Worldwide Wrasslin’ Focus: So Much God Damn Good Wrestling

Photo from "Hell Yeah! Sasha Banks"

Warning: Spoilers follow for Battleground, and Raw and Smackdown from the week of July 25.

I consider myself a wrestling fan, however, the current amount of product being put out by WWE on a weekly basis is seriously hampering my ability to keep up, even when the matches and storylines are worth following. Battleground was potentially the best PPV of the year, but it already feels like soup in my head because it was followed up by a three-hour Raw and a two-hour Smackdown.

All three programs were splendid, but ye gads. We’re talking about eight to nine hours of wrasslin’ in a three-day span! For a few years now, WWE has had an issue with fans being able to watch programs on tape or DVR delay, and their “solution” to this is seemingly to drown us all in content in the front portion of the week. It’d be one thing if Smackdown was still on Thursdays, because then at least there would be some breathing room.

Anyway, that being said, let me repeat that the three-day stretch featured probably the best wrestling and storyline focus of 2016 so far. The highlights were the ascension of Sasha Banks to the women’s champion, the nuclear pops she and Bayley got over the two days, and the pushes for Finn Balor, Dolph Ziggler and Dean Ambrose.

With all of these moments, the WWE has seemingly hit the reset button on its past practices, as David Shoemaker noted in a strong piece for The Ringer. There has seemingly been an emphasis on pushing better workers who are getting a crowd response, or on the wrestlers who will be a part of the next wave of WWE success.  

It’ll be interesting to see how long it’ll last, and how committed WWE is to the change. In the past, they’ve seemingly done resets via factions or insurgent groups (Nexus, the Corre) but quickly flipped back to the status quo at the first sign of trouble. Online, there has been speculation that John Cena is going part-time because he’s in-demand in Hollywood. If that’s the case, it probably removes a large crutch the WWE had in the past and forces them to focus on Rollins, Ambrose, Balor, Sasha and others.

How this is making all of us wrasslin’ fans feel, from Death to All Marks:

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NXT doesn't suck just yet! And Fatal Four-Way thoughts.

At the end of last night's Raw, it looked like the three-week NXT angle was in danger of jumping the shark. Vince McMahon was laughing in the ring with the seven wrestlers, triumphant in orchestrating yet another double-cross on one of his long-time enemies, Bret Hart. Frankly, McMahon as the ringleader of the group would have been trite and expected for his character.

Luckily though, the angle didn't end there. McMahon's laughter faded into nervous energy, and then, he was flattened by the crew he thought he controlled. I loved this part, as it established that the NXT wrestlers were going to play by their own rules, as opposed to McMahon's. They are currently being portrayed as a rogue faction in the WWE, one that can't be trusted, which I think is the right role for them to play. The next step will be getting them involved in some actual matches, as opposed to just eight-on-one beatdowns of wrestlers and ring personnel.

Raw saved what was a pretty lackluster fatal fourway PPV on Sunday night. While most of the undercard matches were good, the two main events left a lot to be desired. The Smackdown fatal four ended with Rey Mysterio as champion, which is a pretty lackluster result. I don't think most people take him seriously as a champion, not in a match that also had Big Show and CM Punk, both better choices for the belt.

I actually liked the ending of the Raw fatal four, with Sheamus getting a lucky victory out of the match. It would have been better booking for Edge to win that way, but hey, Sheamus has shown himself to be an opportunist in the past, and willing to cheat to get ahead. The match itself ran too short though, considering there wasn't a match over 15 minutes on the entire card, if I recall correctly.

Touching again on the undercard, The Miz was incredible with his rap slamming R-Truth, and his mannerisms throughout the match. He then got into it with Randy Orton the next night, which was awesome, although it only seemed to serve as a way to further the angle between Orton and Edge. Drew McIntyre also had a good match with Kofi Kingston, even if it was a rare reverse screw job on a heel.

C.M. Punk is smarter than you. (The WWE, not so much.)

I continue to enjoy what the WWE is doing with C.M. Punk on Smackdown. On Friday night, a hot crowd thought they would finally get to see Punk, the cultish leader of the Straight Edge Society, without his trademark hair. Finally, after months of running his mouth, the arrogant purist would get his comeuppance!

However, in a brilliant move, he instead wore a mask to the ring and broke out in a wide, psychotic grin. This was a great decision in my opinion, since it allows Punk to maintain his arrogance, and it keeps the crowd hot for the eventual "reveal" on his hair, which I imagine will happen at the next pay per view.

Unfortunately though, Punk was by far the highlight of the show, as several other aspects of it fell flat to me. The main event was a good match between Mysterio and the Undertaker, but because they're both fan favorites without any existing issue between them, the crowd was pretty mellow on the whole affair.

For a few brief moments, I thought they were going to have Undertaker do a heel turn on Mysterio, but this didn't develop. This wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to me, since Smackdown lacks a #3 heel along the same stature as Swagger and Punk, neither of whom is considered a guaranteed money guy yet. There are some decently developing heels behind those two, in Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler, but neither is established enough to me. Meanwhile, the show has plenty of faces without Undertaker - Mysterio, Big Show, Kofi Kingston, Christian, Matt Hardy and MVP are all guys I can see as credibly involved in the title picture, given their past successes.

