Love Jericho the performer but between this, tweeting "all lives matter," and having Trump Jr. and various COVID-deniers on his podcast, Jericho the person seems to be kind of an alt+right dickhead.
Jericho has gone really weird for me just following along, his over the top defense of the things that he's done is getting almost like self obsessed. His exchanges with Cornette on any critism of what he's doing is almost like a 4 year old screaming you're not fair, I ban you from watching.
I've said that I think that Jericho really needs someone to filter his ideas, because he's a mixed bag, when he has a great idea he executes it well, but some of his ideas have been goffy to Russo on the bad scale.
I've also said that I think its really time for him to start stepping away from the ring and focusing more on his pitching and commentary ability, because faticho is really at the forefront and his abilities are sliding.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Jericho has gone really weird for me just following along, his over the top defense of the things that he's done is getting almost like self obsessed. His exchanges with Cornette on any critism of what he's doing is almost like a 4 year old screaming you're not fair, I ban you from watching.
Summer Slam actually looks to be a decent card with predictions
Drew McIntyre vs. Randy Orton (WWE Championship)
When Randy is invested and on he's probably the best in the game right now on both sides of the fences (WWE and AEW). He's been very good and Drew's been built from a place holder wait until Roman gets back guy to a very natural face. The build up has been good with Orton outright murdering Flair and Michaels (though first of all Michael's sucked at selling the punt, second Michaels with a comb over really is depressing). I don't think the WWE is ready to take the best off of Drew or end this feud yet. I expect Drew to take this match and Orton to murder him on Raw.
Winner Drew
Braun Strowman vs. Bray Wyatt (Universal Championship)
There's a lot of healty buts in this match for me. Frankly The Fiend as creative as he is is not a great worker and they've kind of hidden that with these movie matches. I just want a straight out fight in the ring with him. Braun has been terrible in his promo work for me, he's overacting to the point of Snydley Whiplash and pretty cringe worthy. But here comes the but.
Alexa Bliss has been her usual excellent self in the build up of this and I expect something terrible is going to happen to her . I expect she's going to get seriously hurt by Braun during this match and Nikki Cross is going to inject herself to "Save her". Alexa has been stale for a while no matter what she does so its time for a repacking for her and a return to her heel work. I expect that she costs Braun the match and he over reacts and throws her into section 6 of the Thunderdome. Nikki comes out to check on Alexa and we get the reveal of Sister Abigal.
Bray also needs this win more then Braun does.
Winner the Fiend
Bayley vs. Asuka (SmackDown Women's Championship)
Bayley has been excellent as a heel which has surprised me, she's obnoxious and caustic and cheats like crazy. But this whole thing is being done to set up a Bayley vs Sasha feud which was hinted at on Smackdown when Bayley lost a beat the clock challenge and Sasha was laughing in the background.
Bayley doesn't need the belts, and she's good chasing belts. Expect her to lose her title, thanks to a screwup by Banks
Winner Asuka
Sasha Banks vs. Asuka (Raw Women's Championship)
Sasha has never been better then she is now, and she's a natural smarmy friend using heel. I expect her to win this match to retain her title, and to accidentally over celebrate her win causing Bayley to lose it and beat her down. This is not a Bayley going back to being a face with inflatable buddies entrance. This is about making Bayley an even bigger nastier heel as she destroys Banks after the match. But the full breakup won't happen for a bit as they will be forced to defend the tag teams together.
Winner Sasha
Sonya Deville vs. Mandy Rose (Hair vs. Hair)
This is now a hair vs hair loser leaves town match. The WWE handled Sonya beautifully last night in the face of the horrifying kidnapping incident that happened. Sonya didn't want the sympathy and cut a very good promo pushing the loser leaves town angle because she's sick of seeing Mandy's face. Sonya is a future star in the woman's division. She's a good performer, her mic work has gotten very good, and she's a standard bearer, while Mandy who's pretty decent in the ring has floundered with the stupid Otis Angle. I expect Mandy to lose and go off to be repackaged with a new look as she's talked about being sick of being scene as another Blond Bimbo. Maybe Otis trades in his money in the bank for Mandy to get her back into the WWE.
