WWE TV 5/25 - 5/31/15

[Grimmas]

One thing that's I saw on the newz sites today is that the WWE writers really like this PPV every two weeks format as they can set up a feud and go home with it without having to write four weeks of TV and basically go through the same motions every month.

 

At face value, this is nuts, because the conventional wisdom has been that a big problem of WWE PPVs is that there are too many and they don't have the months to build to things like they did in the 80s.

 

Having seen so much in the way of territorial wrestling, I'm wondering if this wouldn't actually be so bad. It'd be like building to the Monday night Memphis shows or Tuesdays in Portland. That said, they can't cycle talent in and out like in those days.

The only problem is it takes way the biggest factor in drawing, anticipation.

[Sean Liska]

Memphis is probably my favorite TV show ever and one of the main reasons is that every week had the urgency of a go-home show. Alabama was the same way. So I can definitely see as a writer where booking in two week segments would be fun. But it would be really hard to keep the PPVs special while doing 3 hours of RAW every week.

[Bierschwale]

I'm pro-three hour RAW but not with 20 PPVs a year.

[CodySave]

Lost in the shuffle in a crazy week of wrestling news is that is Ambrose scoring a pinfall victory over Wyatt on Smackdown - when is the last time Wyatt lost singles on TV? Ever? Another great match between them with a fun finish that played off their recent RAW match.

 

It's pretty fascinating that the top two from a pure win/loss standpoint on active roster (Reigns/Wyatt) aren't on the Chamber card.

 

If Rusev is out w/injury, can they logically put anyone but one of those two in the IC Chamber match? Though, R-Truth is in the match despite getting obliterated by Rusev on RAW - he looks totally foolish being there after this week. Hell, based on RAW, Zack Ryder has more cred to be in than Truth.

 

Wouldn't shock me if they just tossed Stardust in though. If he wrestled like Cody Rhodes in Stardust paint, that would actually be an awesome fit for the match.

[fakeplastictrees]

A number of times. Remember Wyatt/Ambrose were trading wins in a unofficial best of 7 series.

[SomethingSavage]

Before this, I only remember Wyatt losing the "Boot Camp Match" back at Tribute To The Troops. But I could be wrong. All these Even-Steven feuds have endless rematches, so ya never know.

 

Although I still say the best Wyatt/Ambrose match was the meeting they had last summer in the MITB Qualifier from SmackDown. All the gimmicks and garbage they did last winter was fine, but none of it surpassed that for me.

[Zoo Enthusiast]

Reigns isn't on this show? Lame. Is it only two hours, or something?

[Parties]

Enjoyed Superstars this week, even though on paper it's unspectacular. One hour wrestling shows tend to be entertaining, with several good ones going right now (ROH, NXT, Lucha Underground, Superstars, Main Event, all the indies online). What I wrote about it is long enough that it should probably be spoiler tagged.

 

 

Rose-Slater was better than it had any right to be as a six minute nothing match. Basically tweener vs. tweener, which was refreshing: two guys pulling out the stops to win rather than working a transparent dynamic. Rose looks defeated in his entrance as Rosa Mendes literally drags him to the ring, as if that ESPN doc doing nothing for his career is what's finally broken his spirit. Then Slater comes out, utterly elated to be there. You'd think this guy is main eventing Wrestlemania every time he shows up on TV anywhere. This was tenacious stuff between two guys on the bottom rung who were fighting for a promotion. Punches to the face, sound chain wrestling, Headlock City, lots of good selling from Slater, and a clever finish. A reminder that almost everyone on the roster can impress when given the opportunity. There are almost no bad workers in WWE right now, which is incredible. Even Rosa was proficient heel valet eye candy, and I enjoyed the announcers finding a balance between acknowledging these guys are jobbers while respecting their talent. The roster is so crowded right now that I'm wishing the Brand Extension would come back, as you could easily have Slater as a pushed SD-only act.

 

Superstars is largely a RAW recap show and promotional tool for DVDs and the Network. That plus two matches. It's an hour that takes 20 mins to watch, which is sublime. But one thing to point out is that they ran this utterly kayfabe-destroying clip of Daniel Bryan's “Yes Yes Yes” special, where he's talking about HBK getting him his tryout on Heat in 2000, the match being cut to “only” six minutes, Shawn being furious and threatening to bring his TWA guys to WCW, and burying the late Lance Cade for doing a choke slam on a show where Taker was present. Just such weirdly inside baseball, behind the curtain stuff. I get that it's a new era, but wow, what an odd and surprising (albeit interesting) clip to run.

 

Main event is Harper/Rowan vs. Meta Powers. Harper and Rowan are so much better together than apart. Meta Powers are a weird deal in that Sandow's take on Savage is really bad. Such a lame non-imitation that you could dress up anyone on the roster and get the same result. Darren Young as a Black Machismo tribute act would make more sense than Sandow in this role. Start of the match sucked as Axel and Sandow were both lousy. Bad strikes, uncoordinated in their offense. What I just said about there being almost no bad workers in WWE? They're the exception that proves the rule. Sandow's excellence as Mizdow caused me to forget that he can be clueless in ring. He's had almost no good matches in all his years of WWE, including his MITB win and cash-in, despite a great gimmick early on.