In a continuation of an angle seemingly only I like, Laycool mocked Beth Phoenix, and also WWE fans for questioning how they can have two titles. "I've got 99 problems but Beth ain't one!" McCool and Layla are both ridiculously annoying in their current roles, and as such, they're the only interesting wrestlers the WWE has in the Smackdown women's division. (Sorry Kelly Kelly and Tiffany - You're both incredible eye candy, I just wish the writers could give you a personality or a gimmick or an angle, instead of imagining what your naughty bits would look like in a cheerleader outfit.) On Raw, Maryse holds a similar role, although Eve at least has some potential. Gail Kim has been completely buried since coming over from TNA, but I imagine she doesn't mind the paycheck too much.

The rest of the show featured a so-so tag match between Kingston-Show and Swagger-McIntyre, Christian being teamed with Hornswaggle (ugh!), and MVP jobbing to Luke Gallows. None of these were that compelling, so grading on the usual curve for Smackdown, I can only offer praise for the Punk and Laycool segments.

Grade: C

A ho-hum Smackdown before the PPV, and predicitions!

Well, there wasn't really anything special about this week's Smackdown, except that nothing on it was really that bad. (This opinion was shared by the always-excellent Kevin Eck over at Ring Posts.) In the world of WWE, that's always decent, especially considering that Over The Limit is Sunday night.

The best aspect of the show was a decent match between Kofi Kingston and Jack Swagger. While I don't normally like DQ or contested finishes, it made sense for the Big Show to interfere to cost Swagger the match. This kept both of them strong heading into their respective matches Sunday. The same thing goes for Swagger drawing the DQ in the Drew McIntyre-Big Show match.

And, I'll add that if Layla and Michelle McCool are a pairing, then the WWE really needs to consider doing the same with Tiffany and Kelly Kelly. Few things have gone horrifically wrong in life by pairing together two attractive blonde women, and surprisingly, Tiffany has gotten decent in the ring despite her inexperience. Kelly Kelly is still the stronger of that team, but there is enough talent between the four of them to make things workable.

-----
As far as the PPV goes, here are my picks:

WWE Champion John Cena vs. Batista ("I Quit" Match) - I think Cena definitely wins this, given the widespread Internet rumors that Batista is leaving the company. I think there is a small chance that the WWE pulls a swerve, and that Batista is signed through the end of June or July, as opposed to the end of May. However, I'm hoping that this is the end of Batista on television for a bit, since he's feuded with most of the people on the roster.

World Heavyweight Champion Jack Swagger vs. Big Show - If Swagger wasn't going to drop the belt to Randy Orton, then I don't think he drops it to a suddenly-face Big Show. I'm not sure who this leaves as his next challenger; Kofi Kingston? An absent-from-this-PPV John Morrison? But I can't view Show as a serious challenge to the belt.

Intercontinental Champion Drew McIntyre vs. Kofi Kingston - I don't think McIntyre was reinstated as champion just so that he could drop the belt nine days later. The ending might feature a ref bump or otherwise be underhanded, but I don't see him losing the belt to Kofi. I also think there is a chance that Matt Hardy interferes in this match and inadvertently causes a DQ-win for Drew.

Rey Mysterio vs. CM Punk (S.E.S. Pledge vs. Hair Match) - Mysterio via pin. They have been advertising the "Punk loses his hair!" angle for a couple PPVs now, so I think it happens, even if I don't want to see it happen. Even if Mysterio wins, it wouldn't surprise me to see the Straight Edge Society prevent the haircut from happening.


Randy Orton vs. Edge - I think Edge wins this match by pinfall, although I could easily see it going either way. Orton is so over that a loss won't hurt him, and Edge's next step is probably a program with Cena over the title belt. This definitely feels like a thrown-together match, since there isn't a strong storyline reason for these two to be enemies.

Unified Tag Team Champions The Hart Dynasty vs. Chris Jericho & The Miz - The mark in me is hoping that Jericho and The Miz find some way to get the titles here. Doing so would allow them to further their angle with The Big Show. While the Hart Dynasty has been good with the belts, I think they could just win them back on the next PPV or two, giving Jericho and the Miz plenty of time to screw with Show.

R-Truth vs. Ted DiBiase - Truth gets the pin here, because Virgil, who is supposed to be at ringside, will throw the match against DiBiase somehow. The WWE has left out that Virgil eventually turned on Ted Sr., which is why I think he does tonight.

Divas Champion Eve vs. Maryse - This match is pretty "meh" to me, since Laycool has been the only thing worth following in the women's division. I'm going with Maryse reclaiming her championship. Eve has been solid in the ring, but Maryse still gets more of a crowd reaction. Not as much as if they turned her face, but hey...

