Wrestling’s 4R’s 10.28.11: ROH, WWE Raw and NXT Reviewed!

By: Sheawn Lealos

ROH Television 10.22.11:

QUICK RESULTS:
T.J. Perkins def. Mike Mondo (** 1/2)
Jay Lethal def. Mike Bennett (***)

Announcers Table Moved – In the first few weeks the announcers table was sitting right beside the ring. I don’t know if they were going for the feel of the classic territories, where that was commonplace, or what but it just didn’t work there. They moved it back towards the entrance now, similar to TNA. This is a great move because it just got in the way of the action (see the Briscoe Brothers two weeks ago). This is just better positioning.

Final Battle 2011 – The one thing Ring of Honor needs to do is build to their Super Bowl, which is Final Battle 2011. They did that in this episode. They showed Davey Richards, who is excited about the PPV and said he doesn’t care who he defends the title again because it is a huge moment. We get Roddy Strong, who wants to show up Davey and challenges anyone in the world to a match at the event, claiming he will steal the show. Jay Lethal talks about it and pushes his participation. The entire show, they pimped out Final Battle and that is exactly what they should be doing.

Jim Cornette and the Briscoe Brothers – Finally, the Briscoe Brothers are on the mics and I am not turned away. Of course, that is because Jay does all the talking. Mark kept his mouth shut and that is the way it should be. Then when Cornette gives them another hoop to jump through, they don’t whine about it. Their characters are actually building as the weeks go on. Jay said they beat them before and they will beat them again. Jay also mentions that Cornette and ROH wants to hold them down but they won’t give up. They finish the segment by hitting each other, getting fired up. This was a pretty good promo and the Briscoes might be gaining fans along the way.

Roddy Strong is Growing on Me – I hated Roddy Strong in the first couple of episodes because I thought he sucked on the mic. However, he is getting more comfortable the last few weeks and comes across as a real character instead of an over-the-top braggadocios prick. As a result, I am digging his bad guy attitude. On Inside Ring of Honor, he makes his “Roderick Strong Invitational” where he challenges anyone in the world to come fight him. His goal, according to the promo, is to have such a great match that he overshadows Davey Strong’s world title defense. After this promo, I’d like to see him do it.

Jay Lethal vs. Mike Bennett – Count me as shocked. I actually liked a Mike Bennett match. I think he is better suited to fight someone like Jay Lethal, who has been trained in a mainstream promotion like TNA. They put on a good match and it was nowhere near as sloppy as Bennett’s last appearance. I still think Bennett needs to go, but this was better. I LOVED the end of the match. The time limit expired, which I like because it gives the time limit a purpose, and Bennett refused overtime. Bennett had a chance to win the title and chose to walk away rather than continue to fight Lethal. It proved he is a coward and gutless and really did more for his character than his in-ring action ever accomplished.

T.J. Perkins wins in his debut – I have seen T.J. Perkins go and he is an amazing athlete. So, instead of giving him someone who can keep up with him (like Jimmy Jacobs), they feed him Mike Mondo. As a result, Perkins showed the fans nothing. He was just another wrestler in the ring. The win was nice but he didn’t give anyone a reason to care about seeing him again. He should have at least got to show off his finisher instead of winning with a roll up. Bad debut for a good wrestler.

Davey Richards Talks – Davey Richards talked about how his students and wrestling in Japan made him better. It was nice background but kind of boring. Richards needs to work on his enthusiasm a little bit in his promos.

Mike Mondo is a Giant Killer – Mike Mondo is Crash Holly. That is the best way to describe him. He is a giant killer who gets himself all fired up and comes across as a ridiculous looking wrestler with “little man syndrome.” He also isn’t that great in the ring. I really feel he held back T.J. Perkins, who can be amazing in the ring. Plus, I can’t take him seriously because of his Spirit Squad connections. Dolph Ziggler has made me forget about his role in it, Mondo hasn’t with this gimmick. The only thing he did that I liked was channel Hot Stuff Eddie Gilbert at one point in the match.

Jay Lethal Talks – There was no tweet of the week this week insulting WWE unless I missed it. However, Jay Lethal is still really angry about his TNA departure and always takes shots at them in his promos. Let it go Jay.

