by Luke Leonetti
Raw (11/16/15): Raw starts out with the entire roster out on the entrance ramp. On the titantron above, a picture of the peace sign with the Eiffel Tower is shown. The arena then joins in a moment of silence for all the victims of the terrorist attacks that happened in Paris on Friday. After this moment of silence, our show begins. The entire arena goes dark, and ominous chanting begins while several (very small) druids walk out on the entrance ramp. Suddenly, a gong strikes. Fire erupts from the stage as The Undertaker and Kane make their way to the ring. Once they get there, they begin to talk about their upcoming match against the Wyatt Family this Sunday at Survivor Series. Taker taunts Bray Wyatt, saying that his evil and darkness is no match for The Undertaker’s. After this, the Wyatt Family come out, and warn the Brothers of Destruction about their evil. Bray tells Undertaker to watch out, and the lights come on. The druids are now wearing sheep masks (sign of the Wyatt’s), and attempt to attack them. However, Kane and Undertaker throw them out of the ring with ease. After this segment, our matches start. Tonight will be the quarterfinals of the world title tournament (Seth was injured at a house show in Dublin, and was forced to vacate the title). The first match is Kevin Owens against Neville. Both men are very eager to move on, and they throw everything at each other. Neville seems even more excited, as his offense is ridiculous. We’re talking about 450 splashes, corkscrew planchas, and moonsaults galore. One awesome spot is with Kevin dodging a 450 splash, only to be rolled up via sunset flip. Oh yeah, and we have this ridiculous reverse spike-rana thing. Kevin is also tossing Neville around like a doll at some points, and he wins after pinning Neville with a pop-up powerbomb; now advancing to the semi-finals. Next, we get a short time-filling match of Tyler Breeze (remember him from my last review? Well, he’s on the main roster now) versus R-Truth. Nothing much is notable, except for when R-Truth blatantly misses a leg-drop on Breeze, which leads to confusion among the announcers. Also, it’s very funny how Tyler takes a time-out halfway through to put on some chapstick. Tyler wins, making this is 2nd main-roster match and first victory (he lost to Dean last week). Next, we have another match high on the fun factor: Dean Ambrose vs Dolph Ziggler. This match is, once again, filled with energy. My favorite part is when Dolph tries to hit Dean with a running crossbody while Dean tries to hit a clothesline on Dolph. They both collide with each other, and it looks like it really hurts. Dean wins via pinfall, and afterwards, grabs a microphone. In a mixture between exhaustion and excitement, Dean starts talking about what WWE will be like when he becomes champion, saying there will be more action, less talking, and “Michael Cole will be replaced by a fishtank”. Ok, then. Now, another time-filling match. The New Day comes out to the ring doing their obnoxious struts and taunts. While talking about the newly returned Uso’s, Big E begins mocking Jey’s shoulder injury (“When I say ‘USE’, you say ‘OW’! USE! OW! USE! OW!”). This sets up a 6 man tag match of the Uso’s and Ryback versus The New Day. At one point, Jey tries to tag in Ryback, but the ref fails to see this, and sends Ryback back out on the apron. Angered at seeing his team-mate getting hurt, Ryback steps back into the ring. When the ref tries to get Ryback out, he shoves him out of the way, causing a disqualification. After this, the Uso’s and Ryback get revenge on the New Day by attacking them afterwards. Nice booking there, Raw! You combined 3 segments into 1: New Day, 6 man tag match, and DQ finish at once! Next, the best match of the night! It’s Cesaro vs. Roman Reigns in a quarter-finals match. Roman comes to the ring in front of a red-hot crowd, and talks about the match coming up. It’s the same thing he always does, so I won’t dive into that much. Cesaro walks into ring, and the match begins. All I could say was “Wow”. These 2 guys are looking great tonight, and are really giving it all