WWE Week in Review: Inaugural UK Champion crowned, Mickie James returns
This week’s edition of the WWE Week in Review at FanSided discusses the UK Championship Tournament and the best of the week from RAW, SmackDown, 205 Live and NXT.
Before I get into the action for the week –and there was certainly plenty of that to go around with some title matches, some huge returns and the crowning of a brand new champion in the United Kingdom– I want to hit on a couple of other things first.
To start, I can’t talk about the week that was in WWE without talking about the passing of one of its most famous superstars. Of course, I’m talking about the passing of the 73-year-old Hall of Famer, Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, who died this past Sunday following a battle with stomach cancer. Certainly one of the most charismatic and high-flying superstars of the golden era, Snuka wowed audiences with his abilities inside the ring and would have some great battles with Bob Backlund, Don Muraco and Rowdy Roddy Piper. Following a three-year hiatus, Snuka returned to WWE in the late ’80s and would spend a few years in the mid-card. But he may be most famous during that stretch for being the answer to a trivia question. Who is the first man The Undertaker ever beat at WrestleMania, kicking off his illustrious streak? Jimmy Snuka. But what you may not know is that he’s also the answer to another. Who was the first-ever ECW champion? That’s right, Jimmy Snuka. Superfly was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1996.
And speaking of the WWE Hall of Fame, how about the news that Kurt Angle will headline the class of 2017 two nights before WrestleMania? It’s been more than a decade since Angle left WWE but this is simply fantastic. Angle took to professional wrestling quicker than anyone ever has following his obvious accomplishments in the amateur world and became one of the best in-ring performers I’ve ever seen. I’m sure we’ll be diving into a lot more Kurt Angle-related things as we move closer and closer to WrestleMania but I couldn’t pass up the chance to give it a mention here.
But let’s get into the action for the week, starting with the WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament that took place last weekend.
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WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament
The WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament really needs to be seen to be fully appreciated, so if you haven’t done so, please do yourself a favor and check this out on the WWE Network.
I think what I liked most about it was the fact that even though many fans may not know who these guys are, it still felt important. The setup was fantastic and Michael Cole and Nigel McGuinness were great on commentary. Just seeing Nigel on WWE television was crazy enough in itself — I’m sure the folks at ROH just loved watching that. The live crowd both nights were into everything from start to finish, which only made the tournament that much more enjoyable.
Night one featured the eight first round matches, and while only one match went over ten minutes, most of them were still really solid. The outcome of a few of the matches was pretty obvious at points but that didn’t take away from the level of excitement. The only match I really wasn’t into was the Gradwell vs. Huxley match, but outside of that I was pretty impressed.
And again, the production value here was phenomenal. From the lights to the vignettes letting the casual fan know who these guys were, I thought the first night was a lot of fun and ended quite explosively. The eight men who advanced were all brought out at the end of the night and Pete Dunne, who’s just absolutely phenomenal anyway, got himself noticed by attacking Sam Gradwell, who would be his opponent on night two. This caused William Regal to get in his face. I don’t know if Regal would ever lace up his boots again but if he does, count me in for a match between he and Dunne. Great stuff here.
Dunne and Gradwell kicked off night two and Dunne just continued to stay hot. He disposed of Gradwell in under five minutes but it was a very intense five minutes. That was essentially the theme of this tournament overall. None of the quarterfinal matches made it to ten minutes but these guys were getting the most out of their time in the ring. The semifinal match between Dunne and Mark Andrews was one of the best matches in the tourney. These two had a great match at PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles last year and while this wasn’t quite on that level, it was still very good and the building of Dunne’s heel persona was done perfectly, as was the storytelling of 19-year-old Tyler Bate, who had the backing of the live crowd throughout this tournament. He put on some quality matches leading up to his semifinal bout with Wolfgang, which was also a solid affair. And just as expected, Dunne came out following Bate’s win to attack his opponent in the finals, setting up the crowd for a classic good guy vs. bad guy finale.
However, before the final match we were given another treat. Neville made his way to the ring and said that there’s no way that he shouldn’t be on this card and he should be the UK champ by default, which led to the entrance of Tommy End. I’m really surprised that he used that name here seeing as how it looks as if they’re going with calling him Aleister Black on NXT but I’ll take it. He and Neville put on a quick, solid match which saw Neville pick up the win. Nice surprise for the live crowd, as was the introduction of Finn Balor before the final match.
That final match was just spectacular, wasn’t it? This was a great back-and-forth contest and both Bate and Dunne looked really strong here. They let these guys go out there and create a classic match that could turn into a classic rivalry, especially given the history between these two guys. And both are so young — Dunne is 23 and Bate is 19. The future is bright for both of these guys and if they go ahead and decide to build a UK brand, these are the two guys to start with. Bate picked up the win in this match, and it’s clear that WWE will build him as a star, but Dunne did so much over those two days to get himself over as a great heel and I hope we see plenty more of him in the future.
Overall, this tournament was simply a lot of fun. We got to see some fresh faces put on some entertaining matches and I’ll be curious to see where things go from here. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Bate and/or Dunne show up at the Royal Rumble to keep this momentum going.
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WWE Monday Night RAW
There’s only ONE word to describe this episode of WWE Monday Night RAW and I’m gonna spell it out for you. F-I-L-L-E-R…FILLER!!!
With that being said, it was a decent filler episode at that. With the Royal Rumble just two weeks away, it’s obviously pointless to get anything new going so I understand the logic here. It’s not as if this isn’t what happens every single year leading up to the Rumble and I wasn’t expecting much this week. I’ll tell you what I was happy about and that was that there was no sign of either Mick Foley or Stephanie McMahon here. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for the authority figures doing their thing when it’s necessary but it was kind of nice to go through a whole show without them, don’t you think?
The opening segment in the ring was decent and it showed how everybody’s tense right now leading into one of the biggest shows of the year and it was also a good way to bring Brock Lesnar back into the fold. By attacking everyone in the ring, it somewhat took away from his humiliating defeat at Survivor Series, but he did look a little more vulnerable. I don’t know if this was a planned thing or not but watching him actually get knocked down by Roman Reigns was a bit surprising. Over the last few years, getting Lesnar off of his feet was an actual … well, feat. Sure, Lesnar got the upper hand in the end and had a very fun staredown with Braun Strowman but he’s not invincible anymore. And that’s probably better anyway. Or maybe I’m just reading too much into that. Who knows? The obvious six-man tag for later in the night was set up here as well.
Things certainly went downhill from there for a while. I just can’t get into this feud with Enzo & Cass taking on Rusev and Jinder Mahal. It’s doing nothing for any of these guys and was just here to fill time, as was the cruiserweight match between Ariya Daivari and Lince Dorado. I know it was there to plug the “I Forfeit” match the next night on 205 Live, and Gallagher is funny on commentary, but the match itself did nothing for me. Thankfully, Cedric Alexander and Brian Kendrick put on a better match later in the night and Neville attacking Rich Swann before his match only added fuel to that feud which could result in a show-stealing match at the Royal Rumble. Two out of three ain’t bad for the cruiserweights this week.
I did like the segment with Nia Jax attacking Sasha Banks. I thought it was staged perfectly and it looked real. Since I’m talking about the ladies, I might as well get into the Charlotte and Bayley promo. Maybe I’m wrong on this one but Charlotte may be the best heel in the company. Her “I’m better than you” attitude is still over and stronger than ever and that was on full display on Monday night. The use of the old footage, pictures and poems of Bayley was amazing but that was as good as the segment got. Bayley almost ruined the entire thing the second she got on the microphone. You could tell that the crowd was almost ready to turn on Bayley when she started with those dreadful poems and she simply can’t hang with Charlotte. I know that she’s the ultimate babyface but people are going to turn on her if she doesn’t step it up soon. I get the point she’s trying to make but she’s not doing it well at all. I’m not really into the grading thing like some other people do but Charlotte got an A++ here and Bayley got a D-.
I really enjoyed the tag team title match between Anderson & Gallows and Cesaro & Sheamus … up until the ending anyway. It’s a little strange seeing the heels screwed out of the titles, especially in that ridiculous fashion, but I guess that’s where we are right now. It looks as if they’re going to go with this program a little longer and I’m okay with that. The match had a very quick pace to it, which is great considering the size of the guys involved here. I don’t know if they’ll take this all the way to WrestleMania but I expect Anderson & Gallows to win the belts at some point.
The six-man tag match main event that saw Braun Strowman team up with Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho to take on Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns and Sami Zayn was pretty good. I thought there was a nice mix of technical wrestling, high-flying spots and brawling here and everybody seemed to come out of this match looking good. Well, Zayn still can’t quite find his place yet but putting him with Rollins and Reigns was a good idea. Their backstage promo earlier in the night was very entertaining and the “he’s crazier than Ambrose” line from Reigns was gold. Strowman got the pin here, which wasn’t surprising as they continue to build him up heading towards San Antonio. Owens and Jericho looked very strong at the end of the night by taking out the former Shield members, which probably means things will go the opposite direction next week.
