That RAW Recap 07.07.14

Two things stood out as being good on Monday’s RAW.

The first was the presentation of Roman Reigns. A few weeks ago he was a fun-lovin’ prankster, spiking coffees being carried by Vickie Guerrero so he could sneak his way into a pay-per-view main event. That wasn’t the sort of approach that was going to turn Reigns from a man with potential coming off a run as part of a popular trio into the leading man WWE needed. It didn’t play to his strengths. Worse, it made him look like every other WWE babyface.

Thankfully someone involved in the creative process seems to have realised that was a mistake. Monday’s RAW opened with Reigns striding through the crowd, to a reaction only reserved for top stars, and cutting a promo in which he displayed charisma and the ability to hit bullet points that further storylines (both necessary skills for those at the top of the WWE ladder). The response he got when addressing Kane, Randy Orton, John Cena and Triple H was a very good sign.

I don't want to know what Joey Mercury's grabbing for.

The good booking continued when Kane showed up and Reigns left the ring to battle him in the aisle. That he was keen to fight ‘The Big Red Monster’ made him look like the tough guy WWE needs. That he speared Finlay and then knocked Kane off the apron with a Superman punch ensured that RAW’s first segment ended with Reigns looking like a man who doesn’t back down. That’s the kind of star the promotion needs.

The show ended in a similarly positive manner. After Cena had defeated Rollins (in a non-title match) Orton and Kane appeared to duff up the world champ. Reigns showed up and immediately KOed both men with Superman punches, establishing that the move is incredibly effective. After briefly being dazed by a thump from Rollins’ briefcase (again protecting him by showing that Rollins needed to use a weapon to stun him) Reigns returned to the ring to save Cena from a choke slam by spearing Kane.

The episode went off the air with Cena and Reigns raising one another’s hands. When Reigns held up Cena’s hand the crowd booed. When Cena held up Roman’s hand the fans cheered. It was confirmation that Reigns is becoming accepted as a top guy and that he’s already preferable in the eyes of many to Cena. Which shouldn’t come as a surprise. Cena’s been on top for near enough a decade and WWE have done a terrible job of creating new stars over the last few years. Reigns is new and looks the part, so people will back him. They want change and Reigns represents it.

The second thing that stood out as being good was the booking of the non-main event names. This is something I’ve mentioned in a variety of articles over the last couple of months, my feeling being that giving people outside of main event plots something to do is what’s needed to make WWE’s weekly programming more watchable and to create new stars.

Please note that Fandango has "Girls" written on his tights.

The best example was Fandango. He followed up his enjoyable Money in the Bank performance with a stint as guest commentator during a Dolph Ziggler v Alberto Del Rio match. He was fun and got his character over before he leapt up on to the announce table for the planned finish: distracting Dolph with his dance moves.

But this wasn’t just promising because it gave Fandango something to do. It was clear that Fanners had a problem with ‘The Show Off’ giving Summer Rae (Fandango’s ex) a kiss and that that was his motivation for causing a disturbance. It’s not the ideal starting point for a Ziggler v Fandango rivalry but it’s at least a step in the right direction, and the involvement of Summer and Layla could allow for some tag matches to keep things interesting.

Similarly the idea of having The Miz read out fan mail was a nice touch. It got over his new wannabe movie star vibe, as did the Tom Cruise shades. I could have done without the return of his awful leather trenchcoat though. That things needs to be retired.

The Divas division was well served too. AJ Lee and Paige were paired up as a babyface team to defeat The Funkadactyls. Cameron opted to apply lip gloss instead of tagging into the match at a critical moment and was immediately pinned with a Paige Turner when she did eventually ta in. She and Naomi then had a shoving match followed by a fight. It was not impressive or multi-layered but it did get a surprisingly strong reaction, indicating audiences may be more into the Funkadactyl v Funkadactyl feud than I’d assumed. If so that’s good news. It means people can be pleased by a storyline involving performers who have only been half-heartedly pushed as long as it develops naturally.

Of course, the Paige and AJ thing was underplayed. There were no signs of jealousy or bitterness from the former champ. The closest they came was AJ flaunting the title belt a little too much, but it wasn’t pushed by the commentary crew and Paige didn’t really react to it. The long approach is being with their rivalry. That’s good.

While RAW as a whole was nothing spectacular it did several things right and indicated that the roster as a whole is being given attention. It’s a step in the right direction and I hope WWE sticks with it.

