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This is really interesting, having a heel Kevin Owens telling the crowd to chant for Roman… it’s like double secret reverse psychology. I dig it. I guess they figure they can get a complete split reaction in their match, with the Roman haters cheering for KO and the rest cheering for Reigns. Whatever, roll with it.
Segment Rating: Five Gold Medals, plus one more for Kurt being in it
I was recently approached about contributing some reviews of older shows available on the WWE network, and I jumped at the chance because I love my old wrestling. Oddly enough, the show I’m going to talk about today—In Your House 7: Good Friends, Better Enemies, from April of 1996— took place when I was not watching wrestling at all. In the early 90’s my favorites were Randy Savage, Jake Roberts, and I had my Ted DiBiase wrestling buddy, but by the mid 90’s I was into sports, and wrestling fell by the wayside until late 1996 with the emergence of Sycho Sid and Steve Austin, as well as the NWO.
Continue reading “REVIEW: In Your House 7: Good Friends, Better Enemies”
What a troll job by Ciampa to start the show. He and the crowd both do everything they can to piss each other off as much as possible. Candice LeRae hits him where it hurts the most, that Johnny was better. As if this feud couldn’t get any more personal, Ciampa taunts Candice with jabs at Johnny’s manhood before she whacks him across the face. Excellent job to keep this feud feeling like the top story in NXT, even after their brutal unsanctioned match.
Segment Rating: Eight Gold Medals
At the start it looked like they may have some really good three- or four-man wrestling in the one, but promise soon turned to dismay as Bate and Williams were shoved, and laid on the outside, then bumped back down as they tried to enter the ring again, so down for another few minutes. Kalisto takes himself and Williams down, so now it’s Bate and TJP’s turn. It’s truly become insulting to advertise fatal four way matches that only has more than two guys wrestling for about 60 seconds of the total match. It would be even a tad better if the two guys who were down were down in the ring, but no, they always have to be knocked to the outside by inconsequential strikes or bumps and despite their known resiliency, they can’t recover for two and three minutes at a time. At least this one eventually got all four guys in the ring and recovered a small bit of credibility. But of course, it turned into a one-on-one match between Tyler Bate and TJP with Tyler Bate getting the win. The moves in this match were great and it was certainly entertaining, but I’ve become way too sick of expecting a real multi-man match and getting scammed to fully enjoy this. Still, it’s hard to give it a bad rating considering how great the action was.
Match Rating: Six Gold Medals
It’s announced that Buddy Murphy gets a title shot in two weeks. I think he and Cedric will put on a great match. Next week we get Akira Tozawa vs. Hideo Itami. Excited for that one.
Definitely impressed by Flash. Each of these guys brought a unique style and pace of the match certainly changed depending on which of the six men was in control at the time. It made for a really interesting dynamic, and for the faces, it built from Flash to Ali to Alexander for the crescendo. When all six guys got in the ring and hit their moves on each other it was chaotically awesome. Ali’s 054 never fails to impress me and he nails it for the pin on Gulak.
Match Rating: Six Gold Medals
Overall Show Rating: Six Gold Medals
If the crowd were really chanting for Daniel Bryan, they’d let the interview go on. Instead, WE CAN’T STOP UNTIL THEY COMPLIMENT US! How do you get heat on someone? Put them in a feud with Daniel Bryan. This instantly gives Cass credibility as a singles heel. He’s terrific on the mic and makes this feud extremely personal, not only by telling Daniel he’s going to personally make sure DB never reaches his goals in WWE, but also bringing his wife and daughter into it. Bryan makes it personal right back and viciously attacks Cass’ previously injured knee. This segment just instantly kicked the feud into high gear, and also got the crowd fired up right away. Well done.
Segment Rating: Nine Gold Medals
Kurt cuts a McMahon-inspired, balls-in-a-jar-on-Stephanie’s-desk promo. They’re going all-in with the attempted Daniel Bryan storyline with management against Reigns, and it’s likely going to fail miserably. I really don’t understand a feud with Jinder Mahal, because the crowds mostly hate both of them, so if you REALLY want a match they will shit all over, look no further. If I had the ability to fully tune out the crowd I’d be able to enjoy the angle and the feud more because I am interested to see where they take the “management says no” storyline. It would have been a great turn if he had attacked Kurt.
Segment Rating (crowd reaction notwithstanding): Three Gold Medals
A match that I found to be pretty lacking based on my expectations for these two. I never really got into it, though the last few minutes were decently good. They often do a title change overseas, but I didn’t expect one here, Rollins can do too much for the IC title with the Universal Championship still being held hostage.
