Raw and Smackdown Live Recap Week of 6/18/19 - Was Raw Actually Good This Week? And Stomping Grounds Predictions!
First off, mazel tov to Nikki Cross and Killian Dane!
Well, it's another week of go-home shows for Raw and Smackdown Live and they're doing what they can to hype up the matches that are coming up for the Stomping Grounds PPV and creating some new matches for the card. So how did these shows shake out this week, and does the possibility exist that at least one of them was... actually... good?
Raw is generally the show to suffer the biggest creative drought and that's represented in a myriad of ways, and the tighter Smackdown Live is generally considered to be the better of the two because there's more in-ring storytelling for the lack of screen time that a show like Raw would be able to give to it, and good storytelling is often measured with the simple "show, don't tell" method of visual storytelling, but it's a rare thing for either show to do that. Vince's default is talking people to death rather than giving us compelling in-ring stuff. I know that every fight needs a good build, but there's a difference between building it in a way that's interesting and the Vince way.
But even a broken clock can be right twice a day, and maybe that's what happened this week on Raw!
There was a lot of iffy stuff on Raw, like the Becky Lynch/Lacey Evans promo and that's mostly on Evans, but Lynch is just not getting the same level of pops she was getting back around MITB. She still makes me laugh with some of the things she says, but I've been feeling the Vince creeping back into Becky's promos. Also I get that The Viking Raiders need to have some squashes, and I liked the idea of the look they shared with Daniel Bryan and Rowan on the ramp, but this is part of the same reason it took them so long to really gain any momentum for me during their time in NXT is that they have no choice but to make them look really dominant so they can't just feed them a team like Ryder and Hawkins or The B-Team or The Ascension at this time, and it's making them seem kind of boring, and based on the TakeOver matches that War Raiders have had, it seems that they need a really high-profile match to get them over. Speaking of which, where are The Ascension? Are they hurt? I ask because I'm seeing Hawkins and Ryder now chasing after R-Truth for the 24/7 Championship, so I'm always assuming that anyone who is on the undercard is after it.
And as much as it may seem like Seth Rollins is a true badass beating everyone who Baron Corbin approaches for being the special guest referee in their Universal title match on Sunday with a steel chair, it makes him look a little too desperate instead of a confident champ. I'm still terrified that Vince is going to pay Brock a million dollars to throw on a ref shirt and be the guest referee on Sunday for what is essentially a PPV that isn't much more than the Great Balls of Fire PPV from two years ago.
Also, if it isn't apparent by now, I don't know what to tell you, but this whole "Wild Card" thing just isn't even a thing any more. People are coming from different shows all willy-nilly and it's just a way that some of the big stars (or Shane) can appear on both shows to try to bump the ratings. At this point, I think it would be wiser to just reunify everything and do away with the brand split. If Smackdown Women's champ Bayley is fighting Alexa Bliss from Raw, I'd say that any kind of brand split is pretty much over with. And it'd be more palatable if they used this brand split to shine a light on people who aren't at the top of the card, but every week it's the same goddamn people. I'm not saying it's the right thing to do, but with all the craziness going on within the "Wild Card", it's probably the smart thing to do. Either unify or get rid of it.
And this one goes out to Drew McIntyre: please, for the love of Christ, stop with the "I will hurt you; I will physically assault you" shit, Vince. What the fuck do you think happens in a wrestling match? A tickle fight? Matches are all about pain and physical assault. So just sttaaaaaaahpp.
The match between Rollins and Daniel Bryan should have been one of those dream matches that you would use to anchor a PPV with, so to use it as a main event for Raw was a little... unusual, and I wished that I had enjoyed that match a little more. First of all, I'm not a fan at all of Rollins using The Stomp on Bryan. It's not like the fucking guy retired due to concussions. I would have preferred he out-wrestled Bryan instead, or just end it with the schmozz we all knew was coming anyway with Corbin attacking Rollins with a chair. And it just didn't have the cool factor that a match like that should have had. This should have been a war, but in the end, it just felt like another good Raw match.
Aside from those issues, I had the most fun watching Raw this week than I have in many many moons. The Fatal 5-Way for the #1 Condender for Samoa Joe's US title was really fun to watch, even if they had Ricochet overdo it a little with the 630's. I wouldn't have minded a shooting star press or a 450 splash for a pinning predicament. But Ricochet looked like a million bucks, and I think they're going to ride that train for as long as they can. I'm sure Joe will retain because again, too much of a hot potato, but Ricochet is still headed for some gold in the not-too-distant future. He's just way too much fun to watch to keep in the former Finn Balor position (comes out for a big pop, has a really solid match, but never really has any rivalries that are any good, and doesn't win gold).
