• Wednesday Night Wars

    Wednesday Night Wars: August 5, 2015

    There’s a lot of wrestling on Wednesday nights.

    Every week, @JoeySplashwater will attempt to watch as much of the wrestling programs on Wednesday night as he can. There will be a short recap of each program followed by the pick for Match of the Night, Performer of the Night and who won the Wednesday Night Wars?

    NXT

    NXT

    Basic show. Same as usual. I wish they would get better jobbers if every episode is going to be enhancement matches galore. I miss CJ Parker. Charlotte vs. Bayley was disappointing considering the reputations of both but the road to TakeOver: Brooklyn for Bayley is a great story. Samoa Joe vs. Rhyno was just there.

    Kevin Owens and Finn Balor delivered promos to set up a Ladder Match at TakeOver which has given the show a great feel going into it. The announcement of Jushin Liger facing Tyler Breeze was made and there was a nice video. TakeOver: Brooklyn looks very good but the TV show was lackluster. Same old story.

    Grade: C

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    Wednesday Night Wars: July 29, 2015

    There’s a lot of wrestling on Wednesday nights.

    Every week, @JoeySplashwater will attempt to watch as much of the wrestling programs on Wednesday night as he can. There will be a short recap of each program followed by the pick for Match of the Night, Performer of the Night and who won the Wednesday Night Wars?

    NXT

    NXT

    As always, NXT was full of mostly enhancement matches and filler. The highlight of the show was the tag team of Chad Gable and Jason Jordan getting another win. This may be the first “NXT made” male act that takes off. Gable stands out and looks impressive in these short matches – a feat very rare for most on the roster.

    I like the tag team of Blake and Murphy with Alexa Bliss as their manager. She has raised her value without harming the wrestlers she’s managing which is the key to any person in that spot. The tag match main event itself was adequate. Charlotte vs. Dana Brooke was weak. Kevin Owens destroying Martin Stone was a good time as always. Not a noteworthy show but nothing too bad.

    Grade: C

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    Wednesday Night Wars: July 22, 2015

    There’s a lot of wrestling on Wednesday nights.

    Every week, @JoeySplashwater will attempt to watch as much of the wrestling programs on Wednesday night as he can. There will be a short recap of each program followed by the pick for Match of the Night, Performer of the Night and who won the Wednesday Night Wars?

    NXT

    NXT

    Full Sail somehow found a way to become more obnoxious with booing all mentions of the NXT TakeOver show because it’s a part of Summerslam weekend in New York as well as going over the top creating Cena-like “Let’s Go Eva/Eva Sucks” chants for Eva Marie. It’s one thing if those chants happen naturally or was dictated by the show but they obviously planned it out. The Impact Zone 2.0 has been going overboard for a while but this recent set of tapings may be when most realize it.

    The show was pretty lackluster at best with the only noteworthy moments coming from a Finn Balor and Kevin Owens promo. Bayley had a solid return as well and set up her road to the Women’s Title. The rest of the show was pretty basic and it’s becoming more and more difficult to watch in full.

    Grade: C

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    Wednesday Night Wars: July 15, 2015

    There’s a lot of wrestling on Wednesday nights.

    Every week, @JoeySplashwater will attempt to watch as much of the wrestling programs on Wednesday night as he can. There will be a short recap of each program followed by the pick for Match of the Night, Performer of the Night and who won the Wednesday Night Wars?

    NXT

    NXT

    This was one of the better episodes of NXT I’ve seen in a while. The opening tag match was enjoyable with the team of Jason Jordan and Chad Gable already looking like the best in that poor division. Blake and Murphy looked solid in their match too with Alexa Bliss helping them out tremendously.

    NXT was main evented by Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks for the NXT Women’s Championship this week and it was perfect timing with the NXT female talent debuting on Raw this week. The match was pretty good and felt like the first important match on the NXT program in a long time. I loved the emotion at the end and I enjoyed the overall program. Best NXT episode in recent memory.

    Grade: B+

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    Wednesday Night Wars: July 8, 2015

    There’s a lot of wrestling on Wednesday nights.

    Every week, @JoeySplashwater will attempt to watch as much of the wrestling programs on Wednesday night as he can. There will be a short recap of each program followed by the pick for Match of the Night, Performer of the Night and who won the Wednesday Night Wars?

    NXT

    NXT

    Bad stuff, mates. The only original content I enjoyed on this episode was the Sasha Banks and Charlotte interactions in their tag match vs. Emma and Dana Brooke. Sasha and Charlotte came off like stars with a presence showing they were ready for the next level. Emma and Dana Brooke, not so much.

    Last week, I ranted about ROH recycling content and I feel the same way about NXT airing the Kevin Owens vs. Finn Balor match. Based off NXT and the Japan show both being on the Network and the audience being one in the same, it was definitely made to fill time due to not having enough talent to fill TV without Balor or Owens.

    Solomon Crowe looked awful with a goofy promo now referring to himself as “The Resident Little Monster.” Is he mimicking Lady Gaga fans? Is Lady Gaga still a thing? The tag match main event was W-E-A-A-A-A-K WEAAAAK. Unless you want to catch the short build to one final Sasha/Charlotte match, there’s nothing to see here.

    Grade: D

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    Wednesday Night Wars: July 1, 2015

    There’s a lot of wrestling on Wednesday nights.

    Every week, @JoeySplashwater will attempt to watch as much of the wrestling programs on Wednesday night as he can. There will be a short recap of each program followed by the pick for Match of the Night, Performer of the Night and who won the Wednesday Night Wars?

    NXT

    NXT

    The build-up for the Kevin Owens vs. Finn Balor match on the WWE Network live special from Japan helped give NXT extra importance. It led to a very cool match featuring ECW, ROH, TNA and NJPW legends all sharing a ring – Rhyno and Kevin Owens vs. Samoa Joe and Finn Balor. The match was entertaining and we were granted another excellent hype video for Finn.

    Once again, nothing else on this show stood out and I already forgot about the other matches just a few days later. The NXT roster depth needs help as its either highly ineffective (anything involving the tag division) or flat out bad (see a terrible interaction backstage between the excellent Sasha Banks and the less excellent tandem of Emma and Dana Brooke).

    As usual, the top tier talent was great and everyone else was just there. I think Bull Dempsey fat jokes was the best thing on the show not involving Finn Balor.

    Grade: C

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    Wednesday Night Wars: June 24, 2015

    There’s a lot of wrestling on Wednesday nights.

    Every week, @JoeySplashwater will attempt to watch as much of the wrestling programs on Wednesday night as he can. There will be a short recap of each program followed by the pick for Match of the Night, Performer of the Night and who won the Wednesday Night Wars?

    NXT

    NXT

    NXT was the perfect example of what their television program is this week. The open was great with Kevin Owens, Hideo Itami, Finn Balor and Rhyno all having fun moments. The main event of Balor vs. Rhyno was solid with great commentary by Owens. There was also a spectacular promo video of Finn playing Legos with Sami Zayn.

    Unfortunately, the rest of the show sucked. Nothing else and no one else on this show felt important or noteworthy and it just seemed like filler in between the opening segment and main event. I can’t even remember who the participants were.

    The good was outstanding, the bad was pointless. I enjoyed the Owens vs. Finn story enough to say I liked NXT this week.

    Grade: C+

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