Undertaker and Brock Lesnar are fighting AGAIN?! I guess you can call it “Once in a Lifetime Final Encounter”. Whatever. Anyways, I suppose there was a show WWE put on tonight, and I felt like reviewing it. So, let us get to the festivities.
Kevin Owens def. Ryback (C) – Intercontinental Championship
Glad I kept my expectations low for this one, because that was about as good as it was going to get for a Ryback match. They started out with Ryback showing off his overwhelming power, but KO showed that it’s not always the strongest who wins as he started to work over Ryback’s left shoulder/arm. It was a good story as it limited his power and couldn’t get him up for the Shellshock. Ryback did a decent job of selling, but I wished that he would milk it a bit more. If you are limited on one half of your body, you should be in great pain when you’re trying to lift KO on your shoulder. And Owens isn’t exactly the thinnest guy around. Overall, it obviously wasn’t great, but for what it was, this was fine. Of course if Ryback won I would have subsequently thrown a large rock at my laptop screen. But I love my Macbook. **3/4
Dolph Ziggler def. Rusev
Only in WWE can you throw a shoe at an opponent, blatantly, and not get disqualified. Crowd wasn’t into it, announcers wasn’t into it and I certainly wasn’t into it. This was a flat out boring match, and it just felt like it was dragging and dragging….AND DRAGGING. To put some bigger perspective into this, consider that Rusev defeated Mark Henry on multiple occasions as if it was nothing. So the fact that this match went as long as it did is disgraceful. All the boring action just led up to that stupid finish which can’t be explained by logic, because you can’t watch WWE and use logic. They don’t like that sort of thing. Then consider that Rusev was squashing Mark henry within 3 minutes yet he has his hands tied with Ziggler? Give me a break. Complete snooze fest, no one benefits, the feud sucks, awful showing. As for Dolph’s new attire, well, nothing says “I love you” more than your girlfriend’s face in your crotch area, I guess. *1/4
Bubba Ray and Devon Dudley def. Big E (C) and Kofi Kingston (C) by DQ – WWE Tag Team Championship
You really can’t not love New Day. When you get serenaded with the theme from the Rocky movie, you can’t help but be appreciative. What was up with Xavier’s head anyway? Did he lose a bet? Must be the only reason. Anyway, this was your basic tag team formula when it’s a 2 on 3 situation. The third guy always gets involved in the finish, and it was kind of a deflating one to me. Both of these teams are fun to watch, but a DQ finish on a PPV which people pay money to see is just wrong. Then you consider that they had the tables finish like I predicted in my previous article, and they are obviously building to a rematch for a future PPV. Building to future shows on a current show is a subtle slap in the face to the fans if you ask me. The match was just so-so to me. It seemed like a half-hearted effort because of the finish, but that’s just me. The tables match between these two teams in the future will be interesting though. **
This just feels like a lazy, uninspired effort from the show so far. Hopefully the pace picks up as the bigger matches approach.
Charlotte def. Nikki Bella (C) – Divas Championship
In Monday’s match between these two, Nikki worked over Charlotte’s left arm, and now she was wise and chose to work over her left leg, because her finisher involves, you know, her leg. This reminded me of the CM Punk/Randy Orton match at WrestleMania 27 when Punk was working over Orton’s leg. Now, Nikki gets a lot of flack, and a lot of it is deserved, but give her some damn credit for the past week of action. She’s had some great psychology, giving a great effort and is consistent in her moves through out her matches. She displayed some exceptional heel work here and in her final match as Divas Champion, she went out with a bang. She’s come a long way over the past year. The finish was predictable, and I never thought I would say it, and I REALLY NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD SAY THIS, but I’m actually kind of sad Nikki lost. She carried about 90-95 percent of the match and Nikki barely took damage yet she lost kind of easily. I mean, considering how long she held the belt, you should at least make her look a bit more valiant. Not to mention the unnecessary time that Ziggler/Rusev got. Nonetheless, a very good showing from the ladies here. ***1/4
The Wyatt Family def. Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose and Chris Jericho
WWE is gonna have to do something about the security. This is starting to get ridiculous. Anyways, I wasn’t predicting Chris Jericho, because Jericho said he would only return if it was meaningful and I’m not sure renewing his rivalry with the Wyatts was what he envisioned returning to. When I heard his music, I just gave a big “MEH” face. Him returning just doesn’t have that same feel as it did three years ago. But I digress. The match was good for what it was, and I especially love what WWE is doing with Braun. Now hopefully they don’t forget that he kicked out of a spear and a lionsault in succession. So I don’t want him getting pinned for a long time. He was still dominant and made the Wyatts look like an unstoppable force with him. I said this match was a complete toss-up depending on who the mystery partner was, but once Chris was revealed as the mystery man, it was clear to see who the winner was. A basic six man tag, nothing really exceptional. Though I’m guessing Chris turned heel (??) and will feud with Ambrose I presume? At this point, Chris Jericho will do Chris Jericho things, I guess. ***
