WrestlingRumors.net
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NXT UK Results - June 26, 2019
Posted: 26 Jun 2019 10:38 PM PDT
https://wrestlingrumors.net/tommyhall/nxt-uk-results-june-26-2019/
NXT UK
Date: June 26, 2019
Location: Download Festival, Leicestershire, England
Commentators: Vic Joseph, Aiden English
We’re still at the Download Festival and that means we’re still in for a cool venue. The big story coming out of last week saw Kay Lee Ray becoming
the new #1 contender to the Women’s Title, though you might not be seeing
the title match for a little while. What we get tonight though is Walter defending the United Kingdom Title against Travis Banks, which could be
rather interesting. Let’s get to it.
Travis Banks says he’s ready.
Opening sequence.
Mark Andrews vs. Joseph Conners
Andrews rolls out of a wristlock to start and takes him down with an
armdrag. The fans are VERY appreciative of an armbar but Conners cuts them
off by bending Andrews’ neck around the ropes. A running clothesline gets
two and a suplex is good for the same as they’re keeping the offense simple so far. Some choking on the apron and a neck snap across the rope somehow
wake Andrews up so he can slug away.
The knee slide into the enziguri sets up a suicide dive to the floor to
rock Conners again. He’s right back with a sunset bomb into the corner
though and a belly to back faceplant gets two. The fans are all over
Conners. Andrews can’t get a backslide but can get a Stundog Millionaire. Fall To Pieces finishes Conners at 6:09.
Result: Mark Andrews b. Joseph Conners Fall to Pieces (6:09)
The Hunt is angry but Dave Mastiff comes up to suggest he’s on their side against Gallus.
Here are the Grizzled Young Veterans, with trash bags around their feet,
for a chat. They’re not happy about having to defend their Tag Team Titles
in front of a bunch of dirty fans out here. The fans clap so Gibson has to
tell them that’s not something to cheer about. This is supposed to be a
music festival but Gibson hasn’t heard a single instrument. They’ll defend their titles against Moustache Mountain and then they can go anywhere but
here.
Video on Piper Niven vs. Rhea Ripley, with Niven standing up against Ripley
for thinking she is the most dominant female in NXT UK. They meet next week.
In two weeks: Gallus vs. The Hunt/Dave Mastiff.
Killer Kelly vs. Xia Brookside
Xia is aggressive to start and forearms her in the back, but it’s not the best strategy against Kelly. A wheelbarrow suplex gives Kelly two and it’s time and it’s time for a double arm crank. With that going nowhere, Kelly hits a pump kick to put Xia in the ropes for some covering up. She’s fine enough to come back with a headscissors as Jazzy Gabbert and Jinny come out
to watch. Kelly gets in a shot from behind as the two of them leave but Xia
is fine enough to hit the Codebreaker for the pin at 3:16.
Result: Xia Brookside b. Killer Kelly Codebreaker (3:16)
Toni Storm is happy that Kay Lee Ray won the battle royal but would love to know when Ray wants her shot. Toni is ready anytime and she’ll be in action in two weeks.
Noam Dar vs. Ligero
Dar holds his jacket out in an attempt to get Ligero to charge for a funny moment. The bell rings and Dar messes with Ligero’s horns before bailing
out to the floor. Back in and Dar avoids an armdrag before knocking Ligero
down for some more mocking. Dar can’t get a rollup so he hides in the
corner as the stalling continues. A headlock works a bit better as Kenny Williams comes out with a chair to watch at ringside.
Dar is fine enough to work on Ligero’s knee, which is rammed into Dar’s head to break up a suplex. A Widowmaker and kick to the back give Ligero
two but Dar kicks the leg out. Dar grabs a fisherman’s buster for two but
the Nova Roller is broken up. Ligero’s enziguri puts Dar down for a bit,
only to have Dar get back up and get a knockdown of his own. Dar misses a
top rope double stomp and injures his knee but really it’s just a ruse to
get Williams to give him the chair. Williams hands it to him but doesn’t
let go, allowing Ligero to grab a rollup for the pin at 8:59.