By: Jeremy Thomas

Raw 10.24.11:

QUICK RESULTS:
Randy Orton & Sheamus def. Cody Rhodes & Christian [***]
Dolph Ziggler def. Santino Marella [* 1/2]
Alicia Fox def. Natalya [*]
Wade Barrett def. John Morrison [** 1/2]
John Cena def. Awesome Truth by DQ [**]

RANDY ORTON & SHEAMUS vs. CODY RHODES & CHRISTIAN: This was expectedly great match between these four men and really had a lot going for it, not the least of which was the amount of time it got. Rhodes and Christian were coming off losses at Vengeance, and I honestly figured they would win to get their heat back; not so much, obviously. However, both teams worked against each other well and what are four of the most motivated workers in the company lately put on some great in-ring work here. It isn’t surprising to be honest; all of these guys have feuded in combinations with the exception of Rhodes vs. Sheamus and so they have their timing down well. What I liked about the match was that while the babyfaces did win again, they didn’t make the heels look weak in their loss. Orton has hit that point where he definitely elevates everyone he works with even when he’s booked to win and Sheamus’ improvement continues to show positive work. I didn’t even mind Rhodes taking the loss since as I said, they looked good in general. Good stuff.

WORLD TITLE MATCH – ACHEIVMENT ALMOST UNLOCKED: Midway through the show, Ricardo Rodriguez came down with his busted-up eye and introduced the WWE Champion. Del Rio cut a typical arrogant heel promo celebrating his win and saying he was moving onto new challengers but there was no one to face him. The delivery was good to be sure and it made what was a cookie-cutter promo better than it otherwise would have been. Then out to the ring came Punk to a nice chant from the crowd and pointed out that he beat Del Rio only four weeks ago and still needs his one-on-one rematch for the title. Alberto said no and Punk nicely played along with the line of thought until he said he’d beat on Del Rio anyway.

Cue Johnny Ace coming out, because there was too much quality in the promo work. Punk knocking Ace’s mic abilities was awesome in terms of being a quick aside, especially when Johnny stumbled over his words moments later. I’m serious, the man has not made it through a full show without fucking up a promo at some point yet. They played the “Show me respect” game which gave Punk the ability to rip the guy a new one. That was just some great promo work and I loved hearing it. This was a good promo segment and even Ace’s crap work played in well because it let Punk cut loose.

JOHN MORRISON vs. WADE BARRETT: So I guess we’re rebuilding Wade now, which is good to hear because he still has a huge upside and has a lot of cred that needs building. When Morrison came out my first thought, literally, was “who is he going to lose to tonight” and no surprise, he lost. However, he lost a surprisingly long and maybe even an even-handed, back and forth match that frankly saw both men get some credibility. Morrison knows how to work with the big men really well at this point and while I’m certainly not suggesting he carried the quality of this match, he certainly did his part and Barrett was pretty decent too. Obiously Barrett won but frankly, its nice to see him get a win over someone who doesn’t hold a Money in the Bank shot (Hi Bryan!) and it hopefully means bigger things to come from the former Nexus leader.

KEVIN NASH PUTS AN END TO THE GAME: Raw kicked off in Austin, Texas with Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler talking about how they’d never seen anything like Vengeance, where the Big Show and another large athlete collapsed a ring off a superplex, John Cena fought a Last Man Standing match and Kevin Nash came out of nowhere to cost one of their main babyfaces in the company a match. You’re right guys, never seen any of those things before. In all seriousness, things then got…well, serious as the Game game on down to the ring. ‘H was all serious in his T-Shirt and talked about how he always knew that he could make friends or money but had always felt he did both. This was a good, solid promo by the H-Man, though I question the whole “broke my heart” thing. We don’t want to hear ‘H talk about his feelings, I promise. Anyway, that was kept short before he called Big Kev out and instead got…Johnny Ace. In all fairness, as much as I loathe Johnny’s on-screen work he helped get the crowd solidly behind ‘H. They also managed to point out that Ace is in charge of Raw but ‘H is still COO, which doesn’t make sense but at least they’ve established those rules in crystal clear fashion.

Then came the beating. Even Johnny was playing the tweener here as he tried to call Kev off, which we all know is just a ploy but the effort is nice. I’m a bit surprised by ‘H going down so easily by one Sledgie shot since he’s taken them many a time, but I can accept that just fine as they’ve softened the rules of this kind of thing over the years so people not named Cena are more vulnerable to that kind of thing. The beatdown was good too, but my god did this go on forever. This whole set of segments covered a good half hour or so, and then continued on via recaps for those who might have tuned in late. I liked this for a fair amount of reasons but the amount of time it took knocks it out of the Right, into puRgatoRy.