Match Rating: Four Gold Medals
It’s gotta be hard to cut a promo in NXT with a bunch of college smarks who never shut up and let the wrestlers speak. They all need to be heard, for some damn reason. Nobody can say one line without at least two or three of them having to scream out a stupid comment that they think is clever or hilarious. I don’t know if any of them were actually listening, but it was a really good opening war or words between Ricochet and Velveteen Dream. It looks like these two are headed for a showdown at Takeover Chicago. I’m all for it.
Segment Rating: Six Gold Medals
Mendoza is good at frustrating someone like EC3 who likes to be an aggressor, because he’s so quick and agile he can avoid strikes and hit counters. Once EC3 caught him and started hitting him with his powerful attacks it really slowed him down. Mendoza shows the ability to stand and strike with EC3 as well. He’s not best in-ring worker but he has some great athleticism and if he improves the crispness of his moves he can be very good. The crowd never got into this match for some reason. Nobody even reacted to EC3 hitting his finisher.
Match Rating: Three Gold Medals
Following a tense exchange, Pete Dunne agrees to team up with Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch vs. the Undisputed Era. They later announce the match for next week. I’m definitely down for that. I was really happy to hear last week that Danny Burch was signed to a full-time contract, he’s a hell of a performer, and he and Oney are really over with the NXT crowd.
I’m sure it’s on purpose, but Vanessa Borne looks skanky as hell. She has a Sherri Martel-type look, and even her style reminds of me her a bit. Dakota Kai can really get her legs up there, there’s a reason they call her the “Captain of Team Kick.” That seems like a pretty weak finisher she has. Shayna Baszler comes out to terrorize Kai after her win, but instead of attacking Kai, she attacks Vanessa Borne as a message. Shayna is such a natural heel and seems to relish playing the role. They continue backstage having Dakota piss herself at the sight of Shayna, while Nikki Cross laughs maniacally in the dark. Awesome.
Match Rating: Four Gold Medals
That’s a hell of a lot of beef in the ring. I’m actually surprised they’re having this match-up so soon after War Raiders’ debut. The way the match is booked could tell us what they think of the future of these teams. This escalated quickly. War Raiders get the win in pretty short order. With a near squash over such a large and built-up team, it’s fairly obvious that WWE is solidly behind War Raiders as the next money tag team. I was hoping to see a longer match with all the guys hitting impressive power moves. The match was fairly limited.
Match Rating: Four Gold Medals
The crowd really piles the hate onto Ciampa, even more than usual. Ohno delights the crowd with an early beatdown. Mauro Ranallo’s commentary really helps Ciampa’s heel character, and it makes all of his matches feel deeply personal. Ciampa just shows complete disgust for his opponents and for the fans, and his facial expressions when Ohno makes a comeback are perfect scared heel, it’s reminiscent of Ric Flair. Hiding behind the ref, digging at Ohno’s eyes, using his wrist tape as a weapon, all reasons why I think Ciampa is doing some of the best heel work in 20 years. He delights in taunting the crowd after his win. He capped it off by attacking Ohno with his knee brace. You just gotta love to hate this guy.
Match Rating: Eight Gold Medals
Overall Show Rating: Five Gold Medals
Gran Metalik landed hard on his tailbone on that dive to the outside. Two completely different styles in this match. The luchadors fly high and bounce around like pinballs while Kendrick and Gallagher are hard strikers and submission specialists. Lince Dorado’s backflip into a stunner was sweet. Lucha House Party gets the win after double suicide dives and a shooting star press. They are really on a roll lately. Drew Gulak was on commentary for this match, and he is so vehemently anti-high flying, so it’ll be interesting to see if he feuds with them. He already beat Kalisto last week. Fun match.
Rating: Seven Gold Medals
This was just a showcase for Tony Nese that went a lot longer than most squash matches. Nese is a brutal striker who loves to show off, with good reason. This was entertaining for a squash.
Rating: Five Gold Medals
I’m looking forward to the Itami-Tozawa match, hoping it’ll be a longer feud.
Drew Maverick announces that the 205 Live roster will be taking on the UK division next week. That should be great.