Result: Ligero b. Noam Dar Rollup (8:59)
We look back at Banks coming out to say he’s ready for Walter last week. United Kingdom Title: Travis Banks vs. Walter
Walter is defending. Banks tries to circle the monster to start but gets
taken into the corner. The big chops miss but a crossbody is pulled out of
the air so Walter can lay him on the top rope. Walter’s chop puts Banks on the floor and a big boot to the face knocks Banks silly. Walter goes to the test of strength to keep Banks down but he manages to power up and kick at
the leg. A big kick knocks Walter down and a Shining Wizard rocks the champ again.
The shotgun dropkick sets up a top rope double stomp for two on Walter and
you can feel the energy going out of the crowd. The Slice of Heaven is countered into a Boston crab to crank on Banks’ back. A rope is grabbed so Walter throws him into the corner. Only to get caught with the Slice of
Heaven. Walter bails to the apron and gets dropkicked to the floor, setting
up a suicide dive. Banks stays outside for too long though and gets
powerbombed onto the apron. Back in and a regular powerbomb retains the
title at 8:49.
Result: Walter b. Travis Banks Powerbomb (8:49)
Walter, SMASH:
[This post contains video, click to play]
Results
Mark Andrews b. Joseph Conners – Fall To Pieces
Xia Brookside b. Killer Kelly – Codebreaker
Ligero b. Noam Dar – Rollup
Walter b. Travis Banks – Powerbomb
Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen
over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since
2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his Amazon author page with 28
wrestling books. His latest book is the History Of In Your House.
Get the latest and greatest in professional wrestling news by signing up
for our daily email newsletter. Just look below for GET EXCLUSIVE UPDATES
to sign up. We are proud to offer our popular Wrestling Rumors app and encourage you to download it for an optimized user experience. It is
available for Android and also on iOS. Thank you for reading!
The post NXT UK Results June 26, 2019 appeared first on
WrestlingRumors.net.
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REVIEW: Monday Night Raw - April 7, 2014: Yes
Posted: 26 Jun 2019 10:29 PM PDT
https://wrestlingrumors.net/tommyhall/review-monday-night-raw-april-7-2014-yes/
Welcome to KB’s Old School (and New School) Reviews. I’ve been reviewing wrestling shows for over ten years now and have reviewed over 5,000 shows. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I’ll be posting a new review here on Wrestlingrumors.net, starting today. It could be anything from modern WWE
to old school to indies to anything in between. Note that I rate using
letters instead of stars and I don’t rate matches under three minutes as really, how good or bad can something that short be?
Monday Night Raw
Date: April 7, 2014
Location: Smoothie King Center, New Orleans, Louisiana
Attendance: 12,500
Commentators: Michael Cole, John Bradshaw Layfield, Jerry Lawler
I figured Id throw this one in as a bonus, plus I kind of wanted to watch
this show again. This is of course the big fallout show from Wrestlemania, which is usually a huge mix of storytelling, debuts, turns and an INSANE
crowd that will take over the show. These things can be all over the place
and its always fun to see where things go. Lets get to it.
We open with the Daniel Bryan Monster video from last night. Thats still awesome stuff. This one includes him posing with the belts after the main
event last night to really cap it off.
Heres Daniel Bryan, because what else could have opened the show? I can
forgive his magically healed shoulder here. The fans go insane of course
and even JBL admits that hes wrong. They wont let him talk with the DANIEL BRYAN chants. “You guys never get tired do you?” He doesnt think the fans know how hard it is to do the YES chant with two titles.
The fans try it without two titles and Bryan leads them one more time
before his shoulders start hurting. Bryan talks about how the fans are
united under behind one word, but the fans cut him off with a YOU DESERVE
IT chant. Bryan: “I might deserve it a little bit, but I think you guys deserve it.” He thanks the fans for being behind him and its YES time again but here are HHH and Stephanie.
