Naomi Uso's New Look

Naomi's heel turn last month came out of the blue. Which is hardly a surprise as it wasn't something WWE had been planning to do. Naomi's new status within the Divas division was necessitated by the gap left by AJ Lee's sudden retirement and the decision to take Paige off TV for a month so that she could go and make a straight-to-DVD movie with The Miz¹.

Want to be a heel? Put on sunglasses. Instant heat.

It's generally accepted that had AJ stuck around she would have turned on Paige and been the heel challenger to a babyface Nikki Bella at Extreme Rules. I'm not sure this would have worked out well. While AJ had previously flourished as a heel I think fans would have been loath to boo her over Nikki. With Extreme Rules taking place in Chicago (the home of AJ's wrestler-turned-UFC prospect husband CM Punk, for those not in the know) I think Vince and co. would have stuck with the safer option of keeping AJ a face and Nikki a heel for that match. Things could easily have been reworked so that Nikki and Brie were the ones sending Paige packing for a month. AJ could have gone bad on Paige's return, allowing the Bellas to transition gradually into a face role. 

Things have worked out better than they likely would have with AJ around. We had seen every permutation of matches possible involving Nikki, AJ and Paige (and everything involving Brie Bella except a four-way match). A change up in the heel-face alignments could have refreshed things but not drastically. Someone new being moved up the women's ranks is preferable, and that's what AJ's retirement facilitated.

Naomi was the obvious choice from the current batch of main roster talent. Aside from Natalya she's the best wrestler of the bunch. Layla, Summer Rae, Cameron and Alicia Fox aren't in her league while Emma has been stalled by her ham-fisted call-up and around a year of drifting. Rosa and Eva Marie don't even qualify as wrestlers at this point. It's questionable whether they ever did. An argument could be made that the opening up of a high profile spot was the perfect opportunity to move Charlotte from NXT. The timing was good, no question, but I think WWE were right to wait and introduce her in exactly the fashion they desire, whatever that turns out to be. Had they tried to rush her up in the wake of AJ's departure it likely wouldn't have ended well.

Naomi's been impressive in her new role. She's displayed a viciousness and a cockiness that weren't even hinted at with her babyface persona (and despite WWE's black and white approach to booking these are attributes that babyfaces can display, as long as it's done right). The promo material she's been given hasn't been great but she's done what she could with it. She's switched up her look, getting a new hairstyle and new ring  gear. That includes some frankly amazing trainers that change colour during her matches. Basically, she's done everything in her power to make herself stand out and separate her current work from that of her non-entity babyface persona.

Looking forward to that Naomi and Tamina v Bella tag match, playa! Holla!

The recent addition of Tamina as her bodyguard is promising. It gives Naomi access to the classic smaller-wrestler-with-bigger-hired-muscle trope that is hard to get wrong. It also indicates that WWE see her working out in this new role long term. Which is good. Because Naomi is talented but mostly blank slate in terms of character. Which means she can fill any role and continue to improve over time.

Now if we could just get a couple of call-ups from NXT the main roster women could be in a great position.

***

¹ That movies are prioritised over wrestling, the only thing WWE and, more importantly, Vince McMahon have ever made money doing, is a wonderful example of what's wrong with this company.

AJ Lee Retirement... Outta Nowhere!

On Friday 3 April it was announced that AJ Lee had retired, with immediate effect, from in-ring competition.

Pregnant? Irresistable offer from TNA?
Heading to UFC? Find out what's next for AJ
when she hits the shoot video circuit!

Despite the large amount of time she's taken off over the last year and the persistent rumours that she was leaving, or had decided not to re-sign when her contract expires, this news came as a surprise. AJ had only returned to the company in February and had been involved in a storyline opposite Divas champ Nikki Bella. She had, in fact, made Nikki tap out at WrestleMania. That's an indication that WWE believed she'd be around for a while. Had they known, or even suspected, she would be retiring less than a week later it's likely Nikki would have found herself tapping out to Paige's PTO instead.

The initial response from many people has been to label this a huge loss. "#ThankYouAJ" trended on Twitter within minutes of the news being announced and was still trending a day later. It is a loss, no question, but I don't think it's quite the blow people think it is.

For starters it's important to note that, rightly or wrongly, the Divas division is not that important in WWE right now. AJ may be one of the main names attached to it but it's still a very minor part of the overall product. The division isn't presented with any legitimacy so it doesn't really matter if one of the women who has legitimacy leaves. It won't change the way the division is viewed the way, for example, a Lita or Trish Stratus departure would have done in 2002. Then the women's division was well-booked and they were two of its most popular contributors. Now there aren't any fans of WWE's Divas division, just fans of individual Divas.

There's also the question of AJ's ability. She's frequently credited as being one of WWE's best female wrestlers. She's good, but is she really head and shoulders above the rest of the women under contract? On the main roster Paige and Natalya are easily as good as her, if not better. Naomi isn't far behind, and I don't think the Bellas (on a good time with some time behind them) are either.

If you widen things and consider the women in NXT too then AJ's status takes a further hit. In the last year Emma, Bayley, Charlotte, and Sasha Banks have all had better matches than I can ever remember AJ having. They benefit from more time than AJ has ever done for her matches, true, but that only further highlights how little AJ is able to contribute as part o the Divas division. Alexa Bliss is rough around the edges but improving. The only women on televised NXT that can definitely be said to not come close to being as good as AJ are Becky Lynch and Carmella. That's hardly glowing praise.

Less AJ means more Natalya and Naomi. I'm down with that.

This is not to knock AJ. She's very good. It's certainly not to knock the impact she's had on WWE. Since her debut on the third season of original format NXT (the unfortunate Vince McMahon experiment that gave us the Nexus) she has become one of the most important female wrestlers of the last decade. She was a believable character who got to interact with guys at the top of the card, something which may still prove to be a significant point of progression for WWE in the long run. At a time when women in WWE are marginalised and have their work presented as filler material AJ managed to get over and make herself a meaningful character. That was impressive and speaks to her ability. It's something others will benefit from in the future.

But in terms of match quality AJ Lee's retirement is not the monumental loss it's being treated as. This is one of those periodic shifts wrestling companies actually benefit from. An established star leaves and creates a spot for someone else. A new addition was probably going to get called up to the main roster soon anyway, so AJ's departure means we could get two instead. Imagine how much better the Divas division could (important to note I'm saying could, I'm not confident WWE will actually start giving their main roster female performers the time they deserve) be if Sasha Banks got brought up alongside lead candidate Charlotte.