I’m a fan of Mustafa Ali’s Glacier-inspired entrance gear. Murphy has a confidence about him that says “I WILL NOT LOSE.” It’s a Mr. Perfect-type cockiness that he pulls off very well. I really liked the running suplex he hit on the outside. I was expecting a more fast-pace match but Murphy has seemed to tone down that style since he turned heel in favor of more strikes and holds. Ali’s DDT spot through the ropes was awesome. Murphy one-upped him with an innovative DDT of his own. Haven’t seen the triple powerbomb since Chris Jericho. Did he ever do a triple? I know he did a double. I’m sure he pulled it off once or twice. It might have been somewhere in the 600’s on his list. What a superkick from Ali when Murphy jumped from the top rope to the outside. Murphy injures Ali’s arm and keeps the focus on it for a nice DDT counter, and hits Murphy’s Law for the win. This match was terrific. They got a lot of time to work but it didn’t go to long, but long enough to tell a great story, with enough high spots but not too many, and some late close pinfalls until Murphy got the win. Excellent execution of all of their moves. Match of the night.
Rating: Nine Gold Medals
Overall show rating: Eight Gold Medals
Jeff has basically been having the same match for 20 years, and it is still awesome. There are way too many people in the crowd cheering for Miz. That’s been a trend lately. I think he needs to do more to be hated. Lose the catch phrases, it makes the crowd chant along with him. Sometimes it’s inevitable and smarks are gonna cheer for heels regardless, but Miz is becoming too well-liked for a heel. And now that he’s by himself without the Miztourage, he needs to work extra hard at it because they were there not only to bring continuous heat on him, but also to help him cheat to win matches. I think it would benefit everyone if he did more cheating, or bending the rules as far as they will go, and less rest holds. He did it once tonight but needs to do it more. A frantic finish to this one starting with the sunset flip spot lifted up an otherwise average match, and just when it seems like we will get the treat of seeing Jeff Hardy in a ladder match, Miz reverses the pin to shock us all. I really hope Hardy finds a way into the match.
Rating: Six Gold Medals
Excellent heel promo from the Billie Kaye. I feel like I’m having a Foo Fighters moment with them: when “Big Me” came out, I hated it and decided the Foo Fighters were trash. Then every now and then they’d come out with a new song and I’d have to say I still hate them but that one’s good. After many “well that song is good” moments, I realized they were a good band with one song that I hated. So maybe… MAYBE I was wrong about the Iconics, because since they moved up to Smackdown they’ve been great. It could be they work better as heels on the main roster than they did in NXT because there’s less hardcore IWC fans cheering them. The alliance with Carmella and feud with Charlotte helps them tremendously because Carmella is a heat magnet and the crowd loves Charlotte. Peyton can hang with Charlotte in the ring very well. Billie does her job on the outside in aiding Peyton and distracting Charlotte. Perfect heel work with Peyton distracting the ref and Billie hitting the neckbreaker. Both of these women can KICK. Long legs means big, awesome kicks. Too bad Charlotte missed that moonsault by a few feet. It looked better on the replay from a different angle, but from the first angle it was obvious she leaned into Peyton’s knees after she had already landed on her feet. Big win for Charlotte to get into the MITB match and get back on track. Another clean loss her would have had a ripple effect on Asuka. I’ll get into that another time on how badly Carmella’s victory over Charlotte at Backlash terribly affects Asuka. Excellent match from these two ladies.
Rating: Eight Gold Medals
Woods is an awesome wrestler and can be entertaining, I’m just sick of the New Day and their shtick. Cesaro’s uppercut is badass. That face slam Xavier did was pretty good, but that wasn’t a very entertaining match.
Rating: Three Gold Medals
What a creepy promo by the Bludgeon Brothers. I love it.
Fitting new entrance music for Mandy Rose. The camera filter is apropos as well, blurring out every one but her, which fits her personality. We’ll get to see how Mandy does by herself with Sonya Deville getting barred from ringside by Paige. A quick and active match ends with an upset by Mandy Rose. They got a lot of work in in a short time, and it was a pretty good match.
Rating: Five Gold Medals
Rusev needs to turn face NOW. He’s getting a split crowd during a match with DANIEL BRYAN. It’s going to happen, Lana planted the seeds last week when she suggested he dump Aiden, but they need to pull the trigger ASAP and capitalize on his popularity. Bryan certainly does not wrestle like he was out of the ring for two years, he hasn’t missed a step. Rusev scores the win with the Machka Kick, another upset in a night full of them. I’m hoping this is setting up a multi-man match for the last spot that will include the losers of these qualifiers, because so far on SmackDown we have Daniel Bryan and Jeff Hardy, and they are both awesome in 3, 4, 5, 6-man matches.
