I’ve avoiding doing TV reviews lately partly because of a lack of time as I push to finish editing my novel. Of course, the other reason is that most of the TV has been less than stellar to put it nicely. However, I was keenly interested in this SNME show mostly because of the tag match. And to be fair here, I thought the show was decent for the most part, which is why I think it’s worth posting my thoughts here.
CM Punk and Sami Zayn vs Seth Rollins and Bron Breakker
They didn’t waste too much time to start the show. In fact, once Punk got to the ring apron, he conferred with Sami and both dove in to immediately attack Rollins and Breakker. This match was actually pretty good for a WWE show. Punk actually hit a Code Red which in this case looked more like a higher velocity sunset flip type of move. Bron hit a very impressive flying elbow move from the apron to the announcer’s desk on Sami before the break. The crowd was really into everyone here and after the break, the pace didn’t slow. At one point, Punk was on the outside by the barricade and Bronson Reed made his return colliding with Punk through the barricade. Sami caught what happened to his partner, mouthing, “Oh shit…” but leaving himself open for Bron to nail the spear to pin him.
Afterwards, there was a tense moment where Bronson entered the ring and stared down Bron because of Seth’s prior issues with Bronson. Eventually, Seth smiled and welcomed Bronson to his group and Bronson and Bron shook hands. Meanwhile, Punk attempted to climb back into the ring but was triple teamed where Seth and Bron held Punk to the mat so Bronson could deliver a Tsunami to the prone Punk in putting the exclamation mark on joining Seth’s group.
Looking at my previous blog, I did mention at the end that Bronson was my logical pick (though not #1 preference) since Punk, Sami and Jey had formed a little coalition to battle Seth’s group. That meant Seth needed someone to even the odds and Bronson fits the bill. They’ve established Bronson’s Tsunami as a deadly force which should put everyone on Raw on notice. Of course, as the announcers mentioned, they need to reconcile why Seth would bring Bronson Reed into the fold. More than likely, it’s simply due to respect and Seth being the “architect/genius” character assembling the deadliest force to overthrow the WWE regime. Really, you don’t need a more complex reason than for Seth to mention that part. And as I established previously, having Bronson in the group would give Jey Uso a future opponent that he can beat but still add a little more credibility to his title reign. At the same time, Bronson is going to become a main event player by associating with Seth’s group. In the end, I was totally on board with this move and loved how it played out. Bravo!
Zelina Vega vs Chelsea Green
Women’s US title on the line here. Not exactly the prettiest match with some sloppy spots, including a major botch by Vega where she missed her 619 and tried to compensate by legitimately kicking poor Green in the nose. Green ended up with a bloodied nose that wasn’t shone on TV until the match was nearly over. But I mentioned recently that the WWE has a huge problem between the real upper echelon of women and the middle tier. Roxanne and Giulia might be two people who can solve the lower tier but it still will require time for them to establish themselves on their respective brands.
However, in between the people coming up from NXT (meaning Roxanne and Giulia) and the top tier (Becky Lynch, Charlotte, etc.) type of veterans, a lot is left to be desired. This is match exhibited that case in point where you have a veteran in Vega who is literally hit and miss while Green though having personality isn’t that great. The match itself was just them trying to get their spots in and not pausing to allow those spots to have any impact on the audience or blows looking ugly, inconsistent selling/registering, etc. And these two are veterans and should be better than what we see. Whether it’s injury, age or lack of practice, etc., something is way off. Like I think Vega is passed her prime where people don’t care about her because of how she’s barely won anything important. Chelsea is in the same boat or on the way to being in that spot because she jobs too much. Honestly, I thought this match was where Chelsea would reclaim the US title. After that busted nose, I think she deserved to win back the title because Vega still hasn’t done anything important outside of beating Chelsea, whom everyone seems to beat.
John Cena vs R-Truth
This was a meme match that I think was something John wanted to do with R-Truth. Sadly, I liked this match far better than Cena’s match against Orton because it didn’t go an extraneous long time with overbooking. Cena got his main five moves of doom in then R-Truth repeated them before Cena attempted to use the title. R-Truth tried to appeal to Cena’s sensibilities, which seemed to win Cena’s heart over as Cena handed the belt back to the referee. Then of course Cena kicked R-Truth in the bean bags, hit his FU and beat R-Truth. Match wasn’t great in terms of fanciness (let’s be fair here: Cena’s punches looked like dogshit) but it wasn’t terribly offensive outside of the god awful Cena punches. Get in and get out for the retirement tour. I’m fine with that since Cena honestly looks burnt out doing the same shit. At least, Punk is having fun doing new things like the Code Red, even though that wasn’t great either.