The story they're telling with Nikki Cross and Alexa Bliss is keeping me glued to my seat. It's one of the only stories told within the Women's division that's working at all right now. And Alexa marshaling all the manipulative powers at her command to think she's doing all these great things for Nikki is just golden. This is why I enjoyed the Women's Tag title match between those two and The IIconics. It wasn't a great match, but it was telling a really solid story by trying to make Bayley look like the real villain here, and it just works.
The match between The New Day and Corbin, Owens and Zayn was a hoot as well, and I'm frankly kind of shocked that they're keeping Kofi looking as strong as they have been. And it began in tremendous fashion as Big E was playing WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S with a mostly dead EC3 (thanks to chair shots by Rollins) in order to have the match made official. I just wish they had followed through and used EC3 as the actual in-ring ref. That would have made me blow a lung from laughing, if only from the meta angle of how misused or under-used EC3 has been since he was called up from NXT.
And it's been coming for a while, but I'll be damned if my favorite part of the show wasn't Roman fucking up The Revival, Drew and especially Shane. They painted Drew as a mega-heel already, but he really got heat when he beat the shit out of his poor former 3MB cohort Heath Slater. So that beatdown from Roman felt not only necessary but it felt good, even if it wasn't the kind of good that they wanted me to feel. I just wanted someone to heat the holy shit out of Shane.
Heck, I even enjoyed A.J. giving Gallows and Anderson the business about how complacent they've become (they're just not being booked, A.J., but thanks for keeping up the kayfabe!) and the match they had against The Usos. The Club still came up short, but I'm thinking this is either a build-up for bigger things or it's just a whole bunch of nonsense setting up the three of them with Triple H for their shows in Japan. While I'm on the subject of that, how in the living fuck did they screw that up? You have A.J. Styles. You have Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson. And then you have... Triple H. How could you possibly leave Finn out of that? Finn is the man NJPW picked to start the fucking Bullet Club, yet he's not part of this. Sorry; I'm just super fucking annoyed at that.
Again, though, I had a good time watching Raw this week. I don't know if it's just that they had good segments, or were trying to tell good stories and actually succeeding, or if my personal bar for enjoyment of Raw has been defaulted to such a low elevation that anything that makes it more bearable automatically equals "good".
Smackdown had some really terrific moments, but still felt stale. The match between Ziggler and Xavier was really good, though. First off, it was booked well, and most importantly, it's really shining a light on how Woods is not someone to write off as a comedy act and really can go in the ring. The military press he did on Dolph was really damn impressive, and I've really liked his in-ring ability for a while now. I don't know if they're going to actually break up New Day any time soon, but it would make sense only to give Big E and Woods their singles runs.
Then there was the promo moment of the week where Miz called out Shane for taking TV time away from other, more deserving (read: literally anyone else) competitors. I popped like a motherfucker for that moment. I felt like someone in Creative had been reading these columns. Despite the fact that it led to another beating for Miz, it's at least clear that this rivalry isn't done yet.
Backstage moment of the week was the return of Kabuki Warriors (Asuka and Kairi Sane... remember them?) with Paige to announce to The IIconics that they were going to have a match with them in Japan that if they win, they're going to get the opportunity to take them on in a title match and to see Kairi and Asuka strike the "IIconic" pose was worth it.
Moment of Bliss was terrific as well because it's continuing the saga of Alexa and Nikki vs Bayley. As I stated earlier, I'm 100% in for this story.
Heavy Machinery essentially squashing The B-Team only really worked because of Daniel Bryan on commentary. I loved how knowledgeable Bryan was about Tucky and Dozer and how he wanted them to be actual wrestlers instead of being clowns. I don't know about any of you, but the match that Otis had against Tommaso Ciampa back on NXT was so damn good. It showed that Dozer could actually really go and he's not just a one-trick pony. He really stood his ground against Ciampa but of course this is the main roster, and the best way to sell merch for a team like Heavy Machinery is to first make them a kind of comedy act and then, if they get over, eventually put them in matches where they have to work like their lives depend on it, much like New Day. Or they could keep them as a comedy tag team and they'll go the way of most of the other comedy tag teams.