Rating: Six Gold Medals
Overall Smackdown Rating: Six Gold Medals
Braun intimidates his way into a Money in the Bank qualifying match against Kevin Owens. Extremely entertaining segment, with both guys showing offf their mic skills. For Kurt being involved in the segment, it automatically gets 10 Gold Medals.
MITB QUALIFIER: BRAUN STROWMAN VS. KEVIN OWENS
Strowman dominated this one until Owens hit the DDT on the outside. I don’t like that they continually tease Owens getting counted out. Every move Strowman hits looks like it takes years off Owens’ life, yet Braun is selling more than Owens it. That doesn’t make any sense. Owens shows no signs of being decimated by this giant brick shithouse, but every time Braun gets hit with a move he stays down. That’s poor booking. Braun hitting those shoulder blocks on the outside and power slamming people is always entertaining, but the selling one wasn’t logical, and the match suffered because of it.
Rating: Three Gold Medals
The focus of this match was Baron Corbin, as it should be. The Revival are extremely talented but they have no direction right now. No Way Jose is Dominican Adam Rose without a bunny. Titus and Apollo are both extremely talented but are stuck in a gimmick that nobody cares about. Baron is a future world champion in the making, and he should be getting even more opportunities to shine on Raw. The match itself was lame and boring as hell.
Rating: Two Gold Medals
The wrestling in this match is terrific. My problem is this: there’s no disqualifications in a triple threat match. Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan are at ring side. Ember Moon and Sasha Banks are out there alone. Why are they not getting involved in the match right from the start? They eventually get in there to help Ruby but I don’t know why it took so long. That was an awesome match with an awesome finish, sort of a double eclipse. Ember in the ladder match is gonna be great.
Rating: Seven Gold Medals
Gable is so quick and athletic. Jinder’s matches usually bore me, and this one started out that way, but it was a treat to see Chad pick up the pace and turn it into a pretty fun match. Jinder gets the win but I was more entertained than I thought I would be. I really hope Chad gets so big opportunities, I think he’d make a good IC title contender. Jinder certainly knows how to get heat. I think people resent the hell out of him for his WWE Championship run, and as a heel that works in his favor.
Rating: Five Gold Medals
This is a perfect match-up based on Drew and Dolph’s recent attitudes. Slater and Rhyno are very entertaining and have fun, and that’s exactly why Drew and Dolph have said they’re fed up with. That Claymore/Zig Zag combo finisher is awesome. I just realized all three members of 3MB are now on Raw, and two of them were in this match.
Rating: Four Gold Medals
The “Glorious One” interrupts another concert. I’m rarely entertained by Bobby Roode’s matches. Usually I like Elias’ matches more than I liked this one. I did like the back breaker he hit. It’s not that the wrestling was bad, I think I just have zero interest in this feud. They probably deserve better from me, but again, I just didn’t care about this match. I’m also pretty tired of him saying “Glorious” as a face.
Rating: Three Gold Medals
I really like Mojo. He’s so intense and it makes for a powerful heel-style offense that just looks damn painful. A perfect style to try to slow down and ground Rollins. As we see in this match though, you can only slow Rollins down for so long. This is a pretty awesome match and could be a huge stepping stone for Mojo, even with a loss, showing that he hang right with maybe the best performer on Raw. This one might be match of the night.
Rating: Eight Gold Medals
I absolutely love the back and forth between Corey Graves and Michael Cole when it comes to the woken/broken universe, and tonight was their best work. Cole’s ignorance and disdain for it all is hilarious. I think tonight might have been the first ever on-air reference to Bray and Bo being brothers. Quick match seemingly to just entertain the crowd and get all these guys on the show. It gets extra points for the commentary.
Rating: Five Gold Medals
Earlier in the night Roman said he was pissed, and he wrestled like it. I like that this one went out into the crowd, these triple threat matches should highlight the no-disqualification feature of the match. It’s really fun to watch Finn and Sami and their fast-paced styles going at it. Both of them are so good and technically sound, everything is so crisp and looks really good. Finn and Sami would be a main event match for me. Roman comes back and ruins the party by beating the shit out of Sami. Well, Jinder was talking shit about Roman all night, and he ended up costing him this match. Why, WHY do they think that feud could possibly work?? The crowd mostly detests both of them. It reeks of them trying to force Roman as a face, but instead I think all they’re going to get is boos and “you both suck” chants. Excellent match, but the Jinder interference is setting everyone up for disappointment. Glad to see that Finn is going to be in the match, and I’m hoping Sami gets into it somehow as well.
Rating: Seven Gold Medals
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