Winner Sonya
Dominik Mysterio vs. Seth Rollins (Street Fight)
I haven't felt Seth in a while or not, I mean he's very good, its just the whole Monday Night Messiah things have been done before, and it seems to be a bit of a go to angle. I give Dominik a ton of credit for taking the beating that he did, I believe that part of it was done to placate the boys about the son of a Superstar coming in with little training or skills and getting a slot immediately (Where are you Erik Watts?). Realistically this match should be a 10 minute destruction of Dominik who is inexperienced and untrained against a multi time World Champion psycho. I expect that Mysterio will get some moves in and then get overwhelmed and this match will use a heavy dose of kendo sticks.
Winner Seth
The Street Profits vs. Andrade and Angel Garza (Raw Tag Team Championships)
WWE you need to do better, these are two extremely talented teams and you rely on a poisoning angle. Why? I mean it wasn't needed. Let me give you a hint. One team has the title the other one chases and we have a fight, pretty simple. This match though has the potential to be an early card show stealer. I expect that the Street Profits win the match to retain.
Winner Street Profits.
Apollo Crews vs. MVP (United States Championship)
MVP has been excellent since his return, his mic work and management work has been exceptional, and for an old guy his ring work is good. I expect the hurt business to interfere in all kinds of way, but managers shouldn't be butt kickers, we pay to see them getting their butts kicked. so expect MVP to retain. Apollo is exceptionally talented and athletic but he has the charisma of a pair of socks.
Winner MVP
This could be a great weekend of wrestling action as we're also getting NXT Takeover XXX (snicker). NXT usually puts on exceptional action packed cards to set up the main roster show the next night.
Legado del Fantasma vs. Breezango vs. Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch (No. 1 contender match for NXT tag team championship)
This could be a really good match as these are all great teams. I think though there's only one logical winner here.
Winner Lorcan and Burch
Adam Cole vs. Pat McAfee
Ok, I have some problems with the build up of this match, and especially this weeks go home show. Adam Cole and UE have been the top heel group in NXT and in seconds WWE flipped him face and then made him look like a Dufus. McAfee came in with a very good strong heel promo, and Cole instead of kicking his head off took it and then muttered that he was going to make Pat his B%%%%. UE also acted like they were afraid of the NFL talent that showed up. Realistically a Cole win kills this story line dead, and Cole should win as he's a exceptional performer. I expect that this is a transition story line to set up Cole for his next opponent and a guy like Keith Lee with NFL links comes to Pat's rescue costing Cole the match.
Winner Pat McAfee
NXT Women's Championship -- Io Shirai (c) vs. Dakota Kai
Two really good performers, though Io has become lost in the shuffle a bit. I love Dakota and her heel persona. They reunited Kai and Gonzalas this week so look for outside of the ring chaos. I can't see them taking the belt off of Io just yet. I expect a DQ ending.
Winner Dakota by DQ.
NXT North American Championship -- Bronson Reed vs. Damian Priest vs. Johnny Gargano vs. Cameron Grimes vs. Velveteen Dream (Ladder Match)
WWE is seeing a lot of lash back on Dream being back as if nothing happened. This should be though a pretty action packed ladder match. I've started to really dig Grimes, but I think that this is the Priest show he seems to be the heir apparent
Winner Damien Priest
NXT Championship -- Keith Lee (c) vs. Karrion Kross
This to me is a big match, Kross has come in as a killer, Lee has been built up as a wrecking machine superstar. Here's the problem. Whether its rating panic or not, this is happening way to soon, and a loss by either man hurts them badly. This leaves either a non finish DQ or countout, but I've always said that you can't end a PPV like that, its stupid and it pisses fans off. I expect that Kross needs the belt less then Lee so Lee will take this
Winner Lee
Will we get the review of Retribution and what they are?
