Well it’s been an interesting week hasn’t it? Lots of stuff went down…well, at least in WWE.
First, we had the launch of the WWE Network on Monday morning. It indeed had just about every pay per view in WCW, ECW, and WWE history (a few international PPVs are missing), as well as a continuing live stream.
Based on the way the live stream is presented, WWE is really serious about making this feel like an actual WWE Network you can find on your television set…except it’s online. Looking forward, I think they’ll always have this Network in some form or fashion, so it really is a historical moment for the company. Hats off to them, as the content provided so far has been great.
That’s not to say that there hasn’t been a slew of technical issues. The first few days were plagued with video on demand errors, and as of this writing, Xbox 360 owners still can’t even log into the app.
I think this was something everyone should have seen coming – issues like these are fairly common for streaming providers, and the WWE Network is no different. I’d wait a few weeks before complaining though because I think the WWE are taking this very seriously. There’s going to be a lot of growing pains in the first few weeks, and everyone should have expected that coming in.
In my eyes, Raw wasn’t that good this week. There was some solid wrestling, but it was plagued by terrible commentary.
The three-man thing, especially those three men, just aren’t working as a team and something needs to be done. It usually involves JBL and Cole talking over each other and being generally annoying. I just don’t see the point of it. In the long run, all you’re doing is burying the talent who are trying to have a match, while you’re too busy talked about how tanned Sheamus is (or isn’t), or what the E in Big E stands for.
It’s the kind of thing Vince McMahon likes and he’s the one that matters the most, but he needs to take a look at the commentary and realize that it’s really hurting the product at this point.
It wasn’t just that though. The build-up to the WWE Championship match at WrestleMania, which will supposedly headline the show, is between two heels.
Batista is being booed out of every building he’s in, and on SmackDown, he basically cut a heel promo saying that he doesn’t care what the fans do, he’s winning the title at WrestleMania. His new catchphrase is “deal with it”. Considering that Orton is the top heel in WWE at the moment (well, except for the real stars of the company – The Authority) and you have all the elements of a match 80,000 people are going to boo out of the building at the Superdome.
You have to credit WWE for sticking to their storyline. There was a lot of talk about putting Daniel Bryan in there and making it a triple-threat match, but WWE have had their WrestleMania booking planned out for a few months now, and bad crowds notwithstanding, they’re going to do it.
It’s just that…WWE changes their booking constantly. Weekly. Daily, even. Yet they can’t call an audible here? It’s kind of amazing out of all the times they decide to change their booking, this is like the first time in ages where they are really determined to have Batista go against Randy Orton for the WWE Championship.
It’ll be interesting to see if they go with current plans as the weeks go by, but at this point, I don’t really think they can insert anyone else into that match other than Bryan…and he’s going to be busy with Triple H.
Many people don’t like the idea of Triple H and Daniel Bryan because we’re all pretty scared of Triple H pinning Bryan and making him look like the ultimate geek of geeks. I don’t think you have to be too afraid because I’m pretty sure that, in the end, Triple H is going to do the job.
But then again, this is Triple H, you know? He has that reputation and he’s never going to shake it off. I think what upsets me the most is that, even if Triple H loses at WrestleMania, the Authority angle is pretty much destined to continue, meaning there’s going to be more shitty finishes to main-events and more buzzwords like “the face of the WWE” and “what’s best for business”. Just shoot me now…
NXT Arrival was a really good show. You should go out of your way to see it. The three matches that were hyped, delivered.
The women’s match on the show, pitting Paige against Emma, was a well worked match that was better than anything WWE has put on in the Divas division in years. Paige retained her title with Bull Nakano’s scorpion cross lock and she looked pretty good out there. I would expect she’ll be on the main roster pretty soon.
Bo Dallas lost the NXT Championship to Adrian Neville in a ladder match. Again, it was a really well worked bout that highlighted Neville’s ability. In terms of in-ring prowess, Neville should be on the main roster already. However, his promos aren’t that good, so I can see why he’s still in developmental in that regard.
The highlight of the show was the opener with Sami Zayn and Cesaro tearing the house down with an excellent, well-paced match. Zayn gave his all, but in the end, Cesaro walloped him with a roaring uppercut and took him down with the Neutralizer.
I have no idea why Zayn isn’t on the main roster at this point. He can talk, he’s excellent in the ring and could probably get over pretty quickly if he was called up. These two had an excellent match and if you have the Network, be sure to watch this part of the show specifically – you won’t regret it.
Meanwhile, in TNA…well, uh…I didn’t watch it. I haven’t watched a lot of TNA recently to be honest. The shows in the UK sound pretty terrible, with tons of babbling, ranting and very little pro-wrestling. The shows are taped six weeks in advance and are mostly irrelevant. They’re not worthy of my time, especially when NXT airs on the same day.
It’ll be very interesting to see if NXT competing with Impact means anything in the ratings because if it does, TNA might be in trouble. Well actually, if WWE programming ends up on Spike, TNA will be in trouble. Oh, and if house show numbers continue dwindling the way they are now, TNA will be in trouble.
There seems to be some kind of ongoing trend with TNA lately, but I just can’t put my finger on it. Hmm…
That’ll do it for me this week. I’ll be back next week doing the same thing as we’re on the road to WrestleMania. Raw should be interesting on Monday since they’ll be in Chicago…I wouldn’t count on Punk being there, but who knows? And another thing…how will WWE respond to people who, most likely, will be cheering for Punk all night long? Some very interesting times ahead!
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