Welcome to the “whew, that main event was one of the worst things I have ever watched” edition of The Wrestling List. WWE booked themselves right into something they couldn’t get out of. I am still trying to figure out how to time these Lists being sent out with all the amount of shows to cover. Tonight is the night for this one though as we have the Cell event and Raw to cover.
Let’s go into the Cell event. Well…….I liked the majority of this show. But whew, that main event. That main event was one of the worst things I have ever seen. Let’s start from the beginning and I have a LOT to say about that match. Becky and Sasha opened up the show with their cell match. I loved this match a lot. There was several awesome spots in the match and one creative that I had never seen and that was using the kendo stick basically as a position holder for your opponent. Cool spot with that. I cracked up at Sasha apparently being a student of the Dudley school of construction as she just kept pulling items out from under the ring. At one point, I think she threw ten chairs. LOL. The more she kept pulling out, the more I started laughing. Good stuff. They were pounding each other in this match. Major kudos to both of them. Becky ends out pulling out the win following the exploder off the ropes and hooking the submission for the tap out. That was my match of the night. Next was Roman Reigns and Daniel Bryan against Rowan and Harper. This match gave me more than I expected. I enjoyed it. You can also continue to notice that Bryan isn’t actually doing the yes chants but he is leading them. He hasn’t done it himself yet. Cool finish with the superman punch from Roman, flying knee from Bryan, and the spear by Roman to get the pinfall. Afterwards, Roman and Bryan gave each other a respectful look of realizing each had fought their brains out in the match. Roman offers a handshake. Bryan shakes it off. Bryan wants a hug instead. Roman shakes that off to which it gets boos. Roman then goes for the hug and they hug it out. Randy Orton defeated Ali next after an awesome RKO out of Ali’s slingshot. I also loved the smug look on Orton after he hit it where he just gave a look of got you kid. LOL. Next was the women’s tag team title match. Asuka and Kairi win the tag team titles after Asuka debuts spitting mist. She pins Nikki to win the tag team titles. I loved the little things like when Alexa and Nikki were on the floor after the loss and Alexa said “what happened to your face????” selling that Alexa hadn’t seen what happened to Nikki with the mist. Surprised to see a title change here. Next was a six man with Strowman and The War Raiders defeating The OC. Chad Gable got his win on Baron Corbin. Later in the backstage area, Corbin laid out Gable after Gable was interviewed about the win. Smackdown women’s title changed hands with Charlotte defeating Bayley. Solid match here. The crowd was cheering on both in this match. It was the same with Sasha and Becky. So, the Horsewomen were getting respect and. cheers all around. Bayley tried to cheat with the feet on the ropes for the win but the ref caught it. Charlotte then hooked Bayley into the figure eight to win the title. After the match, Bayley was visibly upset saying “why does this always happen to me” and breaking down in tears sitting on the floor at ringside. I’ve been giving WWE the benefit of the doubt on this Bayley heel turn but so far it isn’t working for me. Maybe they still can get it rolling but it just isn’t working for me so far.
Let’s save the main event for one paragraph of its own. Whew, Bray Wyatt vs. Seth Rollins for the Universal title in the Cell. I’m not going to recap the happenings. I want to talk about the complete disaster that this match was. I’m first going to say something I said originally with this match. My original thoughts ended up being what played into it. This match should never have been booked in the first place. There was no safe out here. If Bray is not going to win this match and the title, he does not need to be in the match. This was his SECOND match of this reboot. So, if he loses, you stop his momentum already. It’s like well, Bray lost already. Bray needs a long run of a destroyer and he has many people he could face before facing the champion. This also put your babyface world champion in a TERRIBLE position. The fans were going to get behind Bray Wyatt. We knew this. That gimmick is over. So, why are you putting Rollins in this spot of where he will be booed? The match itself was a disaster. I didn’t mind the red lighting thing as much as others. I get it. What I had a problem with was the mess of booking that this thing was. What ended up happening was WWE trying to book way too cute of a way to protect everyone. And it showed. It was like they got this match booked and said the same thing I said. How do we get everyone out of here looking strong? Well, the answer was they didn’t get anyone out of there strong including the Cell gimmick itself. It turned into Rollins not being able to do anything too Bray. Bray getting hit with everything in the world and kicking out on one counts. Rollins’ stomp is basically now a joke when he hit it probably 20 times and Bray just kept kicking out. Bray continues to rise as the monster and the crowd keeps cheering it. Rollins eventually pulls a Sasha where he just grabs everything he can find throwing it in the ring. He uses a toolbox at one point. Then, he goes to the final step where he is ready to go too far and the refs come in the ring to try and stop him. He uses the sledgehammer on to the pile of all these things on top of Bray. The refs call for the bell and that building in Sacramento comes UNGLUED with boos. They were already booing at points cause this match was so silly but they were invested in Bray so they would cheer when he would make a run. This felt like a really bad monster movie where you are hitting the monster with everything and he just won’t go down for good. Bray ends up getting back up and hooking the claw on to Rollins. As the post match is going on, you can hear chants of “restart the match, “AEW”, and profanity chants. This crowd was furious and who can blame them? We also had heard all night of the whole there are no rules inside the cell. Now, we had a stoppage. Many were mad that it was a DQ but it was actually a stoppage instead of a DQ. That doesn’t really matter with the technicality as the result was the same of no winner. Even X Pac who was on the WWE Watchalong online screamed out “I know you may never have me on again but how is there a DQ in a cell?” He spoke for everyone in that moment of confusion. Even the room on the watch along just looked uncomfortable in general wondering what they had just watched. The show went off the air. The boos were LOUD as the show went off. After the show, there were videos online of the continued boos after the lights came back on including “refund” chants. So, we had what had been a fun show and it ends with one of the biggest booking disasters I have ever watched that if you were there would make you peek around corners wondering if Vince Russo was there. LOL. That match was Russo-rific. Everything went wrong in that match. The backlash online was monstrous. I still have not heard who actually was in charge of that whole debacle but whoever it was even if was Paul Heyman deserves a what in the world were you thinking reaction. You put Rollins in the same situation that you put Reigns in years ago. That crowd turned on him all because of booking. Let’s keep in mind that this was not Rollins or Bray’s fault. They went out there and did what they were supposed to do. The fault is with whoever thought this was a great idea. I’m curious to see now if Rollins can overcome this from a crowd reaction spot. That crowd turned on him HUGE. Why? Again, they like Bray Wyatt and they thought this was super lame. You have also put a character in a really bizarre spot to where he is basically now superman where he shouldn’t be beaten in anything. If you are AEW on Sunday night, you are just sitting and grinning. Now in a week where AEW had a very successful first show and rating, you just hand delivered them more fans angry over the WWE product.
