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| Match of the week! No shock here though. Photo Credit: WWE.com |
Matches
Ricky Mandell and Hector Canales vs. Sindarin and Lucha Machine on NWA Hollywood - Nice tag match between two stylistically different teams. The bigger team of Mandell and Canales kept Sindarin isolated nicely in the beginning. A lot of great quick tags and big moves. The lucha comeback wasn't as good as I would have liked it, but that was made up for by the tag psych and by the luchadors bumping for the big guys.
Austin Aries vs. Scorpio Sky, Best of Five Series Match 5, on NWA Hollywood - Great match with a baffling if interesting finish. I thought the action was good. Aries is such a master showman, and he was in full form here. I like Sky playing the plucky underdog, which is a role that suits him. The flash pin sequence towards the end was great, and the finishing sequence, while not really feeling the cap to a feud-ending blowoff match, was good, with Aries injuring his leg on the 450 miss, leading into Sky beating him with his own Figure 8 submission hold. Aries tapping out should have been the end, but Sky flipped his shit and we got a reprisal of the old Bret Hart/Jerry Lawler finish from SummerSlam '93, where Sky locked back in the submission hold (after Aries had tried to hit him with a chair, missed and begged off mind you) and wouldn't let go. The ref reversed the decision. I can't say it was a bad way to end the match if you looked at it as a self-contained match within a feud, but I think if you have a five-match series, the final one should definitely be the topper to a feud. That's just me. I'm a bit perplexed and a bit nonplussed by the decision, but then again, NWA Hollywood has been the goods so far, so I will give them the benefit of the doubt here. I just hope they're not getting too greedy.
Darren Young vs. Titus O'Neil on NXT - I guess if you wrestle each other a million times, one of them should be good. As with most rookie/rookie matches, this felt very basic, but it was fundamentally sound. I liked the story told here, and the finish, with Young getting rolled up after missing a running big boot, was well-done.
William Regal vs. Jacob Novak on NXT - Regal got himself a birthday present with a feature match and win on NXT. Good little match with Regal teaching Novak a lesson both in and out of storyline. Novak has some potential, but this was all Regal here.
Tyson Kidd vs. Trent Barretta on Superstars - So, Michael PS Hayes is now Kidd's manager? AWESOME. Kidd needs a manager to get to the next level, and I'm glad they put him with one of the best talkers ever. As for the match, it was good, probably a notch below their match two weeks ago, but it was still good. I liked the finishing sequence into the sharpshooter as well. I'm glad that they resisted the urge to have Hayes interfere for the finish at first. Barretta is a guy Kidd should be beating on a low-card Superstars match. Good establishing victory that hopefully will be a launching point for bigger and better things for Kidd (and hopefully longer, more impactful matches on Smackdown and/or PPV!).
Zack Ryder vs. Vladimir Kozlov on Superstars - Fun little match. You know, I know Ryder gets a lot of props for his web show, but seriously? He does everything so well in the ring too. I mean, from begging off Kozlov in the beginning of the match to the seamless counter of Kozlov's corner flurry with the knee into bumping hard outside the ring... why exactly isn't the WWE giving him a bigger stage? Well, hopefully, with being reunited with Curt Hawkins, it'll mean something bigger for both guys.
Chris Masters vs. Drew McIntyre on Superstars - And after two matches full of angle advancing appetizers, here's the wrestling feast. Great match focusing on the leg of Masters with some really vicious offense from McIntyre. He even busted out the ringpost figure four, one of my favorite spots on the outside. Turnabout was fair play, as Masters was able to weaken the shoulder with a fling to the post, setting up the Master Lock. Really good match.
Sangriento vs. Suicide on Impact - Better match than what they had last week. Even though everything about the circumstances around this match don't appeal to me (Red and Daniels forced to work double duty, Sangriento only being a character as a direct response to Sin Cara coming to WWE), the match was pretty good. I like Sangriento's finisher.
