Segunda Caida

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Sunday, September 15, 2019

WWE Clash of Champions 9/15/19

Lince Dorado vs. Humberto Carrillo vs. Drew Gulak

ER: Fun match with typical problems that curse three ways. I don't know why Lince was added to the match, but I would have been far more interested in Gulak vs. Carrillo or Gulak vs. Dorado. But we got a three way instead, and it had awkward three way moments where timing was off or someone accidentally kinda took a move instead of dodging it, and of course disappearing for minutes. But it was genuinely fun, in spite of those accurate complaints. Dorado had a cool pescado with his arms at his side, following it up with a slick rana to Gulak on the floor, and then turns a potential silly hot shot bump into a dangerous tumble to the floor. I like Gulak against lucha guys, like how he can make flippy offense seem legit, and Carrillo is someone who tries a lot of things even if they don't always work flush. They try a wild tower spot with a Doomsday Device dive to the floor, I enjoyed the moment where Gulak got his feet up on Carrillo's moonsault but Carrillo anticipated it, Carrillo takes a great posting bump, Gulak breaks out cool things like a gutbuster, and then some other things don't work. But it was a fun opener.

Cedric Alexander vs. AJ Styles

ER: So, I enjoyed this, but I assume most people were thinking this one had some show stealing potential and didn't really want the WorldWide style showcase we wound up with. This was short, compact, and explosive, as good as you'd want a match this short to be. I dug how aggressive Alexander was and I bought that they might give him the early match surprise pin, totally thought that he was winning in a minute. The big spot counters were cool, dug Styles planting him with a Styles Clash on the floor, nice apron spot without going too crazy, Cedric hit a bitchin back elbow on the apron, and we got a fun quick action bout that I'll forget about by the end of the night.

Seth Rollins/Braun Strowman vs. Dolph Ziggler/Robert Roode

ER: You know, if I'm going to watch Ziggler and Rollins, it's at least better that they're paired with a couple other guys. Although had they just been in a singles match against each other I would have skipped it. Huh. I guess that's the better scenario. And this was mostly pretty boring when 3 of the guys were involved, and really awesome when Braun was involved. If it was easier to skip ahead in matches on the New Network I would have skimmed like a motherfucker through this one. Braun's hot tag was the clear highlight, big corner charges, big shoulderblocks on the floor all around the ring, muscling up Roode for a big flapjack out of a DDT attempt, but Seth was shortly back in and whiffing on flying knees. The full extension superkick to Roode was nice though. They kept it economical, and that was fine by me.

Charlotte vs. Bayley

ER: This was a drag. I was getting into Charlotte wrecking Bayley without Bayley getting to come up for air, Charlotte starting with a big boot and not stopping. I dug Bayley's heavy bumps into the barricades, I was really getting into the one-sidedness and wondering where they would go with it. And then moments later the thing was done. Bayley didn't look great from the moment she took over, taking three tries to grab Charlotte into a sloppy small package, and messing up the timing on the drop toehold into buckle finish. I like the finish in a vacuum, but it needed a much longer Charlotte beatdown, and Bayley needed to either look actually good, or completely overwhelmed and outclassed. She didn't shine in the couple moments of offense, and her acting isn't good enough to play overwhelmed heel. Major disappointment.

The Revival vs. Big E/Xavier Woods

ER: Big E is wearing maybe the finest singlet in the great history of singlets. What an absolute masterpiece that is. This show has been wildly underwhelming, this one now has an even heavier load on its shoulders. And the match was really good! Easily the best on the show. The finish took a little long to set up, though I don't mind that they stretched out some time to make the Revival look like punishing sadists. The Revival presented strongly is a cool thing. I like that they switched things up and had Big E cut off from Xavier, even though Big E hot tags are among the best things in the WWE tag division. Big E can Ricky just as interestingly as he can Robert, and I loved the entire sequence of him getting left for dead on the floor: He stops the momentum of a Dash tope, fixes to toss him with a belly to belly, Dash headbutts out, he and Dawson try to shove him into the post, E blocks, then eats the shatter machine. Revival both sold the effects of doing the shatter machine on the hard floor, acting like they both took bumps on concrete to pull it off. I also dig that even though Big E wasn't doing his tope spear, he was still gonna take a big bump through the ropes to the floor. Xavier looked tight as hell on the hot tag, like he knew people were used to Big E fireworks and he knew he had to really be throwing clotheslines and kicks. His handspring lariat looked great, and that's the kind of thing that guys rarely make look good. I don't think the match reached the heights it could have, but Revival looked well-oiled, I dug their post-match victory promo, liked the idea of them targetting Xavier's knee even if took a bit long, but this was all good.