Swagger, Punk and actual wrestling highlight Smackdown

Smackdown had three three really awesome segments last night, all of which contributed to its near-perfect show to me:

1) Swagger has really been getting over in recent weeks as a smarmy, arrogant heel, and this Friday's segment was the best one so far. He had a long, drawn out promo that featured him doing push-ups, exaggerating his past accomplishments, and showing off pictures of himself as a little kid and champion at that point. It was the perfect mixture of humor and cockiness for his character; the whole thing felt like something Jericho would have done in his prime.

He was finally interrupted by the Big Show, who predictably started breaking all of the various trophies and displays setup in the ring. This provided some neat visuals, as I think pretty much everyone has the basic urge to go King Kong on a bunch of stuff at various points in their life. I only hope that they let Swagger go over on the Big Show next week, since Show has been better than Swagger in each encounter so far.

2) The Straight Edge Society put a pretty savage beating on Rey Mysterio, furthering their angle. At first, Serena was dressed as the masked attacker and SES member, and Rey was about to hit her until she revealed herself. Then, the real masked man hit Rey from behind, drawing a DQ. However, the SES clearly got the best of the encounter, as they beat the snot out of Mysterio and forced him to pledge while he was unconscious.

3) The show also started out in intense fashion, as there was a good, 15-minute match between Kofi Kingston and Christian over the intercontinental title. Kofi eventually won with Trouble in Paradise after several near falls.

After the match though, Drew McIntyre came to the ring with a letter from Vince McMahon reinstating him, and restoring his title. I imagine this will lead to a feud between Kofi and Drew, which should be pretty good. For now though, next week will feature Drew vs. The Big Show, although I imagine Drew will back out of the match after a few minutes. The interaction between Kofi, Drew and Smackdown GM Teddy Long was really good.

The rest of the show was still pretty good, excluding a squash match between Shad and some local jobber. Surprisingly, there was a fluke title change - An already injured Beth Phoenix had a clash of heads with Michelle McCool, and Layla pinned her to win the title. I imagine this will lead to either McCool turning on Layla, or Phoenix quickly regaining the title whenever the two actually have a match. While Layla has improved in the ring, she isn't a good enough worker to be credible as a champion.

Grade: A+

Smackdown remains WWE's wildest show

Even though a good portion of their talent has been claimed by Raw yet again, Smackdown keeps humming along. Despite a questionable booking decision, the rest of the card is humming along nicely, with a decent amount of twists and turns along the way.

Let's start with the only objectionable part of Friday night's show - Why did John Morrison job to Cody Rhodes, of all people? I understand that because Morrison is leaving the show for Raw, it doesn't necessarily matter as much if he loses. Also, Rhodes is a newcomer, so it would be nice if he established himself with a victory. However, Morrison just beat your brand's world champion a week ago! Why then have him lose to a guy who hasn't won a singles match in ages? If you want to re-establish Rhodes as a contender, then have him work his way up the card against Chavo and Dolph Ziggler; don't have him beat Morrison off the bat.

Beyond this though, the show was pretty splendid. There were two memes throughout the show - Swagger in taped segments with the belt bragging about his victory, and Big Show punching out various people. The two collided at the end, as Teddy Long named Show as the No. 1 contender for the title. It's certainly an interesting choice, as Show has been playing a heel or tweener for more than a year now. I imagine that a more natural face might get injected into the mix for a triple threat match, but I kind of like the tweener vs. heel idea better.

Some of the shows various angles - the Straight Edge Society picking on Mysterio, Drew McIntyre and Matt Hardy feuding - continued, and Kofi Kingston picked up a good win against Jericho, in the debut and the departure for them.

But the standout segment of the show was an intense verbal confrontation between Christian and Edge. It was the first time they had been paired together since Christian returned to the WWE, and there was a hinting of a future feud. With the exodus of talent from Smackdown and no clear feud for Christian right now, it would be nice to see him eventually get a title shot. While he was a world champion in TNA, and held the rebooted ECW title for several months, he hasn't ever really gotten a good shot at one of the big belts. If properly built, a Christian vs. Swagger (or Big Show) match could do some great business, a la the huge pops Benoit and Eddie Guerrero got when they won titles.

Finally, the guilty pleasure of the show? Lay-cool, or however you spell it. I talked about it the other week, but for some reason, it's a pretty neat gimmick for them. Seeing as the women wrestlers normally get no gimmick, it's nice that the WWE is letting them do anything. Sure, they lost again this week, but it makes sense given that Kelly Kelly was debuting.

Grade: B+

(p.s. As a bonus, check out this cool YouTube compilation of every WWE/F title change since 1990! Although I think the creator is missing a couple, it is pretty god damn thorough.)

Rocky roads for Miz, Morrison and Smackdown

On Friday's Smackdown, John Morrison got a clean win against Jack Swagger right before Swagger successfully defended his title at the Extreme Rules PPV. Since then, he lost in a tag team match against the Miz and the Big Show on Sunday, got beat clean by Swagger in a rematch on Raw, and then got drafted to Raw, which also picked up two former world champions - Chris Jericho and Edge - ensuring that it'll be easy for him to get lost in the shuffle.