AJ's impact over the last few years has been important. I think we'll see that when we look back in years to come. But at this point, with the Divas still not getting much air time and the entire division feeling overly familiar, AJ's departure is for the best. It allows fresh names to come in and shake things up. There could be no end more fitting to her legacy than the Divas division flourishing in the wake of her retirement. I hope it's allowed to and I hope she enjoys whatever she gets up to next. Let's just hope it's not a move to UFC. I don't think a fight against Ronda Rousey would end well for her.

AJ Lee's Search for (WW)Equality

On Monday 23 February Stephanie McMahon took to Twitter to congratulate Patricia Arquette¹ on striking a blow for women's rights by speaking in favour of equal pay for actresses. It was the sort of thing Steph does from time to time, designed as much to try and capitalise on the latest trending topics on social media as to express any genuine sentiment. It was a non-issue.

Two days later that changed when AJ Lee responded to Steph's tweet with the following message across two tweets:

Your female wrestlers have record selling merchandise and have starred in the highest rated segment of the show several times, and yet they receive a fraction of the wages and screen time of the majority of the male roster. #UseYourVoice

Steph acknowledged the tweet and thanked AJ for her opinion. The following RAW played host to a Nikki Bella versus Paige Divas championship match which was noticeably different to the average WWE women's offering. Both wrestlers hit harder and used a wider variety of moves than they usually would. After the match AJ Lee returned and united with Paige to clear the ring of the Bellas. Although no mention was made of AJ's tweets to Steph it looked as though the desired effect had been achieved.

Main event draws?

On the one hand AJ has a fair point. Matches featuring WWE's female performers are routinely positioned as toilet breaks before pay-per-view main events, get short TV matches, and are generally presented as inferior to their male counterparts. Companies like Shine and SHIMMER, the once great Knockouts division in TNA, and the way women's wrestling has been and continues to be appreciated in NXT show that a modern audience can appreciate women wrestlers as more than eye candy and filler material. The presentation of women on the main WWE roster is behind the times.

Unfortunately some of Lee's points are questionable. Not knowing the pay scale of WWE's main roster performers it's impossible to comment on whether or not women are paid fairly. What is known is that the majority of the women in NXT are paid more than the average male performers there (that's basically everyone who's not Owens, Zayn, Bálor, Itami or Neville). The reasoning behind this is that it's tough to maintain the "look" the company expects from its female performers on a developmental wage. It's not progressive reasoning but it is still more money.

The merchandise sales are harder to comment on. Most important to note is that (as revealed in an interview given by Nikki Bella) all WWE performers receive the same percentage of merchandise sales. It's also worth noting that there haven't been any reports of fans being unable to purchase the T-shirts of female performers at house show booths, as was the case with Randy Orton's shirts last year. That indicates that WWE are managing to keep up with whatever demand there is. It's also worth noting that no wrestling shows ever see an overwhelming number of T-shirts for female wrestlers in the crowd. Bullet Club's dominance in that field is safe for the time being. Basically, any deficiencies AJ detects in her merchandise cut can be attributed to her not being as popular as she thinks she is.

The biggest question regarding Lee's comments can be levied at her claim that female wrestlers have "starred in the highest rated segment of the show several times." This is true but put into context it's a far lesser deal than Lee would like it to be. First of all there are only two women currently under contract who have been in these segments: Stephanie McMahon and AJ Lee herself. In Stephanie's case she is almost always interacting with male performers. While this doesn't disprove Steph herself is an effective, believable character it doesn't prove she is either. People are just as likely watching because Triple H or John Cena or Seth Rollins are also involved, or because she generally appears in the opening and closing of the show, which are always positioned as the most important parts of WWE television shows.

To find proof of AJ's history in high rated segments you have to go back to 2012. At the time she was one of the most over performers of either gender in the company. She'd gained this popularity through a combination of having a character that was different from the norm and by being involved in a storyline with the supremely over Daniel Bryan and WWE champion CM Punk². It's entirely accurate to say she was involved in the highest rated segments of RAW at this time, but anyone in her spot would have been because they were in segments with Bryan and Punk. The success was only partially attributable to her. I think it's fair to say it was primarily attributable to Punk and Bryan: Punk remained popular until he left WWE while D-Bry remains popular to this day.

AJ herself was over at this time. I'm not claiming that she had no effect on the success of the storylines or segments she was involved with. But I don't think they would have been any less well received without her involvement. At the time I saw it as a forward-thinking move by WWE, getting audiences used to female performers associating with the male main event stars. Looking back I still see it that way, it's just a move they failed to follow through on (hardly a surprise as they fail to follow through on so much).

"Come on, Nikki. Let's practice our staring!"

On the issue of screen time Lee has a point. The main roster is (very) roughly twenty-five per cent female. Based on this it could be argued that a quarter of every show could be dedicated to women's wrestling. In practical terms this simply wouldn't work because of the fourteen women on the main roster only four definitely have characters that the majority of people care about: the Bella twins, Paige and AJ Lee (and even Paige is a shaky claim outside of Britain). Beyond them only Natalya, Summer Rae and Naomi have a semblance of character. These aren't enough names to construct a division around.

WWE's programming is currently structured around the guys who headline pay-per-views. As the success of any pay-per-view not named WrestleMania generally rests on the popularity of the wrestlers in its top one or two matches this is a sound approach. There is an argument to be made in favour of fleshing out the women's division with more interesting characters and giving them more screen time but that's a gradual process that rushing won't help with.

Lee is right in her sentiment. WWE doesn't treat its female performers as fairly as it could. Looking back to the early naughties³ and seeing the way in which Trish Stratus, Lita, Mickie James and Victoria were booked shows us that it can, which only makes the current situation even more frustrating. But her view that the current batch of female wrestlers are proven draws is incorrect. They can be, and should be given the chance to prove it, but they're not there yet.

***

¹ She's an actress. I mention this because I've never heard of her and I'm assuming other people may be in the same position. Maybe she's related to the former WCW champion...

² Kane was also involved.

³ Do we have a better term for this yet? No? Okay, can someone just shoot me, please? Thanks.

Tables, Ladders, Chairs... and Stairs 2014 review

This year's TLC had a tough time of it. Not only did it feature a bevy of matches that didn't follow logically from the previous month's supershow, it also came just three days after NXT's Takeover: R Evolution event (a review of which can be found here). That may have been presented as a lowly Network special featuring developmental talent but it was the best WWE show of the year. Comparisons between the two events are inevitable. Sadly, it was also inevitable that TLC wouldn't measure up.