And the Two out of Three Falls tag match between Kofi and Seth vs Sami and KO was a real head-scratcher as far as booking was concerned. I don't understand why they would set up this stipulation and have the champs win without getting the heels at least one win. I don't know if it was an issue with the show running long or what, but that was not a great match. It made the champs seem almost too dominant without a single flaw. They couldn't have found a way to make this a tiny bit suspenseful? I just didn't really get into this at all. I'm also not sure how much longer they can keep this worldbeater shine on Kofi. When he was only part of New Day, he took a lot of L's and now he can't be beaten. Are they trying to initiate a heel turn where Kofi says he's better now than he was as a full-time member of New Day, or is this just ultra-dominant champion booking? I'm not sure, but I have a sense that he's not going to be keeping this title for much longer. He just has to lose to someone important that isn't Shane.
Also, a lot of love goes out to Andrade who lost his mother a few weeks back and then his aunt this week. My heart just breaks for him. And for once, WWE does the right thing by giving him some time. I know he popped in to wreck Apollo Crews backstage, but unless he feels like getting back in the ring quickly, don't make him.
As far as Hopes and Predictions for Stomping Grounds (I know that's why you came), I'm honestly not super into this PPV so I'm just going to give my predictions, and here we go:
Bayley (C) vs Alexa Bliss for the Smackdown Women's Title: Bayley retains
Roman Reigns vs Drew McIntyre: Drew McIntyre wins with Shane's help
Becky Lynch (C) vs Lacey Evans for the Raw Women's Title: Becky Lynch retains
Seth Rollins (C) vs Baron Corbin for the Universal Title: Seth Rollins retains
Kofi Kingston (C) vs Dolph Ziggler for the WWE Championship: Kofi Kingston retains
Samoa Joe (C) vs Ricochet for the United States Title: Samoa Joe retains
Tony Nese (C) vs Akira Tozawa vs Drew Gulak for the Cruiserweight Title: Drew Gulak wins
The New Day vs Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn: Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn win
Daniel Bryan and Rowan (C) vs Heavy Machinery for the Smackdown Tag Titles: Daniel Bryan and Rowan retain
That's it for this week's main roster stuff! If you're looking to find the new exclusive home of James Kayfabio on Twitter, you can follow me @jkayfabio for news, updates and some other silly stuff. And I'll have a column for all the happenings in NXT either later tonight or tomorrow!
Until next time, kids...
Well, it's another week of go-home shows for Raw and Smackdown Live and they're doing what they can to hype up the matches that are coming up for the Stomping Grounds PPV and creating some new matches for the card. So how did these shows shake out this week, and does the possibility exist that at least one of them was... actually... good?
Raw is generally the show to suffer the biggest creative drought and that's represented in a myriad of ways, and the tighter Smackdown Live is generally considered to be the better of the two because there's more in-ring storytelling for the lack of screen time that a show like Raw would be able to give to it, and good storytelling is often measured with the simple "show, don't tell" method of visual storytelling, but it's a rare thing for either show to do that. Vince's default is talking people to death rather than giving us compelling in-ring stuff. I know that every fight needs a good build, but there's a difference between building it in a way that's interesting and the Vince way.
But even a broken clock can be right twice a day, and maybe that's what happened this week on Raw!
There was a lot of iffy stuff on Raw, like the Becky Lynch/Lacey Evans promo and that's mostly on Evans, but Lynch is just not getting the same level of pops she was getting back around MITB. She still makes me laugh with some of the things she says, but I've been feeling the Vince creeping back into Becky's promos. Also I get that The Viking Raiders need to have some squashes, and I liked the idea of the look they shared with Daniel Bryan and Rowan on the ramp, but this is part of the same reason it took them so long to really gain any momentum for me during their time in NXT is that they have no choice but to make them look really dominant so they can't just feed them a team like Ryder and Hawkins or The B-Team or The Ascension at this time, and it's making them seem kind of boring, and based on the TakeOver matches that War Raiders have had, it seems that they need a really high-profile match to get them over. Speaking of which, where are The Ascension? Are they hurt? I ask because I'm seeing Hawkins and Ryder now chasing after R-Truth for the 24/7 Championship, so I'm always assuming that anyone who is on the undercard is after it.
And as much as it may seem like Seth Rollins is a true badass beating everyone who Baron Corbin approaches for being the special guest referee in their Universal title match on Sunday with a steel chair, it makes him look a little too desperate instead of a confident champ. I'm still terrified that Vince is going to pay Brock a million dollars to throw on a ref shirt and be the guest referee on Sunday for what is essentially a PPV that isn't much more than the Great Balls of Fire PPV from two years ago.