They stand on the apron because HHH doesnt want to get in the ring and do something hell regret. Bryan takes the title off his waist, gets right in
HHHs face, and does the YES pose for a funny spot. HHH says this ends
tonight because this is his show. Therefore, hes booked himself into a
title shot against Bryan tonight and the YES movement ends. This was the
only way to start the show and Bryan vs. HHH is a fine main event,
especially given that you know its a big angle.
Those poor shoulders.
[This post contains video, click to play]
A graphic of Lesnar standing over Undertaker with the caption “streak conquered” got the loudest heat of the night.
Batista comes in to yell at HHH but the boss says Batista was the one
tapping. Orton comes in and says he should get the title match tonight
because he has a rematch clause. HHH says hes the COO so they get rematches
at a later date because tonight hes taking care of Bryan. Thats not cool
with them so Stephanie gives them a Tag Team Title shot. HHH says
historically, the three of them are unstoppable when theyre on the same
page. Thats called planting a seed.
Wyatt Family vs. Sheamus/John Cena/Big E.
Oh here we go. The fans are WAY into the Wyatts but debut singing “John
Cena Sucks” to the tune of his theme song. I really wish that one had
caught on as its just glorious. The good guys charge the ring and the brawl
is on with Cena eventually starting against Bray. The fans are almost universally behind Bray here as the nutty crowd is starting fast. Cenas
right hands are booed out of the building and Sheamus comes in with a
slingshot shoulder.
Off to Rowan for a slugout and he just shoves a punching Sheamus out of the corner. Big E. comes in for a running shoulder to the ribs before lifting
Rowan up for three straight backbreakers, finally winning some respect from
the fans. “THAT WAS GOOD!” Harper comes in, accidentally knocks Rowan off the apron, and runs into a shoulder from Big E. Its back to Cena as the
fans get annoyed again but Harper slams him down.
We take a break and come back with Harper holding Cena in a headlock and earning a LETS GO HARPER chant. Cena loads up an AA but eats a DDT for two instead. Back to Rowan as the fans start singing. Bray comes in again for
some frenzied stomping but Cena hits that running clothesline to get a breather. Now the fans sing that Cena sucks but a release Rock Bottom makes them cheer Bray instead.
Cena finally throws Harper down and makes the hot tag to Sheamus to clean house. A top rope double shoulder puts the Family down and Sheamus mocks
Brays pose. Rowan decks Sheamus with a clothesline (POP) and its off to Big
E. vs. Wyatt. The Warrior Splash looks to set up the Big Ending but the
Family comes back in to clean house, setting up a suicide dive to take out Sheamus. The spider walk (“WYATTS GONNA KILL YOU!”) sets up Sister Abigails Kiss to pin Big E and end the madness.
Rating: C. The match was fine but you know this is all about the crowd. The post Wrestlemania crowd is more of an attraction than the wrestling itself
a lot of the time and thats exactly what happened here. I could have gone
for Sheamus taking the pin instead of the Intercontinental Champion, but
this is one of those shows where it really doesnt matter that much.
Slam City ad.
We get a video of people doing a bunch of outdoor sports with the word impossible. It really says Im Possible though, and you can be too, if you
just BOLIEVE.
Fandango/Summer Rae vs. Santino Marella/Emma
Summer is looking especially fetching tonight. Emma was just so wasted with Santino. The guys start with a dance off but Santino quickly loads up the Cobra, meaning its off to the girls. Emma grabs a quick Dilemma followed by
the Emma Sandwich before the Emma Lock gets a very fast submission. This
was just filler.
Here are Heyman and Lesnar for the mother of all victory laps. Brock shows
off his EAT SLEEP BREAK THE STREAK shirt. Heyman says its his privilege to represent the conqueror of the Streak. It lasted nearly a quarter of a
century but Brock ended it in three seconds. The fans shock shows their
lack of intelligence, because THEY TOLD YOU SO. Heyman reads the shirt
because were too stupid to do it ourselves.