Mandy Rose/Sonya Deville vs. Alexa Bliss/Nikki Cross

ER: Another under-delivery. Rose has been a great house show performer and I have a soft spot for her because of that, but she has been on the main roster a LONG time now and it has STILL not translated to a really good TV or PPV match. I am not sure what's missing. I like her and Sonya together, I've SEEN what both are capable of, and it just doesn't shake out to anything more than decent when they get a showcase. Now this did serve as background for a portion of the 24/7 chase, but I don't think they looked like total dweebs. Three of them did, but at least Bliss went for a roll-up on Truth. There was a decent nearfall save, but this whole thing felt like a time filler.

The Miz vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

ER: I don't really care about either of these two, but this was a good match. Miz always comes off a little too smooth and planned, and that's a big barrier for me, so I got a kick out of Zayn's King of Soft Style commentary. And I also got a kick out of him landing a really nice jab right when he was called King of Soft Style. I liked Miz's jumping knees in the corner to build to the corner clothesline, loved Nakamura going all jellyfish on a spike DDT, thought a couple of Nakamura's sloppy kick combos looked cool, it was a perfectly fine match.

Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch

ER: I didn't think the match itself was great, but I liked what they did once they went to the floor and into the crowd. The staircase brawling was better in Sasha/Charlotte, and part of the time it was way too ECW Hold Hair Walking, but all the getting tossed into hard objects stuff looked good (Sasha is good at throwing herself into railings and tables and condiment counters), and it was great seeing kids sitting 35 rows up flipping out when two wrestlers were somehow right next to them. The initial chairshots were a little weak, and the chairshot that took the ref out of contention was nothing special, but I really liked the energy at the end of the segment with Becky throwing Sasha repeatedly into a set up chair. Within the match, the most engaging stuff was anything based around the Banks Statement or the Disarm-Her, but too much of this had no fire, and this needed more hate. I also thought Graves shoehorning a comment about Banks lying down and having a tantrum felt way too produced, took away from a match that didn't need it.

Randy Orton vs. Kofi Kingston

ER: Nope.

Roman Reigns vs. Erick Rowan

ER: Big boy battles are all the rage these days, and my god did this show need a big boy battle. This stood out especially on this show, but would have stood out most places. Both guys threw bombs, took bigger than expected spills, threw full weight into shoulderblocks and back elbows, Reigns crushed the Superman punch, and Drive-By looked great, and the crowd brawling was nice and dirty. Rowan missed a big awful charge in the ring steps, a hard running forearm, nice splash, and we build to him hitting a huge powerbomb through an announce table. These guys were really landing shots and it ruled. I had mentioned to someone a few days ago that WWE appears to be phasing out elbowdrops, and here's Rowan dropping his full damn weight into Roman's side with one. I dug the ringside brawling, liked the stuff with the crane, and then got even more excited when the lean as hell Luke Harper came back!! We got Amon Amarth and Enslaved represented, and I keep expecting Harper to turn, and instead we get a welcome reunion (for now). This was easily my favorite thing on the show, gave me exactly what I wanted out of these two, tons of great bomb throwing set pieces.

Seth Rollins vs. Braun Strowman

ER: Braun is at least someone who is gonna get me to watch a Seth Rollins match, and we established that twice in one night. Shameful. The match structure was good, even though I think Rollins looked pretty lousy in the parts that needed him. It's smart that they have Rollins double and triple up on his offense, as most of his offense doesn't look credible in any way against Braun. So you have him do a few superkicks, you have him do a few leaping knees (you know, the ones he threw tonight where on all but one of them Michael Cole had to throw out some kind of "well I don't think he hit all of that, but..." to cover for how terrible they looked), several dives, several curb stomps, etc. Almost all of it looked trash, but it was smartly laid out within the match. Now Braun, he more than held up his end of things, and completely made this match. He flew his body into offense (loved him not holding back on shoulderblocks), and he threw his body into everything to make Rollins' offense look lethal. He took a drop toehold into the announce table, took a tope into the table and broke it, worked a leg injury, did an insane looking splash off the top, I mean this was probably Braun's best performance in a year. Even with Rollins' kind of dim bulb performance, Braun's epic level performance and the strong layout made this whole show end on a high note, no small feat.


ER: Not an offensive show, but a fairly unmemorable show in terms of match quality. Nobody went out and stunk up the joint, but there weren't many matches that were lighting fires. There was stuff I enjoyed littered all throughout, and we ended on a cool high note, but I'm not sure how much of this show I'll remember by the next one.


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2 Comments:

Blogger Yerfuneral said...

Fast forwarding through much of the weekly shows don't know what to expect. The preshow did nothing to excite me either. So we'll see what happens.

