Wrestling’s 4Rs 7.22.13: WWE Smackdown & TNA Impact Reviewed – Plus the Updated 2013 PPV Match Rankings

THE RIGHT:
Austin Aries vs. Bobby Roode: I thought that pairing these two off to start the show was a cool tip of the hat to last year’s event. Additionally, the in-ring action was quite good. Giving Aries the win here was a nice rub for the X-Division, showing what these guys could potentially move on to. Additionally, it set up the post-match angle where Bobby Roode snapped. I enjoyed that immensely, as Roode had felt stale prior to his losing streak. He’s a solid in-ring worker who carries himself well, so breathing some fresh air into his lungs is a smart move by TNA.

Sonjay Dutt vs. Homicide vs. Petey Williams: The X-Division stars of the past actually put on the best of the X-Division matches. I liked Tenay noting that Dutt has never won the title, which puts a chip on his shoulder, gives motivation to his character, and gives the fans a reason to get behind him. Dutt and Williams looked great in particular, and Dutt’s moonsault double stomp is a sick finisher. This provided some good nostalgia from guys who are still capable.

Austin Aries Gives Chris Sabin a Pump-Up Speech: Though Hogan’s speech to Chris Sabin felt flat and uninspiring, Austin Aries’ felt personal and heartfelt. It was cool to see Aries humanized a bit, and not being an over-the-top caricature of a bad guy. Much of what he said was true, and it came across well. This also made the main-event seem even more important.

puRgatoRy:
Chris Sabin vs. Bully Ray: Alright, commenters, hear me out. I thought this match was fine. The story, though it was simple, was pretty good. However, I felt that much of the match was overshadowed by the Aces and Eights and Main-Event Mafia interactions. Additionally, let’s look at how Sabin did during this match- he received a ton of punishment, hit a few moves, and then used a foreign object to win. While he does get to carry around a prop now, this match didn’t really launch him to the next level. Some people said that this may lead to a heel turn, but I have no interest in seeing that, as heels who aren’t in Aces and Eights either flounder or are put in a tag team. Plus, I don’t think this was a good payoff to Bully’s title run. This should have been a big moment, and if it had been saved for Bound for Glory, it would have felt like it mattered more. What is Chris Sabin going to do as champion? TNA’s options are simple. They could A) Have him lose the belt back to Bully Ray (which would cheapen the title, and make the moment when Bully loses the belt again significantly less remarkable), B) Let a guy with below-average microphone skills and ring presence represent their company as their top guy, or C) Throw him in the background and diminish the value of the title while the MEM/Aces and Eights rivalry takes center stage. When you evaluate the alternatives, it is tough to say that this was the right choice. The argument that “he deserves it” is absurd. This is a business, and unless Chris Sabin is going to drive business, he shouldn’t be champion.

Opening Segment: This plays off the previous section quite a bit, but essentially the opening segment focused on everything other than Chris Sabin.

The MEM/Aces and Eights Stuff: This feud still hasn’t really grabbed my imagination. Eventually there needs to be more intrigue added to this rivalry in one way or another. Additionally, the MEM aren’t cutting the mustard for me as faces. They seem really self-important, and I still don’t know why these guys are friends with Sting now simply because he gave a name to their friendship.

THE WRONG:
Manix vs. Kenny King vs. Chavo Guerrero: For whatever reason, this match did not click. Manix seemed a bit sloppy and Chavo was a step slow. The crowd didn’t care, which wasn’t helped by the fact that out of the three, Kenny King is the only guy who carries himself well. The Manix character doesn’t make any sense and hasn’t really been explained, so I don’t feel any connection to him. I mean, we know who the guy is under the costume, and when he wears it, he turns into another person. Doesn’t that make him a phony? Why should we cheer a fake person?

THE RIDICULOUS:
Rockstar Dud (™ Larry Csonka’s wife): Holy shit, this was awesome. Like, I don’t recall ever feeling uncomfortable for someone during a televised wrestling show before. His slow walk to the ring was terrible and didn’t fit his persona at all. He was described as a “stick of dynamite” during the most boring and charisma-void ring entrance in recent memory. Then the match started, and to be honest, I don’t remember a damn thing he did. It’s like someone told him, “Hey Spud, we want you to go out there and do literally nothing.” A part of me hopes he gets another chance, but another part of me hopes we never see him again and he is only remembered by this awful, awful appearance.

