horrible person she is. Charlotte’s claim that “these are my people” gets a decent reaction, both positive and negative. Charlotte is perfectly at home as a heel. “You don’t boo at a Flair”. She even puts Ric in his place before calling Natalya “another whiny Hart”. We get around to the contract and it turns out creepy old man Ric is banned from ringside, with the title forfeit if he does appear. Flair rants at the McMahon’s calling Steph “the worst businesswoman of all time”. Charlotte getting frustrated with Ric’s crazy old man routine is funny. “Dad. Daaaaad. Dad!” Steph slaps Naitch and he does an overblown sell on it, as the Emasculator triumphs once again. Why is it when an opportunity arises for someone to get over, it’s Stephanie? People hate that. This segment was going quite well until the end of it. THE RAW RECAP: Most Entertaining: AJ Styles and Roman Reigns. The story they are telling over the WWE title makes me forget how disappointed everyone was in Roman winning the belt in the first place. Top work all round. Least Entertaining: Primo & Epico. Nobody cares guys, nobody cares. Quote of the Night: “I have headlined the Tokyo Dome in front of 60,000 people. I have been a champion all over the world” – AJ Styles Match of the Night: The Club vs. The Usos Summary: A real mixed bag of an episode. There were highs and the AJ Styles-Roman Reigns storyline is one of the best booked main event feuds WWE have run in quite some time. I’m also looking forward to a lot of the Extreme Rules matches including the women’s title match, the four-way for the IC title and the tag team antics. There are also lows and a few people on this show are either rudderless, pointless or just taking up space until someone from NXT is ready to step up. You can practically predict the next round of talent releases. Verdict: 56 We’re in San Diego, California. Hosts are Mauro Ranallo, Jerry Lawler and Byron Saxton. Since Smackdown headed onto the USA Network there has been a slight attempt from WWE to make it seem like a relevant show. They added Mauro to commentary, who’s been doing outstanding work, and things that begin on RAW also feature on Smackdown. This week two WWE Tag Team Championship #1 contender matches take place. They’re both really predictable and feature new call ups so they can edit out any mistakes they make but it’s still a continuation of a storyline that began on RAW. I also find Smackdown rather refreshing simply due to length. In that it’s a third shorter than RAW. A two-hour weekly show is far more palatable than a three-hour one.
Miz TV Maryse feels the urge to bilingually introduce The Miz. I’m not sure why I should care that Maryse can speak French. Even though Maryse introduces Miz, she’s actually the guest on the show. The vomit inducing wannabe A-List drivel that pours forth from both superstars mouths provokes Zack Ryder into interrupting some tonsil hockey. Ryder doesn’t seem bothered that he has no rematch. The married douchebags dodge a rematch here by pointing out Ryder has Baron Corbin in a match instead. Zack Ryder vs. Baron Corbin I may have been a little over critical of Corbin’s push to the main card as he does carry himself like a legitimate superstar. His receding hairline needs sorting out, either minoxidil or a razor should fix it. Ryder gets a surprising percentage of the offence, as if briefly being IC champion has stopped him from being a total jobber, but then runs into End of Days in three minutes. The good Baron’s real fight is with Dolph Ziggler who runs down for a post match scrap. Poor Zack, an afterthought at best, despite getting his ‘WrestleMania moment’ this year. Normal service has been resumed. Woo. Woo. Oh. Final Rating: ¾* Video Control take us backstage where Kevin Owens vaguely threatens to interfere in tonight’s main event. Paige vs. Emma I’m pleased to see Emma back on WWE TV because her music is awesome but I miss Dana Brooke being her cheerleader. They’re even feuding Emma with Becky Lynch, so she’s booked as the star here over poor Paige. Not that Paige has been delivering in the ring to a degree where she should be pushed, which Emma has in NXT. I wonder if they’ll bring up that Becky, accidentally, lost her NXT farewell match to Emma*? Mauro references Outback Jack during a tribute to Australian grapplers and Lawler shoots it all down as meaningless. Ranallo adds so much to these broadcasts and Lawler adds nothing at all. In fact Byron doesn’t add much either. Mauro would be more entertaining by himself. Emma drops Paige on her nose for the win and there’s a weird moment where she’s looking for someone to raise her arm and Dana isn’t there. It makes me a little sad. Bad girl Emma will have to power on through by herself, awesome music included. Final Rating: *1/2 *NXT #161. Becky was knocked goofy by Emma’s corner crossbody spot and failed to kick out. Thus reducing her final NXT match into a surprise Emma win. Enzo Amore & Colin Cassady vs. The Ascension Enzo & Cass are owning the catchphrases and are already the hottest tag team on the main roster, outside of the New Day. Being strong on the microphone is how you get over big time in WWE. These crazy kids are going to be just fine. Enzo even references Fresh Prince of Bell Air. “I can give you sound-bites and I can give you substance”. “The Ascension, the worst thing I can say about you is that you’re the Ascension…how you doin’”. The match is generic heat on Enzo until Cass comes in and crushes them. I’m reminded that the Ascension have never been much cop and this is pretty much the end for them because Konnor has gotten a 60-day suspension for Wellness. The way Cass squishes both of the Ascension like bugs about sums up their role on the main roster and lack of future. Rocket Launcher finishes. Enzo and Cass looked suitably motivated and energised. Final Rating: *1/4 Video Control takes us backstage where Alberto Del Rio calls A.J. Styles “all hype”. Styles isn’t interested in chatting about it and they’ll sort out their business in the ring. Interesting to note that Del Rio once again brought up that Styles ‘doesn’t belong here’, which is the same weird ‘outsiders aren’t welcome’ mentality that prevailed during the Jericho feud. Despite the fact that Styles has been with the promotion for three months now and is firmly entrenched in the top half of the card. A.J. Styles vs. Alberto Del Rio “This should be a classic all right” says Lawler, not sure if he’s being sarcastic or not, before resorting to the same roll on deodorant gags he was using in 1993. Del Rio’s interest in wrestling has waned badly over the past couple of years and he’s not looked particularly interested since coming back to WWE. It’s hard to comprehend seeing as he went over Cena in his first match back. It’s nigh impossible to have a bad match with Styles though so this is solid. Even if WWE aren’t bothered about pushing Styles in the long run at least he has a bunch of ***+ matches in his locker against guys he’s never wrestled. Or maybe not as Del Rio drops Styles square on the top of his head with a reverse superplex, which could easily have been a career killer. A horribly sloppy move from Alberto. A.J. ends up countering out of a flying armbar into a pinfall. Obviously Styles is next up for Roman Reigns so he can’t be jobbing. Del Rio nearly killed him in this match. It’s astonishing he’d attempt something so foolhardy on a main event talent. As if the company hasn’t had enough injury woes of late. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Del Rio further relegated down the card for such a faux pas. Final Rating: *** Video Control takes us backstage where Goldust refuses to team with R-Truth in the tag tournament. Fandango dances in as a replacement. The Vaudevillians vs. The Golden Dance Fandango in a tournament, of sorts, what a time to be alive! The Vaudevillians would be fine if they could wrestle like their characters but they have these weird old timey characters and then they just work normally. They manage the odd spot but there are way too many spots that don’t do anything for me. Fandango tags in and the Whirling Dervish puts him away in about two minutes. Total squash. Interesting to note how over Enzo & Cass were compared to these guys. Although it’s hard to tell on Smackdown with the canned crowd noise you could see people jump up when Enzo & Cass were doing their thing. Final Rating: ½* Sami Zayn vs. Chris Jericho I’m not sure why WWE think sticking hot new talent in with Jericho will do them a service of any kind but it’s been an ongoing booking trend. Maybe if Jericho was the same guy he was ten years ago it’d be a solid idea but he’s not. Kevin Owens comes out to be a dick about the Sami thing but Dean Ambrose shows up to offset that and flier his Ambrose Asylum show. Sticking a flier on Owens