Wrestling’s 4Rs: The Right, Wrong and Ridiculous of WWE Raw & Smackdown

How the 4Rs of wRestling Work!
Here is a quick explanation of the 4R’s. The column will run TWO times a week. We will group our feelings on the shows in various categories: The Right, the wRong and the Ridiculous. The Right is stuff that worked very well: a great promo, a great match and so on. PuRgatoRy is a section between the right and wrong. It shows equal traits from both sides that cannot be ignored and needs discussed. It is not a bad place per say, as things can get remedied or go the wrong way the very next week. The wRong is what it sounds like: bad matches, bad or boring promos and so on. The Ridiculous is stuff that had no right on TV: Stupid angles and so on. And there is always a possibility of a 5th R, which is as bad as they come. This column is supposed to be analytical, and at the right time very critical of the shows, it was the whole reason it was created. This is not a “mark” column, nor a “smark” column, our goal is to analyze the show from many different fronts, reward the good and call out the bad. We will not apologize for our opinions, they are as they are, whether positive or negative.

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By: Jack Stevenson
Raw 12.01.14:
QUICK MATCH RESULTS:
* The Usos d. Goldust & Stardust, The New Day, Tyson Kidd & Cesaro and Adam Rose & The Bunny in a Tag Team Turmoil match
* Erick Rowan d. The Big Show via DQ
* Fandango d. Jack Swagger via forfeit
* Damian Sandow d. Fernando
* Bray Wyatt d. R-Truth
* AJ Lee & Naomi d. The Bella Twins
* John Cena, Dolph Ziggler & Ryback d. Seth Rollins, Kane & Luke Harper

THE RIGHT:
Swagger avenges Colter’s death: The prospect of another Swagger-Rusev feud just a couple of months after the last one ended wasn’t exactly thrilling. However, they went a long way to restoring some lustre to the feud this week by having Rusev take out Zeb Colter in the back.; it adds a more personal dimension to the rivalry that didn’t exist when it was all about the U.S.A vs. Russia. The structure of the angle was a little different to the usual as well, which I appreciated- it seems like normally they’d have Rusev attack Swagger or Colter during the match and then Fandango would win off a distraction roll-up, so doing a forfeit victory and following that with the bulk of the angle was a moderately interesting way of doing things. Swagger and Rusev had some surprisingly strong matches together so there’s no reason to be concerned about match quality, but there’s still a real danger this will slip into a funk and retread the ground they covered over the summer. This week was a step in the right direction though, and if they keep Swagger all fired up and furious after his manager was taken out, this could be a pleasant surprise in the midcard.

Miz gets slapped in the money-maker!: Whisper it quietly, but this Miz/Jimmy Uso/Naomi thing looks like it could become a good, serious angle that features a Diva, which is a rare and welcome thing. The premise is relatively original, plays on Miz’s distinct, fun character, and has all these people acting like rational human beings in it. Miz is impressed by Naomi’s music video appearance, Miz offers to give Naomi’s career a helping hand, Naomi considers it, Jimmy justifiably doesn’t trust Miz and slaps him in the face to tell him to stay away from his wife. It all makes sense! And in my heart of hearts I know it’ll all go nowhere, and I do think it’s kind of frustrating how WWE just introduces and then ignores real life relationships whenever they see fit with no kind of consistency or warning, but I want to be positive about this because there have been no good Divas’ angles this year, and Naomi is talented and deserves a chance to shine, and Miz is too good in his role to let Damian Mizdow overtake him so easily. So let’s give this a chance! Oh, and Fernando vs. Sandow was just background noise for the rest of the angle.

