Daniel Bryan shocked the World Mid-Afternoon on Monday (2/8), announcing his retirement from in-ring wrestling. That evening he was on RAW, in his home town (sort of), Seattle, Washington, to talk about his retirement.
He didn’t exactly do that though. Yes, he elaborated on his reasons for retirement. The multiple concussions, his brain not being as healthy as he thought, his family to think of. All very good reasons. I personally think he made the right choice. I have no inside track of his true medical diagnosis (no internet person does), but this is the brain we are talking about.
No, what Bryan Danielson “The American Dragon” talked about was his love of wrestling, and of life.
To be honest, Bryan look awkward out there, uneasy talking on the mic, as he always did. It wasn’t just this one, massively important, time. Anytime Bryan was in a ring and not wrestling he looked awkward and unsure.
In his farewell address he looked awkward, unsure of himself, bared himself and came off RAW and REAL.
Thanks, Bryan Danielson.
WRESMENTARY
Onto the comments for RAW
I wrote about it above, so I won’t comment much on it from a show standpoint. But we opened up the show with a video package on Bryan. The night was filled with them, as they should have been.
We open up the action in ring with a contract signing? At the beginning of the show? Wow.
Stephanie is in ring, trying to talk about her husband when Ambrose interrupts, then Reigns. When Stephanie seems to have control again, Heyman and Brock interrupt. Just as Heyman is about to go into his normal spiel, Stephanie cuts him down, and the bitch takes charge.
She makes it short and sweet and has everyone sign. It’s straight to the point. She grabs the contact, says her job is done and bails. Smart lady.
Ambrose not so much. A face to face with Lesnar gets Ambrose and Reigns laid out with a F5 and a table. Brock wins.
Ziggler and KO’s feud continues, with Ziggler again one-upping KO, using the ropes to gain a pin fall victory. This feud is on the verge of popping big time. They need a match at Fastlane, and build it up to a blow off at Mania.
Good Divas Match are a rare thing, and we weren’t given any on tonight’s show.
The MIZ. Jericho. Together. On the Mic. MIZ TV and HIGHLIGHTREEL? YES.
The MIZ-REEL segment was awesome. MIZ and Jericho are great on the mic, tore the place down with their chemistry and really did something special, once more putting AJ Styles over big time. AJ himself would eventually make his way down and clear the ring, putting himself over.
On Smackdown Ryback avoided destruction, tonight not so. Ryback feel to Bray.
The New Day cut a promo polishing a table in prepping for their main event tables match with the Usos and Dudleys. They play it up, but get upset with Renee when she asked if they have found a partner.
Big take away from this promo is this, the calculator Woods turned upside down and handed to Renee had 800835 (BOOBES). Seriously, check it out again and look at her reaction.
The Radical Mongoose (Adam Rose) beat the Florida Gator as Titus O’Neal fell prey to the Social Outcasts! Yea Outcasts! Best part of this, was a Rikki Tikki Tavi mention by Cole.
Dean Ambrose called out Brock Lesnar, only to get his ass handed to him. An appearance by Reigns distracted Lesnar long enough for Ambrose to down Lesnar with a low blow and make his escape side-by-side with Reigns. If this was Ambrose’s revenge, it was best left NOT DONE.
Sin Cara is back, just in time for the Lucha Dragons to lose to ADR and Rusev on RAW. ADR pinned Kalisto rather easily. Is this a sign that the US Title is coming home at Fastlane?
The Diva’s are slipping again, and badly. Proof of this, Tamina actually wrestled and won. She beat Becky in a terrible match and poor segment to further the Team Bed versus Banks/Lynch feud.
MAIN EVENT TIME: The Usos and the Dudley’s versus The New Day and their surprise partner Mark Henry! Great, if odd, choice.
The match was okay, but it wasn’t the story here. Dudley’s and Usos won the match after Mark Henry walked off. Henry walked off, upset that The New Day tried telling him what to do. Henry as their partner was odd since he’s been a face lately. Was this a turn for him?
Speaking of turns, after the match, Usos through tables! Dudley Boys put the Usos through the tables. Epic heel turn that is far overdue and that no one saw coming!
After this was DB, which I talked about above.