is inspired. Big Kev looks confused. Both Owens and Ambrose join commentary to remind me how great they both are. It is very distracting and takes away from Jericho working over Sami. As per usual Zayn gets some tidy hope spots but there’s so much going on, with a five man commentary team, that’s it’s all a little hard to take in. Both guest announcers get bumped and Owens takes exception to it, running in for the cheap DQ. The lack of finish and all the yacking, entertaining or not, took away from the actual core of the match. It was decent. Final Rating: **3/4 THE SMACKDOWN RECAP: Most Entertaining: Enzo & Big Cass. Seizing their opportunity with both hands. Least Entertaining: Jerry Lawler. The retirement home is calling. Match of the Night: A.J. Styles vs. Alberto Del Rio Summary: While Smackdown has very little going on that has any long term, or even short term, importance it’s an easy show to watch if the wrestling is fine. Tonight it was fine. Two decent matches and a lot of easy to cope with squashes in between. Emma, Enzo and Big Cass all looked good and both Styles and Zayn looked at home. Not sure whether the Vaudevillians have a strong enough gimmick to be gimmick workers but time will tell on that. It’s refreshing to see so much new talent working these shows. Sometimes injuries create vacuums and nature abhors those. WWE is a force of nature. Verdict: 33 Post-WrestleMania week continues on WWE television, meaning more thought is put into this episode of SmackDown as new number one contender AJ Styles teams up with Cesaro to take on Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens in the main event, plus Zack Ryder attempts to win back his Intercontinental Championship against the man who defeated him on Monday, The Miz. Your hosts this week as usual are Mauro Ranallo, Jerry Lawler, and Byron Saxton. Promo Time: Roman Reigns The WWE World Heavyweight Champion opens the show to a mixed reaction. Reigns is a three-time champion, all three won in a span of about six months. That's some Attitude Era stuff right there. Reigns reiterates the same thing he said on Monday, that he's not a good or bad guy but the guy, and now he's going to beat AJ Styles. Naturally that brings Styles out to counter. Styles says he's been all around the world and has beaten some of the best and if he has to beat the guy to win the championship then so be it. Reigns then seriously just reiterates this by saying Styles will have to beat theguy to win the championship like we didn't just hear that two seconds ago. Reigns concludes by saying Styles has beaten the best but hasn't beaten him and never will, then drops the mic and gives Styles a condescending pat on the shoulder. I'm definitely all in on this being a main event to a PPV/Network special/whatever the kids are calling it these days but these two are not very good on the mic so the promo work leading up to it is not going to be great. Lowering my expectations now. Lucha Dragons vs. The Vaudevillains Vaudevillains are making their main roster debut against a team they've faced many times in NXT. The team is comprised of Aiden English, who had a good thing going as a singles competitor doing a singing gimmick, and Simon Gotch who looks straight out of the early-20th century. They're fun but it's a goofy gimmick and I'm not entirely sure how well that's going to translate on the main roster. The NXT crowd is all about it but that's a less mainstream group. Anyway the match is competitive enough but The Vaudevillains end up taking it by hitting Kalisto, the United States Champion mind you, with their finisher The Whirling Dervish. Why Sin Cara couldn't take the pin given he doesn't have a singles championship to defend is beyond me. Decent enough match though and a solid debut for The Vaudevillains. (4:00) Final Rating: **1/4 Natalya vs. Summer Rae WWE Women's Champion Charlotte is ringside to do commentary and her father Ric Flair is there to just sort of...hang out, I guess. As Natalya makes her entrance Ranallo mentions that this week marks her 8th year as part of the main WWE roster which is pretty impressive. Anyway the match is essentially a squash as Charlotte does her boastful thing on commentary, the fact that she already beat Natalya at Roadblock thankfully being briefly brought up, and Natalya gets the submission victory with the Sharpshooter while staring daggers at the champion. Okay then. (2:54) Final Rating: N/R WWE Intercontinental Championship The Miz (c) vs. Zack Ryder 24 hours after surprising the world and winning the championship at WrestleMania 32 Ryder was defeated for the strap by The Miz, thanks to a distraction from his wife, and former WWE Diva (can I still say that at this point? Eh whatever) Maryse. That wasn't a one-time thing thankfully as Maryse does the “personal ring announcer” duties for Miz, announcing him as 'Da Miz' which reminds me of 'Da Mountie' and now it may be hard to concentrate on this one. Ranallo mentions that Ryder's reign as Intercontinental Champion wasn't the shortest as Dean Douglas only held the championship for eleven minutes back in 1995. Lawler acts like he's never heard of that person in his life, and the whole 'Ranallo says intelligent stuff while Lawler drools and pretends to have the brain of a five year old' schtick continues. Onto the match itself, I guess. Ryder tries to put it away early with a series of roll-ups but can't seem to do it so he sends Miz to the floor and belts him with a dropkick off the apron to try and actually weaken his opponent first. It doesn't do enough and when we get back from commercial Miz is in control, hitting Ryder right in his domepiece (thank you Enzo Amore) for a two-count. Ryder counters a suplex with a neckbreaker and tries to mount a comeback but his missile dropkick from the middle turnbuckle is countered with a sitout powerbomb. Nice. Ryder eventually rebounds and catches Miz with a Broski Boot on the floor then rolls him and hits the ElBRO Drop for the 1...2...nah. Maryse removes the bottom turnbuckle and throws it in the ring, distracting both the ref and Ryder. Ryder turns around and gets a thumb to the eye then Miz finishes him off with a Skull Crushing Finale. An enjoyable enough match with Ryder once again losing due to interference to try and snuff out the fact that his big WrestleMania moment is amounting to a giant fluke. (8:54 shown) Final Rating: **3/4 The Social Outcasts are shown hanging out on the apron. One of them needs to face Apollo Crews so they decide via rock, paper, scissors. Curtis Axel has paper while everyone else has scissors but he turns it into an 'ax' and then rolls into the ring proclaiming victory. Alright then. Apollo Crews vs. Curtis Axel Axel leads a Bo Train for spirit's sake to start but then gets knocked right out to the floor with one shot by Crews. Axel gets momentary advantage thanks to a distraction by Heath Slater but it's short-lived and Crews survives the damn numbers game and wins with a spinning sit-out powerbomb. Axel got more offense than Tyler Breeze on Monday. Poor Tyler Breeze. (2:15) Final Rating: N/R Baron Corbin is supposed to be interviewed backstage, likely about his destruction of Dolph Ziggler on Monday, but doesn't have time for nonsense like that so he gets right to the point: the End of Days aren't coming, they're already here. Renee Young is standing by with Becky Lynch, who's still bruised and stitched up from her WrestleMania match. Lynch puts over the importance of the Women's Championship and vows to be back in contention but then Emma walks in to interrupt. They get into a war of words and Lynch threatens to give Emma the same black eye she has. Emma, not worried, tells Lynch that she'll 'keep an eye out' for her. Ha. Heel Emma is great, but those gloves she wears drive me nuts. Either cover the whole hand or don't, come on. Dean Ambrose vs. Tyler Breeze This is Ambrose's first appearance since he loss to Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 32 and he's all fury, steamrolling through Breeze and picking up the win with Dirty Deeds in short order. Poor Tyler Breeze. (1:03) Final Rating: N/R Before Ambrose can leave Chris Jericho makes his way out for the main event. Ambrose eyeballs him as he walks by, signaling the start of a feud. Not necessarily hyped for the matches themselves but it should be entertaining promo-wise. We go backstage where Goldust is on the phone trying to get 'Shattered Dreams Productions 2' off the ground, like the first one was a movie or something. R-Truth barges in with a camera and tells Goldust he can get him an audition with a big Hollywood producer when RAW is in Los Angeles this Monday. Goldust playing the straight man in a comedy tag team duo is weird but I welcome the change. I'd actually welcome if this wasn't happening at all but at least