Diva Reconstruction

The WWE Divas division received a welcome boost on Monday when AJ Lee made a surprise return during RAW. After nearly three months off Mrs CM Punk sauntered down to the ring and defeated Paige, the woman who’d beaten her the night after WrestleMania XXX, to become a two time Divas champion. Her return is obviously a good thing. She’s WWE’s most over and capable female performer, and it opens up several storyline possibilities that could help to make the division, its title and its performers mean more than they currently do.

AJ Lee, celebrating her second title victory.

Judging solely by what occurred on RAW it looks as though AJ is going to be booked as a face. That would make sense. The reaction her return got shows that people are keen to cheer her, mostly because of how talented she is and because she carried the Divas scene for so long. Paige’s response to AJ’s return and the loss she suffered in their match was to look dejected and whimper a bit. It would seem fair to assume that she’ll try being nice about AJ’s entitled mean girl attitude for a few weeks before snapping and going heel, probably after failing to regain the gold.

Although Paige is a great technical wrestler she hasn’t managed to connect with audiences in her time on the main roster. She proved she could connect with crowds before her RAW debut (pretty much everywhere she worked, from SHIMMER to NXT). The reason she’s not managed the same in WWE is almost entirely attributable to her being given nothing to do but be a champion and work short title defences against challengers of the month.

A heel turn would suit Paige, basically. And an official face run would give AJ fresh things to do. Although the gulf between them is vast Paige and AJ are WWE’s most prominent and able female performers. They are the natural choice for the Divas division’s top feud.

But AJ Lee and ‘The Anti-Diva’ are not the only two ladies that are currently giving the division hope. Although they haven’t been the most exciting things to ever hit a wrestling show there are two other rivalries involving women in WWE at the mo: Summer Rae versus Layla and the (heart-breaking) splintering of much-loved institution The Funkadactyls.

The former was over the affections of love rat Fandango so it was hardly a great achievement for feminism but, on the plus side, it did at least see WWE’s writing team dedicating time to female wrestlers that weren’t involved in a title feud. That’s a step in the right direction (with either gender). Meanwhile the split of Cameron and Naomi is still in the early stages but every indication is that it will be awful. Though, again, it’s encouraging to see the writers doing something with female performers without the title being used as the impetus.

In addition to this recent booking has hinted at a showdown between Stephanie McMahon and Brie Bella sometime in the future. Perhaps it’s been decided that Triple H will sit SummerSlam out and Steph will represent the family in the ring. It’s unlikely to be a technical clinic but Steph v Brie has potential thanks to the heat Steph will bring. Plus I maintain that Brie is underrated as a worker.

This is not the best use of Emma.

These rivalries display a cast of Divas that is deceptively well-developed in terms of character. And they don’t include Alicia Fox, who has been cast as an overly excitable poor sport and shown herself to be a far better wrestler than she’d previously been credit for. It also discounts Emma who, brush with the law and multi-hour unemployment stint aside, still has the potential to overcome being saddled with Santino, get her NXT dance moves over and establish herself as a perennial contender to the butterfly belt and someone who can always be relied upon to churn out a solid bout.

Meanwhile in NXT Natalya’s reinventing herself on a developmental roster that includes captivating cheerleader cum fairy Alexa Bliss, the almost-certainly-not best friends forever Beautiful Fierce Females unit of Sasha Banks and Charlotte, the starstruck and naturally likeable Bayley, and the disappointingly stereotypical Becky Lynch. All of them are ready for the main roster in terms of wrestling ability. There are just a few wrinkles to be worked out in terms of gimmicks and characters in some cases. Considering the drought WWE’s women’s league has been in pretty much since Trish Stratus left in 2006 that’s a welcome sign.

With AJ and Paige on top wrestling for the championship, time being dedicated to non-title programmes, and a nice number of names waiting on the developmental roster the Divas division could very well be poised to become must-see wrestling viewing. That’s not something I would have expected to write six months ago. It’s a nice surprise.

Total Divas

With the recent announcement that America's E! TV channel will be airing a show about WWE's Divas the future of the WWE Network is once again looking dubious. The company have been trying to get their own channel underway for a few years now. In 2011 they aired an ad on RAW which seemed to indicate the channel would be ready for viewing by WrestleMania XXVIII. They probably regret that now.

Several rumours have swirled regarding how the Network will function. At first we were told WWE were simply going to set up a brand new channel. When they realised how much that would cost and they started looking around for an existing channel to buy and convert. We've also been told it could be a "premium subscription channel" or, hilariously, a YouTube channel. I'm all for YouTube trying to get into the TV market by offering serialised content made with a decent budget but as WWE already has multiple TV shows airing in dozens of countries it would be a bizarre and unnecessary move for them to make.