Also, if it isn't apparent by now, I don't know what to tell you, but this whole "Wild Card" thing just isn't even a thing any more. People are coming from different shows all willy-nilly and it's just a way that some of the big stars (or Shane) can appear on both shows to try to bump the ratings. At this point, I think it would be wiser to just reunify everything and do away with the brand split. If Smackdown Women's champ Bayley is fighting Alexa Bliss from Raw, I'd say that any kind of brand split is pretty much over with. And it'd be more palatable if they used this brand split to shine a light on people who aren't at the top of the card, but every week it's the same goddamn people. I'm not saying it's the right thing to do, but with all the craziness going on within the "Wild Card", it's probably the smart thing to do. Either unify or get rid of it.
And this one goes out to Drew McIntyre: please, for the love of Christ, stop with the "I will hurt you; I will physically assault you" shit, Vince. What the fuck do you think happens in a wrestling match? A tickle fight? Matches are all about pain and physical assault. So just sttaaaaaaahpp.
The match between Rollins and Daniel Bryan should have been one of those dream matches that you would use to anchor a PPV with, so to use it as a main event for Raw was a little... unusual, and I wished that I had enjoyed that match a little more. First of all, I'm not a fan at all of Rollins using The Stomp on Bryan. It's not like the fucking guy retired due to concussions. I would have preferred he out-wrestled Bryan instead, or just end it with the schmozz we all knew was coming anyway with Corbin attacking Rollins with a chair. And it just didn't have the cool factor that a match like that should have had. This should have been a war, but in the end, it just felt like another good Raw match.
Aside from those issues, I had the most fun watching Raw this week than I have in many many moons. The Fatal 5-Way for the #1 Condender for Samoa Joe's US title was really fun to watch, even if they had Ricochet overdo it a little with the 630's. I wouldn't have minded a shooting star press or a 450 splash for a pinning predicament. But Ricochet looked like a million bucks, and I think they're going to ride that train for as long as they can. I'm sure Joe will retain because again, too much of a hot potato, but Ricochet is still headed for some gold in the not-too-distant future. He's just way too much fun to watch to keep in the former Finn Balor position (comes out for a big pop, has a really solid match, but never really has any rivalries that are any good, and doesn't win gold).
The story they're telling with Nikki Cross and Alexa Bliss is keeping me glued to my seat. It's one of the only stories told within the Women's division that's working at all right now. And Alexa marshaling all the manipulative powers at her command to think she's doing all these great things for Nikki is just golden. This is why I enjoyed the Women's Tag title match between those two and The IIconics. It wasn't a great match, but it was telling a really solid story by trying to make Bayley look like the real villain here, and it just works.
The match between The New Day and Corbin, Owens and Zayn was a hoot as well, and I'm frankly kind of shocked that they're keeping Kofi looking as strong as they have been. And it began in tremendous fashion as Big E was playing WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S with a mostly dead EC3 (thanks to chair shots by Rollins) in order to have the match made official. I just wish they had followed through and used EC3 as the actual in-ring ref. That would have made me blow a lung from laughing, if only from the meta angle of how misused or under-used EC3 has been since he was called up from NXT.
And it's been coming for a while, but I'll be damned if my favorite part of the show wasn't Roman fucking up The Revival, Drew and especially Shane. They painted Drew as a mega-heel already, but he really got heat when he beat the shit out of his poor former 3MB cohort Heath Slater. So that beatdown from Roman felt not only necessary but it felt good, even if it wasn't the kind of good that they wanted me to feel. I just wanted someone to heat the holy shit out of Shane.
Heck, I even enjoyed A.J. giving Gallows and Anderson the business about how complacent they've become (they're just not being booked, A.J., but thanks for keeping up the kayfabe!) and the match they had against The Usos. The Club still came up short, but I'm thinking this is either a build-up for bigger things or it's just a whole bunch of nonsense setting up the three of them with Triple H for their shows in Japan. While I'm on the subject of that, how in the living fuck did they screw that up? You have A.J. Styles. You have Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson. And then you have... Triple H. How could you possibly leave Finn out of that? Finn is the man NJPW picked to start the fucking Bullet Club, yet he's not part of this. Sorry; I'm just super fucking annoyed at that.