DOLPH ZIGGLER vs. SANTINO MARELLA: This was your typical squash match featuring Santino, with the exception that he was facing an upper midcarder and got his ass kicked. The comedy stuff was okay, Santino and Dolph played their parts well but this was basically a squash match and there’s nothing at all wrong with that. Santino is a guy who has no in-ring cred but still pops the crowd so having Dolph obliterate him made sense. This was basically used to push the Mason Ryan vs. Vicki’s Boys feud, which it was acceptable in doing. It was certainly nothing spectacular though.

JOHN CENA & ZACK RYDER NO ONE vs. THE MIZ & R-TRUTH: This was set up via a segment earlier in the show where Cena awesomely insulted Otunga, promoted Zack Ryder and then demanded a match with Awesome Truth. Johnny Ace said he’d give him a tag match alongside a partner of his choosing, which turned out to be Zack Ryder…or at least, it did until Ryder got his ass handed to him by Miz and Truth. This meant that we had a handicap match, preceded by a promo from Awesome Truth about their revolution and how ‘H couldn’t stop it and how they stood up to the conspiracy and so on and so forth. Typically good stuff by these two guys before the match.

As for the match itself, it was okay though disappointing for a Raw main event match. It was exactly what we would expect in a Cena handicap match; Cena fights the superior numbers and looks like a champ while Miz and Truth do their best to not look like they’re getting buried because they can’t beat a guy who got half of the arena dropped on top of him at Vengeance. To their credit they didn’t look buried at all; I would hardly say they came out of it looking strong but they looked okay. That’s equal credit to Cena and Awesome Truth, as none of them was looking for a burial here. Even the DQ finish didn’t make them look particularly weak, and they got their heat back after. This led into the big announcement we all knew was coming, with Cena picking the Rock as his tag team partner. Nice moment but not surprising; I did like how Cena acted like he needed the Rock to beat Truth and Miz, as it makes them seem appropriately important. As a whole this main event segment disappointed but wasn’t terrible.

ALICIA FOX vs. NATALYA: Beth Phoenix was on commentary for this match and did a perfectly acceptable job at the booth there. As for the match…well, maybe it was the fact that we saw what I consider to be the best Diva match in at least a year at Vengeance, but this was a huge step down in comparison. The match was sloppy and they tried to sell Alicia as having some technical skills but the two didn’t click in the ring quite right and the match ended out of nowhere with a fluke pin. This doesn’t help Alicia and it just makes Nattie look like a joke; though honestly, she is pretty much just the girl who loses to set up the match against Beth these days. Basically, she is the heel Eve. Bad match, too short, you know where this goes.

NADA

MICHAEL COLE CHALLENGES JR TO A MATCH: I only have one thing to say, and I’m going to use the sole participant in this segment to do it:

Oh yes, one other thing:

By: Tony Acero

WWE NXT 10.25.11:

QUICK RESULTS
Percy Watson Defeated JTG [**1/2]
Tyson Kidd Defeated Jey Uso [*1/2]
Kaitlyn Defeated Tamina[*]
Derrick Bateman Defeated Titus O’Neil [**]

PERCY VS JTG: I was extremely surprised that this match was as good as it was. Now don’t take that as me saying it was a good match, I was just surprised it was as cohesive as it was. Percy has so much charisma and it’s just waiting to come out and JTG found a partner that brought out some inspiration! They both showed promise here in such a short time and I hope that this continues for Percy.

AJ: HEEEEYYYY GUUUURRLLLL!!!

KIDD BEATS AN USO: This was another surprising match…only for all the wrong reasons. It was rather mundane for me as I saw nothing of note to get excited about. It was short and really didn’t go anywhere. Kidd is Kidd, but tonight this was as generic as one could get. With that being said, they did nothing wrong here.

TITUS VS. DERRICK: And here is the match that encompasses the entirety of this season. Too long, no excitement and AJ was there. The dropkick from the apron was probably the most excitement move of the night but other than that this shows just what’s wrong with the show and what I think is wrong with any recent up and comer from WWE’s farm system.

KAITLYN VS TAMINA: boooooring. Sorry, Kaitlyn tried and Tamina was…there, but neither of these ladies are of any importance and had no excitement going. But if more Kaitlyn means more AJ, I’m ok with it…

NOTHING

Until Monday, keep on kickin’ it…

…and remember to stay grounded!