I don't have high expectations for this show going in. WWE should make a push to do some good here because the MNF game is a stinker. I just don't know if they have the firepower to do anything.
The show opens with the New Day out to celebrate Sheamus's big title win. Sheamus comes out in a suit and tie. There is confetti, but far less than at Survivor Series. The WWE isn't concerned about the dead crowd after the Reigns win.
Big E is hilarious doing Sheamus's pose. IF you don't follow Big E on twitter you are missing out. I have no problem admitting that I thought the WWE was right to push Roman instead of Big E, but now I realize I'm wrong. Big E is a far better all around performer.
The segment nose dives fast as Sheamus plays up the cheap heat with the crowd and the New Day leave the ring to allow him to enjoy more confetti and pyro, until he gets Superman punched by Roman out of nowhere. The crowd was mostly dead for this. Roman went to the back with the belt.
When we return from commercial Roman is showing the belt off to Ambrose and the USO's. HHH and Steph make their approach and Roman shuns HHH by giving the belt back to Stephanie. HHH then tells Roman that he will get a shot at the WWE title tonight against Sheamus, but he has only 5:15 seconds to do it.
Well that's a bad move. Why take the anticipation off of the PPV match? It's almost certain Roman will not win, so this is a pure ratings ploy that will only drain the feud further of what little life it has.
Tyler Breeze is out to take on Dolph Ziggler. Breeze does not get his entrance shown on TV. One of the best parts of Tyler is his entrance and they have skipped it twice. Also, why in the world are we having this rematch 8 days removed from Survivor Series. Can't we just move on to a new feud for both guys or at worst have the rematch at the TLC PPV? I feel some even Steven booking about to be served up.
It's worth noting that Dolph got a very weak response from the crowd during his entrance. He gets the win here and we are all left to wonder what's the point of Tyler Breeze. He just traded wins with a guy that's dead as a door nail. I don't blame the NXT guys that want to skip the main roster. I wonder if they would skip Finn's entrance as well?
Rusev is out to do MizTV. He introduces Lana and she explains that she...ah who cares shes back to a heel who is in love with Rusev. Ryback comes out because he is a face and challenges Rusev to a match. Rather than build some anticipation for later in the show we just get the match straight away. This is like a battle between displaced 1980's WWE Superstars.
Rusev gets counted out after Lana takes a bump and Rusev shows concern for her. Why should anyone care about any of this?
HHH meets with Ambrose in the back. He informs Dean that if Roman fails to beat Sheamus tonight that he will also lose his IC title shot against Kevin Owens. He also makes it clear Roman will lose his chance at the title at TLC if he loses....huh??? This is confusing as hell.
The Dudley's are out next and they challenge the Wyatts to a match. They have a bunch of tables they plan to put the Wyatt's through. When the Wyatt's hit the ring the Dudley's announce a surprise third partner...Tommy Dreamer. The crowd pops mildly for this. It's good to see Dreamer who is a legend, but this is a battle between two dead teams. The WWE has always mistreated Tommy, so I hope he's getting paid a lot for this appearance.
The match ends...I don't even know what happened, but Bray gets knocked through a table and the Dudley's and Dreamer run off. I guess this incredibly hot feud will blow off at the PPV.
Alberto Del Rio is out next for a match with Goldust. It's a squash that's way to evenly booked. Alberto takers liberties and Jack Swagger runs out to make the save. Swagger has as new hair style this week and he looks a lot like a blonde haired version of Solomon Crowe...ugh...that didn't end well.
Becky tells Charlotte that the best thing to get her mind off Paige is a match with Charlotte. She says she will go to the Authority and request the match. Charlotte doesn't like the idea, but agrees after Becky says it's fine if Ric Flair escorts Charlotte to ringside. They pinky shake and the segment is over.
There's so much wrong here. Becky comes off like a mid carder by begging for a match. How does two friends fighting get anyone's mind off anything. Why would friends fight if they don't have too? Why is Charlotte asking permission to bring Ric Flair to ringside...he's Ric Flair. As for asking the Authority for permission...they should say no in all cases. They are heels. This is just all kinds of dumb, and it's soft booking that appeals to no one.
The USO's and the Lucha Dragons are out for a #1 contenders match for the tag titles. The New Day are out on commentary. The New Day talk over each other too much and it's really not a good segment. They cause a double DQ and claim post match that neither team will get a shot at TLC. There will be no title match at the PPV in their opinion.
The USO's and Lucha Dragons are back talking to Stephanie are upset about there being no winner in their match. She decides to make a triple threat tag match at the PPV, but the USO's are only in if Roman Reigns win against Sheamus tonight. They are really try to buy sympathy for Roman by throwing his friends into the equation. So dumb.