Following a pre-show on which Big E and Kofi Kingston defeated The Dust Brothers the supercard (which Michael Cole described as WWE's version of a demolition derby) officially kicked off with the Intercontinental championship ladder match. Dolph Ziggler, as the hometown boy, got a massive ovation and immediate chants of "Let's go Ziggler!" at the bell. It helped Harper get some heat too.

Four time IC champ Dolph Ziggler.

The match didn't reach the heights of the famed Razor Ramon v Shawn Michaels ladder clashes or Hardys, Dudleys and Edge and Christian spot-fests but it was a great choice for the opener. They spent the opening minutes throwing ladders at each other, gradually progressing to more impressive stunts. Highlights included a Harper suicide dive (which came close to breaking Harper's arm), a Ziggler drop kick onto a ladder, a Harper power bomb onto a ladder, a ladder-assisted pendulum by Harper, a Ziggler X Factor onto a ladder (which pretty much confirms Ziggler wants a monopoly on all signature moves of former DX members), Harper busting out the Terry Funk special, and, finally, a super kick from one ladder to another by Ziggler. That last was enough to stun Harper long enough for 'The Show Off' to grab the belt for his fourth reign. Both men left bloodied and bruised. They did everything they could to give us a worthwhile match.

The Usos pulled an Owen Hart after that and carried their Slammy awards (for tag team of the year, believe it or not) with them to the ring. They lacked Owen's charm though. Miz pulled the same trick, carrying Damien Mizdow's prestigious LOL Moment of the Year Slammy. Mizdow had a toy version, natch.

As you'd expect the focus of the match was, for the most part, on the antics of Damien Mizdow. ‘The A-Lister’ effectively wrestled a handicap, freeing Mizdow up to lark about and give people what they wanted. Naturally this extended to 'The Awesome One' teasing a tag to Mizdow which he had no intention of making.

Eventually Miz decided he wanted to leave. After grabbing his titles (and his stuntman’s Slammy) Miz sacrificed Mizdow to an Uso dive and then lamped the Uso with a title belt. Yes, they went for a DQ finish and Mizdow never tagged in. This aside it was a decent enough match.

Backstage Seth Rollins recapped The Authority's removal from power and dedicated his match to them. He also mentioned Sting and said he wouldn't leave Cena be until Triple H and Stephanie were reinstated. I imagine this will turn out to be foreshadowing rather than generic heel rambling.

Quality took a dip after that. After the commentary team took a ridiculous look at the "anatomy" of ring steps we were treated to Big Show v Erick Rowan. In, yes, the first ever stairs match. It may very well be the last ever too. Basically it was a stunt match in the vein of table and ladder efforts. But with stairs. As stairs are heavier than chairs and nowhere near as flimsy as WWE’s tables there was little that could be done with them. All the lads managed to muster up was wedging them between ring ropes, stacking them up, and placing them on the announce table. They gingerly bumped into them and the audience got bored. Show won when he used the stairs to pin Rowan down to the mat.

Surprisingly it was the Rollins versus Cena tables match that that followed. Mercury and Noble accompanied Rollins to the ring, allowing their man to control the first several minutes fairly easily with copious interference. Cena, being Cena, got tired of that quickly and disposed of them with a suplex onto a guardrail and, less dramatically, an AA into the timekeeper's corner. That left just the two men officially in the match. Rollins immediately set up tables at ringside and tried to suplex Cena through them. Cena countered and suplexed him back into the ring. Rollins hit a standing Sliced Bread and tried to whip Cena through a table propped up in the corner. Predictably Cena halted that and back dropped Rollins out of the ring.

Look at the state of that briefcase.

'Mr Money in the Bank' returned with his briefcase and gave Cena a walloping with it. Cena kicked Rollins in the head as he was bent over mocking the Five Knuckle Shuffle taunt then tried to AA him through a table, accidentally taking out the referee as he did (oh no!). Rollins landed on his feet from the attempted AA, vaulted back over the table and Cena, and hit an enziguri that just happened to send Cena sprawling onto the table. Rollins headed to the top rope for a Curb Stomp but Cena caught him and AAed him through the table.

Cole announced Cena was victorious but (shock!) the ref was still slumped at ringside. Noble and Mercury returned to clean up the broken table and then gave Cena a kicking. Cena quickly escaped a Shield-esque power bomb and put the stooges through a table with a double AA. Seconds later Cena and Rollins locked up on the apron and leapt through a table at ringside. So much for tables matches being a way to give us a decisive winner without anyone doing the job, right?

Two referees showed up to argue about who'd won. Match official Mike Chioda couldn't decide on a winner so he restarted the match, rendering the entire double finish exercise pointless. Cena and Rollins began hammering at each other and spilled out to the commentary desks, where Cena AAed Rollins onto the English table. It didn't break so Cena got back into the ring to setup up yet another table.

Big Show returned to put a stop to that. Then he teased choke slamming Cena through a table. It seemed designed to rub our noses in the fact that Cena and Show would have been natural opponents for this show (see here for more on this). The choke slam didn't happen. Instead ‘The Giant’ was distracted by the music of Roman Reigns, he stormed through the crowd (to a healthy response), cracked Show with a Superman punch and speared him through a table. Rollins got a Superman punch too, then took an AA through a table to give Cena the victory.

As table matches go it wasn't bad. What it lacked in spots it made up for in interference, which is a viable way of making these sorts of things exciting. That said it didn't really do Rollins any favours. Even with The New Stooges and 'The World's Largest Athlete' watching out for him he couldn't get the win. The Reigns interference did little to offset that. He was very portrayed clearly as a man not in Cena's league.

After some pointless babble from Alex Riley and Booker T we were shown Byron Saxton interviewing the Bella twins. Nikki declared AJ was jealous of her. Brie said she was sick of people judging their relationship. Basically they're back together and we need to deal with that. No logical plot developments here. Move along.

Nikki Bella: too fabulous to sweat this match.

Nikki dominated the match. Brie was pretty much a non-factor for the most part, which was a pleasant surprise. The match was dull, with another finish designed to show us Nikki goes for the cheapest win possible: as Brie was being sent backstage (for her first real bit of interference in the match) Nikki pulled a bottle from her sock, sprayed AJ with it, and then hit the Rack Attack. 

Tom Phillips then had a chat with Roman Reigns. ‘The Empire’ stumbled over his words, then briefly forgot his words, then told us he was officially entering the Royal Rumble. If he didn't take acting lessons while he was off he should have done. If he did they didn't have any effect.

