Wrestling With The Week- 34

Week of 08/19/19

RAW - 08/19/19 St. Paul, Minnesota

Quick Results:

• Roman Reigns defeated Dolph Ziggler

• Ricochet & The Miz defeated Drew McIntyre & Baron Corbin

• Braun Strowman defeated AJ Styles by DQ; Styles keeps the US Title

• Samoa Joe defeated Cesaro to advance in the King Of The Ring Tournament

• Elias retains the 24/7 Championship against R-Truth

• The New Day defeat The Revival by DQ

• Nikki Cross & Alexa Bliss (Bliss Cross- Trademark pending) defeat Fire & Desire (Sonya Deville & Mandy Rose) to retain the Women's Tag Team Championship

• Cedric Alexander defeated Sami Zayn to advance in the King Of The Ring Tournament

• Seth Rollins & Braun Strowman defeat The OC (Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson) to become the new Raw Tag Team Champions
  

Highlights:

• It was good to see Jerry Lawler on commentary, despite it being a short appearance. It's still not clear why The Fiend is attacking the legends/Hall of Famers.

• Becky Lynch's backstage promo was very strong! The Man is severely talented when she is given the proper material to work with.

• Samoa Joe vs. Cesaro told a good story and the jump start beginning was very exciting.

• Rey Mysterio had a backstage promo that was one of the best of his career, teasing his retirement. Then his son came in to ask to be Rey's tag partner...Dominic still needs some work. Not sure how well those matches will go.

• The Randy Orton/Kofi Kingston story has not been very compelling so far...until this week. Orton holding Kingston down and making him watch as The Revival break Xavier Woods' leg was an excellent spot! I'd much rather see the story be about the relationship between the New Day and not Kofi's family who is seen for a few seconds in the front row.

• It's great to see the Women's Tag Titles being defended on a regular basis now. I think Alexa Bliss gets unnecessary hate from fans because she tends to be featured more than other women. But I think Bliss is a fantastic performer and she and Nikki Cross are a great tag team. The problem is with the writing of the show and switching them between Babyface and Heel on a nightly basis. They need to set a definite direction for these two and follow through with it.

• The Alexander/Zayn match had some rough spots in it, the main one being Zayn stumbling on Alexander's head scissor move, holding the legs, standing up and following through with the move like nothing happened. It was very unnatural and odd and took me out of the action pretty hard.

• The Tag Title match had the usual Strowman spots and a very entertaining finish. I'm not crazy with The OC losing the titles so quickly though so I hope they do something big with this story rather than just trying to get Rollins over again with the crowd.
  

Smackdown – 08/20/19

Quick Results:

• Andrade defeated Apollo Crews to advance in the King Of The Ring Tournament

• Buddy Murphy defeated Daniel Bryan

• The Revival defeated Heavy Machinery

• Elias defeated Kevin Owens to advance in the King Of The Ring Tournament
  

Highlights:

• Randy Orton started the night with a promo that seemed more passionate than anything else he's done in recent memory. It led to a surprise Trouble In Paradise from Kofi, who then beat down The Revival with a chair. This segment was better than anything they did leading up to their match at Summerslam, but wasn't quite as good as their interaction on Raw.

• Andrade vs. Apollo had good storytelling in the first half of the match but was completely derailed by a seemingly very long commercial break. Zelina Vega caused a distraction leading to an Andrade win. WWE needs to come up with a solution to these commercials during matches. Jeremy wrote about this topic this week “The WWE’s Commercial Conundrum”

• I think the Kevin Owens segments with Shane McMahon this week have really devalued Owens' standing. What kind of ass-kicking, anti-authority Babyface apologizes for his actions and begs for mercy? WWE did the same with Becky Lynch before Wrestlemania and it did not help her character at all. If this story keeps going this way, Owens is going to be much worse for it. McMahon does tell him the fine will be waived but Owens needs to behave, only to screw him in his match. This feud is apparently going to continue for some time now.

• Buddy Murphy is being given a lot of TV time and he is involved in the company's biggest storyline right now. Giving him a clean win over Bryan this week was a good move and shows Murphy could potentially be a major player. The crowd was very much behind him in that match!

