There was yet another go-home show in WWE this week as Raw head in to the last pay-per-view of the year, Roadblock: End of the Line.
However, Raw wasn’t the only show that had newsworthy moments this week, with Title matches, scheduled returns and major announcements, there was certainly a lot for the fans to absorb over the past few days.
But which moments were good and which were bad?
#1 Bad – False promises
Beginning with the bad this week, and it’s with a major pet peeve of mine, which is when WWE announce that a match or segment is set to take place on a show and then it doesn’t happen.
I understand that ‘the card is subject to change’, but this seems to be happening more and more nowadays and there were two such examples of this, this week.
Firstly, the return of Emma as Emmalina was advertised this past Monday yet it didn’t happen and we got no real explanation as to why. Then, the scheduled main event of Smackdown Live, which was the WWE World Title match between AJ Styles and James Ellsworth was yet again postponed.
It’s not the cancelation of these segments in particular that annoys me, it’s more the fact that it makes it look like WWE don’t know what they are doing. I can forgive things such as injuries changing plans, but besides that, WWE should have a solid plan for each show at least a week in advance, if they did that then I believe we would see a significant improvement of the overall product.
#2 Bad – Sami Zayn & Mick Foley
I’m a big fan of both Sami Zayn and Mick Foley, but this storyline involving them on Raw makes no sense whatsoever.
Raw General Manager, Mick Foley has been refusing to put Zayn in a match with Braun Strowman as he believes Sami will get destroyed, yet he is perfectly happy to let the likes of Curtis Axel and R-Truth compete against Strowman, not to mention the multiple jobbers that Braun was squashing a few months ago.
But then this week, it turned out to all be a ruse by Foley to get a reaction out of Sami, which he apparently saw this past Monday although Sami didn’t do anything drastically different to what he has in the past few weeks.
I don’t see Zayn picking up the win in his match with Strowman this Sunday, which is making me question the whole point of this angle. Maybe something good will come out of this for Sami, but I’m not holding my breath.
#3 Bad – Smackdown’s special guests
For the second week in a row, Smackdown Live had a celebrity guest appear on their show. I say ‘celebrity’ but I hadn’t heard of either of them.
I’m not a fan of guest appearances in general, but these past couple have been particularly bad, they’ve not benefitted any current storyline or superstar and just felt completely pointless.
Also, I don’t feel that it fits in with the Smackdown product which is in-ring based and focused more on the wrestling, celebrity appearances have tended to fit better on Raw as that is more of an entertainment, variety show than Smackdown.
Let’s just hope that this doesn’t become a regular thing on Tuesday nights.
#4 Bad – No Sasha or Charlotte
A go-home show before a historic night in Women’s wrestling this Sunday, as Sasha Banks is set to face Charlotte in an Ironman match on a WWE pay-per-view, and yet we got no appearance from either competitor on this week’s Raw.
All we got was a video package that re-capped Sasha and Charlotte’s feud and hyped this Sunday’s match, which was fine, but did feel a bit lazy on WWE’s part.
I would have much preferred to see a contract signing or sit-down interview with both women where they could have spoke about how historic their Roadblock match will be.
Sasha and Charlotte have put on some excellent matches in recent months and I expect their Ironman match to be no different, but it has to be said that their feud has lost some of it’s momentum recently and this week’s Raw did nothing to help that.
#5 Bad – Roadblock or diversion?
It’s not just the Women’s Title match at Roadblock that has had a poor build-up, the Universal Title match and Seth Rollins vs Chris Jericho match have been somewhat of an afterthought on Raw also.
With Seth Rollins focusing on claiming the Universal Championship and getting revenge on Triple H, his match against Chris Jericho this Sunday has felt fairly inconsequential. Also, the bickering between Kevin Owens and Y2J has been the focal point of recent editions of Raw, leaving Owens’ Universal Title defence against Roman Reigns getting little focus on Monday nights.