The chairs match between Kane and Ryback was boring and clumsy. 'The Big Guy' pinned Kane via Shellshock. That was followed by the United States title match. They didn't go for as long as they did in their Battleground or SummerSlam matches. This was perhaps because it was a rehash and Rusev needed to be shown to have improved since August. He won after Swaggalag passed out in The Accolade.

Then a Royal Rumble ad aired, focusing on the WWE title match that will take place between challenger John Cena and champion Brock Lesnar. Odd considering the match had been confirmed less than an hour before. It's almost like wrestling's fixed.

Dean Ambrose and Bray Wyatt had the honour of closing the show. For the second month in a row the hype video made the rivalry look far more layered, interesting and entertaining than it has been. WWE's production team earned their money with that one. Ambrose sauntered to the ring with a ladder slung over his arm, a ladder he lobbed at Wyatt as soon as the lights came on after his entrance. They brawled in the aisle, over to the announce area, and into the audience.

They finally entered the ring several minutes into the bout. Ambrose introduced kendo sticks and chairs. Not to be outdone Wyatt punched Ambrose off the top rope through a table set up at ringside, then used the kendo stick himself. In time ladders were used too. But none of it really meant anything. They were progressing through WWE's established hierarchy of weaponry to escalate the stakes but they were doing it because it was expected, not because it made sense for the story the match was telling. This is not to say the pair were going through the motions because they weren't. It's just that they didn't have a sufficient number of ideas for the gimmick and time they had.

One of many elbow drops.

The big tricks (if you can call them that) they had were saved for the final third of the bout. 'The Lunatic Fringe' twice leapt off a ladder to elbow drop Wyatt through a table. Wyatt came back with a flash Sister Abigail back in the ring. Ambrose responded with Dirty Deeds. When that failed Ambrose grabbed Jeff Hardy's Super Tall Ladder™ and propped it up near the announce desks. Wyatt, who'd had several minutes of recovery time, attacked Ambrose with a chair, only to get laid out on the good old Spanish announce desk. Which Ambrose elbow dropped him thorough, obvs.

The ending came straight from the Wacky Finish Handbook. Ambrose rolled Wyatt back into the ring and grabbed a TV monitor which was plugged in beneath the ring (it's standard practice for WWE to have televisions showing their live pay-per-view stashed below the ring according to Maggle Cole). When he ran across the ring with it to thump Wyatt it "shorted out", causing some sparks and a small amount of smoke to puff out near Ambrose's ear. 'The Eater of Worlds' got up and scored with another Sister Abigail for the win.

The match would have benefited from being ten minutes shorter. They didn't have the material to fill half an hour and they couldn't keep the fast pace needed to hold attention for that long. Credit to WWE for putting them on last though.

TLC wasn't awful but it was the worst WWE pay-per-view in a while. Opener aside nothing stood out as particularly good. But it was at least more rewarding than the average RAW, and considering the emphasis WWE place on TV over pay-per-view nowadays that should probably be chalked up as an accomplishment. Coming so soon after Takeover: R Evolution, to which it couldn't measure up, definitely didn’t help either. It makes you wonder why WWE is sticking with the approach that led them to TLC when the approach that led to R Evolution has proven far more creatively satisfying. It's time for them to get out of their rut and so something new. The NXT formula writ large is the way to go.

***

Results summary:

Dolph Ziggler defeated Luke Harper for the Intercontinental championship
The Miz and Damien Mizdow defeated The Usos
Big Show defeated Erick Rowan
John Cena defeated Seth Rollins
Nikki Bella defeated AJ Lee
Ryback defeated Kane
Rusev defeated Jack Swagger
Bray Wyatt defeated Dean Ambrose

Tables, Ladders, Chairs... and Alternate Universes

At the end of last month’s Survivor Series it looked like things had been set up for an interesting TLC pay-per-view. Looking at the card we’ve ended up with I wonder where it all went wrong. And, to be clear, something definitely has gone wrong, because tonight’s show is not what’s “best for business.” It doesn’t come close to being what’s “best for business.”

I mean, they’re doing John Cena versus Seth Rollins in a tables match, with the stipulation that Cena will lose his world title shot if Rollins wins. I’m sure it will be a decent enough match but there’s little to get excited about with it. The same goes for Harper versus Ziggler. The less said about Kane v Ryback, Big Show v Erick Rowan, and the revival of the Swagger v Rusev feud the better.

This isn’t the worst show WWE could be putting on. But it’s not the best either. I understand that they want to just keep things ticking over until doing the really important stuff at Royal Rumble but they could have done that and presented a better card. Completely disregarding continuity between pay-per-views does nothing for anyone.

Why didn't they give us this beard battle?

Harper and Rowan are the obvious guys to mention at this point. As I’ve written before, they got a promising reception when they squared off with one another at Survivor Series. It made me think that people could be convinced to emotionally invest in a singles match between them, and the exchanges they had made me think they could actually make a match work.

In addition to that both have recently been “set free” by Bray Wyatt, giving them a logical plot reason to clash: they each want to prove they can be the breakout star of that group. Like a sort of sibling rivalry thing, without them being actual siblings. Harper has become one of the go-to heels for WWE since his return. Facing a man of a similar size would have allowed him to demonstrate that he could do something other than throw Dolph Ziggler around and it would have allowed Rowan to progress by association.

It could have been for the Intercontinental title but I think that would have been a step too far. It’s not that Harper’s not a credible champion, but I think the title would be better attached to someone else on the roster. Specifically Ziggler or Rollins. With WWE champion Brock Lesnar absent from television (until he rocks up on RAW after TLC, anyway) the IC champ is the top title holder. That status, emphasised or not, could have helped to boost the standing of Ziggler or Rollins because they’re already positioned as guys close to the top. On Harper the IC title looks like a middle of the card prize. On Ziggler or Rollins it would have been given an enhancement that would have lasted once the WWE championship returned.

There have been plenty of Harper v Ziggler bouts since Survivor Series so it’s obvious WWE isn’t shy about giving us that match. They could have easily had ‘The Show Off’ regain the Intercontinental title in one of those meetings. Done in the right way it could have drawn the Harper v Ziggler series to a close, leaving Ziggler to defend his title against Seth Rollins. In fact it could have even had Rowan interfering, adding to the necessity to have a Harper v Rowan match and keeping Harper strong in defeat. Ziggler v Rollins in a ladder match is a more attractive proposition to pretty much anyone. It would have made both men and the championship mean more, and would have stood more chance of shifting some tickets for the show.

These changes would have left both John Cena and Big Show free. Which is fine, because they were set up as opponents at Survivor Series when ‘The World’s Largest Athlete’ punched Cena in the jaw. A Cena v Show match is not the most exciting thing in the world but it would at least have a reason for happening and keep Cena from harming the momentum of a Rollins or a Harper or a Ziggler. They could even have kept the tables match stipulation, which is (I think) a match they’ve never done in any of their many previous meetings.

Better than Kane v Ryback.

Although it wasn’t directly hinted at at any point a Rusev v Ryback match would have made a great deal of sense. Rusev is undefeated and unsubmitted. Since returning at the end of October ‘The Big Guy’ has been (sloppily) pushed as a dominant babyface, similar to his run in 2012. Although Rybers had suffered pinfall losses he was being presented as “back on form” and could have been built up after Survivor Series as a contender to Rusev’s US championship.

In fairness it’s unlikely that a Ryback versus Rusev match would be as good as a Swagger versus Rusev match. But it would be something new for pay-per-view and wouldn’t be such an obvious re-tread of a rivalry wrapped up just four months earlier. Ryback stood a better chance of convincing people he could defeat ‘The Super Athlete’. Swagger has shown that he can’t get the job done.

It’s also worth noting that Rusev doesn’t generally get the credit he deserves for being able to put together a good match. He’s not afraid to sell, his offence is always on target and looking good, and Ryback can, when the stars align, put on a decent showing. They may have been able to do a better match than expected, especially if they’d been afforded a shortcut-enabling chairs match stipulation.

Tag match, playa!

If creative had really wanted to push the boat out they could even have tweaked the Divas scene. Since failing to regain the championship from AJ at Hell in a Cell Paige has done nothing but work a limp series opposite sometimes-face-sometimes-heel Alicia Fox. With the Bellas reuniting (for reasons still not revealed) at Survivor Series a segment could have been set up where the sisters attacked AJ and Paige came out to even the odds. A Bella twins versus Paige and AJ Lee match would have been a far more interesting prospect than another Divas title match added to the show as a token gesture. It would have allowed for some actual story to be injected into the women’s division too, especially with if they’d stuck with AJ and Paige being uneasy allies working against common foes.

The rest of the card seems promising enough without any changes being made. Wyatt and Ambrose being in a TLC match makes sense. The New Day lads clashing with Goldust and Stardust is, if nothing else, a desperately needed fresh match. With a spot free on the main show that match could have been bumped up from the pre-show. The tag title match has had more storyline progression than anything else on the show thanks to the involvement of Naomi. It’s the most admirable thing WWE have done over the last three weeks.

I don’t think this proposed card (summarised below for simplicity and ease) would have been the absolute best thing ever. Nor do I think it would have been the best possible Tables, Ladders, Chairs… and Stairs show possible. But I do think it would have offered more than what WWE have cooked up.

***

Proposed card summary:

Bray Wyatt v Dean Ambrose in a TLC match
Dolph Ziggler v Seth Rollins in a ladder match for the Intercontinental championship
Erick Rowan v Luke Harper
John Cena v Big Show in a tables match
Rusev v Ryback for the United States championship
The Bella twins v Paige and AJ Lee
Damien Mizdow and The Miz v The Usos for the tag team championship
The New Day v Goldust and Stardust

Tables, Ladders, Chairs... and Stairs 2014 preview

Remember a few months ago when Jack Swagger and Rusev had some surprisingly enjoyable matches on pay-per-view? Don’t worry if you don’t because TLC’s going to feature them in another match against one another. WWE’s creative team apparently enjoyed Swagger versus Rusev so much that they've decided to revive the feud, despite it being drawn to a logical conclusion just four months ago at SummerSlam.

This, in a nutshell, is what's wrong with TLC. Not Rusev versus Swagger specifically. That will probably end up being good. No, what's wrong is that there’s very little thought being put into the show as a whole.

On the one hand it could be argued that with Royal Rumble next month WWE should be hoarding their fresh matches and thoughts for then. It is, after all, their second biggest show of the year and the starting point of their annual hot period. But that's not an argument I agree with. A monthly special event is one of the key selling points of the WWE Network. Making these shows worth people's time should be a high priority. Because there will be subscribers only in it for the pay-per-view savings, and if the shows aren’t very good sooner or later those people will be driven off. They're unlikely to unsubscribe before Royal Rumble, or ‘Mania, but they could still leave in the long run based on a string of uninspiring shows, to which TLC could contribute.

The other main reason I disagree is that WWE employs enough people to churn out a sufficient number of monthly wrestling-applicable ideas. They have dozens of people working for them from wrestling and TV production backgrounds. Putting together a satisfying pay-per-view card each month should not be a difficulty for them.

Aside from Rusev v Swagger we have Ambrose v Wyatt, Ziggler v Harper, and Cena v Rollins rematches. We also have Kane v Ryback, not a rematch (at least not a recent or memorable one) but also not particularly exciting. The most interesting brand new match TLC has to offer is The Miz and Damien Mizdow defending the tag titles against the Usos, and even that’s being generous because both teams were involved in the same four-way match last month.

So, let’s run through those in order. Rusev v Swagger seems like a safe bet for a Rusev win. Swagger fell to him at SummerSlam and has done nothing of note since. It’s a step back for ‘The Super Athlete’, but one that is presumably only happening because WWE doesn’t know what to do with him before he gets booked strongly in the Royal Rumble. I can’t see any reason Swagger would win this.

Ambrose and Wyatt’s Tables, Ladders and Chairs match could be excellent but it’s not a guaranteed thing. Their singles match at Survivor Series wasn’t the electrifying exchange that was expected and their rivalry as whole has not come close to what it could have been. Instead of two rising stars talking about how beating the other can set them apart and help them move closer to the top, or Ambrose wanting revenge on Bray for costing him his feud-closing Hell in a Cell match with Seth Rollins, we’ve had stuff about Ambrose’s jailbird father and Wyatt teleporting around arenas. Oh and pumpkins and ambulances have been used too. A thematic mess and a creative shambles in other words. It feels like a chance to give two men who should be considered future headliners a classic programme has been squandered.

On the plus side the main reason their Survivor Series match wasn’t all it could have been is that it was booked as an extended advert for their TLC collision. They were working towards a shmoz without wanting to give too much away. Without such (peculiar) restrictions at TLC they should be able to do something better. Plus the Tables, Ladders and Chairs gimmick itself is generally worthwhile and tough to get wrong.

An Ambrose win seems likeliest. Wyatt doesn’t have to take a pin or submission to lose and Ambrose did the honours at Survivor Series, albeit by DQ. WWE might deviate from their formula of keeping things even but it’s not likely.