A rocking chair gets destroyed: Bray Wyatt dispatched R-Truth in swift fashion and that’s obviously not why we’re here in the right. After he did that, he cut a promo on Dean Ambrose, and it was completely great. He struck just the right tone with it, sounding cryptic and mysterious without his meaning being utterly impenetrable. The Jacob’s Ladder analogy was clever and made sense, his delivery was typically great, it was just a cool, effective, memorable promo. Having Ambrose destroy the rocking chair seems powerful and symbolic on paper, but in practice it just looked a bit silly to have Dean tearing into the thing while Bray gaped in anguish on the floor. On the whole though, this was the most effective segment I’ve seen in their rivalry. It seems like they’re pulling it together at just the right time.

Paul Heyman makes an appearance: Man this show needs like 300% more Paul Heyman on a week-to-week basis. He was so electrifyingly great here and outshone everyone else on the show. He makes connections where other people can’t, linking Brock Lesnar to Christmas, seamlessly introducing all his potential challengers and explaining why Lesnar would maim them all, and then finishing with a witty Authority reference that, again, made the champion seem like a bad-ass. I have no idea why they aren’t getting Heyman to do one of these a week- if Lesnar isn’t going to appear, he could at least have a representative talking him up on a week to week basis, rather than letting his influence fade away. The usual outstanding Heyman work here.

Mick Foley dresses up as Santa Claus with Noelle as his elf and it’s the best fucking thing on the whole show: Seriously, this segment was a lot of fun. It was just Foley and his daughter in Christmas gear, shilling some WWE merch for the holidays, but there were some darn funny lines and it was nice to see father and daughter having a blast together. Next tag team champions, mark my word (after the Usos!)

puRgatoRy:
TAG TEAM TURMOIL!: The second wrestling match I ever saw was a tag team turmoil match, so I always enjoy the gimmick’s infrequent appearances for the nostalgia at least. That said, this wasn’t much to write home about, although the action was entirely adequate. The New Day are a fun little faction and everyone involved is putting a lot of energy into it, but you can’t see their appeal lasting very long, especially considering they were the second team eliminated in only their second outing as an active stable. Cesaro and Tyson Kidd randomly turning up as the final team was alarming, since they’re both far too talented to be a throwaway tandem like that. I’m glad the Usos won, they’re criminally underrated among some sections of the fanbase and in all honesty are probably the most worthy holders of the belts- Miz & Sandow will be able to do some fun stuff with them for a little while, but it’ll get to the stage where the championships are just an enhancement for their gimmick, and that’s the last thing the division needs. All in all, like a lot of tag turmoil matches, this was thoroughly OK, but nothing special.

AJ & Naomi vs. The Bella Twins: This wasn’t very exciting, but it was passable. Just like everything that occurs in this storyline. There’s really not much to add!

John Cena, Dolph Ziggler & Ryback vs. Seth Rollins, Kane & Luke Harper: This was long, probably too long for what they had to offer, but I don’t really want to complain too much about being given lengthy main events, and there were flashes of really good action here. It helped that there were a nice array of styles in the match, with Ziggler and Rollins bringing the energy, Ryback, Kane and Harper contributing some clubbering, and Cena busting out a spot I don’t think I’ve ever seen before, jumping from the top turnbuckle onto all five men in the middle of the ring. I mean, guys flinging themselves onto a crowd of bodies on the floor happens about six times on every indy show, but I don’t remember seeing it happen actually in the ring. Maybe I’m forgetting something. Either way, I thought it was different and cool and came off very smoothly and naturally. Anyway, there was also a fair amount of time killing filler that submerges this in Purgatory, but it was an OK main event. After the match, the good guys got their revenge on the bad guys from earlier on the show. We’re very much treading water until TLC.

