A Sub-Par Week for Wrestling, a GREAT Week for Wrestling Fans.

In truth, last week had the first three wrestling broadcasts of the year, TNA Impact and WWE’s Main Event and Smackdown. I am not going to cover Main Event regularly. I didn’t cover Impact and Smackdown because I decided to launch my coverage with Monday Night Raw.

This week was the first full week of 2014, and a sub-par week for wrestling broadcasts.

How can I title this post ‘A Poor Week for Wrestling, a GREAT Week for Wrestling Fans?’ Hypocritical, isn’t it? Contradicts itself? Yes and No.

This was a poor week for actual wrestling, and by that, I mean Impact and Raw and their promos and matches. Smackdown as better by far then the other two.

So, how could it still be a GREAT week for Wrestling Fans? Two simple reasons: The return of Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts and the announcement of the WWE Network, both of which I will cover below.

TNA IMPACT

Thursday, January 9, 2014

This week’s TNA was hyped up big time for the Title v Title match between Magnus and AJ Styles. This match should have been the focus of the night. It should have been an epic encounter to either turn Styles into a bigger star, or put over Magnus and make him into a legit main eventer and credible champion.

However, that didn’t happen. As I wrote on my Facebook page during the show, whoever booked this entire edition of Impact needs to go to . . .

The entire broadcast was dedicated to the main event, in the worse possible way. The only real match was Kurt Angle versus Bad Influence inside a steel cage, which was good considering the three men involved.

Every other match was a joke, as was the entire broadcast. Impact was booked, seemingly, to remove AJ Styles for TNA and remove the ‘friends’ of AJ. Every person on the roster considered a friend of AJ (except for Sting) was eliminated for the night, to prevent them from helping AJ in his match against Magnus.

A match that was made NO DQ by Dixie and which became the biggest non-match I can remember seeing. The match to crown the ‘undisputed’ TNA World Champion essentially became a gang up on AJ with Magnus winning without lifting a finger.

The Bro Mans, Zema Ion, EC3, RockStar Spud, Bad Influence and Bobby Roode all interfered and helped Magnus win. Sting tried to help AJ, but in the end was forced to watch Magnus get the easy pin.

What was the point of this match? Hell, the entire broadcast? It seemed like it was designed for one thing – remove AJ from TNA. Is AJ really gone, or just a storyline that looks legit with him doing indie and ROH dates?

How does this put over Magnus? Does it get him massive heel heat? Does it get the fans to hate him? No, to putting him over. Yes to heel heat and fans hating him – but not in a good way. Fans are going to hate that all this was done to put over Magnus and have him shoved down our throats.

They will have good reason to hate this, too. It’s stupid.

The only way to salvage this debacle is a company-wide feud with the ‘friends of AJ’ against Dixie and cronies. And that will only work two ways: 1) if AJ comes back to be the leader, 2) if someone new is elevated by the feud.

The problem with that scenario is how often have we seen that in TNA over the last few years?

I am just glad that Austin Aries was nowhere on this broadcast.

There was one good moment, and it had nothing to do with the AJ/Magnus match. That moment was the funeral home promo with Anderson and Bully. I like where Bully is going, and how both men are seeking revenge on each other. This is a match I want to see next week.

I will end this by paraphrasing something AJ said to Dixie at the opening of Impact: “Dixie, you know nothing about wrestling.”

Rating: * (out of 10)

Final Thought: With everything going wrong with TNA, performers not being paid, rumors of a sale, losing money on Live Impact Broadcasts, one would think they would do something special with this match. Rather, they slap the fans in the face.

This should have been a PPV Main Event, or at least Genesis.

It should have been a traditional match with two men fighting tooth and nail, near falls, great emotion, with the story that neither man can find a way to beat the other. This could have put both men over and would have been much more positive for Magnus.

Instead, we witnessed what I believe to be one of the worst wrestling broadcasts in history.

 WWE RAW

Old School Raw

Monday, January 6, 2014

Old School Raw saw the appearance of numerous legends. Most of these legends we see on a regular basis and regularly appear on these Old School broadcasts. Indeed a good many of them work for the WWE (IRS, New Age Outlaws, Slaughter, Arn Anderson, ect.).

It was nice to see Too Cool and Rikishi appear, and actually have a match! It was also nice to see the Outlaws in action – if not in a match.

For the most part it was a sub-par show with a decent match with the Rhodes versus The Real Americans, a should have been a show-stealing Piper’s Pit segment, a really good main event with Punk versus Reigns and a show-stealing return of Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts.

The biggest problem with the broadcast is that it should be called ‘Legends Night’ rather than ‘Old School.’ Maybe, just maybe use the legends in better segments, rather than nothing cameos.

I, and I think a number of people would agree with me, would rather see a ‘Old School’ Raw that would see old school style booking and matches. That meaning more epic, hard and edgy matches with blood and sweat. Something akin to the Attitude Era, or the ’80’s styles epic matches.

There were some bright spots on raw. Goldust was one of them. How good is Goldust at his age and not having wrestled a regular schedule in a few years? He is out performing and schooling guys half his age. Even more Goldust is performing maneuvers he never did before, even when he was Cody’s age. It’s just amazing.

Roman Reigns, a lot of people have been high on him for a while. I have never been a big fan, Rollins is the best of the Shield, That said, Monday night I finally saw something from Reigns. He hung with the much better CM Punk and looked good. Perhaps Reigns will become what some people think, but he still needs time to develop. The worst thing they can do is push him to fast.

Reigns’ Superman Punch move needs to be his finisher. I like it. It’s exciting and he can pull it out of anywhere without it being set up, and with his size and strength it is believable. But, I still want to see him do a power bomb by himself.

Jake ‘The Snake’ is back! Hopefully not for just the night. Maybe this will lead into his long wanted Rumble appearance. Either way, seeing one of my top ten favorites back, and seeing him look good and healthy was an awesome appearance.

Jake never said a word, never even touched anyone, but the way he walks, his face, his body language tells his story. Of course, there was the snake as well. But this segment proved how the right person can pull off an impact without saying a word.

However, the crowd sucked, even if there was a nice DDT chant for a moment.

Rating: *****

WWE Smackdown

Friday, January 10, 2014

My overall thoughts on Smackdown will be brief compared to Raw and Impact. This is not a bad thing. In truth, the show was fairly good, even if there was no major impact moments.

Unlike both Raw and Impact there were actual wrestling matches on Smackdown! That automatically makes it the best show of the week.

The biggest bright spot of the night for me was Big E Langston’s performance, even in a loss he continues to grow.

True, Smackdown lacked that Piper’s Pit, Ric Flair, Jake Roberts feel, but it made up for it in limited promos and more matches.

Rating: ******1/2

WWE NETWORK ANNOUNCEMENT

Wednesday, January 8^th

The WWE Network announcement wasn’t just the impact of the week; it could turn out to be the impact of the year. It is not often that something is promoted as ‘Game Changing,’ or will ‘Change the Future’ and actual lives up to it. This announcement delivered on that hype.

This has been written about relentlessly over the last three days, but I want to make a couple of quick comments. These comments are in response to two complaints I have seen people making on-line.

While the response has been overwhelming positive, I’ve seen two complains posted repeatedly.

Complaint One: Why isn’t this a regular cable channel, or pay cable channel like HBO, Showtime.

While that would have been nice as well, I wondering how many of these people know about all the fee, licenses and regulations cable channel have to go to just to launch? It isn’t cheap and can cost tens of millions of dollars just to start up.

Not to mention that channels have to make deals with each of the cable providers separately and try to get a good spot on the dial.

For the WWE Network, all you have to know is WWE.com. That’s it.

Also, the WWE Network will be doing On Demand of all programming. A single cable channel cannot do On Demand.

Going ‘Over the Top’ allows the network to be more than just a channel.

Complaint Two: I have read from people, following up on the other complaint, this is a screw job to the fans.

How? For $9.99 a month you will get ALL PPV and all of the WWE content. Is the 6-month commitment a little much?

If you watch Smackdown and Raw regularly, then you must have some access to cable and/or the internet. Which means you can access the WWE Network. Even if all you have is a Tablet, you can access the Network.

I don’t see how this is screwing the fans in any way. However, some people always have to find something to complain about.

My Picks Of The Week

Match of the Week: CM Punk versus Roman Reigns

Wrestler of the Week: Big E Langston

Broadcast of the Week: Smackdown

Impact of the Week: I want to give it to The Snake, but it has to go to the WWE Network.

Fail of the Week: TNA Impact.