they’ve got. Reigns isn’t looking bad, Cesaro is in great shape, it’s perfection that lasts for 20 minutes. Near-falls are everywhere, and even a sharpshooter that turns into a crossface is unable to keep Roman down. Reigns is hitting all of his moves again and again, but he can’t keep Cesaro down. Plus, Cesaro really is turning into Superman. I mean, he’s doing these flying uppercuts and Cesaro Swings and even cartwheels. CARTWHEELS, for God’s sake! I could go on, but I have space limits here, so I’ll just finish it with Roman winning after a fantastic contest. Both men look strong tonight. But that’s where the good ends. Alberto Del Rio vs. Kalisto is something awkward. Ever since his return, ADR has been working kind of lazy with his opponents, and is saddled with a stupid gimmick called Mexamerica (combining Mexico and U.S.A for some sludgy nonsense). Kalisto is working one of his few singles matches, and is very careful (not in a good way) with his opponents. So this match is just sloppy. Most of the spots are botched, and both guys aren’t looking very happy to be with each other. Oh yeah, and by accident, ADR removes Kalisto’s mask, and has to spend more time putting it back on. ADR does win in only 10 minutes, but it feels like it’s forever. You may be wondering how there haven’t been any diva segments in this show. Well, that’s been saved for the main event. A contract signing for a Diva’s Title match between Paige and Charlotte Flair. It’s a big deal how women are main-eventing programming, and it brings legitimacy to the division. Charlotte is talking about how she and Paige come from the same background, as they were born into wrestling, and that no matter what, the family fought hard for their dream, including her deceased brother Reid This speech is very emotional, and Charlotte even sheds a tear. Then Paige turns it from a touching moment to an angry one by saying this: “No Charlotte, you’re wrong. Because your little brother didn’t have much fight in him, did he?” This heartless comment about Reid angers Charlotte so much that she attacks Paige. Raw then ends after a brawl between the two, showing Charlotte and Paige being held back by security as the screen goes black. Raw was actually good this week. We did have a bad match, but it’s getting easier to watch. I can’t wait for Survivor Series.
NXT (11/18/15): Time for some of WWE’s developmental roster to shine! This episode starts out with the Staten Island Princess Carmella going against Nia Jax (remember her from my last article?). Carmella puts up some good offense against Jax, but is nevertheless squashed by her. Next, we get a preview of our main event: Bayley vs Alexa Bliss for the Women’s Title.Alexa’s team of Blake and Murphy are banned from ringside to prevent any shenanigans. Our next match is Chad Gable and Jason Jordan against main roster team The Ascension. I honestly think the Ascension shouldn’t have left NXT, because the reaction they get here is far more superior than the nothing they get on Raw. I also think that Chad and Jason have the best singlets ever:
You can’t make that up. Anyway, in a great match-up, Jason and Chad win after hitting Grand Amplitude on Viktor. Next is Emma vs indie wrestler Mary Kate. Another squash, Emma wins after making Mary Kate tap out to the Emma Lock. Finally, our main event. Bayley is very fun to watch, most of which comes from how popular she is. The entire crowd is singing “Ayy, we want some Bayley!”, everyone mimics her entrance, and she even has a super-fan: Izzy. She’s very crowd-engaging. Anyway, Alexa is doing the classic heel diva al-a Fabulous Moolah. She’s pulling hair, slapping, and tossing Bayley around. In fact, Alexa is actually dominating Bayley, since she’s selling her attacks like they really hurt. But, Bayley manages to turn things around, and pins Alexa after a Belly-to-Bayley suplex. Bayley celebrates her victory, but it is cut short when Eva Marie walks down to the ring. She announces that she will be facing Bayley for the title next week, and Bayley better be ready. This was a surprisingly boring episode of NXT. I hope it improves next week.