it's not taking up a ton of TV time. AJ Styles & Cesaro vs. Kevin Owens & Chris Jericho The faces are in charge before the break, causing Jericho to angrily bail to the floor. Owens is mock angry too and lackadaisically pushes over the ring steps to show he's also upset. I don't know if I've mentioned this yet but Kevin Owens is the best. Back from commercial Cesaro peppers Jericho and Owens with an Uppercut Train but both men manage to escape a Cesaro Swing and Jericho clotheslines him out to the floor. They double team Cesaro in the corner and Owens hits a short-arm clothesline, then stops to call himself 'Phenomenal' to dig at Styles. Jericho tags in and slaps Cesaro in the back of the head repeatedly but ends up eating a pop-up European uppercut. Cesaro tries to make the tag but Jericho pulls Styles off the apron, then makes a mock diving tag to Owens in what is now my favorite moment of the night. I'm not much for Jericho nowadays but he and Owens work tremendously well together as a pair of smarmy heels. Owens misses a Cannonball and Styles gets the tag this time, taking out both Owens and Jericho. Owens dodges a springboard moonsault and superkicks Styles in the head but his pinfall attempt is interrupted by Cesaro. Cesaro and Jericho end up on the floor and Cesaro ends up pelting Jericho with a running European uppercut that sends him flying into the timekeeper's area. Owens gets ready to put the finishing touches on Styles but out comes Sami Zayn, arm bandaged and officials trying desperately to hold him back. This distracts Owens long enough for Styles to roll him up for the victory and that's a lame WWE ending to an otherwise great match. I highly recommend this one; Jericho and Owens do some fun stuff as a thrown-together heel team here and it almost felt like they were just dicking around house show-style. I can respect that. (9:33 shown) Final Rating: *** Owens and Zayn immediately start brawling once the bell sounds, as the officials continue to have an issue controlling either man. Owens tosses Zayn into the ring steps bad arm-first and he's the one that ends up being dragged to the back as this week's episode concludes. THE SMACKDOWN RECAP Most Entertaining: Kevin Owens. His 'me too' angry push of the ring steps plus his banter made him a joy to watch in this one. He's so good. So so so so so good. I'm a broken record and I don't care. Least Entertaining: Goldust & R-Truth. I just couldn't care any less than I already do about their skits. Match of the Night: AJ Styles & Cesaro vs. Kevin Owens & Chris Jericho Summary: With WrestleMania in the rear view it's time for WWE to start pushing towards the future and they did that this week. Reigns and Styles got a chance to have some brief banter en route to their eventual match, Ambrose teased a potential feud with Jericho, and most importantly the Owens/Zayn saga continued. It may not be for any championships but Zayn and Owens have the best feud going currently and their constant brawling never gets old. WWE is actually in a decent enough place to pull off at least their next event and I hope it stays this way going forward. As for this week's episode of SmackDown itself I definitely enjoyed it. Ranallo killed it on commentary as usual and the main event was super fun. It just flew by and it's one of the more interesting SmackDown episodes in recent months. I know that SmackDown will settle back into filler territory soon but at least this week it made for a worthwhile companion to RAW. Seriously though poor Tyler Breeze. Verdict: 58 Live from Omaha, Nebraska, which makes me think of Peyton Manning. The “new era” in WWE is well underway. Get used to that term, as it will be spouted ad nauseum throughout the show. It’s the new “Diva’s revolution.” Michael Cole, JBL, and Byron Saxton host.
The Highlight Reel Chris Jericho pretends as if Dean Ambrose was supposed to be the guest, but, as Jericho reminds us, he’s not here because Y2J smashed him in the back of the head with Mitch the Potted Plant. Mitch, or what’s left of him, is the guest instead, with Jericho comparing and contrasting between Mitch and Dean. Yes, a rivalry is escalating over a potted plant. It makes Edge and Booker T’s shampoo commercial blood feud (or should that be sud feud) look like a stroke of booking genius. To be fair to Chris, I’ve kind of enjoyed some of his silly heel work as of late. “Slovenly barbarians,” is his wonderful insult to the audience. Big Cass interrupts. He tries his hand at the Enzo Amore shtick, and he’s not half bad. Jericho calls his missing partner “Enzo Annoying,” which I find amusing, even though it’s not that clever or funny. The crowd are big on Big Cass, too, chanting along to the catchphrases. Cass firmly declares himself part of the “new era” and challenges Jericho to a fight. Jericho walks, so Cass goads him back by calling him SAWFT. It doesn’t work out too well for Chris, as he receives a boot to the mush. Jericho was fairly entertaining here and Cass looked the part even without the mouthpiece of the tandem. Having a new guy like Big Cass challenge an established star on their territory felt fresh and exciting. Long may it continue. After the commercial break, we see Jericho complaining to Stephanie McMahon about Big Cass’s lack of respect. He tries to get her onside by railing against Shane McMahon, too, but Steph does what she does best: emasculate the talent. To be fair, Jericho did once call her a “dirty, filthy, disgusting, skanky bottom-feeding trash bag ho.” It’s Jericho vs. Cass in the main event. Dolph Ziggler vs. Baron Corbin Yawn! It feels as though their feud has been rumbling on for ages. Let’s face facts, WWE has now definitely missed the boat with Dolph. The final ship sailed after he slunk back to the midcard following the 2014 Survivor Series. He’s now been surpassed by the plethora of talent coming up from NXT. Corbin doesn’t have the charisma or the ability to get beyond his current place on the card. He peaked on his official debut at WrestleMania. There are no real winners at the end of all this. However, Baron does get to be the winner of this match courtesy of End of Days. Final Rating: *1/2 Backstage, Charlotte and Ric Flair appeal to Shane after Steph banned the old codger from ringside for Charlotte’s title defence against Natalya at Extreme Rules. Shane reinforces Steph’s decision and sibling solidarity is the order of the day. He even bans Flair from Charlotte’s match against Paige later tonight. Elsewhere, JoJo interviews AJ Styles, Luke Gallows, and Karl Anderson, or The Club as they are now known as. Can they have their Bullet back, please? Styles addresses the fact that Roman Reigns powerbombed him through a table last week and intimates that anything goes in their six-man tag later on. Fandango vs. R Truth “Bigger than Captain America vs. Iron Man,” Cole states without a hint of irony. I seriously thought that the whole Golden Truth thing would have just happened by now and they’d be relegated to Main Event and Superstars. I cannot understand why this is being dragged on so long, or why Tyler Breeze is getting dragged down by it. Truth picks up the win at the expense of Tyler being knocked off the apron, which I’m sure will factor in a future plot development. What am I saying? Who cares? Final Rating: ½* In Shane and Steph’s “office” a host of superstars gather to bicker over the Intercontinental Championship. Kevin Owens and Cesaro each argue that they should be number one contender. I’m not sure what Miz is doing. A triple threat match is booker. But wait, Sami Zayn adds his two-penneth to the debate. He wants in. If he beats Miz in a non-title match tonight, it becomes a fatal four way. Tangent: With Damian Sandow getting his release this week, it begs the question of how Miz has not only remained on the main roster for so long, but also has received numerous pushes and championships. Sandow is a better talent and was far more over that Miz. It beggars belief. Remember that Sandow once held the Money in the Bank briefcase for the World Heavyweight Championship before John Cena shafted him over it (possibly as a result of a hasty decision to unify the two Heavyweight Championships). He had been shafted ever since. I wish him the best wherever he goes next. Paige vs. Charlotte Natalya is on commentary. She comes across as a simply awful person. I actively hate her now. She’s cocky, arrogant, whiny, bitchy, and a host of other things, too. JBL is under constant threat of her “getting her uncle” to put him in the Sharpshooter. She also suggests following her cat on Instagram. I want her to fuck off. The match is actually decent and Paige looks motivated to show that she’s still relevant in the division. Unfortunately, the horrible commentary detracts from it in a major way. Ric Flair finds his way