Week in Review (6/3/12) - (6/9/12)

[Chris]

Okay, haven't done this in about three months, but I'm going to try and keep it up this time, with it being summer and me having more free time. I'll be reviewing the following shows, WWE Raw, WWE NXT, WWE Superstars, Impact Wrestling, WWE Smackdown, and Ring of Honor Wrestling. I'll pick a the best match and segment for each show and then a Match and Segment of the week.

WWE Raw (6/4/12)​

Chris's Thought: The opening promo was nice, Cole with some great heel work. His character has gotten much better this year, he's not annoying during the matches anymore, just when he needs to be, like in this promo. Cena was spot on like usual on the mic. Cole's reaction when Cena picked him was absolutely hilarious. Good promo, set up a horrible main event however. Ziggler vs Sheamus was next, this one was shorter and not as good as the match they had on Smackdown last week, but man, Ziggler still looked great, as did Sheamus. WWE finally seems to be doing something with Ziggler here, would be wise to push him in the world title scene with Orton gone, they'll need someone. I vote Ziggler or Cody. Ending was very anti-climatic, but Ziggler sold the Brogue Kick like a boss. Del Rio and Ricardo attacking Sheamus afterwards was nice, WWE has had some great build up with the World Title matches since WrestleMania. Ricardo with the takedown was great. Sin Cara vs Hunico was very good, shocked that Hunico got an entrance actually. Much better than the Cara/Slater match from Smackdown. Only gripe I have is that stupid light thing. Ryback vs Arthur Rosenberg ( @NotKirbyMack ) and Stan Stansky ( @StoneyHooker ). Holy hell Ryback is impressive. After launching Kirby (see my sig) 15 feet in the air, he demolishes both guys. I've never seen squash matches this entertaining. I'm a Ryback mark. Okay, it's the 10 PM timeslot, you know what that means, CM Punk owns this time slot. It's a given every week that he'll appear right here, and they wonder why he doesn't draw, they never put him in the damn main event to give him a chance. Match against Kane was very good, Daniel Bryan played his part well, and Kane getting the win was nice. AJ afterwards was weird as hell, the way she smiled at Kane and he left. I'm loving the build up for this match, I'm looking forward to it the most. AJ's "interview" with Josh afterwards was just plain amazing, she plays the crazy chick almost too good, it's freaky. Now we have Kofi and Truth against Hawkins and Reks. FINALLY Reks and Hawkins get a match on Raw. Good stuff, not as good as the couple Superstars matches the two guys have had, but it was fun to watch. Now we get to the worst part of the show, the main event no less. Tensai vs Cena wasn't bad, wasn't just great either, but nothing to complain about. They're definitely not pushing Tensai anymore, can't say I'm surprised. Cena vs Cole was horrible, no one wants to see a half naked man covered in BBQ sauce. I want to see wrestling. Horrible way to end what was a damn good show. This almost single-handily ruined it.

Match of the Night: Tempted to give it to Ryback, but it's Dolph Ziggler vs Sheamus

Segment of the Night: Other than the opener, wasn't any actual segments tonight, so I'm giving it to AJ and Josh Matthews, that was awesome.

Overall Rating: 6.8/10, would have gotten above 7 if it weren't for the horrible main event.

WWE NXT (6/6/12)​

Chris's Thoughts: First off, WWE completely fails at uploading this on time. It was finally up at almost 10 PM EST, 6 hours after it was supposed to be. That's ridiculous, at least make it seem like you somewhat care about the show. Anyway, we open up right away with Tyler Reks vs Jey Uso. Nice little match to start the show, it was all good up until the end. The last 20 seconds or so were very sloppy, disappointing to say the least. Other than that though, both men looked good. Glad Reks got the win here, odd that Hawkins wasn't with him, even stranger that the announcers didn't give any reason, I'm pretty sure he's on the tour in Spain, but you think the announcers would at least say that. JTG vs Percy Watson was up next, and this was a very nice surprise. I expected it to be good, but not as good as it was. I also thought it was funny that JTG got some chants that were poorly edited out, yet he's the heel. After some great action, Watson got the win, which I don't agree with, he's still green, despite improving a lot. JTG really is good in the ring though, he's young too (27), they can really do something with him if they completely change his gimmick, not just the wardrobe. Tamina vs Natalya was next and boy was this a disappointment. Both of these girls are capable of working much better matches than this. It was necessarily bad, but very boring, crowd was completely dead, hard to watch. Superfly Splash at the end looked good though. And now we come to the main event. If anything on Superstars, Impact, Smackdown, or ROH beats this for Match of the Week, I'll be surprised. Holy damn hell this was a great match. I can't even just say it was Gabriel and Kidd that looked good because Curtis and Slater looked amazing too. Kidd and Gabriel worked so good as a team, they're easily my favorite team in all of wrestling at the moment and they haven't even done anything yet. Kidd continues to impress, he's starting to get a good fanbase too, especially after matches like this. Very, very good way to close the show. We need more matches like this.