Damian Priest vs Drew McIntyre
I’m really tired of Priest especially him vs Drew. That said, I was eager to listen to Jesse Ventura’s commentary. I think he needed to warm up a little but once he got rolling, he was classic Jesse. One issue I caught was that Jesse talked over the ring announcer’s description of the rules for the cage match and I think Cole was trying to get him to shut up or make his point faster. But this is Jesse and he’s going to make his point regardless. Match was the standard Priest vs Drew affair but I like Drew. He’s become one of my favorite wrestlers to watch in the WWE, despite given and taking crap all the time. Poor guy took the shitty con chairto for which Priest walked out of the ring. The fans did NOT like that at all and the booed him. The best part was Jesse calling Priest a coward for walking out rather than going over the top of the cage and even stated it wasn’t “exciting” which is the exact reason why Priest got booed. As Priest left, Drew slowly got up with the medics trying to help him out but he ended up leaving on his own accord, which flashed by.
So let’s be real here. I think the fans are sick of Priest. He’s like a crappy version of Bret Hart just before the fans started to really shit all over him when Austin was getting popular. Priest sucks as a face because he’s a big guy, he’s not fast, he’s not particularly charismatic, he does a lot of heelish shit and garbage wrestling moves but the WWE has pushed him as a face. I have no idea what they’re going to do with Priest next because apparently Drew is taking time off, which means Priest needs a new program. I think it’d be a horrible idea for him to rejoin the Judgment Day. If Seth needs more members on his team, Priest would be okay but it would just demonstrate that Priest isn’t strong enough on his own as a personality. Jacob Fatu looks like he’s about to feud with Jeff Cobb (or whatever they’re calling him). Perhaps, Aleister Black could be someone he takes on but I’d hate to see more garbage matches especially because Aleister had some injury issues in the past and I don’t think Priest’s style is good for Black.
Jey Uso vs Logan Paul
I’m not a fan of either guy but I wanted to see this because they’re heating stuff up on this end. Earlier, Cena confronted Jey about Logan potentially becoming a YouTuber that beat Jey for a major title that would help “ruin” wrestling. The match itself was kinda meh because Jey isn’t sharp and Logan is more of a spot type. But both guys are really over in their roles. Before Jey could pin Logan, Cena came out to drag the referee to the floor. Then he beat on Jey until Cody Rhodes made his return. Cody knocked Cena out of the ring and Logan grabbed brass knuckles for which Cody ducked to allow Jey to hit a spear. Finally, Cody pulled the referee back into the ring (off camera) for the three count, giving Jey another major win as the title holder.
Afterwards, Cody grabbed the mic and challenged Logan and Cena to a tag match with Jey and him at Money in the Bank in two weeks. So pretty big upcoming match.
Final Thoughts
Honestly, this was the best wrestling TV all week. The pacing is what I enjoy from a good wrestling show. The matches weren’t overly long and the amount of backstage stuff was cut to a minimum. Also, with Jesse on commentary, it sounded like an old school wrestling show. The women’s match was probably the worst part of the show for the various botches so I’m hoping the WWE recognizes that one person at least shouldn’t be champion for that much longer (you got your campaign goal done, time to get back in line where you belong).
With Cody back, it’s clear that they’re going to build towards a re-match between Cena and him. Since Cena has 23 dates left supposedly, I’m going to guess that the title match will happen at Summerslam because it would be the last major show that I’m guessing Cena will participate on (outside of Survivor Series but I can’t see the title match vs Cody happening then). But the interesting part is the intertwining of people at the moment in the main event spot:
Faces
- CM Punk
- Cody Rhodes
- Jey Uso
- Sami Zayn
Heels
- Seth Rollins
- Bron Breakker
- Bronson Reed
- John Cena
- Logan Paul
I’m curious if the goal is to eventually build towards War Games for Survivor Series with these two groups. At the moment, the glue seems to be Jey Uso. Of course, the wild card that isn’t really involved between the two groups, although he’s on his own island is Gunther. He did intersect between Jey Uso and Logan Paul, but Gunther is such a strong personality that he’s better off on his own. And as I demonstrated above, there’s a fifth spot missing from the face team. How Dusty Rhodes would it be if the WWE builds towards a Survivor Series with Gunther on the face side only to turn on them and join the heels for a mega beat down of the babyfaces? Just saying as something we haven’t seen in a while. Also, the conspicuously absent person from this list is Roman Reigns. Since he’s part time, I’m guessing he’ll be like Cena except not retiring in the near future. But I’m guessing we’ll see him at least in time for Summer Slam. It’s just hard to see what role he’ll play.
At any rate, I wish the rest of these shows were like this. The pacing felt really good which is what has been killing my interest in the product. Things kept moving and there was just enough for me to get a taste but not fill me up. Now, I want to see more. That should be the goal of the normal TV product. Honestly, if they cut the normal TV shows down to just an hour, it would force them to reduce the match lengths and get rid of the bulk of meaningless backstage and interview segments. Unfortunately, we won’t get to see another one of these for a while.
Finally, in terms of Seth’s group, I’m liking it. They really need to start winning gold though. Unfortunately, the new New Day has it so they need to either join Seth’s group (bad idea) or lose it to another transitional team. Someone mentioned Bronson Reed and Bron Breakker teaming up. I like that idea just so that Seth’s group can starting accumulating titles. Or pull the trigger on Dominik to go full fledged face so that Bronson Reed can squash him like a grape and pick up the IC title. I don’t mind if Seth’s group is relegated to just Raw but there needs to be some major shuffling around since they are the main event now on Raw.