I expect that we will get a reveal of Retribution they've built it up too much to not be of vital importance to this PPV and the tag line, you'll never see it coming. So who is retribution, a rebellious NXT? Maybe, but the actors that we've seen are fillins? A invasion by a disgruntled group of "fired WWE superstars". Makes sense, however most of them have really found employment else where, and having Mike Kanellis and Aiden English pulling off their masks to reveal themselves would be lame-o daddy o.
So how about NXT stars? It would make huge sense since NXT they've wanted to revisit the fued between the main roster and NXT for a while. Johnny Wrestling would be the logical leader in this case because he's doing his own monday Night Messiah deal on NXT. But again, would it have the impact that they wanted.
What about linking it to a main roster superstar. A Monday Night Messiah who is trying to make change for the better would be the prime suspect.
But I think its none of the above. The WWE is well aware that the fans think their product sucks right now, So, how do they always respond to that?
What if WWE underground is nothing more then an evil fight club to recruit members for an invasion force and we get a authority based resistance built around HHH, Stephanie and Shane, and the survivors of the Dungeon, the Dolph's and Shayna's and other WWE superstars who have been pretty much forgotten or left out are the foot soldiers going in and wrecking sh$$.
Yeah, awful right? But think about it. Shayna has been portrayed as Vince being less then sold on her, Dolph is always seen as abused, why not a story line of having them join a rebellion against Vince and the poor writing and booking. They've been highlighting a lot of forgotten wrestlers in Underground.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Ugh, they just had a falls count anywhere stipulation added to Fiend Strowman.
I guess they've realized when they were planning that both of these guys can't work a regular match and they want more of the wacky film antics, which I was wishing would stop. Sure roll them out as a special occasion, but not every Fiend match has to take place in someone's mind.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Color me impressed my Pat McAfee, that guy is an amazing athlete and looked very credible in the ring, the WWE should be trying to sign the guy.
Best spot of the night, Candice LeRae taking the dive of death on the back of Reed from the top of the ladder, screaming all the way down for a splash on Johnny.
Overall tonight has been very good. the Kai Io match was very good as well.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Yeah, he was carrying his shoulder for the last part of the match.
My thoughts on takeover.
Balor vs Thatcher
From a technical standpoint this was a pretty good match, the problem is that neither worker has much charisma or character. The reason why Balor flopped on the main roster is really apparent, he's just too workman like and not all that interesting or someone that makes you want to buy a PPV. For a veteran Balor doesn't sell a leg injury all that well.
Winner Balor rating 2/5
Reed vs Grimes vs Priest vs Dream vs Gargano in a ladder match fir the NA title
A pretty good ladder match, some really good spots, having Grimes try to climb too ladders only for them to get pulled apart and splitting him like Van Damme was a nice bit of humor. They tried a lot of high danger spots with the ladders that were just off on the timing and makes you go "That looks fake". Once again my pet peeve of a crowd gathering outside of the ring "fighting" and staring at the ring while they wait for a guy to throw himself into the crowd. The timing needs to be better, its just been bad for that lately. Candace LeRae was the start of the match as she interfered with a couple of great spots, A hurricarana off the ring apron. She interferred with Grimes on the ladder and in the spot of the night she climbed on Reeds back and held on as he jumped off the ladder and splashed her husband. It looked amazing and her screaming all the way down was great. It was a good ladder match not great. WWE really needs to figure out something different going forward.
Winner and new champion Priest, who I guess I'm ok with though he's been there for a while and I have no clue what he is. 3/5 stars.
Pat McAfee vs Adam Cole
Remember when Rhonda came to the WWE and I labeled her a natural as far as understanding the psychology of the business. McAfee makes her look slow, he's an incredible natural heel in everything he does, from his group wearing Cole sucks shirts to his promos to the little things that he does in the ring that just make you want to see his smug face punched in. The guy is plainly and clearly a athlete. The awesome thing is he threw in a combination of well executed movers with little heel tricks like gouging and raking Cole's back. He had a great spot where he lept on on Cole in the corner and tried to do a Superplex, but Cole countered and Pat flipped off, landed on his feet, jumped back on the turn buckle and did the superplex. it was an awesome sequence.