Again, though, I had a good time watching Raw this week. I don't know if it's just that they had good segments, or were trying to tell good stories and actually succeeding, or if my personal bar for enjoyment of Raw has been defaulted to such a low elevation that anything that makes it more bearable automatically equals "good".
Smackdown had some really terrific moments, but still felt stale. The match between Ziggler and Xavier was really good, though. First off, it was booked well, and most importantly, it's really shining a light on how Woods is not someone to write off as a comedy act and really can go in the ring. The military press he did on Dolph was really damn impressive, and I've really liked his in-ring ability for a while now. I don't know if they're going to actually break up New Day any time soon, but it would make sense only to give Big E and Woods their singles runs.
Then there was the promo moment of the week where Miz called out Shane for taking TV time away from other, more deserving (read: literally anyone else) competitors. I popped like a motherfucker for that moment. I felt like someone in Creative had been reading these columns. Despite the fact that it led to another beating for Miz, it's at least clear that this rivalry isn't done yet.
Backstage moment of the week was the return of Kabuki Warriors (Asuka and Kairi Sane... remember them?) with Paige to announce to The IIconics that they were going to have a match with them in Japan that if they win, they're going to get the opportunity to take them on in a title match and to see Kairi and Asuka strike the "IIconic" pose was worth it.
Moment of Bliss was terrific as well because it's continuing the saga of Alexa and Nikki vs Bayley. As I stated earlier, I'm 100% in for this story.
Heavy Machinery essentially squashing The B-Team only really worked because of Daniel Bryan on commentary. I loved how knowledgeable Bryan was about Tucky and Dozer and how he wanted them to be actual wrestlers instead of being clowns. I don't know about any of you, but the match that Otis had against Tommaso Ciampa back on NXT was so damn good. It showed that Dozer could actually really go and he's not just a one-trick pony. He really stood his ground against Ciampa but of course this is the main roster, and the best way to sell merch for a team like Heavy Machinery is to first make them a kind of comedy act and then, if they get over, eventually put them in matches where they have to work like their lives depend on it, much like New Day. Or they could keep them as a comedy tag team and they'll go the way of most of the other comedy tag teams.
And the Two out of Three Falls tag match between Kofi and Seth vs Sami and KO was a real head-scratcher as far as booking was concerned. I don't understand why they would set up this stipulation and have the champs win without getting the heels at least one win. I don't know if it was an issue with the show running long or what, but that was not a great match. It made the champs seem almost too dominant without a single flaw. They couldn't have found a way to make this a tiny bit suspenseful? I just didn't really get into this at all. I'm also not sure how much longer they can keep this worldbeater shine on Kofi. When he was only part of New Day, he took a lot of L's and now he can't be beaten. Are they trying to initiate a heel turn where Kofi says he's better now than he was as a full-time member of New Day, or is this just ultra-dominant champion booking? I'm not sure, but I have a sense that he's not going to be keeping this title for much longer. He just has to lose to someone important that isn't Shane.
Also, a lot of love goes out to Andrade who lost his mother a few weeks back and then his aunt this week. My heart just breaks for him. And for once, WWE does the right thing by giving him some time. I know he popped in to wreck Apollo Crews backstage, but unless he feels like getting back in the ring quickly, don't make him.
As far as Hopes and Predictions for Stomping Grounds (I know that's why you came), I'm honestly not super into this PPV so I'm just going to give my predictions, and here we go:
Bayley (C) vs Alexa Bliss for the Smackdown Women's Title: Bayley retains
Roman Reigns vs Drew McIntyre: Drew McIntyre wins with Shane's help
Becky Lynch (C) vs Lacey Evans for the Raw Women's Title: Becky Lynch retains
Seth Rollins (C) vs Baron Corbin for the Universal Title: Seth Rollins retains
Kofi Kingston (C) vs Dolph Ziggler for the WWE Championship: Kofi Kingston retains
Samoa Joe (C) vs Ricochet for the United States Title: Samoa Joe retains
Tony Nese (C) vs Akira Tozawa vs Drew Gulak for the Cruiserweight Title: Drew Gulak wins
The New Day vs Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn: Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn win
Daniel Bryan and Rowan (C) vs Heavy Machinery for the Smackdown Tag Titles: Daniel Bryan and Rowan retain
That's it for this week's main roster stuff! If you're looking to find the new exclusive home of James Kayfabio on Twitter, you can follow me @jkayfabio for news, updates and some other silly stuff. And I'll have a column for all the happenings in NXT either later tonight or tomorrow!
Until next time, kids...
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