The pay-per-view as a whole looks set to be an insignificant one and I’m looking forward to just getting past it so we can get to the build towards the Royal Rumble and the upcoming road to WrestleMania.
#1 Good – Raw main event
On to the positives, The New Day would be forced to defend their Tag Titles twice this Monday, once against Cesaro & Sheamus and The Club and then again later on that night in Raw’s main event against the teams of Kevin Owens & Chris Jericho and Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns.
Say what you want about the overall quality of Monday Night Raw in the last few weeks, but you can’t deny that recent main events on the show have been good, both the Charlotte vs Sasha Banks ‘Falls Count Anywhere’ match and the Kevin Owens vs Seth Rollins ‘No Disqualification’ match have been excellent.
That trend continued this week in the second triple threat tag team match for the Tag Titles. With New Day having to defend their titles for the second time in the night, there was genuine doubt as to whether they would retain and break Demolition’s record. Add to that the continued disdain between Owens & Jericho and we had a dramatic, action-packed main event.
Ultimately, New Day would retain again and become the longest reigning Tag Team Champions in WWE history.
#2 Good – Cesaro & Sheamus
Cesaro and Sheamus continued to impress this week, particularly Cesaro. Firstly in a triple threat tag team match against The New Day and The Club on Raw, and then again on Wednesday’s Tribute To The Troops show where they would earn themselves another tag team title shot for this Sunday at Roadblock: End of the Line.
Cesaro’s in-ring performances in recent weeks have been excellent and he seems to picking up some momentum and has once again got the fans firmly behind him, as for Sheamus, he has got me interested in his character for the first time in a long time.
This Sunday feels like the right time to pull the trigger on this team and have them defeat The New Day for the Tag Team Championships, which would also freshen up New Day’s gimmick.
With Cesaro & Sheamus getting their third Title shot in a matter of weeks, Roadblock seems like a ‘now or never’ situation for them and I think it would be a missed opportunity for WWE if they do not capitalise on their momentum.
#3 Good – Cruiserweight Title
For the first time since the division was re-introduced to WWE, I am genuinely looking forward to the Cruiserweight Title match on Sunday at Roadblock: End of the Line.
’205 Live’ has helped no end in developing the personas of the Cruiserweights and getting the fans invested in their characters. The build to the triple threat match between Rich Swann, TJ Perkins and Brian Kendrick has been good and tension has developed between all three men.
Also, with the winner being fairly unpredictable and plenty of anticipation for the match, this Sunday could mark a turning point in the Cruiserweight division. If they are given time and the three men can put on an exciting match, we could see more interest from the fans and bigger and brighter things for this division in the future.
#4 Good – Worldwide feud
Like I said in my previous article, I don’t think Samoa Joe and Shinsuke Nakamura have had any particular memorable matches, however, I do believe their feud overall has been a memorable one.
There have been certainly been memorable moments during this angle, particularly Joe’s vicious attack on Nakamura after losing the NXT Championship to him for the first time. But what I believe this feud will be remembered for most is the fact that the two men have done battle all over the World.
From Brooklyn to Toronto to Osaka, Japan and most recently Melbourne, Australia. It was the latter match that aired on this week’s NXT and seemingly wrapped up this feud as Samoa Joe lost his contracted rematch inside a steel cage.
Could this free up Joe to come to the main roster in time for WrestleMania?
#5 Good – UK Championship Tournament
Arguably, the biggest news coming out of WWE this week didn’t even take place on one of their flagship shows.
It came at a press conference where Triple H would announce a tournament to crown the first ever United Kingdom Champion. The tournament will consist of some of Great Britain’s top indie talent and will take place over two days in January next year.
The coverage of this tournament will also feature British wrestling legend, Nigel McGuiness, who will be commentating on the action along with Michael Cole.
If the Cruiserweight Classic is anything to go by, we are set for another treat with this tournament. I am particularly looking forward to seeing the likes of Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate showcase their skills inside a WWE ring.
Who are you most looking forward to see in the tournament? Let us know in the comments below.
Recent Comments