The decision to flog the Divas' show to an existing channel does not bode well for the WWE Network. Since the project was announced a Diva-centric show was said to be planned and it was assumed it would be one of the channel’s focal points. That WWE has sold the show likely means they've decided to make some money from it now rather than sitting on it until their own channel is ready to roll.

Basically it's a sign than the WWE Network is delayed yet again or that it simply isn't going to happen.

It's not all bad news for WWE though. While their (probably ultimately doomed anyway) TV station project has suffered yet another setback at least the Divas are going to be getting some increased exposure. It won’t be lumbered with the stigma of being on a wrestling channel either, which means there’s a chance non-fans may watch and become new additions to “the WWE Universe". Best of all it's a chance for them to reboot their currently rudderless Divas division.

Will that belt ever mean anything again?

WWE's ladies' league has been meaningless for quite some time. That talents like Gail Kim, Mickie James and Victoria (now Tara) left the company is part of the problem. That caused the quality of in-ring performances to sink. To a lesser extent the same can be said of Eve Torres and Michelle McCool. WWE has been unable or unwilling to retain the services of women who want to put on good wrestling matches.

They’ve not helped themselves though. The booking of what women have stuck with them has been less than inspirational. The women have clearly become an afterthought, if that, for WWE’s overworked writing team.

The preferred approach when John Laurinaitis was talent boss seemed to be to hire models who looked the part. Knowledge of or even a passing interest in wrestling were not a requirement for the job.

That's changed under Triple H. He seems far keener keen on bringing in women with wrestling backgrounds. Paige from Britain and Emma from Australia spring to mind. Signing Ric Flair's daughters wasn't a horrible idea either, because second and third generation stars can work out (see The Rock, Mr Perfect and Eddie Guerrero, just off the top of my head). H3 even gave Amazing Kong a shot. That her run with the company didn't work out is nobody's fault, it’s just the result of sad and unfortunate circumstances.

Two new women have been hired to be a part of Total Divas. Natalia Eva Marie, a model (showing ‘The Game’ isn’t against hiring non-wrestlers to be trained from scratch) will drop her first name and be known as Eva Marie. Joseann Alexie Offerman, a singer and dancer, will become Jo Jo Offerman. This indicates WWE are keen to restock the Divas division, as does the rumour that Paige will soon be called up to the main roster.

Whether or not this show can save the Divas division from the pit of oblivion it's currently in remains to be seen. If it’s used as a tool to flesh out the cast with interesting and varied characters it will stand a chance. My instinct is to say that it will need a match on each show in order to be a success. Surely a programme about female wrestlers and their hardships needs to show matches in order to show what the women actually do?

That may not be the case though. The show could be used to give people a reason to care about the women and function as a launching point for TV and pay-per-view feuds. Sort of like a Divas-only RAW but with a reality TV twist.

Whatever the setup of the show it will determine the fate of the company's female wrestlers. If it flops then the division will be even more damaged and pointless than it is now and probably require a rest for a while. It's all or nothing for the girls. They collectively need to use the show as a way of making themselves and their title an important part of WWE programming.

NXTweet 06.03.13

The fact that NXT airs weeks after being recorded can sometimes lead to strange situations. Like on this week's show, where Corey Graves, Conor O'Brian and Bo Dallas were to clash for the second week in a row and it wasn't mentioned by the commentary team. The two shows had been recorded weeks apart rather than on the same night, which presumably led to the forgotten emphasis.
 
Things like this don't happen often on NXT, and they're not major problems when they do. It remains jarring though.
 
The triple threat match was to decide on the next challenger to Big E Langston's NXT championship. Annoyingly Conor O'Brian won. He faced Big E a few weeks ago in a decent match that went to a no contest. I'd have preferred one of the other two men to win to give us something fresh. Graves in particular would have been a far more interesting choice than 'The Ascension'.

All three-way matches should have a spot like this

 
In a way this illustrates one of the good things about NXT. There is a distinct lack of an upper tier, which places everyone on the same level and creates an atmosphere where anyone could realistically win the title if given the chance. This makes it an unpredictable watch, and unpredictability in wrestling is rarely a bad thing.
 
Will O'Brian defeat Ziggler's bodyguard? It's possible but I wouldn't say it's likely. Big E is doing very well on NXT and a loss could harm him.
 
