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Wrestling’s 4Rs 11.29.13: WWE Raw & NJPW on IPPV 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: Jack Stevenson
Raw 11.25.13:
QUICK MATCH RESULTS:
THE RIGHT:
The Shield vs. The Rhodes Brothers & Rey Mysterio: Everyone in this match is varying degrees of ‘wonderful,’ ranging from ‘really wonderful’ Dean Ambrose to ‘pretty wonderful’ Paul Orndorff oh no wait I mean Goldust, all the way down to the merely ‘quite wonderful’ Roman Reigns. So predictably this was great, a proper tag match with fiery faces and bastard heels and a hot finishing sequence. I’m still terrified for his knees, but I’m so pleased Rey Mysterio is back. He’s still so crisp and energetic in the ring, he’s just a pleasure to watch. Hooray for all these guys though!
Dolph Ziggler vs. Damian Sandow: This rivalry has got a lot of criticism, but to be honest when you’ve got two talented wrestlers with nothing to do I don’t see the problem in letting them have some fun, gimmicky brawls like this, it keeps them in the public eye until they’re ready to move on to a proper feud. Obviously I’d rather Ziggler and Sandow were doing something more meaningful, but it’s still possible to enjoy this for what it is- a light, harmless, turn your brain off and enjoy kind of match.
CM Punk & Daniel Bryan vs. The Wyatts: This was properly great. I’ve not seen Survivor Series, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this was better than the PPV match. Much like the opening six man, it was just a good, back to basics tag match, with popular faces getting their posteriors kicked, rallying back into the match, and then everything breaking down and getting hectic and crazy and great. The finish was disappointing, but was redeemed by the intriguing kidnapping of Bryan, and then Reigns killing Punk dead with his wonderful Spear. The prospect of there being some kind of alliance between the Shield and the Wyatts is exciting, but even if I’m reading too much into the whole thing, Punk vs. The Shield will still be good fun.
Kofi Kingston vs. The Miz: I feel sorry for Kofi and the Miz, because they tried really hard here and put on a super fun, smart match, with some nice sequences and callbacks to their earlier match. Nobody really got into it, partially because they’re both directionless midcarders, and partially because it’s impossible to figure out whether the Miz is meant to be a fan favorite with an attitude or a remorseless rule breaker. Still, twas a good outing from the two of them.
Random Rights
- I know it’s terribly IWC, but I did feel a little satisfied to hear Daniel Bryan chants during the opening segment.
- Even when having to participate in bizarre segments with ex footballers, Miz is a great heel. Why did they ever try to make fans like him?
- Big E. Langston and Mark Henry would make a wonderful team. No wigs would be left unsplit.
- It’s telling that the CM Punk-Daniel Bryan promo was almost entirely guided by Punk. Bryan’s better in the ring, but Punk’s the natural main event player of the two. Also, hooray for gratuitous Colt Cabana references!
- I miss Mick Foley. I want him on Raw every week.
- JBL on commentary: “Did you just say ‘who cares about Brodus?’ What are you, the WWE universe?” As far as one-liners go, that was Bobby Heenan levels of brilliant.
puRgatoRy:
NOTHING
THE WRONG:
One Belt to Rule Them All: Raw opened with the announcement that Cena and Orton are going to wrestle at TLC to unify WWE’s two world titles, and I really didn’t like it. I believe WWE when they say they’ll be unifying the titles at TLC, I don’t buy into this “Cena will pull down the WWE Championship and Orton will pull down the World Title!” theory, but I’m still not remotely excited about this match. I’ve got no interest in the two wrestling each other no matter how much WWE tells us it’s the Hogan-Andre of the noughties- they’ve wrestled a million times before and while it’s been four years since their last prominent bout, they’re both good wrestlers, and a respectable back catalogue of matches with each other, their styles are too homogenous to make so many encounters between the two bearable. It shows how hard their feud was driven into the ground in 2009 that four years on another bout between them seems stale, but it does. Plus, the World Heavyweight Title has lost too much prestige recently for this match to be what it would have been even two or three years ago- it doesn’t feel like the belt would be a great loss, which in turn makes the match feel like a standard WWE Championship match. WWE are clearly very proud of themselves because of this storyline, but they have no right to be- it’s tired and incredibly forced, and ensures that the company will limp into the Road to WrestleMania.
MizTV with some guy I don’t know: AMERICAN FOOTBALL! THE GRIDIRON! MADDEN! PLAYS! Yeah! Anyway, now I’ve proven my deep, encyclopedic knowledge of this American national past time, I think I can say with authority that this segment was strange and bizarre and made no sense. Newly heel turned Miz was being mean to guest host Michael Strahan and so was Titus O’Neil for some reason and then Strahan and O’Neil were kind of friends, but then they definitely weren’t, and then Strahan hip-tossed the meanness out of them both and they hugged it out and did the millions of dollars dance. So, yeah, it made no sense whatsoever, but beyond that it also embarrassed two fairly respectable wrestlers just so everyone could say “how about that Michael Strahan he seems a hip and happening guy.” So bad news all round then.
John Cena & The Big Show vs. Randy Orton & Alberto Del Rio: See, this underlies my earlier point. John Cena vs. Randy Orton is meant to be the biggest match of the year, once in a lifetime, if the lifetime which we’re referring to is that of a hamster. But then we get to watch them fight each other for free in the main event, and it’s a boring main event, flat, formulaic, and mostly focused on the Big Show’s inconsistent brain injury. It’s just lazy booking and it’s making me feel quite sour about a company that I think by and large has had an excellent 2013.
Random Wrongs:
- Oh my god fuck off Jerry Lawler with your horrible creepy comments about the Divas.
- Let there never be a “CIRCUMCISION!” chant on WWE again…
THE RIDICULOUS:
NOTHING
A strange old show this. There was a lot of good wrestling, and a lot of bad booking. Nothing actively dragged, and both the opening six man and Punk/Bryan-Wyatts were tremendous fun, but you’ll probably still feel quite negative about the company’s direction by the end, unless you’re excited for Cena-Orton, in which case I’d imagine the show becomes much more enjoyable. Even for us skeptics it’s not offensive viewing or anything though. Show Rating: 6.0 As a reminder, I will be going by the 411 scale… 0 – 0.9: Torture |
New Japan Pro Wrestling 2013 World Tag League iPPV 11.23.13
Final Thoughts: Very short form review, due to the holidays. This was night one of the tournament, and was designed to set things up. That being said, the run of awesome NJWP iPPV events ended here. Yuji Nagata vs. Takashi Iizuka was the only bad match on the show, but there was also nothing great to be seen as opposed to other NJPW shows. The final three matches were good and were enough to take the show to average, but that is about it. The show was entertaining and easy to watch, but not essential viewing. Still as an overall product, NJPW is very enjoyable to watch. If you are picking and choosing, this is a show you can skip and not feel about it. Save your money this time around. Final Score: 6.0 As a reminder, I will be going by the 411 scale… 0 – 0.9: Torture As a reminder, this is not a basic “how good was the show” number like a TV show, as I have always felt that a PPV is very different from a regular show. I have always judged PPV on how they built to a match, the match quality, crowd reactions to matches and angles, the overall booking, how the PPV leads into the future, PPV price and so on and so forth. I have added this in here for an explanation since so many have asked, and I have previously discussed it on podcasts. I understand that this may seem different, but that is how I grade. Obviously your criteria may be different. |
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