I’m just going to say it… I hung on till the end of the show to see if it was a work. Then they had Dean turn on Seth after they won the tag titles.
Somehow WWE turned a tragedy into a new dynamic angle. I gotta say this about them, they really come up with gems when their backs are up against the wall.
At least Roman doesn’t expect pity. Thank you Roman.
Did you notice they kept plugging Crown Jewel, but didn’t mention anything about date or location? I’m thinking they’re leaving the option open of doing the special outside Saudi Arabia.
Why do I have the feeling that these two statements are not 100% unrelated?
Well, he did use his real first name, which is something they usually don’t do in a work (Dwayne Johnson and Paul Levesque notwithstanding). Besides, the last time WWE tried the fake retirement bit (with Mark Henry), that didn’t go over too well; imagine the negative reaction if they fake a case of leukemia as well.
Anyone who knows wrestling better than I tell me the reason to have a heel turn AFTER winning the tag belts? Was it just to make it more of a surprise?
My guess is that it’s something they haven’t done before, so they’re going down uncharted waters to see what happens.
Also, Dean’s unHiNg3d! Never know what he’s gonna do! /cliche
I remember a similar angle in Mid South many moons ago. The two tag champs turned on each other, so they had them choose new partners and compete for the belts. That could mean Dean will partner with Dolph while Drew has a mini-feud with Braun, leaving Seth to partner with “honorary” Shield members like Kurt Angle or… Jason Jordan, Dean’s replacement while he was on the mend.
Problem with that scenario is that the IC title gets buried even further down than it has. If WWE is going to double-title Seth, he should be wrestling twice a night. I like the angle and the turn, but dammit, do something with all your titles.
The Meltz has now confirmed rumors that John Cena is refusing to work the show, and also reports that tickets still haven’t gone on sale, which is a pretty bad sign considering that the show is only ten days away now.
Crazy Idea Of The Day: have the surviving members of the winning team in the Raw Survivor Series 5-on-5 match have a match against each other (make it a Fatal 3/4/5-way if necessary) for the belt - and, in true “let’s use the shows to promote TV” fashion, have it on Raw the next night. Especially crazy if the heels win.
Anyone here with the WWE Network, you owe it to yourself to watch the main event of the most recent 205 Live, in which Hideo Itami battles Mustafa Ali in a Falls Count Anywhere match, the first time that stipulation has been utilized on 205 Live. These two guys beat the hell out of each other.
I’m watching the Table for 3 episode from 7/23/18 with Ric Flair, Sting, and Kurt Angle, and I’m loving it, as these three legends share their stories about WWE, WCW, and even TNA, which I didn’t anticipate.
But what I really didn’t anticipate is that they actually had footage of the Empty Arena match between Sting and Angle on TNA Impact. It’s got a logo on the bottom right that reads “GWN”. How’d they get the rights to this footage?
WWE and Impact had some meetings earlier this year that resulted in WWE getting the rights to use some of the TNA vault footage on the Network. It’s how they got to use clips of Dixie Carter in their Kurt Angle documentary.
Ronda Rousey vs. Nikki Bella, Raw Women’s Championship Match: Rousey wins and retains.
Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair, Smackdown Women’s Championship Match:: Charlotte wins the title back.
Kairi Sane vs. Shayna Baszler, NXT Women’s Championship Match: I have no idea. Bazler, maybe?
Io Shirai vs. Toni Storm, Mae Young Classic Finals: I’ll go with Io.
Trish Stratus & Lita vs. Alicia Fox & Mickie James: Stratus and Lita, obviously. When Alexa Bliss had to be replaced, that team’s chances went down to 0%.
Natalya & Sasha Banks & Bayley vs. The Riott Squad: I’ll take Bayley’s team.
Women’s Battle Royal for a Women’s Championship Match: I’m pulling for my girl Molly Holly, but I think Asuka wins.
At about the 36 minute mark, R-Truth cracked me up with his appearance on the pre-show. He said he was gonna be part of the battle royal, and was looking forward to facing Carmella for the SmackDown Women’s Championship. Carmella let him down easy, and we got a 7-second dance break.
Production was off. They kept having sound errors, and Cole had to keep stopping himself from saying “both men are down”. Hyping Crown Jewel during this show was tone-deaf and just tasteless - you’re harping on on how far women have come in wrestling, and following it up by promoting a show that women can only attend if escorted by a male relative. You can tell they sense it’s a bad idea in that they’re refusing to mention Saudi Arabia, and yet they’re doing it anyway.
There were some serious botches with the officiating. In the opening tag, Alicia didn’t run in to stop a 3-count fast enough, and the referee stopped the count for no reason. In the last woman standing match, after Charlotte got out from under the pile of stuff, Chioda stopped the count while she still had a knee on the floor. Later, he counted ten and declared Becky the winner even though Charlotte had both knees up. And in the main event, Brie laying hands on Ronda in full view of the ref should’ve been an instant DQ victory for Ronda, but the ref didn’t even so much as warn her off.
The main event should’ve realistically been over in about 15 seconds, as Nikki Bella has no business having a competitive match with Ronda Rousey, and Ronda having to sell for a finishing move named after her opponent’s tits was just shameful.
The whole “red carpet” thing during the pre-show, and the sponsorship from Kay, was sexist and belied the talking points throughout the show that the women aren’t just eye candy anymore. (I did, however, like the twist in the commercial, where the groom is asking his beloved’s son for permission to marry her.)
Trying to use the fact that Zelina Vega’s father died on 9/11 in order to put her over as a babyface was absolutely disgusting.
Other than that, solid show. I would’ve liked Ember to win the battle royal, but I’m OK with Nia getting another title shot. The musical number at the intro was awesome, the ring work was mostly good, and there weren’t any excessively hinky finishes. Hopefully WWE can stop trying to convince us that Becky is a heel now.
I noted all of these, but none of these botches was as bad as Sasha Banks trying to go over/through the ropes. Ouch, that was ugly. I wonder who gets in more trouble with Vince - the ref who had the obvious miss or the wrestler who didn’t hit her cue? And how much trouble would there be if the ref called the spot correctly though it was against script. Hard to do the right thing when you’ll probably be called on the carpet for screwing up either way. One has to guess which screw up is worse in management’s eyes.