So, yeah, I think the WWE's booking is still suspect for its main show. While the show opened up with a great tag team match, ShowMiz sure did dissolve quickly after they lost, with Show knocking the Miz out. I kind of wish they teased the break-up more, and with Show getting drafted to Smackdown, there is little chance that they'll feud now. I don't really know where this leaves the Miz either - While I'd like to see him drop the U.S. Belt and get involved in the world title picture, I doubt that the WWE will have Cena drop the belt to him.

Speaking of the title chase, despite Internet rumors, Batista is still seemingly employed by the WWE. There was talk that Extreme Rules would be his final show with the company, but in a minor upset, he came out on top in a triple threat match with Sheamus and Randy Orton for the No. 1 contender spot. I'm really, really hoping that there is a swerve coming before the next PPV, because Cena and Batista have fought about 500 times in the past two years, it seems.

Regarding the actual draft itself, the yearly hosing of Smackdown in terms of name performers continued. They lost Jericho, Edge, Morrison and R-Truth to Raw, and only got back Big Show, Kofi Kingston, Christian and Kelly Kelly. Smackdown at least got some good talent back in return, but Christian and Kingston aren't nearly as established with fans as Jericho and Edge; they're closer to the mid-card in the WWE hierarchy than serious title contenders.

R-Truth already provided the best moment of Monday's show in a backstage confrontation with Ted Jr. He noted that the current champion was looking for a "new Virgil", like his daddy had, and slapped Ted across the face.

And hey, brace yourself fool! Who's hosting next week? It's Wayne Brady bitch! Hopefully he won't have to choke a bitch.

Grade: C-

Extreme Rules plays it by the book, but still entertaining

Catching up on recent WWE programming, starting with last night's Extreme Rules pay-per-view, before moving on to the three-hour Raw draft in a second post at 7 p.m tonight...

I thought the start of the PPV was great, with Sheamus beating the crap out of Triple H with a metal pipe. It was savage and brutal, which is a good idea for a PPV built upon the idea of all "extreme" matches. Of course, it wasn't surprising that Triple H was able to compete later in the show, but I was surprised they let Sheamus go over. I read after the show that Triple H has some neck damage and needs time off, so that was an effective way to get him off television for a while.

After the opening beatdown came the Miz and the Big Show, taunting the other wrestlers in the back. Teddy Long came out to argue with him, and once again, the Miz looked like a million bucks and a future champion. As a result of the Miz claiming he and Show were the greatest tag team of all-time, Long setup a three-tiered gauntlet for them.

The first team of R-Truth and John Morrison lasted the longest, although it was disappointing to see them lose after about seven minutes; both are guys who should be pushed at this point. MVP and Mark Henry were next, and not surprisingly, they lasted about two minutes. ShowMiz has beat them about 40 times the past couple months. And finally, the New Hart Foundation came out, with Bret Hart, and pinned the Miz after about 30 seconds. This earned them a title shot on Raw.

Outside of the tag matches, which were pretty solid, there were two highlights. First, CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio was a great technical match. It was a quick pace and had a slew of near falls, before Punk finally got the upper hand with the help of an unknown assailant from under the ring. And the other strong match, not surprisingly, featured Edge beating Jericho in a steel cage match that felt like the blow-off to their feud. While I liked their Wrestlemania match a bit more, this was still a good match.

The rest of the card was kind of meh to me. Jack Swagger vs. Randy Orton featured some utterly sick usage of some trash cans - I have no idea how Swagger softened that blow, if at all. However, the finish had him going over clean, and although Orton hit an RKO after the match, I don't think the match really helped either wrestler that much.

Finally, the last man standing match between Batista and Cena was just OK. It wasn't actively putrid or anything, like a Great Khali match, but they have fought so many times now that anything they do seems like a rehash. The ending was sort of innovative, as Cena used duct tape to fasten Batista's legs around the ring post, preventing him from getting up. However, this wasn't entirely convincing to me, as it seemed like he could have gotten up.

Overall though, I thought this was a solid showing for the WWE. While there was no "oh my god!" moment on the show, none of the matches were complete wrestlecrap either. Even the "piss break" matches, like the women's championship and the strap match, were kept short and relatively brisk.

Grade: B+

All pictures from the photo galleries at WWE.com.

TV Review: Weak and strong booking decisions bookend Smackdown

Punk is so great as a cult figure, even if
Gallows' longing is a bit... creepy.

While I praised the hectic nature of Smackdown with my entry last week, I should note that there is a fine line between being surprised and devaluing your product with cluster-eff booking. One reason why I've traditionally preferred the WWE over the WCW and, in present day, the TNA, is that their booking makes a bit more sense. Yeah, it can be boring and predictable at times, but the in-ring action normally makes up for it, and you don't have to worry about constant stipulation matches and screw job finishes in every other match.

Case in point: It sure would be nice if the WWE let its newest champion, Jack Swagger, actually win some matches. Fine, the Undertaker beat him on Monday Night Raw this week; that's a perfectly understandable win against one of the biggest stars of the past 20 years. He managed to pin Edge the other week, but it was only after Jericho hit a Codebreaker against him.