LOW POINT OF THE NIGHT: Becky Lynch versus Tamina
MATCH OF THE NIGHT: KO versus Dolph Ziggler
WRESTLER OF THE NIGHT: Dolph Ziggler
IMPACT OF THE NIGHT: Daniel Bryan’s retirement.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Overall an average show.
RATING: 6
SMACKDOWN
As usual, Smackdown was the best wrestling show of the week. Which is odd because, outside of Styles and Jericho, this was just an above average broadcast of Smackdown. Only three things of note come out of the show, and one of those things was the Retirement of Daniel Bryan.
Yes, Daniel Bryan – without him even on the show – was still a focal point of Smackdown.
The other two things to take away from this show are that Styles and Jericho are awesome and the Dudley’s have gone off the table.
Personally, I love that and think it is long overdue.
We were treated to AJ and Jericho twice tonight on Smackdown. Their second match was to kick off the show, but an interruption by the Social Outcasts led to a tag match: Styles/Jericho versus Axel/Rose. This was a nice match that saw Styles pin Rose in a games of one up-man-ship between Styles and Jericho.
Jericho and Styles went on to main event the show in a match of the year candidate. Styles/Jericho II far surpassed their first match. Can we have Styles/Jericho III at Mania please?
Everything else on the show was just filler.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Weak at points, and above average at best, saved by Styles and Jericho.
LOW POINT OF THE NIGHT: Neville and Lucha Dragons versus The Cosmic Wasteland.
MATCH OF THE NIGHT: AJ Styles versus Chris Jericho II
WRESTLER OF THE NIGHT: TIE AJ Styles and Chris Jericho
IMPACT OF THE NIGHT: Somehow the impact of the night was still Daniel Bryan’s retirement.
RATING: 6.5
TNA WRESTLING
IMPACT
I like Bram and EY, but they are idiots. Bram has Lashley beat, but instead of the win, he and EY planned to hit Lashley with the KOTM Title Belt. Bad move. Lashley ducked, speared EY then won the match.
No Raquel in sight.
Kurt Angel had promo time in the ring, and out came Mike Bennett and Maria for the interruption. Mike proceeded to put himself over and insult everyone. Angel took Bennett out with a clothesline, telling Bennett he doesn’t respect him.
Backstage, Beer Money plans on cashing in and becoming new Tag Champs.
Tigre Uno received his rematch for the X-Division Title, only to lose thanks to interference from Helms. Trevor Lee retained in an excellent match.
Beer Money hit the ring, calling out the Champs, but out came Decay. A match ensued that ended in a DQ with Beer Money down, and Janice in Abyss’s hand. The Wolves rush to the ring and make the save, armed with chairs.
The Wolves want their titles back, Decay want the titles. Next week they will battle over the titles in a Monster’s Ball match. Should be good.
NO!! Why is Grado on my TV? Why? He claims he was screwed by TNA and has proof. Thank you Eli Drake for running Grado off. Is Grado’s proof going to have something to do with Eli switching cases?
Ever since the Doll House debuted and became a center piece of the ladies of TNA, the Knockout Division has become the WWE Divas. Piss poor. The match between Jade and Madison just proved that the Doll House can’t hang.
It’s only going to get worse with Awesome Kong released.
Wow, what a Main Event. Kurt versus Drew saved this lackluster show.
Any good will the Main Event generated was sucked out of the Arena by an overlong segment with Matt Hardy demanding Dixie fire EC3. Matt Hardy got uncomfortable close to Dixie and out came . . . SPUD for the save.
SPUD stood up to Matt until Tyrus took him down.
CUE EC3. EC3 took out Tryus and Matt’s security, but Matt cowered away behind his wife.
The MAN is back.
LOW POINT OF THE NIGHT: TIE: Mike Bennett and The Doll House
MATCH OF THE NIGHT: Kurt Angle and Drew Galloway
WRESTLER OF THE NIGHT: Drew Galloway
IMPACT OF THE NIGHT: RETURN OF EC3
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Very Lackluster show, with a couple of good moments.
RATING: 5
FOR THE WEEK:
THOUGHTS:
An average week for the shows. Not bad, not good, just average.
However, we did get two early match of the year candidates.
LOW POINT OF THE WEEK: Mike Bennett and The Doll House
MATCH OF THE WEEK: AJ Styles and Chris Jericho II
WRESTLER OF THE WEEK: Drew Galloway
IMPACT OF THE WEEK: Daniel Bryan’s Retirement.
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