Monday, November 19, 2018

Thoughts on WWE Survivor Series 2018

Thoughts on WWE Survivor Series 2018

Going into this, I had issues with this card. I'm a very conservative booker and I didn't like seeing Ronda/Flair given away out of the blue, as I thought it was a possible Mania dream match and could have had months of build to it. I didn't like all the champion vs champion matches as it just makes it less important and I also didn't like the giveaway of Brock vs Daniel Bryan, which was also another possible Mania dream match.

Preshow 10 man tag match - Look, this was dead on arrival. This had no real chance of getting over without doing too much and that's what they did. I didn't like the pairing of faces and heels together either. The match wasn't that bad, but they certainly did too much.

Women's Survivor Series match - Kind of a strange one. Mandy Rose was put over for no real reason. Sonya Deville got a ton of offense out of nowhere. Sasha and Bailey lost some star power for taking part in this and it's just amazing to see how far Asuka's star has dropped in a year. I totally went "ugh" when they tried to kayfabe Nia getting booed for hurting Becky. I'm also just going to be honest and say how much I hated the red and blue shirts here and throughout the rest of the show.

Seth Rollins vs Shinsuke Nakamura - This was the match that never ends. Nakamura looked like a bellhop. I did some other stuff during this.

AOP vs The Bar - This was beyond infuriating. The AOP have totally been ruined. They went from being the New Road Warriors to being 1992 Rocco LOD in a matter of months. Not only does having Spud manage them hurt them. Not only did wearing Raw shirts hurt them - seriously, explain to me in kayfabe how anyone would have the balls to tell them what to wear. Then the cherry on the turd sundae - Spud pisses his pants. I was so pissed at this my chest was hurting. This totally ruined the show for me and only reminds me why I hate 2018 WWE.

Buddy Murphy vs Mustafa Ali - I turned off the show in protest for a bit after the Spud debacle. Anyone who's been coming to this site for a while knows how I feel about flippy stuff. I didn't even know this happened.

Team Raw vs Team Smackdown - The build-up confused me. Too many logic loopholes that didn't make any sense. Why would Baron Corbin want to win this and why would Steph even have him in it when it would be in his interest to lose? Nonsense.

Ronda Rousey vs Charlotte Flair - This was much much better than I expected, though it also went too long. I loved the shoot feel to this and they really made it look real. Really good work. One of Ronda's best performances yet and she is clearly the Rookie of the Year. Flair hung in well but this was another match messed up by the whole Becky Lynch ordeal. I'm glad no one took a clean pin here and I was surprised no one interfered. I thought Charlotte was a little reckless with the cane shots.

Brock Lesnar vs Daniel Bryan - As I explained earlier, I was still pretty pissed about the AOP thing. I thought Daniel Bryan took too much of a beating at times and that first suplex was way too dangerous. I didn't really believe DB had a shot due to it and this match made him look pretty weak. I thought the face stomps were a bit reckless too. This went too long.

Overall Thoughts - This was a long show with a lot of strange WWE booking. The AOP stuff ruined the show for me. I really hope they never do the gimmick where they have to wear those shirts ever again and I thought they gave away too much for a non-Summerslam and a non-Wrestlemania.

Thoughts on NXT TakeOver: Wargames 2018

Thoughts on NXT TakeOver: Wargames 2018

Note - I was doing something else while watching this, but I figured I might as well give some brief thoughts for the record.

2/3 Falls - Kairi Sane vs Shayna Bazler - This wasn't bad, especially since it was almost all smoke and mirrors, but it sucked they wasted a 2/3 falls gimmick on this. It definitely didn't need it and it robbed us of what likely would have been a classic without all the shenanigans. At least the interference is leading to something and isn't just people trying to get out of a booking conundrum. Shayna continues to be one of my favorite wrestlers on the roster and I am more hyped for Duke and Shafir debuting with her than anyone else.

Johnny Gargano vs Aleister Black - I liked this a lot more than I thought I would. Going into this, I did not like the Gargano heel turn and I'm still not quite sure why it was done. This could have been done the exact same way without it. I also really don't understand why they turned the hottest face in the whole WWE into a heel. These two worked together pretty well and I enjoyed this. If Black was only a few inches taller, he'd be such a huge star.

Tomasso Ciampa vs Velveteen Dream - I'm not a big Ciampa fan, which I have been making clear for about 5 years now. He is just not real exciting for me. Dream is one of the best NXT creations to date and he's the complete package. I initially did not like the gimmick because Patrick was over just being himself on Tough Enough and I didn't see the need to change it. It took a few weeks to get over him being a totally different character, but it has paid off. This match was looking good at first, but they went way too long and did way too much. Halfway through, I couldn't wait for it to be over and even when I checked out of it completely for a bit, it was still going on to my surprise. I don't really understand Ciampa getting the win here. The only fresh match he has is vs Black but that's not a super enticing one, while a Dream run would have been fresh. In the back of my head though, I feel we are going to end up with one final Ciampa/Gargano match but this time with Ciampa as the face and Gargano as the heel.

Wargames - I thought it was too soon for another Wargames, especially since this one was really just kind of thrown together. The match resembled last year's, which I reviewed, with the same big dives, tower of doom spots and table usage. I liked the spot with the key to the holding cell being thrown, but it was silly how the refs didn't seem to realize it until it was time to get Dunne out. I'm not really sure I understood having the faces go over here. I still have the same critiques as I did before with this Wargames being more of an ROH Scramble Cage Melee than a real Wargames, but that's unlikely to change.

Overall thoughts - I liked the show, as I do most Takeovers. The booking was a little questionable, but it's more of a disagreement than sheer stupidity, which followed the night after.