Match of the Night: Kidd/Gabriel vs Curtis/Slater

Segment of the Night: No segments tonight, haven't really been any the last month or so. Weird, but I'm fine, gives more time for great matches like the main event.

Overall Ratings: 6.5/10

WWE Superstars (6/7/12)​

Chris's Thoughts: We start off the show with Yoshi Tatsu vs Hunico. Before the match Hunico does what has become the generic Mexican promo since Los Boricuas, talking about how he's better because he's Mexican. Very original. This was a very good match, both guys seemed to have great chemistry with each other, wouldn't mind them having a series. Yoshi looked very strong too, even in defeat, he had Hunico beat at one point, but Camacho put Hunico's foot on the ropes. This was the quintessential Superstars match. Next up we have Alex Riley vs Jinder Mahal. I gotta' say, this match surprised me. It wasn't as good as the first, but much better than I expected. Jinder has improved so much since his debut last year, I'd be fine with him getting a decent push. Riley is good at what he does, still don't see him going anywhere, but he's also improving it seems, I've really liked his last few Superstars matches. Another solid match. Our main event for this show is Zack Ryder vs Jack Swagger. Stanford on commentary does an excellent job explaining to us that these two were the last two United States Champions, good job to Scott because everyone probably forgot. This was another solid match, but definitely not as good as the first two. I think it's because it went on too long, kinda' dragged. They gave it 13 minutes, which was probably 2 or 3 more than they should have. Ryder hardly got any offense in this, which made it a bore to watch even though Swagger was looking good. The ending moments were great though, got pretty fast-paced and the finish was cool. Very solid episode of Superstars.

Match of the Night: Jinder Mahal vs Yoshi Tatsu

Segment of the Night: N/A

Overall Rating: 6.0/10

Impact Wrestling (6/7/12)​

Chris's Thoughts: We open the show with possibly the worst non-wrestler in history to talk about one of the worst angles in recent memory. Dixie starts to talk about A.J., she's a horrible actor. Daniels almost saved the segment with some superb heel work, he's had some great stuff since turning last year, very underrated heel in my eyes. Dixie's husband ended up punching A.J. and Styles left with Dixie. It was unintentionally funny, but overall, a very bad segment. For the first match we get Crimson vs Aries, a very enjoyable one that I wouldn't have minded more time for. Crimson is much better than last year when they were shoving him down our throats, I'm starting to like him. Aries/Joe could end up being a damn good feud if they continue it for a few months. Crimson mentioning Goldberg was interesting to say the least. Hogan is out next, he doesn't get to talk much before Roode comes out, and holy hell this was a great promo. Every time Hogan tried to talk, Roode was in his face saying he wasn't done. High point of the show for me was this promo. Sting came out and him and Roode fought for a bit, but I'm not interested in that feud at all. Roode's mic work is damn good though. KO's four-way was decent at best. Brooke actually looked the best in it in my eyes, though I would much rather see Mickie in the title picture. Bully Ray and Joseph Park had their contract signing next, and while the feud sucks, this was a pretty good segment actually. Bully had some great mic work. Towards the end, Abyss appeared on the uh...Dixietron? He and his "brother" talked to each other. Yeah, this is stupid. Devon vs Robbie E is next, decent match, got real fast paced when Devon got in control, fun to watch. Ending was stupid and unrealistic though, man this match is going to suck at the PPV. Hogan comes out again, and all this segment did was get the guys we're all tired of (Anderson, Hardy, and RVD) in a match at the PPV. Winner gets the World Champ next week, whoopty-doo. We get to our main event now, which is supposed to be a 6-man tag, but A.J. doesn't show up because he doesn't want to be apart of this storyline with Dixie (my theory), so it's a handicap match for a while. Good stuff, Sting isn't just horrible in the ring yet, he can still go, it's just ridiculous that he's still getting title shots when he obviously shouldn't. A.J. finally came out after a while and evened it up. Nice match to close the show, hated that Sting made Roode tap out to win it though. Overall, not a very good show, nothing just bad happened on it, but none of the storylines have me interested at all except for maybe Joe/Aries, but it just started.