Brock isnt here to put smiles o your face, but rather to shock the WWE
Universe and put tears in the eyes of children. Heyman is on fire tonight.
Lets go off page a bit and shoot from the hip shall we? Five seconds after walking through the curtains at Wrestlemania, Undertaker collapsed and was taken to the hospital with Vince himself riding with him. The greatest
thing Undertaker ever did was stay down after the third F5 because he would have had a broken neck and a cracked skull. Brocks evil smile here is
glorious.
Heres what amazes Heyman: “After the match, John Bradshaw Layfield and
those two other things that call themselves announcers” applauded the Undertaker, along with 80,000 other people in the Superdome (“Not
Silverdome Hogan”). So why werent people cheering for the winner? The fans should all feel empowered because theyre all wannabes, just like the rest
of that locker room. Everyone was looking down when Lesnar came through the curtain last night because Brock doesnt respect anyone. “HE BARELY LIKES ME!”
There are a lot of people back there who say they could have fought in an octagon, but Daniel Bryan, John Cena and Undertaker never did that, because theyre all wannabes. A lot of people wanted to be the NCAA Heavyweight Champion, UFC Heavyweight Champion and WWE World Heavyweight Champion, but Rock, Hogan and Austin didnt do it because theyre all wannabes. And now,
for the line of the year. “Last night a lot of people were coming up to me and saying they could have broken the Streak. So why didnt you?”
We get the debut of “Brock Lesnar is the 1 in 21-1” and Heyman makes sure to say it even slower for the WHAT crowd. There are Hall of Famers, there
are legends, there are superstars, but those are all plural. Then there is
only one Brock Lesnar. If you dont understand why this was absolutely
amazing, I dont know what to tell you.
One of the all time great promos:
[This post contains video, click to play]
Adam Rose is coming. That should have opened house shows for years but why
not just turn him heel and completely miss the point of the character? Or
we could have a bunny upstage him.
Tag Team Titles: Usos vs. Randy Orton/Batista
Usos are defending of course. Jimmy slugs away at Batista to start but gets powered into the corner. The fans of course reminds Dave that he tapped
out. Jey tags himself in to punch Orton in the face as the fans want Y2J
and then CM Punk. Jey gets beaten down in the corner and both champions are sent outside. The fans switch to JBL as Orton DDTs Jey off the barricade
for the double countout. Im really glad they didnt change the belts here because it would have been such a stupid move.
A SICK powerbomb onto the steps crushes Jimmy.
Rob Van Dam vs. Damien Sandow
This is Van Dams latest return and you know hes getting a great reaction. Sandow is quickly sent to the floor but he pulls Robs leg out and drives
some knees into the chest. The Wind-Up elbow connects and YOURE WELCOME for that. Its amazing how completely different Sandow has become in just a
year. Some kicks put Sandow on the floor and the spinning kick from the
apron knocks him silly. Back in and Rolling Thunder sets up the Five Star
for the pin. Just a “welcome back” match.
Rey Mysterio vs. Bad News Barrett
This is Barretts return as well and I believe his first match as Bad News.
The fans are entirely behind Barrett and did you really expect anything
else? Rey hammers away during the catchphrase and becomes the littlest heel
on the roster. He quickly sends Barrett to the floor for a sliding splash
but takes a hard kick to the ribs back inside. Barrett pounds away at the
back and gets two off Winds of Change. He hits a running knee to the ribs,
only to have his superplex broken up. A top rope seated senton gets two for
Rey and the 619 connects, but he gets crotched on top and Bull Hammered for
the pin.
Rating: D+. Another nothing match here but the wrestling isnt the point on
a show like this. Its good to see Barrett back from his nine millionth
injury and Mysterio is expendable for something like this. Unless Im
mistaken, this was Mysterios last match with the company before he finally
got to go back to Mexico.
Video on Rusev, who debuts next.
Alexander Rusev vs. Zack Ryder
Rusev quickly takes him into the corner before holding him against the
ropes for the knees to the ribs. The jumping superkick and a spinning slam
sets up the Accolade for the first win of many.
