It seems I’m drowning in wrestling shows these days, with the ROH and NJPW shows and I just realized the NXT Special is this week! And I still have to finish War of the Worlds! So between all, wrestling’s answer to fast food brought me a snack to quickly swallow before continuing with the heavy stuff. Let’s see what one of the least anticipated PPV’s in recent times (and with WWE that’s saying something) brought us.
– Pre-show was blah, I don’t even know why R-Truth and Stardust were there, and to be honest I skipped trough most of it. Nobody really seemed to care anyway, so why should I?
– Macho Mandow and Axelmania were fun for about five minutes and those five minutes were already over last week on RAW. Kept thankfully short, The Ascension destroyed any hopes for MachoMania to form a regular tag team. So they did one thing right at least. MegaPowers explode on RAW? Oh dear…
– Sheamus vs Ziggler started out like the usual RAW bore but did pick up steam at the halfway mark. Not too bad, Zigglerr did his own version of the stinkface, getting his Extreme Rulez revenge, Sheamus actually got some crowd reaction with his Brogue Kick set-up and execution. This was harmless fun, somewhat. Alas, something tells me we will have one more match between those two. Sheamus will win of course.
– The 2-out-of-3 fall match between New Day and Cesaro/Kidd, wasn’t bad but a step down from their previous effort. I blame the 2-out-of-3 gimmick which fell completely unneccessary and gave the match a rushed feel. The ending was fine, with New Day once again winning thanks to shenanigans. Those guys aren’t bad in their heel role, I also enjoyed their victory celebration and reaction to the Elimination Chamber announcement. Cesaro/Kidd meanwhile need to be pushed as definite faces, they have the crowd support for it. Fun but less gimmicks WWE, those teams really don’t need them to have a great match.
– Ryback vs Bray Wyatt was an acceptable slug-fest and, surprisingly, they had some good chemistry in there. Aside from that nothing much to note beyond the Wyatt victory. They need to tone down the Face of Fear thing it’s ridiculous, but Wyatt can be an effective brawler if the booking allows him to be.
– Urgs, do I really have to? yes? Ok then, but I do this under protest. Cena vs Rusev used every shortcut imaginable to get some cheap heat, from Cena smashing Rusev down on some (hidden) “transfo’s” which produced some pyro’s to little crowd reaction (and a resigned sigh from me), the barriers, the ring getting wrecked, ect, ect, ect. It didn’t work, this was a bore. The finish was beyond stupid as Lana said “I Quit” for Rusev (she couldn’t bear the PG slaughter anymore apparently) which probably means Rusev abusing Lana on RAW, a Lana face turn AND yet another match between Cena and Rusev. Yeay…
– See the latest Trashy Ring Attire post to see what a female wrestling match is supposed to look like. Otherwise, Naomi/Tamina vs the Bella’s was your basic Diva’s tag, not too bad, but nothing memorable. Naomi won this, which makes sense, someone need to relief Nicky of that belt and she now has the reason to demand another Championship match.
– Neville vs Barrett illustrates everything that is wrong with WWE booking nowadays. Barret bailed out for the anti-climatic count-out, so Neville won in the cheapest manner possible, Barrett was protected (from what I’ll never know) and then Neville destroyed Barret with the Red Arrow anyway. Why not have Neville win here if you’re gonna have him use his finisher anyway? This would have fitted on RAW, not on a PPV. Nothing match due to the booking and that’s a shame.
-Main Event time, ok, I’ll admit it, I had fun with some spots, mostly with the short-lived SHIELD reunion and aftermath (Rollins was gold here), the AMbrose/Reigns exchanges were fun, Orton going crazy was entertaining, so not bad. On the minus side, the whole Kane thing did nothing for me, and the whole thing was, in typical WWE fashion, overbooked at times. That being said, aside from following a “my turn, your turn, his turn” formula so often seen in these matches, the action was fine mostly. Finally, Rollins won, of course, but, kudos to WWE for realizing they didn’t have to keep protecting Reingns AND Orton. Orton can take a loss, he’s a Main Event stalwart whatever happens. Keeps Ambrose firmly in the picture and that’s a good thing.
Overal I wasn’t impressed, to re-iterate my previous analogy this was like a fast food dinner, went down quickly, made no discernible impression and was mostly forgotten five minutes after. Luckily I now have my War of the Worlds main course, so see you guys soon for that one.