Up next is Brie Bella versus Sasha Banks. This match is ok. Nothing really great. Sasha gets another win, but Brie is about as dead as they come in this division so it really does little to raise her profile all that much. When will this team stuff end?
Roman tells his friends that he has their backs and not to worry. The match is up next, which clearly means we aren't getting a Roman win tonight since their is an hour left in the show. Sheamus gets on his bike and mostly runs. After four minutes they are both selling like they have been in a 20 minute match.
Roman gets ready to go for the spear, but Rusev stops him and the match ends with a dq. I can only assume this means the other guys get to keep their title shots and so does Roman. So what was the point of any of this? Oh yeah, cheap ratings ploy that diminishes the value of the feud. Barrett and Del Rio also came down to ringside and Sheamus announces that Roman will have to wait until TLC to get another chance at the title.
So isn't Roman really a winner here? He got to inflict some punishment on Sheamus and had a chance at the belt. Why would he be upset about that? This match never felt in doubt and the live crowd never bought into any of it. Reigns lack of popularity doesn't help at all. If WWE was wondering about heat at the PPV they just got their answer...there is none.
Sheamus continued talking on the mic and introduced his new group the League of Nations consisting of Rusev, Sheamus, Del Rio, and King Barrett. Also known as the league of midcarders. The USO's and Ambrose come out to support Reigns, but nothing really happens here.
Paige is out to commentate on the next match between Becky and Charlotte. After a pretty even back and forth match Charlotte feigns an ankle injury. Becky shows concern and Ric Flair jumps up on the apron. Charlotte then pops up and rolls up Becky for the win. Charlotte owns it post match and acts semi heel. So Charlotte is turning heel now as well? Paige, Charlotte, and Sasha are heels?
It's more likely this is a transition for Charlotte to be heel so they can flip Sasha. It's not the worst thing ever. Why did they keep Paige in the picture if they were going to do this though? They should have moved Paige into a feud with Becky. Wait, I'm putting energy into figuring out things logically, sorry.
The announce team let us know that a new Main Event has been added. So, I guess that title match wasn't that big of a deal. The newly formed League of Nations vs. Roman, Dean and the USO's. The match that couldn't wait for next week. I'm so pumped.
We cut to Charlotte and Becky talking in the back. Charlotte is continuing the heel turn saying that it's the big leagues and you have to step up like Paige. She was just showing Becky some tough love and they are still buds. Paige appears and tells Becky that she doesn't think this loss will affect her friendship with Charlotte.
So, not for nothing, but that was a non-title match. Did Charlotte really need to cheat to win? They could have done this; Becky could have given Charlotte a close match, but Paige should have interfered. Then they could have rematched the next week with Becky getting a savvy win. This would cause a mild rift between the two and cast doubt that Charlotte could beat Paige at the PPV. Then you have the match where Charlotte cheats to win a few weeks down the road and start the slow heel turn. Wait that might build anticipation and draw people's attention away from Roman...never mind.
Adam Rose debuted his new segment the Rosebush where he traced over the Rusev, Ziggler, Lana, and Summer Rae love square from a few months back. He poked a lot of fun at everyone, so it wasn't clear if this was a heel or face segment. The downside being it covered a stale angle. I was surprised at some of the non-PG comments and suggestions he made. It was a dumb segment, but compared to everything else on the show I'll give it a few weeks because it's different.
Stardust does another weird segment with Titus. That is all.
The tag match is up next. After everyone is out for the match the New Day's music hits and they announce that they are going to join the League of Nations making this a 7 on 4 handicap match. Reigns gets a hot tag and really is made to look far to strong, but eventually the numbers game catches up to him. In the end Ambrose eats the pin...really Ambrose had to eat that?
Reigns is holding back tears yet again. He runs into the ring to save a beating on Dean, but get's beat up for his troubles and we leave air with the League of Nations hoisting Sheamus on their shoulders.
This is two weeks in a row that the crowd was dead, but what did they really have to root for? The same faces going nowhere trading wins? The WWE is going to ignore the fact that Reigns isn't all that over, so no use bitching about that.
The Charlotte turn was well a nice twist. Hopefully they can take that to the right place. Otherwise no Kevin Owens tonight. That's not always a bad thing, but if they wanted to make something of that of the IC match they needed to start tonight. Maybe they did him a favor. He's from Canada and he might have been tossed into the League of Midcarders doom.
It was shocking how dead the crowd was for the title match, but the WWE has made this whole situation far too obvious. They also overbooked all the stipulations for that match and placed it on the show in a spot where a title change was not likely to occur. This isn't going to build any new fans and this show is a continued step backwards. Just no stories worth caring about. They buried Tyler Breeze a little bit and the Rusev/Lana stuff was just dumb.
