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| It lived up to the hype and then some Photo Credit: WWE.com |
Matches
Allison Danger vs. Portia Perez on NWA Hollywood - This was so bizarre for me to watch, having seen them feud in SHIMMER with the roles completely reversed. Danger as the heel and Perez as the face blew my mind, but you know what? It worked, at least as a wrestling match it did. Perez's athleticism allows her to seamlessly work a babyface offense, and the size differential between the two made Danger's heeling work. Even at 23, Perez has this ring savvy that is far beyond her years. Great match, different from their blood-soaked SHIMMER blow-off, but still really good, a taste of things that are hopefully to come between the two in SoCal.
RockNES Monsters (Johnny Goodtime and Johnny Yuma) vs. the Cutler Bros. (Dustin and Brandon) on NWA Hollywood - This was different from their encounter a few weeks back, a little lesser in quality but still good. I thought the big brawl on the outside was good, but it was too long. The action on the inside seemed to suffer from the selling they had to do from the brawl, although Yuma was much improved this week. The Showcase Theater crowd deserves a big violation for starting a "This Is Wrestling!" chant. Ugh, leave that self-serving pap for the Impact Zone mutants. Anyway, decent finish, match had great heat, and these two teams have nice chemistry with each other.
Trent Barretta vs. Jey Uso on Superstars - This was a nice match. I knew Barretta had the goods, but this was the first time the usually bland Uso twin showed me anything. Well-paced, big bumps, nice stiffness on the thump by Uso to the corner, and a lot of really good nearfalls. Nice match.
Beth Phoenix vs. Melina on Superstars - I know the bar's set pretty low right now, but this was probably the best Divas match of the year to date. Seriously, just a confluence of all kinds of good elements bubbling to make a really neat, compact match. Melina bumped like a pinball when she had to, and her offense was really innovative, actually. Liked her draping Beth between the ropes and coming down across her babymaker with the double knees. The toss into the ringpost was good too, although I thought Beth might have gone in a little too easily given the size disparity. Melina's flexibility came into play in a good way, as Beth broke out the always-awesome "Why ya hittin' yourself?" spot with Melina's foot. Seriously, I don't think that spot would work with any other wrestler on the roster, male or female. I also really enjoyed the outburst towards the beginning, where Melina flipped out at Beth over a broken nail. Really fits her new bitchy heel character. The finish was great, with Melina missing on a kick, going into a split and then Beth deadlifting her into the Glama-Slam. Really, really strong match. Maybe there's hope for these Divas yet, but then again, Melina's strength has always been her bumping, and c'mon son, Beth Phoenix is fucking awesome.
Zack Ryder vs. Evan Bourne on Superstars - You know who's good at taking an ass-kicking? Evan Bourne. Seriously, he may be the best all-time at taking lumps and bumps, although I'll fully admit that could be hyperbole. This one was good all the way through. The chain wrestling at the beginning was tight and crisp, and it segued well into Ryder's heat. There were some big bumps here, ones that I was surprised Bourne agreed to take in succession, but it made Ryder look like a big bully. I liked it. Bourne really is one of the best complete workers on the roster right now, and the crowd is really into him. I feel like they want to be into Ryder too, but the WWE just keeps jerking him around. Either way though, fine, fine match.
Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan on Smackdown - These two have such great in-ring chemistry with each other, like Sheamus has with Morrison, only Bryan is, y'know, actually good ALL THE TIME. The real goods come at the end of this match with two awesome counters. The first was when Sheamus launched himself with a shoulderblock from the apron that Bryan SEAMLESSLY countered into the LeBell Lock. Seriously, there isn't a better worker on the planet than Bryan, no matter what style, and this was a perfect example. The other one was when Bryan leaped to the outside with a plancha attempt and Sheamus nailed him with a Brogue Kick. It wasn't as impressive as Bryan's counter, but it's like saying that Kelly Kelly isn't as hot as Layla. In the end, both are smoking hot and worthy of our praise. The look on Sheamus' face after he won was awesome. It's like Smackdown is his playground. I can dig that (sucka).
Sin Cara vs. Tyson Kidd on Smackdown - Guys, Sin Cara's gonna be alright in WWE. Solid, WWE-style junior heavyweight match. Cara looked good, so did Kidd. The non-botching of the Spanish Fly was a plus here. I liked Chavo on commentary. That's a program I could get behind.
Christian (c) vs. Randy Orton, World Heavyweight Championship match on Smackdown - I will have more on this match either tonight or tomorrow, on the impact and reaction, but as for the match itself, it was good, even with the disappointing end result. The story of the match was two veterans going to war, two guys who knew each other's spots, played defense, countered and just had a savvy trade-off with fighting out of signature spots. Orton looked better here than he has in the last year, Punk matches excepting. The finish, with no context, was great. Christian looked like he belonged, and it was a fitting main event for the show. With context? It's still super bittersweet to see a reign so short, because yes, I wanted to see Christian get to bask longer than his opening promo, but those are the breaks. It's annoying, VERY ANNOYING, but at least we got a great match out of it.
Shows
NWA Hollywood - Decent show. Again, they did a good job getting all the angles on TV and building them up. The two big matches - Danger/Perez and RockNES/Cutlers - delivered. I really like that they give time and build to newer guys, not just the Arieses and Pearces of the world, but the time with Aries, Cabana and the like on the stick is great too. This show should be on your radar if it's not already.
NXT - They didn't really do much of anything with it this week. Much like RAW, it ran in place a lot, which made sense seeing that they MAIN EVENTED the show with a recap of The Rock's birthday celebration. Again, it's not like there's probably almost complete overlap between NXT's audience with RAW's... oh wait, there probably is. Ugh. I actually was looking more forward to Regal/Novak this week instead of Regal/JTG. I'm over Hornswoggle as a guy who feuds with anyone anymore too. Weak.
Superstars - I *heart* Superstars. I think that's all I can really say about this show at this point. It seems like every week, or at least three times out of every four, they have just this nexus of solid undercard wrestling featuring hungry workers looking to carve any niche they can get with the live audience since they're not given angles on the big shows. I can dig that if it means solid wrestling each week.
Impact - The best part of this show, the only good part, was Miss Tessmacher's ass. Everything else was terrible. But that's the MO for Impact anymore. They follow up a good show with the drizzling shits. Oh well.
Smackdown - Okay, Christian losing is the elephant in the room, but looking at the bright side here, the show was ALL about him. I don't think that it played out as badly as it did in the spoilers because he got the opening promo, and he got to stand alone at the end, get a "thanks for playing" pop and have the camera be on him at the end rather than have it be all about Orton. To me, this felt interesting, even though yes, I am still kinda miffed that his moment in the sun got cut short and that as a card-carrying Peep, I was deprived seeing one of my favorite wrestlers basking in favor of putting the title back on a tired option (to me, that is). However, the show was all about him, and the other stuff that went down, the actual wrestling, the angle with the Corre is getting a bit better, even if I think it's been rushed. Seeing Kharma own people never gets old, and the fact that Alicia Fox tried feebly to attack her was just hilarious. Solid show this week.
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