1) Cruiserweight title:

Gulak has turned these preshow matches something to pay attention to again. Unfortunately this was nowhere near the quality of the recent NXT ppv 3-way and Dorado was off. Which just took me out of it. Not a good start to things.

2) US Title Match

Appreciated it started hot and got right to business but wold have preferred a longer no rest of OC posse interference. WWE needs more group dynamics to stretch out the roster where we don't get the same match ups every week and give guys visibility but allowing little bit of a body pounding break.
Women's tag title would have preferred in this time constraint of preshow, as well.

3) RAW Tag Title Match

This was not a much of a tag match and didn't really lean into much of a storytelling device for Universal title match later.
Unfortunately tag title will likely continue to be an afterthought.

4) Smackdown Women's Title

My fear is this is basically the start of having the four horsewomen feud with each other only to come back for a greater cause whatever that maybe but NXT joining the weekly real tv shows at least hopefully makes these lackluster call ups go more smoothly so the MMA Horsewomen have a better chance moving up in a better manner.
Bayley doesn't work as a heel. Her promo's come off to scripted and I can see how they built the match but Bayley is far from the strongest in ring or promo and don't think she can ever be built in a way you are just dying to see her lose. Were just dying for someone else to have the belt.

5) Smackdown Tag Title

We got some actual tag wrestling and the Revival though same old wrestling scenarios for most part have felt fresh unlike Orton and Kofi stuff.
Nice to see the politics behind the scenes haven't hurt the Revival completely. Hopefully injuries stay behind them and hopefully through the shake up they can build a good tag scene on at least one of the shows and maybe get away from the local talent squash matches with some NXT guys.

2:23 AM  
Blogger Yerfuneral said...

6) Women's Tag Title

Unfortunate we got this. Still no clue why we have a women's tag title the way things have been though would fear if Rose/Deville did take the titles we wouldn't see them again like IIconics run.
They got something to help bring some newer women into a pretty stagnant picture helping fans to know the ladies and give them a bit of respectability by having had a title and help the overall picture on the women's side.
Wasted potential.

7) Intercontinental Title

Liking the dynamic Zayn is bringing to the picture. It is unfortunate Shinsuke has felt more presentable when paired with others like the Rusev teaming.
Unfortunately the tale of this show as a whole has been longer tv matches.

8) Raw Womens Title

Did I hear Cole call this intense. More like slow and plodding. I get they want to do this over many matches and in the end built a story for a possible Women's Hell In The Cell.
Banks return was a pretty well crafted but inserted right into title picture is a snore for me.
There is so much talent in the women but the wildcard and other decisions has kept to much talent on sidelines and they keep using the same pieces.

9) WWE Title

Man the Kofi excitement ended fast. His matches have been mixed and not sure why they haven't moved on from Orton quicker.
Kofi should have been a bunch of one and done's not overly extended feuds with bad reasoning behind why this needs to go on.
Nothing has really been done to counteract Orton's calling of him as being 'stupid'; especially when stuck in comedy act Skittles commercials and such.
New Day is a solid act. I know Kofimania came out of nowhere but Big E and even Woods were flourishing for me more in singles and Kofi still coming up not much more than a mid-card level champ. Time to move on from this but Orton not the guy either, in my opinion.

10) Reigns vs Rowan no dq

Why this is on Clash of Champions I don't know. This seemed like something better to have had on that first Smackdown show to try and get people talking.
Excited Harper is back but with all that viking metal representation on display. What does this mean for War Raiders?
I thought they came up from NXT to closely to the demise of Bludgeon Brothers and now BB may be back. Like possibilities where this may be going.
This stood out for actually coming across ppv caliber so easily match of the night.

11) Universal Title

The Rollins offense came across as what you expect someone needed to take out Braun but they have failed to do in the past. Braun was allowed to be the monster he is suppose to be for the most part. Including the tag match earlier in the night.
Rollins matches he usually follows the Voltron, Power Rangers, etc model and waiting to unleash the stuff that puts others away until later.
The tag title blip was unnecessary and didn't really effect anything going on during the event but the effort by both guys was appreciated. I
wish we hadn't had the Funhouse stuff during the weekly show hinting so strongly what Fiend possibly had planned. A complete surprise would have been nicer. It was a bit distracting wondering when and if Wyatt would strike.

Like said earlier this was to much longer tv matches. I can't say I all out loathed anything but really nothing I loved though Reigns and Rollins were involved in the most watchable stuff with those last two matches which surprised me.
Adraft/shake up is coming so shouldn't be surprised but going in almost cold turkey usually helps these more lackluster shows. That wasn't the case here.
Not excited about a two hour NXT but we'll see what happens.

2:23 AM  

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