Hall of Fame video.
Heres Ultimate Warrior for the first time on Raw in about eighteen years.
He puts on a Warrior coat and shakes the ropes, making his face very red in
the process. Warrior hasnt been sure what to say, so he puts on a Warrior
mask and lets his other persona (or whatever it is) take over. He talks
about how every mans heart will beat its final beat and if the work he has
done in his life means something, his story will never die. There are
people in the back with his spirit and it will run forever. This is one of
the most disturbing things youll ever hear given what happened tomorrow, as
its a good farewell speech.
We get the very cool “Thank You Fans” video. I didnt know what that was at first but it made me smile at the end.
Here are AJ and Tamina so the former can brag about being Divas Champion
for 295 days now. She gave all of them a chance to prove her wrong and
every single one of them has failed. Shes the hero of this story and the
savior of the Divas division. Scratch that. She IS the Divas division, but heres the debuting Paige to disagree. Paige is here to do what no one else would: congratulate AJ on her accomplishments. AJ tells her to go back to
NXT and offers Paige a beating to send her there. Paige isnt ready but AJ
slaps her in the face and says lets make it a title match. The fans are
happy because they all know whats coming.
Divas Title: AJ Lee vs. Paige
The champ jumps her to start and drops Paige with a running elbow. The
Black Widow goes on but Paige powers out, hits a horrible looking Paige
Turner and wins the title in a shock. Well as much of a shock as it can be given how obvious it was.
Oh yeah this worked:
[This post contains video, click to play]
Bolieve!
Heres Hulk Hogan to present the Andre battle royal trophy to Cesaro. Sign
in the crowd: “Hogans Cue Card: SMOOTHIE KING CENTER!” He gets the building right and says his favorite Wrestlemania moment last night was the battle royal. The fans cut him off with a CESARO chant and Hogan talks about how
cool it was to see Big Show lifted into the air and slammed out because
Andre himself was watching from Heaven. He brings out the thirty first man
in the battle royal who just happened to be the winner.
Cesaro comes out with Zeb Colter in toe. To my great shock, Hogan shakes Cesaros hand, says congratulations and walks out. Zeb takes the mic and
says hell handle it from here because hes a real American. He talks about making Cesaro an American and a Zeb Colter guy, but Cesaro says thats not
quite true, because hes a Paul Heyman Guy. Heyman comes out and says hes
the advocate for the King of Swing, sending Zeb into a frenzy. Heyman goes outside to tell the announcers how to talk about his new guy, allowing
Swagger to come in and deck Cesaro and break the trophy (SHOCK AND AWE!).
Jack Swagger vs. Cesaro
Joined in progress after a break with Cesaro getting two off a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. They head outside with Cesaro staying in control and Heyman holding the broken trophy. Back in and Jack runs the ropes for the belly to belly throw. Knees to the ribs set up a WE THE PEOPLE shout before Jack
cranks on both arms. A powerslam gets two but Cesaro raises his boots to
stop the Vader Bomb. Cesaro comes back with the apron superplex and some running European uppercuts, but Swagger bails to the floor for the Swing
and its a countout.
Rating: D+. Cesaros year is one of the biggest disappointments since last
year as he should have been launched to the main event but he wound up
doing nothing for the better part of a year. Its nice to see him getting a
push now, even though hes cooled WAY off in the last year. Seeing him with
a title makes me smile though as he certainly earned it.
We recap the opening sequence that set up the main event.
Stephanie tells Shield and Kane to cool it because what happened last night doesnt matter. All that matters tonight is HHH winning the World Title
match but Shield asks Kane where the Outlaws have gone. Thats too much for
Kane who says HHH thinks the Shield are expendable pawns and lets it slip
that HHH told him to beat Shield down a few weeks ago on Smackdown.
Stephanie calls this an injustice and instantly has Shields attention. Oh
this is going to be good.