THE wRong:
TLC Discussion Group: Raw kicked off as usual with a lengthy angle. Recently, with the focused build to Survivor Series and then the immediate fallout of the Authority losing their power, these have actually been quite entertaining and purposeful. This one… not so much. It all started with John Cena literally shutting down the Anonymous GM, which was good in the sense that we didn’t have to hear from him much from the rest of the evening, but baffling in the sense that last week they appeared to think this bleeping fucking laptop was important enough to end an episode with, and then this week he appeared for like two seconds as a plot device in a story that didn’t go anywhere and then was gone, not to be heard from again. So, yeah, the GM was shut down, and that led Seth Rollins to come out and beg for Cena to reinstate the Authority, but that didn’t go anywhere either, and eventually things just devolved into a mass brawl with all the Survivor Series main events, in which the bad guys came out on top. But then by the main event the fan favorites had already secured their revenge, so that didn’t go anywhere really either. It was just a bizarre, disjointed, meaningless segment that became mere background noise after about two minutes. Bleh. At least they were, as the title suggests, able to discuss TLC and make a match for it- Cena vs. Rollins in a Tables Match, which could be quite good.

The Big Show vs. Erick Rowan: When Tom Phillips (was that Tom Phillips? All the WWE’s pretty boy announcers are interchangeable, it could have been Sean Mooney for all I know) mentioned Rowan had an enormous IQ that made him a borderline genius, I thought they’d came up with an intriguing plot twist and interesting storyline. That was killed within seconds when they sailed over the shark and tried to tell us all that he’s an accomplished wine maker. The match wasn’t up to much, it wasn’t really the gigantic collision of gigantic humanity that I’d been hoping for, it was just kind of plodding and flat. I feel much worse about Rowan’s direction and this feud as a whole now than I did last week.

THE Ridiculous:
NOTHING

THE RAW MATCH OF THE YEAR LIST:
No change.

1. 3.03.14- The Shield vs. The Wyatt Family
2. 2.17.14- John Cena vs. Cesaro
3. 5.5.14- The Shield vs. The Wyatt Family
4. 2.03.14- Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton
5. 2.10.14- Sheamus & Christian vs. The Real Americans
6. 1.27.14- John Cena, Sheamus & Daniel Bryan vs. The Shield
7. 6.2.14- The Usos vs. The Wyatt Family
8. 27.10.14- John Cena vs. Seth Rollins
9. 8.18.14- Dean Ambrose vs. Seth Rollins
10. 4.21.14- Sheamus vs. Bad News Barrett

The 411:
They did a lot of little things right on the undercard this week, which has kind of skewed how many segments I’ve put in the ‘right’ and makes the show look more entertaining than it actually was. Most of the show was flat and quiet and uninteresting, they seem to just have no motivation to put together proper rivalries for TLC at all. I suppose with the Network and all they have more room to just sling matches together with little build, but it doesn’t make for fun TV. You can skip all of this.

Show Rating: 5.0

As a reminder, I will be going by the 411 scale…

0 – 0.9: Torture
1 – 1.9: Extremely Horrendous
2 – 2.9: Very Bad
3 – 3.9: Bad
4 – 4.9: Poor
5 – 5.9: Not So Good
6 – 6.9: Average
7 – 7.9: Good
8 – 8.9:Very Good
9 – 9.9: Amazing
10: Virtually Perfect

By Daniel Clark
Smackdown 12.05.14
QUICK MATCH RESULTS:
* Dolph Ziggler def. Luke Harper at 10.36 by Disqualification – Luke Harper retains the Intercontinental title
* The New Day def. Tyson Kidd and Cesaro at 2.40 by pinfall
* Dean Ambrose vs. Rusev never got underway
* The Miz def. Jey Uso at 2.23 by pinfall
* Naomi def. Brie Bella at 2.37 by pinfall
* Ryback and Erick Rowan def. Seth Rollins and the Big Show at 14.01 by pinfall

THE RIGHT:
The New Day vs. Tyson Kidd and Cesaro: Kidd and Cesaro are such a random team consisting of two guys who have done enough to deserve to be on TV every week but creative have not got a clue with what to do with them, and as a result, them losing to the New Day is no surprise because they have a plan for them, but the speed of the defeat is not encouraging. The New Day though do continue to look motivated and are impressing in their performances so far and have been launched straight into a feud against Stardust and Goldust, who state that darkness will fall on the New Day. Given that Kofi, Big E and Xavier are all established and do not need an introduction, launching them into a feud is not a bad idea and keeps them busy doing something meaningful for the time being.