Dolph Ziggler v Luke Harper is a match I’d be looking forward to more if they hadn’t had so many matches on RAW and SmackDown over the last month. Harper’s great as a wild-eyed madman and Ziggler takes a great bump. They’re excellent together. Making it a ladder match seems a bit odd, but it at least adds something new for them to work with, and of every match on the card I think they’re the guys who could do most with a ladder.

I’m going to predict they’ll have the match of the night and Ziggler will regain the IC title. Considering the recent positioning of him as the number two guy he needs the win, and as with Wyatt v Ambrose, Harper can lose a ladder match without being “weakened” by taking a pin.

The Cena v Rollins match is, in fairness, not as familiar as it could be. They’ve had one singles match on TV in the last several months and that ended in disqualification. They’ve met in tag matches over the last few weeks, but that’s not quite the same as loading up on singles matches between them. The trouble is that while they’re not wrestled much (on TV at least) they’ve interacted a lot. So much so that it feels like they’ve had more matches than they actually have.

But then, who else was Cena going to face? Big Show was the only other realistic option and while it would have made sense to go with him I can’t really argue their match would have been better than something involving Seth Rollins. This is another example of the December PPV having the unenviable task of having to kill time before Royal Rumble (apparently the December leading into the Rumble is out of the question), and suffering from not being able to having access to any of the protected storylines that will begin there.

Two things are noteworthy about this match. Firstly, Cena will lose his number on contendership status should he lose. Secondly, it’s a tables match and Cena has a history of not doing especially well in those (it’s a handy way for him to lose without losing). It could be that the plan is to have Cena lose here and give the Rumble match with Lesnar to somebody else. Perhaps doctors have told WWE Daniel Bryan will be ready for a return by late January. Or maybe someone’s finally cottoned on to the fact that they haven’t done Orton v Lesnar since both became major stars over a decade ago. A Cena loss is what I’d like to see here. Pretty much anyone else challenging Lesnar would interest me more than Cena facing him for a third time in six months.

Kane and Ryback’s match will be the pits. If it’s not positioned as a toilet break something will have gone wrong somewhere. ‘The Big Guy’ should win.

Team Miz versus the Uso brothers should be a good match. Everyone loves Mizdow’s antics and WWE has a good story going on with Miz holding him down. There’s also the Naomi thread that’s been introduced over the last few weeks. ‘The A-Lister’ has apparently seen something in her and Jimmy Uso, her husband, has taken exception to this. So there’s a good chance Naomi will cost the Usos the straps, likely in a by-accident-on-purpose kind of way, and join up with Miz for the bounty of Hollywood opportunities he can offer her.

Not mentioned above, we have AJ Lee challenging Nikki Bella for the Divas championship. For those keeping track this will be the sixth pay-per-view in a row to feature AJ in the Divas title match. That’s pretty impressive considering she’s lost the title twice during that time. The show’s pretty crammed so they probably won’t get much time. Hopefully they’ll get longer than the handful of seconds they had at Survivor Series though. I imagine Nikki will retain. An AJ win isn’t impossible but it’s hard to see what it would achieve to put the belt on her so soon after she last lost it.

Finally there’s Erick Rowan versus Big Show in a stairs match. The stairs in question are the steel ones from the ring corners. Personally I’m disappointed they’re not meeting in a chairs match. That would have given Show the opportunity to bust out his XL chair from TLC 2012.

But that’s not what we have. What we have is a man who turned on John Cena at the last pay-per-view, almost costing Cena his job, facing a big lad with a fondness for cuddly toys, Rubik’s cubes, and Renee Young, and who has an upside-down Sheamus face. Survivor Series showed that Rowan could get the crowd to respond to him when squaring off with Luke Harper. Hopefully he knows how to make them do the same against someone else. I’m not going to get my hopes up though. Something tells me this match will be an eyesore. Big Show will probably win, just to make it that little bit worse.

TLC doesn’t look like the worst WWE supershow of the year (on reflection that was probably Battleground, for the record) but it also doesn’t look as though it’s going to be particularly satisfying. Still, there are only six and a half weeks until Royal Rumble! That’s something to look forward to.

***

Predictions summary:

Dean Ambrose to defeat Bray Wyatt
Seth Rollins to defeat John Cena
Dolph Ziggler to defeat Luke Harper for the Intercontinental championship
The Miz and Damien Mizdow to defeat the Usos via Naomi shenanigans
Nikki Bella to defeat AJ Lee
Big Show to defeat Erick Rowan
Rusev to defeat Jack Swagger
Ryback to defeat Kane

Survivor Series 2014 review

A few years ago Vince McMahon apparently considered dropping Survivor Series as a concept because of poor pay-per-view sales. Only a passionate plea from Triple, centring on the event’s legacy and place in company history, stopped that from happening. Watching this show you’d probably wonder why he made such a big thing of it. It wasn’t a bad show, but nor was it an especially great one. And this show, more than any Survivor Series in years, needed to be a great one, for all the reasons I’ve discussed in the last month (see here for more).

The twenty-eighth annual Survivor Series began, as WWE pay-per-views tend to, with a hype video for the evening’s main event. It focused on the last month of television, with a particular emphasis on the future. Considering we’d see 55-year-old Sting make his first ever WWE appearance at the end of the show, that rung a particular kind of hollow. That said Seth Rollins was most prominently featured, unsubtly reminding us he had been handpicked by The Authority as the company’s next flagship performer.

The show kicked off with a talky segment. Vince McMahon brought The Authority and John Cena to the ring Vince promo. The purpose of this was to fill up the minutes, rather than to do anything productive. Vince did reveal that if The Authority lost they’d be working at WWE HQ but with no influence on the careers of performers, but really that wasn’t enough to justify ten-plus minutes of natter. It’s something that should have been made clear in the build up to the event.

The first match of the show was the four-way tag title match, the Usos (wearing a pair of fetching 1800s train driver neckerchiefs), Miz and Mizdow, and Los Matadores challenging the Dust Brothers. The early minutes were characterised by Mizdow shtick, which the crowd loved. Both Miz and Stardust teased tags to Mizdow as the crowd chanted for him, earning themselves some loud boos when they denied them what they wanted. Beyond that we got tags every few minutes to give every team a turn in the ring.

The crowd went nuts when Mizdow was finally tagged in by Miz. He didn't get to do much though: Goldust immediately tagged himself in and went to work on a matador.

