*cracks my knuckles*... ya know... I miss talking some 'rasslin... Part of me wants to go up to a 9 to applaud WWE for pulling this show off the way they did, but part of me also remembers some things and wants to go down to a 6 too... But the story of the show to me was that WWE (mostly) learned how to put a match together for a night.
So, the Mixed Match Challenge finals, on first viewing, was a third weird comedy show where it was cool to see R-Truth being more entertaining than many internet darlings (signed, a fan of said darlings), a third being a weird comedy show of everyone else being so hilariously terrible at wrestling that it had me tremendously entertained watching Foxy botch pins, and a third weird comedy show of having all the un-funny jokes in the match itself and the awkward finish...
But I read someone else's comment and it struck with me. Carmella and R-Truth were put together thanks to an awesome joke R-Truth was running with for a while. They get put in MMC as reluctant partners, and Carmella's natural goofiness and R-Truth's off the wall insanity were a perfect pairing. She went from intentionally terrible undeserving champion heel trying to wrestle main events to a fun part of the show doing dance breaks and boy, she's been an asset to the roster (especially if her sequences with Alicia were what we could expect instead of... you know, the main event... geez, thank goodness WWE seems to be learning you can put heat on good performers) And the materialistic Mella joins in with the old man yelling at the cloud and they conquer the tournament just to get screwed over by his insanity is the perfect payoff to all this...
This was fun.
Onto the tag title match, really nothing to say here. Usos >>>> your favorite tag team. Everyone held their own, and while I wonder if the New Day (kayfabe) has a claim to a rematch because they didn't use Big E, I'd just assume they're feuding with Miz and Shane next, so okay. That means less baby punches in the royal rumble
@Jacob Fox bro. I haven't been watching Raw, but what was this segment with Ratings Killer Corbin? Is he always this dreadful? Man, hearing about how this man is taking up an hour of TV time, I could barely get get through this little promo. I seriously think this man has less charisma than Heel Dixie.
But the match... holy cow, as one little throwaway angle I absolutely loved this. As much as WWE has struggled with doing anything with ANY kind of heat, this as a segment on it's own was a home run. It was a pretty creative angle, when Strowman became a smart babyface and lead the charge for the locker room to take out Corbin... Maybe it would have been nice for the wrestlers to get a few more shots in but anything Heath Slater touches seems to turn into gold, Roode and Gable got a good new move in, and all in all it was a fun display of justice in the company that largely built it's brand on that before losing its way... Had I been watching Raw every week (which those that are all are in agreement that stuff on the show doesn't matter, only a change behind the scene does) and watched like 10 hours of Baron Corbin promos this would probably be way too little, but on its own this was fun as hell
Catch me if you've heard this one... Natalya vs Ruby Riott was... a great plan by WWE spoiled by poor execution by the talent. It felt like they were going for a Tokyo Dome match between Hirooki Goto and Tetsuya Naito a few years ago, but Natalya is no Goto and everything felt clunky. Her dispatching the Riott Squad just to pull off Ruby's own table - again, a perfect payoff for a company that can't do a payoff match anymore - and winning an essentially 3 on 1 match made her try to come across bad-ass, but...
okay after all this praise for WWE, why this wasn't this a 10? Finn Balor vs Drew Mcintyre. This gets the Austin rating of :finger:. This was WWE booking at it's finest. A mediocre match that doesn't highlight the strengths of either performer with a finish that makes both of them look bad and wastes the fans time. If WWE wants to have a new year's resolution, we need more matches like the previous 2 and less matches like this. NXT gave you the blueprint here. Balor looks cool. Mcintyre beats ass. Just do those things.
resolution #2: Randy Orton vs Rey Mysterio, I don't remember much from this match now, other than just feeling the show dragging at this point. Quality over quantity, This show would have been better at 2 hours (hey hey, just like Raw!)
okay back to good stuff RONDA FREAKING ROUSEY OH MY FUCKING GOODNESS YOU ARE AWESOME. Like obviously everyone's singing her praises now, but after watching a Randy Orton match this was EXACTLY what I needed to get back into this show. Even though she was working with a mannequin here she was frantically, furiously trying to attack and put some offense to Nia, lock her in holds and try to use her agility and MMA experience to lure her in and counterstrike like a boss and it felt so refreshing and fun and unlike anything else on the show... In the end, Nia gave a terrible theatrical punch, Ronda grabs the arm and circles her around and struggles to lift the big girl into the armbar but does it and gets the tap out W before Becky punches her in the mouth.... and that felt good to watch. Kayfabe or no, THERE WAS NO GREATER JUSTICE IN THIS WORLD.
Hell at this point of the show we saw one fun story arc of a character continue to develop, two HQ segments of watching a legit heel we hate get absolutely wrecked, one fine attempt at it and one lousy one, one girl get over like a million bucks in the ring, all while the tag guys gave us good wrestling. I was pretty sports entertained despite the two relative stinkers in the middle of the card... Then the double main event happened.
...And I've heard this match with Daniel Bryan being called AJ Styles' best match in WWE, but Daniel Bryan made this match and I LOVED seeing such a great theatrical display of wrestling as an art from these two. The two most internet of darlings put on some really good acting, as in the beginning Bryan's offensive attack feels as cold and calculating of punishment as Randy Orton wants to be, complete with some clutch camera work. When AJ Styles started coming back it didn't feel like part of a script, it felt like a desperate fight from a man beaten down by a psycho who lost his way. The offense here was stellar, and it's still incredible to see how great of athletes these two still are at their age... but in the end Daniel Bryan out-wrestled the best wrestler in the world, and holy shit was it cool to see. Bryan came across here like the best crossover of a movie villian turned wrestler, as he manipulated emotions the same way he tried to manipulate Styles' legs. This was a masterpiece, and even if you aren't a "sports entertainment" guy you'd love this
It hurt my heart to watch Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins here. It's not just about the character, sometimes it is about the wrestling and Dean Ambrose fucking sucks at it. He's a phenomenal talent if you highlight his strengths (emotional promos, garbage brawls, big moments, selling) and hide his weaknesses. And this man struggles to keep a match interesting, while the WWE style calls for the heels to dominate the offense... Freaking Seth Rollins couldn't pull a good match out of this guy, and the agents who've been so on-point (if you pretend Dolph Ziggler doesn't exist, which most of us do) take a big ol' L here for having a slow match follow that awesomeness, and for screwing up the finish by having the big climactic moment, then a bunch of stuff after it. It saddens me personally because the first PPV I bought was specifically because these two were main-eventing and I wanted to throw my support at that. Now they're doing this.
As for the main event... here's the deal. Either you're just going to yell OH HELL YEAH THIS RULED along with me, or you're going to stop reading this, go find it on the Network, watch it with me, and we'll scream about it then. GO WATCH THIS MATCH. This was absolute insanity... and Asuka as Women's Champion???
Knowing this isn't the end of Becky I was on board with this, and as "good" as Charlotte is she damn sure made a fan out of me tonight... but why did Ronda interfere lol... just to screw over Charlotte?...
Thing is the finish was perfect, because it creates Becky vs Asuka as a future match (SIGN ME UP RIGHT NOW) and a stellar hook for the Rumble with Becky and Charlotte as possible winners, and we could do the whole epic Nakamura/Reigns spot from last year's Rumble and...
Yeah. Good show. Onto Raw, where we are shaking things up (lol).....
(i'm not expecting much)...
*reads the results*
:l
