It's a big week in Pro Wrestling. Raw has to recover from what many thought was a bad show last week while competing against the biggest College football game of the year this week. Lucha Underground has to progress their story-lines effectively to capitalize off their buzz from championship crowning match. NXT has promised a loaded card for their move to Wednesday. Impact needs to start making us believe that their move to Friday is watchable and Smackdown promised the return of Daniel Bryan to in ring action. Here are a few of my thoughts on each show.
Raw was so bad last week that it made my top five list of worst Raw's ever. The bar is not set too high this week, but I think WWE felt the wave of negativity for their lack of good storytelling last week, so I'm betting this week will be a bit better. Their obviously comes a point when Sting returns, I'm not sure if it's this week. WWE probably will position a way for their fake terminations to get back on the roster.
I'm hoping that Reigns takes a clear line against the Authority. They started this on Smackdown, but they really need to drive that home this week. I expect Daniel Bryan as he's going to be on Smackdown (which tapes on Tuesday) so perhaps they can set his match. Cena needs to be recovered a whole bunch as much as he is overpushed he can't be made to look that weak.
Typically the go home show into a PPV, which is the following week, is not that good. So, I think they might roll with big developments this week, but you never can tell. They tend to react to competition by being conservative and a big part of their audience will be locked into the football game. So don't get your hopes too high.
Lucha Underground was quietly the best show I watched last week. This program is still in it's infancy, but they are using experienced talents to put on great action. It's important that their not trapped in the cycle like WWE and Impact of repeating the same match over and over because it's good action. Usually we can only take so much of the same guys going out there with a minor story behind them. I'm hoping that they can keep Mundo and Puma apart. Also, I'd like to see Big Ryck go a different direction. Why not have Ryck get some wins over lesser talent on the show.
I'm not sure how many shows they are taping at once, but I assume it's minimum four weeks worth of content maybe more. That being the case they have to be correct in what they do because they can't change direction week to week with so many shows in the can already. This is probably the biggest show for them because they have to move the storylines forward. I'm pulling for these guys and hope the show is good. Also more Son of Havoc. That guy is underrated.
NXT was just ok to me last week. There really wasn't anything insanely special. It was good to see Zayn, but his promo was nothing all that moving. The best part of the show were all the moments where they named the matches for this week. The rematch with Zayn and Neville is an amazing booking as well as Kidd and Balor. Literally they could spend the entire hour with just those two matches and the show will be hard to top. Baron Corbin with meet Bull Dempsey and I'll give this feud some respect because they have built to this slowly, but I can't imagine it's a match that lasts very long.
I have a major fear that Zayn Neville will be a squash with Owens doing a run in. When these two guys go it's art so that would annoy me a little and I'm a huge Owen mark saying that. Yet, I can't blame WWE for looking to setup a three way with these guys for their next big live NXT event. Balor finally gets to shine against a guy that can flat go in Kidd. The in ring talent here is off the charts. So beyond bad finishes this is probably the show of the week or at least the one I'm looking forward to the most.
Smackdown has already promised Daniel Bryan. The only question is will this be a throw away match or something special. WWE so poorly promotes Smackdown these days that they don't even know yet I'm sure. Still I think this is worth tuning in for. They are moving to Thursday so this is a kitchen sink show.
The last two Smackdowns were really good shows, considering the way the show has recently been booked, and that's a low bar. WWE needs to spend a little more time acting like what happens on Smackdown matters. The only way to do that is to really progress angles on that show that are talked about on the super long three hour Raw's. I also like the idea of quietly only featuring certain guys on Raw and certain on Smackdown. I wouldn't do a brand split, but allow fans to get invested in shows where they know their favorites will be. I can't stress enough that they need to cross promote on Raw and announce more matches. It can't all just be random.
Impact had a finish that personally was a big letdown to me because I'm so sick of all the heel turns. Still what's done is done and they need to start building the story behind this and try to get us invested as to why this is important. Friday nights that late are a death sentence so Impact needs to get really interesting really fast.
I'm really worried this roster has been run down too much and the heel turns have burned out the life of any angle. I also feel like the talent that is left is not near the best of what they have had over the past few years. This show really has to be interesting or I don't even know if they are worth continuing to cover.
Stay tuned as I'll be recapping each show as the week progresses.
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