Basically the match was competent but didn’t really pick up until its closing moments, a real shame considering the fifteen minutes they had to play with, the capability of everyone involved and the immense popularity of Mizdow. It’s not unreasonable to think we should have had something better.

This is the most relevant the tag titles have been in a while.

The closing moments saw the Usos clear the ring and fly over the top rope onto their foes. Stardust followed up with The Falling Star (a springboard butt bump) and Los Matadores lobbed El Torito over the top and then jumped off the turnbuckle. Back in the ring the Dusts and Los Matadores did a stacked suplex spot from the corner. Jimmy Uso followed up with a splash and got thrown from the ring by Miz, who then found himself blind tagged by Mizdow, who got the pinfall and the tag team titles for his team. Miz looked shocked before celebrating with both belts. Mizdow celebrated empty-handed. He did get more cheers than 'The Awesome One' though.

Backstage Adam Rose and his bunny had a fight with some WWE toys to settle their differences. Rose reminded the bunny he was working at kids’ parties before he found him and basically told him to lose. Despite this The Bunny won. Then Titus O'Neil and Heath Slater rocked up to save the skit. They did a little bickering and Rose challenged Slater Gator to a tag match later on the show. Then he and his worshippers (so-called because he claims they think of him as a god) left.

Paige, Cameron, Summer Rae and Layla v Natalya (with ‘Mr Charisma’ Tyson kids), Naomi, Emma, and Alicia Fox was match number two. That WWE can't be bothered to get a bubble machine, hardly the most expensive bit of kit, for Emma's entrance says everything you need to know about her standing in the company.

Paige v Natalya is a singles match I'd like on pay-per-view.

This match was rough in places but it did at least get time to tell a story and everyone was trying their best. Paige looked impressive, a good thing considering she was booked to wind up in a four-on-one position after her team had been picked off by Fox’s team. There was an attempted tease at Paige making a comeback and sweeping through her opposition but ultimately it didn’t happen: she lasted a few minutes before falling to a headscissors driver from Naomi. After the match Kidd leapt on to a turnbuckle in front of Nattie. Because douchebag husbands, am I right?

After a recap of the pre-show and perhaps the most inconsequential expert panel segment ever we got a video recapping the Bray Wyatt and Dean Ambrose beef. Condensed down into a couple of minutes in which Bray’s magical teleporting can be downplayed it didn’t look bad.

The first few minutes of the match was all about Ambrose countering everything Wyatt tried. 'The Eater of Worlds' eventually turned the tables with an uppercut as Ambrose vaulted the top rope. Ambrose went back on offence after a double clothesline on the outside, bulldogging Wyatt, stealing his upside down corner taunt, and hitting him with a leg drop put. Wyatt fired back with a Uranage suplex, with Ambrose kicking out of the pin that followed and performing a top rope elbow on a standing Wyatt. Seconds later Ambrose was flattened by a loud clothesline.

This could have been the match of the night.

On the outside again Wyatt dropped Ambrose on the ring steps. When that didn't get him a three count Wyatt grabbed a microphone to tell Dean they could have ruled the world together because they're special. Then he grabbed a chair from under the ring. Ambrose grabbed it first, leading to a standoff with Bray basically telling Dean to go for it and the referee telling him not to. ‘The Lunatic Fringe’ decided to use the chair, giving Wyatt a tap to the gut and then Dirty Deeds.

After he'd been disqualified Ambrose got a table from beneath the ring and elbow dropped Wyatt through it. He then piled chairs and tables on top of Wyatt and posed on top of it (we’d find out just before the main event that Wyatt and Ambrose would clash in a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match at TLC). The crowd gave the post-match shenanigans more of a response than the match itself. It’s understandable but it still harmed the actual match a little.

I wasn’t a fan of the finish. DQ finishes are necessary for prolonging feuds sometimes, I get that. But they shouldn't happen on PPV. Certainly not in such an openly lazy fashion. It wasn't clear why Ambrose responded so violently, beyond the fact that everyone seems to do it when Bray tries to recruit them. It just felt like something slapped together to set up the TLC match rather than something designed to satisfy the live and home audiences.

Backstage Triple H and Steph gave Team Authority a pep talk. ‘The Game’ promised them more title matches, money and fame. When Steph spoke she quickly became desperate, wailing that they couldn't lose. Trips quickly shushed her and gave every member of the team a reason to win. It was a good segment with a logical, self-contained story. It did go on a bit though.

Adam Rose and The Bunny versus Slater Gator helped the show chug towards its conclusion after that. They did a decent job. The match benefited from not having a lengthy slot to fill. They told a simple story: Rose got worked over before tagging out to The Bunny, who made short work of Slater and O'Neil before pinning Slater as Rose held out his hand for a tag. The Bunny then got carried backstage by the entourage as Rose looked stunned in the ring.

Roman Reigns was then introduced to speak to the commentary team via satellite. He made some token mention of how he was getting stronger and referenced the main event. The most relevant thing he said was that he’ll be back in a month. We can believe that, apparently.

We were shown Team Cena backstage. Dolph and Ryback spoke about it being a big night as Rowan played about with a Rubik's cube. Cena said he'd do everything he could for the team, all of whom were facing unemployment if they lost (although Cena wasn’t for some reason). Ziggler said he'd do everything he could to make sure he survived, which seemed like it was designed to tease him turning on Cena. Show said they all knew what they signed up for. Ryback said it was feeding time and he was hungry. Cena said there was one thing left to do. Then Rowan stood up and said "win." It was laughably bad stuff, basically. Everyone trotted out stock phrases and swore allegiance to babyfacedom.

But who's side is Brie Bella on?!

The penultimate bout saw Nikki Bella challenge Divas champion AJ Lee for the title. I say bout like they actually wrestled. Which isn’t true. After the opening bell Brie Bella clambered onto the apron holding the Divas title belt. AJ confronted her and Brie kissed her. Then Nikki punched the champ in the back of the head, dropped her with a Rack Attack, and pinned her to win the strap. Brie clapped and joined Nikki in her celebrations, setting up the next stage of the overly long Bella sisters saga for the following evening's RAW.

Everyone in the main event was treated to individual entrances, for no other reason than it fills up the minutes and WWE had minutes to spare. I noticed during Ziggler's entrance that he's no longer doing his hip wiggle. Maybe Nikki Bella complained about him stealing her bit?

This was the match that WWE had concentrated on the most in the weeks before the show, the match that they were counting on to draw people in. While I hadn’t agreed with their decision to not promote a balanced card that could give people numerous reasons to sign up to the Network (if they live in a country where they can, of course) I did at least understand it from a storyline perspective. Creative felt the need to freshen things up and do a big, enticing stipulation that they would allow them to promise a brand new day.

