If you didn’t catch the TLC PPV on Sunday, check out our recap. Overall the show was hit and miss, but there were things which happened that will set up some of WWE’s storytelling for the coming months. Which leads us to the big topic of discussion this week….
Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes….
All 4 ruling members of the McMahon family appeared at the top of Monday night Raw this week to make a major announcement. But did they really say much of anything when all was said and done? Vince, Stephanie, Shane, and HHH all came together to announce that they were taking back the reigns of the flagship show and in the process they made the storyline GM Baron Corbin their fall guy for recent ratings trouble.
The family declared that they would now be listening to the fans more, giving us less of what we don’t want, more of what we do want. They promised us fresh faces and fresh matchups. Then they punctuated this announcement by essentially repeating the previous night’s beating of Corbin at the hands of roster members he had wronged during his tenure as interim GM.
What does it all mean though? To me, it’s just a lot of words meant to stir excitement without any real plans behind them. This is 2018 (almost 19!). Do they really expect us to buy into the charade that one of their scripted characters, Corbin, is at fault for recent missteps? Sorry, Vince, but we KNOW that you are where the true fault lies, and unless you’re ready to acknowledge that and transfer more of the power to your children nothing is REALLY going to change.
Following up on the promise of fresh faces, a package aired during the broadcast announcing 6 NXT regulars are on their way to the main roster (it was unclear if they are all coming to Raw). The talents getting brought up are the previously announced Lars Sullivan, tag team Heavy Machinery, Nikki Cross, Lacey Evans, and EC3. I enjoy the work of each and every one of them in NXT and I’m happy for them professionally, however I fear that bringing them all up like this just for an injection of “fresh faces” will be bad for their long-term success. I’ve always been of the opinion that you bring someone up when you have an actually idea for how to use them.
I also have strong feelings that bringing in a crop of “fresh faces” is a short term solution. They will get a nice little pop upon their debuts hopefully, but then what? Lack of talent on the roster has never been the issue. It’s all about how that talent is used (or not used in some cases). Will any of the new talent or the old talent be booked consistently enough to make a lasting impact? I guess only time will tell, and given that the next 2 weeks of TV are going to be pretaped holiday episodes we’ll have to wait until January to see if they truly implement any real changes.
Injury Report
In addition to the package announcing the arrival of fresh talent from NXT, packages also aired during Raw to promote the pending return of injured stars Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens. As far as I’m aware, both still have another month or two before they will be fully cleared to return. There’s no denying that both men could make a huge impact when that time comes though.
In the main event of Smackdown Mustaphi Ali and AJ Styles were victorious over Daniel Bryan and Andrade Almas. Ali got the pin on Bryan after hitting his 054 splash on the champ, however he appeared to land out of position and send his knees into the wrong part of Bryan’s anatomy. Ali knew immediately that he had messed up and could be heard audibly checking on Daniel during the pin. Thankfully the WWE Champion appears to have suffered no significant damage from the miscue as he continued to work the taping of next week’s Smackdown.
The latest updates on Braun Strowman suggest that he won’t be cleared to return to action prior to his Universal Title match against Brock Lesnar at the Royal Rumble. He’ll likely still make TV appearances to build that match, but won’t be medically cleared to see any physical action while he continues healing up.
Assorted News and Notes
As part of the changes the McMahon family are claiming to be bringing to both Raw and SDL, the role of the General Manager seems to be going away completely for now. Not only was Baron Corbin removed from his position as the heel GM of Raw, but Paige was also removed from her much more successful tenure as GM of Smackdown. She’s said to be getting a different position within the company but it’s unknown at this time what that position might be. Most speculation so far seems to point to her joining PPV preshow panels for now. She’ll also be busy in the coming months doing promotional work for the Fighting With My Family film based on her life.
Another change said to be happening is that the long-building heel turn from Shane McMahon has apparently been scrapped.
It’s as yet unclear which brand each of the recently announced NXT call ups will be calling home… with one exception. Otis Dozavic of Heavey Machinery has tweeted that he and tag partner Tucker Knight are blue brand bound. I can see them fitting well among the SDL tag ranks. I can already picture an incredibly fun match where they team up with New Day to take on Sanity and another heel team in a 5 on 5 bout.
Coming Soon…
January 12: NXTUK Takeover Blackpool
January 26: NXT Takeover Phoenix
January 27: WWE Royal Rumble
