Nice to see them actually do something with the WWE Champion for a change. I'm not really sure what their intention for Sheamus is, since it doesn't really feel like he's actually getting a push - his current position is more about the title being on someone new and young than it is about him in particular. Right now he's more of a device, an inanimate prize for top stars like Orton and Cena to chase. Also, putting Kofi in that group helps to close the gap between those two vets and an up-and-comer like him. What doesn't help close that gap is Kofi coming out and saying "I don't know if I deserve to be here." It's sort of like calling your own bluff. Truthfully, Kofi probably doesn't deserve to be there yet, but it doesn't help him get there if he's saying that the other two are better than him, but please oh please Mr. Tyson give me the shot instead. At least the triple threat match will be interesting... funny that they're still finding ways to put Cena and Orton together, even though they seemed to get the message that everyone was sick of that pairing.
Divas tournament. I don't really care. It does seem most appropriate that they're trotting out Kelly Kelly because she's nice to look at, but consistently burying her in actual matches. She should be no where near that title.
Teasing dissention between DiBiase and Rhodes. Everyone knows it's coming. They might want to hit it more on the head to make it look intentional, and not reactionary. The Legacy program with Mark Henry and Evan Bourne is nice, because it puts a bit of a spotlight on four guys who deserve it, no doubt. I just wish it were actually about something. DX does not need the tag team titles. They're going to be over no matter what. The belts should be used to push people higher, either but putting them on up-and-coming teams (especially ones that won't have their own individual storylines like DX always will), or by keeping them on DX and giving shots to the up-and-coming teams. I think a tag team tournament is pretty desperately needed. I'm very afraid right now that since the JeriShow thing is basically over, the tag belts are going to disappear until after Wrestlemania, since Michaels will be spending his time building the match with the Undertaker. Guys like Mark Henry and Evan Bourne would be great holding the tag belts and jumping over to the other two shows. Since winning the belts in the summer, I think DX has shown up on Smackdown and ECW once apiece. It's a burial of tag team wrestling, and that's a shame.
As for the match... Cody Rhodes's finisher looks more sick on Evan Bourne than it does on anyone else. I've said it before: the man can take a nasty bump.
More DX with Tyson and Jericho. Jericho gets his eighth last shot to stay on RAW. And Tyson back in the ring? Swerve. Also, these backstage segments look really poorly edited. Kinda sloppy.
The Swagger-Santino thing was fun. The nice thing about the Royal Rumble build-up is that even though neither of these guys will win, it gives the midcard something to do for a couple weeks. It's the same reason I miss the annual King of the Ring. It gives one guy a shot at credibility they wouldn't otherwise get. Of course, you'll have segments like this building up to the Rumble, but then very few real surprise eliminations during the Rumble match itself, which is a shame, but not really unexpected.
The triple threat was... OK. The WWE-style triple threat (and actually, TNA does it too) is less a triple threat and more a series of one on one matches, with the odd man out breaking up pin attempts. They played a little with Kofi and Cena double-teaming, but even that only served to establish Orton as the first odd man out. Overall, the timing here was really, really bad. Something just didn't seemed to flow right, and I think that centered on Kofi. Before going into the finish, Orton had a moment where he looked legitimately pissed off about the match. It could be he just plays his part very well, but he looked frustrated before hitting the RKO, so I wonder if the match hadn't gone as smoothly as planned. It certainly didn't look as smooth as it could have. At that point, it could have been Kofi, or maybe Legacy missed their mark to interfere. I don't know.
Miz started his segment off really well. The transition from the back to the ring worked nicely, but once again, the timing slipped badly when MVP came out. It seemed like MVP was dropping lines left and right, and it really killed the flow of the promo. Had they cut MVP's promo in half and upped his intensity, I think it could have come off pretty well, but that wasn't the case. The brawl afterward righted the ship a little, but since this will probably be a two-week rivalry through the Royal Rumble, every moment needed to be sharp, and I think they missed an opportunity here.
More Divas. It's a shame Katie Lee is deeply boring, because if she were repackaged with a better gimmick, she's got the actual wrestling skill to dominate the rest of the women's division. Eve does not. It doesn't really matter, because the Divas tournament is pretty clearly heading toward Gail Kim vs. Maryse, as well it should. But Katie Lee moving on might have made the semi-finals a little more interesting.
Bret's never going to be in a WWE ring again... riiiiiiight. I can understand selective ignoring of the internet buzz, but if you all but confirm that Bret has signed a new deal, right down to the timeframe (through Wrestlemania), doing something in a storyline that is entirely contradictory isn't really smart. That's just coming out and blatantly lying to the crowd.
The tag match did pretty much everything expected. Swerve, with Tyson landing on the face side once again. The literal knockout blow to Jericho's time on RAW will hopefully stick this time. I think the timing was off yet again, because it seemed like DX, Tyson and Tyson's son were in the ring celebrating for a long time before the USA overrun concluded.
Not sure what was up this week. The whole show felt really unpolished. Timings were off, things felt unrehearsed... just not a great show. I'm also a little worried about the blatant lack of build to the Rumble, outside of the WWE title match and the Rumble match itself. And now, what do you do with Cena and Kofi for the next couple weeks? Are they just going to enter the Rumble match? Or can we expect them to square off for a title shot at No Way Out. I actually hope that doesn't happen, because it would mean they're not doing an Elimination Chamber this year, and considering Kofi never got his shot at the Chamber last year, thanks to Edge, I'd like to see him mix it up with all the top stars on the brand. The show as a whole needs to ramp up the build toward the pay-per-view, and actually get to adding some undercard. There really ought to be one more from each show. I think we can expect MVP vs. Miz, unless they move the title shot up to before the pay per view.
Also... where are they headed with the WWE title? I don't see Sheamus holding onto it to Wrestlemania, because new talent push or not, they're not going to have someone that green headlining the flagship show. He's already gotten past Cena, so I think a win over Orton would help establish him a little bit more... and then maybe have him drop it to someone in the elimination chamber, so he can lose a little less directly? Even with the involvement of Kofi and Sheamus, this still feels like it's heading toward Cena and Orton at Wrestlemania, which would be painful. We've seen it. Many times. And from what I've seen online, Shawn Michaels is the favorite to win the Rumble and head to Smackdown to face the Undertaker. So we'll see, but there's an element missing to the build. Hopefully they'll be able to get someone (Kofi) a little more over between now and Wrestlemania so they don't need to fall back to Cena and Orton.
No comments:
Post a Comment