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Wrestling’s 4Rs 11.08.13: WWE Raw & ROH TV 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 need 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.
Let’s rock…
By: Shawn S. Lealos
ROH Television 11.02.13:
Silas Young vs. Mark Briscoe – I don’t like Mark Briscoe singles matches usually. He is a comic act who isn’t funny most of the time. However, the guy can go in the ring when he isn’t trying to act stupid, and this was a grudge match in retaliation for Silas Young attacking him in the past. I still consider Young one of the most underrated wrestlers in Ring of Honor and he pulled a really good match out of Mark here. Young won by cheating, which was the right choice, and there was a nice beat down after the match where Young used the referee’s belt to lash Briscoe over and over across his back. Overall, it was a nice opening match for this week’s show.
Kevin Steen vs. Michael Bennett – It’s funny. When I started covering ROH TV for 411 (ever since the first episode), all I did was rag on Michael Bennett for how bad he sucked in the ring. Over the last couple of years, Bennett has come miles with his in-ring performance. This match was a great battle. Steen did what Steen does best and Bennett was on his game as well. The end came after Maria interfered and distracted Steen long enough for Bennett to his the Box Office Smash and then a Piledriver. After the match, Bennett went for the piledriver on the ring apron, playing off of his ending BH Whitmer’s career. That is what brought out Lisa Marie Varon-Tara-Victoria, who attacked Maria causing Bennett to let Steen go. After that Steen attacked and the refs separated them. Then the big moment came when Steen went to the top turnbuckle and hit the moonsault plancha to Bennett outside the ring.
Lisa Marie Varon – It was pretty cool to see Lisa Marie Varon-Tara-Victoria show up in Ring of Honor and beat up Maria, but there were a couple of problems. One thing is that the camera never closed in on them, so it was hard to tell it was her. Second, she should have just whipped the crap out of Maria, but the officials showed up too quick and their fight was broken up too soon. It was nice to see, but it wasn’t produced right.
Adam Page vs. Jimmy Jacobs – This match … there was nothing inherently wrong with the match except that it was just a match. These are Glory by Honor matches, so I figure they should be pulling out all the stops, but in this match, it just didn’t *pop* like it should have. Jacobs is fighting for his job back, and needed to win 3 matches to get a world title match, but he never seemed like he was fighting for his job here. He was just wrestling. At the same time, Page was off his game and the crowd was kind of shitting on him, which was crappy because he has been really coming along lately. This match just was nowhere as good as it could and should have been.
Maria Interference – I loved the match between Kevin Steen and Michael Bennett. However, I hated the one moment where Steen hit the F-Cinq on Bennett and went for the pin. The ref went for the three count and after two, Maria threw her boot. It went over the ref’s head and hit the mat. The ref stopped counting to see what was thrown in the ring. That was how the pinfall was broken up. Even Nigel made fun of it when he said the referee is “easily distracted” because that was just stupid.
NOTHING
This was part one of the three part Glory by Honor XII show. Out of the three matches, two of them were pretty great and the third was serviceable but uninspiring. This was from a big event so the storylines were not really meant to move here, but the action was good enough. Show Rating: 7.0 As a reminder, I will be going by the 411 scale… 0 – 0.9: Torture |
By: Jack Stevenson
Raw 11.04.13:
QUICK MATCH RESULTS:
THE RIGHT:
CM Punk vs. Luke Harper: While I have my concerns over the current creative direction of WWE, it does look like the undercard for the next couple of months is going to be heavy on A) multi man tag matches in which faces will be in peril and finishing stretches will contain many near falls, and B) Luke Harper facing men smaller than him and getting all Sting-Vader. I am in favor of both of those things. This was a very enjoyable match, which had appropriate amounts of Harper being tall and angry and Punk ducking and diving around him. Even with the numbers advantage it was unlikely Luke would pick up the win here, but there’s no shame in losing via a sneaky roll-up to CM Punk. A fine way to start off the show then- and on Smackdown we get Daniel Bryan vs. Luke Harper, which should be even better!
A Paul Heyman sighting! Or hearing, as the case may be: I was saddened to read rumors that Paul Heyman was going off television after the beating he took from CM Punk at Hell in the Cell, because he’s been marvelous since his return (well, he’s been marvelous his whole career but you know what I mean) and towards the end of his feud with Punk pretty much single handedly stopped the rivalry from screeching to a halt. Hearing from him again was nice, and he was in typically great form, weepily lamenting all the harm that had been done to him at Hell in a Cell. While the rumor mill seems to suggest otherwise, I do hope we get Punk-Lesnar II at Mania, and Heyman gets more time to shine in the process.
Kofi Kingston vs. Alberto Del Rio: Alberto Del Rio and Kofi Kingston are together the masters of pretty good Raw matches. It was thus unsurprising that, pitted against each other, they would have a pretty good Raw match. There were some pretty good sequences building to a pretty good ending. This was pretty good.