However, while I really enjoy the ring work of John Morrison and think he will be a future champion, it seems silly to let him pin Swagger two nights before a pay per view. It isn't one of the big four, but it still damages Swagger's credibility before the match. If he beats Randy Orton, then it devalues Orton, since Swagger has lost most of his recent matches. If he loses against Orton, it's going to be hard for him to re-establish himself as a threat in the championship chase.

I think the only way the WWE can salvage something from this is if they use it to launch a program between Morrison and Swagger. With Shawn Michaels being forced to retire, Morrison is the closest thing to a "new" HBK, so it might make sense to push him up the card a bit quick. Let me put on my Imaginary Booker hat for a second - I would have Swagger retain against Orton, and Morrison would challenge him to a match on the next Smackdown. Have Swagger cheap shot him and leave, but the match is made anyway by GM Teddy Long. And sometime between that show and the title shot, have Morrison beat the Undertaker in a long match, as a sort of "pass the torch" moment.

Do I think this will actually happen? No. But, it should!

Anyway, outside of the Swagger booking, the worst part of Friday's show was the inexplicable pairing of Kane and Rey Mysterio vs. the Straight Edge Society, consisting of CM Punk and Luke Gallows. Punk was at his cult leader best for the majority of the show, which is why I used his image to lead off this entry.

However, there was absolutely no mention on the show why Kane felt capable of teaming with Mysterio. I mean, it was only about 18 months ago that Kane, in storyline, tried to kill Mysterio. But hey, maybe he bought Rey a Fresco or something while they hung out backstage, and patched things up all nice-nice.

There were some good moments on the show though, some of them surprisingly so. It's not surprising that Jericho and Edge had another great verbal exchange, but who knew that Layla could slowly get over as the tag team partner of Michelle McCool in their blatant rip-off of TNA's Beautiful People? While neither McCool or Layla is as attractive as any of the Beautiful People, they play the characters a bit better to me, and the presence of Vickie Guerrero as their valet of sorts makes them more solidly heel-ish.

With some better booking, this could have been a much stronger episode. However, as is, this week's Smackdown was still light years ahead of a thrown together Raw with MacGruber guest hosting.

Grade: B-

The picture of Kane holding Rey's mask is from this site.

TV Review: The Miz layeth the Smackdown

The Miz puts his U.S. Championship
and tag team belts on display.

As Bill Simmons has pointed out, it is odd to think that of all the Real World and MTV casts, the only one who has kind of made it big in television amongst the scores of wannabe actresses and actors is Mike Mizanin, who wrestles as The Miz in the WWE.

The progress he has made in the ring and on the mic is simply shocking. When he first debuted with the company, he was an annoying and cocky host of stupid segments, like the Diva search and bikini competitions. He was clearly raw in the ring as well, but a little less than four years later, he is a legitimate heavyweight champion competitor. Of all the wrestlers in the midcard, The Miz is the one I want to see as champion, and I think he is the heir-apparent to Chris Jericho as the smarmy heel who gets over with the crowd anyway.

A good example of his new prowess was on display on Smackdown last night. He sat in on commentator with Matt Striker and Todd Grisham, and overshadowed both of them. And I'm normally a guy who loves Striker's obscure references. However, The Miz's bombast and forcefulness makes him an interesting character.

From top to bottom, not much has changed since the last couple times I talked about Smackdown - It is still by far the best weekly program that the WWE does. While I'm still not crazy about the booking of Jack Swagger as the world heavyweight champion, he at least got the pin in a triple threat match with Jericho and Edge. From top-to-bottom, the show featured a lot of good wrestling, with the highlights being the triple threat championship match and a six man tag (CM Punk, Luke Gallows and Darren Young vs. Tyson Kidd, David Hart Smith and Rey Mysterio).

It was a brisk 90 minutes to watch, and hopefully when the show moves to SyFy this November, it will allow for some even better, more mature angles.

Grade: A+

The picture is from WWE.com.

TV Review: Catching up with Smackdown's new champ and LOST's tedium

I am woefully behind on my television watching and writing because of all the flood coverage I've had to do for my legitimate job as a reporter at The Westerly Sun. (If you do want to see some crazy flood pictures though, I really encourage you to visit the paper's web site here.

However, I didn't really miss a lot this week. All of the Thursday night shows I watch were repeats, for some unknown reason. (Maybe preparing for the Easter exodus? I don't know.) LOST was still new this week, thankfully, but outside of a stellar performance by the quivering Keamy, I didn't really much care for this week's episode. I've also found Sun and Jin to be kind of boring characters, excluding the brief period of time when Sun actually showed some backbone and took over her father's company. (Also, it's too bad that Sulu plays the father of Hiro in Heroes, because he'd also be awesome in that role on LOST.)

Friday though brought some exciting news, although it was in professional wrestling, which I realize only I follow. Jack Swagger cashed in his Money in the Bank title shot, and used it to capitalize on a fallen Chris Jericho. While Jericho is my favorite wrestler, even as a heel, I also like Swagger's, uh, swagger and bravado. It's good to see a fresh face as champion who can actually wrestle - Swagger's rise up the card has seemed more natural than Sheamus, who got an unnatural push out of nowhere. Swagger has been ECW Champion, and he has been built up consistently as a threat to guys like John Cena. It wouldn't surprise me to see him used kind of like C.M. Punk, who also used the MitB for a surprise win, and then legitimized himself more once he didn't have the belt anymore.