John Cena def. Seth Rollins (C) – United States Championship
If you’ve seen Cena and Rollins wrestle in a match at least once in the past before, you could have called all the spots from a mile away. Cena and Rollins never fail to disappoint, but they are slowly having an Orton/Cena type of thing going on. The match, compared to their one at Summerslam, wasn’t as impressive. This was probably the least impressive one on one match I’ve seen between them. Now obviously, I thought that Rollins having another match right after had something to do with it, but it was also made all the more easier to know who was winning after it was announced Rollins would be going back to back. Seth Rollins has also taken much more damage from Cena to not kick out of the AA, but I suppose he couldn’t afford to be in the ring for too long. Throughout the whole match, I was zoning in and out because you can read these two men in the ring like a book. Match wasn’t bad, and Cena winning the title was probably the likely and logical choice here. As for the action, it’s passable, but certainly not anything we haven’t seen from them before. Kind of a letdown in some ways. ***1/4
Seth Rollins (C) def. Sting – WWE World Heavyweight Championship
Sting, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. Rollins took, like, 10 finishers tonight. Not to mention when Rollins shoved Sting into the announcers table, the ref should have been counting him out. But no, he checks on him. Yet Sting ended up collapsing more than Seth? I guess you need Life Alert. How much more help do you need? In all seriousness though, he does deserve respect. He took some crazy bumps and was still able to have a good match at his age. More power to you man. Anyways, given that Seth was at a 15-20 minute disadvantage, Rollins needed to pull a rabbit out of the hat to make a match with Sting passable, and yet, he was still able to in the end. Actually, it was very good for what it was. Kind of ironic that it was Sting collapsing at the match even though he’s fresher. I know you’re over 50 years old but come on Stinger. Could have done without the roll-up finish, but otherwise, I couldn’t really expect anything more than what we got. I really couldn’t see Sting getting pinned after a match with Cena that Rollins had. So now he has gotten pinned by Triple H and Seth after he already went through Cena. Hopefully he doesn’t think he can take Undertaker at WrestleMania next year. Next came the part where an Irish guy ran down the aisle and nearly completed a cash in on Seth.
Now I was about 60 percent certain the cash-in would be successful, mainly because I didn’t think anyone else would interfere. However, everyone’s favorite masked demon made his return at stopped that, Now, when Rollins was flat on his back and after Kane gave Rollins a chokeslam, I was certain that he was sent by The Authority to turn on Seth and team up with Sheamus, but instead, Rollins’ title is safe for another day. Considering that Seth defeated Sting after a match with Cena, I was certain the cash-in was going to happen so that Seth would have some sympathy built up for him, but it’s interesting to see where Seth goes after this. Otherwise, for what it was, a very good outing. But that finish just sent me through a loop. So we’re getting a Rollins/Kane feud? Hoorah? ***1/2
Conclusion:
A DQ finish, an eye rake, a finish involving a shoe that should have been a DQ but was not for some reason and two roll-ups. Yea, I think WWE has seen better days. We can look at this in a plethora of ways. This is a B show, so expectations isn’t as high as a show like Summerslam or Royal Rumble. Then again, people still pay money to see it, so a plethora of dirty.controversial finishes are not what they had in mind either. The action ranged from boring and uninspired to average passable with nothing on the show that I would watch twice. I’d call this show a thumbs in the middle for effort, but the dubious finishes just drag it down so much. Not to mention that this is the second straight year at Night of Champions where a MITB cash in is teased, but a stupid finish happens and WWE doesn’t pull through with it. Maybe I’m being hard, but what’s wrong with setting a standard for WWE nowadays? Ratings are in the toilet, so you need to produce on PPV. Kane standing tall at the end of a PPV in 2015. See the issue anyone? I don’t think that this was a very bad show, per say, but I can’t find a lot of good or something that hasn’t been seen. So I’ll say slight recommendation to avoid. How many stupid finishes does it take to get to the center of WWE’s collective brain? The world may never know.
Agree? Disagree? Wish I’d have sex with myself? Let me know. Until next time.