Match of the Night: Austin Aries vs Crimson

Segment of the Night: Roode's confrontation with Hogan

Overall Rating: 4.1/10

WWE Smackdown (6/8/12)​

Chris's Thoughts: We start out with Del Rio, after a minute or so, Sheamus's music hits and out comes Ricardo Rodriguez dressed as Sheamus. This got a few chuckles out of me, it was pretty damn funny. Ricardo is just awesome, that's all there is to it. After some a hilarious promo between the two of them, the real Sheamus comes out and a brawl erupts. Teddy Long (who's carrying out Johnny Ace's orders since Ace isn't here) comes out and I instinctively brace for the words "Tag match playa," but he makes two singles matches instead, first of which starts now. Del Rio vs Khali. Looks bad on paper, but wasn't terrible on the show. Khali is still immobile, but it was short and Del Rio worked the arm nicely. I'm okay with that match, could have been much worse. In a backstage segment, Teddy reveals that Brodus is no longer allowed on Raw anymore, so he's just a Smackdown guy from now on. This makes Brodus mad as he goes out for his match against Derrick Bateman. This was shorter than most of the Brodus squashes, which is a damn good thing because I'm getting tired of them. They seem to finally be doing something with Brodus after they've made just about every tired of him. Nice squash, almost fun to watch. Sin Cara vs McIntyre was next, and this was another decent-good match. McIntyre looked real good, he was actually in control for the most part. He's fairly innovative in the ring and just plain fun to watch. He's the only guy in WWE right now that I'm actually mad at how they're underusing, he's a special talent. The finish was very weak, looked a little botched, but other than that, another fun to watch match. We get another Ryback squash next. His jobbers cut a promo as usual, but it wasn't near as entertaining as Stansky and Rosenberg's from Raw either. Another fun Ryback squash, I'm a Ryback mark if you can't already tell. And if you're wondering the jobbers' Twitters are @TheJohnSkyler and @MichaelFrehley. This next segment was greatness personified. It was supposed to be an edition of "The Peep Show" with Cody, but Cody came out, destroyed the set and cut the promo of his life. Great stuff, Christian did good to compliment it as well, loving this. Christian vs Ziggler was great, both guys looked top-notch. I really think Ziggler should have gotten the win here though, by interference from Cody, but a win nonetheless. They really don't know what to do with him because of Orton getting suspended it seems. Now we get to the low point of the show, Cole is talking about him getting embarrassed on Raw and JR's music hits. I instantly start marking of course, but it turns out to just be Hornswoggle. He then imitates JR, complete with Bell's Palsy..completely disrespectful, waste of TV time. Damien Sandow comes to save us, and Tyson Kidd saves Horny (random much?), and Sandow attacks him. Good stuff from Sandow, piss-poor segment. Antonio Cesaro squashed Jimmy Uso. Nothing much to say here, don't really think it was needed, but I like Cesaro being pushed. Sheamus vs Kane was next and this was a good brawl, about like I expected. Solid main event, that pushed the Del Rio/Sheamus feud when he was involved. Towards the end, AJ came out, and distracted Kane as Sheamus Brogue Kicked him. Weird stuff, but they've got me really interested in where they take the AJ thing. Very solid show, a few too many squashes though, but they were all entertaining

Match of the Night: Christian vs Dolph Ziggler

Segment of the Night: Cody Rhodes/Christian "Peep Show" segment.

Overall Rating: 7.3/10

Ring of Honor Wrestling (6/9/12)​

Chris's Thoughts: We start the show off with two guys who have impressed me tons this year, Michael Elgin and Matt Taven. While Taven hasn't got a win yet, he's put on some great matches on ROH TV. Pretty good match, expected better actually, seen better from both, but it was still fun to watch. Elgin hit a nice Superplex where he actually lifted Taven onto his shoulders from the middle rope with Taven on the apron, he never even touched the ropes. Next promo with WGTT and ANX was decent at best, expected much better mic work from all four men, they can do better. The short brawl that ensued was very fun to watch though and King counting the pinfall at the end was a nice touch. We get a series of short interviews about certain matches in our "Inside ROH" segment tonight. Everyone of them was good actually, some great stuff from Jay Briscoe, Roderick Strong, R.D. Evans, Jay Lethal, Kyle O'Reilly, and Adam Cole. O'Reilly especially has impressed me with how much he's progressed as a heel. One of the few guys in the business that I actually love to hate at the moment. The last 20 minutes of the show was Richards/Edwards IV, which as as good as you'd expect it to be. This is about as good as a TV match will get in my opinion. No under-selling by either men save for one or two chops or something, which was very nice. Hated the no-selling in Davey's matches over the last year or so. Actually some spots I thought Davey over-selled. Great match that I think you should all check out, loved Edwards getting the win for some reason too, can't even pick why, just seemed right. Good episode of ROH, it needed some Steen though, and the only in-ring segment was lackluster.

Match of the Night: Davey Richards vs Eddie Edwards

Segment of the Night: The "Inside ROH" promos

Overall Rating: 6.2/10

The Week's Best​

Match of the Week: Davey Richards vs Eddie Edwards (Barely beating the NXT tag match)

Segment of the Week: Cody Rhodes & Christian from Smackdown

Top Shows of the Week: 1. WWE Smackdown 2. WWE Raw 3. WWE NXT 4. Ring of Honor Wrestling 5. WWE Superstars 6. Impact Wrestling

 

[Pete]

Another week, another genuinely talented superstar going down to the power of the Almighty Big Boot...it's REALLY getting old now.

Also, thoughts on Percy Watson? Does he have a future, and if so, how far up the card? I've seen one or two fights from him, and of course, I like his style. But can he cut it in the long run?

 

[Chris]

In the ring, Percy is pretty fun the watch, but he still needs to improve in some areas. He hasn't got to show it in a while, but as we know from NXT Season 2, he's charismatic as hell. I don't see him ever getting big, but I think he could and wouldn't be too surprised if he did. He has one of the best dropkicks in wrestling Next tI Ziggler and Styles too.