ringside, so Shane and a posse of referees show up to escort him away. In the confusion, Paige wins with a roll up. Final Rating: ** Sami Zayn vs. The Miz JBL compares Miz and Maryse to Gary Cooper and Rita Hayworth. Yes, Gary Cooper was also a shit actor. If you’ve had the misfortune of seeing Morocco¸ then you’ll know what I mean. I wonder if WWE are forcing the logic that if they keep throwing Miz in with the top superstars, then he’ll get over as one himself by proxy. I’m on to you, WWE. At times, the buck-toothed one struggles to keep up with Zayn’s zany counters, particularly the standing moonsault from the guardrail. Later on, Zayn smacks his ginger beard hard on the steel steps. I assume that it was planned, but the level of impact put some doubts in my mind (anyone remember Lucky Cannon doing similar in the old NXT? – anyone remember Lucky Cannon???). They work in a few near falls and reversal of finished before the Helluva kick puts Zayn in the title mix at Extreme Rules. Final Rating: **3/4 Renee Young is backstage to interview Becky Lynch. The Irish Lass Kicker says that Emma is in for a kicking, presumably right in the lass. Emma confronts her, which is actually a distraction so Emma’s NXT buddy, Dana Brooke, can jump her. Becky looks like she’s crying on the floor, which is how I feel about Dana being on the main roster, too. Next we get a vignette of Darren Young recruiting Bob Backlund as a life coach. It also aired on SmackDown! and at first I was wondering why WWE were persisting with Darren Young. Then I saw Bob Backlund was back! The first rule of life coaching is that wrestling is life, Mr. Backlund informs us. It’s actually the third rule after not talking about life coaching and not talking about life coaching. I do, however, take issue with the slogan, “Make Darren Young Great Again.” The Again suggests that he was once great. That is an untruth. Elsewhere, The New Day, Sasha Banks, and Dolph Ziggler shill the ridiculously unhealthy looking bacon stuffed crust pizza from Pizza Hut. Back in Shane’s office, Zack Ryder pleads for more opportunities. Owens is on hand to put him down, so Shane books Ryder vs. Owens for later. If Ryder wins, he’s in and Owens is out of the four way. Owens was gold again here, asking Ryder, “why do you exist?” Rusev vs. Sin Cara I think most of us will agree that it was definitely the time to push the reset button on Rusev. Kalisto is on hand to witness his tag team partner get crushed by his next challenger for the United States Championship. Or he should be, but for whatever reason it is decided that Sin Cara will get a distraction roll up win. The distraction routine was clunky and everyone involved struggled to execute it, including all three wrestlers, Lana, and the referee. Shoddy work; bizarre booking. Final Rating: ½* Six Man Elimination Tag Team Match Roman Reigns & The Usos vs. AJ Styles, Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows Cole and co. has been referring to Styles’s group as “the club” all night, so naturally that phrase isn’t mentioned in their introduction. My assumption of how this will go is that both Usos are eliminated to make it three on one. It seems logical, to me at least, because The Club are being teased as the (ostensibly) heel team, Roman has the “one versus all” thing going, and the Usos should be the expendable talent in this match. It looks to be going that way when Anderson puts Jey out with the seventy-fifth roll up of the night. However, things go to pot soon after when Anderson falls to Jimmy’s small package, then Gallows jobs to the Superman Punch. That’s not even Reigns’s proper finisher. Styles becomes obsessed with returning last week’s favour to Roman and sets up the announce table for Reigns to be put through. He takes too long, though, and gets rag-dolled and tossed around by the champ. Gallows and Anderson return and the match gets thrown out once Roman gets smacked with a chair. Wait a minute… what was the point of elimination rules, then? Is Jimmy the sole survivor? After the post-match melee, Reigns and Styles have a stare down, with each taunting the other into using the chair. Neither do. Final Rating: **1/4 Kevin Owens vs. Zack Ryder Owens trash talks Ryder as he beats him down, which is an aspect of his character that I just love. Ryder is kind of like the go-to perennial nearly man. Even when he actually won a championship at ‘Mania, he lost it within a day. He’s such a loser. He gets a couple of near falls, but thankfully nothing daft happens and Owens evades the Ruff Ryder and finishes with the pop-up powerbomb. I’d like to have seen him counter the Ruff Ryder directly into his powerbomb, but it is what it is. Final Rating: *3/4 Renee gets a word with Big Cass in the back. He blatantly hits on her with his Joey Tribiani tribute. The phrase “new era” also gets thrown in just in case anyone forgot. Promo Time: The New Day Before they get going, a split screen gives us The Vaudevillains’ thoughts. The black and white footage is pretty cool, and they actually reel off a decent promo. Unfortunately, Xavier Woods is simultaneously tooting on Francesca II, so the menace turns instantly to unintentional comedy. New Day aren’t entirely sure how to pronounce their challengers name – The Vaudeville Villains, Big E runs with. Then they all hail the big Booty-oooooooooh! It’s classic. If only the Booty-O was a little bigger, then Kofi could wear it on his head like Cloister the Stupid. They close by pointing out that the bygone era much vaunted by The Vaudevillains wasn’t very kind to people like them. Did you think they meant black people? No, smartphone users, of course. Naturally Xavier’s championing of modern technology is a little disappointing and contrary to his old NXT retro gimmick. The New Day (Big E & Kofi Kingston) vs. The Dudley Boyz From the promo straight into the match. Bubba’s in-match smack chat is on a level with Kevin Owens. “You forgot to eat your Booty-O’s. Booty-O’s, they get you cross faced,” he yells at Kofi while smashing him across the face. Xavier is also quite adept at chipping in vocally from ringside and, of course, parping away on Francesca II. The Vaudevillains stick their hooters in, which allows for D’Von to score the victory with a brutal lariat. Final Rating: ** Big Cass vs. Chris Jericho Jericho gets attacked on the ramp by Dean Ambrose during his introduction. Dean steals the Lite-Brite jacket and makes his way to the ring. Big Cass, who was introduced first seems to have completely disappeared. That’s surely a bit premature; how would he know that the match won’t still go ahead? Maybe he’s just realized that he was hitting on Ambrose’s girlfriend earlier on so scarpered sharpish. So your main event is actually a brief scuffle between Ambrose and Jericho. Cass does return to throw Y2J back in the ring to compound his already miserable evening, then Ambrose, conveniently pulling a pair of scissors from his jeans, rips Jericho’s jacket at the seams. Cole continues to try and sell the Mitch angle. Final Rating: N/R Just before the show goes off the air, video control stops off at the McMahon siblings’ office. Steph’s facials reveal that all is not as well as they are making it out to be. She’s up to something, that’s for sure. THE RAW RECAP: Most Entertaining: The New Day. Least Entertaining: Fandango, Goldust, Tyler Breeze, and R Truth. Sorry, Tyler. Quote of the Night: A few contenders tonight. “You forgot to eat your Booty-O’s. Booty-O’s, they get you cross faced” takes it. Match of the Night: Sami Zayn vs. The Miz. Summary: This week’s RAW was largely inoffensive (Natalya aside) and pretty much flew by, which is always a good sign. The wrestling wasn’t great by any stretch, but for the most part was passable or better, though the way in which the main event panned out was highly disappointing. Maybe the whole “new era” thing is working on the whole, although mark my words it won’t be long before another McMahon feud starts to take over and spoil anything decent that’s been built. Verdict: 46 Here we are for another hopefully above par episode of RAW. Every since WrestleMania and this “New Era” begin, Raw has been, dare I say it, a watchable show. They are getting new faces on the roster, better storylines than they have had recently and just an all around decent show. Now don’t get me wrong, the three-hour time slot is still a little wearing on my patience and the filler like R-Truth and Goldust is still awful, but let us take any positive we can from this. While we still may see a clunker of a show from time to time, they are on a roll right now, let’s see if they can keep it going. The build to Extreme Rules is on, and we are live in St. Louis Missouri with the pitiful team of Michael Cole, JBL and Byron Saxton on commentary. Let’s get to the action!