TV Review: WWE's NXT is A-OK

The Miz speaks with his "trainee" Daniel Bryan.

When the WWE decided to cancel its ECW promotion and replace it with a Tough Enough-esque reality show, I didn't have high hopes for the new program. Frankly, it sounded kind of weird and gimmicky and stupid, like the entire Divas division and past promotions giving away $1 million to viewers.

Lo and behold though, NXT has actually been pretty decent in its initial two episodes, as it has given a chance for raw wrestlers and performers new to the WWE scene to get some television exposure. The show's focus on just eight performers certainly helps, as does the inclusion of established pros like Chris Jericho and The Miz to help them out with promo work.

In my opinion, there have been two stand-out performers on the show so far. The first one, Daniel Bryan, shouldn't be that surprising to anyone who follows wrestling regularly. He has been wrestling regularly for years, mostly for independent promotions and Ring of Honor, under the name Bryan Danielson. While the WWE has downplayed this, acknowledging only that he has been wrestling for a decade, his polish in the ring comes through as compared to the other raw talents on the show. In the debut episode, he almost pinned World Heavyweight champion Chris Jericho, and except for a botch on a springboard in the second episode, he has been near perfect in his ring action.

(Side note: The Miz is Bryan's mentor, and he is shockingly good on both this show and regular WWE programming. Seriously. Bill Simmons mentioned it in a column or chat the other week, but we are at the point where The Miz is now probably the most successful Real World graduate. Simply stunning. He will probably be a world champion within the next three years; he is dynamite on the microphone, like a young Chris Jericho, and his ring-work is now very good as opposed to just passable.)

Justin Gabriel also impressed in his tag match, which pitted him and Matt Hardy against William Regal and his hick trainee, Skip Sheffield. Gabriel is a big guy, but he hit a 450-degree splash from the top rope after Hardy laid out Regal with his finisher. He didn't hit it as easily as Evan Bourne nails the Shooting Star Press, which worried me a bit, but still, the finisher has definite star potential.

The other wrestlers featured prominently in the second episode, which I saw all of, were a mixed bag to me. At best, Sheffield seems like a hick comedy act; Santino Marella with muscles. Darren Young is a more athletic, thinner version of ECW and Smackdown flame-out Ricky Ortiz. David Otunga has a monstrous physique, and he clearly has an "all-star" pedigree in that his fiancee is apparently Jennifer Hudson; the WWE has a weakness for celebrity connections like that. However, he is clearly the rawest performer of the bunch.

Overall, NXT was a fairly entertaining hour of TV, and I'll check back with it from time to time - It had some fresher storylines and more wrestling than Raw and TNA Impact, which is kind of damning it with faint praise right now. However, it lacks the "pop" of the Smackdown storylines, at least in its two initial episodes.

Grade: B

DON'T READ THIS: Spoiling WWE's Elimination Chamber PPV

I managed to catch the final two matches of the WWE PPV Elimination Chamber tonight, so I'll give my thoughts on them, plus another segment that they showed. Typical warning for this type of post: Massive spoilers follow! If you want to watch it, then don't read this!

- Smackdown Elimination Chamber: I thought this was a great match, with some sick spots and solid booking throughout. First, CM Punk is ridiculously over with his current "straight edge" cult gimmick. He plays the character PERFECTLY, and if he isn't a world champion within the next year while this plays out, I'd be really shocked.

Off the wall idea on my part - Why not have HBK join the straight edge cult? It's clear that he is on the outs with Triple H, and given his well known born again status, it seems like he might fit in with the group's mantra of no drugs and clean living. It would be simple enough for him to cut a promo badmouthing the fans for encouraging him to sin again, or something to that effect.

Anywho, back to the actual match. Punk eliminates R-Truth in about four minutes, giving him an entire minute of mic time to rant about the other competitors. Unfortunately though, the next one out is Rey, and he eliminates Punk shortly before the fourth competitor, Chris Jericho, got into the match.

Rey and Jericho fight for a bit, and surprisingly, the WWE let Morrison stay in the match, as the Internet speculation beforehand was rampant that he would get superkicked by HBK and taken out. Luckily though, he stayed in as the fifth entrant, and definitely showed that he deserved to be in the main event picture. He managed to eliminate Rey with Starship Pain, a nice feather in his cap, and he hung in tough with Jericho and The Undertaker (the final entrant).

If I had one problem with the booking in the match, it was that Morrison got eliminated kind of easily. After absorbing a good amount of pain, he was pinned after a somewhat-benign looking chokeslam to the metal floor, after a somewhat-long delay. At least give the guy the courtesy of a proper finisher, WWE! However, this is a minor complaint in the grand scheme of things.

Anyway, the final two are Jericho and Taker, who have about five minute of solo action. They manage to trade finishers - Jericho gets him in the Walls for a minute, and hits a Codebreaker, while Taker slaps Hell's Gate on for a bit and hits the Last Ride - but neither can manage a victory.

