0
0
Wow, what a week. I don’t know about you, but the premieres of AEW, Friday Night SmackDown and the pay-per-view event Hell in a Cell were an amazing way to kick-off October. Let’s start with AEW, as that is what we got first.
AEW Dynamite
Wednesday nights now have a new show to rival WWE NXT. I’ve been liking NXT. And as someone who never really watched NXT, being able to find it on my TV provider and now have to fight with the WWE app (more on that when we get to Hell in a Cell), I think I’ll be watching it more. But, I missed it this past week, and I watched AEW instead.
AEW opened with every bit of excitement and enthusiasm that we all had in anticipation of it coming to TV. Cody Rhodes, Jericho, Joh Moxley, the crowd, the announcers, it was superb. And I know, at least from what I’ve heard, was that NXT was a better show last week, but come on. Let’s be excited that we have two to choose from. Let’s be excited that wrestling is going more mainstream than ever. Let’s give them another week before we cast them aside. But all in all, I felt that AEW put on a very good show. For me though, it did seem very “WWE-esque”.
B+ rating
Friday Night SmackDown
Everyone is entitled to an opinion about wrestling, but I think that Friday Night SmackDown was excellent. Nothing was more exciting for me than sitting down on a Friday night, watching a big-fight-feel wrestling show, then getting ready and hitting the bars with friends. I loved Becky Lynch and The Rock. I loved the Kevin Owens and Shane McMahon ladder match. And I loved Brock getting the title back and then getting stared down and scared shitless by Cain Velasquez.
People can say what they want about the crowd/fans not knowing who Cain Velasquez is and that it was a bad ending, but I disagree. I didn’t know who Cain Velasquez was, but I was sure as hell interested. Anyone that can make Brock Lesnar look white as a ghost, I’m interested. And I’ll finish by saying you may love him or hate him, but no one can sell anything like Brock Lesnar.
A+ rating
Hell in a Cell
We move from a great week of wrestling to a weekend that had a lot of potential and fell just slightly short. Hell in a Cell is a big pay-per-view. It’s not one of the big 4 (Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Survivor Series), but it’s still big. The premise of being locked in a cell with your opponent is attractive.
Some ground rules
There’s nowhere to go. There are no count-outs or disqualifications (right?). Pinfall or submission gets you a win. We had two cell matches that night: Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks for the Raw Women’s Championship and Seth Rollins versus The Fiend Bray Wyatt for the Universal Championship.
The matches
Becky and Sasha put on one hell of a match. The physicality was high, the use of weapons was great, and the ending was good. I like Becky. I was happy she retained. Seth and Bray made less sense.
The story seemed a little forced, but I can overlook that with a good match. But the match lacked. It started well. The ring covered in red light and The Fiend kicking out over and over. But the end was a shock, and it was not a good shock. The ending was a no contest, disqualification of Seth after use of a sledgehammer on Bray Wyatt. But hold on, THERE ARE NO DQ’S IN A HELL IN A CELL MATCH. So why was Seth stopped? Why did the bell ring?
Sure Bray was hurt and wasn’t getting up, but Seth didn’t even try to pin him again. We didn’t get one this week, but I’m hoping for an explanation eventually. Especially when Bray gets up in the end to take Seth down with the mandible claw and to deliver a Sister Abigail on the exposed floor. The match did not make him the unstoppable monster we might have expected, it just made no sense.
Again, I go back to Bray picking another opponent. Maybe get him involved with Braun Strowman somehow.
B+ rating
Tune in next week for more re-caps of the shows and more insights in to where the can go with Rollins and Bray from here.