Promo Time: Stephanie McMahon RAW opens this week with Stephanie McMahon heading to the ring carrying a gift bag. Before she can get much out, “here comes the money” rings out and Shane heads to the ring. Stephanie talks about being a good business partner and gives him the gift bag which contains the photo of young Shane and Vince that Vince destroyed weeks back, but in a new frame. They ask the crowd whose ideas they want to hear for the show, but before they get any out, Kevin Owens interrupts. Kevin Owens is hands down one of my favorite in-ring and on the mic workers on the roster today. The past few weeks he has shown why he is a valuable talent more than ever. Owen’s tells the siblings how touching it is they are getting along. He pitches them his idea of a rematch for the Intercontinental title now that he has taken care of Sami Zayn. Cesaro makes his way to the ring. After some banter, Shane books Owens against Cesaro to determine who gets a shot at The Miz’s Intercontinental Championship. The match is up next. Not a bad opening for RAW. Short, to the point and as I said, Owens is entertaining. Kevin Owens vs. Cesaro The Miz and Maryse are out on commentary for this match. Cesaro has control early, but Owens quickly takes over using the injured shoulder of Cesaro to his advantage. Cesaro since coming back has used the shoulder injury perfectly always selling it at the right times and lending it to the story of the match. Owens hits an insane looking frog splash. He has been using this a lot over the past few weeks, and you know it is great when it makes you cringe every time he nails it. The fight spills to the outside where Owens tries to take The Miz’s title belt to use on Cesaro, but The Miz puts a stop to that quickly. With the distraction, Cesaro uppercuts both men. Cesaro gets Owens back in the ring and attempts the Cesaro Swing, but The Miz attacks him to end the match. After the match, Owens gets into it with The Miz, but Cesaro takes them both out. The numbers game catches up on Cesaro, but Sami Zayn runs down and hit a suplex on Miz and a Helluva Kick on Owens. Sami picks up the Intercontinental Championship and holds it high to cheers from the crowd. This match was a mere addition to the progression of the Intercontinental Championship storyline. I am happy to see the names involved with this, starting to build credibility back for the title. Final Rating: ** Backstage Dean Ambrose is talking with Stephanie McMahon. He tells her he is not buying how she has been acting, and she is still the same old Stephanie. She says she will be a guest on the Ambrose Asylum tonight, and he can ask her anything he wants. Oh, joy... Also, backstage we have the awful continuing saga of R-Truth and Goldust. Truth is trying to teach Tyler Breeze how to rap which only makes me feel even more bad that this is where Breeze’s career has gone. After Breaking Ground, wasn’t he supposed to be a big deal? Goldust shows up and says he has a partner who is Fandango. This must be the night of the backstage segments. Backstage we have AJ Styles talking to Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows. They are telling AJ how well he did against Reigns at Payback and that he will beat him at Extreme Rules. Reigns steps in and says after Payback, he has a lot of respect for Styles, but not for Anderson and Gallows. The Usos walk in, and they set up a six-man tag match for later tonight. Tyler Breeze vs. Goldust This is more of the underwhelming show filler I like to call the “not so epic saga of R-Truth and Goldust.” Fandango is right where he belongs in the middle of all this, but poor Tyler Breeze just keeps falling down the roster ladder. Breeze puts on a skull cap which causes Goldust to ask Truth why he never got one. Fandango gyrated outside which provoked Truth to show off his dance. This distracted Goldust enough for Tyler Breeze to roll him up for the win. Finally, Breeze gets a win, but being a part of this just felt like a loss for him in the big picture. Final Rating: * The New Day & Big Cass vs. The Dudley Boyz & The Vaudevillians We get a quick promo out of all four teams before this match starts. All of them focused on Enzo’s injury, and the Dudley Boyz and Vaudevillians complain about wanting a tag team title shot. Big Cass also mocks Bubba Ray’s old ECW stutter which gets a good laugh from the crowd. They come back from the break with the eight-man tag match in progress. Simon Gotch is worked over by the face team while the New Day roll through their usual antics. Woods comes in and gives the heels the upper hand for a brief time before getting a hot tag to Kofi, but his offense lasts for a short time before he begins to be the beat down. Kofi is able to break away with a dropkick to English and Gotch and gets the hot tag to Big Cass. Cass runs wild on all the heels with big boots and elbows showing off his powerhouse ability. In the end, Cass was able to avoid a 3D from the Dudleys and hit the East River Crossing on D-Von for the victory. Not an awful tag match that did its job in getting Cass over as the dominate big man. Final Rating: *3/4 Becky Lynch vs. Emma This feud has been building in the background for a couple of weeks now. It is good to see WWE branching out and bit and not just focusing on one Women’s division feud at a time. Becky and Emma are acting as the mid-card of the division right now. Emma has also been racking up some solid performances since getting back to the main roster. Her skills definitely fit it with this group of women. This is a classic heel vs. face match with Emma working over Becky and Becky trying to make the big comeback. Becky goes for her finisher, but Emma rolls under the bottom rope to break it up. As Becky is being backed off by the referee, Emma uses a classic poke followed by her finisher to pick up the win. Classic heel victory to intensify the feud and not a bad match for the time they were given. Final Rating: ** Promo Time: Ambrose Asylum Ambrose starts out the segment introducing his plant, “Mitch”. That when I know this is going to be another awful segment we know as the Ambrose Asylum. He introduces Stephanie McMahon and talks about his skepticism about how nice she has been lately. Stephanie says Ambrose is just paranoid. Ambrose shows the Roman Reigns spear on Stephanie from WrestleMania, and she says that was just Roman teaching her a valuable lesson. Ambrose says everyone seems to love Shane as the crowd begins to chant “Shane O Mac.” Stephanie brings up Shane leaving for seven years again. At this point, you can see that Ambrose is trying to get her to blow her top, and she is maintaining her composure the best she can. She says she has learned the lesson of change from her father, and now that the Ambrose Asylum has been on for a few weeks now, she is canceling it. She tells Ambrose to clean up and take off. Ambrose grabs his plant and beings to leave as Stephanie announces the return of The Highlight Reel to replace the Asylum. Chris Jericho makes his way out and after a few words begins to brawl with Ambrose. Ambrose goes for his finisher, but Jericho avoids it and hits the codebreaker. Jericho takes “Mitch” the plant and much to the dismay of the live crowd, smashes it over Ambrose’s head. Stephanie is always good in these segments, and this only adds a little spark to the already dead feud of Ambrose and Jericho. Battle Royal for the United States Championship Number One Contender From the looks of things, I would say we have about twenty men total in the ring for this battle royal with the opportunity to face Kalisto for the United States Championship on the line. Baron Corbin, Sheamus, and the returning Titus O’Neil all get entrances. I am already having trouble staying with this show by this point, and now we have a glorified jobber battle royal. I won’t go through all the eliminations because most of them don’t matter. The majority of guys were space fillers in this match, and you knew were going to go. Corbin gets eliminated by Ziggler, which pisses him off, so he pulls Ziggler from the ring and beats the hell out of him. Because he didn’t pull him out over the top, Corbin throws a limp Ziggler back in only to be eliminated by Rusev seconds later. Down to the final competitors, it is Sheamus, Rusev, Del Rio, Sin Cara and Zack Ryder. Sin Cara doesn’t last long leaving Ryder with the League of Nations. Sheamus is eliminated by Del Rio, Del Rio by Ryder and then after teasing he might win, Ryder was put out by Rusev. Rusev is your new number on contender for the United States Championship. Final Rating: * Promo Time: Charlotte & Ric Flair Charlotte and Ric Flair make their way to the ring and rehash the “Chicago Screw Job” that happened at Payback. On a side note, that was the worst finish to a match I’ve seen in a long time. They run down Natalya and the Harts before calling out referee Charles Robinson, or as I remember him “Little Natch. Charlotte asks Robinson is Natalya tapped during their match, and he says she didn’t tap, but she verbally submitted. Robinson stumbling on his words says his past friendship with Ric Flair played no part in his decision, and the decision was final. They dismiss Robinson to the back before