MAIN EVENT AND NXT REVIEW by Jee-S.
Sheamus defeats Wade Barrett with the Brogue Kick.
Thoughts: There’s one thing these men don’t lack when they’re in the ring together: chemistry. Sheamus and Barrett have always pulled off great bouts and this one was right up there with all of them; it might’ve even been their best fight yet. It was highly entertaining and the story was really well told. And what can be said about the finish? Man, what an unexpected Brogue Kick! I really hope these two men have the chance to feud at some point in the future and get the opportunity to wrestle pay-per-view matches. It was one of those great Main Event matches!
RAW Rebound: Cena challenges Ryback to 3 Stages of Hell, and then loses to Curtis Axel by countout.
Thoughts: I don’t know if I can be any more clear about where I stand when it comes to recaps on Main Event!
Bray Wyatt & The Family video package.
Thoughts: Geez, I’m not quite sure if I can express my excitement for their debut. I’m so excited;I had to rewind to watch the video package again. Bray Wyatt is a talented performer, incredibly charismatic and, along with his stable, brings something very edgy and different to the table. Can’t freakin’ wait!
Recap of The Highlight Reel with Paul Heyman, where Jericho challenges Punk and Heyman accepts.
Thoughts: As much as I liked that segment, I don’t think seeing it again was necessary. Well…maybe it was…for once…
Antonio Cesaro defeats Justin Gabriel with the Neutralizer.
Thoughts: For a short match, this wasn’t bad at all. Words cannot express how happy I am to see Cesaro win. The fact that he lost his push is yet another ball dropped by WWE’s creative team; I sure hope this is temporary for him and for us. I learned to get used to seeing Justin Gabriel on Main Event, and I have absolutely no problem with that whatsoever. Good showing by both these men considering the time they had!
R-Truth & Tons of Funk defeat 3MB when R-Truth hits the jumping reverse STO on Jinder Mahal.
Thoughts: Short and boring. The only wrestler I care about between all six of them is Truth and he has been booked terribly for quite some time now. I hope we get to see less of these uninteresting matches in the future, especially when they’re closing Main Event.
Overall, the show was average. Nothing stood out except the awesome first match and the Wyatt Family video package; the rest was just plain normal at best. I find it funny (or sad?) that one of the RAW recaps was more entertaining than the closing match of the show.
NXT REVIEW
The Wyatt Family (Harper & Rowan) beat Travis Tyler & Sawyer Fulton with a Lariat from Harper.
Thoughts: We knew right from the start that the two men going against the Tag Team Champions had no chance because it was the first time we had seen them on NXT programming. Basic squash to put over Harper and Rowan which is, in my eyes, something that needs to be done seeing as they have no valuable contenders to their straps right now. Squash/stale match, but effective booking.
Stephanie McMahon announces a tournament for the new NXT Women’s Championship belt.
Thoughts: Awesome news! Whoever gets the belt first will definitely be main roster-bound in the very near future and I’m sure hoping it’ll be Paige! For what it’s worth, the title might even become more prestigious than the WWE Divas Championship if someone legitimately entitled to earn it ends up winning the tournament.
Emma defeats Audrey Marie with her Emma Lock (bridging inverted Indian deathlock/reverse chinlock combo).
Thoughts: Okay match. I assume this was Audrey Marie’s last WWE bout; what a shame. She had so much potential. I’m pretty happy for Emma that she’s getting over with the fans and hopefully that popularity follows her when she makes the jump to the main roster. She has great potential as an entertainer and a great moveset that could be very valuable to the Divas division in the coming years.
Scott Dawson & Garrett Dylan (w/ Sylvester Lefort) defeat Jake Carter & Brandon Traven with a spinebuster/double axe handle combo.
Thoughts: Surprisingly good match. Not great, but good. Let me put you guys in context here: Dawson and Dylan are two rednecks managed by Lefort who is a French millionaire that lives the high class life. Weird you say? Yes, very. But strangely effective. Some of WWE’s best teams/factions were born by pairing totally opposite people and I’m guessing they’re trying to create a tag team for the division in NXT, which is great. I’d like to see their personas develop and be allotted more airtime to truly see their potential.
Big E Langston squashes Derrick Bateman with the Big Ending.
Thoughts: Waste of time. I would’ve like to see an uprising superstar get the squash win seeing as a victory like that does nothing to make Langston look any better or stronger. I understand this is Bateman’s last match in the WWE and it could’ve gone a lot better. Langston doesn’t need to be put over that way; that minute could’ve been used a lot better.
Bo Dallas wins the Battle Royal by eliminating Adrian Neville last.
Thoughts: Battle Royals are usually unpredictable and fun but I didn’t like this one. Why? Because of the booking. First of all, many of the wrestlers in there mean absolutely nothing right now: some have even been released a week or two ago (Briley Pierce and Sakamoto). Second of all, I don’t agree with how it ended and the order of elimination. Mason Ryan eliminating 11 wrestlers was good to build him as a monster and as a threat, but Sami Zayn being one of them when he’s fresh off victories over two established superstars like Curt Hawkins and Antonio Cesaro makes absolutely no sense for me. He should’ve been in there longer, even if he’s still “the new guy”. Finally, I’m just not happy with the winner. I’ll be straight up honest here: I don’t like Bo Dallas. He bores me both inside and outside the ring and I hope that winning the NXT Championship (if he wins it) will mean that he will stay in NXT. Perhaps the WWE didn’t want to give the number one contendership to the others because they have plans for them on the main roster? Maybe. Hopefully.