 

Harper/Rowan were made to look like utter stooges in order to sell for the Powers. Even when the heels came back on offense, Sandow couldn't sell Rowan's boot to the face properly. I totally respect a guy who doesn't want to take stupid violent bumps. I'm not saying anyone should be Zigglering themselves in a Superstars tag. But Sandow seems to not want to take bumps period. Rowan throws these strikes that look like they could somebody's head off, and Sandow responds by gingerly going down to one knee and then slowly leaning down onto the mat. It's as if he's doing a tribute to Savage in TNA rather than Savage in WWF. I did like the jaw-jacking between both teams throughout the match, as the trash talk added drama where there was none. I'm the 36^th person to say so on this board, but Rowan is underrated. Strong moveset, hits everything with purpose, can fly for a big guy, and sells much better than he needs to. Harper taking the big boot and leg drop from a guy half his size fell somewhere between amusing and ridiculous, but his discus clothesline remains my favorite move in WWE.

 

 

I can understand the writers preferring two-week builds, but that “relief” seems to be a symptom of RAW being way too long, SD being a two hour rehash of RAW, and the company repeating PPV-worthy matches over and over. A “feud” should not be Barrett and Neville having the exact same match six times in three weeks. Reigns vs. Rollins should not be main eventing RAW with nothing on the line when they could main event Mania next year. There are a hundred examples of it right now, but the problem comes from an insistence on burning viable matches too quickly and too often. So much of why people love NXT is that the booking is slowed down, and guys are by design cycled in and out of the main event picture. In other words: a territory.

[goc]

I liked reading your take on Sandow. I can't believe when I go to other boards like wrestlingforum and see people touting him as some wasted talent who has SO MUCH star potential and who deserves to be in the main event over Roman Reigns, who should still be in NXT apparently.

[Zoo Enthusiast]

I liked reading your take on Sandow. I can't believe when I go to other boards like wrestlingforum and see people touting him as some wasted talent who has SO MUCH star potential and who deserves to be in the main event over Roman Reigns, who should still be in NXT apparently.

Agreed completely. I think it's mostly nostalgia for The Genius that made him so beloved before. He just always struck me as very uncoordinated/unathletic. The Mizdow character was fun, though.

[SomethingSavage]

Well yeah. Sandow's never struck me as anything above average in the ring, but he's done well with what's been given to him on the character front.

 

The guy tends to work hard, bust his ass, and find ways to take garbage & get it over. There's something to be said for that. Doesn't mean he should be placed at the top of the card or anything, but he certainly has a spot.

 

I might be in the minority, but I remember really liking his TV performances from the week he cashed in his MITB contract. I thought the title challenge against Cena made for an exciting live TV experience, even if it doesn't hold up so much on rewatch. It was pretty cool in the moment, and I actually liked it again the second time I watched. I'd rate it up there with some of the other "Cena miracle" matches, where he makes the most of a situation & brings out the best in his opponent.

 

Beyond that, they ran a six-man tag with Cena & The Rhodes Bros. against the Real Americans & Sandow on both SmackDown and again the following Raw. Both were tremendous & helped to make Sandow seem like a credible threat. Nothing stuck though, and it didn't take long for him to settle back into the same old spot. And, of course, Sandow was never once the best guy in the ring in any of those encounters. But he came out looking better than usual by association.

 

The stunt double shtick was fun initially, but I felt like it was drawn out too long for the payoff that gave us. If it had to simmer for so long, then they certainly could've AT LEAST gotten one PPV match or something out of the deal. And the followup on all that momentum & brief popularity has quickly dissipated in a flash.

 

I don't see the Macho Mandow thing being anywhere near as successful as those two, to be honest.

 

Although, in reality, I think Sandow's best work was with Cody in the Rhodes Scholars tag team. They played their roles well - both collectively & individually. In hindsight, I think it really helped to benefit both guys. Their split was one of the rare times I actually enjoyed a feud of former tag team partners, but yeah. Honestly wouldn't mind seeing them go back to that, if all else fails.

[goc]

I actually thought it was a pretty damning indicator of the Rhodes Scholars team that they had so many tag matches on TV and PPV and not a single one of them really stands out as memorable. Especially that feud with Team Hell No where they seemed to have at least one match on Raw or Smackdown every week for like 4 months.

[SomethingSavage]

The Prime Time Players had endless rematches with Team Hell No around the same time, too. Couldn't tell one Titus & Darren performance apart from any of the others there either.

I don't necessarily think that's always a damning indicator that a team's the shits. Sometimes it's just a case of running rematch after rematch - where nothing is angle driven, and you've got too much TV for any of it to stick or commit to memory in the big scheme of things.