Natalya comes out and grabs the mic. Natalya talks about being screwed out of the championship by them that it is all Ric’s fault, and the Harts will always be better than the Flairs. Charlotte goes on the attack, but Natalya dumps her out of the ring. Ric then heated up taking off his jacket, watch and ring looking ready to fight. I was waiting for him to give a big elbow drop to the jacket like the old days. Natalya puts Ric in the sharpshooter, but Charlotte slowly but surely pulls Ric to safety. Natalya puts on Ric’s watch and ring looking very proud of herself. Backstage Stephanie tells Charlotte that she will defend her title again against Natalya at Extreme Rules in a submission match. She also adds that this time Ric will be barred from ringside. Ric looks pissed. His facial expressions are still so great. Roman Reigns & The Usos vs. AJ Styles, Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows This one starts off quick with JBL calling it “The Family vs. The Club”. Good to know with all of the writing staff and one of the greatest wrestling promoters of all time, all they can come up with is “The Club”; how original. Roman gets the upper hand early, but once he tags in Jey Uso, Gallows takes the advantage for his team. After the break, Jey is able to get a semi-hot tag to Roman, who takes down AJ and knocks his partners off the apron. Styles makes a quick comeback, but Reigns gets the tag to Jimmy, who gets the upper hand with a crossbody and a near fall. Anderson and Gallows attack Roman on the out and hit one of their finishers on him taking him out. Back in the ring, AJ hits the Phenomenal Forearm for the win. Quick match with no real exciting action to speak of, but with moving along the storyline, I can understand that. Post-match, Gallows, and Anderson threatened to hit Reigns with a chair, but Styles stops them asking what they were doing. They told AJ to hit him with the chair, but AJ just drops it much to the dismay of the live crowd. The Usos come back and hit Styles with a chair from behind. They clear the ring, but Styles grabs the chair and goes to town on the Usos. Reigns is just now recovering and sees this, so he hits AJ with a superman punch. Reigns then takes Styles to the outside and powerbombs the hell out of him through the announce table as the show goes off the air. I’m not sure where this is going, but it is one of the best angles WWE has come up with in a while. Final Rating: **3/4 THE RAW RECAP: Most Entertaining: Kevin Owens - With his in ring work and running off at the mouth, he is the star of this show every week. Least Entertaining: R-Truth, Goldust & Fandango -I’ll give Tyler Breeze a pass on this for actually winning. Match of the Night: Roman Reigns & The Usos vs. AJ Styles, Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows Summary: Since WrestleMania, RAW has been on a hot streak of sorts ringing in this so-called “new era.” While this show was not terrible, it did not live up to the potential that RAW has shown as of late. I guess we can’t always expect a good show when they are trying to fill three hours of weekly television, but being spoiled by the excitement of the recent shows makes this one rather disappointing. On the plus side, things are still looking up as far as the use of new talent goes. None of the storylines are absolutely awful (aside from anything containing R-Truth and Goldust), so there is the great thing we always can say to comfort ourselves after a less than par show; there is always next week. Verdict: 39 This week’s SmackDown! has a little good and a little bad. The good is that Byron Saxton is not on commentary this week, so we get the fantastic team of Mauro Ranallo and Jerry “The King” Lawler. The bad is that this week's matches were taped before RAW saving time for WrestleMania setup. What this means is we are going to have a show with very little meaningful content and mostly preview for Sunday’s big event. SmackDown! is usually a show that is already hard to watch, but this should make this week’s episode dreadfully dull. Keep moving folks, nothing to see here.
AJ Styles vs. Heath Slater Joined in the ring by the Social Outcasts, Heath Slater declares that the Outcasts will be the winners of the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. He also referred to his group of friends as “fournominal.” “AJ Styles” chants fill the arena as the match begins. Styles takes control early with a dropkick and knee drop for a two count. Curtis Axel causes a distraction to Styles to which Heath Slater boots him out of the ring to the floor. Slater still in control of the match threw Styles again to the outside where he beats on by the Outcasts. Eventually, Styles gained ground and took back over with clotheslines on Slater. Styles fended off the interference of the Outcasts and hit Slater with the Phenomenal Forearm for the win. Nothing special with this match, but AJ Styles can always bring the excitement level up when he is in the ring. Final Rating: *3/4 We now go to Renee Young and Byron Saxton, who are in Dallas at AT&T Stadium. They are previewing the matches at WrestleMania, showing hype video packages and giving the first look at the setup in the Stadium. This is filling much of the shows time. Jey Uso vs. D-Von Dudley Jey gets the upper hand early taking it to D-Von and clotheslining him to the outside. Bubba Ray is able to get a cheap shot on Jey outside while D-Von distracts the ref. D-Von keeps the upper hand on offense as Bubba continues with a verbal assault from the outside. Bubba Ray, especially in the recent weeks, has shown not only how great he is on the mic but also how valuable of an asset he is that WWE is completely misusing. After missing a flying headbutt, D-Von is hit with a clothesline and Samoan drop for a near fall. Jey climbs to the top with D-Von to attempt a super plex, but D-Von reveres and hit the RDS spine buster for the win. Honestly not a bad match from these two. Being that it is two members of tag teams on a throwaway show, they did the best they could. Final Rating: *3/4 We are now back with Byron and Renee hyping WrestleMania filling multiple segments of the show. A little bit of this is okay, but by the third commercial break of nothing by preview videos, I’m bored to tears. Dean Ambrose vs. Erick Rowan Erick Rowan initially came out with both Bray and Stroman in tow, but part way down the ramp, Bray sent Rowan to the ring on his own as he and Stroman headed to the back. It looks like Erick Rowan is flying solo tonight. This match starts off with some up-tempo, high impact back and forth. Ambrose sends Rowan to the outside and delivers an elbow drop from the apron in classic Ambrose fashion. After the commercial break, Rowan has taken the upper hand slowing down the match and working over Dean. Rowan doesn’t shine too often in his matches, but this is where he thrives. The match has slowed down and he using his power to wear down his opponent. This is really the only time he looks halfway decent in the ring. Ambrose’s selling is perfect. Rowan goes for a high-risk move from the top but is caught and superplexed by Ambrose. Ambrose dropkicks Rowan to the floor followed by a suicide dive referred to by Maruo as a “Tope Suicida”. Rowan was able to get the upper hand again for a couple of near falls, but Dean bounced back (pun intended) with a rebound clothesline and dirty deeds for the win. This was the best I’ve seen out of Erick Rowan in some time. Final Rating: ** THE SMACKDOWN! RECAP: Most Entertaining: Seeing the setup at AT&T Stadium Least Entertaining: Byron Saxton Match of the Night: Dean Ambrose vs. Erick Rowan Summary: With the matches being taped before RAW this week and everything already moving at full speed for setup at WrestleMania, I can understand why the content of this show was minimal. It honestly reminded me of the Pay per view pre-shows where you have a bunch of hype for the event and a few matches in between. Any other time I would give a show like this hell for lack of really anything worthwhile, but this understandable. It just adds to and is almost the official kick off to WrestleMania weekend. Next week after all the dust clears, SmackDown! will hopefully have something worth watching, not that it normally does. Verdict: 29 3.24.2016