Bray Wyatt attacks Dean Ambrose: Now this is more like it between Bray and Ambrose and gave some real and meaningful action to their feud. Ambrose says that the chair that he destroyed on Raw is a symbol of what he will do to Bray, only for Bray to get his revenge by a brutal and vicious attack on him that really leaves him lying on the ground needing a stretcher job. The assault from Bray looked to be really brutal and was helped by the excellent selling job that Ambrose did to make it seem as if he is seriously hurt. This attack has made this feud seem an awful lot more personal and relatable, which is what this needed.

The Miz vs. Jey Uso: The addition of the Miz trying to recruit Naomi for a Hollywood agent has proved to be a good move for this feud as it adds something personal to it that takes it above the usual guys want the belts, but also is a good way of using the Miz’s Hollywood gimmick within a feud to try and get under the skin of the Usos, and yet, still has small amount of mystique behind him because he could be telling the truth. Jimmy is obviously very angry at the Miz’s comments and gets himself thrown out from ringside, which leaves Jey on his own, and the distraction allows the Miz to get the win. The feud could go several ways, with Naomi siding with the Miz to want to see the agent, to Naomi getting angry with Jimmy for not letting her do what she wants, to the Miz revealing this is all a ruse to get in the Usos’s head. So far, this was been a good start to the feud for the tag belts.

puRgatoRy:
Dolph Ziggler vs. Luke Harper: Not for the first time we saw a match between these two that seemed to be a dress rehearsal for what they are going to do when they finally get their big one on one match at TLC. The match started very slowly but did pick up and was getting to be reasonably good when Harper got himself DQed to end the match and keep his belt. Then, for absolutely no reason, he decides to go under the ring and grab a ladder and tries to powerbomb Ziggler on it only to be reversed and have his head slammed on it, which of course leads to a ladder match for the belt being booked. This feels like a ladder match has been booked because they need one, but because the feud should have one, and this is the issue with gimmick PPVs in that they have a gimmick match when there is no reason for there to be one. And of all the weapons he could use, the ladder was Harper’s first choice? Really?

THE wRong:
The Authority talks: There came a point during this long and dull promo from Seth Rollins, the Big Show and Kane where all I wanted to do was reach for the remote and press the fast-forward button as they spent a very long time saying absolutely nothing other than reminding us that they have these matches at TLC, which as a viewer, we probably know anyway. The lines that they used were fairly cheesy and unimaginative as well, such as Kane telling Ryback all he will be fed is chair after chair. There was nothing really wrong with this but it was just so uninteresting and a complete waste of time as they spent a long time saying nothing and all it did was get to a tag team match that could have been announced beforehand.

Naomi vs. Brie Bella: The fact that this match felt as if it went on for way too long (yet was only 2 ½ minutes long) and the fact that barely a second of that time was spent by the commentators actually talking about the match is not a good sign. It appears that Naomi is being positioned as possibly the next contender for the Divas title after AJ, yet until the week she had done nothing for such a long time that it is hard to at this moment really care about her. And it is still difficult for the audience to know what is going on with Brie Bella, as since turning on AJ two weeks ago she has not said a word to explain it as to whether it was to get the belt on Nikki to take it off her, or she and Nikki are on the same page and thus the last three months have been a waste of time, while the fact she is married to Daniel Bryan means the fans don’t seem so keen to boo her because of that link.

Ryback and Erick Rowan vs. Seth Rollins and the Big Show: The main event of the show was a long match but not a particularly good one unfortunately and the decision to have Rollins take yet another clean loss ended the show on a bad and sour note. Effectively at the moment, with him feuding with John Cena, he is the top heel in the company, yet loses far more often than he should so, and if anyone should take the fall, it should have been the Big Show (or Kane who could have been in this match instead and who has reached a stage where losses do not hurt him), and Rollins has not won a match for nearly a month. He may have talked about taking everything away from Cena at the start of the show but he is not really winning enough matches to be able to back that up in any way and even if he does win, a tables match mean that it can end up looking like a fluke. At least Rollins was the only one in the match was keeping this fairly entertaining as the other three were slightly off their game and the match dragged on, only to have an outcome that hurts more than helps.