That leads to the final spot of the match, as HBK finally materializes at the PPV; I believe he was hiding underneath the ring. He gives Taker a Superkick to cost the match, while Jericho gives him an "ohmygod" look. Good reaction on Jericho's part, since he and HBK just got off a brutal feud (Jerishow vs. DX) and had a really brutal feud last year that involved him punching HBK's wife. After the kick, Jericho wins the title win a pin and easy 1-2-3.

- The match preceding the Smackdown chamber wasn't on the card to start the night: The Miz vs. MVP for the United States championship. To be honest, I was hoping for something different, since it feels like these two have wrestled each other about 500 times in the past couple of years. However, as expected, they both had a decent match, with The Miz earning some tough-guy points for wrestling with a busted-open forehead from a headbutt. While it wasn't Ric Flair-level blood, the doctor still came out immediately after the match to patch him up.

Anyway, the match featured one sick spot, and it wasn't even in the ring between the match participants. The Big Show attempted to interfere on Miz's behalf, and he was stopped by Mark Henry, MVP's tag team partner. Henry then charged after Show, but he sidestepped and tossed Henry through one of the black pads at ringside - It was a very cool spot, and I wasn't sure after if Henry was legit hurt or simply milking the injury for the match's purpose. With Henry knocked down, Miz distracted the ref, and Show landed the knockout right on MVP, leading to a Miz pinfall.

- I didn't catch the Raw elimination chamber, but I saw the results, and it sounds like a doozy. Apparently, Cena made HHH tap to win the title... Only to have Vince McMahon come to ringside, with Batista, for an impromptu title match! Batista easily pinned Cena, and he's the new champion. (Maybe Cena should just stay home on chamber nights, given his past history with the event.) Also in the match, Orton got pinned by Ted Jr., which surely sets the stage for their angle.

Elsewhere on the card, the women's title match for the vacant Diva's belt was stupidly changed to a tag team match between Maryse and Gail Kim vs. Michelle McCool and Layla. Maryse gave Gail Kim the Sid Justice treatment, refusing to tag in and letting her get beaten by the two heels. The whole thing sounds pretty miserable, and the WWE probably should have just had the scheduled match. Likewise, Drew McIntyre beat Kane, in a match that nobody was really salivating over.

Finally, William Regal got on the mic to hype up the WWE's newest program, in which established stars mentor up-and-comers, and to also bemoan that he wasn't on it. Edge came out and speared him, much to the crowd's delight. Also, Edge announced that he would, uh, announce, his Wrestlemania opponent on Monday Night Raw. So, you have that to look forward to, which is nice.

Switching gears and going over the top with WWE's Royal Rumble

To change directions completely in terms of the LOST posts... The Royal Rumble was this past weekend, and it remains my favorite WWE pay-per-view each year, and the one I make sure to catch. By its very nature – 30 entrants, 29 going over the top rope, a title shot at stake – there is normally lots of chaos, betrayals and action. (If that sounds a bit like a soap opera, well, it is professional wrestling we're talking about here.) This year's edition was both surprising and a bit by the book. NOTE: MAJOR SPOILERS FOLLOW!

- The actual Rumble match itself was won by Edge, as the 29th entrant and returning from a major injury. Unfortunately, he threw out my favorite wrestler, Chris Jericho, who had derided him on the microphone for several weeks after he was forced out of action. Surprisingly, Edge then went on to win the Rumble, as he managed to evade an attack by John Cena and then threw him out.

Excluding Edge's entrance, there were two standout moments of the Rumble. First, CM Punk was the third entrant and managed to eliminate the two men in the ring – Dolph Ziggler and Evan Bourne – with relative ease. While I would have liked to see Ziggler and Bourne, two talented wrestlers buried on Smackdown and Raw respectively, go a bit further, there is no shame in them getting eliminated by Punk, one of the best all-around performers around right now. After their elimination, Punk brought a microphone into the ring and kept up with his righteous preaching schtick of recent weeks. Good stuff!

Second, Shawn Michaels continued to show why he is one of the best performers around still. It surprised me that he was the one to turn on Triple H, and not vice versa. However, they were teasing this on previous episodes of Raw, so it wasn't a huge deal. I was shocked though when he was eliminated for real and then had a tantrum, superkicking several refs.

I'm not sure where the WWE goes from here though; normally attacking an official is a sure-fire way to draw heat from the crowd but HBK was still getting cheered. Unless they're prepared to go to another Attitude era, they need to think of another way to get him over as a heel. The only thing that immediately came to my mind was having his squash an unquestionably popular babyface (Kofi Kingston, Evan Bourne?) in a brutal way. Any kind of confrontation with, say, Cena or HHH, will lead to a mixed reaction because of their love-hate relationship with casual fans and "smarks" in the crowd.

- As far as the undercard goes, I was disappointed that Orton didn't win against Seamus, who is the worst champion since Smackdown was forced to give Khali the belt for a few months after injuries to the Undertaker. To me, Seamus gets a lot of go-away heat from the crowd, as opposed to heat for being a heel.