Overall, this wasn’t a bad episode. Yes, it was a filler episode but that’s what it was meant to be. We got some good matches and segments out of it, one of which was not with The New Day and Titus. If you’re thinking that I forgot about going along there, it really wasn’t that. It’s just that it’s not entertaining in the slightest. Goldberg returns next week for the go-home show and we’re off to the Rumble from there.
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WWE SmackDown Live
There was a lot to squeeze into two hours on Tuesday night but I thought SmackDown Live did a good job of it, besides not airing the promised footage of the James Ellsworth and Carmella shopping spree anyway.
Shane McMahon opened the show by announcing that the WWE Championship would be defended in the Elimination Chamber at the next blue brand PPV and that opened the door for a great segment with AJ Styles, John Cena and The Miz, all of whom brought their A-game for this conversation. The face/heel thing didn’t matter here as Styles went after Miz, Miz went after Styles and both obviously went after Cena. Miz reminding Cena of how he beat him in the main event at WrestleMania was fantastic but Cena getting Styles and Miz riled up may have been the highlight of the night. I mean, I always love the aggressive Cena promos but he was in comedic form tonight and it was really entertaining. The opener led to a good match between Styles and Miz and the finish was perfect here. Neither could afford a clean loss in this one and I thought it went down as it should have. Very good start to the show.
The Nikki Bella-Natalya feud continues to impress me. Instead of your typical in-ring standoff, we got Nattie at a merchandise stand, knocking the Nikki merch, the Cena merch and even the Bret Hart merch were here and it was beautiful. She’s really excelling in this role right now and hopefully the payoff in this program is as good as the build has been.
When it was announced early in the night that Dean Ambrose would be taking on Randy Orton, I was really hoping for a better match than the one that we got. It wasn’t bad by any means but I was just wanting a little more. I will say, however, that the spot where Orton countered the Ambrose lariat into his powerslam was well done. I’ve always loved Orton’s powerslam and despised that clothesline, so that made me feel good. But the match obviously wasn’t the focus here as the tension between Randy Orton and Luke Harper continued. After Ambrose picked up the victory due to distraction from Harper, things once again got heated and Bray Wyatt actually struck Luke Harper, which was a nice twist to things, as Orton grinned. It was announced later in the night that Harper and Orton will go 1-on-1 next week to sort things out. This is getting better and better every week.
I know what they were trying to do with the segment with Jerry Lawler and Dolph Ziggler but the whole thing just felt very off to me. Okay, we’re in Memphis and Lawler is the hometown hero and such. And Dolph Ziggler is once again a heel, so we need to get some heat on him but don’t want to start too much before the Royal Rumble. So let’s have him mock Lawler’s heart attack and show some old footage of Ziggler dropping elbows on his heart minutes before it happened. Anyone else uncomfortable? Look, I always like the realism angle as it makes things more emotional but I just don’t see where this is going. So Ziggler kicks Lawler in the heart and JBL of all people jumps in to make the save. Is this seriously all they have for Ziggler? So are we getting Ziggler vs. Lawler or Ziggler vs. JBL, or is Apollo Crews going to be the representative for the older guys? Again, I see what they’re trying to do but it just didn’t work for me.
The main event steel cage match wasn’t the best match that Becky Lynch and Alexa Bliss have had together but it was still pretty good. For a cage match, there wasn’t as much intensity as I would like to have seen but it still got the job done. I still don’t like the commercial breaks in the middle of the main event, especially a cage match with a title on the line, but we had to deal with that. There was some good back and forth and you knew at some point La Luchadora would get involved, and while there are tons of people out there who knew it was Mickie James under the mask, I still marked out a little bit when the reveal actually happened. Plus, Becky’s reaction only made it that much better. Mickie’s always been one of my favorite females in the industry and I think bringing her back to the main roster as a heel is a great move. She’s only going to help Alexa get better and a future match between her and Becky Lynch should be outstanding. Obviously, Alexa retained the title and I’m very interested to see how they proceed from here.
I thought this was another great show and SmackDown Live just continues to be the better program each and every week. Orton vs. Harper should be fun to watch next week.