• Sami Zayn revealed on Miz TV that he is the new manager for the Intercontinental Champion, Shinsuke Nakamura. WWE (Vince McMahon) still has this antiquated thinking that if you don't speak English, you can't get over. Smackdown has three of the greatest wrestlers in the world on the roster, namely Nakamura, Asuka, and Kairi Sane. But because English isn't their first language, they are saddled with managers and not allowed to perform to their full potential because of an unfounded thinking that the majority of fans will not relate to them. Right now in NXT, Io Sharai recently turned heel and does promos in video packages with subtitles and she is INCREDIBLELY compelling. McMahon needs to let the Japanese talent do what they do best and allow the fans to decide for themselves if they like it or not.

• Daniel Bryan and Rowan are seen bringing in a (kidnapped?) man with a black hood over his head, apparently being the man who has attacked Roman Reigns. This is a weird story and, because there have been so many video packages replaying this story, I really have no interest in it whatsoever. When the hood is taken off the man's head, it's revealed to be a guy who looks sort of like Rowan. After the reveal, Reigns and Bryan stand around with no emotional response while the attacker and Rowan breathe heavily at each other. I don't know what else to say except this is really not good.
  

205 Live – 08/20/19

Quick Results:

• Captain's Challenge 10-Man Elimination Tag Match: Oney Lorcan (captain), Jack Gallagher, Akira Tozawa, Humberto Carrillo, & Isaiah “Swerve” Scott defeated Drew Gulak (captain), Mike Kanellia, Angel Garza, Tony Nese, & Arya Daivari.
  

Highlights:

• “Captain's Challenge 10-Man Elimination Tag Match” is a convoluted name for a classic Survivor Series Match.

• This match, bell-to-bell, was about 45 minutes long and was the entire show. There was plenty of decent action and typical Cruiserweight spots. Overall, it was entertaining but a bit too long. The crowd was silent for most of this match and there were many empty seats. With episodes like this, it's not surprising that rumors are 205 Live will not be lasting much longer.
  

NXT – 08/21/19 Full Sail University

Quick Results:

• Damian Priest defeated Mansoor

• Mia Yim defeated Vanessa Borne (w/ Aliyah)

• Shane Thorne defeated Bronson Reed

• Killian Dain defeated Matt Riddle
  

Highlights:

• Next week we will finally see the rematch from several months ago between Keith Lee and Dominick Dijakovic.

• Also next week, a rematch for the Tag Titles between the Street Profits and Undisputed Era.

• Another Mia Yim match that is not very compelling. However, after the match, Baszler came out to compliment Yim on their Takeover match and offered her the opportunity to join the Horsewomen, to which the crowd started a very loud “YES” chant. Of course, Yim refused and tried to fight off all three women. I think it would be a much more interesting story if Yim did join the Horsewomen, as I don't really want to see another title match between these two. I think Dakota Kai is the next logical person to face and defeat Baszler.

• The Pete Dunne/Velveteen Dream rivalry has apparently been dropped since NXT has been announced to become a weekly live show on USA. Roderick Strong started the night with the rest of Undisputed Era challenging Dream, Dream later responded with a promo of his own. I expect the Undisputed Era will be fulfilling their prophecy of gaining all the gold in NXT.

• The Dain/Riddle match was very entertaining and hard hitting. One botched spot on the steps outside was very close to being devastating injury, with Riddle slipping out of a backdrop and nearly smashing his face on the steps. Overall, a very good match and show as a whole.
  

NXT UK – 08/21/19 Plymouth, England

Quick Results:

• Imperium defeated The Hunt

• Kay Lee Ray defeated Shax

• Mark Andrews (w/ Flash Morgan Webster) defeated James Drake (w/ Zack Gibson)
  

Highlights:

• The video package hyping up the Last Standing Match at Takeover Cardiff between Dave Mastiff and Joe Coffey was very good. I am really looking forward to that match.

• Imperium is attacked in the back, taking out Eichner and Barthel, leading into the final segment between Walter and Tyler Bate. A returning Trent Seven helped his partner Bate by taking out the rest of Imperium so Bate could get some momentum before his UK Title shot at Takeover.