WWE World Title: Daniel Bryan vs. HHH
Theres no HHH just yet though as Batista and Orton come to the ring. Both
guys lay out Bryan with their respective finishers and heres Kane to add a chokeslam. The fans are already chanting HOUNDS OF JUSTICE but they get
Batista mocking the YES chant. Instead the fans chant for 3MB of all people
but instead heres HHH to start the match. HHH demands that the bell ring
but, just like any villain, takes his sweet time doing anything, allowing
the Shield to come out. The match is done at this point so well get to what everyone wants to see.
Kane, Orton and Batista get on the apron and Shield stands on the floor
looking at them. HHH looks scared to death in the ring as Bryan is still
down in the corner. Now Shield gets on the apron but HHH says this isnt happening. This isnt breaking down into a war. The fans think this is
awesome and all six get in the ring.
Kane is ready to fight but HHH sends him back to the ropes, only to turn
around for a spear from Reigns. The fight is on and Ambrose and Rollins hit
a great looking double dive to take down Batista and Orton. A Superman
Punch puts Kane down and HHH is surrounded. Bryan gets back up for the
running knee and the Authority runs to fight another day to end the show.
Now thats how you look like a star:
[This post contains video, click to play]
Overall Rating: A. The wrestling sucked and if you think thats the point of
the show, you dont understand how this Raw thing works. This was a great
show as it moved so many things forward, debuted new wrestlers, gave us
some major plot advancements and felt important for the first time in a
very long time. In other words, this show actually did stuff and had some
fun instead of beating everything into our heads all night long. Its one of
the best post Wrestlemania shows of all time, which says a lot as this
might be the second most important night of the year.
Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen
over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since
2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his Amazon author page with 28
wrestling books. His latest book is the History Of In Your House.
Get the latest and greatest in professional wrestling news by signing up
for our daily email newsletter. Just look below for GET EXCLUSIVE UPDATES
to sign up. We are proud to offer our popular Wrestling Rumors app and encourage you to download it for an optimized user experience. It is
available for Android and also on iOS. Thank you for reading!
The post REVIEW: Monday Night Raw April 7, 2014: Yes appeared first on WrestlingRumors.net.
///////////////////////////////////////////
KBs Review: WWEs Latest Brilliant Disaster
Posted: 26 Jun 2019 07:00 PM PDT
https://wrestlingrumors.net/tommyhall/kbs-review-wwes-latest-brilliant-disaster/
First of all, happy anniversary. I started writing this column five years
ago yesterday and it’s wound up being a lot more fun than I was expecting. Thanks for reading over the years.
I wish I had something more fun to talk about for such an occasion but
that’s not the case in modern WWE. Over the course of this week, WWE has implemented another idea to fix the television problem: there will be NO wrestling during commercial breaks. This one is a little bit different
than some of their ideas, but that doesn’t make it any more problematic, which is what we’re looking at today.
Now, on paper, this is not a bad idea. Having the shows be a bit more wrestling centered is the kind of thing that can help the lousy creative,
which would be a major relief at the moment. If nothing else, it would be
a heck of a lot better than having the shows go to a break thirty seconds
into the match. There is a nice idea there, but as usual, WWE doesn’t know how to pull off something that could work.
Before we get into the specifics, let’s get two things out of the way.
First of all, this was a last minute Vince McMahon idea, with the edict apparently coming out of nowhere, meaning there was almost no time to
figure out a way to make it work. Second, this isn’t an official rule. It’s not like the Wild Card Rule, which was not only announced but also pounded into our heads over and over. There are no official parameters to break here so if they want to change things on the fly, so be it. That
makes a difference, but it doesn’t make the problem go away.
So what has the rule done?
In the two shows we’ve had since the rule was put into place, we’ve had an elimination tag match, a pair of 2/3 falls matches, a match restarted for interference, two matches that have been expanded after it ended in a
hurry, and a series of short matches that didn’t have time to develop in
the first place. It’s like we’re suddenly watching gimmicks a go-go and that makes for a rather weird experience. As has been the case so many
times before, the good idea is crushed by bad execution.