Let’s move over to Raw. No Rollins and no Seth on this show. They also didn’t even mention the match until 9:30 when they previewed a recap package and then the recap package aired at around 9:40. That shows that WWE got the message. I am still waiting to see what reaction Rollins gets when he does get put in front of the crowd again. That Raw last night was dullsville. Complete dull. That was a show that screamed we are waiting for the draft on Friday and just filling this show. I’m sorry to that Bakersville, CA crowd who looked so bored all night with lack of happenings including a lot of missing talent as well. If I had driven to Nashville for that show, I would have thought what in the world? I don’t know if that was a good decision to put on such a meaningless show coming off such a backlash from the night before and on a week where AEW is starting to roll. So, let’s run this show down. We have no pyro to open the show and roll right into Orton and Corbin beating on Rusev. We roll from the bad that was the ending of the night before into the bad of this opening segment with Lana talking to the camera in bed with Lashley up on the big screen while Rusev watches in the ring. Rusev takes it out on Orton and Corbin leaving them laying. Next was the match of the night with Lacey and Natalya in the last woman standing match. I did like this match. Those two were working hard and hitting each other hard. Lacey also did a locking kendo stick spot using the stick to lock Natalya in the chair trying to get the ten count. The two ended up on the stage where we had the new Raw stage slide come into play with Nattie being thrown into it and sliding down it. Lacey suplexed Nattie on top of the announce table. Just when it looked like Nattie was going to lose, she power bombs Lacey off the stage through a table and gets the ten count for the win. This was the only thing on the show I liked. LOL. War Raiders against Ziggler and Roode went wayyyyyy too long. I just kept wanting to hit the fast forward for the finish. Raiders get the win. When I saw the Singh Brothers, I should have known a squash was coming. Enter Aleister Black who defeats both of them in a match. So, let’s say you are Triple H and you are in charge of 205 Live now. 205 talent hasn’t been on this show anymore in a while. Now, when 205 talent gets used, this is what they get. Wow, thanks for helping out my talent there. This stuff continues to feed why 205 Live (despite how much better it has been under Triple H control) can’t be taken seriously among fans that don’t watch it and know it is actually good. No protecting talent. While I am at it, please send Aleister back to NXT too. He isn’t even being used on the main roster anymore and barely has anyway. I’m sure Triple H would love to have that guy back. OC defeats Lucha House Party. Miz TV with Charlotte and Becky. The two trade trash talk on who is the better champion. Asuka and Kairi arrive and we have a tag team match involving all the women’s champions. Match ends when Asuka uses the mist on Becky and pins her. Charlotte then fought both. Alexa and Nikki then ran out looking for revenge and left the new tag team champions laying. Ricochet defeated Apollo Crews. Main event segment had the Strowman and Tyson Fury pull apart. Trash talking. The two brawled. They’re pulled apart. They brawl more. I don’t care. One of the most boring Raw shows I have ever watched.
So, what do we have for tomorrow night and isn’t it amazing how far we have fallen in just a week after such a big momentum week?
AEW has a lineup of Jericho and Guevara against Dustin and Page. Jimmy Havoc vs. Darby Allin and the winner goes on to face Jericho the next week for the title. Jon Moxley vs. Shawn Spears. Young Bucks vs. Private Party for the tag team titles. Bea Priestley and Emi Sukura vs. Riho and Britt Baker. There will apparently be another 9pm replay after the live show goes off the air. NXT has Kushida vs. WALTER. Drew Gulak defending against Lio Rush for the Cruiserweight championship.
Have a great amount of days until the next List gets sent out! LOL. Possibly Thursday. Plus, it is taking me forever to type these things so this is the most old school Wrestling List time consumed that it has felt like in a while.
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