 

There are exceptions, for sure. The Shield are a shining example of that. But I don't think anybody's really trying to say the Rhodes Scholars are on par with the Shield in terms of producing quality TV matches. I'm just saying that - if you're giving me a choice of Rhodes Scholars or Stardust and Macho fucking Mandow as individual acts?

Then yeah. I'll gladly get on board for another Rhodes Scholars run.

[Zoo Enthusiast]

I guess it can be said that at least he isn't Stardust.

[Parties]

And it isn't even that Sandow's horrendous, exactly. He's well below average in the pantheon of wrestlers currently on TV, but not brutal to watch. It's more that the WWE main roster is so good right now. Aside from the Ascension and Darren Young, Sandow is the worst worker they've got. Which isn't even a diss of him as much as it's praise for the group at large.

 

There's a certain type of internet fan who doesn't understand that not everyone gets to be a main eventer. Or in this case, that not everyone gets to be a main eventer for very long. Anyone who does anything entertaining and doesn't get a huge push becomes “wasted potential.” Sandow had a run at the top. He might even get another one if he proves to be a company man, which he may well be given his Killer Kowalski konnection to HHH.

 

And I'm someone who thinks he definitely should have won that battle royal at Mania, and that they could have continued pushing him after that. I liked the idea of him as an unlikely sex symbol who steals the hearts of low-end Divas and frustrates low-end heels like the Miz and Adam Rose in the process. That's a good undercard character. But the point is that it's an undercard character. And that your undercard can be just as fun (or nearly as fun) as your main event. But as an in-ring worker, Sandow is exactly where he should be: below average wrestler who can talk and can ham it up with the right gimmick.

 

I loved his promos as the Intellectual Savior. I loved “Silence!” as a catchphrase. Pompous coward who thinks he's better than you because he uses big words is an awesome gimmick, and so versatile. It can work for years, in so many different ways, at any place on the card. He can be a month-long foil for your world champ, or he can be the curtain jerker getting exasperated by R-Truth. He can be Lord Alfred Hayes, given that I think most of the guys on the current roster would be better announcers than the guys currently calling RAW and SD. Great character, and they did him a disservice by dropping it during that period where he was just a guy in purple tights. A big reason for why the Macho Man imitation sucks (and even why Mizdow ran its course) is that they took a guy who's best as a verbose talker, and gave him gimmicks where he never talks. In a different era he could have been Paul Jones feuding for years against the "Boogie Woogie Man" Curtis Axel.

[goc]

I think that's really good summation of Sandow. "There's a certain type of internet fan who doesn't understand that not everyone gets to be a main eventer" is really true and it causes like this weird thing with Sandow where the discussion ends up being people going way overboard in praising him or people having to go out there way to point out all of his flaws to show why he's really not a main event talent. So he never really gets talked about in a fair context.

 

He makes me miss Santino though.

[Matt D]

He was hot back in March and they failed to figure out how to capitalize on that. In part that was the nature of the Mizdow gimmick. It couldn't survive the split. But they had months to figure out how to do it.

[goc]

So did all the fantasy bookers of the internet but I honestly never saw anyone come up with something more complex than "push him as a serious character and give him a midcard title"

 

It would work in TEW so why not right?

[Matt D]

WWE can afford to waste a guy who is actually over? As they have so many? IT's their job to figure it out. They get paid ... how much do the writing team get paid?

[goc]

Dead end gimmicks eventually have to hit the wall. How much the writers get paid has nothing to do with that. In another era you could have really milked the thing by having Miz go over in the end and send Sandow packing. Now we're stuck with him after he's hit his dead end wall.

[Matt D]

I'm not going to fantasy book (pair him with Cena as his Julius Smokes then have him turn on cena after x months), but you think they did as much with him that they should have, on the pacing that they should have?

[goc]

If anything they dragged out the story too long. As much as people wanted him to win the feud, where does Mizdow go without The Miz to play off of? The whole reason it got over is because it was fun to see him mock a guy that no one likes. The only way you can really end the story is with Miz going over and Sandow moving on to something (somewhere) else. At least with the stipulations of "winner gets to keep being Miz"

 

Let us not forget how awful he was leading up to that with his impersonations of Magneto and Abraham Lincoln. Yes, that was terrible writing but he couldn't make any of it work. Miz impersonator was pretty terrible writing too but for once the shit that they threw at the wall stuck, and Sandow got it over. But it's still a short term gimmick with nowhere to go once it's over. I don't think he got fucked by them not rewarding him with some big push after it was done because I don't think he could have gotten that over as Damien Sandow regular dude who isn't pretending to be Miz anymore.

 

If I wanted to complain about dudes in comedy gimmicks who should have gotten bigger pushes, Santino post Elimination Chamber 2012 is right there.

[Matt D]

I actually think they could have done a lot better with Axel too. It's weird that we had Axel, Sandow, Ascension, New Day and Bo all going at the same time. All sort of delusional meta gimmicks.

[goc]

New Day are really good at it though.

[Quentin Skinner]

New Day has become my favorite thing about the main shows. Always entertaining and between Xavier and Big E, I'm constantly laughing at their antics.