And on the contrary, because of all the crap with Legacy / Priceless and Seamus, Orton is now a subtle face. It seems crazy, since a year ago he was punting the Vince McMahon in the head and essentially molesting Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley. However, the crowd keeps cheering him in a variety of matches. I'm hoping the WWE nurtures this a bit, waiting for the perfect moment to unleash him on another heel. Maybe HBK, if his turn does take? It's hard to pinpoint an exact moment.

- Of the other matches on the undercard, none of them really caught my eye. Mysterio vs. Undertaker was solid, but I never got the feeling that Mysterio could win, making the result a foregone conclusion despite some decent action.

The Miz vs. MVP had a somewhat surprising ending. Not the fact that the Miz won, but that MVP attacked him after the bell. Much like Orton, the Miz has been getting over a face despite his cocky attitude. At this point, he reminds me of a rawer version of Chris Jericho, and it wouldn't surprise me if he turned full-face as well eventually. I thought that's what they were setting up at the Rumble, but they reversed course a bit on Raw. MVP has flip-flopped between both at this point, and while I don't think he'll ever elevate himself out of the midcard now, he does do better as a cocky heel to me then a face.

All photos from WWE.com.

Stuff you're probably not interested in: WWE Bragging Rights review

[Left] Chris Jericho pictures are always appropriate.

I wasn't really sure what to write about today, but then I realized that I haven't written about professional wrestling in a good, long time. Don't read on if you still want to watch WWE's Bragging Rights! While I realize most of you aren't wrestling fans at all, maybe you'll find this interesting anyway.

Opening match: Miz vs. Morrison was a fun match with some good action, even if I didn't like the finish, which was Miz pinning Morrison clean. Sure, he did a kind of dirty move by shoving him during Starship Pain, but I'm not sure what the finish accomplished. I can't see the Miz getting pushed further just yet, and he get the best of Morrison in their last confrontation (the draft), so I thought Morrison would be going over.

Diva tag team match: The diva tag match was interesting until the finish, when it looked like Beth Phoenix and Melina screwed up. Maybe that was just my perspective though. I did like the sort of odd tension between Phoenix and her fellow heel, Michelle McCool. They would make for an interesting heel stable if it weren't for the Beautiful People in TNA, of which they would be a clear copy of.

World Heavyweight Championship fatal fourway: This match for the WHC wasn't that great. I'm believing the Internet reports about Taker being seriously diminished in terms of health more and more, because this match only went about 10 minutes. Undertaker won after a tombstone piledriver, and after Rey and Batista broke up each other's pins during the match.

After the match was over, Batista savagely attacked Rey, instantly turning him heel. While I think Batista turning heel is good for his character, which was getting stale as a babyface, I don't like it from an overall standpoint. This means Punk is on his way out of the title picture after the next match / short program with Taker, barring a huge upset, setting up Batista vs. Taker around Royal Rumble time. They did have good matches in 2007 and 2008, but it still feels stale to me. Also, given Taker's health concerns, who knows if that can continue?

Seven on seven, Team Raw vs. Team Smackdown: This was better than I thought it would be, although I was annoyed to see Kofi Kingston take the pin. I also thought he went out pretty weakly - All he got was a chokeslam from Show, and about 30 seconds passed before Jericho actually got the fall. At least have Jericho do a Lionsault or something, because the Chokeslam is more of a secondary finisher for Show now, and a rising star like Kofi shouldn't be pinned on it.

Iron Man match: Finally, this was surprisingly good. It looked like Cena got legit busted open, all the pinfalls made it interesting, and they did a good job of portraying Orton's utterly psychotic nature. His look of madness in the last two minutes was incredible, although with the finish, I'm not sure where they go from here. Maybe have Orton get even more ruthless? Just have him beat the crap out of people backstage for absolutely no reason, until even Legacy / Priceless (and specifically Ted Jr.) feels the need to stand up for him.

And with the win, there is now absolutely nothing for Cena to do. DX looks like they're going to be busy with JeriShow, any kind of match with Orton would be stale, and the other heels on the roster - Swagger, the Miz, Masters - don't really seem to be anywhere near Cena's league as a competitor.

Maybe the WWE will actually take my advice and go with a Kofi Kingston vs. Cena match, face vs. face, for the PPV. Or maybe they'll go old school and have Cena and Taker each lead a Survivor Series team at the PPV. You could the GMs pick each team, and Cena's team would be faces - Cena, Kofi, Evan Bourne and MVP. Smackdown would be a mix, maybe Taker, Morrison, Punk and Ziggler / Estrada. To provide an incentive for the winning team, all the surviving team members would be entered into a match for the championship belt on their brand.

At some point, you have Punk get Taker DQed, followed by Taker "removing" Punk from the match, setting up their program for the next PPV. At that point, maybe Morrison is the only guy left, and he fights valiantly against the remaining members before getting pinned by Cena eventually. They shake hands at the end, everyone is happy, the end.

p.s. I was disappointed that there was nothing from ECW on this show. What gives? It's got the best wrestling week in and week out on WWE programming now.

And also, the Chris Jericho picture is from here.