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WWE 205 Live
I’m not going to get too much into 205 Live this week as there’s really not that much to get into. When the highlights of the show are video packages, one for Akira Tozawa and one for the Neville/Rich Swann feud, that’s not a good sign. And Corey Graves? That guy is absolute money.
The Alicia Fox/Cedric Alexander/Noam Dar love triangle continued this week and while I do still think it’s somewhat entertaining, it didn’t really advance much here. The “Bye, Felicia” line from Alexander was awesome but his match with Drew Gulak really wasn’t. It did show that Alexander knows how to sell an injury but that’s about it. I’m inclined to trust the process here as they bring Cedric along. He’s one of the best workers in the division but is currently paying his dues and I’m okay with that. His time will come.
The Mustafa Ali vs. Tony Nese match was decent but could have been a lot better in my opinion. They didn’t give these guys a lot of time, and while the finish of the match was entertaining, they may have killed the little momentum that Ali had with him taking the loss here. I’m finding it very difficult to get invested in Tony Nese matches. The inconsistent booking with him is a bit confusing and you’re never sure which direction creative is going to go with him.
I know they spent a lot of time building this “I Forfeit” match between Jack Gallagher and Ariya Daivari but the end result was somewhat disappointing to me. Daivari has been a little boring to me anyway and I thought this was his chance to really step up and deliver in a main event but I just didn’t see it. It’s not as if this match was horrible but when you have to rely on umbrellas and cheeky shenanigans from Gallagher to get a reaction, that’s a bit of a problem. Gallagher is entertaining and a good wrestler. I’m happy to see him move on from this program and into hopefully something a bit more substantial.
I still want this division to succeed. As I mentioned earlier, a couple of the segments on RAW were pretty solid but this edition of 205 Live really didn’t have a lot to it. I still think that doing the show after SmackDown Live is a mistake and that they’d be better off at Full Sail with NXT. The live crowd just isn’t into it but this week’s episode really didn’t give them much to get into anyway.
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WWE NXT
This was kind of a different episode of WWE NXT. There was only about ten minutes of actual wrestling action on the show but it was still able to move storylines along in a nice way.
Nikki Cross picked up a squash win to open the show and her crazy was on full display heading into the Fatal 4-Way at NXT TakeOver: San Antonio.
The promo fun started with No Way Jose and Kona Reeves in the back having a weird discussion about friendship and such which will likely lead to a match between the two at some point.
The Revival are up next in the interview room and discuss how 2016 was their year and that 2017 would be no different. They say that they should be in the tag team title match at TakeOver but are interrupted by TM61, who says that they have to fight just like everybody else to get back to that point. They’ll do battle later in the night.
Roderick Strong is out next to do battle with Steve Cutler. This was a decent match that really showed Cutler’s inexperience. It’s not that he’s bad but it just proved that he’s nowhere near Strong’s level yet but that’s why this is developmental. Strong picked up the win in about four minutes. Strong then cut a quick promo on the ramp about how he didn’t care about Andrade Almas and that he’s only there to be champ.
Ember Moon and Liv Morgan tease a match backstage that we’ll get next week. Okay.
Tye Dillinger is next up on the promo train but I really dug this one. He’s having a Dolph Ziggler-like crisis and has no idea what to do next. The live crowd wants him to come in at number 10 at the Royal Rumble, which would actually be pretty sweet but he’s soon interrupted by Sanity (not complaining about a second entrance) and he’s offered a spot in the group with some great mic work from Eric Young. Dillinger turns it down –twice– before he’s taken out by Damo, who ends up joining the group, which I think is a good way to get him some more TV time. Excellent work all around here and we’re now set for Young vs. Dillinger at TakeOver, which I’m more than okay with.
The Revival and TM61 didn’t get a ton of time in their match but there was a reason for that. The whole reason for this was a way to write Shane Thorne off of television as he needs knee surgery and they accomplished that. TM61 got a surprise win but The Revival beat them down afterwards, and assuming The Revival is still at NXT when Thorne returns, this could set up a nice program between the two teams.
The contract signing between Bobby Roode and Shinsuke Nakamura was about what I expected it to see — minus the violence anyway. Roode was confident and arrogant, and my favorite line was right there at the start when he said that the champ really wasn’t even worth his time. Nakamura was his typical weird self but I think it matched up perfectly with Roode’s persona. Their match at TakeOver should be … glorious.
Even without much wrestling on this episode, I think it still worked. It progressed some storylines a bit and the Dillinger/Sanity promo was the highlight of the night.
And there you have it, your WWE Week in Review. What was your favorite show and/or segment of the week?
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