By Drew Ortman We are at the final stretch of the road to WrestleMania and hopefully that means we will have a more exciting than usual SmackDown! show on our hands tonight. “The Beast” Brock Lesnar with Paul Heyman in tow is advertised for tonight’s show which automatically increases anticipation. This is the point of the year when all the roads are meant to come together culminating at the “Grandest Stage of them All”, but as you can tell, this road has been anything but exciting. Before every show, I keep hope that it will only get better, and tonight’s SmackDown! is no different. From Boston, Massachusetts, Mauro Ranallo, Jerry “ The King” Lawler and Byron Saxton are on commentary. Let’s get to the action. Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks In any other situation, a match between Sasha Banks and Charlotte should be fantastic, but as you know, SmackDown! can be a killer of anything exciting. Becky Lynch is on commentary to hype the three’s triple threat match at WrestleMania. Sasha takes the early advantage until “the dirtiest player in the game” Ric Flair distracts her allowing Charlotte to take control. This match continues to be evenly matched back and forth. At one point they take it to the outside, and Sasha gets shoved into Becky, and they have a moment showing the tension between the two. Back in the ring, Charlotte goes for the figure eight, but Banks reverses and rolls her up for the win. After the match, Becky jumps in the ring and gives Charlotte and Sasha suplexes and leaves. Sasha recovers and hits Charlotte with a back stabber. The tension with these three has hit its peak which is great heading into WrestleMania. Final Rating: **1/2 Kofi Kingston vs. Sheamus The New Day are out first and get their usual insults in on the “League of Booty.” No Del Rio with the League tonight. I don’t completely understand the feud between The League of Nations and The New Day yet, but I am still hoping it will grow on me. These two start out with a good match right out of the gates. Kofi outwrestled Sheamus early and used his high impact moves and high flying ability to keep control. Eventually, Sheamus took back over for a while so the two factions could dispute on the outside. After being beaten on for a while, Kofi came back hitting a spinning heel kick for what looked like a win, but Sheamus’s buddies made sure his foot was on the rope. As things break down on the outside, Kofi is distracted and hit gets by a Brogue Kick from Sheamus that flipped him completely head over heels for the win. Good match from these two in a mess of a storyline. Final Rating: *** The Usos vs. The Ascension It is obviously known now that any match involving The Ascension will be a squash. This match lasts hardly any time at all with The Usos keeping the upper hand throughout and hitting superkicks on Konnor and Viktor for the win. The Dudley Boyz are shown backstage watching the match. The Usos pull out tables and splash both members of the Ascension through them sending a messages to the Dudleys. This match was nothing at all as far as action, but it did its job hyping a Usos vs. Dudley's match perfectly. Final Rating: *1/4 Backstage the Dudley Boyz are interviewed by Renee Young getting their thoughts on what just happened. They proceed to bad talk the Uso’s family which provokes Roman Reigns to enter and challenge Bubba Ray to a match tonight. Dolph Ziggler & Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens & The Miz You can tell from the start of this match that The Miz and Kevin Owens are not on the same page by any means. The Miz takes the brunt of the action at the beginning while Owens stands on the apron telling the Miz how much better he is. Owens was ready to walk out on The Miz again as he did a couple of weeks ago, but Zayn stops him in his tracks taking out both Owens and Miz on the outside. The match at this point because an excellent contest with all four men seeing action, getting in as many spots as possible and adding some good near fall for extra added drama. Even with all of this, Zayn and Owens didn’t get in the ring much together which I think is good. Keeping them apart as long as possible while still building the heat between the two is a great strategy. As Owens was about to walk out again, Zack Ryder, Stardust, and Sin Cara showed up not letting him do so. The Miz grabs Owens and takes him back to the ring where he took a superkick from Ziggler, a Skull Crushing Finale from The Miz and a Helluva Kick from Zayn for the win. All men involved break out into a brawl which ends with Zack Ryder hitting the Rough Ryder on Owens and standing tall in the end to a big crowd pop. Yes, Zack Ryder stood tall at the end of a match. Good match, good drama, and a great build to the WrestleMania Intercontinental Championship Match. Final Rating: ***1/4 Roman Reigns vs. Bubba Ray Dudley Roman doesn’t waste anytime going on the attack getting in the Superman punch early. The match immediately spills to the outside where Roman repeatedly bounces Bubba’s face off the announce table just as Triple H had done to him. Reigns gets disqualified giving Bubba the win, but he still takes out both Bubba and D-Von before he leaves. This was a squash of sorts meant to give Roman a boost to his no-nonsense attitude. I get what they were going for, but just a time filler overall to me. Final Rating: N/R AJ Styles vs. Tyler Breeze Breeze didn’t get an entrance which shows you what WWE thinks of him these days. Breeze went on the attack early, but Styles sent him to the floor followed by a plancha to the outside. Breeze gets on offense for another shot time, but AJ cuts him off quick and gets the Phenomenal Forearm for the win. This was a squash for Styles where if you blink, you might miss it. Tyler Breeze continues to sit in the basement of the WWE roster. Final Rating: *1/2 Promo Time: Brock Lesnar Brock and Paul Heyman make their way to the ring with an expected pop from the crowd. Heyman gave his always incredible hype to the street fight Lesnar and Ambrose with be having at WrestleMania. At one point Heyman talks about Mick Foley and Terry Funk giving Ambrose weapons over the past few weeks and says that those two men are only alive because God refuses to answer his prayers. Still the best mic man in WWE today. Heyman calls out Ambrose, but instead Bray Rowan and Strowman of the Wyatt Family make their way to the ring. Strowman and Rowan go on the attack, but Brock has none of it giving out suplexes. Ambrose heads to the ring with a kendo stick and unloads on Brock and Bray. Lesnar didn’t even flinch giving Ambrose and immediate F5. Brock standing tall like a beast as we go off the air. THE SMACKDOWN! RECAP: Most Entertaining: Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman - Paul’s verbal assault and Brock’s presence alone can make any show just that much better. Least Entertaining: The Ascension - Mad Max jobbers Match of the Night: Dolph Ziggler & Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens & The Miz - Not only some good in-ring action but the build to WrestleMania made it so much better. Summary: This is one of the last two SmackDowns! before the big one and as you can tell from this show, the build is on for WrestleMania. Unlike most SmackDowns as of late, this show wasn't all that bad. We got a main event segment featuring Brock Lesnar, which always boots the show credibility immediately. We also saw a couple of really decent matches that I will take any day on WWE programming. Normally my response to a show like this would be that it at least gave a build to the upcoming pay per view. Tonight was a little different. A spectacular show? Not by any means, but better that usual? Definitely. Verdict: 59 Commentators: Mauro Ranallo, Jerry Lawler, & Byron Saxton
Promo Time: Roman Reigns This week’s show opens with a clip of Roman Reigns’ beatdown of Triple H this past Monday on RAW and wouldn’t you know it it’s followed up immediately by a promo from Reigns himself. Reigns once again makes a ‘normal’ entrance from the stage instead of coming through the crowd which I’m all for. Now all he needs to do is ditch the gear and the theme song and maybe he can finally forge his own identity. The crowd supposedly chants for Reigns but the camera cuts to a random guy texting instead of excited fans so I’m pretty sure at least part of that is post-production sweetening. Reigns says that Triple H believes in money, power, and respect while he believes in the ‘big fight’ as he showed on Monday. Reigns goes on to say that he’s going to be hanging out week after week until WrestleMania where he will destroy Triple H and once again become WWE World Heavyweight Champion and if Triple H is smart he’ll ‘believe that’. Weak ass nonsense from a guy who needs all the momentum he can get heading into the main event of the biggest show of the year. After Ranallo and the gang talk over footage of the A.J. Styles/Chris Jericho feud we cut to Renee Young who’s standing by with The Phenomenal One himself. Styles starts talking about Jericho but is immediately interrupted by his opponent later tonight, Intercontinental Champion Kevin Owens. Owens says Styles sounds like Sami Zayn in that they’re both crybabies and Styles retorts by saying Owens reminds him of Jericho and he gets to shut his mouth tonight. Owens concludes by saying Styles and Young both have the same haircut and walks off. Brilliant last line from Owens, nice continued build to his match against Zayn. Styles once again didn’t get to say much. He’s not that bad of a promo. Dolph Ziggler vs. The Miz Since we’re in Ohio this week these two home state boys are trotted out to face each other for what feels like the millionth time. I don’t really care about this match, I don’t know if it’s obvious. Ziggler is in control until we near the commercial break then Miz takes over with a hammer throw into the corner that looked like it could’ve caved in Ziggler’s chest. Jeeeeesus. Ziggler and Miz trade near-falls, with the latter countering the former’s Fameasser attempt with a roll-up pretty nicely, but eventually Ziggler comes out on top with a weak Superkick that connected more with Miz’s shoulder than the chin. It was fine I guess but my apathy levels with these two are super high.