Elsewhere on the show six Divas fumbled their way through a six (wo)man tag team match. The heel team of Alicia Fox, Aksana and Audrey Marie were on target for most of the bout. On the opposite side of the ring Sasha Banks looked good, Cameron looked decent, and Naomi looked horrendous.
 
Leo Kruger beat Yoshi Tatsu with the London Dungeon in a brief outing. And lastly (in the opener, ironically) Adrian Neville won a handicap match against two nondescript villains, both of whom were larger than him, after Oliver Grey was assaulted backstage by the Wyatt Family. The fiends!
 
Speaking of the Wyatts the saga of Bray attempting to recruit Bo Dallas continued during this show. First Dallas was approached during a backstage interview (in which he was bragging about winning a Rumble slot, which happened well over a month ago and made me wonder if I was accidentally watching an old episode) and then Bray sauntered to ringside during the main event. It was the Family leader pulling Corey Graves out of the ring that distracted Dallas and allowed 'The Ascension' to get his win.
 
Will Bo end up joining the villainous Family? Stay tuned, grapple fans!

Dusty Rhodes promo

Tweet 1: Be warned: I am watching NXT.

Tweet 2: NXTweet.
Tweet 3: Here comes the living turnip Dusty Rhodes. #eefyooweel
Tweet 4: He just said it! #eefyooweel
Tweet 5: Want to know what this beefed up security consists of? Arn Anderson patrolling corridors wielding a sack of doorknobs.

Adrian Neville v Judas Devlin and Scott Dawson

Tweet 6: Who are these jabronis in the generic gear?

Tweet 7: PAC's lost Oliver Grey. He's going to wrestle a handicap match. This is known as Ryback Syndrome.
Tweet 8: I don't think I want to know what the Wyatt Family got up to with an unconscious Grey.
Tweet 9: Pretty shoddy medics over there at the NXT Arena.

Where were the medics?

Leo Kruger v Yoshi Tatsu

Tweet 10: What happened to that face paint or half mask or whatever it was that Yoshi was wearing?

Tweet 11: I've not actually seen much of him since last year so he probably dropped it a while ago.
Tweet 12: Is South Africa on Twitter?
Tweet 13: London Dungeon there. Lovely to see.

Cameron, Naomi and Sasha Banks v Audrey Marie, Aksana and Alicia Fox

Tweet 14: Six Diva tag match. Expect botches.

Tweet 15: The Funkadactyls' aren’t troubling 'Taker for Best Ring Entrance Ever.
Tweet 16: Alicia Fox is a heel again? Why? Why not?
Tweet 17: Naomi is breathtakingly sloppy here. It's no wonder they don't let her wrestle on important shows.
Tweet 18: It's over. I can say that that was certainly a wrestling match.
Tweet 19: The winning Divas hug one another to celebrate. Why are Kane and Bryan the only male team that does that?

Bo Dallas talks about his Rumble win backstage

Tweet 20: Didn't Bo Dallas get attacked last week? Why isn't that being mentioned?

Tweet 21: Bray Wyatt saved that segment via boundless charisma.

Summer Rae witters

Tweet 22: Here's Summer Rae. Generic interview ahoy!

Tweet 23: Summer Rae is the argument in favour of scripted promos. Imagine how bad she'd be if she could do what she wanted.
Tweet 24: #Shieldvision
Tweet 25: Basically, The Shield are going to carry on doing run-ins and nobody's going to stop them. Not even the mighty Dusty Rhodes.

Number One Contendership match – Conor O’Brian v Corey Graves v Bo Dallas

Tweet 26: The commentators don't seem too bothered with reminding us that this match was due to happen last week. It's peculiar.

Tweet 27: I don't know this referee's name but for what it's worth I don't care for him.
Tweet 28: "I truly believe that size does matter" - William Regal
Tweet 29: I can't imagine Bo Dallas or Conor O'Brian anywhere except WWE. They don't look like guys that would succeed in ROH or TNA.
Tweet 30: O'Brian's gimmick would work in CHIKARA though. Probably.
Tweet 31: Why isn't Corey Graves billed as being from "The Dumpsters of New York City"?
Tweet 32: For the record I want Graves to win this. Best wrestler in the match. I think him versus Big E would be good.
Tweet 33: Bray update: he is stood at ringside dressed, as usual, like someone who handles alligators for a living.
Tweet 34: 'The Ascension' wins. It's the worst possible scenario: an uninspiring challenger that we've seen wrestle the champ before.
Tweet 35: In twenty years O'Brian will be held in the same regard as the Undertaker.