This week in WWE – All Filler, No Killer

Sure, my title might be a little harsh, but I can barely remember anything that happened this week.

Let’s start with…

Monday’s show came to us from Little Rock, Arkansas.  The best things about this episode were the bookend Fatal Four Ways between the Raw MitB participants.

The Meh Stuff

• Baron Corbin is the Constable of Raw, a lawman to act on Stephanie’s behalf.  Sure, I know this happened last week.  Either I wasn’t paying attention or I didn’t realize that this is a real job.  It seems ridiculous to me.  What is pretty great, is he called it and just chopped off his hair.  He looks good bald.
• Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler defeat Breezango.  I’m conflicted about this.  I do love both teams and it’s effective to have the former team dominate.  I just hate to see Dango and Ziggler get jobbed out.  Breeze was rocking a pretty thick beard.  Michele loved it but I’m not quite so sure…
• Roman Reigns defeated Sunil Singh because they realized that they can’t just give away the electrifying matchup of Roman Vs. Jinder for free on TV.
• The B-Team defeat Slater and Rhyno.  Remember when Slater and Rhyno were the first SmackDown Tag Team champions?
• Ruby Riott defeated Bayley and beat her down afterwards.  This actually wasn’t bad.  Ruby might be what’s needed to reinvigorate Bayley.  They just need to stop teasing a feud with Banks and just have Bayley be the sympathetic babyface.  Ruby is a good foil.
• Thanks to Matt.  I fast forwarded through the Coach in-ring interview with Nia and Ronda.  There’s no way I was going to listen to Coach for that long.  Curious way to get people excited about their matchup.  Ronda put us Nia in an armbar to end the segment.
• No Way Jose defeated Curt Hawkins despite his best effort.  Curt was in disguise in his conga line and tried the old Paul Smackage special.  He rolled him up real good…but not good enough.  Jose wins and the losing streak continues.

• Elias shows up with a sweet custom painted guitar.  Seth promptly destroys it.
• Sami Zayn challenged Bobby Lashley to an obstacle course.  It was…I can’t do this anymore.

The Good Stuff

• Women’s Fatal Four Way – Ember Moon on the main roster has been largely forgettable until this match.  She brought an intensity that I’m not entirely sure I’ve seen before from her.  She has great chemistry with Sasha Banks.  I’m looking forward to a single’s match between those two at some point down the line.  Ember hit her with a crazy looking suicide dive/cross body, slamming Sasha into the barrier.  Despite all this, the veteran took this match.  Natalya locked Alexa in the Sharpshooter for the Submission victory.

• Men’s Fatal Four Way –  Before this match started, KO knew he had a problem: Braun Strowman.  He pleaded with Roode and Finn to team up to take down the Monster Among Men.  Once in the ring, they actually did seem to cooperate for a bit.  Finn and Roode helped KO setup Braun on the announce table where he rocked him with a Frog Splash.  Back in the ring, Finn hit the Coup de Grace, Bobby hit the Glorious DDT, and KO hit another Frog Splash in an attempt to fell the monster.  It just wasn’t good enough.  Braun scooped up KO and hit the Running Powerslam…on a ladder.  Braun might have won, but is he still going to feel his injured ribs on Sunday?  Can KO lead the charge with 4 more allies to keep Strowman from grabbing the briefcase?

Tuesday’s Show came to us from Memphis, TN.  This show was fine.

• Paige started with a Women’s summit.  Like everything in WWE, it came to blows when the women who weren’t in the MitB match attacked that one’s who were.  Paige was possessed by Teddy Long’s ghost and setup SDL’s first 8 Woman tag team match for the main event.  Oh, you say Teddy Long isn’t dead?
• Daniel Bryan Vs. Shelton Benjamin is a match that happened.  DB submitted him with the heel hook.
• Jerry “The King” Lawler interviewed AJ.  Sure.  Ok.
• Jeff Hardy wins by Disqualification as Shinsuke hits The Enigma with a low blow.
• Asuka, Becky Lynch, Naomi, Lana & Charlotte Flair def. Carmella, Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville, Peyton Royce & Billie Kay.  It’s just to pump them up going into the MitB ladder match.
• Miz managed to insert himself as special guest refererree in the Samoa Joe and Rusev match.  There’s no secret that Samoa Joe’s new haircut is terrible Samoa Joe hates Miz.  This isn’t going to end well.  As Joe closed in an a victory, he ran into Miz, knocking him over.  With Rusev pinned, Miz refused to count.  Furious, Joe confronts Miz looking like he might disqualify himself.  That allowed Rusev just enough time to recover and hit a Matchka Kick for the win.  After the match, Miz climbed to the top of the ladder to retrieve the briefcase, only to find it filled with pancakes.  Foiled again.

Now it’s time to roll straight into 205 Live.  Matt will take over for this part:

We kicked off the most exciting hour on television with a prerecorded tongue lashing from DM the GM, furious about Itami getting involved in last week’s main event between Murphy and Ali.  Itami, we find out, is banned from participating on 205 Live for the evening.

Lucha House Party defeated Drew Gulak, The Brian Kendrick and Gentleman Jack Gallagher via a roll up.  The match was good, but not really much of anything you haven’t already seen.  Some great lucha spots here, and Gulak putting more of his technical prowess on display.

Akira Tozawa defeats a local talent.  This was not a usual squash match.  The jobber actually held his own for a rather lengthy amount of time for a 205 Live match.

Mustafa Ali defeated Tony Nese with Cedric Alexander and Buddy Murphy in the respective corners.  This was a good one, and I always appreciate when Nese is given a chance to shine opposite a consistent talent like Ali.  Post match, Ali responds to Maverick saying that if he really wants to give the people what they want, just make it a triple threat match between himself, Buddy Murphy and Hideo Itami.  The GM obliges and the match is set for next week.  Stay in the building Chicago.  Between the three of them, this should be a fantastic match.

Finally, we go to Full Sail “University” for NXT in Orlando, FL.

• The War Raiders defeat Ricky Martinez and Justin Storm.  The thing that bothers me about the War Raider is that they felt super distinct in New Japan. There was nothing else on that roster like them.  In NXT, they seem just like another gimmick team.  We’re still in the early days of their NXT run.  Hopefully they can figure something out.
• This episode is full of hype pieces in preparation for Takeover.  Gargano/Ciampa and the Woman’s Championship packages were especially good.
• EC3 defeated local talent Kasius Ohno in an OK match.  I know both these dudes can deliver better.
• Bianca Belair destroyed Aliyah.  She also set up a match against Dakota Kai, wearing a sweet Rick & Morty shirt.  I’m excited to watch that next week on NXT.
• Aleister Black came cuts a promo claiming he’s not afraid of Lars Sullivan…then Lars shows up and hits him with his finisher.
• Pete Dunne defended the UK Championship in an excellent, PPV-level match against Kyle O’Reilly.  Amazing work from both men.  The crowd was on fire for this match too.  If you watch nothing else from this week, watch this match.

That’s it for this week.  I’m really looking forward to the shows for this weekend.  It’s going to be a good one.