I almost feel like I have to double rate the match.
From an execution view point, this was technical a good match with pace, and Cole and McAfee worked really well together. For a guy with a few weeks of training he hung with a 12 year veteran. So if I was going to judge the technical parts of the match, this one is a 4/5
From a storyline perspective, this match did make Cole look week and the WWE put in the whole Pat hurts himself which leads to Cole winning. Unless this story is ongoing, they basically blew Cole's brains out by turning him and UE faces and then making Cole look pretty weak 1 out of 5 stars.
IO vs Dakota Kai
Dakota gets forgotten or under rated, but she's just a really good performer and a surprisingly good heel. She's like Bayley turned up to 11. The WWE just does a better job with Japanese woman wrestling then Impact or AEW, I don't know why but its like they understand how they work. This match was really high speed low drag with both wrestlers getting their stuff in. Io did a great job by selling an arm injury by wrestling with one arm. Raquel Gonzalez interfered in the match but it didn't save Kai as IO showed why she's the Genius of the sky and beats Kai.
4/5
After the match Gonzales comes in and attacks Io and Rhea who has been missing in action comes out to do the staredown setting up a giants match.
Keith Lee vs Karrion Kross
I stated my objections to this match earlier. This was way to soon into Lee's reign to have this match.
First of all that entrance "Fall and Pray" by Scarlett and Kross is memorizing. This was a typical big man matches with more brawling then wrestling. Here's the problem with it. there was a lack of defined babyface and heel in this match. I know that Lee is a baby face. But Kross just isn't really a heel, he's just a guy that lays down a honest beating. Neither of these guys really understands how the psychology of the role works (more on that a bit later). Stunningly they had Lee lose his title this soon into his regin. I feel that really hurts Keith Lee unless they're promoting him to the main roster, which I don't think is a good idea.
A good match but in the context of other matches tonight it wasn't good enough 3/5
Thoughts.
The match of the night was the Cole versus McAfee match, and McAfee definitely stole the show. The woman's match was a strong contender but none of the other matches had a big fight feel like the Cole match.
Add on
WWE ran a special after Takeover that talked about Bayley and Banks match at Takeover Brooklyn. This thing is a must watch if you own the network. There were so many surprising tidbits here
1) Bayley and Sasha put together the match, this wasn't producers and writers this was those two designing an excellent match.
2) They didn't rehearse their match or talk to anyone about it, at the time the Diva's thing was still huge and they were worried that the producers would tell them to take the bigger moves out because they weren't for woman's matches.
3) when they both started at NXT they were taught hair pulling and other girl wrestling moves, but Sara Del Ray kind of took them aside and taught them privately.
4) When they started talking about the match and what happened, Banks showed how smart she is in terms of heel psychology. She learned to listen to the crowd and throw in little heel tactics. A nasty kick to Bayley while she was arguing with the refs. How she talked to Bayley during the match to help Bayley's face character. it was really interesting
5) At the same time Bayley talked about face psychology and how her greatest joy is taking a beating to make the Heel look like a heel.
6) One of the big spots was Bayley doing a reverse Rana off the top rope, a move that she had never done before and was terrified of, but talks about how Banks encouraged her big time when they were setting up the move.
The above two points was what was missing in the Lee Kross match btw.
7) Its pretty clear how close these two are to each other and how they feed off of and encourage each other.
Again a must watch, really interesting to see.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Also the mcafee 2 week stuff was just for the show, hes been training a long time, he bought a ring and has it in his office, he has one of the pits filled with the foam to practice jump spots too
I'm not going to do a whole match breakdown though. But just some thoughts.