(7:11 shown) Final Rating: ** Two RAW clips play out; first Ryback challenges Kalisto for the United States Championship at WrestleMania (which Kalisto accepts via WWE.com interview with Michael Cole), then we go to the segment where Mick Foley gifted Dean Ambrose with his barbed-wire baseball bat. A perfect segue into… Ambrose Comes Home, Part 1 Ambrose is from Cincinatti, where SmackDown takes place this week, so this is a homecoming for him. Standing on the outskirts of the city Ambrose talks about how tough it was growing up on these streets and how he can’t wait to pass on what he learned to Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania because ‘nothing hurts like an education’. School system must suck in Cincy. Goldust vs. Bubba Ray Dudley Hey, I didn’t expect this match to be a thing. Cool. D-Von Dudley pulls out a table to distract Goldust and allow Bubba to hit him from behind, then Bubba launches into full-on Bully Ray mode by constantly trash talking Goldust as he hammers him. Goldust decks Bubba during the latter’s Dusty Rhodes-style jab combo and mounts a comeback, concluding with a bulldog for a 2-count. Bubba bails to the floor and Goldust chases him, stopping an attempted D-Von attack in the process. Goldust heads back into the ring and Bubba straights punts his head off his shoulders and covers him for the victory. Not a lot of meat to this one but Bubba’s heel work was tremendous here. He could be killing it as a singles competitor right now if the whole Dudley Boys thing wasn’t so important to WWE.(3:24) Final Rating: **1/2 After the match The Dudley Boys double-team Goldust until Goldust’s would-be partner R-Truth tries to make the save. It’s R-Truth though so it doesn’t last long but luckily out come The Usos to make the big save instead. The Dudleys dodge a double superkick and bail to the floor to continue hype for their upcoming match at WrestleMania. Face to Face to Face WWE Divas Champion Charlotte makes her way out to the ring with Ric Flair. Charlotte says she’s known her upcoming WrestleMania opponents, Sasha Banks and Becky, almost her whole adult life and wouldn’t be here without them and asks them to accept her invitation to come to the ring. Becky makes her way out first, smoke entrance and everything. Charlotte says she knew she could count on Becky, Becky retorts by saying Charlotte can count on her taking her arm and the Divas Championship at WrestleMania. Snap. Banks makes her way out next because she’s on her own time and Charlotte doesn’t get to tell her when to show up. Charlotte brings up the ‘Horsewomen’ and their past in NXT and apologizes…for thinking Banks and Becky were ever worth being called Horsewomen! OH NO SHE DID NOT. Becky vows once again to be champ, Banks reminds both ladies that she’s the one who ended Charlotte’s reign as NXT Women’s Champion and has been undefeated since coming to the main roster so Becky should get to the back of line since she’s failed already. Becky tells Banks that it takes more than an ego and dollar store jewellery to be a Boss and Banks posts up by shoving her. Charlotte laughs so they beat her up instead to end the segment. I liked where they were going with this one but the line delivery fell flat in spots and it didn’t have the oomph I think they were going for; still though their triple threat match at WrestleMania has all the potential to be kick and ass. WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day make their way out to the ring carrying garbage bags. They plug their Booty-O’s merch then Big E cuts into an faux-angry generic wrestling promo on The League of Nations to hype their WrestleMania match. Kofi Kingston ignores the outburst and says The League of Nations are four bags of ‘hot garbage’. They proceed to kick each bag out of the ring after doing an impression of each LoN member. They try to start a ‘New Day Rocks’ chant but the music of The League of Nations interrupt. Apparently there's a match actually happening. Kofi Kingston vs. King Barrett Kingston is all offense, including a one man Unicorn Stampede, until the other LoN members distract him leaving him open to a big boot from Barrett. Soon enough both factions get involved, climbing aprons and brawling and all sorts of shenanigans until Kingston rolls Barrett up with a handful of tights, mirroring Woods’ win on RAW, for the victory. Another perfectly serviceable thing that happened on a serviceable episode of SmackDown. (3:54 shown) Final Rating: ** Ambrose Comes Home, Part 2 Ambrose is at Madonna’s Bar and Grill, which is decked out in St. Patrick’s Day decorations. Despite being of Irish descent I don’t drink so I totally forgot that was Thursday. Ambrose says that the only reason to fight is for pride and promises to bring his Cincy upbringing with him to WrestleMania where Lesnar will find out what pain truly is. These two segments aren’t really accomplishing anything but I respect Ambrose showing a local Cincinnati establishment some love. This week’s RAW Rebound focuses on the tiff between Shane McMahon and The Undertaker as they head toward their Hell in a Cell match at WrestleMania. I can’t believe I just typed that sentence in 2016. I blame the injury plague WWE has been dealing with. Cut to the arena where The Social Outcasts are hanging out on the ring apron. Bo Dallas says they’re going to be the first team to win the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal together but Heath Slater, Adam Rose, and Curtis Axel all want to win it themselves and they start arguing until Dean Ambrose comes out with a kendo stick to break it up. He belts all four members of the faction then gets on the mic and sarcastically asks if they were done and calls out Lesnar for next week’s SmackDown. Fair enough. A.J. Styles vs. Kevin Owens Ranallo and company go through the Styles/Jericho feud again just in case people forgot already while watching this week’s episode. I’m not into this storyline at all, as I could’ve sworn those two already had their thing and it was nice. Stretching it out to add a match atWrestleMania by making them a team for a cup of coffee was totally unnecessary. The match starts with Styles on the offensive until his springboard attempt is countered by a fireman’s carry rib breaker and senton. That’s one way to squash someone’s momentum, if you’re picking up what I’m putting down. Owens tries for another senton, eats a pair of knees instead and Owens makes sure to yell at Ranallo for absolutely no reason because he’s the best. Styles hits a splash on the floor then hits a fireman’s carry neckbreaker, which Ranallo names as the Ushigorishi. Lawler can’t say the word and makes fun of Ranallo because he himself is done and Ranallo namedrops the move’s originator, New Japan star Hirooki Goto, to no effect because Lawler only watches WWE and old Memphis tapes. Absolutely amazing moment from Ranallo though, loved him snapping back into his AXS TV New Japan mode. Owens hits a package Blue Thunder Bomb for a two-count next and Ranallo says he thought it was gonna be the Package Piledriver, Owens’ old finisher from the indies. Dude is on aroll with the smark crowd tonight. Styles counters a Pop-Up Powerbomb attempt with a Pele Kick and heads to the top where the two exchange headbutts jockeying for position. Owens falls and Styles moves to the apron to set up the springboard forearm but out comes Chris Jericho to the stage for a distraction. Owens takes advantage and belts Styles with the boot, following up with the Pop-Up Powerbomb for the victory. Kind of a lame finish because I’m not into that particular feud but this was match was great otherwise. Ranallo throwing down his NJPW and non-WWE knowledge to the befuddlement of his commentary team was tremendous. (8:04 shown) Final Rating: *** Jericho picks at the carcass of Styles after the match, delivering a Codebreaker and mockingly chanting “A.J. Styles!” at the fallen Phenomenal One as the episode concludes. Side note Colony, the show that follows SmackDown here in the United States, is pretty awesome and I hope enough people watched it for a second season to happen. Burn Notice got like three thousand seasons, Colonydeserves at least two. But I digress. THE SMACKDOWN RECAP: Most Entertaining: Mauro Ranallo. Week after week he earns his new spot among WWE’s commentary team by making each match sound important and focusing on the action. His call of the main event was beautiful and elevated a match that was already good into something much…gooder. Wait that isn’t a word. Least Entertaining: The Miz and Dolph Ziggler wrestling yet another match against one another. Ship has sailed, guys. Match of the Night: A.J. Styles vs. Kevin Owens Summary: Styles/Owens was really good, the rest of it was merely passable to okay. The Styles/Jericho story was the main focus and if you’re into that feud I’m sure it worked but I’m not so I didn’t care. Couple that with some droll matches and it’s most definitely a fast forward to the main event kind-of show. Verdict: 53 |
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May 2016
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