Overall, I was disappointed with the show. There wasn’t any great or even average display of in-ring talent. The booking, even if sometimes effective, wasn’t as good as you would expect it to be for NXT. I certainly hope next week will be better with the tag team main event that’s been announced (Ohno & Graves vs. The Wyatt Family) and the beginning of the women’s tournament. Thank you for reading!
WWE Smackdown Analysis 05/31/13 by Joe Thunder
Seth Rollins goes one on one with Kane. Kane wins the match using a chokeslam after Dbry pushes Rollins off the top rope while the ref is distracted by Kane dealing with Roman Reigns on the ring apron.
^I love the work that Kane has done as of late, and this match here with Rollins was highly entertaining. Nice to see the big vet get the win with help from his little buddy.
Dbry goes one on one with Roman Reigns in the next match. Kane causes Dbry to get disqualified when he hits Reigns in the face after being provoked and the referee sees it. Dbry argues with Kane after the match about being able to win on his own, and Kane continuously tells Dbry that he(Dbry) isn’t the weak link.
^And now we have the addition of the heat to Dbry and Kane’s eventual split. Dbry has just been at the top of his game as of late, especially when it comes to his work with the Shield in every match. TWO very good opening matches to start out Smackdown!
Damien Sandow does another challenge in the ring involving picking the correct cup with the ball under it. Sheamus interrupts and ends up brogue kicking Sandow when he picks the wrong cup and then picks wrong again when there are only two cups left(Sandow put the ball in his pocket).
^Brilliant! It’s the best word to describe these segments that Damien Sandow does. Hell, anytime Sandow talks I’m glued to the screen! I’m very excited for the potential match that we could see at Payback between these two. How cool would it be to see Sandow go over on Sheamus in a huge match like that?
Sin Cara goes one on one with Curtis Axel in a rematch from last week. Paul Heyman and Axel both cut promos before the match. Axel brags about defeating John Cena and Triple H. Axel defeats Sin Cara using the perfect-plex.
^This was a much better performance by Axel this week than last. Axel dominated and looked good from start to finish. How incredible is it to see the son of Curt Hennig executing the perfect plex as his finisher?
Big E. Langston defeats Alberto Del RIo with help from AJ. AJ smacked Del Rio before Big E. finished him off with the big ending.
^Now these two have wrestled four times in the past two weeks. Can we give it a rest already? They do make each other look good in the ring and have decent chemistry, but let’s use our creative brains and maybe have one another interfere in each other’s matches to keep the feud interesting.
Ryback squashes Kofi Kingston and then puts him through a bunch of stacked tables. Kofi is taken out on a stretcher.
^This is Kofi’s storyline exit while he’s injured. Too bad for him; he has been so good in the ring during the past year. His matches are ones I look forward to more than most others because of his ability to make just about anyone look good.
Cody Rhodes goes one on one with Chris Jericho. Jericho catches Rhodes off the disaster kick and applies the wall of Jericho. Cody taps out.
^There is absolutely no reason why Cody Rhodes has been stuck in midcard hell since early 2012. He’s a solid competitor in the ring and he’s quite entertaining on the microphone. Why hasn’t WWE done something more with his character? The match with Jericho was decent, but five more minutes could’ve turned it into something a little more worthwhile to discuss.
The Bray Wyatt Family vignette is shown.
^We saw this on Raw, and it’s really got people talking. I’m very excited for this group’s future on WWE programming. Who would’ve guessed that one of the sons of Mike Rotundo AKA Irwin R. Schyster(I.R.S.) would be in line for a huge push as a star today? Perhaps brother Bo Dallas could have the same future(if he ever grows up and learns the meaning of the word charisma).
Randy Orton goes one on one with Dean Ambrose. Orton wins by DQ when Rollins and Reigns attack him. Kane and Dbry come down to make the save and they fight. Dbry flips out and takes out all three members of the Shield on his own. The crowd chants yes with Dbry and Kane applauds his efforts.
^What an ending! I’m so pumped to see Dbry in the ring with the Shield again! Orton and Ambrose were having a decent match, but it was ruined far too soon thanks to the finish. As for the finish, can you believe how loud the crowd was with their yes chants for Dbry? What an incredible closing for Smackdown!
To sum it up, we got six good to great matches and a squash match that took Kofi Kingston off TV. We also had a highly entertaining Sheamus/Sandow segment. WWE Smackdown gets the big thumbs up from me again this week! If you’re a fan of WWE and you aren’t catching Smackdown, you’re missing out on some of the best wrestling on TV every week.
I’ll have Slammiversary thoughts posted on Monday(hopefully) and I’ll have the Raw Analysis up sometime on Tuesday! We love any and all feedback that you want to leave below in the comments section. Thanks again to Jee-S for joining me with NXT and Main Event coverage. Until next time, you’ve been ThunderStruck!
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