Apollo Crews beats MVP to retain the US Championship
A ok match, Apollo Crews is a really great natural athlete and it shows. MVP is just solid in everything that he does. Of course Benjamin and Booby Lashley ( I meant do do that) who were banned from ringside, came rolling in. Wasn't the best match, and it belongs on the undercard
1.5 out of 5
Bayley retains the Smackdown Championship over Asuka
A really fun match. Bayley and Sasha play the heels so perfectly, while Asuka played the angry challenger. Lots of nice little spots and details. A cool looking spot where Bayley tried the top rope Elbow and got caught in the Saskatoon mossy credenza armbar. Sasha distracted and took a bump for Bayley allowing for the pin. After the match Bayley and Sasha softened up Asuka to make way for the second match.
3.45 out of 5
Street Profits def Andrade and Garza to retain the Raw Tag Titles
Not a bad match, but really this is a Raw calibre match tonight. I expected more passion or fire big match feel from this match, especially with Zalina being a poisoner. Was surprised that Bianca Belair didn't get involved. Both are great tag teams and Ford is just a psycho athlete from the ropes. However this match felt limited.
2 out of 5
Mandy Rose defeats Sonya Deville, Sonya Yooooooo're fired.
I've said that Sonya is a future star in her division, she's got it all in terms of look and a real looking style. This was an attempt to make it a ground based brawl that really didn't take advantage of the no DQ stipulation, I would have liked to have seen Sonya being more heel like and taking liberties and really showing her hate. Mandy is as green as it comes, because of that her strikes look slow and soft and she looked unsure of what she was doing a few times. What I didn't like was in the end Mandy out physicalled the angry MMA fighter. That points to poor booking decisions in the back. This match should have had Sonya beating the crap out of Mandy and losing due to a lucky pin by Mandy.
1.35 out of 5.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
I actually liked this match. I liked the writing of it as well as it had a Apollo Creed vs Drago feel with Dom waiving his father off when Seth was dominating him. Seth played evil really well in this match as well, handcuffing Rey to the ropes lots of Kendo stick work that raised more welts. Dom has the same kind of natural ability as his dad which surprised me.
4 out of 5
Asuka wins the Raw woman's champion pinning Sasha Banks
This was probably the match of the night, hard hitting, with great story elements that teases a feud between Sasha and Bayley with Bayley being the bigger heel. I worried about Asuka she took a sick powerbomb from the apron to the floor and you could see her head bounce off of the ground. Nice bit of story telling, in the earlier match, Sasha took the bullet to allow Baley to win, in this match Bayley had the chance and wouldn't do it. This really set the seeds for the feud.
4 out of 5
Drew McIntyre defeats Randy Orton to retain the WWE Championship
I really liked this match. When Randy is engaged there's no one better. This was a pretty simple match that featured a lot of old school elements. Randy Gouging Drew's eyes. But most importantly the match was one on a simple backslide. I loved that
4 out of 5
The Fiend defeats Braun Strowman to win the WWE championship
From an execution standpoint, great match, it was brutal and simple and hard hitting, however once again the camera man catches the missed punches by Strowman that absolutely sucked. Strowman cut ways the ring covering and Bray used it to his advantage. Again a minor grip but Bray just didn't sell these very well, he looked almost afraid to take the bumps.
From a story telling perspective a big finger poke of doom from me. After weeks of setting up Alexa as a lynch pin in this thing she was nowhere to be found, it kind of pissed me off.
We saw the return of Roman Reigns who proceeded to destroy both the Fiend and Strowman. I was happy to see Roman back, the main event picture really needs him, but this whole feud feels like it came to an end early in an unsatisfying way.
3.14 of out 5.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Last edited by CaptainCrunch; 08-23-2020 at 09:26 PM.
Yeah, although I do like that they are leaning into the “Fiend brings out your true colours” angle more heavily again.
Bryan> Back to his shaved head self
Miz > Back to Hollywood Miz
Rollins > Monday Night Messiah
Strowman > Monster again
I really do hope they keep the whole “heal” vs “hurt” thing going with all his fueds, and happy they actually called it out a bit more as part of this fued.
This part of the Fiends booking is Probably the only true long term booking the WWE has tried in a while.