Santino as the General Manager: Santino did not really do anything of note in his GM run, which was a bit of a shame, as there was definitely potential for some comedic moments and him making some utterly bizarre and hilarious matches. Yet instead, we got him making a tag team match and making a match we all knew would happen official. Just a waste of what could have been better.

Dean Ambrose vs. Rusev: Why were these two booked to face each other on a random episode of Smackdown with no build up and put in the middle of the card? I know the match did not actually happen, but there is literally no reason for these two to be fighting at the moment. And by not having the match, we had more time on the show wasted by Lana saying that Rusev would not be fighting tonight, and even if the match did happen, the only outcome that would have been acceptable is a DQ/countout.

THE Ridiculous:
Nothing

The 411:
Given how good last week’s episode of Smackdown was, followed by a good episode of Raw, I had high-hopes for this episode, only to have them dashed as although the majority of the show was fine, the start, middle and finish were so dull and disappointing.

The Authority’s promo were they talked about their matches at TLC had nothing truly wrong with it other than the fact it just went on for a long time with them saying absolutely nothing new and had the effect of making the viewer tune out. It just was not needed and added nothing to the show. And this was topped off by a very disappointing main event that was given 14 minutes and yet felt so long and just never got going as a match and was incredibly dull, and was highlighted by having the top heel in the company Seth Rollins take a clean pinfall in a random tag team match. It did the job of setting up and promoting the TLC matches, but Ryback vs. Kane and the Big Show vs. Erick Rowan have the potential to either be half-decent or downright awful, while John Cena vs. Rollins should be good, but tables matches are so often very disappointing and tend to drag matches down.
The top of the second hour was supposed to see Rusev vs. Dean Ambrose, but they did a bait-and-switch and cancelled the match, which led to Bray Wyatt’s attack. On one hand, cancelling the match is a good thing, and there is no reason for them to be facing off. But on the other hand, given it was promoting on Raw, casual viewers might have tuned in to see the match, and when it was cancelled, might think twice about watching Smackdown the next time a big match is promoted.

But, the attack that Bray put on Ambrose was pretty effective and the sell job that he did really sold it as something brutal and something that would put his career under threat and was just the thing that the feud needed to reinvigorate it, as it was the revenge for Ambrose destroying the rocking chair on Raw.

The rest of the show was fairly good. The New Day continue to look good in their new gimmick and the fact they have been launched into a feud with Stardust/Goldust straight away shows we will get something meaningful from them fairly soon. The Miz bringing Naomi into the feud with the Usos for the tag belts is a nice switch up and change for the usual-ness of ‘we want the belts’, and is exactly what he needs to be doing as Hollywood Miz and using his movie star connections as often as possible, even if it is to just get into someone’s head. And the Dolph Ziggler/Luke Harper match was pretty decent, even if it did exist purely to set up their ladder match at TLC, which makes no sense other than the fact there is a not a ladder match booked for the show, so they have to have one.

This was an average episode really. There was some good stuff, but was dragged down by the fact the main events of the episode was just dull and boring.

Show Rating: 5.5

As a reminder, I will be going by the 411 scale…

0 – 0.9: Torture
1 – 1.9: Extremely Horrendous
2 – 2.9: Very Bad
3 – 3.9: Bad
4 – 4.9: Poor
5 – 5.9: Not So Good
6 – 6.9: Average
7 – 7.9: Good
8 – 8.9:Very Good
9 – 9.9: Amazing
10: Virtually Perfect

The 945th edition is over…

“So, you think Punk will try that MMA stuff?”