Survivor Series (11/22/15)- This event happened to have rumors saying that ISIS was planning to attack the arena, but nothing like that happened. Our dark match was a traditional 5 on 5 elimination bout. I’m surprised that what usually main-events SS was on the pre-show,but whatever. The heel team was The Miz, Bo Dallas, and The Cosmic Wastelands (Stardust and The Ascension), and they went against Neville, The Dudley Boyz, Titus O’Neil, and Goldust. Goldust’s return was a surprise, since he was injured back in May. The match was pretty good, and was actually the longest on the card. Goldust and Stardust had some moments, but they were relatively away from each other during the match. This could be to start a feud between the brothers, which everybody has wanted for years. The babyface team won the match. It’s weird how Neville was the only babyface eliminated, since they could have easily done a clean sweep match, but I’m not mad. After this match, our show actually begins. In response to the supposed ISIS threats, Lillian Garcia sings the National Anthem. Then comes our first televised match: Roman vs Alberto Del Rio. Although ADR seemed uncomfortable last week, he’s loosened up a bit. Him and Roman have a fast paced, fun match. Roman wins, and moves on to the finals. The same thing goes for our next semi-final match of Dean Ambrose vs Kevin Owens. Kevin dominates most of this, and just to prove how evil he is, he rips Dean’s wifebeater off of his chest. But Dean perseveres, and moves on to the main event. Next is another inexplicable SS elimination match. It’s Ryback, The Usos, and The Lucha Dragons vs The New Day, King Barrett, and Sheamus. Xavier’s new hair style is ridiculous. He looks like a bad Elvis impersonator. Anyway, this match is a little more well-rounded, so we don’t get a clean-sweep (or at least something close to it). Sin Cara actually had his best performance yet during this match. He pulled off all of his offense, and didn’t botch any moves. And Sin Cara botches A LOT. I’m pretty sure his mask is cursed. Also, Jimmy Uso gets eliminated, but Jey doesn’t. I feel like Michael Cole asked for this so he could make his job a little easier (he can’t tell them apart, even though they aren’t identical). Even better, when Big E gets eliminated, the rest of the New Day leaves with him. Wow, they play heels PERFECTLY: underhanded tactics, talking smack, and running away from danger. So this leaves only Sheamus left. Ryback pins him, and the babyface team wins. Now, time for the bad matches. There’s Dolph Ziggler vs Tyler Breeze in a boring match made worse by the dead crowd. Oh yeah, remember when Dolph main-evented the SAME pay-per-view last year? And won? Now he’s jobbing in the midcard. Then, the interminable diva’s match. During my Raw review, I mentioned how exciting the feud was between Paige and Charlotte, and couldn’t wait for their match. But how wrong I was. It didn’t help that the crowd was dead the whole match, and it was way too long. Plus, they are so loud. Paige and Charlotte grunt and yell throughout, and the microphone picks up all of this. It was so loud that I had to mute my TV. After a never-ending 14 and a half minutes, Charlotte finally wins by making Paige tap-out to the Figure-8 Leg Lock. I sigh in relief once it gets to Undertaker and Kane vs The Wyatt Family. The Brothers of Destruction have an awesome entrance, with a casket showing all different versions of Undertaker, and flames everywhere. It’s also quite fast-paced and enjoyable, too. Braun is chokeslammed through the Spanish Announce Table, Bray is looking good, and Luke Harper is holding his own in the ring. Undertaker manages to win by tombstoning Luke, and pinning him. I notice that when Taker tries to pick up Luke, he struggles and nearly drops him. It is a botch, but it adds excitement to the ending, which was a bit anti-climatic. Then, our main event: Roman vs Dean. They look really fired up, and ready to go. Plus, Dean never replaced his wifebeater, which is still torn across him. Another thing I noticed is how Roman was cheered by the audience in the first match, but he’s booed now in the main event. The match is decent enough, but it’s length is a big problem. It lasts less than 10 minutes, which is way too short for a main event. I can understand why, though. These guys already had matches earlier that night, and they both have limited movesets. I mean, would you REALLY want to see these guys hit apron dropkicks or rebound clotheslines over and over again for 15-20 minutes? I didn’t think so. Anyway, at the end, Dean attempts to hit a clothesline on Roman, but he falls victim to a spear instead. One, two, three, and Roman is now the WWE champion… at 10:35 pm. Uh-oh. As confetti rains down from the rafters, Dean and Roman embrace. Confetti is usually only saved for Wrestlemania matches, though. Double uh-oh. Triple H comes down to the ring, and attempts to shake Roman’s hand, but instead, is speared by him. Alright, now we DEFINITELY know something is going to go down. All of a sudden, Sheamus comes down to the ring, and Brogue Kicks Roman. He cashes in his Money in the Bank contract, and goes for the pin. But Roman kicks out! Could it be? Could Roman manage to keep his title toni- oh never mind, Sheamus hit another Brogue Kick. He goes for the pin, and succeeds. Sheamus is now WWE champion, to end our night.