Remember when those matches were like this:
[This post contains video, click to play]
That’s just on a pair of routine shows. How messy and insane does that
sound just from the outside? Better yet, how does this feel for fans who don’t know what’s going on? Remember that the rule was never announced or even mentioned on television. If you were just watching the shows and
didn’t follow backstage news, it seems as if the company has suddenly gone insane with their ridiculous amount of gimmicks and twists. It comes off
like they’re trying to hide something, which is a really weird feeling for
a pair of wrestling shows.
In addition to making the show feel weird, how strange does it look to
suddenly have so many 2/3 falls matches? Doing multiple instances of the
same stipulation is a weird way to go (ok maybe not in WWE, with their pair
of cage matches on pay per view in a month) and it’s not the kind of thing that plays well on TV. This week on SmackDown Live, the two 2/3 falls
matches were announced in the span of about ten minutes. How weird does
that look from a viewer’s perspective?
The whole thing comes off as WWE not being able to make up its mind. It
should be as simple of a case of either having longer matches
(understandable given the amount of time that they have to fill every week)
or choosing not to have wrestling during the commercials. Both of them may sound like a good idea but it’s not like either of them really seems to
work in reality.
The problem with long matches is the fans don’t tend to have the attention span to make them work. How many people are going to be willing to sit
through multiple fifteen minute matches week to week? They’ve learned that they can change the channel, watch something else for five to ten minutes,
and then come back to catch the ending (assuming they come back at all).
At the same time though, how many fans are going to hear about two 2/3
falls matches in the same show and tune out because very little is going to happen? If you know that you’re in for at least one fall that isn’t going to end the match, how much of the rest of the match are you likely to
watch? It’s the same problem with Iron Man matches: it doesn’t matter if you skip a good bit of the match because odds are you’re not going to miss what matters most.
Do you need to see anything but this:
[This post contains video, click to play]
Over time, the problem can go away if you retain the fans to understand
that the long matches aren’t going to be taking place anymore. Get them
used to the idea that they need to keep watching because they might miss something. You know, making the show exciting again. I mean, it hasn’t worked in the last several years but another attempt at it might not be a
bad idea.
What is a bad idea is trying to make both sides of the situation work. By finding ways to keep matches going throughout the break without the matches actually going throughout the break (unless it’s during a split screen commercial on SmackDown Live, which doesn’t count because you can still see the match, which does at least make some sense), the fans are going to have
the same reaction that they had before: they don’t want to sit through something like this for so long so they’ll move on.
Putting long matches on television isn’t exactly the best idea in the world in the first place. If you’re able to see these longer matches every week, what is the point in buying a ticket to a live show or watching the big pay
per view matches? Couple that with the abundance of rematches we get week
to week anymore (including a 2/3 falls match on this week’s SmackDown Live) and the whole thing doesn’t make sense, even if WWE seems to love the idea
of such stretched out matches on television week to week.
This one needed to be 2/3 falls right:
[This post contains video, click to play]
In other words, WWE needs to pick a side on this and go with it (the harder part for them). Based on the recent amount of success, going with the
shorter matches that can fit around the breaks sounds like the best of the
two options, but I have very little faith in WWE to actually realize that
as we move forward. While I can’t imagine that we’ll see more and more 2/3 falls matches, I’m almost worried to think about what they might do to keep up this idea.
Having a show where the fans can see more wrestling is a very good idea in theory, but that doesn’t mean that it works in practicality. The idea has only been going on for a few days now and so far, it doesn’t have the most promise. It’s certainly something that can be fixed up in a matter of
time, but actually pulling it off is a little bit harder than it sounds. Granted there is only so much that can be done when the company has been
given all of a day to figure a way around the boss’ latest whim. It’s not like it can’t be saved, but maybe it would be better to let it go through a bit of a break of its own.
Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen
over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his Amazon author page with 28
wrestling books. His latest book is the History Of In Your House.
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