THE WRESTLING REPORT

WWE actually turns in a solid week of programming

Cory De La Guardia
Jun 19, 2019, 5:26 am
Photo via: WWE.com

Born with a comic book in one hand and a remote control in the other, Cory DLG is the talent of Conroe's very own Nerd Thug Radio, Sports. Check out the podcast replay of the FM radio shows www.nerdthugradio.com!

Raw

Raw started off with a bang with Seth Rollins attacking Elias with a chair after Elias announced he would be the special guest referee for Baron Corbin vs Seth Rollins championship match at Stomping Ground. Seth then proceeded to spend the rest of the show stalking anyone who even considered being the special guest referee for Baron's match. The five man match for the right to challenge Samoa Joe for for his title was nothing special and the list of the five guys who competed is basically that same list of five guys who have been in the mix for everything lately.

While the rise of Ricochet has been great and fun to watch, putting him on par with Straun Browman and The Miz feels artificial and honestly over reaching, but then again maybe not, Kofi is doing great as the WWE Heavyweight champion.It was nice to see Hulk Hogan back on Raw even if it was for a video segment cheering on the Women's Soccer Team in the World Cup. If you think WWE, you think Hulk Hogan if you're over a certain age and it was sly of WWE to promote a live sporting event on future networking partner FS1. Alexa Bliss is absolutely one of the best women's stars in WWE and I'm glad she's back to getting into the ring. I don't know if its injuries or whatever but I'm glad she's back at it.

Smackdown

Smackdown started off with some of the great mic work from Legendary mic champions, The New Day. The Alexa Bliss and Bayley rivalry continues to build very well, and it feels like a natural fight coming between the two of them and it's exciting. Aleister Black keeps cutting these interesting promos and honestly I don't understand why they haven't started booking him into a feud of some kind, is he hurt? Is there no one for him to fight? Also, when are they going to bring back Bray Wyatt? I have questions, as you can tell.

The continued evolution of Shane McMahon as a new authority figure who is rewarding the guys he works with who loyally serve him isn't a new concept, but it's working really well here and this roster of guys working together to further Shane and their own goals is fun to watch. It gives guys like The Miz and Roman Reigns someone else to fight against, although incorporating the 24/7 title into the story continues to make that title so annoying, it's clearly a joke title at this point. Overall this week was a lot better than ones in recent memory, but Stomping Grounds doesn't seem that exciting and honestly I'm just not feeling it.

Feel free to check out my digital short story The Wilson House or buy a shirt from Side Hustle Ts where some proceeds help fight cancer or listen to Nerd Thug Radio. Thoughts, complaints, events and comments can be sent to corydlg@gmail.com.

SportsMap Emails
Are Awesome

Listen Live

THE WRESTLING REPORT

Another Pay Per View is coming this weekend from WWE. Again

WWE IMAGES

Born with a comic book in one hand and a remote control in the other, Cory DLG is the talent of Conroe's very own Nerd Thug Radio, Sports. Check out the podcast replay of the FM radio shows www.nerdthugradio.com!

If it feels like we're sprinting into another pay per view almost on top of the last one, it's because we basically are. Extreme Rules is this coming Sunday only three weeks after Stomping Grounds. The seeming break neck speed of event after event after event is annoying and honestly seems to be designed to force people to pick up the WWE network. If they just bought the occasional pay per view there is no longer an incentive to spend the $40 bucks for one because well for $10 a month you get one a month and every few months there will be a second one snuck into the long months, so the value is in your favor. It's annoying for fans though because suddenly wrestlers are cutting promos from event to event and sometimes yelling at a guy about a fight in three weeks while they have a fight with someone else that weekend. Say what?

This past week Raw had a few interesting bits, perhaps most interesting was the behind the scenes moves of putting Paul Heyman mostly in charge of Raw and him upping the shock factor up a level or two. As that continued you saw the rise of The AJ Styles and his boys Gallows and Anderson, I'm not big fans of them but it's fun for those guys to get back together and a heel turn is in an interesting choice for AJ Styles, because I'm not sure it was needed. The other big thing is the Seth Rollins, Becky Lynch mixed tag match against Corbin and Evans for both their titles is a cool match idea and these two matches should be exciting at Extreme Rules.

Smackdown delivered what was a rather underwhelming go home show for Extreme Rules, although Otis of Heavy Machinery looked great in the three-way match, that guy is just incredibly impressive physically for such an oddly shaped athlete. The Kevin Owens face turn continues as he seemed to go "off script" but it was probably a bit and it's trying to set him up as an antihero, the problem with that is that his buddy Samy is in the middle of a great heel run. The Roman Reigns/Undertaker tag match has built up to exciting levels as Shane McMahon has continued his rise to top villain in the WWE and deserving of a beating from the Deadman and the Big Dog. He's assembling a nice collection of B players to help push his agenda as good muscle and as a result they're elevating themselves as well. This match may either save or finally end Undertaker's part time career and the Extreme Rules event overall.

Feel free to check out my digital short story The Wilson House or buy a shirt from Side Hustle Ts where some proceeds help fight cancer or listen to Nerd Thug Radio. Thoughts, complaints, events and comments can be sent to corydlg@gmail.com.

SportsMap Emails
Are Awesome