By: Jack Stevenson

THE RIGHT:
Daniel Bryan vs. Wade Barrett: My, how times have changed, part one. In the Summer of 2010 Wade Barrett was the break-out star of NXT, destined for oodles of world title reigns, while Daniel Bryan alternated between losing, getting fired, and feuding with Michael Cole. Three years on, Bryan is steam-rolling Barrett in mere minutes on his way to a WWE Championship match against the biggest star in the business that he may well win, he’s so over it makes my heart sing, and it genuinely looks like he’s going to be a permanent fixture in the main event. The match wasn’t up to much but as a metaphor for the ascension of Daniel Bryan this was so so right.

Not Miserable: MizTV with Paul Heyman! Again! It feels like Heyman has been on Miz TV every week since I started doing this column. Anyway, it’s a MIZTV (pronounced like ‘mystery) why the Miz has his own talk show when invariably he’s more annoying than a thousand Jeremy Kyles. Thankfully today he was perhaps only as annoying as 673 Jeremy Kyles, and Paul Heyman is so good right now he can make up for that, so this was a surprisingly entertaining, accomplished segment that gave a little extra depth to the Punk-Heyman rivalry.

Chris Jericho vs. Curtis Axel: After his thrilling battle with Rob Van Dam on Raw, Chris Jericho waved goodbye to WWE for 2013 (probably) with another very enjoyable bout, if not on the level of Monday night. Curtis Axel confuses me because he’s always impressive in the ring and Paul Heyman is an effective mouthpiece for him but I just have so little interest in his life, outside of when he’s having these good, lengthy TV matches. There were lots of cool reversals and near falls and everything was very smoothly executed. While I think few would doubt that this has been, perhaps by design, Jericho’s least inspiring run in WWE so far, weeks like this are a welcome reminder that he is still an incredibly talented man, and I’m already looking forward to his predicted return.

Rob Van Dam vs. Darren Young: While it isn’t always that fun to watch, I do like, in concept at least, Smackdown’s focus on old fashioned squash matches. It’s a nice, something very useful, throwback. Van Dam hit the ring, got all his cool moves in, and leaves it more established than he was when he entered. Again, having three of them on one show is better on paper than in practice, and RVD can probably stop with the random matches and start with the feuding now (putting him against the Shield might be fun,) but this was well conceived and very solid.

puRgatoRy:
Dolph Ziggler vs. Jack Swagger: My, how times have changed, part two. Four years ago, Jack Swagger was a dominant, swaggering (pun so very intended) champion of ECW who looked on the road to stardom, while Ziggler… I don’t really remember, he introduced himself to people backstage a lot and he beat the Great Khali via count-out I think. Now, Swagger is the Wade Barrett to Ziggler’s Daniel Bryan. I’m not convinced with cheery good-guy Ziggler though so this stays in its natural habitat of purgatory.

The Usos & Mark Henry vs. The Shield: Pier-six brawls are always fun! But not necessarily substantial enough to make the ‘right’ section! E.g. this one. Could be a fun Summerslam six-man though.

The Not Quite Midnight Rhodes Scholars Fight: I really like both of these guys and the build up to Rhodes’ turn has been terrific, but the actual act itself has fallen just a tiny bit flat for me, and it hasn’t helped that Sandow has been entirely reasonable throughout all of this. Like, seriously, has there ever been a supposed heel that’s ever made such a genuinely lovely gesture as Sandow did this week, forgiving Rhodes for attacking him on Monday? Even if you think the assault was justified it was a pretty cool thing to do. Anyway, hopefully this feud picks up on the road to Summerslam because both guys are great characters with great facial hair and deserve a great rivalry.

Randy Orton vs. Alberto Del Rio: This was a decent main event, but it is nothing you haven’t seen 100 times before. It was a standard match with some exciting near falls towards the end but honestly I just don’t remember much about this considering I watched it only about half an hour ago. I’d quite like Smackdown to shake up its main events with a crazy brawl or something once in a while.

THE WRONG:
Acts of General Managers: People who didn’t watch Smackdown! Let us play a game. In the opening segment of this week’s Smackdown, Mr. McMahon asked the three would-be General Managers of Smackdown, Brad Maddox, Booker T and Teddy Long, to make a match for the evening. One went with Chris Jericho vs. Curtis Axel, another Randy Orton vs. Alberto Del Rio, and the third confirmed the in ring return of Rob Van Dam. Now, here comes the ‘game’ bit; can you guess which general manager picked which match? I’m afraid it’s a terrible game, owing to its impossibility; there is literally nothing unique about the way an authority figure runs Smackdown, the same matches are just made by a different person, and as such there’s just no reason to care about these things. I quite liked the reveal of Vickie Guerrero at the end, it was a nice way to tie up the loose-end from the even worse job evaluation on Raw, but other than that there was no value in this segment.

THE RIDICULOUS:
NOTHING

PPV YEAR IN REVIEW by Csonka:
TOP PPV MATCHES: