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Wrestling’s 4Rs 8.05.13: WWE Smackdown & TNA Impact Reviewed
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.
Impact 8.01.13:
By: Maxwell Baumbach
QUICK MATCH RESULTS:
THE RIGHT:
Hyping the Main-Event: TNA started off the show with Austin Aries coming out to the ring to talk about his match with AJ Styles, and saying that while AJ carried the company on his back for the first ten years of TNA, Aries would carry it for the next ten years. First off, it was great to start the in-ring segment portion of the show with something other than Aces & Eights. Secondly, Aries has been on his microphone game the last few weeks, and he delivered another great promo here. Aries talked up the match like a pay-per-view caliber main-event, which got the fans into him and made me want to stay tuned.
Bobby Roode’s Character Progression: It felt like Bobby Roode was aimless for a while and his character was starting to go stale. By slowly developing a change in his personality, TNA made me interested in Roode. This week when he used a beer bottle to pick up his first BFG Series victory, he turned the corner. I’m intrigued to see where Roode goes from here, and I hope this is a landmark moment for him.
Kazarian Wants Daniels to Bring It: During a backstage segment with Bad Influence, Frankie Kazarian stuck up to Christopher Daniels and showed a great deal of fire. I’ve always seen Kazarian as the second banana on this team. The way TNA booked him in the BFG Series all but confirmed that. However, the way they had Kazarian speak up to Daniels this week was great, and it showed that he has a great deal of self-confidence despite his recent slump. These guys have been put into position to succeed, and I hope they tear the house down next week.
Austin Aries vs. AJ Styles: While I didn’t care for the finish, these two put on one hell of a wrestling match for about 17 minutes. They really took it to each other and busted out some unreal spots that I didn’t expect to see from either of them in a TV match. Aries’ dive into the steps, the Gordbuster onto the ramp, Aries’ 450, and AJ’s Springboard 450 were all crazy moments. I can’t believe how much stuff they did, and their efforts were appreciated by the audience both in attendance and at home.
puRgatoRy:
Chris Sabin Confronts Manik: When Austin Aries confronted Chris Sabin a few weeks ago and got him pumped up for his shot at the TNA World Championship, they managed to add importance to the main-event and get the crowd further into Chris Sabin. I think they had similar goals in mind with this segment, but it didn’t come across as well. I don’t buy into Chris Sabin when he talks because he seems so unnatural on the microphone. I thought Manik was good here, and he made the segment alright.
Chris Sabin vs. Manik: Don’t get me wrong; I thought this match was good. My issue here is that it didn’t feel like Chris Sabin was the World Champion in this match due to the reaction he got from the crowd and the spot it was placed on the card. As evident by the things I have written about him, I don’t care for Chris Sabin as a main-eventer. The truth of the matter though is that my opinion of him doesn’t matter too much in the grand scheme of things. If TNA put Chris Sabin in the position to succeed (minimized his time on the microphone, put him in main-event segments, focused more of the spotlight on him, etc.), he could get the crowd behind him. By taking the attention off of his weaknesses and accentuating his positives, TNA could make him a true main-eventer. Instead, by putting him in the segments that they did this week, TNA showed that right now, their “top guy” is in purgatory.
Gail Kim vs. ODB: I feel bad for Gail Kim, who is a victim of circumstance. She has the fans into her character and has been putting on great matches left and right. However, she is the number two heel in the division, and the champion is a number one heel. She’s been on her game lately, but everything she is involved in feels ultimately meaningless, as it is clear she won’t be approaching the title any time soon. This makes her program with ODB feel like a placeholder feud. It has been enjoyable thus far, but it is hard to get attached to.
THE WRONG:
Jay Bradley is a Goober: I’m really wondering why TNA put a Gut Check winner in the Bound For Glory Series if they were going to use them like this. Bradley hasn’t gotten to show anything so far, and his character is bordering on being irretrievably damaged after his loss to Joseph Park this week.
Taz Shenanigans: Taz was barred from the building this week. Rather than simply explaining this in a short segment, this was brought up multiple times and made a focal point of the show despite how little it truly mattered.
THE RIDICULOUS:
Tito Ortiz is #August1Warning: There are several problems with this. First off, Tito Ortiz is a has-been. He’s 1-7-1 in his last nine fights, with the lone victory coming via guillotine choke on a stunned Ryan Bader following one of the weirdest punches I’ve ever seen (not in a good way). Secondly, has a fight coming up with Rampage Jackson, which will limit much he is able to do until their fight takes place on November 2nd. Thirdly, when Tito Ortiz came out for the announcement of his fight at a recent Bellator event, the crowd was dead. They didn’t care. So essentially, TNA has brought in a past-his-prime outsider who can’t really do anything for at least the next three months and doesn’t even appeal to people in his main market. There is little chance of cross-over appeal being generated due to Tito’s current status in MMA. Additionally, Tito isn’t exactly a model employee, as evident by the time he wore a “Dana White is My Bitch” shirt at a UFC weigh-in. So, on top of all of the logistical problems, you have a guy who may not respect your authority. However, The biggest kicker of them all is that TNA, in the midst of what appears to be their worst financial situation in quite some time, have primed themselves to dump even more money down the toiler.
The main angle that was built up throughout the whole week was a complete flop that got no reaction from the crowd. Although we got some solid in-ring action, it is hard to look past the flop that was #August1Warning. The AJ/Aries match is definitely worth seeing, but as a whole, it is hard to recommend this show because it’s main goal failed. Show Rating: 5.5/10 As a reminder, I will be going by the 411 scale… 0 – 0.9: Torture |
By: Jack Stevenson
Smackdown 8.02.13
QUICK MATCH RESULTS:
THE RIGHT:
World Title Saga: For the second week in a row Smackdown put on an over-arching, entertaining, show long storyline, this time surrounding who would receive the World Heavyweight Championship match at Summerslam. Alberto Del Rio’s show-opening promo was typically enjoyable and his attempt at making Ricardo Rodriguez his Summerslam foe made me laugh, and the Triple Threat main event was heaps of fun with some great individual moments, a fine TV main event. Christian was probably the least interesting choice as winner, and the Houston crowd felt the same way (their deflation was audible at the finish) but Captain Charisma is still a deserving contender. A very productive way to spend a Smackdown.
All Rhodes lead to Damian Sandow attacking his former partner during an interview: So, after Cody Rhodes beat Jack Swagger in a match that can only be described as “having happened,” he cuts a very good promo in which he kind of shifts the tone of this rivalry from “Damian Sandow beat me fair and square in a match so I attacked him afterwards for no good reason, LOVE ME” to “I was starting to realize Sandow was a dick and the Money in the Bank loss was the final straw, LOVE ME.” This eliminates one of my main objections to the feud, namely that Sandow was actually by far the more reasonable of the two, and hopefully means these two hugely entertaining wrestlers can have the hugely entertaining feud they deserve. Then Damian Sandow attacked him and I have nothing really to say about that.
Sin Cara vs. Big E. Langston: Not much more than a spirited squash, but I do like Big E. Langston and it was nice to see him away from his tiresome angle with Ziggler and AJ. He’s not a thrill-a-minute type of wrestler but his body language and facial expressions do a lot for him and he’s got a good grasp of basic, effective little techniques that enhance his limited offense. Consider this more of a ‘right’ for ‘Big E. Langston a wrestler’ than it is ‘Big E. Langston beats Sin Cara in about three minutes.’
CM Punk vs. Fandango: I really liked these two’s interaction from last week being followed up with a match, and a solid one at that. I think Fandango is fucking fantastic, and not in the tongue in cheek way that I suspect much of the WWE Universe do; he’s full of charisma, he actually wrestles like you would expect a Fandango to wrestle, and he’s just gosh darn entertaining to watch. The match never set the world on fire but it made Fandango look dangerous while also giving Punk a decisive, clean victory, so thumbs up I say.
puRgatoRy:
HAPPILY NOTHING
THE WRONG:
THE HEEL TURN OF THE CENTURY: So Kaitlyn and AJ had another match and it was decent enough in a scrappy kind of way, which is pretty much the best you can hope for from the Divas Division these days. The ending pushes this down into the wrong, however, as Layla turned on Kaitlyn and left with AJ to keep this feud plodding along in the tedious way it has been for about 40 years now. I suppose this could allow AJ to pursue different things but I assume those different things would be ‘weekly humiliation by Dolph Ziggler,’ while Kaitlyn and Layla pull each other’s hair twice a week for the rest of the year. Either way it won’t be much fun. 🙁
THE RIDICULOUS:
NOTHING
Another step in the right direction for Smackdown after weeks of directionless mediocrity. Things like the crowning of a challenger for the World Heavyweight Championship give the show much more meaning than “Randy Orton and Alberto Del Rio are fighting again because they had an argument earlier in the night,” and I liked the Punk-Fandango skirmish last week actually turning into its own little B-Story (it would be cool if that happened on Smackdown more often to give it a stronger identity.) If Smackdown followed this formula each week- two decent matches, a smattering of squash-sized bouts, and a fun little subplot to stories unfolding on Raw- it would probably me my favorite of the wrestling shows. Keep up the good work blue brand. Show Rating: 7.5 As a reminder, I will be going by the 411 scale… 0 – 0.9: Torture |
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