While it wasn’t the best Survivors match I’ve ever seen it also wasn’t the worst. It was given a tonne of time to tell a story and every elimination was made to mean something. It was the best thing on the show and easily as good as it needed to be.

I won’t attempt to cover everything that happened. Instead here are some edited highlights…

Solid booking, this.

Mark Henry was eliminated immediately with a WMD from Big Show. It was a good call, getting someone out of the way early, eliciting a big reaction from the audience, and positioning 'The World's Largest Athlete' as a huge obstacle to overcome. There was a loud reaction for a Rowan and Harper standoff, which was promising. Rollins got enormous heat when he tagged himself in on Harper.

Rusev and Ryback got a loud response when they squared off too. Surprisingly Ryback was booked to get the best of the Bulgarian before a shmoz broke out, culminating in Rollins Curb Stomping Ryback and Rusev pinning him. Ziggler tagged in for the first time shortly after that and spent the next several minutes getting worked over. That culminated with Rusev power bombing him onto a gaggle of match participants at ringside and trying to splash him through the Spanish announce table. Ziggler rolled out of the way and got back into the ring just before the ten count, avoiding a count out elimination. Rusev wasn’t so lucky: he was thrown out from the match when he was unable to return.

Back in the ring Ziggler finally tagged out to Cena, who quickly hit Kane with an AA. Rollins dashed in and Curb Stomped him before he could manage a cover though. Rowan and Harper got their moment in the sun shortly thereafter. The crowd reacted to it again. WWE could do a lot worse than Harper versus Rowan singles match at TLC, a good thing considering that’s probably their plan. Following interference from Kane and a flying knee from Rollins, Harper got a discuss clothesline on his former teammate to send him to the back.

Then the first major shock happened. As Ziggler lay unconscious on the outside Show and Cena squared off with Harper, Kane and Rollins… and Show lamped Cena with his WMD. Rollins immediately went for the cover and got the pin, shockingly eliminating Cena from the match. Yep, Big Show turned again. It’s impossible to be surprised at this point. I wrote before the show that a turn from ‘The World’s Largest Athlete’ wouldn’t be a surprise because his career has been characterised by turns back and forth. We’re at the point here it means nothing.

That said there was at least a reason to it here beyond “Hey, we need some more heels on the roster.” Show saw the tide turning against his team and reasoned that if he laid out Cena and got himself counted out he’d be handing The Authority a victory and they’d waive his firing.

Show’s betrayal (which I really wish Jim Ross had been around to call) left Ziggler alone to face Kane, Harper and Rollins. He was triple teamed for the next few minutes before getting a flash super kick and a Zig Zag on Kane to eliminate him. More punishment came his way at the hands of Luke Harper. ‘The Show Off’ took a suicide dive and a sitdown power bomb before getting a flash rollup for another elimination.

Which left him alone with Seth Rollins. Two counts for Ziggler off a small package and a DDT brought the crowd to their feet, as did a buckle bomb from Rollins. A top tope Curb Stomp missed, allowing Ziggler to get a Fameasser for another rousing two count. Ziggler fought off Mercury and Noble interference and dropped Rollins with a Zig Zag, only for Tripper to yank the referee out of the ring. Ziggler fought off more Noble and Mercury interference, Stephanie fell off the apron onto Triple H, and Rollins got a buckle bomb. A Curb Stomp missed and Ziggler's pin after a Zig Zag was again broken up by 'The King of Kings.

Triple H then got into the ring and gave Ziggler a Pedigree. He dragged Rollins on top of him and then signalled for another new official. Crooked ref Scott Armstrong came out to count the pin but got distracted two thirds of the way through by the entrance of Sting.

‘The Stinger’ sauntered to the ring looking every day of his 55 years then had a staredown with Triple H. It was a long staredown. Like, a really long staredown. Uncomfortably so, in fact. The crowd chanted "This is awesome!" They were wrong. Very wrong. It was tedious.

He's finally signed. And I don't care.

Eventually Triple H threw a punch. Sting ducked it and gave him the Scorpion Death Drop. Then he put Ziggler atop Rollins and a rejuvenated referee that wasn’t Scott Armstrong counted the pin. Rollins didn't kick out, even though he and Ziggler had both been selling for over five minutes. Still, it was great to see Ziggler as the man working the majority of the match for his team and getting the deciding pinfall fifteen minutes after Cena had been eliminated. Cena coming out to hug him afterwards could have been taken as destruction but in this particular instance, with what was on the line and the way Ziggler had been positioned, it made perfect sense.

Once Ziggler and Cena had headed backstage the crowd jeered The Authority as they sold the loss in the ring. Stephanie screamed it wasn't over and then three a fit to take the show off the air. Unfortunately I think she's probably right. WWE have had too much success with the heel authority figure shtick over the years to try something new. We'll get something fresh for a while but they'll return to their comfort zone eventually.

There are two things we need to ask about Survivor Series: was it good enough to convince people they should stick with the WWE Network for at least one more month and was it a satisfying experience in its own right? My answer to the first question would be no. They were clearly hoping the debut of Sting and the post-match antics of Wyatt and Ambrose would be enough to convince people to stick with the Network through TLC but I don’t think that’s enough. Sting won’t wrestle and while I’m sure Wyatt and Ambrose are capable of a strong TLC bout that match alone isn’t sufficient reason to see the show.

The quality of the overall card is what WWE should have focused on. They were hampered by a few injuries but they still could have put on a distinctly average show. They didn't. Is an Adam Rose match really something they feel can help them grow their subscriber numbers? A more balanced card was clearly the way to go. What they lined up and how poorly it turned out proves that.

Taken on its own merits the show was average. The main event was, as already stated, as good as it needed to be. Sting debuting will excite many people. But nothing else on the show was especially memorable, even the Mizdow title win. There have been worse WWE shows, but few with the stakes being so high. This was WWE’s chance to convince people that paying $9.99 a month for a pay-per-view is a great investment, and they failed.

Now let’s see what that plucky young upstart Sting does on RAW, shall we?

Results summary:

The Miz and Damien Mizdow won the tag team championship
Natalya, Naomi, Emma and Alicia Fox defeated Paige, Cameron, Summer Rae and Layla
Bray Wyatt defeated Dean Ambrose via disqualification
Adam Rose and The Bunny defeated Slater Gator
Nikki Bella defeated AJ Lee for the Divas championship
Team Cena defeated Team Authority