Sin Cara vs. Daniel Bryan on Smackdown - The first match on Smackdown was a doozy, wasn't it? Amazing match that showcased the pure adrenaline rush offense of Sin Cara and the versatility of Bryan. Cara really has taken to the WWE style of selling well in such a short time, which to me is way more important than any "botches" he may do. Bryan was again on point with his offense and counters. There were two examples of this. One was when Bryan had Cara in the Mexican surfboard and then segued into a pin hold in the style of the finish of a bridging German suplex. The second was a counter out of the handspring elbow drop into a LeBell Lock attempt. I want to get into the finish though, because it was the weak part of the match. The Chavo interference worked, because it helped protect Bryan as well as advanced the budding angle between Chavo and Cara. What I didn't like was that again, it took a really long time for Cara to hit the Spanish Fly again. There wasn't the obvious flub of it like there was in the Primo match, but I think he's got to hit it cleaner or choose another finish... like maybe La Mistica? Either way, it was the lone black spot on the match, but I don't even think it was that bad. Very fun display between two face wrestlers who can get in there and put on a good show.
Cody Rhodes vs. Ted DiBiase on Smackdown - I thought it was a bit shortish, and I would have loved to have seen a post-match angle to jump-start a feud between the two, but it was a good match for what it was. DiBiase is a much better worker than what he's allowed to show. I liked him doing that cool running Oklahoma roll type move. Decent sprint.
Randy Orton and Christian vs. Sheamus and Mark Henry on Smackdown - Good main event match. Christian did the face in peril well, and Orton took the hot tag well. I liked the finish too, with the blind tag and the teamwork at the end. They really did good damage control from last week, although really, the damage wasn't with the quality of the show and rather it was just the decision.
Shows
NWA Hollywood - Solid show this week, built around the top match and feud between Sky and Aries. My issues with the main event finish aside, I thought this was solid if unremarkable. A lot of promos, which can be good, and a really good recap of the best of series between the two main event players. I also think it's interesting that NWA Hollywood seems to be a place where people go and work out of the normal alignment. Allison Danger is one example that you might cite, but she's had heel experience (plus, being related to Steve Corino, heeldom is in her genes). I'm talking more about Candice LaRae, Portia Perez and now Ares, who wrestled as Marco Scarzetti, all wrestling out of their normal alignments in PWG, SHIMMER and Chikara, respectively. It's interesting, but I like the dynamic. It makes NWA Hollywood feel like it really is an island unto itself, which sometimes, can be lost in the indie wrestling multiverse.
NXT - Solid episode this week. The silly challenge was kept to a minimum, although the recaps en masse were not. Ugh, but then again, with six rookies, how else are you going to flesh out 40 minutes? Oh yeah, maybe letting them cut promos. Oh well. Still, some solid wrestling action, good backstage segments, and William Regal in action. Decent, maybe the best show I've seen since I started watching again.
Superstars - So, not only are we getting great wrestling, but they're also throwing us angle advancement too? Hayes joining Kidd and the reunion of the Edgeheads are both pretty big deals to me at least. Superstars is becoming must-see TV, even as it's languishing on the Internet rather than being on television.
Impact - I'll commend them. After announcing that "wrestling mattered", they focused the entire second hour towards a battle royale. However, it's going to take a lot more than one hour of programming to convince me that TNA is on the right track. Hiring Chyna is discouraging. Setting up Hogan and co. vs. Foley doesn't excite me either. We'll have to see where they go with the next set of tapings, but yeah, until then, it's skepticism.
Smackdown - You know, if all you need to do to get a rampant push where you get to do and say what you want and get heat on everyone without taking a payoff, all you have to do is call a co-worker a "faggot" on Twitter. Seriously, ever since then, Michael Cole has gotten almost no comeuppance, and he's gotten two PPV wins, despite the fact that his act has been wearing thin. It's just baffling. I'm tired of seeing him run down the Divas, getting heat on Jerry Lawler and getting over on people without taking so much as a slap to the face. If he doesn't get his ass kicked at Over the Limit, then I don't know what I'm gonna do because I'm not going to sit here and make empty promises that I won't keep like some of the flakier of the smarks out there.
Anyway, other than that, Smackdown was a solid show. A lot of wrestling, some good character building, even the Jinder Mahal/Great Khali stuff was okay. It looks like there's going to be a lot of stories to be told, and I like that. I just hope that they scale back on the recaps a bit and really commit to building a good roster of a lot strong stories going on. AT the top of the card, I can dig the dynamic of a face challenger in Christian going against the face Champion of Orton. I think fans want to have a choice of who to root for, and the respect angle feels fresh in WWE. Good stuff.
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