Big E. Langston vs. Randy Orton: THREE AIN’T ENOUGH MAN I NEED FIVE. Been stuck in my head all week. Anyway, Big E. Langston’s roll continues in earnest, as this week he looked strong against the WWE Champion and had a shockingly good match in the process. Langston’s always impressed me with his mannerisms and facial expressions, and he’s been effective in tag matches as the guy who comes in and just overpowers everyone, but I didn’t know whether he’d be able to do it in a long-ish match against someone like Orton, who is good but not good enough to mask an opponent’s shortcomings. But this was a lot of fun, particularly towards the end. It could have perhaps even done with a couple minutes more.
Tyson Kidd & Natalya vs. Fandango & Summer Rae: Tyson Kidd is back! Yaaaaaay. And he returned in good fashion, as well, with a solid mixed tag match. There were some glimpses that Kidd and Fandango could have a really good match on Main Event, while Natalya and Summer Rae continued where they left off last week- competently. Is it just me or did Raw have a lot of good matches this week?
John Cena & The Rhodes Brothers vs. Damian Sandow & The Real Americans: It isn’t worth its own write-up, but the Sandow/Real Americans promo leading up to this was excellent. It’s always good to see strong personalities share mic time. Anyway, this was the best match on a significantly above average Raw for in ring action. The Ricky Morton segments weren’t Ricky Morton levels of Ricky Morton, but did their job perfectly well, and maaaaaan that finishing sequence. Just pure chaos with guys flying all over the ring and Cesaro absolutely steam-rollering Zeb at ringside and John Cena pulling off a beautiful huracanrana, which will never cease to impress me. I think next time I complain about WWE I need to be reminded how great it is that we often get two or even three of these things in a week on free TV.
Random Rights
- Bray Wyatt is so fascinating to watch. He’s not in Dean Ambrose territory yet, but that’s no knock on him. I liked the way he briefly lost his composure when Punk pinned Harper, and then the next time you see him he’s completely back in eerie cult leader mode. It gives some interesting hints about his character.
- I was really surprised Big E. Langston won the fan vote by such a huge margin. Good for him, though.
- Some good moments on commentary this week. “Khali-flowered ear” is the best pun I’ve heard in a long while. JBL speculating that the only reason Big Show wanted to talk with Triple H in the ring was so he could show off his nice new suit made me chuckle. And who could forget the blunt beauty of:
Lawler (discussing Paul Heyman’s phone call)- “He just hung up on you Cole!”
JBL- “It doesn’t take me that long to hang up on you Michael.”
puRgatoRy:
Some more matches: Since at the moment things are perhaps unfairly slanted towards the right section, it’s worth remembering that there were four other matches on this show that I’ve not mentioned, all of which were unremarkable, and three of which helped contribute to a pretty tedious third hour. They weren’t bad enough to go in the wrong on their own, but together they definitely dragged the show down a bit.
THE WRONG:
The Big Show and his wacky adventures: I’m so apathetic about this angle it’s hard to find words. Big Show and Triple H are both doing their best with their roles, but it’s hard to care about an angle revolving around Big Show’s firing when we all know Big Show won’t be staying fired and, more importantly, it’s leading to Randy Orton vs. Big Show at Survivor Series, which reminds me about how I felt about going to school when I was small; I knew it wouldn’t be so bad when I got there- on occasion it could actually be quite fun- but the mere of thought of it made me so sad I’d try anything to stay at home and play video games instead. Suited Kane is a tremendous twist and instantly puts to bed my “the Kane character should be retired!” theory from last week, but then anything that involves me being shown up can’t be a good thing. Add that to the below-par segment, and we’ve got the only wrong of the show.
Random Wrongs:
- Luke Harper is superb but I don’t think the Gator Roll is going to get over. Like, I get the mechanics behind the move, but it just looks like they’re rolling around together.
- Here is a fresh observation for you- why did the Big Show’s lawsuit get a slickly produced video package that was repeated three or four times across the night? Who produced that? His legal team? Man, I bet I’m the only guy on the internet to have spotted that one!
- There was a bit in the six man tag where Michael Cole was cheerily running through all the different ways John Cena had embarrassed the rule-breaker team, and I started to vaguely understand why people boo him all the time.
- That thing Goldust does when his opponent is doubled over, where he pauses to run his hands across his chest, just looks so silly. It requires you to believe that every one of Goldust’s opponents has the same idiotic thought-process “you know, I think bending over for no apparent reason in the middle of the match would be a really good move for me.”
THE RIDICULOUS:
NOTHING
Lots of good wrestling makes this a very enjoyable Raw, but I’d recommend switching off after the six man tag because the show runs out of steam from there. Still, taken as a two hour broadcast (THE WAY IT WAS MEANT TO BE DARN IT) (although actually one hour is the best length for a wrestling program as far as I’m concerned. I miss you 1993!) this is well worth a look, bursting at the seams with great TV matches. Show Rating: 7.5 As a reminder, I will be going by the 411 scale… 0 – 0.9: Torture |
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