Rambles about the wonderful world of wrestling.
Last Thursday I wrote in my Hell in a Cell Preview that you would be better off not bothering. Well, despite that advice here I am again, having put three hours of my life into a WWE PPV. I am indeed a glutton for punishment. My conclusion? Hell in a Cell once again proves that if WWE’s creative was half as good as their in-ring talent. This period of wrestling could be extraordinary. Here’s that, but in much more words.
Night of Champions is a strange PPV this year. On one hand it feels like a big deal. Seth Rollins will compete twice and Sting is fighting for the WWE Title, something we never thought we’d see. However, the rest of the card is same old, same old. Rusev and Dolph Ziggler are still plodding away in their never-ending feud and Neville will probably beat Stardust again. As usual, WWE are approaching the end of the year stuck in a bit of a rut. Which is probably not the way to entice you into reading this preview.
On Monday night the Raw crowd at the Brooklyn Center turned on the WWE Diva’s segment. They begun to perform the usual antics of a bored crowd, Mexican waves and unrelated chants. Yet, only 48 hours beforehand a similar crowd had come unhinged when Bayley pinned Sasha Banks to win the NXT Women’s Title. So did the crowd change in that 48 hours? Or does it point to all the ways that the WWE is failing the Diva’s Revolution? It’s hardly a spoiler to claim it’s the latter.
Battleground is very much a B + PPV. Coming just ahead of Summerslam, it is one of those classic middle of the road WWE shows, which is more likely to set up Summerslam than do anything spectacular itself. However, with rumours swirling last week about who might show their face. Battleground suddenly became a lot more interesting to a lot more people. So let’s have a look and see exactly what went down. Unsurprisingly, this will contain spoilers.
Raw this week finally saw the debut of three of NXT’s Four Horsewomen, as Charlotte, Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch were introduced by Stephanie McMahon to shake up the Diva’s division. It’s a moment that has been long overdue and almost instantly elevates the Divas division. However, we have seen NXT women being called up before and lost in the shuffle, so is it going to be different this time?
We all like to moan about wrestling. I myself do it on a regular basis. We particularly like to bash the WWE. If you were to go by forums and Twitter, you would believe that they were at an all time low. However, that’s not actually true. In fact, I would argue that WWE is actually in the middle of a golden period.
I feel like I have covered how awesome NXT is. It’s the only televised wrestling I actually watch on a weekly basis and I genuinely think it’s the best thing WWE has done for a long time. Therefore, you probably don’t need to hear me say that NXT Takeover: Rivals was another fantastic show, topped off with three absolutely brilliant main events. If you like wrestling and haven’t watched it, then do so now. If you don’t like wrestling, give it a chance anyway, it might surprise you. However, that’s not what I’ve decided to discuss. Instead, lets look at women’s wrestling in the WWE.
With just a two month turnover between live specials, the latest NXT Takeover: Rivals, has had roughly eight hours of Network time to promote itself into a strong show. To put that into perspective, the main roster do six hours a week with Raw, Smackdown and Main Event. Therefore, it is a bit of a disgrace that this again feels like one of the best built WWE shows in recent times.
Slowly but surely, NXT has become one of the best wrestling programs on TV. Led by Triple H and featuring some of the best young, up and coming wrestlers in the world, it is the future of the WWE. Or at least it will be, if they don’t fuck it up. Last night they had their latest Takeover event, Revolution. These NXT versions of a PPV are some of the best shows WWE has put on this year and last night was no exception.
Ramblings About Wrestling 